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Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred

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Jillian Michaels – 30 Day Shred

Tags: Jillian, Michaels, shred

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 12th, 2010 and is filed under Exercise. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Comments

• #1 by mcel on August 12th, 2010

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  I had never purchased a Jillian Michaels DVD before b/c of the hit or miss reviews. So when I heard raves about this one, I decided to give it a shot and I am so glad I did. This is an absolute butt-kicker workout. I am an intermediate/advanced exerciser (I work out 5-6 days a week) so I figured I could see what Level 1 was all about and move onto Level 2 right away. Listen to me folks–these workouts are HARD. Level 2 was VERY difficult–a good difficult though, very challenging. When Jillian tells you to start at level 1, listen to her she knows what she’s doing. I’ve been at this for about 5 days, and I already feel a difference in my body.
  
  Jillian is tough–absolutely NO rest in this workout (not even for a sip of water) but that’s what makes it go by so quickly, and it makes your body change, according to Jillian. You’re done before you know it–but by the end you’ve gotten a kick butt workout and feel like you’ve really done something. She bases her workout on the 3-2-1 method: 3 mins strength, 2 mins cardio, 1 min abs. Her strength circuits remind me of Jari Love–compound exercises that work the upper and lower body simultaneously. The cardio is good as well: a lot of jumping, so watch those knees (she has a modifier for beginner and lower impact) And the abs is straight up ab work–a variety of crunches and twists on the floor.
  
  This is a great workout and I find Jillian to be tough but she’s pretty likeable. Be warned though: she’s no-nonsense. I think it’s funny when during the stretch she admits she’s not flexible and struggles to reach her legs on the floor. I thought “Ha, Ha, finally something I’m better at than Jillian!” lol
  
  If you really want to get a good workout and to jumpstart your weight loss get this DVD you will not be disappointed. It’s great for those who are short on time too and want to try something new; every workout is just under 30 mins!
  Rating: 5 / 5

• #2 by M. Curtis on August 12th, 2010

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  First off, I would give it 3 ½ stars. I’ve only done level one but it is a good, very intense work out. I felt great afterwards. Also, I really like the trainer. She motivated me to push my hardest to try and finish each exercise, which sometimes I couldn’t do (and I consider myself to be in good shape). My biggest complaint about the DVD is that you are told to start with level 1 and then progress up to level 2, then level 3. But there is only one level 1 workout, one level 2 workout and one level 3 workout. As a result, you are doing the same workout every day until you can move up a level. This can get boring. In addition, you are working the same tired and sore muscles that you worked the day before. My other complaints are a bit petty: the music is terrible and you can’t skip through some of the beginning stuff. As stated above, the workouts are great and extremely challenging but I wouldn’t use this DVD alone.

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  UPDATE:

  I would now give this video 5 stars. One of the comments to my review suggested that I don’t wait to move up in levels, rather, I could do each level so that I am not doing the same workout again and again. THANK YOU to that person. I am now switching around levels and I love it. Level 2 and 3 are harder but I follow the “easier” version of most of the exercises and make modifications to some of the aerobic exercises that may be too hard (or that I just may not like). This is now my favorite DVD. I love it because it is hard enough to actually replace the gym… and in only 25 min.
  Rating: 3 / 5

• #3 by jmastro on August 12th, 2010

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  Ok, if you’re like me (overweight and unmotivated) and watch The Biggest Loser and wish you could be one of the contestants and have Jillian train you then you’re in luck! Buy this DVD! I just received the dvd today and did the First Level today. It’s been 2 and 1/2 hours since I finished and I’m still shaking and finding it hard to go up and down stairs. I can’t even imagine what she puts those poor contestants through..LOL!

  I have knee pains and feet pains and usually just walk at 3mph on my treadmill. Well, suffice to say I’m not seeing any weight loss. And let me be honest the real reason I have knee and feet problems is because I weigh too much. So I did the full on jumping jacks..no modified jumping jacks in this workout…Jillian tells you straight, she has 400lb people doing full jumping jacks, you can too! And she was right. I sure as heck can’t really do the push ups but I’m sure that I will be able to eventually if I keep doing this dvd everyday for 20 minutes.

  And she’s right, you can’t do a workout for 20 minutes and expect it to be easy…you want easy, don’t get this dvd. You want to sweat and really workout get this dvd!

  I’m 5’4” and 168 lbs. I will let you know my progress in my comments as time goes on. Good luck to everyone!
  Rating: 5 / 5

• #4 by Little Miss Cutey on August 12th, 2010

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  This is a really good workout. It’s geared a little more to advanced exercisers, but the choreography is fairly basic and you will definately feel this the next day.
  
  There are three workouts that combine toning and aerobics together which are about a half an hour each. This way, you’re burning fat and toning muscles at the same time. It’s a little challenging, but fun and effective. The first workout is the easiest of the three and from there it gets more challenging. The most challenging workout is tough like she shows on The Biggest Loser (ie travelling pushups and tough jumps etc). It’s a good idea if you’re intermediate to begin either at the start or middle and stick to that for a while and then move on. Each workout uses toning, kickboxing and ab work.
  
  I found this really good to do. It’s absolutely a good idea to not go too quickly with it and begin at the lower of the three levels even if you do it only a couple of times – you can always advance as soon as you’re ready for your next workout. She may not be the best cuer, but she is certainly encouraging and motivating. This is fun and I highly recommend it. I’ve only done it twice so far since it’s so new, but I can still feel my muscles thanking me. This is great.
  Rating: 5 / 5

• #5 by A Reader from Chicago on August 12th, 2010

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  I love this DVD, I just finished my 20th workout with the DVD, 22 days since I started, skipped two days due to calf tightness issues (discussed below). My endurance and strength have gone way up as a result of this program. And I am down an average of 5 lbs. since I started (currently 185lbs., 6 ft., male).

  Jillian’s energy is great and the program is challenging and she challenges you to “fight for it” as you are going through the exercises.

  It is “20 minutes of intensity” which is true. Before that is a little warm up. And after that is a little stretching. About 27 minutes in all.

  The first day I bailed out after five minutes of the 20 minutes of intensity @ Level 1 (the beginning Level); I just didn’t have any more in me. But each day I tried to do more and more. And I fought for it. My goal is to be able to do the complete unmodified Level 1 by day 30. I am there except for a few pushups and a few static lunges with bicep curls.

  My strategy is to do what I can and if I can’t, rest and continue as soon as I can. Maybe 5 seconds later, maybe more. And then get back to it.

  Calf issues: My calves got very tight as a result of doing this program. Level 1 consists of two 30 second sets of jumping jacks (during the warm up), then three more 30 second sets of jumping jacks, plus three 30 second sets of imaginary jump roping, plus three sets of running in place butt kicks. That is five and a half minutes of pounding on the calves, which is okay if your calves don’t tighten up too much. But mine did. I feared pulling a muscle they got so tight, so I took two days off. I did some research and found out how to give myself a calf massage and also worked on stretching my calves. That did the trick and the tightness is pretty much gone and certainly not an issue any more. Another idea about the calf issue is that without enough water in the body this is more likely to happen.

  Recommendations for when you get it:

  1. If you are someone who needs to know how much work is ahead of them when you are doing this program, count the number of repetitions for the exercises that you will have to do to match what the models are doing and you will be able to mentally prepare yourself for what is ahead of you if that is an issue. Since I like to know how close I am to being done with a tough exercise, this helps me a lot.

  2. Start this program and stay with it. If you seem like if you keep doing something you will injure yourself on a particular day, don’t do it. You want to maximize what you accomplish and risking injuring yourself won’t help. But keep coming back and do what you can do every day. And set goals for accomplishing more.

  3. I sometimes chug a swallow from a water bottle in between some of the sets, but very quickly so as not to lose any of the repetitions. This may be a security blanket for me until I am completely on top of it. She allows no breaks.

  Issues with the DVD/Production:

  1. There is continual music with a beat but the beat doesn’t seem to match the beat of the exercises. Which means that if you are to stay at the same pace as the models you have to pay attention to them visually and cannot rely on just hearing the beat of the music to get the pace.

  2. When you put the DVD in, it takes at least a couple of minutes before it allows you to start your exercise. “Disc operation not allowed” is the message I get when I try to get to the menu to start. I don’t want to kill two minutes.

  This is a fabulous program to increase physical and mental toughness and I rate the benefit at 5 stars for sure. I would pay $100 for this if that was the cheapest I could get it, because it is easily that valuable to me. But still, there is room for improvement.

  Fight for it!
  
  Rating: 4 / 5

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