on the 'low impact step & total body sculpting' disc there are 2
workouts: low impact step which is 40 minutes long. and total body
sculpting which is 27 minutes long. there are also 3 premixes provided...
cardio and weight circuit for 70 mins, solid sculpting for 45 mins, and lower body cardio blast for 49 mins. this review pertains to the cardio & weights circuit premix in particular.

cathe looks and sounds great, her cueing while stepping is not for the absolute beginner though as she often cues right on a new move (without giving warning that it is coming up -- although at times she does cue just fine) and she doesn't break down every single move and give a bunch of practice before moving on. this will help to prevent getting bored with the workout and is just fine with me. if one really wants to start at the beginning with cathe then get her 'basic step & body fusion' dvd which is great for a beginner and beyond. then get this dvd after you have mastered that one.

cathe uses the small home-sized step for this workout...this dvd is meant to be sold in target stores along with this particular step so the workout is really a promotion for the step itself. i used my normal club-sized step and it was fine although i had to move faster on crossing over the step length-wise and on a few other instances. but there is no need to have the smaller step that they use in the workouts if you already have a bigger sized one.

the circuit workout starts out with a warmup on the step and then the first aerobic combo is done. the first sculpting segment was squats and lunges while holding a stability ball (i will use dumbells next time instead of just holding the ball). upper body sculpting circuits eventually followed -- biceps, triceps, shoulders, pushups off the ball for the chest and some back extensions also off of the ball.

the stepping combos were fun and interesting without being too basic or too difficult. solid intermediate stuff to which you could add some propulsion if you wished.
at the end of each stepping combo, cathe included a lower body blast (all low impact) which fried the quads. even though, overall, the workout seemed to be more stepping than sculpting, the lower body cardio blasts at the end of each stepping combo worked the legs alot.

the circuit workout finishes off with repeating the lower body blasts on the step all over again, then cathe did crunches while laying prone on the floor and the circuit premix repeats the abs exercises as well to ensure that you get enough reps in.

also, i want to mention that when the circuit premix switches from cardio to weights and back again, a screen comes up to instruct you to get your stability ball and hand weights ready or to get ready for stepping. that was nice to have so that the segments didnt start before you were ready to
do them. the premix did seem a bit choppy as the circuit segments were drawn from the 2 individual workouts on the disc but such is the nature of premixes i guess.

eventually an aerobic cooldown was done and a few stretches for the
legs. my heartrate was already down from doing the abs segment but i still did the aerobic cooldown since it was being presented.

i was quite happy with this premix and im looking forward to doing the cardio and sculpting workouts separately.

Instructor Comments:

Carolyn Visser