Killer Body

I have been a fan of Jillian for years. I actually never watched the Biggest Loser but her reputation preceded her and I found myself buying one of her other amazing workout DVDs about 15 or so years ago and went from fat, miserable, depressed to kicking myself in gear and taking some responsibility for my health. I owe it to Jillian for showing me how to push myself and transform my body and also my mind. I now own several of her DVDs and was super excited to try the workouts in this one. They all kick your butt in around 30ish minutes and will have you sweating buckets and cursing yourself, but then it's over and you feel INCREDIBLE. Sure, the lefthand side background exerciser in the Lower workout is far too enthusiastic to the point I almost can't make it through, but I make it a point to try not to focus on her and get it done. You've been warned. But I digress. This is a great, effective set of workouts that you do in order three days and then repeat the next three days and have a day off. If you are like me and enjoy no-nonsense structure, you will enjoy it. If you focus and have the self discipline to be consistent, you have the power to change yourself and your body. This is a fantastic start!

If you like Jillian Michaels, this DVD will not disappoint (except maybe for the DVD quality as noted by other reviewers, although I haven't had any issues with that myself). I have many, but not all, of Jillians DVDs and have been using them on and off in my rotation. I think that in this DVD, she isn't as hurried as in some of the others and pays more attention to explaining form and modifications if you need them (although oddly enough for some moves such as rock star jumps in the upper body workout no alternatives are offered for those with bum knees etc).The workouts are focused on strength, with one a minute cardio interval after each of the 4 circuits to spike your heart rate. There are 3 workouts, and I completed all 3 in the last 3 days. I think that the upper body is the most challenging, followed by lower body, and core. Overall I found them very doable but I don't think that I would recommend these to anyone just getting of the couch not used to exercising at all. Jillian gets creative with some of the moves and some of them I fumbled through (given that I only did each workout once so far), such as the cross-over push-up, and pike-press combo in the upper body workout. I generally didn't need any of the offered modifications, except for the ninja squat in the lower body work out. Yeah, maybe not, I don't think I am going to jump straight to my feet from knees on the ground, very funny!Here are my comments on each work out:Upper body: what is the thing about not giving a guideline what weight would be appropriate for each exercise (with a note to listen to your body and adapt as necessary)? I have noticed that in other DVD/online workouts as well lately. Does 'heavy' mean heavy for 8 reps or heavy for 30 reps? I like to know where I stand with the weight I use and/or what to aspire to. I used 8 lbs dumbbells throughout this workout, and that was definitely heavy for me. Although apparently not too heavy since now, a day later, I am a bit sore but not in a bad way.Lower body: as expected this workout contains a lot of plyometrics (with lower impact modifications offered), but also some static holds in yoga warrior poses that challenge your balance and core along with the legs. I love yoga, but don't like doing these with my shoes on (which you need for the rest of the workout). i think that in this DVD, Jillian appears more 'human' than in some previous ones. In this workout she is kind of in awe of this 25-year-old fitness model who is demonstrating the advanced version of the exercises, which I found very funny and relatable since i am closer in age to Jillian than to that model.Core: This is the first work out I did from this DVD. I would have preferred this workout to have a bit more lower back exercises (which are in the lower-body work-out) to be more balanced in itself, but it definitely hits your core in almost every imaginable way. One note of caution is that especially the second part of this workout is not friendly to those with any kind of shoulder injury. Variation of plank upon variation of plank; there is no way to modify your way out of these if you have any shoulder issues. Also, if you have bum knees modify the situp to jump-squat (no modifications are offered if I remember correctly). I have an old knee injury that allows me to do all the jumps just fine but I cannot have any torque on that joint so if I get tired and don't get up exactly straight then that's really bad news. I will modify this move next time.

I am an advanced exerciser. This DVD is pretty much all resistance training using both light weights and body resistance, with a 1 min cardio blast with each circuit. It is split out into three workouts (upper, lower and core) which I liked.The upper body workout is good. As others mentioned, there are some new moves. The one that I loved was a rocking move where you are on your belly and rocking and then push up, this really worked my arms and was amazing! I had never done this before. I had to use 8-10 lb weights to really feel it in the other upper body segments. I really didn't love the lower body workout, it was just OK. I felt the moves were dangerous to do at home, especially if you have bad knees. She does show modifications, but even as advanced, you really have to be careful. She does a move where you jump in the air and do a bent leg split. There is another one that you kneel on the floor and then jump up to standing with both feet (she does show modifications) but don't attempt this if you are a beginner or have knee problems. If you do all the high impact plyometric moves, I would think this video is intermediate-advanced, and if you are modifying the moves and doing lower-impact it would be more of an intermediate workout (I modified a bit and I was in zone 3 most of the time with my heart rate monitor). For a really great workout, I used this with her 1 week shred. I had my computer and DVD player going at the same time and did 1 circuit of cardio from her 1 week shred, and then 1 upper body circuit from this DVD, and then alternated back and forth. That gave me a great workout! The cardio in 1 week shred is great.Jillian is great in the video (not annoying) and does point out some important tips. I really wish Jillian would start doing more pre-mixes rather than just complete workouts. The reason I bring this up, is because all of her DVDs are very similar from the standpoint that she does an each exercise for 30 seconds and then moves onto the next exercise. I really wish she would do higher reps in some of her videos, especially a mostly all-resistance video. I felt like I could go for 30 more seconds with each exercise. Jackie Warner has different strength training styles, such as one video that focuses on pyramid and one that does each move for 1 min (she mixes it up). Cathe Friedrich is also really good about switching up the repetitions in her different videos(she has a high-rep video, or a slow and heavy, or interval). I feel that with as many videos as Jillian has, I really wish she would switch up the length of time she does a particular exercise. I wish she would come out with pyramid, slow and heavy or high-rep weight training video. I just end up modifying the moves to fit my workout. If she does an exercise for 30 seconds, rather than moving on to the next exercise, I'll just keep doing that move for 30 more seconds until I get muscle failure and then move onto the next (or I'll pause it and continue the move).Overall it was OK and I will do it again, and I liked it, but I will just modify it to meet my training needs. The quality is poor, but nothing that prevented me from doing the workout. Someone mentioned the matrix, and it did make me laugh during the arm warmup when they were doing arm circles (it just lasts for a few seconds) and then is OK again (and laughter is good for the abs!)