Denise Austin: Shrink Your Female Fat Zones Review

Year: 2003

Distributor: Artisan Home Entertainment (Lionsgate)

When I became attracted to The Vista Group’s YouTube channel in 2021, there was a VHS upload of Angela Lansbury’s Positive Moves, which was her personal exercise tape. Unfortunately, the actress died on October 11, 2022 along with the channel getting terminated at the time, so I had to find a suitable replacement. An upload of Denise Austin’s Super Stomachs on VHS was the gateway to discover more about her legacy as a fitness instructor.

Denise’s older workout programs (from the 80’s to the early 90’s) were distributed by Parade Video at first before rebranding to PPI Entertainment. In the late 90’s to the early 2000s, her VHS tapes/DVDs were now part of Artisan Home Entertainment’s fitness library. As of 2004, the company went defunct and starting in 2005, the brand was folded into Lionsgate Home Entertainment with the first DVD under her label being Denise Austin: Hit the Spot Pilates.

I was lucky enough to see a couple of titles distributed by Lionsgate in Half Price Books, but there was a title by her that was distributed by Artisan Home Entertainment called Shrink Your Female Fat Zones. The description on the back of the DVD claims to target tone your arms, midsection (tummy), hips, thighs and buns for a complete total body workout.

This program consists of two 20-minute workouts: 20 minutes of weight training, and 20 minutes with the usage of the stability ball, which was previously used for the On the Ball series. Since most of Denise Austin’s content was uploaded by BeFit (Lionsgate’s fitness line), I decided to archive some of her titles myself for these reviews. However, pregnancy workouts (prenatal/postnatal) along with workouts designed for a specific audience (ex: those with pain issues, seniors) will not be part of the collection because I am only looking for overall, total body fitness from the best instructors in America.

Denise first explains that the program is a complement to her book of the same name, which was published by Rodale Press in the same year. In both segments, she alternates between the upper body, lower body, and abdominal zones to firm up those areas that most women get. (I’m not being sexist here, but men can sometimes get them too.) I hope that she can deliver results!

“Let’s go shrink our female fat zones!”
– Denise Austin

The warm-up for this program is pretty straightforward, until Denise does a few push-ups (with some in the normal position). Yikes.

…Anyways, let’s start the first section with weights.

Section 1

After doing the push-ups, she first supersets the weights so that two weights are in one hand while the other is placed on the thigh for the one-arm row (done on both sides). Denise first demonstrates the move slowly before doing it up to speed, and on the last rep, she does a slight hold before releasing it down to the starting position. Transitioning to the lower body zone, she does some backwards lunges adding a knee lift, and the same concept applies to several other moves during the first half. Denise’s little stretches are reminiscent of the ones from Power 90, and double-fisting the weights on some moves can be a little weird at times. I also have to point out that Denise is her usual, peppy, cheerful self when providing the instructions which can sometimes be too excessive for some people, but for others, she encourages us to keep going.

Now we’re on the floor to do some “butt blasters,” where you place the weight between the leg

as you lift. I don’t know why she’s possessed when she rolls the weight forward for an awkward child’s pose, but your head is supposed to be on the floor. Afterwards, we do some bird-dogs and some tricep push-ups before coming into plank position.

Before the stability ball segment, she does some traditional Pilates moves that target the abs, such as the criss-cross, the bicycle, the saw, and some crunch variations. Now we’re ready to use the stability ball!

Section 2

The next segment starts out with some squats and then some twisting while holding the ball. (I’d have to admit that the next few exercises should be interesting, though.) Standing tall with one leg on the ball, we do a few reps of the one-legged squat. From this stance, the ball helps you to not over-stretch the legs. With the addition of the weights, we are able to do some incline chest presses and leg presses on the ball, along with some lat pullovers.

Sitting on top, she goes into exercises that target the back/shoulders like hammer curls and tray servers. Although everything is working here, Denise still uses this method for targeting multiple body parts at a time. For example the shoulder bridge with the hammer curl has your upper body and core stabilized while your legs and buns are working.

Now here’s the fun part: the ball is brought between the legs for some reverse crunches and the jackknife, which require coordination. (Ok, the payoff is real.) The abdominal exercises on the ball (lengthening and crunch variations) lead into the cooldown, which starts off with a nice Warrior 2 pose. A few more stretches are done for conditioning the body, and with the slow movements connecting with the breath, the workout is over.

Final Thoughts

I’d have to say that the video works best for toning, but if the workout was better in my opinion, I would love to have some cardio segments to balance it out. Denise does give some nice pointers for all of the exercises and has a nice crew of women doing it with her. Sometimes, I wish Denise isn’t too over the top with her cuing so she doesn’t mess up the routine, but she is a great instructor otherwise.

My rating for this program would be an 8/10. Thanks for reading, y’all!

Section 1

Section 2

Final Thoughts

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