Accessories

Don't waste your money
If you've done some exercise before and are not morbidly obese, these exercises will be so easy and boring. The CD he made was equally boring. The exercises alone will not give you thin thighs, you actually have to *gasp* diet and do cardio if you want to lose weight. Doing these exercises for 8 minutes everyday won't get you anywhere. I wish I could get a refund for buying this.

Good for those Beginning or Returning to Exercise
Yet another kit by the #1 online weight-loss specialist, Jorge Cruise. Like previous packages Jorge guarantees readers and followers of his plan will lose 4" in less than 4 weeks (assuming you actually have that much to lose). This kit includes an instructional 39 minute audio disc and 26 daily workout cards.

Jorge's program involves a two step philosophy to "restore metabolism by creating new lean muscle in 8 minutes a day" by teaching you to help your body burn fat 24 hours a day. The program is divided into two steps.

Step one involves the 8 minute resistance training moves which come in three levels: gentle, challenging and advanced. Level one may require props such as a chair or table. Level two requires a chair, wall, and textbook. Level three requires a pillow or wall to complete the exercises. Each 8 minute routine includes four moves, each one taking a minute to perform. The four moves are repeated giving the full 8 minutes. This doesn't include the suggested 2 minute warm-up and cool down.

The hips and thighs are worked on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays, the chest, upper back, biceps and triceps are worked. Thursdays the belly, lower back, shoulders and calves are worked. Saturday is for muscle lengthening and stretching and Sundays is a day of rest.

Step 2 involves meal planning with muscle building choices by using the Cruise Down Plate (a way of visually seeing your food portions on the plate) and of course eating nutritionally and not emotionally. Besides the meals this step includes daily visualizations to get "emotionally fit". Eating requires some basic rules we've heard before: eat three meal a day, 2 snacks and 1 treat; eat every three hours; eat breakfast within one hour of rising and stop eating three hours before bed. The final step of the plan is journaling progress, thoughts and feelings every Sunday.

Like any new routine this in not a weigh loss or body shaping cure but with diligence the user will see results. The exercises are easy to understand but I think they are more for beginning exercisers than advanced ones. The meal planning offers an easy approach to controlling portions which makes sense and is doable. Other than the title I think this is a helpful and productive method of increasing one's muscular stamina and improving one's overall health. Like anything, the kit works as long as the user continues using it and it still requires internal motivations. The kit is a reasonably inexpensive way to learn how to exercise with little financial output for fancy equipment and little effort but still see some results. I recommend this kit to anyone who hasn't exercised in some time and wants to change that. 8 minutes a day (or 12 in this case) is doable.

The CD Breakdown:

-Intro/Welcome
-Get Read to Start
-How to Lose 4" in 4 weeks
-Kit Overview
-Your New Life
-Your Challenge

Reviewed by M. E. Wood.