Video Fitness

CIA 2703: Amazing Hot Stepping

Nekea Brown

The video is formatted as follows:
1) Warm-up
2) Step combo followed by a blast (this repeats for a total of 6 combos and 6 blasts)
3) Cool down
4) Abs/Core
5) Stretch

The step combos are broken down well and are not too complex. After you complete each step combo, you never go back to it (they are independent of each other). Nekea's cueing is very good. The blasts are not completely anaerobic (at least not for me), but they really increase your heart rate. Some of the blast moves include lunges on the step, plyo moves, skating and skiing, and over-the-tops.

Nekea uses the term "travel" in a way that I hadn't heard before. When she says "step knee travel", she means "step knee" on the right side of the step, then "step knee" on the left side.

The abs section is short and consists of variations on the traditional crunch, bicycle, and planks. The cool-down and stretch were also pretty short.

The music is instrumental, mostly Latin-style, and I thought it flowed well with the moves.

There are three background exercisers.

Overall, I thought this was a good, enjoyable, intense workout. The moves are not too complex and are not repeated excessively. Nekea is a very likeable instructor.

Grade: A

Instructor comments: Nekea has great camera presence. She is very motivating and appears to be having a lot of fun throughout the video.

Christina F (aka Verine)

4/2/07

Another winner from Nekea.
Amazing Hot Stepping bills itself as a cardio interval workout. It does alternate lower and higher intensity stuff by having you learn a combination of 7-8 minutes length followed by more of a blast that is 2-3 minutes in length. There are 6 combinations taught. Some blasts are higher intensity than others. Few caused me to get anaerobic. That's OK with me, I did not buy this workout to add to my interval workout collection. I'll just stick with Intense Moves or IMax 2 for that.
My previous experience with Nekea is from doing the step portion of Mix it Up. That workout is definitely more complex. That does not mean AHS is boring. Although less complex, Nekea manages to get many fresh new moves in. The music she pairs her combinations with could be described as "Ethnic Restaurant Mix". It works. It is not my favorite soundtrack of all time, but it is motivating enough and I do like it more each time I do the workout.
Premixes include an option to do just the blasts, or just the combinations.
The thing I like about this workout is that You spend 7-8 minutes with each combination. That is a nice length for me. Not too long, but not so short that it is going to be boring. The last combination was the trickiest for me, and the last blast was the most challenging too.
Nekea comes across as very friendly and encouraging. She does not chat too much-- mostly she is cuing.
There is a nice ab section that is more traditional ab work with some planks at the end.
My one quibble is that the cool down could have been longer. It seems like you go from the last blast to standing stretching rather quickly.
The step workout is 1 hour in length with a warm up just under 8 minutes and a 3 minute cool down/stretch.

Instructor comments:

Roz



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