It’s baaaack. Just when you thought your abs were safe, Linda LaRue has released her latest and greatest workout DVD, 3D Fat Burn Fusion, which promises to help you target and tone stubborn core muscles and smoke off your belly fat—fast.

This DVD consists of two workouts. The first workout is the 30-minute Fat Burn Fusion, which consists of both standing total-body ab work and core mat work that borrows moves from yoga and Pilates. The moves, combined with the CORE TRANSFORMER tubing method that Jenn reviewed, kicks the bad ass-ness way up. The standing work was hard…challenging enough, in fact, that I was looking forward to the mat work.

I shouldn’t have been so naive. The mat work about killed me! Especially the planks. YES! There are planks. My boyfriend trainer came into the room as I was doing this part and started drooling over the workouts. (Note: He ALWAYS hates DVD workouts. He never sees anything new…yada yada. Ms. LaRue impressed the stuffins out of him…let this be your warning.)

The second section is a bonus for your body. It’s a 15-minute high-intensity interval workout that about killed my butt (literally). It’s deja vu. I felt like I was back at the Nike compound in Vancouver working out with the ski team. Teri Ann Krefting leads you through a quick, grueling workout that will make you feel like a super athlete with super-sore muscles once you’re done. (No pain, no gain!)

And then there’s the Athletic Core Set-Up segment. I swear a day doesn’t go by that someone doesn’t stop me and ask me how they can tone up their midsection. I want to hand this DVD to them lovingly and tell them to make sure to watch the Athletic Core Set-Up. Linda breaks down how one targets the area and what that area is called (hallelujah for those who want to actually learn what they really need to work!). It’s one of those one-stone-ALL-THE-BIRDS! kind of workouts, too. Your bawd will scream out to you that you’ve gotten in a healthy dose of cardio, core, strength training and gooooood stretching by the time you’re done.

What I loved: I was so thankful the main workout was only 30 minutes because every time she said “Only 16 [reps]” I about died. You’re gonna feel the burn fast. The music got a thumbs up this time around, too. There was a bunch of world beats up in that piece that had me cracking me up! Most importantly, I loved that you’d actually get to witness Linda out of breath. Finally! We get a normal human being that actually sweats and breathes.

What I could have done without: The scary smiling of the two background gals. I know they’re supposed to be happy and all, but it was kind of creepy how big the smiles were…almost like they enjoyed the pain. Who enjoys the pain?! (Okay, Jenn might…) So if you’re down for grabbing your burn with a side of happy, then you can just ignore the grump and get on your pump!

FBG Rating (Out of 5):

Instruction: ★★★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★★★
Music: ★★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★★
Overall: ★★★★1/2

Fit Bottom line: If you’re looking to shed some inches from your belly from the comfort of your own home, then the heavens have just parted for you. You and the sweet sixteens will be very happy.

Do you want to see if 16 is your lucky number? Leave a comment below for a chance to win one of three copies of the 3D Fat Burn Fusion DVD and your own CORE TRANSFORMER Resistance Band. U.S. residents only please! —Tish

You know how they say, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”? Well, we’d like to add, “Don’t judge a book by its size,” too. Because this little-bitty book—The Little Book of Diet Help by Kimberly Willis—is seriously a girl’s best healthy eating/losing-weight friend. Especially if said girl is hippity-dippity in the slightest.

About 175 pages of little nuggets of information that are helpful for losing weight and finding the motivation to eat right and work out, The Little Book of Diet Help is truly a book of facts, tips and tricks. While there’s no actual diet or workout plan, this book is written by a life coach and hypnotherapist who gets that, most of the time, we have trouble living a healthy lifestyle because of what’s going on between our ears. With chapters on overcoming emotional eating, looking after your liver (take good care of it—it detoxifies your body!), using the power of your mind, the wonders of exercise and achieving your goal, Willis covers everything from fighting cravings to improving your mood.

While you’ve probably heard many of the facts in the book, I can almost guarantee that the tips and tricks Willis shares will be new to you. A decent amount of the book centers around “tapping,” which is a form of accupressure that you can do to yourself by literally tapping different points on your body. In addition, the book suggests doing different affirmations to boost confidence and willpower, and there’s even some self-massage techniques that are recommended. Overall, it’s not the diet book you’re used to, and it can work with any type of workout and healthy eating plan that you’re following. Although it won’t exactly tell you how to lose weight, it does give you some additional tools that can certainly help. There may not be a lot of text in this book, but what’s there is encouraging, motivating and totally handy!

Want to read this book for yourself? Leave a comment telling us why you’d like to win it, and we’ll select one lucky U.S. reader to win a copy of the book in about a week! —Jenn

Doing a Biggest Loser DVD is pretty much an easy choice. Who wouldn’t want to exercise like they were at The Biggest Loser ranch? Or spend some quality time with Bob Harper? Or look at Dolvett Quince in red? (Because good God he looks drool-worthy in that color.) Or work out with former at-home winners of the show? We knew we would.

The latest in The Biggest Loser DVD line is The Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge, which is pretty much like the rest of The Biggest Loser DVDs on the market. You get a customizable mix-and-match menu with a variety of segments with pretty good instruction, fun music and a “real-person” quality to it since there are no fitness models used. In this one, the trainers are Bob, Dolvett and Anna Kournikova, and the contestants are Heba Salama, Jim Germanakos, Rebecca Meyer and Bernie Salazar. (Poor Jim didn’t make the cover.)

Now, let’s break it down piece by piece. First, you have the Warm-Up. Anna leads this 5-minute section, and it’s pretty basic. There are your basic stretches, pliés and other moves to warm the body up, plus modifications for the more challenging stretches like the runner’s lunge. Next, Anna leads Phase 1 Cardio, which is 10 minutes of sports drills with options to make the movements more (read: hard). From skaters to running man (a really low lunge with a tap back, then a knee and then a hop) to curtesy lunges with kicks, it may be “phase 1,” but it’s no beginner’s picnic. Phase 1 Strength is another 10 minutes of fun, with strength moves that use just your body weight. There are squats to side lunges, planks where you bring your knees to each elbow, balance work and more planks that make you row, twist and side plank. Again, no picnic. But at least Dolvett leads it and has a tight shirt on.

Then you move on to Phase 2 Cardio. This 15-minute workout is more challenging—and Bob is leading it (nothing is easy when Bob is in charge). It’s pretty much a Bob-rific segment that uses dumbbells for kettlebell-inspired moves. There are swings, static squats holding weights, moves where you’re swinging the dumbbell like a bat, squat jumps, jacks with weight—plenty of semi-complicated stuff to get your heart rate up fast and keep it up. Phase 2 Strength with Bob is a touch easier than Phase 2 Cardio because your heart rate doesn’t get as high, but oh-my-goodness do you feel the burn. Using up to 8-pound dumbbells, you do side lunges with a static front raise, knee-ups with a hold and upper-body work, and then there’s the fun combo move of a squat while reaching the dumbbells back behind you and then up and overhead for a tricep press and then back down to a squat again. Oh, and there’s plenty of pulsing and holding, too. There’s not much to write home about in the Cool Down, which is four minutes of your basic stretching and yoga with Anna again.

Although the moves aren’t timed to the music (and, for me, that always makes for a more jazzed workout), the music in this workout DVD is fun. Be warned though that although the sections are labeled as “cardio” and “strength,” all of them have moves that are both cardio and strength. Particularly, your legs and core never get a break in this DVD.

Which leads me to my next point. If you were to do any of the sections on their own, I’d say that each of these are pretty darn good. They’re full-body, burn calories and aren’t the same moves you’re used to seeing time and time again. However, if you were to do all or even some of the segments back to back—week after week—you’d be doing A LOT of squats, lunges and planks. So much so that I think you could mentally get pretty sick of them and that you could put your body at an increased risk of repetitive injury. Use a segment here or there during your week though, and I think you’re golden.

While I really liked that you could always look to Heba for lower-impact and beginner modifications, some of the instruction was hit or miss. The trainers are, on the whole, good with giving form cues and are motivating without being overly up in your grill, but it’s clear that Bob has the most experience with instructing a workout for a DVD (and rightly so!). Dolvett isn’t bad by any means, but it feels like with more practice you’d get to see more of his personality and spunk. ‘Cause I know it’s in there. And then there’s Anna. Honest to goodness, she couldn’t be much cuter in her Lululemon top—she’s almost like a little Russian bunny hopping about. But it’s obvious that it’s her first workout DVD, and she just comes off flat in her sections, almost like she’s reading a teleprompter.

FBG Rating (Out of 5):

Instruction: ★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★
Music: ★★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★

Overall: ★★★1/2

Fit Bottomed Line: You’ll need more than just this workout DVD in your collection for overall fitness, but for Biggest Loser fans who want more of the show, more of the trainers and more of a challenge than the past Biggest Loser DVDs, it’s a fun addition to the workout rotation.

Want to try this Biggest Loser At-Home Challenge DVD yourself? Leave a comment telling us who your favorite Biggest Loser trainer is, and we’ll select one lucky U.S. reader to win in about a week! —Jenn

While working out with Jillian and Bob is awesome, sometimes you really just want to work out with your girlfriend. Your normal, non-brutal friend, who can’t do laundry on her abs. You know, your friendly, upbeat, encouraging—and real—pal. Well, for times when you’re in that mood, Coach Nicole is your girl. Because she’s all of those things, plus she can give you a creative and fun workout that will challenge both beginners and intermediate exercisers in SparkPeople 28 Day Boot Camp.

This isn’t the first workout DVD we’ve loved with Coach Nicole, but it’s certainly our favorite thus far. A total of 85 minutes broken up into mix-and-match segments (we’re always a sucker for that!), it’s a customizable cardio and strength workout (yep, a sucker for that, too). With excellent cuing, a time-ticker countdown on each section and pacing that isn’t too fast or too slow, the new SparkPeople workout DVD marries traditional aerobics moves with new creative twists. All you need is a pair of dumbbells (3 to 8 pounds, I’d recommend), a place to move around and somewhere soft to put your knees for matwork.

There’s a 6-minute warm-up that is pretty basic with step touches, arm circles and squats with rotation. In the 12-minute Cardio Burst section, you mamba, push-turn, lunge and punch your way to fit. Cardio Sculpt (my personal favorite!) is a fun 12 minutes of sliding moves, bicep curls, bridges, skipping (whee!) and combo moves like a squat with an overhead press followed by a lateral lowering down of the dumbbells. Then there’s Tone and Burn, a 21-minute full-body extravaganza with unique moves like squats to an upper-body side raise to an overhead V, lunge with row plus pivoting, balance challenges where you do a bicep curl with a leg lift, jumping lunges (oh, the challenge!) and crunches with a chest fly. The final full segment is Total Body Challenge, which is half an hour of kettlebell-inspired moves that you do with a dumbbell—plus other goodies like wood chops, single leg squats with a lateral raise, side planks with side crunches and fun ol’ glute toning on the floor—sandwiched between cardio bursts like v-steps. The whole thing ends with a basic 4-minute cool down that includes low-intensity moves to lower the heart rate and stretching.

There’s so much variety and so many options to choose from (or splice together) that I feel certain saying that there’s probably something you’ll enjoy on the DVD. Granted, many of the moves would be too complicated for someone who’s never worked out before, been to an aerobics class or done some weight lifting, but if you have a general knowledge of working out, you should be okay (or get the hang of it after a time or two of practice). In order to accommodate different fitness levels, Coach Nicole has two other real girls as models in the DVD who show modifications to make the moves easier or harder. This was a nice touch.

While the music isn’t anything to write home about, it’s not too shabby, and it is good background music to your workout. SparkPeople 28 Day Boot Camp may not not be crazy, gimmicky or flashy, but it’s a really good full-body strength and cardio workout with moves you don’t see every day.

FBG Rating (Out of 5):
Instruction: ★★★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★★
Music: ★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★

Overall: ★★★★

Best for: SparkPeople 28 Day Boot Camp is best for beginner and intermediate exercisers who know aerobics and workout basics and are looking for a challenge.

Want to try this SparkPeople workout DVD yourself? Leave a comment telling us how it’ll fit in your workout routine, and we’ll select one lucky U.S. reader to win in about a week! —Jenn

Give your brain a workout! Credit: dierk schaefer

This brain-workout post is a part of our second-annual New Year, New Rear Week to help you to be fitter, healthier and a touch (okay, a lot!) more awesome in 2012. Read all New Year, New Rear posts here!

Today we’re going to switch things up a bit by talking about a different kind of workout. A kind of workout that everyone can benefit from no matter your size, fitness experience or skill set. It’s a workout for the big ol’ muscle between your ears—your brain! Clinical research has shown that “brain training” (which we like to call a brain workout) can impact one’s willpower, helping you to make healthier choices. So when the website and brain-workout company Lumosity offered us the opportunity to try its services, it was—wait for it—a no brainer.

Designed by neuroscientists (aka really smart brain scientists), Lumosity includes 35 games that help train your brain to remember more, concentrate better and improve overall brain fitness and physical motivation. Based on the concept of neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to physically adapt to new stimuli—Lumosity training includes challenging (and actually pretty fun) exercises that improve your creativity, working memory and fluid intelligence in just about 10 minutes a day three or more times a week.

After taking a short survey that determined what areas of brain fitness I wanted to boost (creativity, memory, work performance), I got to playing. While some of the games are more fun than others (obviously you enjoy the ones you’re good at most), even the “harder” games are addicting. There are matching games, spot-the-bird games, a play-cashier-and-remember-your-customer’s-name-and-order game, word games, number games—so many games! Most of them are pretty quick to play (just a couple of minutes with a timer), but they’re quite engaging. The graphics are cool and they’re easy to learn. Plus, as you play them, you rack up a score, and then, over time as your brain works out more regularly with them, you get better. I know it’s a simple concept, but watching your score climb is super satisfying.

You can get access to all of Lumosity’s games and programs for about $15 a month or $80 a year. While I’m not sure that I’d pay for myself to play every day, it would certainly be a great gift to give just about anyone. It would also make for a fab workplace perk (so be sure to forward this post on to your boss). And I really do think that the games work, as after just a few weeks of playing my brain does seem to be sharper and more focused.

Do you give your brain a workout? Would you try a brain-workout game like Lumosity in addition to your more physical workouts? —Jenn

We’ve dipped our toes into the meditation waters a few times around these parts, so I was excited when Breathe: The Perfect Harmony of Breathing landed in my mailbox. Who doesn’t need to take a moment (or 20) to herself every now and then to just breathe? Turns out, I had to test out the DVD after putting my daughter down for a nap, thus breathing deeply for the DVD while holding my breath that she didn’t wake up too soon.

More of a guided meditation than a workout, Breathe combines elements of yoga with meditation, with the focus placed on breathing (obviously) and moving and stretching with the breath. It’s not billed as a prenatal DVD, so while it wasn’t intense or sweat-inducing—think more cat-cow than warrior poses—I did have to modify some of the positions to accommodate my pregnant belly. There were times when I had to lie on my side instead of lying on my back, and I did child’s pose instead of lying on my stomach, but the gal with normal mobility should be able to follow right along with no worries.

Head on over to Fit Bottomed Mamas for the complete review and to comment to win the DVD!

—Erin

Since I’ve been training for a half marathon, I’ve found myself craving workouts that allow me to stretch my running muscles. There’s been a lot of yoga happening in this household, is what I’m saying, and I’ve really slacked off on the strength training.

Core Fusion Power Sculpt just debuted the week of Dec. 6, and, lucky for me, it offers the best of both worlds. It incorporates the fluid, yoga-inspired moves you expect from Core Fusion founders Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito, but adds in a bit of strength work with light hand weights. And it’s customizable—there are five 10-minute sessions with a bonus stretch at the end. You select the sections you want to do, or choose to do them all and they will flow seamlessly from one workout to the next.

Halfpapp and DeVito are expert cue-ers—is that a word?—they take turns leading sections, and give clear, easy-to-follow instructions. There are three other exercisers with one showing modifications, although she’s not always shown at times when it would be most helpful. I mean, I don’t think any number of downward dogs and warrior poses are going to give me flexibility like Halfpapp, and I’m definitely never going to be able to keep a smile on my face the way she does. That’s just not right.

As is generally the case with Core Fusion workouts, there were quite a few times when I was quite literally begging the TV to stop, and it was right about that time that they switched to a new move or, in some blessed cases, to child’s pose. However, a couple of the sections felt fairly similar, with lots of downward dogs and Warriors, and I would have loved a little more variation, especially when they were automatically played back to back.

FBG Rating (Out of 5):

Instruction: ★★★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★★1/2
Music: ★★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★1/2

Overall: ★★★★1/2

Fit Bottomed Line: If you want some extra strength work with your yoga and Pilates, Core Fusion Power Sculpt is the DVD for you!

How do you like your yoga-inspired workouts? Straight up or with a strength-training twist? Tell us in the comments below, and we’ll select one U.S. reader to randomly win this DVD! Winner will be notified via email and in the comments. —Kristen

Man-oh-man we’ve reviewed some good strength workout DVDs lately! A few weeks ago it was Jillian Michaels’ new workout DVD, and today it’s Jackie Warner! We’ve long been Jackie Warner fans (heck, we’ve talked to her not once, not twice, but three times!) for her no-nonsense approach to fitness and working out. And her latest DVD, Personal Training With Jackie: 30 Day Fast Start? Well, it’s like her other DVDs—plus.

As Jackie told us yesterday, this new strength DVD uses the concept of pyramid training, where you do combo-move super-sets (working a couple of muscle groups) and gradually increase your rep counts for each super-set from one to two to three…all the way up to 10 reps. Pyramid training is actually the kind of workout Jackie does when she needs to bust through a plateau—and by the looks of her and her ridic abs—it works.

The DVD has two 25-minute workouts on it. Each features a different two-minute warm-up and three-minute cool down and about 25 minutes of pyramid training moves. The Upper-Body Workout targets pretty much only the upper body, while the Lower-Body Workout brings the burn to your upper body, lower body and core (a little more bang for your buck there for sure). Using the recommended 5- to 8-pound weights, the combo moves Jackie has you do are not for the faint of heart. In the Upper-Body section, she has you do push-ups on your knees (hands on dumbbells) to hammer bicep curls, chest press to seated bicep curls, upright row to standing headbangers (also called overhead tricep presses), and wide row to tricep kickback. In the Lower-Body section, Jackie busts out the squats with front shoulder raises, deadlifts with lateral raises, sumo squats to military overhead presses, crunches to reverse crunches, a double-modification of the crab crunch, and lastly, more ab torture where you reach up to your toes and then open and close your legs like scissors. While not impossible, it’s pretty brutal.

Because you’re always counting reps for the pyramid training, I can see how the continual counting could get repetitive. On the other hand, counting each rep and then each set does help you to stay focused, which is a good thing when you’re doing these more advanced moves. All in all, with pyramid training, you’re always making progress, so most of the exercises go by pretty quickly.

Which leads me to my next point: pacing. I understand the need to move quickly in order to fatigue the muscle and get your heart rate up, but the pace of most of these combo exercises is too fast for my taste. If they were slowed down just a touch, they’d be much easier to do with proper form. Especially because Jackie doesn’t give that many tips on alignment. Sure, she’s enthusiastic and encouraging (without being overly “hard” or perky, which is hard to do), but I really, really wish she gave more form cues, such as keeping the abs in, the lower back flat and the shoulders pulled back and together when doing the Upper Body segment. I can definitely see inexperienced exercisers getting tired and having their form shot to hell after just a few reps. And nobody likes an injury, especially a back one.

Despite all that, I still really like the DVD and would do it again. Jackie is great about telling people that they should expect to be sore after the workouts and she gives lots of prompts to go up in weights if you’re not feeling it. The music in the DVD is techno-y—nothing to write home about but nothing terrible either. So while I wish the pace was slowed down, more cues were given and that the lower-body actually had more lower-body moves, overall this DVD is simple and no nonsense. As long as you’ve lifted weights before and are comfortable with combo moves at a quick pace, it’s one to add to your strength workout DVD rotation!

FBG Rating (Out of 5):
Instruction: ★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★★
Music: ★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★

Overall: ★★★1/2

Fit Bottomed Line: Personal Training With Jackie: 30 Day Fast Start is a no-nonsense strength DVD for the intermediate or advanced exerciser who is looking to build muscle, get her heart rate up and bust through a plateau or a workout rut!

Have you guys ever tried pyramid training? Jackie’s workout DVDs? Discuss! —Jenn

Pretty much all workouts boost my mood and level of energy level, but yoga is especially good at leaving me in a different state of mind. I’m familiar with Shiva Rea, so when her new DVD, More Daily Energy Vinyasa Flow Yoga was released, I was totally game, especially with the time change—I was definitely ready for some extra energy, you know?

This DVD packs in a lot of yoga. It offers a programmable matrix of seven 20-minute yoga workouts, along with a warm-up and a session of Savasana (you know, Corpse Pose), for a total of almost 160 minutes. The seven sessions are split into two groups—lunar, which is designed to be done when you need a calming workout on a hectic day, and solar, created to give you more energy.

And these aren’t easy, breezy workouts, either. Each one had me sweating and really feeling it, and many had advanced strength, flexibility and balance options for poses that the more seasoned yoginis will enjoy. (I stuck with the basics, thankyouverymuch.)

The one gripe—I didn’t feel like the instruction always matched up exactly with what Shiva was doing on the screen, which caused a bit of confusion and could be problematic for a newbie.

FBG Rating (Out of 5):

Instruction: ★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★★
Music: ★★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★★

Overall: ★★★★

Fit Bottomed Line: As always, Shiva incorporates a strong mind/body component, so it’s not for those who are turned off by the occasional “Om.” But, if you’re looking for a tough yoga DVD that allows you to truly customize your practice, look no further.

Want to try this Shiva Rea yoga DVD yourself? Leave a comment, and we’ll select one lucky U.S. reader to win a copy. Winner will be notified via email and in the comments in about a week! —Kristen

Just when we think Jillian Michaels can’t top her past workout, just when we think she couldn’t possibly have any more fitness tricks up her sleeve, she goes and creates another DVD that has us begging for mercy. This time it’s Jillian Michaels Extreme Shed & Shred. And it does not—I repeat does not—disappoint.

It’s like Jillian put all of her DVDs—Yoga Meltdown, 30-Day Shred, Ripped in 30, Shred It with Weights, 6 Week Six-Pack, and No More Trouble Zones—together for one master workout DVD to kick your butt and shred your body. With two workouts, the DVDs follow Jillian’s usual formula for booty-kicking: circuit training with weights and cardio. But in this DVD, she combines weights, kettlebell exercises, weight training, plyometrics, yoga poses, balance work and core moves for two workouts that really do shed and shred.

The Level One workout includes a 6-minute warm-up, 29 minutes of drills and a 7-minute cool down (42 minutes total). The workout itself is a challenging mix of burpees, down dogs, punches, kicks, good mornings (like dead lifts—hardly see these in workout DVDs, so I LOVED that she did them!), Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu moves, sun salutations and other moves that will have you saying owie. The 54-minute Level Two workout has the same warm-up and cool down, but a longer and more intense workout section that’s 41 minutes long. Featuring more complicated and advanced moves like plank push-up jacks, weighted reverse crunches, deep warrior poses, kettlebell swings with a dumbbell, and a standing balance and core strength move called “Statue of Liberty,” it is not for the faint of heart. If you’re super workout psycho, you can even put the two levels together for almost an hour-and-a-half of Jillian that might just kill you. In a good way, of course.

I’m just going to say it (and this is a bold statement in the workout DVD world): This is the best workout DVD Jillian has created and one of the best DVDs I’ve ever done. In no other Jillian Michaels workout DVD are her cuing, tips on form and modifications (she shows you how to make most of the moves easier or harder) as spot on as they are in this DVD. It’s like she’s been reading our feedback (and maybe she has since she mentioned us in episode 19 of her podcast!).

The music is good (except for the odd cat screeching in Level Two that’s more hilarious than distracting), the pace is slow and controlled, and you get a lot of what’s great about Jillian Michaels. She’s totally herself in this one: cracking jokes (be sure to check out the blooper reel off the main menu), demanding a lot out of you, and giving everyone a good dose of truth and motivation. In the intro of the DVD she even addresses good nutrition and how it’s essential to getting good results (she also tells you about her free nutrition plan that’s online). I especially enjoyed how she ended the cool down with corpse pose and a little semi hippity-dippity pep talk, saying ”everything is perfect in this moment.” And, really, in this DVD, everything is perfect.

FBG Rating (Out of 5):

Instruction: ★★★★★
Long-Term Likeability: ★★★★★
Music: ★★★★
Fun Factor: ★★★★★
Meets Expectations: ★★★★★

Overall: ★★★★★ (I’m rounding up ’cause it’s that good!)

Fit Bottomed Line: If you’re a Jillian fan, you MUST add Extreme Shed & Shred to your workout DVD collection. Must!

What’s your favorite Jillian Michaels’ workout DVD? Could this one take its top spot? —Jenn