CIA 9703-All new advanced slide workout

This is the best slide video I've seen. In fact I've tried 4 so far, and this is the only one that has any interesting choreography. The sports moves are fun, and the second section with the dancey moves is also fun, even though I'm not a big fan of lots of strange arm movements, which there are plenty of. The toning is actually pretty difficult.

My only real complaint about this tape is that the cardio is too short, around 25 minutes. If it were closer to 45 minutes it could be as perfect as a slide tape could get. I always combine this with an additional slide tape, and am thinking about doing some slide/step combos - a la step and slide.

A secondary, less important complaint - for some reason I intensely dislike lots of comments on being "sexy", or comments that reinforce society's focus on women's worth being tied to their looks. For some reason, Heather's talk about doing it sexy and being sexy, etc. really irritated me, and to me, play into this problem.

I LOVE this video. There are alot of creative and fun moves like snake charmer, Egypt, freak out, etc. The first part with the "sports inspired" moves is fun and really gets my heart rate up there. I must admit however that it took me about three tries to get some of the really fast back and forth moves. In fact, I still haven't done it on a 6 foot slide yet. I think I've about got it well enough to try 6 foot but the tape is a killer even on a 5 1/4 foot setting. This is definitely not for beginners. It moves too quickly. For someone who has done sliding before and in familiar with the "feeling" of sliding, this is a "must-have" video. I give it two thumbs up! Way up!

I'll start this by saying that I am a BEGINNING slider and that I now feel I had no business attempting this tape as a brand new beginner (this was my 4th time on the slide). I had a miserable time with this video, although I can see its potential appeal to advanced sliders.

Since the previous reviews covered the nuts and bolts of this workout really well, I won't bother to re-hash it all.

In terms of visual appeal, I could have done without the music (very poppy, some Madonna songs) and the outfits (bra tops and bellbottoms). Three boppy chicks (and these are definintely women I would classify as "chicks") on slides are not my personal cup-o-java.

My real problems with this workout, that I do feel directly relate to my level, had to do with the speed and with the moves that took you out of contact with the slide (little jumps, stepping off the slide, walking on the slide.) At first I thought that their slides (Reebok) must be a *lot* less slick than my slide (Step Co.) because I think if I had tried a lot of those moves I would have landed on my butt. But during the toning section it seemed that their slides had to be as slick as mine in order to be able to do the inner thigh work. In any case, I think you need to be *really* steady on your feet to do those moves, and I certainly wasn't. As I posted to the forum, I felt like Bambi trying to take ice skating lessons from Thumper.

A big problem I had with this workout was the speed of the movements. Doing a 2 count slide on a 6 foot board (I brought my slide in to the 5 1/4 length about 5 minutes into the tape) is *very* fast. It was diffult for me to achieve and maintain proper form at this speed. And not only did this make my slide move ALL OVER the carpet, requiring readjustments every few minutes, but that kind of speed means you come up against the bumpers *hard*. One reason I wanted to do sliding is because I've been having problems with my knees, and slamming into the bumpers doesn't help at all. I was afraid I was going to break the bumpers with my momentum (I have a lot of mass.)

I liked the sports-inspired moves right away (although I felt very unstable doing the Chuck Norris side kick) and I think the choreography section has potential for people who feel *very* steady on the slide and are not choreography-challenged. I gave up on the speed and complexity and just did 4 count slides through most of this part.

The toning section was ok (the inner thigh stuff really is killer), although the fact that I don't have a Reebok slide impacted my ability to do the back work--where you lie on your stomach on the slide, grab the bumper with your hands, and push and pull yourself away and towards the bumper. I couldn't do this with my slide, because when I pulled, the bumper would come out of the locking slots. A fixed-bumper slide would not have this problem, but I was disappointed that the choreographer didn't take other slide types into account when designing this tape. I moved off the board entirely to do the tricep dips, ab work and push-ups because I felt too unstable.

I think this tape would be disasterous for a brand new beginner, so don't make this your very first slide tape. (Choose Reebok Basic Training or the Andre Houle/Step Co. tape instead.) I do think it would be good for someone who is intermediate if they slow down the moves and don't worry too much about the arms in the choreography section. I will probably keep it to use from time to time and do just that, unless I find that I just can't deal with Heather Days' personality, which is entirely possible.

Of all the slide video's I've seen, this one is the BEST of all! Heather uses a 6 foot slide. It has such a fun dancy 8 minute warmup with fun turns and then even the stretches are held with a cute pose.

The workout is 46 minutes but the total sliding aerobic time is 26 minutes. The rest is toning. The sliding is really fun! Heather starts off with some fun combinations of 2 count sliding with boxing moves and bowling moves and even some skiing moves( downhill). She repeats the combo 3 times and also has brief recoveries to catch your breath. The second combo has turns in it and some fun and yet intense fast sliding that really gets your heart rate up. Heather does this one "freak out" move where you do a two count slide and shake your hips and then one count sliding snapping your fingers. The choreography is really motivating. One of the background exerciser always shows an easier modification. My heartrate has never gotten as high as it does with sliding. It is 3 to 4 beats higher than when I do stepping or floor aerobics.

The toning is very very intense for the inner thighs. I could barely do it. She has you slide your legs in and out slowly and then half time. Then you leave them out in an isometric hold while you do some complex arm patterns to get your mind off the burn and work of the inner thigh. This was killer! Then she goes through and does another set of inner thigh work. She does other work for your legs and abs which I am still trying to do. I'm still learning! There are some tricep dips off the slide too and pushups using the booties on your hands. This is tough too. I love how Heather says, " We must! We must!" during the pushups.

I love the 4 minute cool down. It has great music. I think the music is You'll see by Madonna. The other music in the slide is good too.

If you want to get a good slide workout, I highly recommend this one. You won't be disappointed! I am still in awe over this workout and how great of an instructor Heather is. She is brilliant!

I haven't done many slide vidoes, mainly because their just aren't many out there, but this one is lots of fun, very intense, and the best one out there. Heather starts out with a great warm up and moves into her slide workout with moves like the Chuck Norris, boxing, bowling, skiing, skating, cross country, she even does some very fun moves with your arms like the snake charmer. Then if you haven't had enough you can go on to the toning and let me say, this is super intense. Heather works your inner thighs longer than I would have liked but I feel great when I'm done even though it hurts to walk. Then she does lunges using the end ramp of the slide, she only does 2 sets of 4 slow and 8 fast but my poor quads are burning when I'm done. Then you do push ups, dips and abs, and even though you don't do very many reps, they still burn!! Great tape to have in your collection if you own a slide.

Prepare for a great workout. Heather uses many of the movements from other sports: boxing, kick boxing, and bowling(if you consider that a sport). She also has some creative choreography; the Egyptian, box step, snake charmer and a double time straddle(killer!). After the cardio, there is an even more creative toning section. She works the inner thighes by sliding your feet away from you as if your doing a split (but not anywhere near that far) and sliding them back together. There are also (killer) lunges for the quads. Upper body gets its share. Everything is done on the slide. So, if you own a slide but don't own this video; you're really missing a great workout. I give this an A+.

There aren't many good slide videos out there, but I think this is the best one. I like it much better than Heather's earlier effort, Advanced Sliderobics, because where that video was designed for a shorter slide and incorporated very fast moves, this workout is designed for a standard 6' slide. This video also has fewer steps that take you off the slide--steps which would allow the heart rate to drop too much. Still, Heather's style is similar in both, and the toning moves are similar. 9703 toning segment is more thorough, however.

Germaine has outlined the video sections, so I'll just add that, although the video cover bills the workout as "sports-specific slide training," I would call the moves "sports-inspired." I like those moves a lot, though. The sports style moves are much better suited to the slide, than are more traditional aerobic moves, in my opinion.