The writeup on this video didn't interest me at first. I heard it used body balls and tubing and I don't use or own those pieces of equipment so I kind of brushed this video off. I read a few reviews of it on VF and decided to give it another look. Well, let me tell you, I am glad I did!

First of all, the tubing and ball are only used at the end of the video and used rather minimally. Dumbells can be substited for any exercise anyway. The video is really unique. I don't own any video similar to it. It uses some step and some floor. It is not dancey at all. Mindy uses sports based moves to achieve the cardio portion of this video. It starts with a warmup, a cardio phase, a muscle toning segment and a stretch. The warm up is long. It is also kind of intense as far as warm ups go. Mindy uses the step and floor to get the heart rate up. She jumps quite a bit in the warm up, but you can modify any of these jumps by marching if you don't feel ready to jump this early. The warm up really doesn't include any stretching, but for some reason, I don't miss it. By the end of the warm up, I have already broken a good sweat.

The cardio portion is broken down in 3 parts. Agility training I, Agility training II and intense interval training. The agility training is really fun and different. Mindy throws sports related drills at you. Consisting of kickboxing, step and football. She does things like bunny hops side to side on the floor jumping the length of the step, ski jumps and fast runs. The step is used as a marker. The nice thing about this is she and her other exercisers go at different paces. She tells you to pick one of them and follow them. It looks strange, but you can challenge yourself by following the really fast ones. She does an extremely basic kickbox portion and moves on to football drills. She simulates "running through tires" by straddling the step and running super fast for four counts. She does football blocks around the step and various drills involving fast runs on a around the step. This part is really fun and gets pretty intense.

She gives you a few seconds to recover before starting agility training II. This part consists of placing risers behing the step and running in and out of them fast, backwards and in all directions. She does leaps and jumps back and forth and around and figure eights. Sound complex, but it is not. The steps are easy, the intensity is tough though. It is again used for cardio, but it also works on agility, balance and direction. The last cardio phase is the intensity drills. It is similar to Intense Moves. Mindy does basic footwork like high knees straddling the step and basketball jumps and ups the intensity for about 30 seconds so you get in your anaerobic zone. This part as well is intense and challenging. This is supposed to end the 40 or so minutes of the cardio portion but she does a series of lunges and squats right after that keeps my heart rate up. My legs were hurting the next day.

The next part is light toning. Mindy works the basic muscle groups with bands, light weights and the ball. It is good for someone who just wants some strength work. If you were looking for more definition and strength Cathe F's strength tapes are geared more towards that. The toughest part is the pushup series she does, she has some nice variations. The end is a nice long stretch. I really like this tape, The cardio portion is intense the way I like it and is such a nice change for anyone who wants something different and FUN.

Instructor Comments:
Mindy is good. Her cueing is good and she has a ton of enthusiasm. She is funny and goofy but...she also knows her stuff. She focuses alot on form pointers. Mindy looks really athletic, she tells us she likes to rock climb and cycle and she also lets us in on her background exercisers. She spreads out some of her "spotlight" which makes her seem genuine. She is funny and jokey but not annoying. Very refreshing. Great instructor.

Robyn A.