Urban Tai Chi

Ginette Deslauriers
Year Released: 2001

Categories: Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance , Tai Chi / Qigong


This review will just give my first impressions of this videos, since there is only one review of it so far. I really didn't know what to expect with this one, since I know next to nothing about Tai Chi. It's a decent video, especially for those looking for a mostly low impact workout or something a little different, but I guess it is just not my thing.

The warm up seemed to go for too long (11 min), and didn't hold my attention. The set included some of the "city" set from the last group of CIA videos for an urban feel, but some of the colors used for the "buildings" (e.g. mustard yellow) were somewhat distracting to me. I didn't care for at least some of the music, either--it sounded like air raid sirens at some points, though to be fair, with only one run-through I didn't notice all of the music.

On the plus side, parts of this video prove you can have very high intensity without impact, particularly the moves where you go from some sort of squatting position up into a balance on one leg. You can see a couple such moves in the Collage Video clip. It made me wish that someone, perhaps Genette, would put a bunch of these moves together into a really intense low impact tape. There were too few of them here, I thought.

My biggest problem with the workout was the inconsistent intensity throughout. Though there were some tough sections, there were a lot of places where you were pretty much either marching or standing there doing arm movements.

Though most of this workout is completely low impact, there were a couple very short plyometric sections near the very end of the cardio, but it would be very easy for someone to modify them or to skip those sections, because they are self-contained rather than peppered throughout the workout. I liked Genette. She has a friendly personality, and I didn't have any trouble following her cueing. In sum, this wasn't my cup of tea, but this would be a video to consider for someone looking for a low impact workout that's a little different from the norm, unless you think the variations in intensity would be a problem for you.

WWWendy

01/10/2001