Customer Reviews

Your Body Breakthru: Rockin Body Cardio

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Rockin' Body Cario Jam is part of Michelle Dozois' Your Body Breakthru series, which also includes two other workouts, one strength and one circuit. The circuit workout was the first one I tried, and I loved it, as it combined short, fun cardio segments with toning intervals which included both dumbbells and band work. While I didn't like this workout quite as much--some of the cardio moves were a bit "fussy" to me, requiring a bit of a learning curve--overall, it's still a fun and intense cardio workout. The DVD Main Menu offers the following options: Full Workout, Express Workout, Chapters, Testimonials, More on Your Body Breakthru, Michelle's personal message, and Contact. The Full Workout is 51 minutes and consists of a warm-up, six cardio intervals, and a cool-down, while the Express Workout provides a shorter (30 minutes) version of this. No equipment is needed for this workout.

The 5-minute aerobic warm-up consists of simple choreography, gradually adding more movement and concluding with about 30 seconds of dynamic stretching. Each cardio chapter is about 6-7 minutes long. As she does in the circuit workout, Michelle gradually builds on the moves, starting with footwork, then adding arm movements, and also incorporating some higher impact here and there (one of the four background exercisers always shows low-impact modifications). She alternates right and left lead, moving through each choreographed series a total of four times. The exercise are quite similar in feel to the cardio moves on the circuit workout: they tend to be more athletic, with lots of knee lifts plus some kicks and punches, but there are also a few more dancey moves as well. As with the warm-up, the 5.5 minute cool-down is choreographed, gradually reducing the heart rate and then ending with about 1.5 minutes of stretching. The Express workout includes the warm-up, Cardio chapters 1, 3, and 5, and the cool-down.

All of Michelle's background exercisers in the Body Breakthru series are from her classes, and their stories are featured in the testimonials section. They are quite inspiring, as is Michelle's "personal message," which details her struggles as the mother of an autistic son (the DVD case indicates that it is "Promoting Autism Awareness"). I consider myself to be an advanced intermediate exerciser, and I found this workout to be suitably challenging; although modifications are offered, I think that beginning exercisers might have trouble keeping up with Michelle's fast pace here. Similarly, the choreography of this workout is a little more complicated than in Michelle's circuit workout, which might leave some users a bit frustrated, especially since Michelle's cueing sometimes falls a little late. Overall, however, I think that this is a solid cardio workout for intermediates and above, and I give it a final rating of 4 1/2 stars.

Having done another workout from this series ( Circuit ) I just couldn't wait for the Amazon release and ordered it from another internet shop. I expected a great exercise routine and I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed.
It is a creative, fun but at the same time tough workout ( warm-up, 6 different routines and cool-down ). Michelle Dozois is encouraging and cheerful without sounding silly. I consider myself to be an advanced exerciser & got a great workout, but it is easy for beginners or intermediates ( or if you have bad knees ) to modify. What I find especially motivating about the whole series is that the women in the background are not fitness models, they are 'normal' people who improved their figure doing this routines. GREAT DVD!

Michelle Dozois is an excellent instructor. She's very outgoing, friendly and cues well. She's not over the top and she's motivating which is essential if you want to stick to using dvd's like these to get fit.
In this workout, there are six complete cardio intervals that each use very different moves. All of them start out slow and then work up to a burst where it's all out. I find the moves very easy to follow along with because they aren't too dancy or difficult to do. There are the pony steps, lunges and kickboxing to name a few so they are probably all familiar. It's geared for intermediates and I could see how advanced exercisers may not find this challenging enough. I'm between intermediate and advanced and I find this easy to do, yet it's enough to keep my heart rate up from start to finish.
Michelle is a great cuer; you always know what's coming up next and I really enjoy this workout. I highly recommend it if you want interval training and as long as you aren't a complete beginner or extreme advanced exerciser. I love this.

I thoroughly enjoy this DVD. The workout consists of a warm-up, 6 cardio segments, and a cool-down. All of the segments are short, which makes the workout fly by. The moves are simplistic, but fun. Even though the movements are easy, I still raised my heart rate significantly. The choreography involves "big" arm movements, which help raise the intensity. High-impact and low-impact versions are presented, and 1 dancer sticks with the low-impact versions throughout the workout. This DVD is perfect for days when you don't feel like complicated choreography, but still want a good cardio workout.
Michelle is encouraging, without being annoying, a fault that plagues so many group excercise leaders. Michelle has 4 women dancing with her; three of the women have very fit body types, and 1 woman has a "normal" body type that many women using this DVD would identify with.
This DVD has become one of my favorites and I plan to purchase more DVDs from this series.

I really like Michelle, but was disappointed by this one. I had a hard time working up a sweat and found little opportunity to up the intensity to make the workout more difficult. I only consider myself to be an intermediate exerciser. I think this is a great cardio choice for beginners or low/intermediates.

I will say that I had lots of fun with it. The moves were creative and very enjoyable. I really wasn't bored. I just happen to know of some much better, more intesnse workouts to fit in to just under an hour.

This is my favorite cardio workout for many reasons. I've tried a lot of other cardio only workouts from various instructors and they have never gotten my heart rate up and kept it there- this one does! Even if you're just doing the lower impact/modified moves, this one will make you sweat! Not for the faint of heart on a slow day either. Her cueing is great and while she could better explain a few of her steps (kick and fall back, box step), her moves are fresh and fun and it keeps you interested. The last segment is difficult to do on carpet. Short segments, lots of variety and an enthusastic instructor plus normal sized women (not the size 2 buff women you see in most dvd's) make this workout a keeper.

The qualities of this video are the pacing; the real participants following the instructor, the variation of movements/steps, variety of moves, and the advanced notice of movement changes.

Good Pacing
Michelle Dozois is an excellent instructor because she breaks down steps for the viewer to build up to the full move. She also lets the viewer know ahead of time what is going to happen and which side it will be on, so that the viewer can move effortlessly into the moves as they come up. The pacing during segments and the length of the segments seems just about right for attention spans.

Excellent Direction from Instructor
I also appreciate that she gives "stage direction" for the viewer, so that even though the individuals on the screen are moving right, the movement is identified as my left.

The video is broken down into segments from which the viewer may choose between or do all in one go. The entire workout is about 50 minutes, but there is an express version of one half hour to use in a time crunch.

The entire body is used, the heart rate is kept up, and there is enough variety to keep me interested. Moves are changed frequently enough and are complicated enough that I do not get bored.

Real-Life Participants on Screen
I like that there are real women, with more realistic body types than in most videos, following Dozois, including a participant showing a modified lower-impact version of the moves.

Enjoyable
The video is fun to do. (And I honestly do not say that lightly. I hate to exercise.) Some of the moves actually make me laugh, and the people actually seem to be enjoying the workout and each other, as opposed to most videos I have used where the interaction seems false and forced. (The on-screen participants are members of Dozois's fitness club and have their success stories available to watch on the DVD.)

The DVD is well shot with an attractive set. I can always see what is going on and don't get cutaway shots that leave me stranded in the middle of a move.

My Two Cents
The best part for me about anything from Michelle Dozois, and this is purely personal preference, is I enjoy listening to her. That is a huge factor for me because I find most aerobics instrutors terribly annoying and/or inane.

Don't get me wrong, Michelle Dozois is cute and perky and still very much an aerobics trainer (and has a seemingly impossible perfect body), but she comes across as intelligent and regards her participants and the viewer as intelligent as well. I find that refreshing.

Rockin' Body Cario Jam is part of Michelle Dozois' Your Body Breakthru series, which also includes two other workouts, one strength and one circuit. The circuit workout was the first one I tried, and I loved it, as it combined short, fun cardio segments with toning intervals which included both dumbbells and band work. While I didn't like this workout quite as much--some of the cardio moves were a bit "fussy" to me, requiring a bit of a learning curve--overall, it's still a fun and intense cardio workout. The DVD Main Menu offers the following options: Full Workout, Express Workout, Chapters, Testimonials, More on Your Body Breakthru, Michelle's personal message, and Contact. The Full Workout is 51 minutes and consists of a warm-up, six cardio intervals, and a cool-down, while the Express Workout provides a shorter (30 minutes) version of this. No equipment is needed for this workout.

The 5-minute aerobic warm-up consists of simple choreography, gradually adding more movement and concluding with about 30 seconds of dynamic stretching. Each cardio chapter is about 6-7 minutes long. As she does in the circuit workout, Michelle gradually builds on the moves, starting with footwork, then adding arm movements, and also incorporating some higher impact here and there (one of the four background exercisers always shows low-impact modifications). She alternates right and left lead, moving through each choreographed series a total of four times. The exercise are quite similar in feel to the cardio moves on the circuit workout: they tend to be more athletic, with lots of knee lifts plus some kicks and punches, but there are also a few more dancey moves as well. As with the warm-up, the 5.5 minute cool-down is choreographed, gradually reducing the heart rate and then ending with about 1.5 minutes of stretching. The Express workout includes the warm-up, Cardio chapters 1, 3, and 5, and the cool-down.

All of Michelle's background exercisers in the Body Breakthru series are from her classes, and their stories are featured in the testimonials section. They are quite inspiring, as is Michelle's "personal message," which details her struggles as the mother of an autistic son (the DVD case indicates that it is "Promoting Autism Awareness"). I consider myself to be an advanced intermediate exerciser, and I found this workout to be suitably challenging; although modifications are offered, I think that beginning exercisers might have trouble keeping up with Michelle's fast pace here. Similarly, the choreography of this workout is a little more complicated than in Michelle's circuit workout, which might leave some users a bit frustrated, especially since Michelle's cueing sometimes falls a little late. Overall, however, I think that this is a solid cardio workout for intermediates and above, and I give it a final rating of 4 1/2 stars.

I guess I liked this video, but not enough. It just had a sort of blah impression. I wasn't thrilled with the music and the lighting really bothered me because it made the studio look dark and old-fashioned.

That said it was a good workout, especially the first half or so. After that I felt like I wasn't working as hard, I don't know if this is because I tired and let my intensity drop or because the sections actually got easier. Eitherway, I did feel like I had gotten workout by the end.

The way the video is set up is that, at least in the full workout (there's also an express workout), there are I think 5 sections. In each one the dancing works by doing a move and then maybe building on it (more intense, adding arms, etc.) and then doing another move to build a sequence. I liked this except that it was hard to remember what each move was and Michelle does not cue them vocally very well so I felt I was a bit behind. Also she refers to them by their official name (like a footballer, or the pony) and if you don't know what that is it's hard to follow because she doesn't explain much and the camera angles do not always enable you to see exactly how the dancers feet are moving.

Overall, I felt worked out by this video but when I think about doing it again I don't feel any motivation. Honestly, if I could I would return it because I need videos that make me want to workout.

I have many many kickboxing workouts, when i saw this had kickboxing in it i bought it, i never heard of her but it look good, and may i say it's not bad at all. I like it, its different and fun, i highly recommend it. It's good for the days you dont want to do turbo jam