All I can say is that this tape kicked my butt! I'm an advanced exerciser and love high impact and interval training. I've been using Cathe Friedrich's Interval Max tape for a while and find Mindy's tape to be much harder. The workout consists of about 30 minutes of step intervals and 25 minutes of hi/lo intervals. She starts each segment by teaching the moves you'll be doing for the anaerobic intervals. You do about a minute of high intensity on one leg, then recover (very briefly) and do it on the other leg. Many of the anaerobic intervals are more like agility drills where you use your step and go very fast through the movements (like straddling and pony's over the step). I highly recommend that you practice these moves before you do the tape! I did it for the first time this morning and tripped several times (of course, I'd just gotten out of bed). The hi/lo intervals involved ski jumps, plyo lunges and plyo jumps and I thought this section was easier than the step intervals (thank goodness). The cardio workout ends with a stretch and then you move on to the 'Pump Party' with a body bar or dumbbells. This section consists of squats with the body bar (basic squats, squats with a knee lift and side steps with squats), and compound movements with the body bar. One really tough one was a back lunge into a front kick with an overhead press. She also included some slow plyo lunges with the body bar that were very hard for me. I was using a barbell with no plates (15 lbs) and it was too heavy to do any jumping so I just did regular lunges. Next was a one-armed row with the body bar (I used dumbbells) and a bent over row. She also did some bicep curls, some killer one-legged squats and a side lunge with an upright row (I did this with dumbbells). Next comes some shoulder work with dumbbells, then 3 sets of pushups and a VERY short ab workout, followed by tricep dips.

This is the first CIA tape I've ever gotten that actually challenged me. My only complaints are that 1) you never know which leg you're supposed to be on so I spent a lot of time stumbling around and trying to follow Mindy. She's not that great with her cues. 2) The recovery time in between the anaerobic intervals was too short. I didn't time everything, but I felt like I spent more time in the high intervals than in the recovery period. Mindy is very high energy and perky without being annoying. If you're an advanced exerciser who needs a challenge, this tape is definitely for you. I don't know know if I'll do the entire tape every time (it's almost 2 hours long) but I'll definitely use both of these workouts in my routine.

Paige Waehner