What I’m Looking Forward to in Health and Fitness for 2012

Well I’m looking forward to a lot of things for 2012 but I’m going to stick to health and fitness for this blog and skip my personal life.  2011 was both good and bad though and I’m glad to see it go.  I had a friend die, my grandmother died (my last grandparent) and a former coworker died.  I did have a breakthrough in one area of my life though but I keep that private.

1.  My “new” barbell at home.  On Christmas day I was given a set of weight plates and then I went out and bought a bar.  Now I will have a barbell to do my gym style workouts at home.  A few of my DVDs use a barbell too.  Excited to be able to lift even heavier at home now!

2.  The first workout DVD review I will be doing is on Mike Donavanik’s Extreme Burn.  It’s an advanced level workout and I bet if I went and checked my mailbox right now it would be out there waiting for me!  It will be my first workout for the New Year and my review will soon follow.

3. Patrick Goudeau’s Extreme Calorie Burn.  I didn’t buy this yet but I soon will!  Toby Massenburg who I have reviewed on here is in it and on his Facebook page he mentioned it was the hardest workout DVD he has participated in.  Toby is in “sick” shape (in a good way) so I know if he thought it was hard it is going to be killer!  Looking forward to reviewing this one for sure!

4.  Writing.  I need to buckle down on my childhood obesity project.  I suffered from it as a child and in the last year there were many headlines about childhood obesity.  It breaks my heart that children are being taken away from their parents because of this epidemic and I feel that since I experienced it myself, I need to weigh in on this subject.  I think if you haven’t experienced it, you shouldn’t have a firm opinion.  Sorry, that’s just the way I feel.

5.  The gym.  Sooner or later I’m going to stop going to the gym.  I go now because I would miss the people I have met there.  Don’t gasp at the thought of skipping the gym.  I workout harder at home when I don’t have people watching what I am doing.  Women doing power moves and Olympic lifts is not that common at my gym and when I do them I get watched.  I’m a private person.  I don’t like it.  With my new equipment I’ll be able to workout harder at home.

6.  This blog. I will maintain and update this blog as I am able.  I will be getting a new tablet in a few days and I am excited to see how I can implement it with my workouts.  I think it will be easier to live stream online workouts on it rather than my laptop.  So I may weigh in on that as well.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012 everybody!  Thanks for reading my posts and stay tuned……

BEST WORKOUT DVDs OF 2011 from my reviews

This list is compiled from the workout DVDs that I have reviewed on my blog.  There may be others out there that I don’t mention in this post but if they weren’t reviewed on my blog, they aren’t eligible for this list. 

Best Bargain – Supreme 90 Day which is a multidisc package that sells for $19.99.  The tabata inferno is worth that cost alone.  The core workout and balance ball workouts have given me ab definition that I have never had in my life.  Tom Holland is the instructor.  We haven’t seen a lot of him before this, but you can bet we will be seeing more of him in the future!

Best Up and Coming Trainer – Toby Massenburg in his debut workout DVD Max 30.  Toby is in Paul Katami and Patrick Goudeau workout DVDs but in this workout that has him at the lead, Toby proves that he has what it takes to be in the forefront and give a hardcore workout.  I am looking forward to more workout DVDs from Toby in 2012.

Best for Butt Transformation – The Butt Bible.  While Pauline Nordine’s workouts aren’t rocket science or innovative, the sequence and amount of sets/reps that she does will give you a better butt.  I barely even recognize mine anymore.   The icing on the cake is that Pauline included upper body workouts for a total body experience.

Best Workout Without Weights – Breathless Body with Amy Dixon.  While I have read other reviewers complain that this workout has a boredom factor due to the repetitious movements, I find that the sheer intensity of this workout makes you forget and concentrate perfecting each movement.

Best Low Impact Workout – AfterBurn with Cathe Friederich – In this Cathe workout you will learn that low impact doesn’t have to mean low intensity.  Cathe utilizes a few different pieces of equipment and shows you how to bring it.

Best Surprise Workout – L.I.F.T. – Kelly Coffey-Meyer.  Kelly put out her L.I.F.T. workout and in it included Olympic Lifting.  This workout includes power moves that hardcore bodybuilders use and not everyone is familiar with.  Surprisingly this workout is a great core workout and you will feel it working for sure.  Kelly gives proper form and instruction and by the end you will be doing Olympic lifts that will make you feel strong and empowered.

Best Workout Package – 10 Pound Slimdown Xtreme with Chris Freytag.  Chris is such a friendly and inviting trainer that you don’t have any dread factor.  Her tagline, “Yes you can” makes you want to get up and do her workouts.  You actually look forward to working out with Chris.  This is a great all around workout system and even includes yoga.

AND THE WINNER IS:

Best Overall 2011 – Burn & Build – Paul Katami.  This workout incorporates both a high step and a kettlebell to give you both a demanding cardio and strength workout in one.  Paul is a great instructor and you forget that this workout is rather lengthy.  I was and am still blown away by how intense using a kettlebell with a high step is.  Paul includes a clinic to teach proper form and movements and he also includes a core workout.  I hope Paul gives us more workouts like this in 2012.

Cathe – AfterBurn – Low Impact Series – DVD Review

Cathe Friederich recently unleashed her new Low Impact Series workout DVDs.  They are all available separately for purchase.  You do not have to buy them altogether.  My first purchase from this series was the AfterBurn workout DVD.  I have heard others that have the whole series say that this is a great representation of the Low Impact Series and they say that it may even be the best out of the series.  This workout is proof that low impact does not have to mean low intensity.

In this workout you will need various sizes of dumbbells.  A good representation of weights would be one 15 pound DB, a set of either 12s or 10s (maybe even 8s if need be) and a set of 5s (or possibly 3s).  Cathe also uses gliding disks and Dixie cups for this workout.  If you don’t have these you can substitute paper plates for the disks and maybe just forgo the Dixie cups.

This workout alternates intervals of strength moves with low impact cardio moves.  Cathe has incorporated low impact HiiT moves and metabolic weight training in this workout.  The “afterburn” this effect creates is what gives this workout its title.

In the main workout (not a premix) Cathe does a series of two moves and then repeats them.  She starts intense right off the bat in the first series with squat digs and then moves to a squat, curl to press move that gets the heart rate up.  Then you repeat it.  If your heart rate isn’t up after that, you either aren’t doing it right or you aren’t using enough weight for the squat, curl to press.

Cathe’s instruction is on point and she offers her gentle and fun motivation that is Cathe’s signature and what a “Cathelete” has grown to expect from her workouts.

The DVD offers many premixes.  You can do the regular 54 minute workout or you can choose from the various premixes which are:  Express (Single Intervals 1-10); Express (Double Intervals 1-5); Express (Double Intervals 6-10); Random Burn; Double Trouble or Bonus Burn.

I can tell you, I did the “Bonus Burn” this morning.  It is 74 minutes long (including warm up and cool down/stretch) and it is the total main workout and then goes back and does each interval all the way through only once.  I am looking forward to trying the Random Burn and possibly checking out what Double Trouble is all about.

By the end of this workout I was sweating buckets and knew I had just kicked my own booty.  I’m looking forward to trying more workouts from this series.

Review of Bob Harper’s Total Body Transformation Workout DVD

This Total Body Transformation workout DVD has 2 workouts.  One is 60 minutes and one is 15 minutes (Bob calls it a 10 minute workout but with warmup and cool down it is 15 mins). 

60 Minute Workout

You will need a set of light and heavy weights.  Bob starts it off pretty cool with a dumbbell swing that transitions to add some lateral jumping while swinging the dumbbell.  Then he goes into some snatches and shoulder presses and then he gets the other side.  The rest of the workout is a mishmosh of moves that seems to be Bob’s format of late.  There just doesn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason to what he is doing except to keep your heart rate up and work your body which isn’t a bad thing.  With the exception of the ending single leg bridge rounds (your butt will burn) – no single part of your body will receive a harsh treatment.  This is total body.

This workout is similar to Bob’s other workouts in that it uses strength moves but adds dynamic movements like plyometrics to get the heart rate up. Bob tries to keep the whole body engaged during movements like the seated dumbbell curl where you do a chair pose and curl your arms off of your thighs. He also liked the “prisoner” squats/lunges with your arms on your head and shoulder back to engage the upper body while you are working on the lower. He also likes to tweak old moves that you may already be doing and turn them on their ear.  He does side burpees, round the world pushups and he is a fan of the prisoner lunge in this workout.  By the time you finish up with the Russian squat kicks your arms are going to feel like they are going to fall off.  Holding your hands and the back of your head with your shoulders out and upper back contracted is a hard thing to hold.  Bob also changes the pace of some of the moves and does his usual isolation moves to finish off a move.  Bob says tweaking things will push you out of your plateaus.

Bob touts this as the hardest workout ever but I have to disagree.  Bob must have never have done an Insanity workout or Paul Katami’s Burn and Build Kettlebell Workout because both of those are harder. I don’t even think this is Bob’s hardest workout ever – unless I’ve just gotten that much stronger that I’m not as challenged anymore but I thought the Cardio workout he has out was harder. I am not saying this isn’t a great workout I just removed one star because he touted it as such and it isn’t. It may be for some but if you try Paul’s Burn and Build you would see that is more challenging than this. Good job though Bob – I would keep buying challenging workouts like these it may be time to change the format however. This format is getting a little old now.

15 Minute Workout

This is a quick workout to get your heart rate up and work your whole body when you are short on time.  I like the flipping bridge move that Bob does. It makes me feel strong.

Out With the Old – In With the New – Workout DVD Contest

I recently wrote an article for Fytness Fanatik online magazine about the New Year and goals for the next year.  You can read it here: http://www.fytnessfanatik.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=285

This contest is about Out With the Old – I am going to give one winner a workout DVD from my own personal collection tailored to the winner (I’ve got over 100 so don’t worry, I won’t miss it) and In With the New – the workout DVD will be new to you!

After you read the above article, all you have to do is comment below about what you accomplished in the year 2011 and what you plan to accomplish in the year 2012.  One winner will be chosen at random who have all followed the steps above (honor system).

The winner will be chosen on New Year’s Day 2012!

Good luck!!!!