The Next Step

Seasun Zieger
Year Released: 2004

Categories: Step Aerobics


About me: I consider myself a “barely-advanced” exerciser. For instance, I can make it through workouts like Cathe’s HIITs or Cardio Core Circuit, but I pretty much feel like I’m going to keel over when I do them. I have been exercising with home videos for about 7 or 8 years, but only started doing advanced workouts about 2 years ago. I prefer complex step choreography because it keeps my mind occupied (Seasun Zieger and Amy Bento are favorites), but will do a step workout where the choreography is only moderately complex as long as it is athletic enough to be a reasonable cardio challenge. Cathe Friedrich is my favorite instructor, but I am catholic in my tastes as long as the instructor has good form, decent cuing, and uses tolerable music. Oh – and because I am a bad, bad person, I almost always skip the cool-down/stretch at the end of a workout.

How this workout is organized:
• Warm-up – 6 minutes
• Horizontal Step, with the step in the normal orientation – 21.5 minutes
• Vertical Step, with the oriented with the short edge closest to the TV – 22 minutes
• Step Challenge, combining the horizontal and vertical segments – 6.25 minutes
• Cool-down – 3.5 minutes
• Abs & Core – 11.75 minutes
• Stretch – 4.5 minutes
• Bonus step segment using 2 steps – 17 minutes
• Total workout time: 92.5 minutes

A non-exhaustive list of moves
• Arabesques
• Lunges off the step
• V-steps
• Hop turns
• Ponies / cha-cha-cha’s
• Shuffles along the step
• Lots of “spin your basic” ala Christi Taylor
• The same move that is called “pendulum” by Cathe Friedrich and “tick tock” by others
• A move that is similar to what Cathe Friedrich calls a “ricochet” or “reverse hop” in Four Day Split: Higher Intensity Step
• A move that is like Cathe Friedrich’s “sweep around” from the first combo in Four Day Split: Lower Intensity Step
• A move similar to Amy Bento’s “crosswalk” in Advanced Step Challenge 2 (different, but close)
• 3 count reverse mambos off the step - similar to what Cathe Friedrich does in Imax 3
• A move that Seasun calls a “push mambo,” which is very close to what Cathe Friedrich calls a “power jig” in one of the step routines from Four Day Split: Higher Intensity Step (I think)

Who would probably like this workout?
1) Amy Bento fans. Seasun’s choreography is on a par with Amy’s in terms of complexity, though her moves are a little less athletic. Her choice in music is similar. Where Seasun excels over Amy, in my view, is that she tends to match her sequences of moves with the 8-count bars of music. Amy, on the other hand, will often begin a sequence of moves on, say, the 2nd or 6th count of a bar, which drives me nuts.
2) People who are comfortable with the level of complexity in, say, a Cathe Friedrich step workout, but are looking for something with more challenging/interesting choreography.

Who would probably not like this workout?
1) Anyone who gets frustrated by complex choreography. If you don’t like Amy Bento’s workouts, you aren’t likely to be a fan of Seasun’s, either.
2) Anyone who gets dizzy easily – there are a LOT of spins in this workout, often back-to-back-to-back.
3) Intensity junkies who are looking for a major cardio challenge.

Music: Similar to the type of music Amy Bento uses. I also recognized one song from a Firm workout (BSS4: Ultimate Calorie Blaster, I think).

Where this workout fits in my exercise world:
Because the choreography is complex, I have to use a 6” step rather than an 8”. This means that it is not a great workout for getting my heart rate up on its own. However, I’ve found that if I do a short, intense cardio workout first (such as one of Cathe Friedrich’s HIIT workouts), and then follow it with segments from The Next Step, my heart rate stays up at a reasonable level. So…I generally use this workout in segments (rather than all at once), to fill-out the last half-hour of an hour-long workout.

Instructor Comments:
Seasun has excellent cueing.

rickets

03/14/2011