Angie Miller: Core & Strength Fusion

Description

Angie Miller delivers the ultimate total body workout! This time-efficient strength training program uses continuous movement and innovative exercises to sculpt and define your muscles. You'll increase your strength and endurance, challenge your balance and coordination, and reap cardiovascular rewards. Fat burning, and functional, it's the perfect way to reshape your body and achieve a leaner physique. Angie's non-stop energy and encouraging style will motivate you. Her attention to form and upbeat instruction will inspire you. Get ready to boost your metabolism and break through plateaus! Look out skinny jeans, here you come. Core & Strength Fusion is a challenging program that will give you the tools you need to achieve a stronger, fitter you! You can do the entire workout or chose various options to meet your exercise needs. Review: Deserves 10 Stars! - This video is a must for your collection! I have over 200 workout dvds, but this is my first Angie Miller, and I will be buying more! This video is a perfect balance of cardio and weight training, and works every muscle in your body. It is not at all repetitive or boring. Angie has some excellent moves that I have never seen before. She also works you hard at a particular exercise, then gives you a tiny break by switching to a move where you can catch your breath, but still keep working out. Then Angie starts you again on a movement that is more challenging. For equipment, weights are needed and a stretch band. In addition, Angie uses a step for several movements, but she has a modifier who does not use one. If you don't own a step, you will still definitely get a strong workout. I do have a step and own some step workouts that have such complicated choreography that I doubt that I'm getting a good workout because I have to frequently stop and rewind the dvd. Angie's use of the step is more athletic. It would be impossible to get confused, and so the step serves the function that it should, by making your movements more intense - you get more "bang for the buck" of your exercising time. Anyway, you get the idea - this is just one terrific workout. I found Angie Miller by accident on desertcart, and I'm so glad that I did! Review: Very good strength workout with unique additions of core/balance work plus use of tubing - This is the third workout I have tried from Angie Miller; I also own her Kettlebell Bootcamp and have recently acquired Bedroom Body . One of the things I like the best about Angie's workouts is that she always incorporates core and balance work throughout the ENTIRE routine. She does this with the inclusion of many twisting moves plus lots of balance work on one leg. I also like how Angie includes dynamic stretching in the warm-up and incorporates timed holds into the final stretch. Equipment used for this workout includes two sets of dumbbells (Angie says she is using 8s & 5s), medium-resistance tubing, and an optional step. Angie has two background exercisers with her, Michelle and Heather (who shows modifications, including working out without a step). The DVD is well-chaptered, so you can easily mix-n-match segments to form your own premixes (e.g., Warm-Up, Dumbbells, & Stretch = 39 minutes; Warm-Up, Tubing, & Stretch = 29 minutes; or Warm-Up, Core, & Stretch = 25 minutes). The Main Menu of this workout offers the following options: Play All--Introduction--Warm-Up--Weights--Bands--Core--Cool-Down--Stretch. I have broken out each segment in greater detail below. WARM-UP (7 minutes) Includes knee-ups, side-steps, hamstring curls, grapevines, v-steps, and knee-ups & lunges on step. Finishes with dynamic stretches for hamstring and calf. WEIGHTS (26 minutes) Uses step for various squats, adding in knee lifts, bicep curls, and overhead presses. Also curtsey lunges, side lunges, and lunges with lat rows. Deadlifts with variations, included 1-legged and twisting. Finish with squats off the step, adding shoulder press and leg abduction; end with balancing french press. TUBING (16 minutes) Lunges with reverse flyes and lat pull-downs. Plie squats with tricep presses. On step, bicep curls and squats. From all fours, leg extensions, kicks, and raises. Conclude with push-up variations, including side planks and slow push-ups. CORE (12 minutes) Start with standing side bends/reaches. Move to floor for v-sits and then into various crunches, including oblique twists, reverse curls, and leg extensions. Lying on the side, perform hip lifts and oblique crunches. Finish with supermans and bird-dog. STRETCH (6 minutes) 1 minute hold of lunge (hip flexor stretch). Moving through standing forward bend, forward bend with twist, and brief upper body stretches. Because the workout IS quite long when done in its entirety (about 68 minutes), I did the Core on one day and the remainder of the workout the next. Each of these portions left me sore for days! I actually liked Angie's core work here better than on her newer Bedroom Body. Overall, this was a very good strength workout. What makes it more unique is the addition of moves to address core and balance as well as the use of tubing to provide the muscles with a different type of challenge. I think this workout is appropriate for intermediate-level exercisers who enjoy performing compound moves and using different types of equipment. I recommend this DVD, and I'd rate it 4 1/2 stars.