When I first bought this video, I bought on the strength of Petra's name. I remembered her from the old Fit TV days (is that still around?) - she one of the best of the instructors featured in the early morning shows.

It starts off with a nice warm up, goes into a good routine, has a decent cool down. I used to get a good sweat on this one, but I have to admit, I haven't done it in awhile, probably because I used this all the time when I didn't have enough videos in my collection.

One of the detriments of this is that it's filmed, not taped. Yuck! I don't know what they were thinking when they made this decision. Another thing that detracts is the weird screen in the back, with its subliminal messages and strange pictures. They even show a bee in one of them! That's supposed to get you motivated? I'd always cringe at that point, especially the first few times I did it, because my husband and I had had a bee infestation in our house & I didn't want to be reminded of it when working out! Another poor decision.

I do agree that the people Petra has with her don't help much. At one point, they mess up badly (to be fair, I did, too) & the video cuts to a shot of her saying something. The problem with them though is that when they are given little speeches to spiel, their words are flat and stilted, nothing inspiring. It would have been better if they stuck to just the workout.

I think because I used this so often, I burnt out on it. I think it's decent, but no great shakes. And now that I've gotten into step aerobics (I'm no pro, but I'm working on it!), floor routines don't do it for me much anymore, except if I'm under the weather & want to do **something** aerobic. I don't think I'll be using this one for that, though.

I might put this one on the exchange, but I'll keep it for now. I'd give it a C-.

Instructor Comments:
Petra is her usual smiling, cracking jokes self, but I think she goes misses a couple of cues.

NanB