Body by Simone: The Signature Classes

Just FYI and contrary to claims on the packaging, the choreography in this video is NOT easy.This review is only for the cardio dance section of the video - I haven't done the total body workout yet. I received this video yesterday and popped it in this morning. I really hoped this would be a fun and challenging way to add some cardio to my workouts without using the treadmill. I have some dance background and have taken many many cardio classes over the years and own many workout DVD's and this is maybe the most aggravating workout I've ever come across.There are, I think, 4 dance sequences in all. The video goes straight into a warm up with very little cueing and then you do one sequence of dance moves, then another sequence of dance moves. There's a break for some standing work, then back into two more dance sequences then you do all of them together followed by some ab work and a cool down.Simone, the instructor, is perky and pleasant but she does almost no cueing. She often changes the moves she is doing with no warning.There is no explanation or preview of any of the moves. She just goes right into them and you, sweating and cursing, try to follow along. These are moves with fairly complicated choreography and there is absolutely no effort to teach the move prior to the sets.A couple of times she says "again!" and does something completely new.Often the camera is trained on the faces of the people in the video so that you cannot see what moves they are actually doing.She often wants you to improvise your own arm movements.The sequences are very fast paced. Very fast. At one point Simone teaches you some arm choreography nice and slowly and I thought, "Oh, good, I can probably learn these moves," and then she sped it up to where you are doing these complicated arm moves super fast and then she adds the foot moves without any explanation and you're off again, trying to keep up. By the time we got to the last sequence, where you put together all 4 dances you have "learned" I was actively angry.The other thing to point out is that a big part of the dances are basically just jumping. You are jumping up and down constantly so if you have any injuries or are incapable of jumping, this video is not for you.This is definitely a workout and if you want to sweat this will do it. If you can manage to figure out all the steps and put it together smoothly I imagine this would be a fantastic cardio workout. But there is a steep learning curve and I really wish the cueing was there and that the moves were taught slowly before going at breakneck pace.I did like her ab work quite a lot - standing abs and some planking with light weights.I'll probably keep this video in my rotation for a while and hopefully it will get easier to do the moves.

I really like this DVD. You get two great workouts, and they are both varied and interesting enough to work well on any body, for quite awhile. A few thoughts and a few criticisms:Simone's workouts are definitely in the same general genre as Tracy Anderson and Anna Kaiser (and to some extent, Ballet Beautiful). If you love those ladies, you will like this. Of those three people (and especially in comparison to TA), Simone is by far the most motivational, pleasant, and fun, and the pace and cuing of her workouts are the best. I find the AKT video to be by far the most athletic/physically challenging of these three options/people, and Tracy to be in some ways the most effective but by far the most exhausting, boring, and hard on your body (she gave me a stress fracture and doing her workouts "right" takes hours!). Simone is a great inbetween - her workouts are dance based, utilize low-weight/body-weight, and focus on fluid long muscles, like Tracy, but without as many reps/weird positions, and with way more fun.As for this video, both workouts are very good. The Dance Cardio will leave even an advanced exerciser a sweaty, exhausted, mess. The moves are pretty complicated, but super fun, and the cuing is excellent - far better than TA. For people looking for a challenging but really fun dance-based, aerobic workout, this is it - five stars.The full body class is good, but it could be better. The dance segment are all fun, effective, very well-cued, and more "doable" than the Dance Cardio segments. The strength segments are where I have a few complaints. The first arms section is okay, but the moves are super basic and the fact that you stand still and don't incorporate any cardio seems like a wasted opportunity to blast more calories. The legs section is much better, but I don't think it's challenging enough to do this class every day with consistent results. The core work is hard - definitely some challenge there to build on.Overall, I really love Simone as a teacher, and will use this DVD a lot - in rotation with my Tracy Anderson Meta DVDs, my AKT DVD, and running. Both workouts are hard and leave your body feeling worked - but I wish the Full Body had more bang for the buck - when I finished it, my body felt pleasantly tired, but like it could have gone harder and longer.***Edit: I have used this DVD consistently for five months and am now editing this review to give it five stars instead of four. Everything I said in the initial review still pretty much holds true, and I've tweaked the workouts a bit to make them more challenging here and there, but I've generally just done these workouts consistently, 4-6 times a week for the past five months, and my body has changed. My arms are more defined and tight, my core is flatter (and my pants looser), and I have shed inches off my hips and thighs (I'm down a jeans size). I'm pretty surprised as I didn't even intend this much change - it just seemed to happen! Very happy to see these results and still enjoying these workouts, mixed in with a few others (and with my own music!). Highly recommend and hope Simone comes out with more!

This workout is very challenging and intense. Since I was a beginner when I received this months ago, I won't say it isn't for beginners, but it will take beginners hard work and dedication to be able to make it through the video without feeling like death is immenent and figuring out where in the world your body is supposed to move to next. I found/find the challenge of it super fun and engaging though. Because it is so fast paced, you will not be standing there bored or thinking about what's for dinner because like I said all you're thinking about is your immenent death and putting your body where it goes next, and you also will not get bored because you've learned the moves after a few times through the DVD like one would for most workout DVDs. It's hard and fast paced, but oh so much fun stumbling through the routines and then finally getting it and feeling like dancing queen (even though I probably still look like a rhythmless idiot).