Cardio Interval Training

This workout is 38 minutes long. It has a bonus section workout with Baron Baptiste of 10 minutes of yoga. I am only reviewing the cardio section with Petra after doing this workout several times.

There are two exercisers one does modifications the other advanced. Petra works in between these levels.

This workout should be labeled Floor Aerobics only. If you want a circuit with weights get Kelly Coffey's "The Shape Of Things To Come. Petra is motivating and cues exceptionally well. The aerobics are athletic and easy to learn. This workout has intensity but you can modify. The weight section is less than 1 min. and comes right after the third intensity blast of each aerobic interval. So I use the weight time to march, step touch or grapevine to lower my heartrate to get ready for the next aerobic session.

The set is white concrete walls w/wood flooring. Nothing special. The music was really good and motivating. The workout is such a great cardio routine that kept me in my training zone and spiked it up w/the blasts that I didn't mine the drab setting.

Conclusion:

If done as I did excluding the weight sections and continuing the aerobics straight through this workout is a great floor aerobic routine w/lots of variety. Worth getting and keeping. Its great as a short workout for the time crunched or as a follow up after a strength training routine.

This has been well reviewed, so I will just ad my impressions.

Set is so bland I wanted to go in and paint the walls, put up a poster, something.

I like the interval concept and found this workout to be pretty challenging. I'm kind of on the fence about whether I would like to do it on a regular basis, though. I picked the moves up okay (for me) and I didn't think they were boring at all. I don't know what it was about this, but I didn't love it and I didn't hate it. I might throw it on once in a while when I want to up my intensity level and work up a little bit of a sweat. I may never pick it up again, I'm not sure.

All in all, I wouldn't recommend it, I guess. I think there are probably better workouts out there.

This isnt a bad workout, yet it isnt a great one either. it is OK.

i didnt like the music much, which seemed like a hyper electronic beat.

weighted sections in between the

cardio intervals were a waste of time.... i dont know why she just didnt do some sort of light cardio activity to bring the heartrate down instead.

i found it hard to follow what petra was doing for a couple of

the cardio intervals, even though the choreography was basic... that makes me think that she didnt cue it right or teach it properly.

actually, i thought that the best part of the workout was the cooldown and stretch...LOL!

the music was the same sort of thing as in the workout but

with a slower beat and i liked that better. she took about 5 minutes to cooldown and i enjoyed the moves that she did during this

part.

I loved this video. It is about 35 minutes long. It is floor aerobics, very basic, combined with some kickboxing, light weights, and plyo drills. It can be fairly high impact in places but easy to modify. Petra is great. She says things like "push yourself, that is how you see results" during the high intensity interval bursts and she is never goofy or silly. I think this will be one of my top five for a long time!

I'm a high-intermediate exerciser who does a lot of Kickboxing, Cathe , Fitprime, Firm (post-classic, pre-gt), Mindi, spinning, etc.

I also like dancy workouts like Bhangra, Salsa, etc... and don't require those types of workouts to be cardio-intensive - if they are challenging from a choreo point of view.

I also lift weights.

This all being said, I did not like this workout. It was boring. There were three or four cardio segments with weights. The intervals were supposed to get your heart rate up, and then, you'd go down again.

But this didn't really do that for me in a way that would ever make me want to do this again. Why do this when I have bootcamp, or hardcore kickbox circuit, etc.

The last cardio segment did have some fun kickboxing stuff in it, and that fun move that i've first seen in the hollywood trainer set, where you do a kick and then touch the ground.

But that wasn't enough to induce me to ever do this workout again.

Not worth the money, I'm sorry to say, and I only paid about 7-8 dollars for it, when you divide what I paid for the full set by 4.

There was a 10 minute Baron Baptiste yoga segment which I didn't do.

On cardio work, I am an intermediate exerciser who is playing with advanced choreography. I use interval tapes as a way of upping the intensity my body can handle. I was sorely disappointed by this workout.

As I understand intervals, they have cardio and then bursts of higher intensity to raise the heart rate and then a return to the lower intensity to allow the heart rate to come down some. This workout alternated cardio segments with sections with weights, sections during which my heart rate plunged. Most of the cardio segments were easily followed and Petra’s cueing was very good. However, I had a very difficult time following one or two of them, especially the first kickboxing combination.

Petra leads this workout with two background exercisers and modifications are shown by one of them. The set is basic, but appealing.

I must admit I didn’t finish this workout due to a severe case of boredom. This makes a great experienced beginner or intermediate workout, but it was just too non-interesting to me. There are 5 cardio/strength cycles: each starts with general cardio, followed with a 1-minute cardio interval (power blast), and then a few minutes of strength training. I like this format, but the cardio was very basic choreographically and not all that intense. The power blasts were okay - from what I saw of them, anyway. I only did the first two cycles before quitting. The strength training concentrates on one muscle group at a time, for example triceps, back, etc. Nothing real innovative here - just standard exercises. There is also a 10-minute bonus yoga workout with Baron Baptiste on the DVD. I did this as well, and it was geared toward beginners. But it makes a nice after-workout stretch. Although this review might sound negative, I really do think it’s a good workout - for the right person (not me). Beginners and intermediates would find a lot of value in it, plus Petra’s personality and ability to motivate is excellent.

I pretty much agree with Annie's review on this except I wasn't bored at all. I like having workouts without complicated choreography from time to time and no, it's not for the advanced, but like Annie said, beginners and intermediates would find a lot to like in this workout. I also like Petra's calm encouraging manner as an instructor. The strength training is almost non-existent - just three VERY short segments. Also, some may not care for the very stark set, but that didn't bother me, either. All in all, I was very pleased with this one.