Lifetiquing Reviews

Equipment needed: light weights (3-15 lbs, but I used 3, 5 and 8 lbs), a broomstick, a playground ball, a chair or barre

Level: Advanced

Bottom line: The "thinking person's workout" concept is admirable in this unique workout, but it was too long and inefficient for my tastes.

I'm in a barre phase right now, and I'd heard many good things about this barre-based full-body workout. It is certainly unique. Although I've seen almost all these exercises in previous workouts, I've never seen them fused in this way.

To the workout's credit, the blend of exercise styles does hit every part of the body. I really felt the burn, especially in the arm section. Good grief, I was in intense pain during some of those repetitions, and I had to drop to 3 lb weights.

But the problem with the workout is that I felt it was incredibly inefficient. For the amount of time I spent on this workout (an hour and 18 minutes!!), I was remarkably not tired afterwards, and despite doing the workout with no modifications, I was not sore the next day. Of course, being sore isn't always the benchmark for efficacy, but I went on to do an entire Insanity workout afterward with minimal tiredness. Having done a few months of Jari Love's workouts, which always challenged me to the point of exhaustion, that was disappointing. For maximal results, there has to be maximal exertion.

I think my dislike for this workout results from the isolational exercises, which target very specific muscles for exhaustion but don't cause tiredness overall and fail to elevate the heart rate even slightly. I didn't feel like I had worked out even after nearly an hour and a half of this one, which is why I like compound exercises so much more.

Overall: Isolational exercises bring individual muscles to the point of exhaustion but seem to be inefficient. Exercisers may appreciate the unique movements and flow of this workout, but many will find they can get better bang for their buck from other workouts.