Rosemary Conley - Brand New You! Work-Out With Coleen Nolan (DVD)

...I bought another one - Rosemary Conley's Brand New You workout DVD. I usually can't stand Rosemary Conley - there's something about her that makes me want to scream at the TV! However, this one features Coleen Nolan, who I love watching in Loose Women and have followed her progress as she has lost weight recently.

So I decided to risk it and bought the DVD from Amazon. The cover has a very unflattering photo of a size 18 Coleen on ...
...There is an introduction from Rosemary Conley at first, which is worth watching once, but is easy to skip past afterwards. Then the hard work comes!

The first section is a 7-minute long warm up, which does what you'd expect - it stretches your muscles, warms you up and gets you ready for the more strenuous sections to follow.

Section 2 is ten minutes of fat-burning aerobics, which is quite fast-paced and you can feel ... more

INTRODUCTION

If you have read my recent reviews, you'll know I am losing weight through following the Slimming World healthy eating plan and exercising. So far, I have lost 13 pounds in 11 weeks, which I am really pleased about.

As I have already written about, I began my new exercise 'regime' by exercising to Rebecca Wheatley's workout DVD, but after doing this for a few weeks, I bought another one - Rosemary Conley's Brand New You workout DVD. I usually can't stand Rosemary Conley - there's something about her that makes me want to scream at the TV! However, this one features Coleen Nolan, who I love watching in Loose Women and have followed her progress as she has lost weight recently.

So I decided to risk it and bought the DVD from Amazon. The cover has a very unflattering photo of a size 18 Coleen on the front, next to a much more glamorous picture of her now as a size 10.

THE WORKOUT

The workout itself is split into seven sections. There is an introduction from Rosemary Conley at first, which is worth watching once, but is easy to skip past afterwards. Then the hard work comes!

The first section is a 7-minute long warm up, which does what you'd expect - it stretches your muscles, warms you up and gets you ready for the more strenuous sections to follow.

Section 2 is ten minutes of fat-burning aerobics, which is quite fast-paced and you can feel it working quite quickly!

Sections 3 and 4 are both 10-minute fat-burning aerobic sections with toning for certain areas.

Sections 5 and 6 are 10-minute sections of toning. These are less energetic, as they are mainly floor-based exercises, rather than moving around the room.

Finally, there is a 5-minute cool down section to finish on.

MY EXPERIENCE

I found this workout a huge step up from the Rebecca Wheatley DVD. You really do notice a big increase in the pace of these exercises and the aerobic sections especially will make you sweat and get you out of breath. You do need to be reasonably fit to do this workout programme. I'm not saying you need to be a super-fit size 8 teen like the Pump It Up workouts, but you should have been doing regular exercise for a couple of months before starting this workout.

I began by doing 32-minute workouts - the warm up, two sections, then the cool down. I varied the middle two sections I did, sometimes adding sections 2 and 3 for a really hard-working session or sometimes a couple of the toning sections, to help me tighten up my stomach muscles, which is my problem area.

I was doing about four sessions a week, and then took a couple of weeks off. When I wasn't exercising, I found the weight much harder to shift. I maintained or one week, even put on two pounds! So I decided it was back to the exercising and this time, I am intending to keep it up.

I have been doing 42-minute sessions too, usually sections 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7, so I have the ten-minute aerobics followed by 20 minutes of toning. Hopefully this will help me lose the weight and tone up at the same time.

For some of the workouts, you can use weights. I first went through the exercises without weights, to get used to them, then I began adding the weights. I usually use two 500ml bottles of water, but have been known to use tins of food or even shoes if I don't have any water bottles handy!

I have found I actually enjoy exercising - which was a surprise! - and that I miss it, if I don't exercise for a couple of days. Although it can be a chore to find the time, it is well worth the effort, as the weight is coming off again now. I find I have the most energy in the morning, so try to exercise between 8 and 9am, hopefully with no-one else around!

I have even grown to like Rosemary Conley! I find her instructions easy to follow and although her tone can be a bit annoying at times, she does talk a lot of sense. Coleen Nolan does all the exercises too, along with a woman doing an easier version of the workout and two women who do a more advanced version. One of these, Lucy, I do find annoying - especially her ever-present grin - but I try to ignore her as much as possible. You are advised to follow whoever works to the pace that suits your level of fitness, so I follow Rosemary and Coleen, who work at a medium-level pace.

One distinct advantage this workout has is that it uses proper music, full-length tracks you know. I have found this much better than the 'musak' used on other workouts and the songs are a good mix too. This one includes Flashdance by Irene Cara, Lifted by The Lighthouse Family, Hot Stuff from The Full Monty soundtrack plus tracks by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Level 42, Lionel Richie and others.

Another plus to this workout is that there is an on-screen countdown, so you can see how long there is left of each section. This is useful, as if you feel you are flaking, you can see how long there is left and it spurs you on to keep going!

THE EXTRAS

There is an interesting chat with Coleen Nolan, which I enjoyed. There is also an interview with Lucy 'Annoying Smile' Spicer, who lost her excess weight with Rosemary Conley's help. These are worth watching once, but that is all really, although I did find Coleen to be very inspirational.

OVERALL

The DVD is available from Amazon for £12.98 at the moment and I would definitely recommend it. It has really helped me to get fitter, to lose weight and to enjoy exercising! I intend to buy more of Rosemary Conley's workout DVDs soon. I do find they can get a bit boring after a couple of months, so I want to try new ones, but I would definitely keep going back to this one.

9/10 

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