Extremely Ripped & Chiseled with Jari Love: Fitness DVD Review

Although I had never heard of Jari Love before, when I was approached to review her new DVD, I was excited: I love fitness DVDs!

As it turns out, she's a fellow Canadian, but resides across the country in Calgary with her husband and 2 kids...I've never been to Alberta, by the way.

She actually has a whole series of workout DVDs that you can purchase. Love is a personal trainer and fitness expert who has been featured in media across North America.

This particular DVD offers a full hour of strength-based exercise segments. The cover says it is split into 30 minutes for lower body and 30 minutes for upper body. Perhaps my copy is messed up, but it actually has only 20 minutes of lower body exercises and the rest is upper and core. Not sure what's up with that.

You need several sets of hand weights, and a step, although, you can do the DVD without the step and modifications are shown.

The whole idea is similar to those Group Power classes from Les Mills where you use relatively light weight and do high reps in time to music. Unfortunately, the music in the DVD is unidentifiable, generic music, not the latest hits and familiar music you get in those classes. I guess they didn't want to pay the royalties.

The video also feels dated. I don't know if its the music, some of the hairdos, the discoteque lighting, or what, but I feel like I'm doing a toning class from the 1990s. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing! I used to enjoy teaching such classes back in the day. I also like that she offers lots of variation in timing to the moves, like 3 counts down/1 up, and the reverse, 2 up/2 down, etc. In the gym, we tend to spend most of our time doing up, down, up, down, etc. Doing resistance exercises slowly is a great way to activate those muscle fibres!

If you use enough weight, this can absolutely be a very challenging workout. I actually think its perfect for someone who wants to start strength training at home but wants some guidance. I would not recommend it for someone who has never done a group ex class or any weight lifting before, but I suppose if you start with light enough weight the chance of injury would be lower.

Overall, if you are an intermediate level exerciser who is looking for a strength training routine to do at home, this may be for you.

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