Product Description

Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 10/07/2003 Run time: 60 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23828 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-07
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 55 minutes

Amazon.com
Begin and end the day with these two condensed workouts, one designed to energize and the other to de-stress and stretch. Instructor Karen Voight has an amazingly sculpted body--just try to pry your eyes from her abs, shoulders, or thighs. The 25-minute A.M. Workout starts with a rhythmic warm-up that readies your muscles and raises your heart rate, followed by a full-body, muscle-conditioning series using light weights or weighted balls. It's impressive how many muscle groups are worked in Voight's superbly designed, nonstop sequence of moves and combinations--some coordination required. The P.M. Workout starts with a strong ab routine and some push-ups, followed by a long, slow-paced yoga routine to stretch your muscles and calm your mind. This is an excellent set of workouts, marred only slightly by the overdone draped background, which is distracting. Highly recommended for busy exercisers who want to pack a lot into a half-hour. --Joan Price

Customer Reviews

One of my all time favorite exercises videos!
If I had to choose my top three exercise tapes to bring to a desert island, this video would definitely make the list. It's a wonderful blend of traditional strength training, pilates-type ab work, and yoga stretches. Instructor Karen Voight--who has an absolutely amazing body--adds unique twists to all of the above, and the end result is a flowing, enjoyable workout.

Karen begins with a warm-up that lasts approximately 7 minutes; she effectively stretches and warms both the lower and the upper body. The 23-minute segment that follows is full-body strength training using light weights (Karen uses fitness balls but displays how dumbells can be substituted). Although there are many traditional movements such as bicep curls, squats, and lunges, Karen frequently combines the exercises to make them more interesting and effecient--for example, a bicep curl combined with a plie squat. Most of the moments are very focused and intense, and the number of repetitions is generally low (1-2 sets). Karen finishes out the strength section by using a body bar for balance (a chair can be substituted) to do some targeted thigh and buns work. Finally, there is a brief full-body stretch to end the first half of the tape.

Karen removes her shoes for the remainder of the workout. The second half of the video begins with abdominals work. This section is the most challenging abs work I have ever encountered; you will really FEEL the results the next day. Again, Karen utilizes traditional moves such as crunches, but she makes the exercises tougher by adding weights, pulses, and isometric contractions. She follows the abs work with back extensions to ensure that both sides of the body are thoroughly stretched. The last part of the tape is approximately 25 minutes of yoga-type stretches. Karen performs a series of moves on one side of the body, including forward bend, triangle pose, lunge, and proud warrior, and then she repeats the entire series on the other side. A few additional poses are performed on the floor, including table and reverse plank.

This workout never fails to leave me feeling wonderfully refreshed. Karen is an excellent instructor who provides flawless mirrored cuing; she is warm and friendly while also being calm and focused. The workout is filmed in three different settings (a studio, a living room, and outdoors) and switches amongst them, and a soft jazz soundtrack plays in the background. I highly recommend this workout for all fitness levels (with the exception of absolute exercise beginners).

I LOVE this video!
I've had this video for a while but I never got around to doing it, so yesterday I decided to do it & I must say that it is amazing! The upper body workout with the weights made my arms feel tight, I normally workout with 5 lb. weights but I had to switch to 3 lb. weights after a while. You really don't need the weighted balls that are featured, your hand weights will still give you a great workout. The first workout is about 23 mins. long & it does move pretty fast so watch the video before doing it. If you can, turn your t.v. so that it is facing a mirror & it will help you keep up with the 1st workout. The seond workout is for the abs & back with some yoga. My abs felt so tight after doing this! I've never really tried yoga because I thought it was difficult, but Karen's cuing is perfect & she explains how to do the moves so anyone can do them. You can always do the workouts separately or together for a full body workout. During the yoga segment she has you do some push ups & I kid you not, you will feel the burn! Afterwards though you will feel so relaxed & refreshed.

Streamline Fitness
This was my first Karen Voight video, my other videos are by The Firm. I really liked her attention to detail and cuing better than The Firm. The first 30 min. is strenth training for upper and lower body, while I liked it, I would have prefered a harder workout. The second 30 min. covers abs, back and long yoga stretch. This was great. I've done this tape several times and my abs can feel it. I usually rotate the second half into most of my workouts and only do the whole tape when I don't want to work that hard. Worth the money.