Category Archives: Reviews
Exercise DVD Review: Bob Harper’s Ultimate Cardio Body
It’s been a while since I did one of these, but I feel like I’m almost obligated to do reviews for workout DVDs now. You can find my other Bob Harper and other reviews here.
I bought the Ultimate Cardio Body DVD a while ago but never got around to reviewing it. Why? Because I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle doing the actual workout. Since I hit my target weight, I eased back some on the workout front. I still exercised, only not as much, and I know from prior experience that doing a little bit of exercise will not leave you in good enough shape to truly experience a Bob Harper workout. Jillian Michaels has built a money-making machine around the idea that she is TV’s Toughest Trainer, but you wouldn’t know that from their exercise videos. Bob Harper will drive you into the ground and make you smile while he does it.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Ultimate Cardio Body, honestly. Besides cardio. Would it be like his previous cardio-centric DVD? Would I be able to not use weights? Would I collapse and die partway through? This morning, I finally got a chance to answer those questions. After five weeks of getting up at or around 4:30 every morning to do a cardio workout, I felt ready for a new challenge, so I threw in the DVD. (By the way, the answers are Yes, No, and Nearly.)
Exercise DVD Review: Bob Harper Kettlebell Sculpted Body
Originally, I wasn’t going to do a review of this one, since a lot of what I have to say about kettlebells in Bob’s workout videos was covered in my Cardio Shred review. After mixing it into my normal routine and doing it today, though, I decided to do one anyway. I’m not going to go into the merits and drawbacks of kettlebells here – just suffice it to say that my opinions haven’t changed since the last review. I did the workout with handweights, and I feel like it is a good enough workout to use if you like Bob’s style. Read the rest of this entry
Exercise DVD Review: Bob Harper’s Kettlebell Cardio Shred
When I heard Bob Harper was making a kettlebell workout video, my heart sank a little. After the disastrous results of Jillian’s attempt to cash in on last year’s trendy fitness fashion, I was worried that Bob, who produced the best workout videos I’d ever seen with his Inside Out Method DVDs, would make the same mistakes and tarnish his reputation like his training partner. So, it was with great trepidation, but still hope, that I fired up the DVD and got to work. Read the rest of this entry
Video Game Review: Fable 3
(Note: This was originally going to be a short review; I even titled it that way. I took the “Short” out after I reached 800 words.)
The best thing about writing reviews for sequels is that I can just assume you know everything there is to know about the preceding one. That’s probably the exact opposite approach that I should take, but I think it’s good enough.
Fable 3: It’s a lot like Fable 2, but with better guns. Read the rest of this entry
Video Game Review: Dead Rising 2
I mostly review things that have been available for a while. It’s rare for me to hurry out and get The Latest Thing, so when I review something, it’s after the whole marketing blitz. Bob Harper’s DVDs were the rare exception, and that was just kind’ve coincidental timing. I still write the reviews, though, for two reasons. One is that I want to, and I don’t care whether it’s timely or not (next week: the Robocop Movie Review!). The other is this: if you knew you wanted it when the product came out, you bought it already (and it’s always more fun to read a review if you own the product or have seen the movie, since you can either get your opinion reaffirmed or get properly worked up over the review’s idiotic points), and if you didn’t want it you aren’t going to based on a review, OR you were undecided, and this, THIS is my chance to tip you over the edge in one direction or another and help nudge you into the proper choice in the matter. But, yeah, mostly for reason #1. Read the rest of this entry
Exercise DVD Review: P90X Back & Biceps (and AbRipper9000XKG or Something Ridiculous)
I see a lot of people talking about P90X. A friend does it every now and again. Others have watched them. A lot of people on Sparkpeople talk about working out to them. I never did. A couple of weeks ago, Lady Aravan and I saw that they were selling it on QVC, so we flipped it on. The infomercial was short on actual clips, but had people working out along with some lunatic talking about it. We assumed he was a QVC huckster, but it gradually dawned on us that this guy was going to be on each of the videos. Oy. Read the rest of this entry
Exercise DVD Review: Jillian Michael’s Shred It with Weights
If you’ve read any of my reviews before, you’ll know that I generally take a very light-hearted and whimsical approach to them. I hate dry and stuffy reviews, and I prefer to try to make them at least somewhat entertaining while providing you the reader with my impressions and opinions of the item or restaurant or book or movie in question. Unfortunately, this review is not light-hearted, but I don’t think it’s going to be dry either. Normally, when I write a review, I’m in a good genial mood. Right now, I’m not. Honestly, I’m a little angry. I am also disappointed, and in a way, I feel betrayed. Bear with me; there is honestly a review in here. Read the rest of this entry
Bob Harper’s Inside Out Method Workout Plan – Final Thoughts
Two weeks ago, my wife and I decided to attempt Bob Harper’s workout plan using his new Inside Out Method DVDs, as laid out on his website www.mytrainerbob.com. (NOTE: the link to the schedule no longer appears to work, so, thanks to a friend, my lovely wife, and a scanner, I have a copy of the Inside Out Method schedule here.) It’s a 4-week program (although you can do week 4’s workout ad infinitum if you like) that starts with working out a few days a week and builds into a full 7-days-a-week exercise regimen. Lady Aravan and I started with Week 3, since we’d already been working out 6 days a week and didn’t want to cut back and start from the beginning, nor did we want to mix in other exercises (except strength workouts) among Bob’s different workouts. All Bob, all the time. So how did it go?
Bob Harper’s Workout Plan, Day 14
This is it, the last day of the 4-week plan. This is the first Monday in quite some time that I had to work out, so I was a bit apprehensive about the morning. The alarm starts up at 4:30, but since today’s workout is only 30 minutes, the Magical Snooze Button makes its first appearance in a month. Thirty extra minutes of interrupted sleep never felt so good.
But, in the blink of an eye, it’s 5, and time to get up. I am nervous, knowing that today is the strength portion of Bob’s Workout, the one where Zach looks as if he is going to die halfway through it. I know it’s a tough exercise program, and I’m not sure I’m ready. Bob, however, doesn’t much care if I am ready or not.
Winter in Derenemyn 