Love Jari Love

As I have written, I wasn't really looking to replace my Jari Love workouts. I really do love her programs. I stumbled upon her about a year ago much the same way I recently stumbled upon Jillian's Shred video. For Christmas, I asked for and received a three pack of her videos, Ripped, Ripped to the Core, and Slim and Lean. In July, I purchased Get Ripped 1000.

Jari's programs are approximately 60 minutes long; the workouts are broken down into short segments of mostly strength and conditioning moves. Representative moves include push ups, lunges, bicep curls, tricep extensions, dead lifts, squats, and ab work. I started out using 2.5 lb weights and gradually worked up to 8 lb weights. Recently, I even contemplated purchasing 10 lb weights to start using with some of the moves.

To the Core is my favorite DVD as it contains compound moves. For example, instead of doing a solitary dead lift, we do dead lifts with bicep curls; chest flies with raised hips; and tricep extensions with the opposite leg raised to focus on the abs.

In the 1000 program, Jari added cardio segments. She alternates between strength training moves and cardio work most of which is done with a step. For example, "up-ups" are followed by squats which are followed by "the skiier" which is followed by lunges, and on and on.

Slim and Lean is my least favorite of the four that I own. The problem with S&L from my perspective is the pulsing. I still work out with this video on occasion, but I don't follow the pulsing with all the moves, sometimes I just do the whole move (e.g. a full squat instead of a pulse squat.)

I like Jari's programs. She pushes you, and she's certainly encouraging. Unlike Jillian, she encourages you to rest and requires you to stretch after each segment, especially in 1000's cardio segments.