CIA 2K05: Cardio Parties

Franny Benedetto
Year Released: 2000

Categories: Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance , Step Aerobics


Franny gives you both a step and a high/low workout on this tape, in that order. I like having the step first. I find that if I'm doing both step and high/low in the same workout, it's better for me to do the step first -- otherwise my legs are getting tired by the time I get to the step, and I'm more likely to trip. However, I don't think I'm likely to ever do both of these workouts on the same day. They're both an hour long, give or take, and pretty intense.

The step workout is the better-taught of the two. While I like it and plan to keep the tape, I really have to say that this workout is more draining than invigorating. You can have high-intensity and complicated choreography (a la Franny's 9905), and feel energized and invigorated when you're through. On the other hand, you can have high-intensity and complicated choreography, and feel like "what was that all about?" after you're through. Unfortunately, this workout leans toward the latter. It starts with a warmup that is too fast (frenetic comes to mind) and doesn't feel good at all. It shocks your body. Her warmup in 9905 was fast, also, but I don't feel shocked with that one. When you get into the workout, the tempo goes down a couple of beats (thank goodness), at least for awhile. The moves are fun and athletic-based rather than dancy, and for the most part I do like it. But it's really more like a mish-mash of "stuff" than a cohesive workout. The step workout is followed by a cooldown and some ab work which is pretty good.

The high/low workout is less well-taught, especially in the second half. I really like the music in this workout. I'll probably continue to do the first half of the workout, but -- gasp -- I haven't done the second part (after the perceived exertion check), except for a few minutes of it. The reason is that she introduces a fairly complicated movement that has you going every which-way, and it is very poorly broken down. I think this must be the point at which she realizes she's getting short on time and tries to speed things up. It's really too bad, because the music is getting better and better, and I'm sure I'd love this workout if it was taught better. Then, at the end, she is completely out of time and doesn't do any cooldown. It seems to be a recurring theme with Franny's workouts that she runs out of time and has to go too fast and/or leave things out at the end. Perhaps in future workouts she will either use less choreography or less complicated choreography (to shorten the teaching time), and be able to address the problem. What I would love to see is this exact same workout re-done because I know I would love it.

I'm rating this video a B, but there's one other observation I'd like to make in Franny's defense. We've read various comments that Greg T. has kind of pushed instructors to speed things up, don't take it from the top too much, etc. In many of the recent CIA's, there does seem to be a tendency to be that moves aren't broken down quite as well and things don't flow right. Perhaps Greg's efforts to improve the tapes have gone a little overboard. There can be a happy medium, as we've seen with other workouts, and especially Franny's. I would like to see Greg let the instructors use their judgment a little more about these sorts of things. Maybe the recent CIA's would have been a little better. Just an observation from a CIA and Franny fan.

Annie S.

09/21/2000