Instructor Comments:
Helen has a fun, down-to-earth personality. She's very pleasant and encouraging without being sappy or overly gung-ho.

This is a 90-minute workout consisting of aerobics/strength (a little over an hour) and a yoga/stretch workout at the end. While I like the yoga section, I rarely have time to do it, so I'm really only reviewing the major part of the workout. I like it! The workout is broken into 5 sections: interval work, strength work using combination movements, more interval work, kickbox, and more strength but without the compound movements.

Almost all the intervals are done on the step, except for a few in the second interval section. The intervals aren't very long, but they do take you to your max while you're doing them. But if you're not ready for the highest-intensity versions, she does show options. Some of the intervals are really fun. There is one where you kick one leg back while leaping onto the step with the other leg, and then you bring the back leg up into a knee lift. For some reason, I really enjoy that one (call me crazy), and I'd even like to do it longer. The only interval I really have problems with is jumping over the step (like Gin Miller does in Intense Moves). Frankly, I'm scared to do that. I have visions of smashing my face on the cold, hard floor!

The kickboxing is fun as well. It's a little shorter than the other sections, or at least it seems that way, and at the very end you do a series of fast leaping-type kicks to finish things off.

I like the final strength section, which consists of exercises using upper OR lower body. But I don't like the compound exercises in the first strength section, where you do movements that incorporate both upper and lower. I've never liked these in any tape, because it seems like neither half gets sufficiently worked, and I feel like I'm wasting my time. So in the future, I will either skip this section or do either upper or lower body depending on my mood.

Finally, I'd like to mention one thing about interval work. I've seen a couple of comments to the effect that this workout doesn't keep your heart rate up the entire time. That's the purpose of interval work, though. You would be defeating the purpose if your heart rate did stay high. Grade A.

Annie S.