CRITICAL BENCH.COM Body-Weight Beast Workout DVD

This covers mobility, flexibility, strength, and endurance with each routine lasting about 20 minutes.

Overall, this is an OK video for working out if you are not a beginner and already know about proper form and injury prevention. Without the ability to give feedback, these videos can be risky if you don’t have a good knowledge of anatomy and physiology, which is most people, and while some videos do emphasize correct form and injury prevention (like Jillian Michaels for example) others like these do not, which can be a serious issue for those who have always self-trained or used similar videos. It is very easy to develop bad habits that can cause damage to your joints overtime, and as a dance and fitness instructor myself, there is not enough emphasis on this in general. For that reason, I don’t particularly recommend this, even if it’s not the worst one I’ve seen.-improper formatting causes titles and other aspects to be cropped out-nice warmup with slow burn-countdown timer isn’t visible because of formatting issue-ok explanations and audio cues-some poses require padding or cushioning for the knees, and he doesn’t use or show this, which is not good for that joint-not enough information on correct form or purpose of exercises

I have just watched the whole dvd and was rather disappointed at first. The first workouts are very simple and not much of a challenge, like push-ups, squats or holding a plank, a deep squat and a lunge in the second workout. But because of the sets and repetitions it works the muscles. If I did the first workouts I would have to add some modifications for making it challenging for my level, like pulsing in the hold or finding some more challenging angels in the movement. It seems for the "baby-beast" starting to grow. Therefore I first thouht I will gave a rather low rating, because with "beast workout" I have expected some more challenging. But: It comes! The workouts get more and more difficult the further you go in the number of workouts. The last two seem right for me. There are plyometrics in it, like jumping lunges and others, and a lot of sets allow going into a dynamic stretch, which is one of my favorites for having the stretching part included into the whole body workout. In the last workouts the beast has growen up, I guess. As the hint of "missing cues" in other reviews I don't miss any. For basic exercises like pushups I don't need cuing although some cues like "don't stop breathing" are given by the pushups. With the advanced workouts to the end of this dvd the trainees should be already advanced enough for these. And, for me personally it would be rather annoying if I heared some caveats which I already know and which might be basic to me over and over again every time I do this workout. But for sure I will try to ad some new things to the first workouts on this dvd, like adding pulses or dumbells or some breathwork into the sets for making the first workouts more challenging. One great plus, which earns the five stars in my opinion, is, that there are enough workouts on this dvd, so most rainees - if not too advanced - should find the right level of workouts. Exercises with a dreadfactor or above my level, which could cause some frustration, are not on this dvd, at least not for me. And the workouts can be done without equipment, with the exception that somethings which can be used as a box (a sturdy chair for instance) is needed in the last workouts. The music wouldn't earn stars in my opinion but who does a workout for the music?