Tuesday - Firm Cardio Dance Fusion/Tracey Parts series -core section

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

FINALLY posting my mornign workout, it ihas been one of those days again. I seriously can't take much more stress. Just a week and a half to go - I have to keep saying that to myself.

On a happy and OT note, my DD did very well at camp yesterday and very well today. When I picked her up yesterday afternoon it was like she had been there forever and she was very eager to go today and very happy when Grandma picked her up this afternoon. Some of the kids in the camp session are also going to be in her Kindergarten class, so this was really a good thing for her. I'm, so far, loving the school and the atmosphere. I'm blessed to be able to pay for it and have it available to me!

Okay, back to the workout. I decided to do Cardio Dance Fusion in its entirety this morning. I enjoyed the segment I did from it yesterday and decided to do the whole thing today. This one is really a pleasant surprise to me - I hesitated on getting it b/c I didn't think the FIRM could put out a good dance workout - but they did! This is giving me hope for the kickboxing workout they have planned for the fall. The entire Cardio Dance Fusion workout consists of 4 "dances" - "club" (modern), Latin, and "jive" (Jazz), the last part is a slower paced sort of ballet-ish modern dance-ish segment. I worked up a decent sweat with this and it was pretty easy to follow and catch on. The moves are repeated throughout each segment, but this keeps the intensity up for me - I don't have to slow down much to learn new things. Each "dance" is taught add on style and you take it from the top a few times - but once

you're done w/ a dance it is done. I think I enjoy this one b/c it is a dance workout I feel successful in doing (some are so complex that I just can't get anything out of them) and the intensity is good (a solid intermediate, I'd say - not a Cathe or an Amy, but you can't do that every day anyway!). Decent intensity is often missing from most dance workouts, at least the ones I have tried. Overall, I think I'd rate this one as "my best surprise for 2008"!

After the FIRM, I added on the total body/core section from Tracey Staehle's Parts Series DVD. I have mixed feelings about this segment - it felt very incomplete and just seemed to be a conglomerate of add-ons. It starts w/ a med ball warm-up - going through some different lower and upper body movements w/ the med ball, then you do a balance series w/ light weights - working triceps - then down to the floor for some tricep push-ups (you do work your core in the positioning of this exercise). These segments certainly didn't seem to be "total" body - although I guess you can make the argument that the med ball section was....I dunno, it seemed like they had some extra footage and just tacked it on here. It isn't to say that it is bad - it is just that this segment of the DVD doesn't seem complete. Anyway, after the weight work it was on to Pilates - one of the backgrounders (I forget her name) teaches a brief

Pilates-inspired ab routine - not bad - a definately add on to one of the other workouts on this DVD, for sure! Then, one of the other backgrounders (Barbie, I think) leads a yoga segment - mostly sun salutations, some good stretches like pigeon! Again, a good segment and one I think I would tack on to one of the other workouts on this DVD. So, my impression of this DVD overall - the upper body part is good, although you will not feel worked if you like doing very specific body part splits like Amy's Slo Mo or Cathe's Slow & Heavy. The "total body/core" section just seemed like some extra footage slapped together - not bad, but not sure what the point of it was. The Yoga, Pilates sections should maybe have been "bonus" chapters on the DVD to add on as you wish and the med ball/tricep push-up series may have fit better in either the Upper or Lower Body routine and not as a segment by itself.

Anyway, tomorrow is strength - I think I'm doing Trish Muse's Strength Attack.

Take care!Donna