For me, Advanced Cardio is a clear case of why I can't always prejudge a tape based on reviews. I really wanted this tape, but held off because the few reviews on file were negative and said it wasn't intense enough. But then a few other people (who didn't write reviews) said they enjoyed it and I like Andre quite a bit so I decided to give it a try. Because of the intensity warnings, I wore my HRM so I could be objective.
The warmup was fun and sufficiently warmed me up, but as we moved into the first combo, I had my eye on my HRM and was disappointed to see that it was barely at 60% capacity. But then things started to really kick in. By the time we combined combos two and three, I was up to about 75%. I will say that the intensity is a bit uneven, but my HRM said I averaged about 70% througout the 40-minute cardio section. Is it the most intense tape I have? Absolutely not. But it was SO much fun. It was like Christi a few notches down on the intensity scale.
I am not a funk dancer, so I was scared off by that word in the reviews as well. But the "funk" is really just a little hip-swishing that actually made the workout kind of fun for me. The moves flowed together very well; I felt like I was really dancing. And I appreciated the low impact because I dont' do too many, and any I've tried have not been this complex (and I LOVE compex).
There are four combos total, including the warm-up. You put them together twice at the end, with a power drill in between. My heart rate was at about 80% at that point.
This all said, I do want to say that I have a fair amount of room to move around in, so I could make my moves bigger, which certainly helped. I agree that this is not an advanced video, as the title says, but it is solidly intermediate/low advanced, and good for a low impact, low HR range day for the advanced exerciser. Normally, I trade anything at this level of intensity, but this was too much fun to get rid of. The time just flew by.

Instructor Comments:
Andre is a lot of fun and always makes me laugh with his comments. He's the reason I ordered this tape, despite the reviews.

Donna Kahwaty