VF Supporter
Join Date: Nov 2001
Location: Toronto!
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Hi, again :-)
I have updated question 2 of our makeshift FAQ with a bit more background on Joyce's publication history, and resolved the issue of her ceritification with some help from the Collage website. I have also more cogently outlined the 'pros and cons' that often come up regarding Joyce and her workouts:
2: What is Joyce's background? What is her personality like? How long has she been in business? What else do I need to know about her?
Joyce’s background is in writing. She has a PhD in English Literature, and says she got into body-building when she was writing for Joe Weider’s magazines and interviewing champion bodybuilders. She was writing fitness books for years before she made the move to videos, and nearly all of her videos are simply digitized retreads of her books. Of the videos, the following have book counterparts: Fat Burning Workout, Definition, Bottoms Up, Bottoms Up Gold Plus, Dynamic Tension, Bone-Building Workout, Gut Busters, Weight Training Made Easier, Bathing Suit Workout. The following are only available in DVD/Video form: Fast Forward, Non-Stop, Interval Aerobics, Easy Stretch. She also has a series of motivational audio tapes, several self-help books (Get Rid of Him, a ‘non-man-hating’ book and Look In, Look Up, Look Out, an autobiography/motivation book). The Collage Video website lists her as having ISSA certification.
Joyce Vedral’s first published fitness book was Now or Never, published in 1986. It outlined a 90-minute split routine gym workout that would allow women to put of heavy muscle. Over the years, she has changed her focus to shorter routines involving lighter weights to sculpt definition. Her first shorter workout guide was The Twelve-Minute Total-Body Shaping Workout in 1989 (the basis for the Dynamic Tension video) and her first short ‘split routine’ was The Fat-Burning Workout, published in 1991. Her most recent book was Toning for Teens, which was published in 2002.
Her first workout video was The Fat-Burning Workout in 1992, and she has produced videos steadily since then. See the full descriptions for more details on which books have companion videos and/or dvd’s and in what combinations.
Joyce Vedral has received praise for: having concise videos of manageable length, requiring no equipment other than handweights and a step or bench, offering quality book workout that can be taken to the gym, having a down-to-earth and ‘real’ personality, offering users the workouts she actually does herself, answering email inquiries from users of her programs, being accessible to the average person via talk show appearances, offering a selection of many programs in both book and video form, and having all of her videos quickly available on dvd.
She has received criticism for: moving at a very fast speed in the videos, not offering long enough rests to build muscle, not filming the videos with the weight she really uses, sloppy chaptering on her dvd’s, showing atrocious exercise form, frequently missing reps or counting improperly on videos where she works out alone, offering ‘stock responses’ and sales pitches in her emails, having poor customer service, having expensive prices and shipping charges, bad-mouthing other instructors or programs on her forums, censoring negative posts on her forums.
I have some free time this afternoon, so I might go back through the forum and see if I can beef up some of the thread summaries. I would like to put in more from the thread on Joyce's suitability for beginners, and I would also like to add an appendix listing video and book buying sources, links to Joyce's two message boards, and maybe a compilation of good companion videos to complement Joyce's programs. I won't post all of that here, but it will be available in the word file, which I will probably stick somewhere on my geocities site if people want to download it there. I'll check in later with an update :-)
Joanna
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