Biggest Loser, X-Train

The Biggest Loser has a cornucopia of products, from protein powders and supplements to t shirts and of course dvds. Recently, I was looking at purchasing one of these DVDs, and decided on the 30 Day X-Train. Unlike most of the Biggest Loser DVDs, with just one or two workouts, this DVD has a warm up, a cool down, and 3- 15 minute individual full body workouts. The workouts are comprised of both stregnth and cardio segments.

The DVD is different than many of the other workouts because it has a plan for a 30 day plan. The 30 Day plan includes a different workout for the 4 weeks of the month. It is recommended to do the workout for 6 days a week, taking one day off for rest. Each of the weeks include the full body workouts and the warm up and cool down. This DVD includes contestants from Season 11, including the winner Olivia Ward. It also features Bob Harper and Dolvett Quince.

Whether done as part of the month plan or a stand alone workout, say on a day when inclement weather keeps you form the gym, X-Train is a wonderful DVD, however the 3 workout segments do duplicate the muscles being train, so there is a lot of repetition. So if you do it as one hour long workout, prepare to do individual exercises such as pushups and to pound away at particular muscles, especially triceps, in more than one of the 15 minute segments.

It is impressive that each of the workouts give rest time, but not an overwhelming amount, as many people have complaioned about P90x. Other DVD programs also in a given hour, spent about half the hour long workout on warm up and cool down. Whereas X-Train is more time efficent spending less than a quarter of the total time on the workout. In fact knowing he only has a 15 minute session, you can hear Bob HArper say, "We haven't got much time let's go!"

All over, it is a great workout but remember it is a total body workout. The problem with total body workouts is that they spend a little bit on several parts, inevitably then some parts will get a major workout, and some will not. It seems that the abs (but not the core) and the back are what recieve the least amount of attention here.