Amy Bento
This workout brought me to my threshhold at times (during the 2 minute cardio drills) which was a happy thing.
I liked the moves - some of them were different enough to put a special spin on a move I might have done a hundred times before.
The moves I especially liked were:
the power lunges - I liked doing 4 on one leg and then switching. Less chance of tricking out my 4 decade old knee.
the riverdance jumps
The squats on the ball. Those really wiped out my quads - and I consider myself to be in decent shape.
The music was the standard workout music, but it had oopmh to it- a driving edge, the vocals in it coming in at just the right time.
I like Cathe's style of workouts (with the exception of most of the gymstyles - I hated the music in those, and didn't really jive with those workouts as I did with the Body blasts and intensities). I also tend to do a lot of Cardio Coach workouts. I am intermediate/advanced by my own reckoning.
A+ for the $20 I spent.
Instructor comments:
Amy is very friendly and encouraging without veering into cutesy, condescending, etc.
Her physique is inspiring - she is lean and ripped.
Lots of whoo-yeah's (where the yeah's sound more like yeagh! Kind of tough and bootcampy sounding). These sounds didn't bother me, but if you do find this kind of thing annoying, there is a lot of it.
LK
It was a good video but not as good as Advanced Step Challenge or Cardio Step Pump. The drills were intense but there was a lot of lag time in between them and she did lot of deep inhaling, which was tiresome after a while. She doesn't lead pump sections as well as cardio... she never quite seems sure what to say (e.g. "and so... uh... grab your free weights... and... uh..."). After an hour I felt very fatigued but not necessarily like I'd gotten a good cardio workout (even with the cardio sections). I also got a little bored doing the same movements for two minutes straight... I would much prefer more cohesive segments.
There's a lot equipment list but she only uses the resistance tubing once, the plate loaded bar three times (once for stability) and the stability ball twice. The equipment changes were really distracting for how little you actually used them.
She kept mentioning the time over and over and I found that really distracting. I prefer to just enjoy a workout and not discuss time.
So a decent video but not her best. I'm planning to keep it but I wouldn't really recommend buying it.
Instructor comments:
Amy is wonderful. Energetic and professional. She seems to really enjoy what she's doing and is very motivatng.
DW
1/25/07
