Altheatized: Funky Dance Aerobics Volume 1

Instructor: Althea Lawton-Thompson

Level: Inter/Advan

Toning emphasis: Lower body, abs

Impact: Mixed

Choreography: Moderate

Length: 49 minutes

Okay, from collage it says that the warmup is 2 minutes, workout 35 minutes, toning 8 minutes, and strength 4 minutes. I think that the warmup may be 10 minutes, and the rest remains the same.

This is another dance workout from Althea! Funky Dance Aerobics is fun and dancey, and Althea is her same encouraging, high energy self! On the video she has two ladies and one guy, all different body types and regular looking people (not models or super buff; regular folk). One is doing modifications throughout.

The music is pretty good, and the moves are all pretty intense. There's a lot of arm movement and squat moves to keep your heart rate up. Lots of shakes, shimmies, and hip sways to keep it interesting and funky. She's got some club moves like "riding the pony" and "the butterfly" that she'll sneak into a grapevine. Love that!

However, this workout did not seem to flow as well as Volume 3. Perhaps it's because she has grown as an instructor and cues better. Some steps didn't seem to fall naturally into the other either. And she showed some moves WAY too fast. I'm a choreo klutz, so maybe that won't bother some people. I'm sure that once I get the moves down, I can modify them myself.

PROS: Once you get the moves down, you can really get an intense workout in a short period of time. Music was pretty good too. Loved her background exercisers, especially the guy, who hammed it up but still looked adorable.

CONS: Some moves that require you to twist and squat low at the same time could be pretty hard on the knees. To modify, don't twist as often.

I was pleasantly surprised by this tape. Like another reviewer said, it is hard to find the perfect mix of good intense aeorbics mixed w/ fun dancy choreographed steps. Althea mixed these 2 elements perfectly. She teaches each combo in a add-on style. She always has 1 low impact exercisor to her right and she shows high impact variations as well. She cues each move very well. This tape uses some traditional aeorbic moves like grapevines and jazzes it up w/ funky moves & attitude (eg. hip sways). It has a lot of fun choreography that was easy/moderate to do. The music was great Latin House (NYC club music) and motivating.

After each combo she does some intense aeorbics like jumping jacks to keep your heart rate up.

After the dance section. She does some standing legwork (squats etc) which I think was not enough reps because I did not feel the burn. So for me, this section is useless. I haven't done the ab section or cooldown yet so I cannot comment on that.

This tape is now one of my favorites along with 'Cardio Dance Floor' and 'Crunch: Fat Blaster Goes Latin'.

Altheatized is loads of fun. It's the perfect workout for when you need some cardio and find it hard to get motivated. It's 35 minutes of fun dancy aerobics, but Althea builds it slowly so that it's really easy to follow. I particularly appreciate the fact that the background exercisers aren't perfect hardbodies. They are obviously fit but they look like real people. I also appreciate the fact that one exerciser shows low impact options.

The music and moves in this one are really fun and different. Great choice for intermediates and advanced who aren't looking for killer intensity.

Althea introduces the video as Altheatized Volume 1. I'm totally up for Volume 2!

I think I've finally found my perfect dance video. I absolutely love to dance - ballet, jazz, tap, funk, hip-hop, you name it, I love it. I love dancey choreography and I'm always on the lookout for a workout that takes me back to the fun of taking dance classes as a child.

Unfortunately, trying to capture that feeling on a workout video is a little hard. Sometimes the steps are really funky and awesome, but the instructor has to break them down so much your heart rate drops and the video isn't good for a steady-state aerobic workout. Other times, the workout is great for steady-state aerobics but it's more aerobics than dance. And still other times, the intensity of the dance moves is gotten from a lot of higher impact moves.

I have a chronic back condition that allows me to do a little bit of high impact but not as much as what's found in some of the dance videos I own. Since I usually turn to dance videos because my back is hurting at the time and I either can't do aerobics or I want some cheering up, high impact moves without showing modifications brings my opinion of the video down quite a bit.

Hence my comment that I think I've finally found the perfect dance video for me. There are some really neat moves (moves with attitude!) and there's one exerciser who always shows the low impact version. There's not a lot of marching in place while learning a move, which can be a drawback in other dance videos. There are some intensity bursts that involve running in place and so the low impact version is marching but I can also choose to do some other low impact move during that time.

I really like the routine that Althea puts together and I love that she has a participant showing the low impact version all of the time. I wish instructors would do that more often. The only complaint I have with the routine is that there's this one move where you turn to the back and are supposed to do something but unless you stop and watch the video (or preview that part and can remember what to do), you might not get the move. I have to review that particular move sequence when I'm not working out.

Grade: A-