The Biggest Winner: Shape Up Front – Jillian Michaels

From the cover:

the first of five fabulous DVDs in the Jillian Michaels fitness collection, The Biggest Winner, How to Win by Losing, Shape Up – Front gets your body moving and your blood flowing with a lower and upper body workout to make your body burn twice as many calories – so you’ll melt off the fat and lose the weight. You can win by losing with Jillian Michaels, TV’s toughest fitness trainer and life coach.

Review: after my second go round with the Australian Biggest Loser’s Cardio Burn DVD I decided to buy my own copies of their three part series. Unfortunately none of them were in stock at the JB store I went to, but this 5-DVD set looked promising – for only $11 more than the single Michelle Bridges program I could get five workouts, and even if I passed on the Cardio Kickboxer option (not a good idea for unfit people who have poor coordination, as I learned trying TaeBo several years ago) that still seemed pretty good value.
The preamble strongly recommends watching the DVD through once before attempting, which wasn’t a problem, because unfortunately there’s no indication on the cover that you need equipment – hand weights, which I have, and a step bench, which I don’t. The bench is an integral component of this program, featuring in around 80% on the exercises. I have been stirred to buy a stepper, though so far have been unable to find one three-feet long as suggested (72cm is the closest I’ve tracked down thus far).
What I liked: there’s no question this is an intense workout – I felt breathless just watching the routine, and the team of very fit participants looked like they were working hard; one of the team does modified versions of around 10% of the exercises
What could have been improved: an indication on the cover that equipment is needed; flagging that this is aimed at intermediate and advanced levels; any kind of suggestion that you could work at a less intense pace; an opportunity to check pulse rate.
Overall: I quite like the idea of coming back to this DVD collection in a couple of months, when I’ve got increased strength and fitness. I quite liked Jillian’s style and certainly think the program’s doable, but not quite yet - Alex