LITTLE ROCK — Nicole Nichols is already a fixture on many a small screen.
More than 200,000 people have participated in “Coach Nicole’s” boot camps on SparkPeople, an online “weight-loss and fitness community.” And her YouTube videos have been viewed more than 16 million times.
Now the online fitness trainer is moving to another small screen: television. Her debut fitness DVD SparkPeople: 28-Day Boot Camp ($16.99 from Acacia) hits stores Dec. 27. The DVD offers a number of perks that people visit the website for, such as recipes, fat-burning tips, seated exercises for your abdominals that can be done at your desk, even meal plans.
Viewers can pick and choose from 12-, 20- or 30-minute routines (there are also warm-up and cool-down sessions) or follow a 28-day workout plan. The 28-day plan progresses from just one or two simple routines to a combination of several. So an exerciser goes from working out about 20 minutes a few times a week in Week One to several 40- to 60-minute sessions in Week Four.
Each of the routines has three “intensity levels.” Exercisers, in other words, can follow along to the basic moves or make them harder. (There’s a specific person to watch for cues; viewers aren’t left to their own devices.)
The workouts also follow a progression. The six-minute warm-up includes toe taps, marches and other traveling moves to warm the muscles. The 12-minute “Cardio Burst” has more aerobics standards, such as the grapevine, lunges, scissors and jumping jacks.
The programs build slowly in intensity. The shorter ones probably won’t be challenging to those who work out regularly but will be perfect for those who want short workouts or who are trying to get back into the swing of things.
The “Short Cardio Sculpt” routine, also 12 minutes, uses a mix of dumbbell exercises and those designed to get the heart pumping harder. Many of the moves are done jointly. For instance, lunge backs are done with biceps curls and squats with shoulder presses. The 20-minute “Tone and Burn” kicks things up a notch. There’s more pivoting and moves that require a greater degree of balance.
The “Total Body Challenge” is a kettle-bell-inspired workout that’s the most challenging of the bunch. Exercisers lift and swing the weights more and have to stick with it longer. The routine is 30 minutes.
The program is designed to get exercisers to stick with it. Nichols is a solid coach and does well explaining moves, critiquing form and providing instruction. By giving so many extras and a program, not just a DVD, the creators clearly thought about trying to mimic the online community support those who use the website seek. The extra efforts all help make the transition from computer to television pretty seamless.
ActiveStyle, Pages 32 on 11/14/2011