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DVD Review: the Montenegro Method
Posted on Sep 8th 2010 2:00PM by Kristen SeymourFiled Under: Fitness, Reviews & Products
The Montenegro Method (MM21) is a three-DVD set including six 21-minute workouts as well as four 10-minute workouts, claiming to "redefine your body in 21 days." Each DVD is led by Marta Montenegro and offers the option to play all or just one workout, and you can opt for instructions in English or Spanish.
The DVDs have different focuses, though all are athletic in nature (no yoga or dancing or anything fancy). Endurance, which has three 21-minute workouts, concentrates on eight to 10, 60-second, full-body exercises in a row with only a quick breather in between. Strength, also with three 21-minute workouts, uses tri-sets (three exercises in a row) and giant sets (more than three exercises in a row) to target your upper and lower body. And Power, with four 10-minute workouts, is designed to help you boost your metabolism with 60-second intervals.
Confession: Even after doing all these workouts on the DVDs, I had to check the backs of each to make sure I was providing an accurate description because one really started to fade into the next. More on that in a bit.
Level of Difficulty
Intermediate to advanced.
Next-Day Soreness
Considerable.
Who's It For?
If you like no-nonsense workouts that give you a good workout in a short amount of time, this could be for you.
Likes
As always, I like the option to do a long or short workout, especially when the short option still gets you plenty sweaty. Also, Montenegro does a good job of working large and small muscle groups together, which is a great time saver (and the reason why a 21-minute workout will leave you shaking). These are challenging moves, but in most cases, she has a second person available to show the easier modification.
Dislikes
For starters, there's no warm-up or cool down. This isn't a deal breaker for me, but it would have been very easy to tape a quick, simple warm-up and cool down and include it as an option. The biggest issue for me, I honestly hate to say, is Montenegro herself. She's in phenomenal shape and performs the moves perfectly well, but there's just no personality showing in the workouts. She occasionally gives short phrases of encouragement (like, "Good job," or "Keep going,"), but it sounds completely robotic. She has a really lovely but extremely thick accent that, in another situation, I would love to listen to; however, there were times I honestly didn't understand the words she was saying, which I found to be a major distraction.
Since there's a Spanish option, I thought that maybe Montenegro would be more enjoyable in her native tongue -- however, it's a voice-over in Spanish, not an actual Spanish version of the workout. Admittedly, my Spanish is terrible, but I didn't find the voice-over to be much more interesting (though obviously the voice over is intended for native Spanish speakers).
Bottom Line
I really, really wanted to love this, especially after how sore my arms were following the first 21-minute workout. However, I really had to force myself to go through the rest of the workouts, and I'm getting paid to do this.
If you're simply looking for a guide to show you some solid moves and lead you through well put-together but mostly basic moves, investing in one or more of these DVDs could be a great choice. I won't be revisiting them, however.
Want to see another workout that obviously works for an amazing body? Check out Brooklyn Decker's recent DVD.
The DVDs have different focuses, though all are athletic in nature (no yoga or dancing or anything fancy). Endurance, which has three 21-minute workouts, concentrates on eight to 10, 60-second, full-body exercises in a row with only a quick breather in between. Strength, also with three 21-minute workouts, uses tri-sets (three exercises in a row) and giant sets (more than three exercises in a row) to target your upper and lower body. And Power, with four 10-minute workouts, is designed to help you boost your metabolism with 60-second intervals.
Confession: Even after doing all these workouts on the DVDs, I had to check the backs of each to make sure I was providing an accurate description because one really started to fade into the next. More on that in a bit.
Level of Difficulty
Intermediate to advanced.
Next-Day Soreness
Considerable.
Who's It For?
If you like no-nonsense workouts that give you a good workout in a short amount of time, this could be for you.
Likes
As always, I like the option to do a long or short workout, especially when the short option still gets you plenty sweaty. Also, Montenegro does a good job of working large and small muscle groups together, which is a great time saver (and the reason why a 21-minute workout will leave you shaking). These are challenging moves, but in most cases, she has a second person available to show the easier modification.
Dislikes
For starters, there's no warm-up or cool down. This isn't a deal breaker for me, but it would have been very easy to tape a quick, simple warm-up and cool down and include it as an option. The biggest issue for me, I honestly hate to say, is Montenegro herself. She's in phenomenal shape and performs the moves perfectly well, but there's just no personality showing in the workouts. She occasionally gives short phrases of encouragement (like, "Good job," or "Keep going,"), but it sounds completely robotic. She has a really lovely but extremely thick accent that, in another situation, I would love to listen to; however, there were times I honestly didn't understand the words she was saying, which I found to be a major distraction.
Since there's a Spanish option, I thought that maybe Montenegro would be more enjoyable in her native tongue -- however, it's a voice-over in Spanish, not an actual Spanish version of the workout. Admittedly, my Spanish is terrible, but I didn't find the voice-over to be much more interesting (though obviously the voice over is intended for native Spanish speakers).
Bottom Line
I really, really wanted to love this, especially after how sore my arms were following the first 21-minute workout. However, I really had to force myself to go through the rest of the workouts, and I'm getting paid to do this.
If you're simply looking for a guide to show you some solid moves and lead you through well put-together but mostly basic moves, investing in one or more of these DVDs could be a great choice. I won't be revisiting them, however.
Want to see another workout that obviously works for an amazing body? Check out Brooklyn Decker's recent DVD.
