Moving To Lean

For all klutz's out there this is an excellent hi-lo tape. It gets the heart-rate up there without complex choreography. The moves are simple but you get what you put into it. Grapevines, cha-chas,mambos all put in interesting patterns. Not alot of TIFTing but very doable for people with 2 left feet. The only move I could not do because I was on carpet and hurt my left knee a couple of weeks ago was the pivot turn. The workout is an hour in length.

I have 4 other low-impact videos of Charlene's and really enjoy them but this video definitely has more high impact than I like. This would be great for someone who likes to throw in a bit of high impact. I would guess it has a ratio of about 70:30 low to high impact.The setting is an indoor studio.

This is a high/low workout -- mostly high, which I like. Charlene and the class all wear bright orange and blue outfits that sort of slap you in the face when you turn the video on, but you get used to it.

The workout is at an intermediate to advanced level intensity-wise. The aerobics segment is 40-45 minutes, and with the warmup and cooldown added, the entire video is 60 minutes.

The moves are more athletic than dancy. Knee-lifts, jacks, lunges, etc. It's pretty easy to follow, but some of the moves might be a little complicated at first for a beginner.

I like this. It's a good hard workout for days I don't feel like being a dancer.

This is a fun intermediate-advanced workout in a spacious gym setting, full of athletic moves that are mixed high and low impact. (The higher impact moves can easily be modified to low impact.) Charlene exercises with a group familiar to viewers from other videos in her series. There is a lot of good-natured bantering among team members. I personally don't mind it, but I can understand why some viewers would find all the talking annoying. The tape lasts an hour and includes a thorough warmup, aerobic workout, cooldown, and stretch. It's not at all dancy and is good for a day when you just want to work out hard without having to follow advanced choreography. Warning: the deerhunter orange and electric blue Gilda Marx exercise wear might require the use of sunglasses. Wow, those colors are loud!

This had been my first Charlene Prickett tape, and while I could see why other people like her, I don't think it's for me.

One thing I can say is that you can get a thorough workout from this tape. The choreography is not fancy or "silly," which I know some people would like, and she does talk about things like the importance of drinking water, etc, instead of just saying, "Cool!" over and over.

Here's what I didn't like: not only does Charlene talk a lot, but the other cast members are talking almost as much. At times I felt like they were a little club that I was being left out of. More importantly, I would get sick of hearing these little conversations after doing the video more than two or three times. I wanted to cringe when she cues a hamstring curl as a "bum kick."

I guess the bottom line is that I just prefer more interesting choreography. The time just crept by, especially when compared to doing a Cathe tape. In a weird way, it was almost harder to follow than a dancy tape, because Charlene would show a very simply combo, then keep doing it while she talked about other things ... so it's up to you to count and remember what comes next.

Anyway, this satisfied my urge to see what Charlene was like, and I don't think I'll be getting any more of her tapes.

This is a good video for those looking for a long floor aerobics workout that's not complicated and dancy, and doesn't follow the CIA-style "take it from the top" format. It has enough high impact to get your heart rate up there, but is easily modifiable for low impact. It also takes up very little floor space.

Charlene's pattern is to introduce a series of maybe four different steps, run through it a few times, then change the routine one step at a time. She never goes back to earlier routines, just keeps changing it as she goes along. The most complicated step is a knee up and crossover, and a knee up and back. Charlene cues all the changes well in advance.

The stretch section of the cooldown is excellent. Charlene holds the stretches an extra long time.

I personally prefer complex routines and the take it from the top format, so I found this tape to be rather boring. But for those who want moderate intensity with simple choreography I would recommend this tape.