The Art Of Strength: Providence
We Take A Look At The First Work-Along-With-Your-Coach Kettlebells DVD (continued... )
But don't think you'll get bored. As the workout progresses, the single exercises become combinations and then it starts to get interesting.
As you can see in the chart below, Anthony covers quite a versatile list of exercises, sure to keep your central nervous system from getting board. It is a nice balanced blend of grinds and ballistics. While it is good to sometimes focus strictly on grinds and other times strictly on ballistics, a blended workout like this one definitely has its place. Personally, I believe that the average person just starting out with kettlebells will find this blended workout more exciting and thus will likely be more motivated to work out regularly with kettlebells.
The DVD consists of a brief warmup session followed by 15 sets. Each set lasts two minutes (which, on some of the exercises, can seem like a very long time!) and is separated by one minute of rest (which can seem very short!).
To help you know exactly where you are in the two minute set, on the left side of the television screen is a red vertical time bar. As the time elapses, the red fill works its way down toward the zero mark. When you first start working out with "The Art of Strength: Providence", you may find yourself watching half of the timer run out from the sidelines while you try to catch your breath. But by workouts 2, 3, and 4, hopefully you'll be working right along with Anthony rep by rep. Until then, since the time bar is sectioned off into 3 or 4 parts (depending on the set), use it to tell you when you should stop, depending on your skill level. For example, a beginner may choose to only work out until the bar has elapsed half way and then make it his or her immediate goal to last 2/3 or 3/4 of the bar next time.
Just about every work-along type of DVD comes with a soundtrack. "The Art of Strength: Providence" comes with two, as well as the option to not have a soundtrack, for those of you needing no auditory stimulation to help you stay motivated. The default track is instrumental. The other track that you can choose, other than the boring "no music" choice, is the same track with vocals. It has more of a hip-hop / R&B flavor, courtesy of Rod Strong, one of New England's most sought after club DJs. While, in my opinion, the instrumental default is a little on the boring side (but I guess you need something mild, since this DVD has to please all sorts of people and tastes), the vocal edition is much more enjoyable. It has just enough of the attitude to keep you pumped and into your workout. Good stuff... Rod does a good job.
The Exercises
Intro: Joint mobility warm up
Round 1: 2-handed swing, one arm swing, hand-to-hand swing
Round 2: Cleans
Round 3: Chest presses
Round 4: Squats/sumo deadlifts
Round 5: One leg deadlift
Round 6: Windmills into an overhead squat
Round 7: clean and press
Round 8: Flip and squat
Round 9: Tactical lunges
Round 10: Triple crush
Round 11: Sling shot into a figure 8 with a static hold
Round 12: Seated press
Round 13: One arm row
Round 14: Pullovers, Russian twists, Sicilian crunch
Round 15: 3 minute snatch test
The entire workout takes place in a scenic riverside section in what I assume is downtown Providence, Rhode Island, in the early morning. The occassional person walking by or passing car provides just enough distraction to keep you from getting bored visually.
This DVD shows the workout through the lens of two cameras. Again, the cuts between the two cameras give you just enough variety so that you don't get too bored. The cuts between the two cameras is not just for aesthetics though. Watching Anthony work out from different angles gives the viewer a better of idea of the proper and safe technique for each of the exercises. The quality of the lighting and the post-production work is tastefully and professionally done, contrary to the normal standard of many homemade workout or instructional videos. The sound is on par. The video is a tad on the fuzzy side... but it's really not bad at all. Honestly, this is probably the most professional quality fitness video I've yet to see.
Between each set is a one-minute break. An animated graphic appears on the screen and you are notified of the next exercise. Once in a while a tip will pop up. However, I do wish that this break period put up various tips throughout the entire DVD. Just a little factoid every few seconds during the break would have been, in my opinion, a good use of dead time. In fact, it would've been even cooler if there was an option on the DVD where factoids would pop up constantly throughout the workout. Not a necessity for sure, but it'd be on my wishlist. No big deal though... the video is great the way it is.
If you can last through the entire workout, stick around for the credits... there's a handful of bloopers that occured during filming of the DVD.
I have two suggestions that I feel could've made this DVD just a little better (other than my pop-up factoid suggestion). The first has to do with the menu layout. The "Practice" section is placed after the "Workout" section. Seems to me that it would have better to place it before the "Workout" section. It would be fine and logical to have "Workout" be the default choice, of course... but moving the "Practice" section up would help the beginner to see that it would be best to familiarize himself with the moves, at least briefly, before starting the workout. Since the "Workout" choice would be the default, there'd be no harm anyway... I just think logically, "Practice" should come first. Another thing is that the "Practice" section is basically just the DVD chapters. I personally would have liked to see a separate menu item called "Chapters" (which is pretty standard) and then, for the "Practice" section, have a little supplemental instruction for the various exercises done in the workout. Of course, everything that I just said in this paragraph is just my own personal opinion... the DVD is fantastic with or without these changes.
In summary, I'd like to leave you with this... If you don't have "The Art of Strength: Providence", you should get it. Every beginner should most definitely have this in their video library. It'll give the newbie a headstart in figuring out some good quality routines (or just enjoy following this one) as well as help them overcome any initial anxiety and intimidation by their brand new kettlebell. For the intermediate kettlebell user, this DVD will keep you from getting bored and well help you guage your success. For the expert girevik, you may find this helpful to have when you reach a plateau. Since you already have your set routine, following this workout will force you to change up your workout once in a while.
You won't be sorry for buying this high-quality product. Anthony Deluglio is a very experienced and knowlegeable kettlebell instructor and, for the price of a fraction of an hour of personal instruction, you can have him leading you in a good, hard workout anytime you want.
I rate this a strong 4.5 out of 5 poods. Get "The Art of Strength: Providence" today! I wish I had gotten it sooner.
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Published November 14, 2006
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