New At-Home Workouts—We Tried Them!

Jari Love’s Extremely Ripped 1000 Hardcore

Jari Love

This fast, furious and exceptionally sweaty workout is like a flashback to the step classes of yore. The premise here is that if you can survive the 60 minutes, you’ll burn up to a thousand calories, something that would take you the equivalent of 5.5 hours of yoga, 3 hours of walking or 2 hours of Zumba to achieve otherwise. The claim seems dubious until you’re halfway through the warm up and realize you’re already gargling your heart in your throat.

There’s nothing fancy here, just some good old fashioned stepping and iron pumping. Yes you’ve seen all of these moves before but that doesn’t make them any less effective. After six continuous sets of triceps presses and curtsey lunges you won’t have to ask which muscle groups are working—your trembling arms, legs and butt will tell the tale. True novices should heed Love’s advice to stay at “Level One” until you’re ready for more. Even the beginner versions of moves will be challenging for actual beginners.   

The on screen instructions sometimes obscure the bottom half of the screen for too long so you can’t always see what you’re supposed to be doing with your feet but that’s a minor quibble. If you aren’t ready for the full throttle 60-minutes, you can break up the workout into shorter segments.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a meal plan, you won’t find one here. Just get through the hour, incinerate those thousand calories then don’t worry about the carb count in your morning muffin.  

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Cost: $14.95 for the one program DVD.

To order: jarilove.com