Martine McCutcheon - Dance Body (DVD)

...period! I do like Martine McCutcheon and I think she has a realistic figure, not too skinny, so I thought if she could do it then so could I! Another thing that attracted me to this DVD was the fact that it seemed quite 'dancy' and as I get bored with repetitive exercises, I thought it would be a more enjoyable way to get fit.

I bought the DVD from Somerfield for £13.99 but I am sure it can be bought cheaper than that - I have seen ...
...- DIET AND NUTRITION
Martine and her instructor now talk about adjusting your eating habits to lose some extra pounds. I found this section ridiculous as they say you should only eat fruit up until mid-day, and then after that you should never mix protein with carbohydrates. Well to me, this is far too complicated and too much to think about. They go into too much detail showing you how different vegetables look and personally, I found it ... more

I bought this DVD after Christmas to try and get rid of a few unwanted pounds which we all inevitably put on over the festive period! I do like Martine McCutcheon and I think she has a realistic figure, not too skinny, so I thought if she could do it then so could I! Another thing that attracted me to this DVD was the fact that it seemed quite 'dancy' and as I get bored with repetitive exercises, I thought it would be a more enjoyable way to get fit.

I bought the DVD from Somerfield for £13.99 but I am sure it can be bought cheaper than that - I have seen them on EBay and other supermarkets for a lot less.

The workout itself lasts for one hour and consists of the following:-

WARM UP (10 mins)
Martine, her instructor David, and a handful of dancers take you through some basic stretches, head rolls and gentle movements - more than enough to get you ready for the main sections. It is a nice refreshing warm up and doesn't leave you gasping for breath before you have even moved on to the cardio! Only bad point is the 'body ripples' - I cannot for the life of me do them, and I don't know many people who can!

CARDIOVASCULAR (10 mins)
This section is quite good, not as dancy as I had anticipated, but definitely gets the heart rate pumping and makes you feel you have done some good cardio work. Some of the moves are a little complicated, especially the leg and hand flicks at the very end - but the routine itself is pretty basic and once you have done it a few times you will definitely get used to it. The instructor does sometimes go onto the next part without warning which can be annoying when you first do the DVD, but again, once you have done the routine a few times, you will remember which parts are coming up next. In my opinion though, it's nice to have a workout where the instructor isn't constantly talking! One last point to mention is that the music isn't that great and sometimes I thought they were out of time with the beat!

UPPER BODY TONING (10 mins)
I love this section, its fun, easy to follow, not too long, and most of all works your arms without making you want to cry in pain! The exercises include bicep curls, tricep curls, scissor movements and running on the spot whilst circling your arms in the air (ouch!).

UPPER BODY STRETCHES (10 mins)
This section consists entirely of stretching out the arms which you have just worked on. Personally, I never do this section, I just move right on to the leg work, as the whole thing seems rather pointless to me, usually all the stretching is done at the end of a workout, and also 10 minutes consisting entirely of stretching the arms seems a bit excessive in my opinion! However, if you want to become more flexible and enjoy doing yoga/pilates moves, then you will like this part.

LOWER BODY TONING (10 mins)
Again, another one of my favourite sections. You will need to kick off your shoes and lie on your side for this part. You will be doing a few leg raises and leg kicks with both pointed and flexed foot. You then switch onto the other side to do the other leg. They then say to give your leg a nice slap which actually feels rather nice! After that, you do some exercises to work your bum which hurt a bit, but at least you can feel it working! I think this section is great fun and I always feel great afterwards.

LOWER BODY STRETCHING (10 mins)
As with the arm stretching section, I find this section pointless and I never do it, I just move onto the abs. Some of the moves are quite hard and unless you do yoga regularly you will have difficulty in completing them!

ABS (10 mins)
Not the best abs section I have ever seen, it consists mainly of stomach crunches, but of course the whole point of this is to get fit, so crunches are a good way of getting a flat tummy! You do basic crunches, crunches with your legs in the air at a 90 degree angle and then crunches to the side (obliques). You then finish off with a strange exercise which involves lifting your neck so you can see your toes - all this does is hurt my neck and for that reason I stopped doing it - I couldn't see how it was supposed to be working my stomach and I'm sure it can't be good for you!

COOLDOWN (10 mins)
In my opinion, they should have cut out the two earlier stretching sections and just put them all together in this cooldown section. Anyhow, a lot of these moves seem yoga/pilate based and again can be quite hard if you are not used to them. I got the giggles on one of the moves here as the instructor starts breathing funny and says we must now get rid of 'bad air'. Made me laugh and I think he was taking himself a bit too seriously! It is nice and relaxing however, and a good way to end the workout.

EXTRA - DIET AND NUTRITION
Martine and her instructor now talk about adjusting your eating habits to lose some extra pounds. I found this section ridiculous as they say you should only eat fruit up until mid-day, and then after that you should never mix protein with carbohydrates. Well to me, this is far too complicated and too much to think about. They go into too much detail showing you how different vegetables look and personally, I found it really irritating. However, I bought this DVD for the workout, and NOT the diet information, so I just ignored this section completely.

OVERALL
I would recommend this DVD if you are new to exercise or if you just want to tone up and lose a few pounds. It's not a very intense workout and you would probably have to do it 3 to 4 times a week to see any real benefit. If you have been exercising for a while, then I don't think this is the workout for you, as it is not very challenging and I do think it is aimed more at beginners. That said, it is fun to do and it always makes me feel good afterwards. I usually do this DVD on my 'can't be bothered' days as it's not very hard, but at least I feel I have done something!

Thanks for reading x

 

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