Filming/presentation: Bright and very open, not kind of cramped like the originals. For most of the DVDs, it's DDP in front w/ 2 people behind him. For a few of them there's 4 people behind him. First person to the right is always the modification person to follow. When there's 4 people, especially on the Core tape, the two guys in the back are kicking it up a bit. In the lower right hand corner is a count down clock to let you know how long is left. I liked that personally. There are also messages across the bottom, think CNN/FoxNews text, that shows the move names and has reminders pop up to modify if you need to and to check a heart rate when you might need to.
Yoga Doc and Angela, the ripped black chick w/ the tig ol' bitties are the only ones from the originals and are only in a couple DVDs each. DDP makes a point of saying in almost all of the DVDs that these are not fitness models, they're real people.
Which gives us the opportunity for new Yoga Babes: Little chick w/ a great rack, she's the first transformation on the yrgfitness.com site. She's in two DVDs, i thought she was just eye candy but she cranks out fingertip pushups on one.
A brunette w/ in one video looks damn good, but in another looks very house frau-ish. A dirty blonde w/ a big rack is in a couple as well and is pleasing to the eye.I got the basic 5 plus an additional three on an impulse, I've watched or fast forwarded through all of them and done the Fat Burner, here are my initial impressions and I'll add as I actually do the others if that impression changes. What I have not done is thought about comparing say the Fat Burner to Below The Belt to Strength Builder to Stand Up as they're all about same length 25-35 min. Probably 80-85% of the moves are the same as the original dvds but the sequencing/pacing is often very different.
Diamond Dozen/Energy
Intro level DVD, comparable to the old 20 min workouts. I have not gone through all of the Diamond Dozen as it looked to be more instructional in nature. The 13 moves that make up the Diamond Dozen will mostly be very familiar to owners of the old DVDs, but 4 of them will be "new", they're really twists/additions, we do them in class weekly. Energy is the workout. Art's in it. Very much the equal to the 20 min workouts, if you're new to YRG, you'll use this a lot, if you've been using the others for a while, you probably won't use this DVD much or could use the dozen as your practice if you don't want to pop in a dvd or are travelling. you get a poster of them w/ the package.
Fat Burner
25 min long. I found the guy in the background to be a bit of a tool, distracting and he was struggling. This is the one w/ the brunette where I think she looks good. As is stated in the ad copy, the Diamond Dozen is the foundation for all of these but w/ new twists, sequencing and combinations to keep it interesting. Some new stuff in there that I've never seen. I didn't find it that hard but will probably become one of my go to's as a warm up on KB days.
Core
12 min. Yoga Doc's in this one. So's the little sprite w/ the great rack, another lady and big, ripped black dude. Mostly leg raisers, variations on those, some stuff from yoga doc's dvd and new stuff i've never seen. Going home on all these is pretty much the standard from the original dvds. This is the one where I really noted that the guys in the back ground are really doing different stuff than DDP and the ladies, what they do is usually up a notch from DDP, while the ladies typically do a notch below him. From the pamphlet that comes w/ it, it looks like this is intended to be paired w/ some of the others, which I was planning on doing anyway.
Below the Belt
about 30 min. Different focus than the others as it's more about the legs, new twist, literally, on thunderbolt. Sonnon's 4CBD becomes a hood ornament. New table sequence too.
Diamond Cutter
50 min. Yoga doc and a new set of real people. Equivalent to the old far burner plus. For all of these, the moves are for the most part the same, but the pacing differs quite a bit, as does the sequencing from the old DVDs. Several new moves or variations in here. As well as new YRG-ized versions of regular yoga moves.
the Extras
Strength Builder
35 min, old standard kicked up a notch. New version of awkward airplane that i've never seen. Just as an example of how things are the same, but different, Wrap and Burn isn't in the Diamond Cutter (but was in the old Fat Burner +), but is in this DVD.
Stand Up
30 min, a lot of balancing, one legged stuff. I think it's going to be harder than it looks. This would be a good time to mention that in all of these, you can see sweat running off people and they're falling a lot in this one, which is kind of cool.
Double Black Diamond
70 min, this is supposed to be the big one. Looks pretty challenging. Art's back!! Again, most of it is the standard stuff, just paced differently. A couple new to YRG moves, but are known in yoga. Just looking at it, I don't think it'll be much beyond a typical class, but is probably a good bit beyond the old fat burner+, IMO.
Overall: Mostly the same moves, w/ some new ones and new twists. It's good for me to see new combinations, some new stuff and have the 25-35 min canned stuff will come in handy. Toss in the mat I got w/ the extras and the heart rate monitor, and it was very worth it for me, but I'm kind of in the can for YRG. DO NOT BUY THIS ON MY RECO ALONE, READ OTHERS TOO. If you have the original DVDs and think the fat burner or fat burner+ are hard, several these will be good twists and/or challenging. If you think those are easy, these will probably be more fun for the twists and new ideas, but the Diamond Cutter is probably a notch above the old Fat Burner+, even though it's 10 min shorter.
One thing that got on my nerves is DDP does this growl-chuckle that was annoying me by the end but might just be me and I'd watched like 3 hours straight of YRG DVD's by that point.
It's funny, there's things in here that we don't do in class and there's things in class that aren't on here. One thing I do like that DDP does on several of the DVDs, is out of the blue, he'll pop into a pose that's a step beyond what they're doing and he'll look at the camera and say "Always somewhere else to go w/ this."
I hope all ya'll find this useful.
