Maybe some of you are sick of the Macarena, but I
never got into it and this was really fun for me. The
Macarena song is only used for the warm-up and cooldown,
and it really got me moving. The rest of the 35 minutes
is spent doing dancy, but not difficult moves to other
very upbeat Latin music. The combos change often so I
didn't get bored. This is a short workout that's a lot of
fun. My only complaint is that the camera sometimes
focused on upper bodies when introducing a new move,
which made following just a bit difficult. This is one of
those videos that gets you out of S.L.U.G.ville. You
can't help but get motivated by the instructor and the
music!
Instructor comments: Gloria apparently teaches on the Crunch Fitness
program on ESPN2. She's very upbeat and motivating, and
her cuing is great. She also gives form pointers
throughout the video.
Joni O
7/28/97
This is a fun, short (20 minutes of cardio, 30 minutes overall), dancy, "latin" routine. I like how she starts each section with the simplest version of a step and builds slowly until you're doing the "real" step and sequence. Additionally, she builds the routine in sections, combining all the sections for three complete run-throughs at the end. Learning the steps was a bit of a challenge at first, but it comes pretty quickly, and it's easy to add more "bounce" to the routine to get your heart rate up. There is one cut-away to black and white film that shows the wrong point in the routine, which can be confusing when you're learning it. One of the backup women has a lot of body flexibility. (I remember being able to move like that, but I'm not so young and supple anymore.) The other demonstrates less hip and torso activity that is probably better to follow. The music is fun. My only complaint with the routine (and one that I have with many routines) is that the stretches aren't held long enough to really do anything to improve your flexibilty. In the quest to keep routines as compact as possible, the stretching is kept to a cursory level - at best - and this routine is no exception.
Instructor comments: Gloria is cheerful, supportive, demonstrates and describes good form, and cues well. Her strange pronunciations and sentence structures are charming. Her enthusiasm can be a bit much and come off as phoney at times, but it's not annoying enough to ignore the other good qualities of the workout.
Sandi
11/15/99
