Tonique 2 Fitness Workout - Sylwia Wiesenberg DVD

This is my 2nd "Tonique" workout, the first being the incredible "Tonique Mat Workout." Wow. Though incredibly tough, I enjoyed the mat workout experience and results so much that when it became time to retire it (temporarily, though...I will DEFINITELY be pulling that one out again and again in the future...what a treasure!) due to sheer number of times I've done it, I immediately knew I wanted to try another Tonique workout. I decided to try a non-mat one this time, and eventually settled on this one.Wow!! Once again, Sylwia blows me away. This DVD contains 2 workouts on 2 discs. Both workouts are "short" at about 50 minutes each. :-) And oh my, does she pack a lot into those 50 minutes!! Both workouts are a blend of intense toning and cardio. (As of right now, I've only done the first workout. I've viewed the second workout a couple of times, but I aim to perform the first one to exhaustion, and then move on to the second. When I do the second, I'll update my review.) The workout has no built-in warm-up or cooldown, but there is a bonus segment (the exact same one on her Mat Workout) that can used as either a warm-up or a cooldown. I personally like using it as a cooldown because of the really nice stretches near the end of it.The Disc One workout begins with about 9 or 10 minutes of pretty aggressive, very high impact cardio. You begin with criss-cross jumping jacks, then an alternating knee-to-elbow crunch that is then performed on one side only, and then the other (this is very tough for me!). You also jog in place, both kicking your legs back to meet your butt and the (dreaded!) high knee run, where you put your weight back and bring your knees up high, parallel to the ground. Whew! The cardio seems to have a high intensity/low intensity flow, where you'll do high knee runs for example, then bring it down to a low jog, then back up to a high knee run, then down to moderate-paced jumping jacks with hands on hips, and so on. So, in summary, 10 minutes of a very fast elevator ride to a heightened heart rate and sweatiness! This is my least fave part of the whole workout, it's nothing but work, but dang if it ain't effective! And it's not long at all. I push through 9 minutes of hell to get to the fun. It's CRAZY TOUGH fun, but oh how I love it!You then grab your 2 lbs. weights and get to work. You start with simple wide squats with a bicep curl. Lots of reps, and you're already sweating and panting, so the burn kicks in quick, and you know you're in trouble already! The next 2 moves are done on one leg at a time, and they are my least favorite of the toning moves. You start with a narrow squat bringing the weights down, and then raise your right leg straight out to the side while lifting the weights up over your head. After about 30 or so reps of this, you then take it to the next level where you do a narrow squat with weights down, lift your right leg straight out to the side with weights overhead, then drop the right leg behind you in a diagonal curtsey with weights down, back out to the side with weights up and then down in a closed leg squat again. This move looks fun to me when watching, but I struggle with keeping my balance (and I have decent balance) and I just can't go nearly as fast as her and retain good form. I think I'm just too tall! She has to be about 5'4" at the most, and I am 6'0". I just can't whip my long limbs around that fast! No big deal, it's not the first time. I just go slower, but I still don't really care for this move. I don't know, something about it... It's the only one that I really don't like! Oh well, I'll figure something out! :-)The rest of this workout is golden. It is mostly lower-body focused, so you get several squat variations, squat pulses (these, naturally, come at a point where my butt was already liquid fire...don't know how I get through those!!), lunges, curtsey lunges, side lunges that transform into side lunges with a kick, and all of this interspersed with a few lower-body-focused cardio moves such as air jacks (you know, those darn tough jumping jacks where you explode off the ground and make an "X" with your body in the air) and plyo jumps. There is a sprinkling of upper body toning as well, not as much as the second workout, but it's there, and it'll burn a bit. 2 lbs. weights and my arms were on fire after about 25 reps or so!! Your arms are often holding weights and moving while you work your lower body. You will do bent and straight arm flies, and there are a couple moves where you put both weights in one hand and move your arm from the middle of your navel out to the side while bent slightly over, then down to the ground and up above your head while doing side lunges with a kick. So fun, so tough!By the time I get to the final home stretch with the dips with a hop, I am BURNING and struggling to pull through. What a workout! After this workout, I usually pop in a 10 Minute Solution DVD and hit my abs, and I'm shocked to feel that my abs are already a little sore! Not sure exactly what burns them out like that as there are no abs in this workout, but I guess all that knee raising that goes on the early cardio section and the dips and lunge-taps near the end really works my core. So, bonus! :-)UPDATE (04/18/14): After wearing out the Disc One workout good and well, I finally moved on to the Disc Two workout. It is similar to the first in the fact that it is largely lower-body-focused, but Workout Two is basically a cardio workout with upper body toning towards the end. Beacause it is more cardio, I don't enjoy this workout as much as Workout One. I like and always incorporate cardio into my workouts, but I enjoy sculpting more than cardio, and I prefer Tonique's deep, hard sculpting with some cardio thrown in, like with Workout One. This one has some kickboxing in the beginning (I love kickboxing...totally beats high-knee runs in the fun factor!). Though it is cardio, there is still lots of lower body work (including a tough but cool-looking curtsey behind, swing leg around and curtsey to front move) such as a few squats (not as many as in Workout One), plyo/power squats, and switching CROSS/CURTSEY lunge jumps, which definitely put a unique and more challenging spin on the normal lunge hop. Though this workout is definitely an effective lower-body toner, again, it's more cardio, so you'll get a butt/leg burn, oh yes, but I didn't get that deep, deep, complete muscle fatigue burn like I do on Workout One. After Workout One, I could barely make it up the two flights of stairs to the shower. But with Workout Two, the steps burn, but not that much. :-) But heartrate jacked? Check! Calories torched? Check! Balance challenged? Double-check! :-) And on top of this, enough squats, lunges and hops to still get in a good lower half workout. Towards the end, we get some stationary arm work, high rep, lite weights. My arms burned with this! So again, a nice little bonus! And all this under an hour! Lovely!The set is the exact same one as in her Mat Workout. Not a fan of the set, but with Sylwia leading and all these awesome exercises to do, who cares? :-) I don't care for the music here, so I lower the volume and play my own music. It makes the time go by so much faster, and, for some reason, causes me to hang in longer for more reps. The only thing that sucks about lowering her volume is that I often miss her incredibly inspiring and motivating little comments! :-) : "Hold your stomach in! French and Polish women don't have stomach!" That's one of my favorites!And the results? Well, I've been generally in great shape for the past 10 years, but after what her Mat Workout did to my body...yeah, wow. KILLER curves. I'm devoted.So, in summary, another awesome Tonique workout from Sylwia Wiesenberg. This is only my 2nd workout from her, but it will NOT be the last.

This is a good workout. Actually there are two on here. The first one is more lower body sculpting focused, but it still has cardio. The second workout is cardio focused, but is supposed to work the lower body as well. I have done the first workout, so that's what the review is about, but I'll try to remember to update it after I try the second workout, too.The warm-up has some familiar stretches and some unique,almost mystical ones. She spends a decent amount of time stretching you, though I usually stretch before a workout anyway just to be on the safe side.The first time I did the workout I thought it would never end. LOL I normally work out for an hour, so the time wasn't the problem. It was all the repetition. Effective to be sure, but it felt tedious the first time. She does a crap-ton of squats and variations. The first time I did the DVD I did most of the squats, but during some of them I did other moves instead like deadlifts, glute squeezes, donkey kicks, Superman, etc. It doesn't really matter if you follow the workout exactly or do similar moves for that body part, just so long as you exercise, try to have good form, and keep moving.I was sore the next day, and I say that as someone who loves to train her booty and legs more than any other body part. I usually work the tush and limbs for an hour once a week in the gym and I try to do a lower body focused DVD at home on a different day. Well, my glutes and thighs were sore the next day. She does some common moves and some not so common ones and it wakes your buns up.One move that was new to me was this sort of curtsy side lunge thing. It's kind of fun, but you have to be careful. If you're not paying attention I can see the knees going over the toes and that's not good. I try to focus on good form more than keeping up since that comes with time.The second time I did the workout it flew by. I'm not kidding. This time I followed her squat-loving moves for the most part, using weights even on some of the weird moves. I still did some deadlifts and a few others moves while she was getting a little interesting on some of the moves, but not as much deviation from the workout as last time. This time I followed her more. I think the reason the workout was more enjoyable this time (if we want to use that word in the context of exercise), is because I remembered how effective it was from last time, and I was fueled by frozen coffee and determination. (I ate good afterward.)If you have bad knees or squats make you wish you were dead, then you'll hate this DVD. If however, you love working your lower body or are just determined to removed some of the junk in your trunk and want to firm up and throw in some carido to boot, you'll probably really like this workout. First time was boring and endless. After that was good.UPDATE: I tried the cardio workout and it is just as good as the other workout on here. The cardio workout does some lower body work, too, but there's more jumping and stuff to get your heart rate up, whereas the leg workout has a little cardio but focuses mainly on working the legs and glutes. Both decent workouts.

This is the second Sylwia Wiesenberg DVD that I have purchased (purchased the Premier DVD previously). This is just as challenging as Premier, with some similar moves. If you can complete all the repetitions on your first try, you are probably an Olympic level athlete. My heart and breathing rates really go up when doing these workouts and I really feel like I've accomplished something. These workouts are very challenging, even for those who workout on a daily basis. But, the moves are very do-able and the challenge offers you some room for growth (do a lesser number of reps and work up to the full thirty, or do just half a workout and work up to the whole hour, etc.) As others have mentioned (and as Sylwia warns in writing at the beginning of the video) if you have any joint problems, back or neck problems, don't do this workout. It will aggravate these issues. Even if you don't have any joint concerns, be smart and do the warm up and cool down sections to stretch and soothe your muscles and joints.The other great part about Tonique 2 is that there is no voice over - Sylwia talks during the workout and gives words of wisdom, encouragement and pointers. The cinematography is not up to the level of Premier, but you get more of a feeling of who Sylwia is and why she is so passionate about movement. I have also just ordered the Mat workout and can't wait to try it out. Thanks Sylwia for making these challenging workouts - I am hoping to push past my exercise plateau and these should certainly do the trick.