Title: Get Extremely Ripped! & Chiseled With Jari Love (Fitness Plus)
Who’s it for? Women who crave some serious muscle definition and want a weight-training routine to alternate with their cardiovascular workouts.
What’s the goal? To build new lean muscle, to boost metabolism and to burn fat in order to carve out a more toned physique.
Format: One 78-minute widescreen DVD that includes an introduction and two workouts: one targeting the lower body, and the other the arms, shoulders and chest; a quick cool-down consisting of stretches; and a segment of about five minutes challenging the abdominal muscles. The DVD’s cover advertises a one-hour workout that can be broken into half-hour workouts. In reality, those workouts run 45 and 42 minutes, respectively.
The 45-minute lower-body workout starts with a short, vigorous warm-up that represents the DVD’s only foray into aerobics and then launches into squat after squat, plus some jump squats, deadlifts and lunges. The 42-minute upper-body workout includes rows; decline and triceps pushups; shoulder presses; anterior and lateral raises; and hammer and biceps curls.
What’s to like? The workouts are easy to follow and focus on repeating basic moves. Love doesn’t offer much by way of form cues, but the exercises should be familiar to anyone but beginners; the moves build to create an effective muscle burn through repetitions.
Love’s backup exercisers, a cadre of buff beauties, often demonstrate ways to modify moves to reduce or amplify their intensity.
Anything particularly good? That short abdominal sequence is killer.
Who will be disappointed? Women searching for heart-pumping aerobics, or those who hate repetition and want to mix up their workout moves frequently to stave off boredom.
Distractions? The dimly lighted, industrial set features some poorly timed white strobe lights, and the music would befit a 1980s video game.
Optional gear: Two or three sets of dumbbells of varying heft (between 3 and 10 pounds), a mat and a workout step or bench. The demonstrators modeling even the modified exercises usually use all the equipment, but the moves are doable without it.
Can I do it barefoot? Yes, but the jump squats might be more comfortable in shoes.
Instructor’s credentials: Love is the owner of Fitness Plus studio in Calgary, Alberta, and a certified personal trainer, according to JariLove.com.
Price: $14.99
ActiveStyle, Pages 27 on 04/07/2014