The 37-minute step segment begins with a 9- minute warm-up followed by an intermediate workout with some different, innovative steps. Some moves: walking the bench, repeater pony, two taps straddle on both sides, a jump and squat going across the step followed by a knee-up, and a 3-count backward pogo.

After the heartrate check, he starts with new moves, including mambo/shuffle/march; tap around the world; back shuffle around the step, similar to Step Fit; a baseball move he calls 'safe'. He only does the entire combo from the top only one time - so it was not repetitive. I really enjoyed it and will do it again.

The 27-minute low impact was too low for me with lots of marches in place. It starts with a 7-minute warm-up and you need lots of space (count eight steps forward and you can get an idea). There are lots of marches and pivots, grapevines, step touches, and box steps - very basic and easy to learn. After the heartrate check, again, Andre does all new combos to keep it fresh. There is a fast rhythm grapevine, and a cute move called the 'bus stop.' Again, he puts it all together on both sides only once, followed by a 2-minute cooldown.

I enjoyed the toning with the tubing - he keeps your feet busy with squats and lunges using the step. Working chest, shoulders, biceps, triceps (dips, too), I got a good workout in 18 minutes for the upper body to do on an easy day. The ab work was only 4 minutes and the final stretch only 2 minutes.

I really like Andre and hope he makes more advanced workouts. Forgot to mention that Maria Latran (from some of Cathe's tapes) and Heather Day are the background exercisers. He mentioned that Maria had a baby eight months ago (maybe that's why she was missing on Cathe's tapes) and she certainly looks great. In a nutshell: the step workout is intermediate and the low impact, probably very low intermediate.

Instructor Comments:
I loved Andre's tough hi/lo segment on CIA 2002. He was also a semi-regular on Joannie Greggains' Morning Stretch in the early eighties. Great cueing, very likeable. He should make advanced videos.

maryann parker