Customer Reviews

Shape Cardio Workout: Bikini Body All Year-Round

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

It is usually pretty hard for me to stay motivated with a cardio workout. However, I can do this DVD all the time. I consider myself an advanced beginner, and this DVD was perfect and I can see myself growing with and putting in more effort to make it even more challenging. It's not too hard but the choreography is intermediate level, so if you're not too coordinated you would have to stick with it a little bit longer to get it. However, you will work up a sweat even as your fitness level increases.

I have a dance background and she lost me for a few moves, but it was so fun that I just kept going until I got the hang of it. None of the movements are really high impact and this is great if your knees sometimes bother you. There is a lot of hip shaking, and you should feel free to just let loose and enjoy yourself.

The instructors are really upbeat without being too over the top and give great directions. They do not break the moves up so slowly that your heartrate goes down. The only problem I have is that there are brief stops between the various dance sections that give tips about drinking water, eating right, etc. I continue to march during this section so that my exercise is not interrupted.

It is so much fun. The DVD is broken up into five ten minute sessions: dance jazz, tribal funk, dance party, latin, and dance funky. There is also a warmup and cooldown. Using a feature on the DVD called Choose Your Cardio you can select how many segments you want do- in any order you desire. This keeps you from getting bored! I highly recommend this workout. :) Enjoy!

This is another good workout from the people at Shape. It's fun and motivating and actually enjoyable (where some aren't). It starts with a 5 minute warm-up, 55 minutes doing floor work and then a 5 minute cool down (there is also a bonus standing floor workout - about 20 minutes). The primary workout is dance-based aerobics - ten minutes each of jazz, dance party, Latin, funky and tribal. Then there is a pilates/yoga relaxing toning workout. Both instructors are the same as the other workout dvd's and they do great cueing again. With this dvd you can also do the workouts in any order - I find this helps prevent the bordom that comes from repetitive workouts of the same dvd.

This DVD offers a solid cardio workout, though I understand the frustration of many other viewers. Michelle Dozois offers user-friendly instruction, where Lisa Wheeler tends to just perform a movement and expect the viewer the catch on. The routines are learnable, so don't give up! The pilates segment afterward is a great idea, but Lisa moves from one position to the next so quickly that I don't expect you get much benefit. I'd award Michelle 5 stars, and and Lisa, 3.

Instructors Michelle Dozois and Lisa Wheeler lead you through this DVD of dance style aerobics designed to burn fat and lightly tone the lower body. The DVD itself is programmable, so you can do the five different dance routines in any order (jazz, dance party, Latin, funky, and tribal + a seperate warm up and cool down). Do them all if you've got an hour, or just do a 10 or 20 minute mix if you have less time. Either way, this DVD fights boredom to keep you motivated and on track. There is also an 18 min. bonus segment to gently stretch and tone your body with yoga & pilates to help maintain your "bikini body".

I found the guidance of both instructors to be fueled by high energy, infectious motivation, and clear demonstrations of the moves. The choreography is a little more complex than some, so it may be more tricky to pick up for beginners (i.e. chanees into a set of cross steps, ball changes followed by quick kicks...). I found Lisa's routines to be more "dancey". However, all the routines seem to be more dance aerobic than dance, so don't be intimidated if you've got two left feet.

I did the full DVD (minus the bonus segment), and by the end I had elevated my heart rate into an effective fat burning zone, worked up a sweat, and felt invigorated. I especially enjoyed this workout because it's longer than most, which can be a new challenge for beginners and a fun maintenance program for the more advanced. But remember, it still works if you're short on time!

I am an advanced kickboxer who works out at home. I bought this video because (a) I have already bought every kickboxing video on the market and (b) for some variety. This is very earnest and sincere and prettily done and the leaders are well known trainers. If you play it straight through and do all the dance routines, then do the short bonus pilates at the end, you will get a worthwhile one-hour intermediate workout. If you have never done a dance workout before, DONT do this one first. Go to Collage Video.com and get some beginning dance videos. While the choregraphy is simple and easy to pick up, it does use some dance steps (mambos, grapevines, etc.) assuming you know them, and in order to get that heartrate up, they don't spend a lot of time at a slow pace. So it's a good intermediate level workout.

This is a good workout video. The steps are a bit hard to follow at first, but after watching it about 3 times, you should get the hang of it. The workout may seem low impact while you are actually doing the exercise but afterwards, you will feel that you've actually worked out the next day. The instructors give good directions but sometimes it seems like they forget to tell you which foot you're on or which way you should move. But again after watching it a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it.

This is a good workout. It is fun but a bit hard. I have no training in dance and found it a bit hard to follow but it is fun and infectious even as you are trying to figure it out. My only problem with it is that it takes a lot of room. My apartment isn't large and it is hard to find the space to do it in.

If you really want to lose weight and get fit, this is definetly the video for you! During the first 10-minute segment, I was already sweating, and I consider myself to be intermediate. I have done many aerobic/cardio DVDs, but this one is just super fun! Try it!

I picked this up for a couple bucks at TJ Maxx. That is always hit or miss because they either have DVDs that didn't sell well and went to close out, or good DVDs that are just older and not big sellers. I get my Tae Bo DVDs there and love them all, but when I find one it's always a shot in the dark since I can't read the reviews first. This shot, for me, was a miss. But it has its target audience so you may love it...I'll go over the positives and negatives for you to decide.

CALORIES BURNED:
I wear a bodybugg and display device in order to measure my daily caloric burn. I am also able to program it to show me exactly how many calories a specific workout burned, how many calories that workout burned per minute, and how much my calorie burn was raised after the workout (for example, with strength training which doesn't burn as many calories during the workout, but continues to burn them long afterwards.) I mention this only so you'll know what I say is based upon scientific measurement rather than perceived exertion. This, in comparison to the rest of my fitness DVD library would be ranked as a "gentle workout". While it was fast based, its caloric burn was medium low. While the exact amount of calories burned would vary per person based upon your height, weight, muscle density etc, this will still rank lower than most you'll find but that's not a bad thing if you want a more gentle workout--especially if you are recovering from a day of strength training the day before.

MUSIC:
Typical workout dvd music, lots of instrumental electronica but nicely planned to move to the beat of the dancer and fit with each routine.

WHAT YOU GET:
5 10-minute dance segments plus a warm up and cool-down and an 18 minute "long and lean" workout which is essentially yoga and pilates. The full running time is 80 minutes, which is a long workout for the low price.

KNOW GOING IN:
If you are great at choreography I think you'll love this DVD because it combines working out with dance. For me, it was frustrating. Now don't get me wrong, I workout exclusively to fitness DVDs, but usually they don't give you several steps and expect you to learn and memorize them in order, then give you some more then ask you to start from the beginning (with the other routine you just learned by memory) then add on the new steps, then teach you some more, and ask you to do them all in order from memory all together from the beginning...That isn't necessarily a bad thing. Lots of people might be able to pick up and memorize this routine. For people like me, however, I felt like I was in a bad dream where I was unexpectedly thrown on stage to replace a member of "Dancing With the Stars" but never allowed to see the routine I was doing beforehand. I tried. I rewound it. I worked hard at it. But choreography memorization just isn't my strong suit and I own it. My preferance is just to workout with good cueing and no step memorization to add on moves in order to create a compilation of a routine.

CUEING: This varied. Some parts were good, but many were confusing. And, with the routine being confusing to me as it was, it just felt frustrating to be honest.

LEVEL: As long as you can pick up the routine, you'll be able to do this regardless of muscle density or experience. So it's more about being good at the choreography than at any certain fitness level.

MUSCLES WORKED: This is geared primarily to your lower body. Although you will be doing arm movements, they are not enough or of the style to tone, nor are the moves geared towards high core toning.

SET: I have other Michelle Dozies DVDs and although basically every workout DVD has a similar kind of set for the most part, for some reason the company she must use for set staging makes me giggle a bit with their set. It always looks like they took a doctor's office and asked them to clear out part of the lobby in order to allow them to film a fitness video. I kid you not. It's amusing and nothing close to a gym...not that it should be a gym. You'll see things like a bookshelf, a long thin table against the wall beside them with objects de' art like glass vases, ceramic bowls, and other things slightly dangerous for fitness but lovely for an office decoration, bookshelves, paintings on the wall, faux painted concrete floor, etc. I don't know why every video with hers is a different set but also an amusing yet sterile "docs office" but probably no one else but me notices anyway. I think they might be going for the look of a living room, but it doesn't make it.

TEAM: You'll get your primary instructor and a fit back up team to follow as well.

EQUIPMENT: None required but you'll likely want a yoga mat if you choose to do the Yoga/Pilates section. You will need a decent amount of space for all the Mambas, cha-chas, grapevines, etc. in the routines that move you in several directions both front and back as well as side-to-side. I have a workout room (it's just a cleared out bedroom with nothing in it but my tv. some weights, a bosu, and an elliptical) and I still used the entire room.

CONCLUSION: For those who pick up quickly when someone shows them a dance routine this would be good to mix things up a bit in your workout routine. If you were on the drill team or majored in dance, you'll have fun. I do not fall, unfortunately, into either of those categories so I was rather frustrated. The calorie burn is fairly low but it could work well on days you wish for a more gentle workout. Because there is no strength training and just cardio, it would be good for a recovery day when you have sore muscles from strength training and want something gentle...but only if you are more coordinated than me.

the shape series is a must have- theres four videos, i won and use them all.

fun, beautiful beach background, great music that is not too disco or too clubby, and innovative moves and great instructors that you love to listen to and follow- what more can you want from your workout video?