Giveaway: Acacia's Exhale Core Fusion Bootcamp!

This giveaway is courtesy of Acacia, who offer a huge selction of clothing, jewelry, garden, home decor, and of course fitness products & dvds! Check out their huge selection of fitness dvds here. DVD categories include: general fitness, abs & core, tai chi, dance, pilates, pregnancy, martial arts, beginner, yoga, and more! Dont forget to check out their fitness apparel & accessories here. Acacia is the company that brings us the ever popular Exhale Core Fusion workouts!

Exhale Core Fusion Bootcamp

Fred DeVito & Elisabeth Halfpapp, 2010 

This is a 60 minute fusion workout led by husband & wife team, Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp. This workout is a blend of core focused pilates, yoga, and bootcamp-esque work. It contains a lot of core work, balance, strength, pilates, yoga, and cardio work. It is blended very well and had a wonderful flow. You will need a playground ball (I used an 8# weighted ball), light dumbbells (they use 3#'s), and a mat for this workout. Fred & Elisabeth & team workout barfoot & so did I- love that. The set is a nice room with hardwood floors and some drapery hung around. One b/g'er provides beginnner mods.

The dvd is divided up into six 10 minute segments, and you can "play all" or select an individual workout. The segments are: sun salutations, jump back 1, jump back 2, abdominal curl, back strengthening & stretch, and a bonus thighs & core segment. Each segment includes a lot of core work.

Sun Salutations: This segment is (of course) core focused and includes different sun salutation variations, lots of plank work, and some pulsing chair poses w/ tricep work.

Jump Back Part One: This segment includes a good amount of cardio & strength. Using a ball, you do pushups, planks, chair pose with tricep work, and of course the jump ups- similar to a squat thrust using the ball and including chair pose. My heartrate got up there nicely in this segment.

Jump Back Part Two: This cardio & strength segment is different from JBP1 but includes the moves above. In addition you will see tricep pushups, a lunge with a sidelift, and bicep work with a twist. My heartrate was elevated in this segment as well.

Abdominal Curl: This section is done on the floor and Fred provides a lot of good form pointers. I have neck issues so I performed these moves in a V sit as opposed to the lower hover they did. Using a dumbbell you perform some tough nonstop ab work- including roll-ups, moves similar to the pilates 100, and included oblique work as well.

Back Strengthening & Stretch: This is a nice little lower back & stretch segment done on the floor. Lower backs never get enough work IMO so I am always happy to get some in. It uses the ball & incorporates a lot of nice superman moves & spinal stretching.

Thighs & Core: This segment starts with a side lunge with a knee lift using the ball, then you move to the floor for some core work with your feet on the ball, V sits, oblique twists, crunch variations w/ the ball between the knees, and some bridge work with the ball between your knees.

I would rate this workout an intermediate fusion workout. It really does combine SO many elements in such a smooth flowing way. I felt a TON of core work, my heartrate got up, I got some yoga and pilates in, and some nice (mostly) body weight strength work in. This was a great way to spend a workout hour and NO SHOES- cant go wrong with that! I really like both Fred & Elisabeth as leads, they provided some great form pointers & explanations and their cueing was spot on. I am very impressed by this workout! Very unique.

I received a sample of this product to review. I was in no other way compensated for my honest review. All thoughts and ideas expressed are my own.