Decent prenatal workout - not a fave, but not trash

I purchased this DVD as an impulse when I was ordering other prenatal videos. It was under $7 (DVD format) and I had read good reviews elsewhere for it. To begin though, let me state that I'm not a huge fan of Kathy Smith.she Don't get me wrong, she knows her stuff, she's an excellent fitness instructor, she just doesn't motivate me personally.

The workout is highly dated - very 1980s. It doesn't bother me a lot - I can get past the clothing and the music. In fact, I really only notice the age of this workout during some of the aerobic moves - they are very 1980s aerobics. I prefer the newer ones. I am concerned that some day this will become insanely boring to me. During my first run with the workout, I already had moments of wondering when we were going to be done already with the current move. I have considered playing my own music in the background though to help alleviate this issue. Perhaps doing it no more than once a week will help too. I bore easily and rarely do the same workout twice in a week anyway - so I never intended on this being my only prenatal workout. It is genuinely a solid workout and Ms. Smith's cues well , so hopefully I can continue to use it.

The workout definitely fits into my fitness needs at the moment. With my pregnancy, I'm hoping to maintain my fitness level and control my weight gain. I had been actively focusing on weight loss prior to getting pregnant and don't want to undo my success (60 lbs down!). With Pregnancy Workout I feel as though I get a workout but I'm not overdoing it. I do believe it can help maintain my fitness. Plus Ms. Smith points out some specific exercises to help with labor and delivery and I'm all for anything that helps.

The DVD format of this workout is broken down into chapters for each section of the workout (as on the VHS). This breaks it down into an informational introduction, a warm up, 3 separate aerobic segments, 3 different strength training sections (legs, arms and abs) and a cool down. There is also a relaxation section, and a post natal section but I haven't done either, so I can't comment. I really appreciate that the DVD is broken into segments. It allows me to do the segments I have time for and am capable of doing that day (we all know when you are pregnant, some days you are superwoman, some days a slug). I just wish that it could have been formatted as Denise Austin's Fit and Firm Pregnancy where you can preselect which parts you would like to do today. You can chose to play the entire workout, but then you have to listen to the introduction again. I enjoyed the information given in the introduction, but I don't want to watch it every time.

My only other complaints are the rap at the end of one of the aerobic sections and the baby themed graphics. In fairness, I've never watched the rap (it is designed as a test to see if you are overdoing it or not). I'd read reviews of it and from what little I saw on collagevideo.com (they over clips of exercise videos), I knew it would be something I would have to skip. The graphics are baby blocks, bears, etc during transitions and when Ms. Smith cuts into give you technique information. Workout time is my time - so I am adverse to anything kid related at that time. Plus, as much as I love children I'm not one of those people that enjoy cutesy baby things.