I picked up Jillian Michaels’ 30-Day Shred workout video when I was struggling to lose the weight from my first pregnancy. I had no time to get to the gym, and my gym had no daycare options. While I was walking and running a bit, my muscle tone was not recovering. 30-Day Shred is an incredibly popular video and was recommended to me by countless friends, so I decided to give it a try. I found it a great tool for some of my goals, but not a great long-term solution, and here is why.

1) Workouts are quick and to the point – A round of the 30-Day Shred takes 20 minutes a day. This is great if you only have a few minutes to spare, but I didn’t think it was as much as I would need. Before my pregnancy I worked out an hour a day, 4-5 days a week, while the 20 minutes were focused, I wanted more. I often combined the workouts with a 30-40 minute yoga routine to help with tone and flexibility.

2) Repetitive – You are supposed to do the video for thirty days. And to be honest, I started to get a little bored. Sure you can vary the exercises a bit if you are capable of doing the different levels, but still I found myself drifting off mentally and not being focused. If I compare this to P90X, I found it took me A LOT longer to get tired of P90X because there was such a rotation of videos.

3) Circuit training – This video is a good workout because it focuses on circuit training, but this also makes it highly reminiscent of middle school gym class, something that turned me off from working out for years. That said, it certainly is designed to get the most out of your 20 minutes, and I don’t know how else this could be accomplished.

Jullian Michaels 30-Day Shred is best for an audience that is new to working out or does not have a history of working out. Also it is made for people who do not have a lot of time. If you have a little more time, I would recommend trying something a little more exciting if you really want to make a commitment to exercise.

This video seems to be popular because it prompted a lot of people to workout, and that value should not be underestimated, but it would probably work best incorporated into a greater lifestyle change and some varied activity that would keep interest alive.