Body Bar Kickbox Circuit

Body Bar Master your Body Kickbox circuit w/ Alain Bissainthe

Students: Sherry Catlin and Keli Roberts

Attire: All black- tank tops, Alain and Keli wear shorts, and Sherry pants.

Set: Plant on one side, large vase about 4 ft. back walls are light brown.

Music: Club music, very very good! (even DH liked it!)

Presentation: The music and all the different changes kept me entertained.. I didn't realise the time flew by...

Fitness Level: Beginners will have no problems following, Intermediate and Advanced will be challenged according to how much weight they use...

Effectiveness: Does this tape deliver? It says it is Bodybar kickbox Circuit training,... it is definitely all that!!

Workout type: It is circuit training with kickbox as the cardio....

Total Length: I counted 59min.

Personal comments and observations: You do not hear any counting, (a big plus) and the kickbox sections are slow enough to be safe and move quickly enough to keep your attention... (It is not fast like Tae Bo and Billy Blanks) and my HR was in zone for 33 min., which makes it effective too.

Warm up: 4.20 min

jabs, hooks, upper cuts, then knee ups, long leg stretches, and knee rotations.

Stretches: 1.30 min

.

At 6 min.1st. Muscle Segment with Bar or Barbell w/o weights.

Knee Lifts - 8 alternating w/ bar weight on thigh then 8 one knee 4 extend, then 8 (repeat other leg)

6 extend and front kick w/o bar

4 squats then extend bar forward 4x, then 2 ea. 2ea then 4 alternate 4 squats, 4squats knee forward.

14 squats then kick.

at 11min. 1st Cardio Segment

squats, knees, kicks, boxer shuffles slow then pick up tempo, then alternate with punches

1st combo - squat and kick, then shuffle with 3 punches does one side then other

2nd combo - shuffles with taps, later adds jabs, later adds knee to combo

combines combo 1 with combo 2 ...

This tape is easy to follow for someone who hasn't done the tape...

Goes slowly with attention to form.

At 16min. 2nd Weight Segment (Using body bar like dowel to balance)

side knee lifts later becomes kicks

Later add resistance with hand then introduces roundhouse (explains form here, careful instruction)

leg extends side slowly - sets of 12

at 21min. 2nd Cardio Segment:

4 jabs per side then pick it up then 2's then adds leg movements (stick it move)

add on rotate hips , add on side kicks

16 jabs then taps with knees then roundhouse then combines hooks with roundhouse.

then stick it move combined with kicks.

Movements are not very fast even when combined.

At 26 min. 3rd Muscle Segment:

In position of one leg extended forward and the other leg back

Bent Rows using bar as weight (you can use a dumbbell or barbell for this)

8 single count. 4 2-count then 4 4-count 16 small lifts ( repeat other arm)

Alternate 2 2-count frontal 2 upright rows then 2 ea more then 1 ea 4x

Upright rows 4 2-count 8 singles

at 30.30 min 3rd Cardio Segment: Explains form before beginning

begins toe taps, adds punches, adds knee ups

combo: punch side, punch forward knee lift then 2 kicks

introduces shoe shine (circle both hands in fist fast)

alternate combo with shoe shine then adds feet shuffles.

at 35min. 4th Muscle Segment:

With bar positioned on top of heel of one foot behind...

lift heel 8x then push up and lift back 4x then 8x back only other leg

at 41min. 4th Cardio Segment:

combo: jab, cross, hook and 2 knee ups (slowwwwwly)

combo: knee ups w/ 2 hook

then tap front and back becomes kicks

combines combos.

at 46min.5th Muscle Segment: - curl bar with one arm

6 2-count, 8 bottom half, 4 2-count bottom half, 8 top half, 4 slow top, 8 full single

repeat other arm

then imitation stick fighting:

combo: 2 knee ups, a front kick a rear kick then extend one leg back and bar horizontal front.

at 51 min. 5th. Cardio Segment:

combo: 2 knee ups, front kick and back kick 8x

combo 2 knee ups hold then side punch (option: 3 knee ups)

combines both these combos.

at 55 min Stretch:

thorough , includes hand rotations runners' lunge etc.

Total rating: - It is what it advertises itself to be ! ... as that, it is an excellent tape! : I give it 10 out of 10.

I loved Keli Roberts' Circuit tape so much that when I saw her name for this one I thought she was teaching it and got it... my mistake ... but a good one! I'm glad I got this one. It's one of my favorite kickbox tapes.... as I said before, I personally like that it doesn't go killer fast like Billy's tapes... I also like that you don't hear someone counting... and I like Alain's composure and style!!!

Lucy

I am not sure about this one. It is not a bad workout, but I
had some problems with it.

The strength sections were interesting. A real test of
balance when practicing slow kicks while leaning on the
bar. I couldn't find just the right spot to place the bar so I
was falling over pretty often. I did like that the drills
were done more slowly (than say, Tae Bo) so I could focus
on form and safety.

I had trouble with the cardio sections. He doesn't cue very
well and is off the beat of the music. I ended up doing my
own thing during these sections. Even Keli Roberts
seemed to have trouble following him.

I will try it again as I like the body bar/circuit idea. But
I am not sure if this is a keepe

Students: Sherry Catlin and Keli Roberts

Attire: All black- tank tops, Alain and Keli wear shorts, and Sherry pants.

Set: Plant on one side, large vase about 4 ft. back walls are light brown.

Music: Club music, very very good! (even DH liked it!)

Instructor: Alain is very conscious of form and reminds you throughout, he carefully illustrates what HE is doing as he does it. Anyone can follow him because he is so exact in his movements and clear in his explanations, You have no problems following his cueing.

Presentation: The music and all the different changes kept me entertained.. I didn't realise the time flew by...

Fitness Level: Beginners will have no problems following, Intermediate and Advanced will be challenged according to how much weight they use...

Effectiveness: Does this tape deliver? It says it is Bodybar kickbox Circuit training,... it is definitely all that!!

Workout type: It is Circuit training with kickbox as the Cardio....

Personal comments and observations: You do not hear any counting, (a big plus) and the kickbox sections are slow enough to be safe and move quickly enough to keep your attention... (It is not fast like Tae Bo and Billy Blanks) and my HR was in zone for 33 min. which makes it effective too.

Warm up: 4.20 min
jabs, hooks, upper cuts, then knee ups, long leg stretches, and knee rotations. Stretches: 1.30 min

At 6 min. 1st. Muscle Segment with Bar or Barbell w/o weights. Knee Lifts - 8 alternating w/ bar weight on thigh then 8 one knee 4 extend, then 8 (repeat other leg)
6 extend and front kick w/o bar
4 squats then extend bar forward 4x, then 2 ea. 2ea then 4 alternate 4 squats, 4 squats knee forward.
14 squats then kick.

at 11min. 1st Cardio Segment
squats, knees, kicks, boxer shuffles slow then pick up tempo, then alternate with punches 1st combo - squat and kick, then shuffle with 3 punches does one side then other 2nd combo - shuffles with taps, later adds jabs, later adds knee to combo combines combo 1 with combo 2 ...

This tape is easy to follow for someone who hasn't done the tape... Goes slowly with attention to form.

At 16min. 2nd Weight Segment (Using body bar like dowel to balance) side knee lifts later becomes kicks Later add resistance with hand then introduces roundhouse (explains form here, careful instruction) leg extends side slowly - sets of 12

at 21min. 2nd Cardio Segment: 4 jabs per side then pick it up then 2's then adds leg movements (stick it move) add on rotate hips , add on side kicks
16 jabs then taps with knees then roundhouse then combines hooks with roundhouse. then stick it move combined with kicks.

Movements are not very fast even when combined.

At 26 min. 3rd Muscle Segment:
In position of one leg extended forward and the other leg back Bent Rows using bar as weight (you can use a dumbbell or barbell for this) 8 single count. 4 2-count then 4 4-count 16 small lifts ( repeat other arm) Alternate 2 2-count frontal 2 upright rows then 2 ea more then 1 ea 4x Upright rows 4 2-count 8 singles

at 30 min 3rd Cardio Segment: Explains form before beginning begins toe taps, adds punches, adds knee ups combo: punch side, punch forward knee lift then 2 kicks introduces shoe shine (circle both hands in fist fast) alternate combo with shoe shine then adds feet shuffles.

at 35min. 4th Muscle Segment: With bar positioned on top of heel of one foot behind... lift heel 8x then push up and lift back 4x then 8x back only other leg

at 41min. 4th Cardio Segment: combo: jab, cross, hook and 2 knee ups (slowwwwwly)
combo: knee ups w/ 2 hook
then tap front and back becomes kicks
combines combos.

at 46min. 5th Muscle Segment: - curl bar with one arm
6 2-count, 8 bottom half, 4 2-count bottom half, 8 top half, 4 slow top, 8 full single repeat other arm
then imitation stick fighting:
combo: 2 knee ups, a front kick a rear kick then extend one leg back and bar horizontal front.

at 51 min. 5th. Cardio Segment:
combo: 2 knee ups, front kick and back kick 8x
combo 2 knee ups hold then side punch (option: 3 knee ups)
combines both these combos.

at 55 min Stretch: thorough , includes hand rotations runners' lunge etc.

Total Length - I counted 59 min
Total rating: - It is what it advertises itself to be ! ... as that, it is an excellent tape! : I give it 10 out of 10.

I loved Keli Roberts Circuit tape so much that when I saw her name for this one I thought she was teaching it and got it... my mistake ... but a good one! I'm glad I got this one, It's one of my favorite Kickbox tapes.... as I said before, I, personally like that it doesn't go killer fast like Billy's tapes... I also like that you don't hear someone counting, and I like Alain's composure and style!!!

This is a very under-rated little kickbox tape! I generally find body bar tapes boring, but this one is very different from what they've done before, and I really enjoyed Alain Bissainthe. He has Keli Roberts and Sherry Catlin with him, but they don't really say anything--- this is his tape. Don't let the body bar title fool you: with one exception, all the strength work can be done with hand weights, and the cardio sections, if they use the bar at all, do so only for balance. Kickboxers looking for a slow and focused drill tape need not worry if they don't want to get more equipment.

Following a brief T'ai Chi-style warm-up that includes lots of rotation and "opener" style work, Alain alternates cardio and strength sections. His form reminders are infrequent, but useful: maintain a triangle stance, keep elbows tight, etc. All of the moves are done at a much slower pace than something like tae bo, so it's easier to maintain form without excessive reminders. The fastest Alain ever gets is maybe three quarters speed of regular tae bo. This really seems to be intended as a slow drill-style tape to allow you to focus on your form, refine technique, and build up muscle endurance in the specific, focused areas you use in kickboxing.

The first cardio combo introduces various kicks and knee lifts/rotations, including balancing the bar on your knee for resistance. I easily modified this with hand weights. In the conditioning segment, he does some squats using the bar as resistance (again, easily modified) in combo with shoulder and back presses, as well as some lifts and kicks at a very slow speed, using the bar for balance.

The second cardio segment does not use the bar at all. It involves side punches, starting slow then getting faster and adding kicks. There was great music in this section. The strength work involved pulls and rows for the upper back and shoulders. They were fairly standard, and again, easily done with regular weights.

The next cardio section focused on footwork coordination and punching drills. He does some speedbag-type work here which he calls "shoeshine." The strength section that follows has the only move that really needs the body bar, and it was a great one. It involved hooking the bar behind the ankle and using it in a rear lift. It was such a great and interesting exercise that it gets repeated in a front lift, following some balance work in between.

Following this, we get jab/hook/cross combos with more knee lifts. Alain seems to really like knee lifts :-) The strength section in this bit was a really long bicep curl routine with various speed/range of motion variations. He also does a knee raise with a sort of unusual tricep/torso twist that is very unusual, and a bit hard to explain. It's like a torso twist but with triceps rotation, using the bar to increase range of motion.

The final section has what he calls more "complex" choreography, which basically means that he mixes up front and back kicks in the same combo instead of segregating them. This is followed by a fairly standard T'ai Chi-style cool-down.

Overall, I found this tape really enjoyable. The combos were simple enough to be do-able, even for the klutzes. But he throws in enough variety to prevent it from being boring. He'll introduce a move, then do three or four variations on it in a combo. The moves all are done in a slower, very focused way so you can really feel them. People who find tae bo too fast will love this tape. If you love kickboxing, and simply want an excuse to play with a rarely used body bar, this is your tape. Similarly, if you love kickboxing and want a slower drill-style tape to work on form and muscle endurance, this would be a good choice regardless of whether you have a bar or not. In any case, it's a fun cardio workout that should be much more popular than it is.

I recommend this tape. I've come to it after about a year with other kick-cardio tapes. What I found is that while Bissanthe is teaching or building a kick or punch move, you can go ahead and insert it into the routine.

This tape is so much better than Tae Bo. Alain's cuing is great, and the combinations are easy to follow, fun, and will get your heart rate up if you're an intermediate exerciser, like me. The toning segments are efficient, with creative uses of the body bar. The only body bar exercise I had trouble with was the inner thigh and hamstring (it kept rolling off my foot) but I'm sure I'll adapt. I liked the stick fight drill at the end, and I can't tell you how much I enjoyed doing kickboxing with an instructor that can COUNT, does things evenly on the right and left, and tells you right and left and is CORRECT. Everyone uses great form, especially Keli Roberts. I recommended this tape to my husband who uses Tae Bo (since we spent the darn $60 on it) and I think he, too, will like this much better.

A very good intermediate circuit workout with five segments each of toning and kickboxing. Alain really cues perfectly and breaks down the kickboxing so precisely, you can't make a mistake. It's not an intense workout like Total Energy or Power Kicks, therefore it is better utilized in a combo (I did Keli's Body Bar workout after it, but Step and Stones II would be a better choice). He does all the standard moves - roundhouse, front and back kicks, jabs, punches, and one of my favorites: the fast-speed feet and arms move that Franny does in 9704. The workout without the warm-up and cool-down is 46 minutes. Keli Roberts and Sherry Catlin are the background exercisers. Again, a very good intermediate tape and a great way to learn kickboxing.

Okay...here is a review for Kickbox Circuit. First of all the instructor in this workout is Alain Bissainthe and it features both Keli Roberts and Sherry Catlin. Greg Twombly is the producer and the set looks to be the CIA set...maybe with some different props. The workout is about 1 hour long and has a decent warmup/stretch and stretch at the end. The ending stretch incorporates a little bit of Tai Chi. The music is alot of Cathe and CIA music...but I recognized most of it from Cathe videos. BTW, both Keli and Sherry looks really good in this video.

This video is not a high impact or intense cardio workout. It is comparable to Janis's new CIA kickboxing video with her drills and conditioning segment minus the choreography section. He focuses on power and fast tempo but very simple athletic combinations during the cardio segments and the muscle conditioning segments are mostly slow and controlled with faster tempos towards the end of each segment. This workout is divided into 5 muscle conditioning segments and 5 cardio segments each segment averaging about 5 minutes each. He uses the bodybar for the conditioning segments...not the cardio except for the last cardio segment. The instructor is a very serious and no nonsense guy, but he seems to cue pretty good but that's just guessing since I havent' done the workout. They all show really great form!!! The cardio segments are based on (2) 16 count combos. He builds each combo up slowly, then at tempo and adds on...like a CIA video. Only each cardio segment has new combos in it and there is no repetition from the prior combos.

It starts with Muscle conditioning segment 1 and he does knee lifts, front kicks, squats, front shoulder presses, squats with front kicks. The bodybar is used throughout all the muscle conditioning segments focusing on either strength or balancing. The 1st cardio segment incorporates squats, kicks, boxer shuffles, punches with various combinations.

The 2nd muscle conditioning segment focuses on side and roundhouse kicks with various tempos and variations. The cardio segment has jabs, squats (a stick and move combo), side kicks and roundhouse kicks.

The 3rd muscle conditioning segment focuses on shoulders with one arm lat rows with BB at various tempos, front raises and upright rows and also alternates overhead shoulder presses and upright rows. The cardio segment looks to be the funnest with good music and he does jabs, boxer shuffles, knee raises, front kicks, shoeshines and fast foot fumbles in place.

The 4th muscle segment focuses on hamstrings and inner thighs by resting BB on heel and inner foot when doing the exercises and does back kicks and inner thigh lifts with various tempos, more power etc. The cardio has jabs, hooks, knee lifts, cross punches, front kicks, back kicks, roundhouse kicks.

The last muscle segment focuses on bicep curls and he does one arm at a time by resting the opposite fingers on the end of the BB to balance it. He does different tempos of Crazy Eights. Then he does this 'Imitation Stick Fighting' drill with the BB. The cardio incorporates this stick fighting drill at faster tempo, you do side knee lifts, side kicks, punches, shoeshines, front kicks with a squat and jump and back kicks.

It looks fun and would be good for a drills/conditioning workout maybe added on to some extra cardio if one wanted more cardio. But it's nice to have more intermediate type videos to mix in with our advanced videos and this looks to be a good video to practice your kicks since you get to use the Bodybar for balance alot and focus more on form!