I bought Red Carpet Ready and read all 112 pages. I didn't buy it until I saw the first negative review, then the curiosity was just killing me. I found the pictures of tiny weights slightly unnerving (ok, totally unnerving), but the structure of the total-body circuits is good, the quality and variety of exercises is good - T push-ups, single leg Romanian deadlifts, single-leg reaching lunges, sliding side lunges, sliding planks. It's the stuff of my physical therapy nightmares mixed up with basic exercises like bicep curls and chest presses. Right now, I like the idea of the extended 50-60 minute, high heart rate strength circuits. I've been doing brief, heavy workouts for enough months that I'm looking forward to shaking it up with some longer, calorie-burning endurance workouts for a few weeks. Would I want to do this kind of thing year-round? No, probably not. Is it for everybody? Definitely not. Most women NEED to gain some muscle size and strength and you'll get there faster by going heavier. Will this entertain me for 6 weeks? Pretty sure it will. I was going to start it today, but I have the freakin flu! Fever, chills, aches, congestion, the whole thing. Bleh.
Anyway, if you're a hardcore, go heavy or go home, put me on the cover of Oxygen type lifter, if you love bodybuilding splits, if you dream of competing in fitness or figure, if you're a Crossfitter who can bench press a house, if you have to work your ass off to gain any muscle at all, avoid Red Carpet Ready. Avoid. Avoid. It's for getting smaller, for emphasizing definition over size, for women who tend to bulk up freak easily from traditional strength training, for women who need to achieve a lean but not overly muscled look for a job (models, actresses), or for trainers who need programming ideas to use with clients who flip the frack out over any possibility of "bulk." Or, in my case, it's for the curious and mischief-prone. The greater volume of exercises and longer-duration circuits might bring out some more definition. The numerous weird, balancing leg exercises will be good for my knee strength and stability. Just doing her sample workout made me realize that I still have some deficiencies there.
Hope that helps to clarify. Not everyone would need or want a program like RCR, but it's probably exactly what a lot of women are looking for. I had one of those ah-ha moments during Val's seminar when she put up the graphic showing that the circulation for Shape magazine is 19.8 million and the circulation for Muscle & Fitness Hers is only 750,000. Now, that may have something to do with the fact that Shape has been around for decades and M&F Hers has blinked out a couple of times, but it probably also has something to do with the fact that far fewer women are striving for the muscled look on M&F Hers. It's dawning on me that perhaps not everyone wants to look like an Olympic athlete, gladiator or action hero, and that perhaps I shouldn't write all of those people off as misinformed ninnies and weaklings. This is either a sign of maturity or it's delirium from the cold meds.
