By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:11:41 +0000

By: IoanaAlfonso

IoanaAlfonso — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:08:59 +0000

Easy to follow 0

By: Leanne

Leanne — Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:01:16 +0000

Really fun, different workout! I just got done doing this workout for the first time, and really liked it. This is the first time I’ve done one of Anna Kaiser’s workouts, but was interested in trying it out since she currently trains Kelly Ripa and Sarah Jessica Parker, both of whom are in amazing shape. It’s a long workout (it clocks in at 84 minutes long total), but it moves quickly and I was sitting in a pool of sweat by the end! ☺To do the workout, you’ll need the following equipment:* a mat* a pair of dumbbells (3′, 5′s, or 8′s are recommended)You’ll also want some supportive shoes and a high-impact sports bra.The main menu includes the following options:* Introduction with Sarah Jessica Parker – a three-minute video where Anna explains how to use the workout; it also includes a fun clip of the set-up for the workout, and some small clips of SJP talking to Anna about the philosophy behind Anna’s workouts* Q&A with Anna – just over seven minutes long; this is a video where Anna is “talking” (it’s kind of awkwardly staged) with a group of people, who ask her questions about her workouts; the first question is “How do I get Kelly Ripa’s abs?”* Happy Hour Workout* Happy Hour Workout with No Music* Treadmill Workout — not a complete workout, but rather a five-minute sample of what her treadmill workouts are likeThe workout opens with a twelve-minute warm-up and ends with a twelve-minute cooldown. The main part of the workout is just about sixty minutes long, and it’s broken up between strength and dance-cardio intervals. The strength moves also have a nice mix of flexibility moves mixed in.Since I sometimes seem to have two left feet, I was worried if I’d be able to follow along alright with the dance segments, but Anna is a great cuer in the dance segments, and so I had no problems keeping up. After learning each segment, you also put the moves all together in a sequence. I know some people don’t like it when workouts do the “take it from the top” (or “TIFTF’ing”), but because it’s just for smaller segments, it didn’t feel overly repetitious to me — although the first dance segment did feel a bit boring after we repeated it a few too many times. The dance segments are considered interval-based since Anna will take short breaks during them to stretch you out and lower your heart rate, before jumping back into repeating the dance again. It’s been awhile since I’ve done Tracy Anderson’s dance cardio, but Anna’s style feels more athletic than Tracy’s.I also love that Anna mirror cues, which always makes it easier to keep up. Where the cueing could be better is in the strength segments; I often had a hard time figuring out what she was doing when you’re not in a position to look at the screen, and had to keep looking up a lot to figure out what we were supposed to be doing.Each time the workout moves to a new segment (there are ten segments total), the screen greys out, and there is a countdown clock letting you know what’s coming up next (i.e., cardio) and encouraging you to take a water break. I did have to pause a few times since I needed a bit more time to grab some water and get my mat and weights out of the way in time for the next segment.The music is non-vocal electronica, and was nicely synced with the workouts. I felt like it had great energy and really added to the workout. Having the option of doing the non-music workout is great, too, though, if you want to play your own music.The female background exerciser is a modifier, and she shows great modifications for each move. The male exerciser shows more higher-impact moves. Anna is in phenomenal shape, and is very motivating.As far as the difficulty level goes, I would say that this is a high-intermediate or advanced workout. During the last cardio segment, I had to take things down a notch since I was feeling pretty tired.I had been wondering how often you could do this workout, and, at the very end of the workout, Anna mentions that she and the background exercisers do this workout every day. In other words, it’s OK to do this a few times a week or even on back-to-back days without, according to Anna, run the risk of overtraining.As much as I enjoyed this workout, there are a few reasons why I didn’t give this a five-star review:1. It’s so long that I’m not sure how or how often I will use this. I knew it was this long before I bought it so I have to take some of the resposibility, but I wish it had included a shorter premix (like maybe 45- or 50-minute long) or at least some suggestions on how to make it shorter.2. As mentioned above, some of the dance segments felt repetitious to me — and I was already feeling bored in a few of them after just doing this workout once since the moves don’t have a lot of complexity in terms of the…

Comments on: Anna Kaiser HAPPY HOUR DVD

By: Anonymous

By: IoanaAlfonso

By: Leanne