Harper Bob-Total Body Transformation

Oh boy. Bob screams repeatedly in this DVD that it's the HARDEST. WORK OUT. EVER. And he may be right!I've seen lots of people in their reviews say that they were under the impression that Bob Harper was the "nice one" based on watching The Biggest Loser. It almost seems like Bob wants to break that image in his work outs. He is utterly UNRELENTING in this DVD, but this DVD is the best I've ever seen out of him as a trainer. He is not abusive nor discouraging in this DVD like he is in others (he is not very encouraging at all in Pure Burn Strength). He is very straight forward in this DVD--not extremely motivating, but he isn't constantly talking about how YOU SHOULD BE DYING RIGHT NOW or YOUR ARMS SHOULD BE SCREAMING. I don't find that kind of talk very helpful.That being said, this is a very, very good DVD. My heart rate was through the roof every time I did this DVD and I finished every time with absolutely soaked work out clothes and hair. I am in pretty good shape--I do Jillian Michaels and other Bob Harper work outs, but this one is a beast. The sections with the weights are tough, the side burpees are ridiculous and oh man. The around the world push ups. I have never known such agony in all my life.The warm up for this DVD is really very disappointing. Bob is not great with his warm ups--he does a lot of static stretches and it's barely even a minute. If you are someone who pulls muscles or who is very tight, you will want to supplement. As usual, for whatever reason, Bob is OBSESSED with shoulders. His favorite move that he uses a million times in every work out is that overhead press. My shoulders are in absolute INSANE shape, but he really doesn't do much with biceps or triceps so I feel like I look kind of weird right now with these hugely ripped shoulders and kind of wimpy arms.This is also not the greatest work out for abs or lower body. That's the one thing I wish Bob could work on--it'd be nice if he had a rhyme or reason to his work outs. Sometimes it just seems like he does random things for a random period of time.Bob does a lot of counting, but sometimes his counting is wrong. He'll be going TEN, NINE, EIGHT and I'm thinking OH THANK GOODNESS almost done and then he stops to go on a ten minute monologue about how you need to keep pushing. Ten seconds later he's going SEVEN, SIX. Well, by that point I'm dead.Bob also really shoulder consider having some modifiers. I end up modifying some of the moves until I can work up to that harder pace. For someone who isn't an experienced exerciser, this lack of modifier can be very frustrating. That's what I love about Jillian--she always modifies and when she doesn't, you know she means business.The two girls and Casey were great. I was especially impressed with Casey--he really powered through the whole time! I've noticed the male exercisers in Bob's DVDs are usually the biggest wimps. Speaking of wimps, dude, Angel, get your act together. His body is in insane shape and he CANNOT keep up. He's not as bad as Zach from the Total Cardio work out, but he is a big baby--collapsing to the floor and slamming his fist on the ground dramatically.I really like the ten minute work out. And yeah, those scorpion push ups are horrible and turkish get ups should be illegal based on sheer cruelty.The first few times I did this DVD, I was really not enjoying myself. I find a lot of Jillian's DVDs to actually be a lot of fun, but this one was NOT fun at all. As I got doing it more and got better at it, it became more fun. I completed the hour long work out about twenty times and the ten minute one about five. You WILL see results with this DVD, no question.A little aimless, but if you want a great work out that will keep your heart rate up while building muscle, consider grabbing this one!

Bob Harper's "Complete Body Power Transformation," is almost non-stop exercise, with Mr. Harper moving quickly from one exercise to another. There's hardly any time to rest, although he does give you a little pause here and there. He instructs a group of two men and two women. Two sets of dumbbells are used.Total workout time (about 1 hour)Warm-up (about 2 minutes)Cool-down and stretches (about 5 and 1/2 minutes)Workout (about 52 and 1/2 minutes): So intense & long, this is hard to do in one session, especially if one is doing it for the first time. If you have difficulty completing the workout, here's a little tip: break it into two parts, rest, eat something and do modifications. That's what I did.The 54 exercicesSingle front arm swingArm swing with side jumpSnatch series with shoulder pressShoulder pressSnatch series, with side swing, with shoulder pressShoulder pressDouble arm swingCable fly/crossBiceps curl in squat holdLunge with lateral raiseLunge pulse with extended armsLunge hold with lateral pulseSeated upper body press, to press holdRun in placeSprintCable fly/crossBiceps curl in squat hold, to biceps holdLunge with front raise, to front holdSeated upper body press, to press holdRun in placeSprintHigh to low plyosAround the world push-upsPlankRowRear flySide burpeeSide plank leg raiseAround the world push-upsPlankRowRear flyRowWeighted jumping jacksWeighted sumo squatsSquat hold, to lateral raise holdPlyo sumo squatSquat hold, to lateral raise holdPike plankDive bomberPike plank shoulder pressPike plankJumping jacksPrisoner lunge hold, to alternating jumpRussian squat kickDive bomber push up on one legPrisoner lungeRussian squat kickChair poseSumo squatDive bomber push up on one legPlankAround the world push upsBridge seriesI found the Russian squat kicks new and interesting. The around the world push-ups are also new to me."Bob Harper: Total Body Transformation" DVD actually contains two workouts. I already reviewed the first one in the above paragraphs. Here's the second one, "Body Power Quck Bonus". One dumbbell is used.Workout (under 13 and 1/2 minutes): This one starts out with a bang, by running in place, which serves as the warm up.Run in placeJumping jacksScorpion seriesJumping jacksScorpion seriesLow jacksAlternating side scorpionPlankPike shoulder pressLow jacksTurkish get-upsSingle arm shoulder pressTurkish get-upsSingle arm shoulder pressLow jacksChair pose seriesCool-down and stretches (about 45 seconds)Compared to the longer workout, this shorter workout was easy, but I did avoid doing the Turkish get-ups which I alway find uncomfortable to do.

Another amazingly hard workout from Bob! not for beginners or the faint hearted.My Bob Harper collection is expanding rapidly, and there's not an easy workout in it. Before this one I would have said Pure burn was the hardest - this is just as hard (possibly harder because there's not a modification in sight - hence the "not for beginners").The main workout is an hour long and promises to "break fitness plateaus", it consists of cardio blasts (front swing side move thing, butt kicks, jacks, side burpees (ow hate these!), high low plyos and jumping lunges to name a few) which rocket your heart rate and get you gasping, the trademark Bob held squat (sit, regular and sumo) with various arm/back strength moves (curls, rows, shoulder raises and presses etc) which keep your heart rate up while working on strength. It also has isometric holds to briefly let your heartrate recover (but only a bit!) and his usual twist on core moves that really get your abs screaming while working just about everything else at the same time (round the clock push-ups and dive bombers!). This had me intermittantly gasping for breath, swearing at the tv and grunting in pain and by ten minutes in sweating buckets!!!!There is also a shorter "10 min" (actually closer to 15!) quickie workout which is a cardiofest from start to finish with a move called "Turkish get ups" in it that when you first try it seems impossible - but actually once you've mastered the technique is one of the easiest moves! There are also a couple of "scorpion series" in here that are cripplingly hard (scorpion push-up, side plank and bridge crunch combo) It contains lots of squat jacks and a pike shoulder press section that is a killer.All in all another masterpiece of a body blasting workout! If you need/want to work up to it in its entirety though it does break down quite nicely into 2 half hour sections (if you do the 1st half hour you work everything - the second half hour does the same but with different moves!)I love this its insanely hard and Bob pushes me to my limits - and yet again despite being labelled as a region 1 DVD its actually region zero and plays just fine on any uk DVD player!

Personally, I still find 'Pure Burn, Super Strength' the hardest of all Bob's workouts. This is billed - repeatedly - as the hardest workout EVER - I really didn't think so.Don't get me wrong, I think it's hard and, like all Bob's DVDs, it does a great job of taking you to your limit - and then just pushing you that little bit further. But I didn't find this as testing as Pure Burn. To me, this was in the same league as Body Rev Cardio Conditioning in that it goes at a slow and steady tempo, and keeps reverting to swings, squats and lunges over and over again. I have to be in the mood to do so many squats, hold squats, and swings - not the most dynamic workout moves in my book, although they obviously raise the heart-rate, so they do the job.I'm a massive Bob Harper fan, own all his DVDs.....but I don't tend to turn to this one a lot as I do find it (to be honest) a bit boring!! however, given the quality of all Bob's workouts, I would recommend this to anyone....who already has his better workouts!!UPDATE: I would now just like to add that the bonus workout on this DVD, marketed as the hardest 10 minutes you'll have, is VERY true!! Terrific quickie to tack on to the end of a less intensive workout.

Bob is the man - motivating, challenging, structured but also fun and easy, like it...and this works!

Amazing! Much better than Jillian Michaels. More handweight sections that gets the sweat dripping and the muscles burning!!!! Felt it the next few days. I would class myself as fairly fit but this still pushed me. Done the insanity dvds and sweated as much doing this but felt the toning exercises more. Love this workout!

The main workout it tooooooough!! But that's good!!