Product: Kathy Smith - Moving Through Menopause [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 4.0
A very good workout from a consistently great instructor.
You can rarely go wrong with Kathy Smith. Her videos are consistently well-produced, excellently choreographed (simple enough to be effective and easy to follow yet interesting enough to be fun) and effective. I get 90% of my workouts done with videos and she is really the cream of the crop especially if you're just getting started (she's great for intermediates as well). This video is not just for perimenopausal or menopausal women. I bought it as a Christmas gift for my menopausal mom and at 22, I use it more than her! The informative sections before and between the actual workouts are useful for people of any age. The nutritional tips are sound and the discussions about the cultural and personal meanings of menopause were interesting to me even if I am 30 years away from if myself. The cardio segment is the best. It's fast and thorough, it will really get your heart pumping, and I enjoy working out to it. I am less pleased with the strength training. It isn't bad per se, she's just done better. Some of the poses in this section may be too challenging for beginners and other moves aren't challenging at all. The one part of this section I enjoy is the Pilates part but there's not enough of it to consider it a thorough Pilates session. I'm not a big fan of yoga so her yoga section did not do much for me. However, if you're just starting with yoga, the majority of poses are possible. However, beware if you have not done yoga before or are inflexible because the last 1 or 2 poses are too difficult for beginners. You may want to try KS's TimeSaver Strength Training tape which contains upper and lower body and abdominal work in separate 20 minute sections and Kathy Smith's beginner's yoga tape. One more thing that gave me pause about this video is that KS has been releasing too many 20 minute cardio workouts. While this is enough of a workout to maintain cardiovascular strength and a weight you are already pleased with, if you are trying to lose fat, you need more than 20 minutes of cardio. I hope Kathy Smith will release more 40 minute cardio workouts as she has with her excellent Functional Fat Burning step workout. All things considered, I still think this menopause workout is worth purchasing. The cardio is great and the other sections are as well, I've just preferred a few other tapes she's made more. Kathy is the best!