Karen Voight: Burn & Firm

Having said that, I love this video. The three aerobic sections, all low to medium impact, are done on the floor. The pace starts out slowly but then quickly picks up in intensity. While I wouldn't call these dancy moves, you may need to do the video a few times before you pick up all the moves.

The toning segments are divided into Floor Upper Body, Standing Upper Body, Standing Legs and Abdominals. For both upper body segments, light weights are used, no more than 8 lbs, but 5 lbs will probably do pretty well for most of the exercises. Why? Because the moves are very fast. It would be too much of a strain on one's joints to use heavier weights. While I enjoy both sections, I prefer the floor segment, where she has a nice combination of pullovers, flyes and presses. As with almost every tape Voight has ever done, all of the moves flow quickly into each other.

The standing leg segment uses neither weights nor lunges. If you're someone who has knee problems and usually needs to modify (or skip) standing leg work, you will probably enjoy this section. Not that it's easy. In addition to squats, she also includes a one-leg deadlift variation which immediately targets the hamstrings and buttocks. Ouch, but in the good way. While I would have preferred some floorwork (which Voight does very well), I think she used standing work to keep the heartrate up after the last aerobic session, thus extending the cardio benefits.

While I'm not a fan of traditional abwork, Voight's work here is very effective. She uses a combination of yoga-inspired stretches for the back and then Pilates-inspired crunches and bicycles for the abdominals. You may not love this section, but you will feel it.

As to the comment that Voight recycled her work, not exactly. When this was originally released in early 2003, she offered this tape and Yoga Focus separately. Both segments were also released on one programmable DVD called Sleek Physique. That release allowed you to pick and choose segments from both programs to create a different workout for each day. While it was possible to reconstruct all of the footage for both separate tapes, it wasn't very intuitive and that wasn't the original intention. While I can see why some would be annoyed, I don't believe Voight was trying to exploit or trick any of her customers.