Walk On: Get Strong! 2 Complete, Floor Work Free Strength Training Workouts for Stronger Muscles, Bones and Metabolism with Jessica Smith [DVD]

Life isn’t all about just doing cardio to burn calories. It is important to build muscle strength too. Yes, I have all of Jessica’s workouts, including her previous strength training ones, but I always felt they didn’t work my muscles hard enough. I use them on lighter days.Well, not so with this workout. Even Jessica is using heavier weights. And there is no floor work.There are two workouts on this disc, Strictly Strength (42 minutes) and Stepping Strength (45 minutes).The workouts are filmed in a glass atrium, with a view of the beautiful blue water in the background. The usual crew of Debbie, Jessica’s Mom, and Beth are back. All are wearing bright orange tops with black leggings.STRICTLY STRENGTHThe warm up gives a nice cardio effect. Some of the moves include: alternate shoulder/arm circles, swinging leg to open hips and lunge press without weights.There are four “circuits.”Circuit #1 consists of passing chest press, goblet squat, lunge with weight.Circuit #2 consists of front/side raise with lunge, up up down down shoulder press and a controlled squat chop.Circuit #3 consists of single leg deadlight with rear fly, bicep rotational curl while balancing on one leg, split single leg squat row with reach stand.Circuit #4 consists of diagonal lunge with triceps kickback, chest scoop with plie, split stance with narrow chest press, triceps with hip raise and single weighted bicycle.There is also a 5 minute cool down stretch.I liked this workout because Jessica introduced some fun moves.STEPPING STRENGTHThis is a muscle endurance workout so you are doing high reps with lighter weights. Jessica uses the superset technique, meaning you move quickly from one exercise to the next, without much of a breather. This keeps your heart rate elevated. You will alternate this high rep/light weight work with cardio intervals.Some of the fun moves in this workout include: lunge with arm circle, alternate mambo with chest fly arms, shuffle jacks, alternating skater squat, and single leg squat curl press.I especially like this type of workout because it is so efficient. You work your muscles, plus get in some cardio too.

I had gotten away from Jessica's workouts only because I wanted to try other instructors' workouts. And while they have been good for the most part (thumbs up to Kelly Coffey-Meyer), I had forgotten not just how good Jessica's workouts are, but how thorough and complete they are as well.This is a two-part program -- one about 45 mins; the other 40 mins, with about a 5:2 warmup/cooldown portion for each. The first program is cardio and strength (the cardio intervals are less than 2 mins), whereas the second is just strength. Both give you a very good total body workout and without repeating the same exercise multiple times. She does super sets instead of repetitive sets so you're almost getting a new or variation of another exercise with each new move. It helps to stave off boredom.Admittedly, certain arm exercises require me to use lighter weights (shoulders) so I have been using 5-pound weights throughout each workout and they have provided enough resistance and challenge. However, there are exercises where I could go much heavier (rows/squats) but not wanting to keep lugging weights back and forth (as I do not have a dedicated exercise room), I have stuck with 5-pounders for now. Plus, with super sets, light weights can get heavy after a while (smile).I needed strength training to go with my cardio workouts (I do running on a treadmill/Leslie Sansone walking at home workouts) and this fit the bill perfectly. I have become competitive with my Apple Watch's Activity app wherein I challenge myself to close all rings each day. For those who are unaware, Apple's Activity app challenges you to burn 500 (I set mine to 550), stand for 12 hours and exercise for 30 minutes each day. This workout provides about 250 and 200, respectively, calories burned.Highly...highly...recommend.