FITNESS: Valerie Waters Action Hero Babe Programme - Day 1 - We're going to need a bigger boat!! But by boat I mean weights........

For those of you who don't know her, Valerie Waters is a personal trainer based in Hollywood. She is Jennifer Garner and Rachel Nichol's (GI Joe, Star Trek) regular trainer and has also worked with Kate Beckinsale on Underworld (LOVE!) and Jessica Biel among many, many more.

I have been using her workouts as part of my rotations since August 2008 when she opened the Red Carpet Ready Club which is an online community for people who use her workouts.

I was  travelling through L.A. at the time so I was able to pick up the Val Kit for travel (review on that coming later) from Val's house where she very kindly let me ask her questions even though she had completely forgotten that I was coming and didn't know who I was!!
I think she was very relieved when I explained but she hid it very well!

The thing I love about Val's workouts is that they do exactly what they promise and AHB is no exception.
In case you're wondering I have done the workouts before, they came out in 2009, but I only did them for about a week and a half because I got sucked in to the UK Christmas celebrity fitness DVD mire.

Anyway, with this training programme the clue is in the title: Action Hero Babe. If you like the way any of the actresses I mentioned earlier look, then this is the programme you want because it's based on the exact routines that Val used to get their bodies in to kick ass shape.

You get 6 DVD workouts:
- Build 1+2 - Heavy lifting to give shape and strength
- Burn 1+2 - This is where you sweat! Lots of fast paced, bodyweight based moves.
- Sculpt 1+2  - These are the polishing moves that refine your shape but you'll still be working hard!

You do level 1 for 4 weeks. I do "Build" on Mondays, "Burn" on Wednesdays and "Sculpt"on Fridays with cardio in between.
In the kit you get some interval routines for use with an Eliptical or Treadmill, etc but I don't have one so I use my (excellent) Clubland aerobics DVD instead, but the interval routines look good so if you have one, or Gym access then they would definitely be worth a go.

So today I started again on Build 1 and I really enjoyed it. As my title suggests, my weights are too light, Val uses a 35 pound kettlebell for some of the moves and I only have 10 pound dumbbells - fail!!
It wasn't too bad though, I was feeling a bit rough so I was actually glad to not go too hard in the beginning, but by the time I got to the Valslide Pikes I was in the zone :)

I don't have any pain yet but I have been doing mainly bodyweight work recently thanks to the lovely Clara Nasir (glowing review to follow!) so i am expecting some major creakiness tomorrow.

I will keep you posted  and report back again on Wednesday with the next installment :)

Hope everyone's having a good day :)