So while Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat lay on my screener pile, I had to figure out exactly how I was going to review it. Should I just watch it, and evaluate it on content alone? Should I watch while my wife worked out to it, asking her opinion? Or should I (gulp) participate myself, and give a true first-person account? After all, there wasn't anything to be ashamed of, working out to a predominantly female-oriented exercise disc. There were even a couple of guys featured in her routines (stuck discreetly in the back row, of course). Weighing my options, I soon realized I had no choice: to write an honest review, I'd have to actually use the disc the way a regular consumer would. Pushing myself away from my computer, I donned my purple Danskin leotard, pulled on fuchsia leg warmers, and put my hair back in a velvet scrunchie. After lifting my wife up off the floor (she fell there laughing), I was ready to build muscle and shrink fat!

And then, after five minutes, I was ready for a heart attack and major back surgery. What looked pathetically easy on the screen turned out to be your basic morning calisthenics on Devil's Island. I'm sure that the routines in Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat are challenging but not torturous for the average user of these discs (that comes from my wife), but to a first-timer like me, this was akin to ritualistic hazing. Cruel hazing, I might add. Let's look at the methodology behind Kathy's harrowing punishment.

Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat utilizes something Kathy calls "the matrix method." This form of exercising asks the participant to move multiple parts of the body when executing a specific exercise. So for example, when you lunge, you also move your arms and maybe your back, as well. The first time I tried this, I suddenly became Alice from The Brady Bunch, throwing out her sacroiliac. I quickly bowed out, and let my wife take the floor, but it looked like a pretty thorough, efficient way to get through a thirty minute routine.

The disc is separated into three sections. Section one is Ultimate Sculpt, a thirty minute interval training session that combines the "matrix method" of total-body moves and core conditioning exercises. Frankly, some of the stuff looked a tad complicated, while some of Kathy's admonishments and encouragements baffled - and vaguely terrified - me (what, exactly, does "Let's close that rib cage!" mean?). Section two is Core Conditioning, which I learned meant abdominals. It runs ten minutes, and there are no crunches (if that's important to you). Finally, there's Replenish, a ten minute stretch-out that "lengthens and rejuvenates" your muscles (that is, if you can move after the workout). So that's fifty minutes total of intensive training. One of the cool things, though, about the Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat disc, is the ability to mix up the order of these sections on a special menu, where you can program them out of order, to vary your workout. That's if you decide to ever attempt this hellish workout again (my wife says it's fine and I'm being a big baby). Considering how often she does this, I'll take her word for it.

The DVD:

The Video:
Don't expect digital perfection with Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat. It's not the sharpest picture, but it's just a workout video after all. You're not watching it for the visual impact.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 audio is more than adequate for the job, since it mostly consists of Kathy talking the viewer through the various routines. Close-captioning is also available.

The Extras:
As an extra, there's a twelve minute "bonus challenge," where "the matrix method" is employed for maximum punishment. It's pretty harrowing. I had to look away. But my wife said it "rocked her bod," so...what the hell ever.

Final Thoughts:
Am I the new expert on workout DVDs here at DVDTalk? Decidedly "no." But watching ripped, sexy Kathy Smith working up a sweat isn't the worst way to spend an hour. And for those who take working out seriously (my wife was my main source of pertinent comparative information), Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat was deemed a tough, good workout. Buyers of Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat should be aware that this disc has been renamed; it's really just a re-release of "Matrix Method - Ultimate Sculpt." So, if you have that disc or video already, skip Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat. But if you don't, and you have a death wish, I recommend Kathy Smith: Build Muscle, Shrink Fat. And again, watch that sacroiliac.