Brick by Brick

Rob Glick
Year Released: 2004

Categories: Step Aerobics


I immediately recognized the set corner from Franny's Kick-Itt, also produced by Sara's City. But Sara has jazzed it up a bit CIA-set style (the old days, before Greg went off the deep end) and it's well-lit and friendly, and the outfits of Rob and the background exercisers match well. I liked it and it's HUGE improvement over the plain wall, puke green carpet and bad lighting of former Sara's City workouts. The sound cut in and out occasionally but it wasn't awful and didn't really detract from the workout. There are two background exercisers; one is Randy from Crunch and he's a bit too animated for me. I generally don't even notice background exercisers, but he was hard to miss every time he'd react to Rob, like making faces that say "Oh, good move Rob!" etc. As for Rob, he has lost some of the smarmy quality I found so evident in Amazing Step Styles and that was good. Excluding warm-up and cool-down, the workout is long -- 58 minutes -- but is divided into two segments. In the first, he does three combos then strings them all together. In the second, he builds one long combo. He does put them all together twice at the end. He broke down a tad too much for my taste, but not on the level of a Gay Gasper. Intensity-wise, this is perfect for a long, easier day, or if you're doing heart rate training, it would be good for that. My avg HR for the 60 minutes (not including warmup) was only 139 and it never went above 145. I'd say it's the equivalent intensity of a Marcus Irwin extra-long workout, where part of the intensity comes just because you've been doing it for an hour. I didn't find the choreo especially innovative, all stuff you've done and seen before. There was only one move that gave me trouble for some reason. The bottom line as far as Sara's City goes, though, is it's a new brand of CIA. The set was so reminiscent and even I recognized all the music from CIA videos. I'm not sure this is a good thing.

Donna K

08/08/2004