Many of you are already aware of the Skinny Bitch franchise, a series of books written by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin, and published by Running Press, that promote a total health approach for women — body, mind, and soul. Now, in the Skinny Bitch Fitness DVD series, produced by Warner Brothers Entertainment, Rory and Kim offer a no-frills way to help fans of the books work on the physical portion of the self-image triad.
As I stretched out to give the Skinny Bitch Fitness: Body DVD a whirl, a question occurred to me: As a man, could I possibly review a workout video exclusively targeted to women? Was I truly qualified to offer an informed opinion considering that I could never become a skinny bitch? Compromising, I promised myself that I would endeavor to use the video to become the best skinny bastard possible, and I set myself to dive into the workouts.
Selecting “Play All” from the easy-to-read main menu, I was immediately presented with something fresh and new. Skinny Bitch Fitness: Body is the first workout video I have seen that contains a liberal amount of cursing, and not only in the title pejorative. I’m not sure I ever would become used to hearing Rory and Kim - as they lead the routines - refer to both viewers and their on-screen workout partners as “bitches,” but, to each their own. The peppering of vulgarity was a mild annoyance in comparison to the looped background music, similar in style, tempo, and beat to the pre-loaded ringtones on my cell phone. Really, though, these things are not integral to the video’s mission – body improvement.
The routines themselves are low impact, consisting of calisthenics and light aerobics with a good range of movement and tempo. They are exciting enough to give those who have taken time off from exercise a chance to break a sweat and revive a few muscles. A great bonus is that the exercises do not require any equipment. With so many other videos on the market that require balls, weights, and other accessories to spend money on, this has to be considered a plus.
The video is broken into five main sections. The first four are exercise - abdominals, legs, arms, and ass (yes, ass, is the text on the title board) - of twenty minutes each, they are easy to break up and use as a cycle that fits into a busy schedule. But Rory and Kim often set a subpar model for the exercises to be followed, falling out of synch and not demonstrating good form. By taking two steps backward, and putting a professional fitness instructor at the front of the routines, the workouts would have been easier to follow and therefore more productive. A meditation segment rounds out the selections; useful as a cool-down after any combination of the other sections, or just something to help unwind and gain focus.
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