I'm a complex choreography lover who is at an advanced fitness level. I recently discovered Marcus, and have been on a binge. Unlike many of Marcus's workouts, 4 X 4 has an actual warm up and cooldown. It runs about 70 minutes, so it's a bit longer than a traditional workout. The DVD version is well chaptered, so making the workout shorter on days when you're pressed for time wouldn't be too tough. The set is very dark with 5 small monitors in the back with changing patterns and colors. The workout portion is split into 2 sections. There is a taking it from the top ( TIFT )in each section, but not for the whole workout. To me it was a negative. I know some people have a low tolerance of TIFT. I thrive on it IF it means putting long strings of combos together. I'm not a fan of TIFT every time the instructor adds an 8-count. One thing that I really enjoy, but that may annoy some, is that Marcus and his background exercisers mess up on occasion. I read somewhere that Marcus films every workout all in one shot, and doesn't stop or start over if someone flubs up. To me it gives his workouts almost a "live class" feel. I enjoy the unique energy of the workout, and the goodnatured laughing at them or himself that Marcus does. After all, I mess up now and then. It makes me feel better seeing that they do too. The music was good, but forgettable. Nothing that makes me hum the songs all day, but fun during the workout. As usual, I found that Marcus's style of building the combo by adding in marches and then changing them really brought the intensity down. On days when I'm feeling good, I up the intensity by jogging on the marches. I also add power to some of the moves that Marcus keeps grounded. It makes it more fun for me without having to deviate from what he's doing so much that I don't feel like I'm doing the same workout. Conversely, I did this one day when I wasn't feeling my best ( coming back from a nasty cold ) and I found most of it plenty intense, and even chose at times to stick with a lower intensity version he showed while building the combos. He does spend a lot of time building his combos, and on some days I find it a bit frustrating. I usually jump to the more complex version on those days, if I can remember what Marcus does, or jazz it up myself. To me that makes this workout one of those rare ones that can be used at many different times, by many different people with many different levels of ability, whether you're talking about fitness level or choreography. I think Marcus is an excellent instructor for those who want to build up a vocabulary of complex choreography, both because of his intuitive way of building the combos and because of his excellent cuing. He also cues mirror style, rarely using the words "right" and "left." Instead he names the move and points or holds up his hand to indicate which side. I love that, since many times by the end of a complex workout I don't really know my right from my left anymore. :-) But he's also a choreography lover's dream, because his combos are so full of cha chas, mambos, turns, etc. Everything flows beautifully, and there is a high "fun factor" for me. I borrowed this from a fellow VFer ( Thanks, Pamela! :-) ), and it's going on my wish list. It isn't my favorite of Marcus's step workouts. That honor is split between Step Xpress and Step Fusion. It is, however, a very good, fun workout, that has the added bonus of being more readily available than most of Marcus's workouts.

Instructor Comments:
Marcus shines in this workout, as in all of his others. He seems to be having fun, and his infectious smile and laugh make you have fun right along with him.

ErinF