Build Muscle Shrink Fat

This is not a new workout. This is a re-release of Kathy Smith's Matrix Method Ultimate Sculpt. That workout has plenty of reviews here on Amazon. In my opinion it's an ok workout, nothing special. The main thing I just wanted to tell others is that this is not a new workout. If you own her Matrix Method Ultimate Sculpt workout you already own this workout. It's just a new title given for an old workout - just a shiney new package is all.

I am very disappointed that amazon does not have this product listed as a re-release. I am a huge kathy smith fan and have many of her dvd's. I was so excited to see the 3 new dvd's listed for release on dec 18th and ordered 2 of them. In getting the package at home and going to do the workout today I realized that it was a re-release of ultimate sculpt. I went directly to the kathy smith website to email her contact people and see that her website has clearly stated that this is a re-release. I blame amazon for not advertising this correctly. The original dvd is great, I love it, so for those of you who don't have it yet, this will be a great workout. It is very complete and makes you feel like you have covered working out all body part as well as cardio. Shame on Amazon though!!!!!

I purchased this workout a couple days ago and just did this workout this morning. I was very impressed overall!

I'm a certified personal trainer who is also an avid collector of fitness dvds (a couple hundred at least). As a trainer I think it's important to stay fresh and continue to see what others are doing and dvds are one of many excellent ways to get exposure to a wide variety of approaches and concepts.

One thing I really respect about Kathy Smith is that she not only puts out consistently strong products, but she isn't afraid to get input from others (such as Angela Freeman in this dvd, Rod Stryker in her Yoga Series, Keith Cook for Kickboxing etc.). Not only that, but she often has those same folks in her actual projects and gives credit where credit is due! (this is not as common as one might think).

This program is definitely for an intermediate and beyond exerciser. This is because there are complex movements involved that require a lot of neuromuscular coordination and if someone isn't already experienced with training they definitely might be risking injury.

It's very important to have an awareness of what is safe for your specific body. There are some movements that might be contraindicated for you and you will need to know how to modify. Even though I'm a fitness professional and very fit, I was in a car wreck many years ago that led me to have cervical spine surgery. As a result of both the injury and surgery, there are certain types of overhead movements that are unsafe for me to perform. I'm fortunate in that I have the knowledge to know how to modify or completely substitute movements. Someone without that experience might get themselves into trouble. While this should apply to any workout program, this particular program would certainly bear that out. This isn't a criticism of the dvd, which I think is great, but it's still an important consideration.

For example, this program contains multi-directional lunges (which are also combined with upper body movements). Front lunges in particular put a novice exerciser at the risk for placing too much shear force against their knees. With my own clients I always start with more stationary types of lunges (in fact I start with Yoga poses such as the various Warrior poses) and then move into reverse lunges in order to learn proper alignment and get a better inner feeling of the movements (kinesthetic awareness) before moving into forward lunge type movements.

For those who have done programs like P90X this program would be in the same general category as something like Core Synergistics. The exercises are different but the concept is very similar which is: multiplaner, multijoint, combination movements. What this means is that you might combine a rotating lunge with a row or press, so you are moving in a variety of directions with various combinations of lower and upper body movements at the same time.

This program definitely includes a lot of lower body work overall, squats and plies are present in addition to the lunges already mentioned.

There are also periods of "speed" work where you build into quick shuffle movements which are great for getting your heart rate up and also for working the muscles in a side to side pattern (in what is technically called the `Frontal Plane').

This dvd is broken up into sections and has the main workout, a core section and a flexibility section as well.

I particularly like the fact that the core section doesn't contain crunches. This falls in line with the cutting edge type of research done by people like Stuart McGill (a low back expert) who believe that repeated spinal flexion causes too much trauma to the intervertebral discs. Several exercises shown on this dvd are planks, side planks and bird-dog exercises which are considered by most knowledgeable trainers to be safe core exercises which not only do not aggravate the spine but in fact strengthens the core stabilizers and therefore gives stability to the spine.

The flexibility section is very well done and does a great job at targeting the muscles that were worked in the other sections of the dvd, they aren't just random stretches thrown in for the sake of it.

So for a person who has already achieved a solid level of fitness and is looking for a different, more functional type of workout to do at home, I'd highly recommend this program. But this is definitely NOT for beginners nor those with knee issues.

If you are a stone beginner, especially if you have been sedentary and/or carrying some extra weight, I'd recommend getting some basic instruction with a certified fitness professional to learn basic exercise technique and what is safe for your specific body (and how to make modifications). I'm not just making this suggeston because I'm a personal trainer, but I have known about too many people that try to do training with a program like this and get injured because they try to follow verbatim what the person on the video is doing even though it may be completely inappropriate for their current fitness level or health status. What you might save by preventing a possible injury (not to mention medical expenses) is well worth the price of sessions from a really sound trainer.

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