With music from Trudie Styler’s husband Sting, this is a good beginners home fitness DVD. The routines performed and narrated by James D’Silva are repetitive and along with a footwork tutorial easy to master the moves. You don’t feel intimidated by Trudie as in spite of her ballet and yoga background, never looks like she is pushing herself and the flowing dance movements look like she is taking part in some expressive dance class rather than a challenging exercise workout. It definitely looks like they are having fun even if you just want to laugh at them and the voice over.

One problem with the DVD that I found was that it was very impersonal and there is no encouragement or personal interaction. The warm up routine just begins with a voice saying ‘..And prance and prance and second position, first position…’ without an introduction or description of what second position entails. I also found it strange having a narrator to the routine rather than an instructor talking you through as they or the class do the workout. I thought this was because French and Greek languages were offered at the start but actually that is just for the menu, the rest of the DVD is only in English. Trudie gives a one sentence introduction to the cardio workout and James the stretch workout but I missed someone to keep telling me to keep going as the routine intensified.

The 25 minute core stretch workout is only with D’Silva and again the unique voice over. This is described as a workout that ‘isolates and works every muscle in the body whilst elongating and aligning the skeletal system’. I would love to have discovered if this was true but the entire work out requires a foam roller, something that is not indicated by the accompanying literature. Unlike other workout videos where substitutions can be made if you don’t have the correct hand weights or step, there is no advice given how to modify the routine if you don’t have a foam roller and I can’t think of what could be used as a suitable substitute.

There is also an 11 minute Express workout which contains much of the extended cardio routine but is much more cardio specific with a lot of the slower moves and stretching missed out. As an added bonus there is music from Stings Album ‘Songs from the Labyrinth’, interviews with Trudi, Sting and James and behind the scenes footage.

Whilst I agree with the DVD claims that ‘it allows you to dance, stretch and improve balance through fun and energetic dance routines’, I’m unsure if the word Cardio should be included in the title. The 22 minute cardio dance segment is not what I would consider fast paced as it contains a lot of yoga stretches and positions.

I wore my heart rate monitor during this segment as you can see here, although my heart rate briefly reached 149bpm (74% of max HR)  it averaged at 126 bpm (63% of max HR). It is generally accepted that 60-70% develops your endurance and is considered the fat burning zone whilst 70-80% is the aerobic zone, which will develop the cardiovascular system improving the delivery of oxygen to the working muscles. So I would consider this may suit someone looking for a fat burning rather than cardio workout.

Overall

If you are a beginner to exercising this is a fun gently introduction and I recommend using the footwork tutorial first to learn the moves. However whilst it is fine as a low intensity fat burning workout I doubt it would get many people into what would be classed as a cardio/aerobic zone. The stretch moves are also described well and repeated slowly so beginners can understand and follow although you would need the added expense of a foam roller whilst the more advanced exerciser who already own one may find the routine too simplified.

Available from Sainsbury’s, LoveFilm.com, Play.com, Amazon.co.uk and other retailers.

Release Date: 14th June 2010
Running Time: 1Hr 18Mins

Also read our reviews of other recent fitness DVD releases:

The FIRM: Power Half Hour designed to produce maximum results in a minimum amount of time

5 Day Fit Weight Loss designed to add variety to your routine with 5 different fat burning workouts

The following workouts are included:

Budokon for Weight Loss with Cameron Shayne uses a combination of yoga, martial arts and meditation to raise your metabolism. What I liked about this session is that instead of demonstrating the poses himself, the workout feels like yoga and martial arts expert Cameron is taking a class and the 6 other people in the video are students. So instead of just telling you to lengthen your spine you can see how he corrects someone’s bad posture. The routine is slow but provides you with a good description and learning experience of yoga poses used in many other workouts.

Walking for Weight Loss with Debbie Rocker is a routine that just revolves around walking. I was a bit sceptical how you can just walk 30minutes but as you start marching on the spot listening to Debbie’s motivational talking you increase the exercise intensity by lifting your legs higher or speeding up or incorporating your arms. Although it is a routine very suitable for beginners, one thing I really liked was that it was great if you had little room to exercise in you could easily do this workout without worrying you didn’t have enough space.

Dancer’s Body Workout with Patricia Moreno is a dance routine that will help you burn calories and sculpt a more lean body. As someone who has no co-ordination when it comes to dancing I liked the slow repetitive development of the movements, slowly moving to the complete routine. Also Patricia described the movement before you did it not during so you already knew what was coming up next.

Cardio Burn Yoga with Patricia Moreno claims to use yoga to rid the body of excess fat. Patricia talks you through the movements describing exactly what to concentrate on. I found it useful that unlike some yoga workouts where the instructor expects you to know what a downward dog is Patricia talks you exactly through what your arms should be doing when you can’t look at the TV as your head is looking at the ceiling or what legs should be doing when you are staring at the floor.

Cardio Burn Sculpt with Tanja Djelevic uses a mixture of cardio and sculpting to not only lead to weight loss but also flatten abs, slim legs and tone the upper body. As it was described as a cardio workout I wore my heart rate monitor during the routine and the results can be seen here. Although it was easy to follow I felt I still benefited from the routine with the first 15 minutes clearly being a cardio workout. Exercising at 70-80% of your maximum heart rate is considered the aerobic zone, which will develop your cardiovascular system and improve the delivery of oxygen to your working muscles. After the initial warm up my heart rate was predominately within this range peaking at 170bpm (85% max), with the final 15 minutes a slower sculpting session.

Overall Review

A fitness DVD suitable for beginners and intermediate levels. Instructors comprehensively talk you through each routine and overall the DVD provides enough variety to maintain your exercise motivation, working all muscle groups through cardio and stretches.

Release Date: 10th May 2010

Running Time: 2 hours 41 mins

Available from LoveFilm.com, Play.com, Sainsbury’s, Amazon.co.uk and other retailers.

Also read our reviews of other recent fitness DVD releases:

The FIRM: Power Half Hour designed to produce maximum results in a minimum amount of time

Trudie Styler’s Cardio Dance Flow designed to help improve balance, endurance and help tone your body

I admit that although I am physically fit to keep up with the routines and I know the names of a few yoga positions I am not an aerobics expert. Having said that, I think that this DVD is definitely aimed at the high intermediate or experienced aerobic class participant.

Whilst it gave me a good cardio work and I certainly felt the effects the next morning, I did find it confusing at times due to the speed in which Emily speaks and the number of different moves included in each repetition. I doubt I will ever learn the fast, ever changing routine, even if after 10 sessions. A criticism I do have with the DVD however, has to be the screen shots which sometimes just show Emily’s upper body when I would rather be watching what her legs are doing during new complicated leg combinations

Kelsey is there to provide the beginners modification. Although, instead of just showing how to do the workout without free weights or not including the optional jumps, I wish she put in more effort or enthusiasm into her movements as she should be motivating you to do the same.

With the total DVD only lasting 30 minutes it is not something you will be returning to everyday if you want variety, but if you are a hardcore aerobics fiend and one day you miss your regular class this could be a perfect substitute.  There is no chance to rest during the half hour routine and when wearing a heart rate monitor my average heart rate was around 72% of my maximum, reaching as high as 172 beats per minute. So clearly within the zone considered as an aerobic exercise. My heart rate throughout the workout can be seen here.

Overall

An intensive body firming and cardio routine that works the entire body. Fast paced, probably most suitable for more experienced exercisers. At only 30 minutes this DVD lacks variety to be repeated everyday but excellent as a one off workout or part of a varied exercise regime.

Released Date: April 2010

Running Time: 32 minutes

Available from Sainsbury’s, LoveFilm.com, Play.com, Amazon.co.uk and other retailers.

Also read our reviews of other recent fitness DVD releases:

5 Day Fit Weight Loss designed to add variety to your routine with 5 different fat burning workouts.

Trudie Styler’s Cardio Dance Flow designed to help improve balance, endurance and help tone your body.

Phosphocreatine is a high-energy storage molecule found within skeletal muscle. During intense exercise, phosphocreatine provides immediate replenishment of ATP (Adenosine-5′-triphosphate), which transports chemical energy from within cells for metabolic processes.

Traditional endurance training induces physiological adaptations such as improved aerobic capacity, along with a reduction in glycogen utilization and lactate accumulation. HITT has been shown to be an efficient way to produce similar effects.

Multiple HIIT bouts are designed to deplete phosphocreatine stores in the working skeletal muscle, and so reducing power output.

It takes more than six minutes to fully recover phospho-creatine stores after exercise-induced depletion. Therefore, if recovery intervals during HIIT bouts are less than six minutes, phosphocreatine may not be fully replenished, leading to a reduced performance.

Supplementing with creatine has been demonstrated to effectively increase muscle phosphocreatine stores. Specifically, one study showed a 20% increase in muscle creatine with ingestion of 20 g of creatine per day for just 5 days.

The purpose of the study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition was to determine the effects of high-intensity interval training and creatine supplementation on cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance performance.

The subjects were 43 college-aged men who typically performed 1-5 hours of exercise per week. None had taken sports supplements, including any form of creatine, in the three months prior to the beginning of the study.

Participants were randomly assigned to a creatine or a placebo group and supplemented for 30 days at a dose of 10 g per training day, taken in two doses – one dose 30 minutes prior to and one dose immediately following training.

• Creatine group consumed 5 g of creatine citrate mixed with 15 g dextrose
• Placebo group consumed 20 g of dextrose

A control group, consumed no supplements nor completed the high-intensity interval training, and instead only completed the testing measurements.

Participants performed HIIT five days per week, for six weeks at progressively increasing workloads, determined as a percentage of the participant’s baseline VO_2PEAK max workload. Training increased in intensity each session beginning at 90% of their VO_2PEAK max workload and progressing up to 120% of their VO_2PEAK max workload.

Each training session began with a five-minute warm up, followed by a protocol of five sets of two-minute exercise bouts, with one minute of passive rest in between exercise bouts.

A maximal graded exercise test on a cycle ergometer was used to determine:

• maximal oxygen consumption (VO_2PEAK)
• maximum heart rate (HRmax).
• total work done (TWD)
• time to exhaustion (VO_2PEAKTTE)
• ventilatory threshold (VT), this is the point during graded exercise in which venitilation increases disproportionately to oxygen uptake.

Endurance performance is commonly assessed using a measure of aerobic capacity. While the HIIT program was effective in improving maximal oxygen consumption by 9%, creatine supplementation had no further influence on aerobic capacity. Ventilatory Threshold (VT) is another useful predictor of endurance performance as an indicator of the ability of the cardiovascular system to adequately supply oxygen to the working muscles. Performing exercise at intensities greater than VT often result in an inadequate supply of oxygen to the working muscles, quickly leading to fatigue.

If VT can be improved it could increase the time to exhaustion, reduce fatigue, and may enhance the efficiency of the body to supply oxygen to the working muscles.

However, when measuring VT in this study, significant improvements were only observed in the creatine group (16%), although the placebo group demonstrated a trend for improved VT (10%).

The researchers from University of Oklahoma found that HITT is an effective way to improve maximal endurance performance. The study also demonstrated an improvement to time to exhaustion with HIIT. However, whilst adding the use of creatine did improved ventilatory threshold, it did not increase total work done.

Previous studies have shown improvements in TWD after creatine supplementation which included a loading phase (20 g/d for 5-7 days). A loading phase was not used in the current study, so it may be possible that muscle phosphocreatine levels were not increased enough to aid in improving TWD.

The researchers did suggest that it is possibile that any benefits of low-dose creatine supplementation were masked by the effectiveness of HIIT alone.