Fit as Ferne [DVD] [2018]

This DVD was presented by Ellie and Ferne. Ellie's is a great instructor, she explains things really well and cues up each exercise excellently. Fern is very bubbly and chatty, both are easy to listen to and help you to enjoy doing the exercises.Personally, I feel this is geared towards the beginner and intermediate exerciser, although quite a few the exercises are advanced with regards to the toning aspects, the cardio is not intense enough for advance exercisers i.e. those who regularly run or cycle or those who wish to build up their cardiovascular aspects more intensely. However, being an advance exerciser myself and recovering from injury after overdoing things, this is excellent for me to help my recovery and my wishing to carry on exercising.The DVD is broken down as follows:1. Activation Warm-up: this takes 5 minutes. Always do this section before choosing one of the work-out options, to avoid injury.2. A Full Body No 1: This takes 13.5 minutes. The workout is broken down into 2 rounds repeated, split in half by a 30 second rest. In this work out, you do floor work which includes planks, beginners should modify by staying on the knees, if you don't have enough strength to do a full plank yet.3. A Full Body No 2: This takes 14.5 minutes. This workout is a mixture of cardio and strength training moves, as the one above, so you work the whole body. It does get you puffing. You also use weights in this section. It is also broken down into 2 rounds repeated, split in half by a 30 second rest.For both the full body workouts, remember to hold in the core and your pelvic floor muscles.3. Upper Body: This section takes 15.5 minutes and is split up into 2 rounds, which are repeated. There are quite a few plank exercises in this round and balance is key in doing the full exercise, but those who cannot use the arms and legs at the same time (this will become apparent when you do this section) you can just use your legs until you've built up enough balance to be able to do the exercises with both legs and arms).4. HIIT: This High Intensity Training workout takes 10 minutes. Being an advance exerciser, this did not get me breathless enough, although I added my own exercises to get a higher intensity, but for beginners and intermediates this will get you puffing and burning calories. It will also help with strength training. There is one exercise that is Burpee based and requires you to get flat onto the floor and jump up, beginners may not be able to do this and so you may need to do the exercise with just your legs and work up to being able to go down into a push-up type move as well.5. Glutes: This takes 10.5 minutes. This is a great workout for toning up your backside and giving you that peach like appearance that most women want! You can use sliders in this section or not, I didn't and just did a backward lunge, which is still effective, the sliders just make it a bit harder. Don't tried to slide without or else you'll hurt yourself, just do a backward lunge by lifting the foot as you do them.6. Lower Body: This takes 15 minutes to complete and it is a wonderful lower body workout, which really gets your thighs, calves, shins, hips, bottom, core and ankles working. It is a great toning workout, but also a good cardio interval one too and gets you puffing and sweating. Each exercise is designated 45 seconds each with a "so called 1 minute rest" of cardio. On the balance exercise, if balance is a problem for you, you can hold onto a wall. I Love this session, it's a good calorie burner.7. Core: This takes 10 minutes to complete and is wonderful at toning up your abs, waist and lower back. You can use two sliders or not in this session.8. Cool Down: This takes just 5 minutes to complete. To avoid injury you must do this, however you may wish to add your own cool down exercises in conjunction with these or repeat this section twice, as personally I don't feel that this section was long enough. 10 minutes would have been a better option, as this is why I injured myself because I did not cool down for long enough in past workouts.Equipment: Yoga Mat, Sliders (these are not essential though) Dumbbells (Although you can use tins of beans or water bottles, dumbbells are a reasonable price and you may as well treat yourself to some dumbbells, as I feel the proper equipment motivates you more to work out).If you are a beginner, I recommend you pace yourself and don't try to overdo things especially with the plank work.In conclusion: I would recommend this workout to beginners and intermediate level exercisers and those advanced levels who are recovering from illness or injury.Remember to couple healthy eating with the exercises and you will certainly lose those extra pounds in no time and your energy and confidence will increase hugely if you keep to a healthy diet and exercise combined. Good luck and enjoy.

Like a lot of people I have put on a bit (ok, a lot) of weight during lockdown. The cold weather does not inspire me to exercise outside so I thought I would get a few excercise DVDs. I have to say this one is my favourite. There is 1 warm up routine and 1 cool down routine to follow but in between you can choose from a variety of workouts ranging from full body workouts to those focusing on certain areas of the body such as core. Depending on the amount of time you have available you can mix and match to get the right workout for you. I particularly like the upper body, glutes and core sessions. Ferne and her trainer Ellie demonstrate the exercises well and are friendly and encouraging. I would definitely recommend this DVD to others.

This is a brilliant DVD which is really easy to follow. I broke it down and done the warm up and the first 3 sections of the DVD then the cool down and the day after done the rest of the DVD. You really can feel this working from day one. You don't think your working that hard but believe me you will feel it the next day. I would recommend this DVD to anyone as its so good and the best type of training as well which is interval training. I feel like I'm walking like john Wayne but I'm keeping going with this. This is one of the best exercise DVDs I've ever bought

I really liked this DVD. The trainer and Ferne come over as very pleasant and genuine. I would say it's medium impact as it's not the hardest or the easiest workout I've done but somewhere inbetween (I'm 52 and workout out regularly). It's an all over body workout which is quite fun to do. What let it down for me was the music or lack of it - good music is a must for me as it makes even the hardest workout so much easier.

Loved this DVD. Fun workouts and perfect if you're short of time. Split into several different workouts lasting about 15 minutes each so can do as many or few as you like. I have always bought Davina dvds but I really didn't like her 2018 one so didn't buy this years' one. So glad I opted for Ferne. She is so engaging and made this DVD so much fun - would highly recommend.

It’s a great workout but if you have weak wrists like I do it is a strain. I modified where necessary and even with the modifications I could feel how well it worked my body after and in the days following which I always love however I can’t use this all the time which is unfortunate simply because of my wrists

This to me is good value purely as other fitness dvds are by people who have only done the dvd as a one-off to make money. With Fernes it’s believable as I know she regularly does these routines herself and maintains a beautiful body.

Really enjoying this workout dvd wish it would explain what equipment is needed before each section and introduce the easier option before the move has begun/finished but once you've done them a few times you can adjust as you need. Love the time scales for each section and variety. My legs are out for 3 days after the lower body and glutes sections.