November 3, 2017 – Sweat & Sparkle

I wanted to try something different, so the other day I searched for upper body workout videos online and came across one called Upper Body Transformer. Well, that’s a promising workout name, right? So I gave it a whirl.

Turns out it is part of a workout set I never heard of called JNL Fusion. JNL stands for Jennifer Nicole Lee, who leads these workouts:

Jennifer Nicole Lee of JNL Fusion

I’ve tried a few of the workouts from JNL Fusion now, since most of them can be found online somewhere. Upper Body Transformer is 36 minutes long and follows the format of 30 seconds of a strength move followed by 30 seconds of a cardio move, repeated a few times, before moving on to the next circuit.

I was sore the next day, which I love, but I have to warn you if you try these workouts, all of the people in it are madly, hopelessly infatuated with themselves and are highly annoying. If I had a dollar for every time that Jennifer points into the camera and says something banal, I could retire onto my own private island surrounded by a personal staff serving me fruity, coconut-y mixed beverages. She likes to yell out “Strong is the new skinny!” and “Kiss my abs!”, then beam with pride each time like she just came up with that on the spur of the moment and hasn’t hollered it 20 times already.

Everyone in the workout is a fitness model/fitness fanatic. Nothing wrong with that, and they all look amazing.

Jennifer feels the need, however, to dub them with witty nicknames like Hottie Scotty, or refer them as hot this, hot that (ex: hot mama). Endlessly patting each other on the back for being gorgeous gets old during a 30-40 minute workout.

I tried Lean Legs from JNL Fusion too, which is 30 minutes long, same format (30 seconds strength move, 30 seconds cardio move, repeated in about 6-7 circuits). I like that one and will probably do that one again. I thought I would love Shoulder Shredder, but only the first few moves are shoulder exercises. Then it is mostly triceps and those god-awful cardio moves that require practically standing on your head, so I likely won’t do that one again.

Bottom line, so far these seem like effective enough workouts that I tolerate the whooping, the hollering, the “we are so damn sexy!” attitude, and nonstop chatter and stupid comments. One of them actually made me laugh though: “We want glutes that salute!” I’ll drink to that!