Search - Elle: Glam Fitness Total Toning Workout on DVD

Down On Your Knees

Saundra Johnson | Hagan, GA USA | 03/24/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"There are some different moves and they look quite effective. The reason for 3 stars was all of the lunges/plies. They have a whole section for each one (lunges then plies) both about 10-15 minutes each. That is a lot of bending; especially for anyone with any sort of knee difficulty.
"

Thorough Workout!

T. McGoughy | Atlanta, GA | 06/27/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This a pretty intense 45 minute full body workout. It is chaptered into 6 segments.

Warmup- The warmup is approximately 5 minutes and is basically stretches and squats.

Lunges- The lunge section is only about 12 minutes but it felt like it was double that. You start with front lunges with a knee raise and eventually add a leg extension after the knee raise. Throughout the sequence your foot only hits the floor for the front lunge. So, there's a lot of balance work too. Then there's a series of back lunges with knee raises and a back leg extension after the knee raise. This is followed by a series of side lunges. Each move builds on the other so the workout progressively gets more challenging as you go along. After the lunge work, she adds weights. You combine the front lunge combo with biceps curls, the back lunge combo with shoulder presses, and the side lunge with one arm lat rows. The workout is pretty fast paced so you do a lot of reps in each segment.

Plies- The plie segment is also about 12 minutes and incorporates a lot more than plie squats. The plies are combined with upright rows and then there is a series of pulsing plies combined with heel raises. The workout then moves on to deadlifts combined with lat rows and lat raises while you balance on one leg. Curtsy dips combined with tricep extensions, biceps curls, and shoulder presses are next.

Upper Body- This segment is about 7 minutes long. I'm not sure why they felt the need to make this a separate segment. After all, we've been doing upper body the whole time and this section has more lower body work in it in the form of wood chops. Otherwise, this section is mainly shoulder work that incorporates front and side raises with calf raises. Lots of reps and your shoulders will be burning. I had to take short breaks several times.

Floor Work- The floor work segment is 10 minutes long. You work the chest by doing several sets of push ups and chest presses. The chest presses are combined with bridges. You also do french presses for the triceps and lat raises. There is a short sequences of traditional floor work-glute and leg raises. The abs workout is combined with the lat raises in the beginning and then it moves onto traditional ab work.

This workout ends with a 3 minute cooldown and stretch. I gave the workout 4 stars instead of 5 because the instructor, while very likeable, did not cue well. There is no mirror cueing in this workout and her constant references to your "outside leg" and "other leg" means that you have to keep track of which leg you're supposed to be working. She almost never says left or right. I've got enough to worry about trying to keep up with the sequences.

I really like this workout. Although it is fast paced, it's not so fast that you can't keep up and the moves flow well into each other. I am not a fan of lower body exercises but the combination moves and the fast pace keeps it interesting."

Pretty intense

Deva Robbins | 04/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This workout is long, 40 minutes. And the combination of upper and lower body exercises gets difficult. I'm not new to exercise by any means, I can run three miles in 25 minutes no problem. She reccomends 2lb weights which I thought sounded kinda weak. My smallest weights are 3lb and the arm raises and lats get hard even with such a small weight because of all the reps. The exercises build on each other and seem sort of women specific. There are a lot of lunges but that's an area we ladies like to work. Then they combine a lunge with a shoulder press or a leg extension and bicep curl or something crazy. It really gets the blood moving and my breathing becomes quite labored. I would call it a cardio workout too. There are a lot of upper body exercises, ones that emphasize shoulders, chest, and upper arms. These make the waist look smaller. The ab section isn't too long but it's hard. This is definitely not a cakewalk but if you can't do them all just sit out a few reps. You can tailor it to your level that way. Sometimes I have to pause it so I can get a drink. Also, sometimes I have to pause it because it moves too quickly to the next exercise. it's my new favorite workout tape. It's 10 dollars or so at Target and it has a useless section on make-up by the creator of Lorac cosmetics. Unless you can't do the smoky eye, then it's not useless."

Save your knees...

Jamie L. Becker | Milwaukee, WI USA | 05/28/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I could see this workout being effective, but it totally killed my knees and I did only about 25 minutes of it.
The repetition of squats, lunges, and plies is horrible, I wanted to fall over after fastforwarding to the cool down.

So why is it getting 3 stars? Well I can see it would be a good workout, but you need to have really strong knees."