Davina - Body Buff [DVD]

Body Buff is definitely the best Davina yet. Like other reviewers, I quite liked Davina Fit but found there was something missing - it just wasn't challenging enough. This is not the case here. All over body toning, with a particular focus on the core, is integrated throughout this dvd. Old moves are given a refreshing & exciting new twist and new moves are introduced. I've tried all the Davina workouts (except the prenatal) along with upward of 50 fitness dvds in the last 2 years: Jillian Michaels, Jeanette Jenkins, Cathe Friedrich, The Firm, Ellen Barrett, Rodney Yee, Shiva Rea, to name just a few. Yet I started off with Davina and I always seem to come back to her, Superbody and High Energy Five being my favourites before this dvd. I would highly recommend this dvd, for beginners, intermediate exercisers and Davina fans alike. For those who find her annoying, there are virtually no annoying bits in Body Buff, although there are quite a few funny moments and Mark is HILARIOUS!This breakdown will hopefully complete the dvd info for Body Buff:Warm up - nearly 10 minutes long, seems shorter: the moves are NOT repeated over and over (unlike High Energy Five, same length, yet seemed longer). Integrates the core.Boxing - led by Jackie. Leaves you satisfied that you've worked your whole body and got your heart rate up. Flows very well and the routine isn't repeated, you're not left thinking "oh, I've got to do all that over again now", like in the Superfit routine of Superbody. Jackie's cueing starts off brilliantly, but could be better towards the middle and end, where she doesn't always introduce the move before you do it, or repeat her usual "punch, punch, kick, kick, etc". You march between each set, but you could run if you wanted a higher intensity workout. To make it tougher, you could also use light handweights (1-1.5kg) or weighted gloves to work the arms, back and core even more. The abs work at the end of the boxing would make even Jillian Michaels jealous. It is very short but extremely effective, some traditional crunches are given a new twist. Works the transverse really well, along with the more superficial abdominal muscles.Cardio - led by Jackie gets your heart pumping in interval style sets. The intervals are high intensity, although the sets in between are not necessarily low intensity. There is a bit of marching (or rather standing around in the case of Davina!) between each set. The last five minutes of the cardio (20 minutes in) repeat some of the moves done at the beginning, and there is a quite funny minute of freestyle at the end where you can dance, run, fling your arms around and do whatever you like. Moves integrate back kicks, squats and lunges to work the whole body. Some dancy moves too. Sometimes easier options aren't shown, but Davina fans will know how to do this from previous dvds.Legs & Core - led by Mark with cardio intervals. Jackie shows the low intensity cardio for most but not all of the intervals. Extremely effective, no over the top repetition (Mark admits the 200 pliés in Davina fit was a bit too much and I can only agree). A mix of leg & bum work with core, you'll do a side lunge swinging your arms above your head & balancing on one leg as you come up. Some good plyometric moves, but without a lower intensity option, which could put a few beginners off (3 rep lunge then jump & change; ski squat jumping).Arms - no intervals here, but some low intensity cardio is mixed into the arm moves (marching or stepping back). You'll find some of the old style moves at the beginning, with balance and core moves mixed in after this. Legs & bum are also worked in some squat moves. Mark leads us with HIS right, which is OUR left(again!) , but if you're used to this it's not a problem. Definitely gets you sweating.Abs - pilates inspired and I loved it. Although I liked super sixpack from the Superbody workout, that was nothing compared to this. The moves are again designed to work all the core muscles and especialy the tranverse, and so flatten your tummy, rather than build bulk. This would be made even better if beginner advice was given - keep the legs higher off the ground rather than lowering them all the way down (for some pilates style moves), or perhaps tips for the more advanced (head & shoulders off the floor for the single straight leg stretch).Stretch - the 1st five minutes is the usual standing stretches, followed by a deep yoga inspired stretch starting on the knees. No sun salutations or yoga breath here. Yoga fans will find crescent-moon pose, child pose, a warrior style pose, down dog & up dog as well as some twists. No yoga terminology used. It's just a really deep and effective all over body stretch and is particularly nice on the back. Beware Mark's right is our left! (could complicate the sitting twist at the end!)Nutrition - extremely refreshing attitude from Davina, it's not about being skinny but about feeling good & being healthy, so different to many fitness dvds where the emphasis is mainly on fitting into a size 10 pair of jeans. Davina goes to visit Meg Mathews and shows you around her house (you'll either love or hate her style). Not sure whether Meg Mathews represents the typical working mother, there's definitely a lot of botox & lip work going on there, but her nutritionist looks healthy and beautiful, and not stick thin. The advice is DO NOT DIET, just eat healthily and don't skip meals. All foods are superfoods and you need a bit of everything in your diet. Very refreshing.I was a bit disappointed at first that there was no matrix option to choose & play the routine you wanted, but find now that it's better like this - you come back to the workout menu after every workout and then choose what you want to do next. So instead of being over/under ambitious, you choose what you want to do next depending on how you're feeling AFTER each part. There is a mostly music option, so you don't have to listen to the chit chat.The set worried me at first, with the light sabres and screens (similar to Power of three set). Yet the lighting is perfect and the set fits well with the selected (quite dancy) music. I wasn't too keen on some of the songs before, but found they worked extremely well with the workout and got you motivated. The theme song of the dvd is Taio Cruz Break your heart (Paul Thomas Remix), which is also used for the warm up. The other songs are:Cardio:- Flashback, Calvin Harris- Nothing better, Eddie Thoneick & Erick Morillo- Blackwater, Carl Kennedy & Tommy Trash- Hey Hey, Dennis Ferrer- Afterlife, Black IrisBoxing:- Let the Bass Kick in Miami Girl, Chuckie & LMFAO- I can't stop (David Penn Remix), Sandy Rivera- Remedy, Little Boots- I feel love (original Club Mix), MYNC & Rhythm Masters- I wish (Radio Edit), Mini VivaLegs & Core:- Om, Danism- Toda menina Baiana, Gilberto Gil- My baby left me, Rox- Ridin' solo, Jason DerûloArms:- One Drum, Copyright- Desire, Michael CanitrotAbs:- Down River, The Temper Trap- Sweet Harmony, The BelovedStretch:- Sao Paulo, Morcheeba- The Ballad of Paul & John, Torch Song

Like many reviewers, I enjoyed Davina's Super Body Workout. One shortfall for me, however, was that the warm ups and cool downs were built into separate workouts, which made for a lot of tedious fast-forwarding if you wanted to do a few in a row.Body buff has individual warm up and cool down options in the menu, and I find this much more useful. The cool down begins with a basic session, and you can continue on to a more advanced stretch if you like - this extended cool down is brilliant, I quite often use if after different, Davina-free workouts - I never suffer any aches and pains if I finish my workout with this, and it's probably worth buying for this alone.The workouts themselves are mostly pretty good. I was slightly annoyed that the cardio workout in Super Body was just one 10 minute session repeated - a couple of exercises are repeated here, but overall it's much better. The boxing workout is also pretty good, and makes a good alternative to the cardio session (or addition if you're up for it). As with most dvds, the legs, abs and arms sections are only as hard as you make them - particularly with the abs section I feel I really need to concentrate on my core to feel much effect.I only have a few criticisms after many uses of this dvd. One thing that always irks me is when exercises aren't repeated an equal number of times on each side - this dvd is only a minor offender. The obvious one is at the start of the boxing section, which is easily spotted and probably doesn't make much difference, but the less obvious one is in the cardio workout which features a lot of jogging on the spot with various different arm movements. It took me a long time to notice that the reason my right calf was aching was not because of an injury, but because the downward arm movements all happen as you step on the right leg. I've since started speeding up the arm movements, or switching legs halfway through, and it's no longer a problem. I doubt many buyers will have this problem - I've used this dvd a LOT - but it's worth mentioning as I was convinced I had some kind of injury for quite a while, and it's the sort of thing I expect dvd makers to consider, particularly the Davina range which has a number of fans who use the workouts over long periods.Anyway, in spite of this, and some of the chat becoming a bit repetitive (mostly music has so little instruction as to be useless), this is still a great dvd. I've used it consistently for about 6 months, I'm undoubtedly fitter as a result, and it's got me to a level of fitness where I can do other activities like running or cycling that I just didn't have the stamina for before. I've never kept any kind of fitness regime up for as long as this, and for that it deserves a lot of praise.