Body by Simone: The Signature Classes

I really like this DVD. You get two great workouts, and they are both varied and interesting enough to work well on any body, for quite awhile. A few thoughts and a few criticisms: Simone's workouts are definitely in the same general genre as Tracy Anderson and Anna Kaiser (and to some extent, Ballet Beautiful). If you love those ladies, you will like this. Of those three people (and especially in comparison to TA), Simone is by far the most motivational, pleasant, and fun, and the pace and cuing of her workouts are the best. I find the AKT video to be by far the most athletic/physically challenging of these three options/people, and Tracy to be in some ways the most effective but by far the most exhausting, boring, and hard on your body (she gave me a stress fracture and doing her workouts "right" takes hours!). Simone is a great inbetween - her workouts are dance based, utilize low-weight/body-weight, and focus on fluid long muscles, like Tracy, but without as many reps/weird positions, and with way more fun. As for this video, both workouts are very good. The Dance Cardio will leave even an advanced exerciser a sweaty, exhausted, mess. The moves are pretty complicated, but super fun, and the cuing is excellent - far better than TA. For people looking for a challenging but really fun dance-based, aerobic workout, this is it - five stars. The full body class is good, but it could be better. The dance segment are all fun, effective, very well-cued, and more "doable" than the Dance Cardio segments. The strength segments are where I have a few complaints. The first arms section is okay, but the moves are super basic and the fact that you stand still and don't incorporate any cardio seems like a wasted opportunity to blast more calories. The legs section is much better, but I don't think it's challenging enough to do this class every day with consistent results. The core work is hard - definitely some challenge there to build on. Overall, I really love Simone as a teacher, and will use this DVD a lot - in rotation with my Tracy Anderson Meta DVDs, my AKT DVD, and running. Both workouts are hard and leave your body feeling worked - but I wish the Full Body had more bang for the buck - when I finished it, my body felt pleasantly tired, but like it could have gone harder and longer. ***Edit: I have used this DVD consistently for five months and am now editing this review to give it five stars instead of four. Everything I said in the initial review still pretty much holds true, and I've tweaked the workouts a bit to make them more challenging here and there, but I've generally just done these workouts consistently, 4-6 times a week for the past five months, and my body has changed. My arms are more defined and tight, my core is flatter (and my pants looser), and I have shed inches off my hips and thighs (I'm down a jeans size). I'm pretty surprised as I didn't even intend this much change - it just seemed to happen! Very happy to see these results and still enjoying these workouts, mixed in with a few others (and with my own music!). Highly recommend and hope Simone comes out with more!

I'm sure this is a very good workout, but she went so fast and didn't show what she was going to do first. By the time I figured out one thing she had already went to several more. I need to have moves explained to me first.

someone mentioned similarity with Anna Kiser and Tracy Anderson - they are right , but out of all 3 , i can work with Simone's DVD's . i only tried Anna and Tracy once [ dvds bought and only to become a source of dust ] - but i actually did Simone's DVD's and recently rediscovered her after about 4 yrs hiatus : i am now closer to 50 but extremely fit and i can still keep up - even though i am a mess afterwards . the workouts are HARD , i also love the arm workout she has incorporated and the leg workout shines in this video . Not so impressed with the core, but i'll check out her core dvd , i'm sure she focuses on it more there. i definitely recommend it , just make sure you have the right shoes [ not running shoes, you need something more stable for high impact and sudden moves ] - but all in all - definitely a 5-star . she's not annoying like tracy a and not as challenging as anna ... the dance is very easy to figure out after a few attempts and she builds the moves over the course of 10 min so she'll take you to the next one once you've mastered the one before and so on. as a former { amateur] dancer i find it easy to follow her. and she's as cute as a button ! i also have her app , i can't wait to try it but for now i'm waiting to get bored of her dvd , i am still very much enjoying it

If you want very fast past with little instruction on how to do the moves, then this is the DVD for you. If you continue to workout with it, you will eventually be able to keep up. I do like the fact that there are two different workouts you can choose from. Both are fun, and yes, it will work. I will continue to workout with this DVD. Just keep in mind, if you haven't worked out in awhile, you may want to consider something that has a slower pace. I would have given this a 5 star if there would have been more instruction on how to do the moves before you actually start the workout.

I have had this DVD for months but I just tried it today. Honestly, it was very very challenging and definitely an advanced workout however, I feel so great after doing it. I truly feel like I did work and burned calories. I recommend stretching on your own before and after because there are a lot of explosive moves. Also, if you have bad knees like I do just be aware of making soft landings with all the jumping and hopping. I plan on alternating this (4x a week) with Leslie Sansone's 4 Fast Miles (2x a weeks - low impact cardio for bad knees) in addition to some more weight training (6x a week). I'm on a mission to lose 20 lbs by the end of summer so I will post an update after a couple months of doing this but I'm confident that I will shed inches and pounds on this regime. Great workout! I'm honestly impressed because when i watched the dvd the first time she made it look so easy I wasn't sure it would be worth it - boy, was I wrong haha! I hope she makes more DVDs.

Just FYI and contrary to claims on the packaging, the choreography in this video is NOT easy. This review is only for the cardio dance section of the video - I haven't done the total body workout yet. I received this video yesterday and popped it in this morning. I really hoped this would be a fun and challenging way to add some cardio to my workouts without using the treadmill. I have some dance background and have taken many many cardio classes over the years and own many workout DVD's and this is maybe the most aggravating workout I've ever come across. There are, I think, 4 dance sequences in all. The video goes straight into a warm up with very little cueing and then you do one sequence of dance moves, then another sequence of dance moves. There's a break for some standing work, then back into two more dance sequences then you do all of them together followed by some ab work and a cool down. Simone, the instructor, is perky and pleasant but she does almost no cueing. She often changes the moves she is doing with no warning. There is no explanation or preview of any of the moves. She just goes right into them and you, sweating and cursing, try to follow along. These are moves with fairly complicated choreography and there is absolutely no effort to teach the move prior to the sets. A couple of times she says "again!" and does something completely new. Often the camera is trained on the faces of the people in the video so that you cannot see what moves they are actually doing. She often wants you to improvise your own arm movements. The sequences are very fast paced. Very fast. At one point Simone teaches you some arm choreography nice and slowly and I thought, "Oh, good, I can probably learn these moves," and then she sped it up to where you are doing these complicated arm moves super fast and then she adds the foot moves without any explanation and you're off again, trying to keep up. By the time we got to the last sequence, where you put together all 4 dances you have "learned" I was actively angry. The other thing to point out is that a big part of the dances are basically just jumping. You are jumping up and down constantly so if you have any injuries or are incapable of jumping, this video is not for you. This is definitely a workout and if you want to sweat this will do it. If you can manage to figure out all the steps and put it together smoothly I imagine this would be a fantastic cardio workout. But there is a steep learning curve and I really wish the cueing was there and that the moves were taught slowly before going at breakneck pace. I did like her ab work quite a lot - standing abs and some planking with light weights. I'll probably keep this video in my rotation for a while and hopefully it will get easier to do the moves.

I have not done a BBS workout before. I usually don't spend this much money on a workout dvd either. But I know her book and her workouts from what I have seen on videos. (examples from her website). She's a great trainer. This workout is really not for the beginner. It's not even for those who are at moderate level. The cardio dance sections are paced quite fast so the cues she gives you are basically try to keep up, but don't stop, just keep moving. Meaning do what you can at the pace you can. Your heart rate will be jacked up. This one has both a cardio workout at 55 MINS!! (!!!) and another sculpting + cardio at 55 Mins (!!!) So this is almost 2 hours of serious work. I have had this dvd one week and it's kicking my butt...... but in a good way. I am challenged and I am sweating but I am loving it. Simone knows what she is doing. You will see results with this dvd. Just start slowly and work into it.

This is not a good exercise video. I grew up doing cheer and dance as well as going to dance camps and could not keep up, at least with the dancing. She does not show you what to do, she just does it. And it is fast! So by the time I could repeat her, she had quickly moved onto the next move. She is a great dancer but poor teacher. I would not recommend this video.