Product Details

• Format: Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony
• VHS Release Date: November 3, 1998
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (72 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1573309842
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #236,540 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

This hour with Kathy Smith will get you sweating, burning fat, dropping pounds, and strengthening muscles. This moderate-intensity workout includes both aerobics and strength training. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, and the combination of aerobics and strength training burns more calories than either alone. Smith offers both beginning and advanced modifications so you can work at your own pace. Insets give helpful alignment tips. You start with an 8-minute warm up, then you work your arms with weights for 6 minutes. Four different aerobic segments follow, totaling 30 minutes. Most of the aerobic moves are simple and frequently repeated, with no difficult choreography until the last segment, which becomes dancier. After the aerobics, you do standing legwork for 5 minutes, add weights for another 5 minutes, and cool down for 6 minutes. At the end of the video, Smith explains a nutrition program for weight loss. --Joan Price

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

122 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kathy is GREAT, but if you're a beginner don't start here..., May 31, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kathy Smith - Weight Loss Workout [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I love Kathy Smith, but I remember trying to do this workout a few years ago (I was 17, not in that bad of shape & not overweight) and it was very hard. My mom, who was trying to lose weight, did this workout a few times, and it was usually too much for her, too. Like someone said before, if you can do the 70 minutes, it's great, so that's why I gave it 5 stars. But if you're just starting out, please choose something like "Functionally Fit: Peak Fat Burning" by Kathy Smith. I'm afraid "Weight Loss Workout" will discourage you! It's one you need to work your way up to.

77 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An oldie but still a goodie, as they used to say:), June 16, 2001

By 

Melissa P. Cooper "kymissyin" (Indianapolis, IN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kathy Smith - Weight Loss Workout [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Fitness level: Intermediate. Composition: 5 minute warm-up; 8 minutes arm and upper body toning; 35 minutes floor aerobics; 8 minutes lower body toning; 5 minute cool-down Equipment: one-to-five-pound dumbbells; can do toning without weights if you're just starting out. Heart Rate Checks: 2 Music: ranges from funk to traditional aerobic-style to Caribbean to 50's rock Impact: Mixed, but low-impact modifiers shown for most routines Choreography: moderate Settings: gym and studio. The settings and decor change with each section. Whenever the music changes, you'll see the song title, and section (warm-up, toning, aerobics, cool-down) displayed in the lower left hand corner of the screen, like MTV.

She produced this tape after giving birth to her first child and filming her Pregnancy Workout, and some may think it shows its age, but it still is one of the most solid workouts on the market for intermediates and those new to weight work. Kathy Smith opens with her usual low-key but friendly, informative introduction that belies the energetic routine ahead. I don't know if this is the program that got her looking so great after her pregnancy, but she definitely looks wonderful in this video. Kathy has always advertised this as the follow-up to her Fat Burning Workout video. It's definitely on the next level--steps that are "aerobic" in that video are "warm-ups" here, and the first few times I did this workout I was grateful for the nutritional lecture at the end. Not because I needed it--although I probably did--but because all I could do after completing the cool-down was lie on the floor and pant!

However, I persevered and I'm glad I did. I felt results in a few weeks, and saw them in the second month. At the risk of sounding like a FIRM testimonial, I looked better at age 37 than I had at 21! My arms and upper body were toned for the first time in my life. By the fourth month, I had tons of energy, and I looked great in my jeans. Then came pregnancy, and it wasn't until my daughter was weaned that I could once again exercise this intensely. When I returned to intermediate level, it was good to have this tape in my collection.

This was the first time I'd ever used weights in an aerobic routine--maybe some wouldn't rate the weight work for "Weight Loss Workout" as "aerobic" but it sure kept my heart rate in the target zone--especially the lower body work. Kathy suggests that neophytes do the tape the first time without weights--and one exerciser demonstrates the toning that way. (Another exerciser has wristband weights--the rest use dumbbells) I ignored her and started with 1-pound weights, and had no problems.

Two things I loved about the toning: it was "choreographed" so you keep moving instead of sitting or, Heaven forbid, lying on the floor. (At my 9:00pm exercise time, a prone position is an invitation to slumber!) Arms and upper body work follows the warm-up; the lower body work follows the aerobics. If they'd been lumped together, I'd have just skipped them and done only the aerobics, which to me is always the fun part. Also, when I was new to using weights like this, I don't think I could have done all 16 minutes consecutively--the division gave me a chance to get my second wind, which usually happens 20 minutes into the aerobics section. That reminds me. . .

I haven't said much about the aerobics yet--which is why I bought the tape in the first place. I love aerobics the way a dog loves bones. Enjoyable routines and great music are part of what I live for, and this program has both. It's a faster pace and a little trickier than her beginner workouts, but Kathy is a master at teaching through "add-ons" and combinations. She also includes modifiers for people who are intermediate level but don't want to do "power moves." I especially enjoy the Caribbean and 50's segments--the crew has *almost* as much fun as the one in "Donna-Mite Workout."

The only problem I have with this workout is that the toning is wonderful, but doesn't include work for abs and back. Kathy implies in her intro that she geared this video in part toward new mothers. But she left out exercises for their most common trouble spots! Had she included them, this would be the perfect routine for intermediates, in my book. But since I now rotate videos rather than stick with just one, I can include that work on a "strength day" instead. Or I can supplement on the same day with one of the FIRM's "More 5-Day Abs" routine. It's a good tape nonetheless, that fell just a little short of being great.

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best video exercise tape I have used in the past 10 years., June 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Kathy Smith - Weight Loss Workout [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I'm not sure I started this tape right after it came out, but I have used it at least once a week for the past several years (along with other Kathy Smith videos and those of others as well). It has finally worn out and I am about to buy my second copy. Of all the tapes I use, this is the only video that exercises all the particular muscle groups I need to have limbered and stretched. I often do it after work, and cannot do all 70 minutes, so I skip 2 of the routines, and it works out great. I never skip the stretch at the end. Can't say it enough ... It's the best exercise video tape ever!