Ellen Barrett Live : Sleek Sculpt Express

I have been a fan of Ellen Barrett for about 2 years now and have all her DVDs that she produced plus some others. I love her personality, instruction and cueing but I'm NOT a huge fan of ALL of her DVDs so I'm not that loved up.I am however a big fan of & love her sculpting DVDs which all use light hand weights. This one plus Slim Sculpt and Skinny Sculpt. Ellen also leads CRUNCH: Burn & Firm Pilates (which also uses weights and is pretty good).Sleek Sculpt Express is a 30 minute workout which combines Ellen's usual strength, stretch and some cardio for a gentle yet effective workout. I am a fan of how she works you out but doesn't leave you feeling like you've done something super hectic and therefore need to go meditate to bring back some calmness. Because of this and her excellent cueing, you are always able to keep up with her and not injure yourself as you rush to keep up (as has happened to me using another well known instructor's DVDs).Not a fan of the music in this one at first - the chanting sounded rather mournful but after awhile I am able to drown out/ignore the music and concentrate on form. I like to pair this DVD with either cardio (interval speeds on the treadmill) or another 30 minute DVD (i.e. doing Super Fast Body Blast first then Sleek Sculpt Express I really felt it in the glutes the next day - awesome!)Ellen's DVDs are for those who want a peaceful/centred vibe after their workouts - if you're an energiser bunny (or hard core athlete) into the crazy stuff like insanity (no pun intended) then Ellen's not for you. Slow and steady does win the race and I've changed and toned my entire body thanks to Ellen's workouts.

This DVD is mostly for an advanced level and needs to be worked up to slowly if you are beginning or novice, even early intermediate level. Very useful for gaining strength, stamina and a strong defined upper body! My advice if you want to try and challenge yourself is to 1) Don't do as many reps as Ellen--If she does 12 reps, do 6 or 4, then work your way up from there. 2) don't make the arm and leg movements with as large a range as Ellen does. I often keep my arm movements and squatting movements with my legs much smaller as I follow along. There is no way I could hang with the whole DVD straight through going 100%, if I didn't utilize these modifications. The woman behind Ellen with the weights looks like she about ready to pass out after 20 minutes.Pace yourself, climb steady and you'll reap the rewards. I would give this 5 stars but Ellen does "rush" it in a few places, and doesn't give enough warning to be careful with your lower back-- that's the only negative for me.

I have been so slack lately with my workouts, that I've lost all my tone and condition and am just starting back again. Even though I've done tougher workouts than this, this is a great way to either begin again, or just begin. It's tougher than it looks and each movement is fluid and easy. You are never stopping throughout the entire workout and so your heart rate also gets up there quite a bit. It's just under 30 minutes, and it incorporates a small warm up and cool down in that time. Ellen is a good, clear instructor and she's encouraging too without being annoying. The other two exercisers on the DVD are smiley and one is even showing that the same workout can be done without weights.I suggest light dumbbells to start with because you really are continuously moving your arms and so you don't want to be too fatigued too soon. As you do this more often, you'll be able to increase the weight. At the end of the DVD, she says that your energy level will be on high for quite some time after you're done, and she's not wrong. I do this workout on days where I've only gone for a 20 minute walk and I find that doing that little bit of cardio plus this 30 minute routine, is enough for busy days. I highly recommend this DVD.

This is one of my absolute favorite Ellen Barrett DVD's!!!! I already had a copy, but there were too many skips and it got to be impossible to use. So I ordered this replacement copy. Same thing, even though the vendor said it was a very clean copy with no scratches. When I played it, I got lots of skips. The two "Sleek Sculpt Express" DVDs are the only DVDs (exercise or other) where I have had this problem. Luckily, I have another DVD player , and using that device, "Sleek Sculpt Express" played flawlessly! So there must be something about how "Sleek Sculpt Express" was manufactured that makes the DVD a bit finicky, causing it to not play well on all DVD players. But I am happy that I found another DVD player that allows me to get this fabulous workout!

I have a large collection of Ellen workouts, but I think she has done her best work with this 30-minute DVD. I feel I worked as hard or harder in 30 minutes than I did with the previous longer workouts. Although this is primarily a sculpting workout, I felt my heart rate really rise during the segment where you have to plie and touch your dumbbells to the ground repeatedly. I would rate this as a solid intermediate with no time wasted; a lot of great compound movements. Ellen does all one side in the first 15 minutes and then you switch sides for the last 15 minutes. You get the same pleasant, airy set as her previous Live workouts with two background exercisers; one shows easier modifications. I used three-pound dumbbells throughout and I would not have wanted to go any higher for intensity or safety purposes for these mostly long-lever movements.There is no dedicated warm-up, but since this workout only uses light weights, I really didn't feel it was necessary. As an all-standing workout that emphasizes time efficiency, there is only a short cool-down and a few active stretches. However, when you are doing a 30-minute routine, something has to give.The music is better than a lot of Ellen's previous offerings and the sound volume is excellent. Ms. Barrett, as usual, is very polished and motivating.