I could have written Lisa C.'s review (well, probably not so well), because I agree with everything she said. So, reread hers for my review (how's that for being lazy)! :-)

The hi/lo section has fairly basic choreography for a CIA, and is at an intermediate level overall. For me, who prefers complex choreography most of the time, it was a bit on the basic side. I don't mind basic choreography at times, but I feel that keeping the target audience in mind, there could have been one more combo and a lot less repetition. The moves are all ones that I've seen many times before (mambos, cha-chas, knee-ups, step touches... you get the idea), and it felt very late '80s to me. The saving grace to this routine is the music. Fun! I would recommend this section mostly to intermediates who want an intro to CIA tapes, and for advanced exercisers who want a lower-impact alternative without lots of complexity. I know that if I did this routine frequently (for me, that's more than once a month or so), I'd quickly tire of it. I think that for a lower impact hi/lo workout, you'd be better off with CIA 9807.

I do like the Step & Strike section a bit better. Some people have mentioned that they wish that the step and the kickboxing were all separate; I actually really like the way Gay alternates 6 minutes of step and 4 minutes of kickboxing. I agree with Lisa when she said that she wishes that the kickboxing cycles came before the step cycles. It's too bad that Gay didn't use the first kickboxing cycle as part of the warm-up, because she slows down so much to teach it. Your heart rate will really plummet. The other sections are good, though; you just have to make sure to make the moves big to keep your heart rate up. The kickboxing is somewhat choreographed, which I like. As I said before, I usually like complex choreography but NOT in my kickboxing workouts (I don't care for Janis Saffel's style of kickboxing but I do like Power Kicks, CIA 9902 by Keli Roberts and Tae Bo), so this was just enough for me. The step choreography was fun, too. Complex enough to be interesting, but not so much that it can't be followed fairly well the first couple of times through. The choreography in this section is a bit repetitive as well and there is a lot of TIFTing, but with the back-and-forth format of this workout I don't find it tiresome. And as Lisa mentioned, it is hard to see Jay demonstrate the advanced moves from his position behind Gay, and he only does the advanced moves about half the time anyway. I do think, however, that it's wonderful that Gay used a pregnant exerciser to show modifications in a non-pregnancy workout! There is a short ab section after the stretch, which seems to have been added as an afterthought. I'd call the overall intensity of this section high intermediate to low advanced. All in all, I'll keep the tape because of the Step and Strike section for a change of pace, and also because I like Gay. Grade for the hi/lo: B-. Grade for the step & kickboxing: A-.

Instructor Comments:
I like Gay Gasper as an instructor. I have Step 'n Stones I and II and like them both; that's the main reason I ordered this CIA. Her cueing, while decent in both Step 'n Stones videos, is even better in her CIA video. She really describes kicking and punching form quite well during the kickboxing segments. She seems to have a great rapport with the background exercisers. Those of you who have one or both Step 'n Stones will recognize Carol and Amy (who is 6 months pregnant in the video), as they both appear in the Step & Strike section. And it's also nice to have a male exerciser in a video (Jay)! Gay's physique is inspiring!

Kristin Aziz