Jari Love: Ripped or Hype?

I love trying out different work out videos, it keeps me entertained, keeps me from getting bored and tends to target different muscle groups in various ways I wouldn't get by sticking to one program. Plus I get to share the experience with you guys and maybe help someone find the video or workout that will suit them best.

So this week I am kicking it with Jari Love's Get Ripped: slim & lean. My first impressions was the warm up was very ehhhhh, the music is boring and really so is everything else about the video. The workout itself is fairly intense and focused for each muscle group it works. The legs, well I didn't even finish those sets for 2 reasons 1-- I have to run today, this is the start of week 3 day 1 of the C25K and I know it's going to kick my ass with those 3 minute jogs so I don't want to overwork my leg muscles and 2 -- holy fuck. Now I try not to curse too much in my blogs but really there is no other way to express the hellacious workout on the legs. I was jell-o very quickly and even had a hard time doing the dead lifts for the back/shoulder portion because my legs were shaking so bad. I cried, literally, during the arms section, the overhead tricep curls KILLED me. The push up section was awesome I loved it and man I really impressed myself keeping up with that one. So for arms and legs this workout is excellent and yea you are going to get ripped with all of the reps and the weight loads (I stayed at 3lbs, it's all I have and well I am WEAK!). I would not classify this as a beginners workout definitely for someone who is more towards intermediate or advanced, just keep in mind the music and everything is boring with a capital B. What really lost me on this video however was the serious lack of attention to the core/abs. Good strong abs are essential to good form for all over workouts and this video really really lacked the abs more than any other series I have tried. You get about 2 minutes of actual ab work and it's easy without much focus on all of the muscle groups in the abs. So while I would continue to do this workout for the arms & legs I would look to something else to fill in the gap on the abs workout (such as Jillian Michaels no more trouble spots, fantastic ab program there!) or create your own.

Now pray for me as I am going running in an hour, it's muggy and my legs are seriously shaking.

-- 2 hours later --

Holy mother of a biscuit eater! Nope I did not jog a full 3 minutes :/ I could do both 90sec jog/walks but the second sets turned in to 2min jog/4min walk. I am disappointed in myself and I refuse to blame it on having done that intense workout, or the heat (wth it was rainy/cloudy all day and then just before I leave to jog the clouds part and the sun beats down. Nice Mother Gaia, nice). I will just make myself push that much harder on Wed, while tomorrow I will do some yoga to stretch out these muscles and get them ready for the beating.