Latina Size (DVD)

Right, so Christmas is over, we have all gorged ourself on turkey, partied too hard over New Years and then make ridiculous resolutions that we never intend on keeping. Most people (like me) say they are going to lose weight, and luckily for me every celebrity under the sun brings out a workout DVD. As I have always fancied a go at Latin dancing but am too much of a wimp to do it in public this seemed like a perfect double hander.

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...Kopylova introducing herself and her credentials as a dancer. She started as a 5 year old ice skating and moved onto ballroom and latin dancing, and has won every Latin competition going with her husband (and dance partner) Darren Bennett. She is most well known for appearing on BBC 1's "Strictly Come Dancing" - winning it with Darren Gough in 2005 and coming 2nd with Matt Dawson in 2006. If I am going to make a fool of myself it is going ... more

Right, so Christmas is over, we have all gorged ourself on turkey, partied too hard over New Years and then make ridiculous resolutions that we never intend on keeping. Most people (like me) say they are going to lose weight, and luckily for me every celebrity under the sun brings out a workout DVD. As I have always fancied a go at Latin dancing but am too much of a wimp to do it in public this seemed like a perfect double hander.

The Teacher

The DVD starts with Lilia Kopylova introducing herself and her credentials as a dancer. She started as a 5 year old ice skating and moved onto ballroom and latin dancing, and has won every Latin competition going with her husband (and dance partner) Darren Bennett. She is most well known for appearing on BBC 1's "Strictly Come Dancing" - winning it with Darren Gough in 2005 and coming 2nd with Matt Dawson in 2006. If I am going to make a fool of myself it is going to have to be at the hands of a master

The Routines

The DVD is split into 5 different workouts:

1 - Simply Salsa - designed for your waist and hips
2 - Cha cha Burn - designed for all over toning
3 - Rumba Tone - a gentle workout to stretch and tone
4 - Sambasize - designed for hips and bums
5 - Jump n Jive - an energetic workout for legs

Each one is designed to tone and work on a different part of your body and has a quick overview of the steps before going into the actual routine.

Red Hot Warm Up

Before starting the routines it is important to do the warm up. It is easy and will get all your muscles ready for exercise.

Simply Salsa

Simply Salsa is probably my favourite workout on this DVD. It is full of sexy hip actions, and is relatively easy to follow. I am just about the most unco-ordinated person ever and managed to have the routine down within 4 goes - so everyone else should be able to master it very quickly. It has a funky Ricky Martin-esque background music to get you in a dancing mood and has 2 levels of difficulty with the two girls behind Lilia doing the simpler version. After 2 weeks of doing this I have lost 3cm off my hips!

Cha Cha Burn

Cha Cha Burn is a fast paced workout designed at all over toning, even your arms

Rumba Tone

Rumba Tone is a slower paced, pilates based routine. It is probably the simplest on the DVD. It consists of lots of lunges and stretches and is brilliant for your thighs as well as all-over toning for your body.

Sambasize

Similiar to the Salsa but slightly slower and designed as a more specific bum and hips workout

Jump 'n' Jive

Jump 'n' Jive is really hard work and gets you sweating like mad. It is based on lots of kicks and jumps (resulting in a set of 60 jumps to finish!) The first time I did this my calves ached for two whole days but after doing it a few times the aching stopped and my legs starting looking fantastic in heels again

Cool Down

A gentle relaxing cool down stretching your muscles and giving you a chance to get your breath back

Overall

The cover of the DVD has Lilia wearing just about the skimpiest outfit known to man - which shows of her amazing body off! So this has to be a testament to what dancing can do to your body.

The routines are a mixture of dance steps with aerobic workout moves so you will learn some level of dancing through this DVD. Because of this combination you do need quite a bit of space unless you want to be crashing into your coffee table!

There is a dance selection option on the main menu which will put together the routines you want (with the warm up and cool down,) so however energetic you feel you can put together a combination to suit you.

If you build up one routine at a time you will probably really like this. I found that mastering the Salsa gave me a lot of the basics I needed to do the other routines. Each routine is repeated and comes to around 10-15 minutes so to get the best out of your exercise it is best to do two (I found Rumba completed the quickness of the Salsa.)

I have been doing this every other day now for 2 weeks and have really noticed my body taking shape. It really is worth building up slowly and sticking with it as not only will you get a hot body but you will also learn some funky moves.

The one negative is that at first you can feel a bit left behind with some of the more difficult steps but if you just do the basic steps until you can get caught up again it will be worth it in the long run  

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