Ilaria Montagnani and Patricia Moreno, co-creators of Powerstrike
I bought this tape from Muscle Mixes to go along with the tape for my kickboxing classes and to learn some new combinations. What a pleasant surprise! Although the production quality is not that great, the workout, music and instructors are excellent! It looks like it is a taping of an actual class at a club. The workout is challenging, fun and different. The combinations are quick, not too difficult to learn and make for a tough workout. They only thing I wasn't crazy about was that you workout one side of your body for a long time, before moving onto the next, although you do the exact same things on each side for a balanced workout. Some may enjoy that aspect of the tape. You learn the combinations completely on one side before repeating the series on the next, so you tend to work a little harder on the second side because you already know what you are doing. The instructors perform moves in an add-on style, mixing kicks and punches together into interesting combinations. They discuss form and demonstrate very well. I will use this tape often and look forward to perfecting the moves. A solid A. (Comes in a white sleeved box.)
Instructor comments: Both female instructors are excellent. Their cuing is right on and they are smiling and having fun throughout the tape. Great motivators as well. The class looks like they are having a blast. Ilaria is a black belt and martial artist and Patricia is an aerobic prsent and choreographer.
Janet O'Neil
24601@warwick.net
1/31/00
I've done this one about 3-4x. At first, I was a little lukewarm to it. I love Illara and love PowerStrike II so I was thinking I was in for something similar. This workout seems to be much more focused on quality of movement and not quantity. So you are not doing 32 kicks at ones, movements are executed with power and great form. There is definetely a place for this workout in my collection. I reach for this when I want to really focus and perfect my form and when I'm not in the mood to jump around a whole lot yet I still want to work hard and work up a sweat -- this is perfect for that. My last run through of this, I used my punching bag and boy, this was just great for that. I really honed in on my form using my gloves and kicking with lots of force at that bag. The beauty is there is enough time for me to focus. Although I absolutely LOVE Cathe's KPC, I find it difficult to incorporate my bag and gloves with KPC. Illara goes through some arm combinations, then she runs through some kicks and then you put it together. I enjoyed the crescent kicks and felt my form was much better since I've been spending lots of time on my flexible with Pilates and other barre work so I could really open up the crescents and keep my hips better stabalized using my core. Felt well worked out at the end but not flattened out on the floor like I sometimes feel after KPC. I don't usually pay a whole lot of attention to music in a workout unless it's annoying (like jazzy dinner music for cardio - that bugs me) but I happened to notice this music but I couldn't help but be reminded of a Madonna CD I have "Confessions on a Dance Floor" - just reminded me of that style. I also happen to notice that with every KABAM sound my kicks made when landing on my bag were in time to some bass sound in the music....so this, yes, I like very much. :)
Instructor comments:
Illara's instruction is top notch. Illara appears to me to be an expert in martial arts. Her direction and form instruction are extremely helpful and I love that her body is absultely ripped. I find her very inspiring.
Papaya
9/17/2007
