As of this writing, Power Max is my favorite step workout. Actually, it's my favorite video cardio workout. The tape has been well described in previous reviews, so I'll just add a few comments.

I'm very slow to pick-up complex choreography, but the combination of Cathe's excellent cueing and the way the steps flow together, made this tape really fun to learn. I especially love the pendulum repeater, the skip step, the hop kicks on the step and the drop squat, but Cathe makes other more familiar moves more fun by varying them slightly. For example the L-step with "bow and arrow" arms that she's used in other tapes like Mega Step Blast has been intensified into a Power L where you push both arms out to the side. A lunge series is made more fun by putting a turn in the middle. The one move I dislike here is the "party arms" that accompany the "ponies on the corner." The only move I had trouble learning was the transition move out of the 360s in section 3. I don't know why I had trouble here — it's not particularly intense, especially compared to those 360s — but it took me 3 or 4 times before I could do it. Now, of course, it seems ridiculously easy.

The music on this tape also adds to the fun of this workout. This is the best soundtrack that I've heard on any of Cathe's tapes, and on most exercise videos, for that matter. The music seems to be mixed a little hotter in relation to the voice than many of her other tapes. This is good! My favorite "song" is the one with the strong bass line that begins the first aerobic section and comes back in the warm-up.

Cathe is at her best here. She's more mature and professional than on other tapes like Step Max and Mega Step Blast, yet she's still having fun. Her cueing is impeccable. She does whoop here — I'm not wild for this — but she also says things I really enjoy: "Are you ready?" she calls out a couple of times before you repeat a long combination. Usually I'm tiring as she says this, but hearing this line revs me up again.

The one element that seems cheesy in this otherwise excellent production is the set. It's white with sooty looking walls and a window that seems to be borrowed from a prison (IMO). But the set is quickly forgotten once you start doing this tough, intense, immensely fun, aerobic step workout. Aerobic bliss.

Karen P