The workout is 65 minutes long, led by Stacey Lei Krauss. Typical CIA background - there is a large primary-colored shape in the background. It uses no weights (just a yoga mat for the core section) and everyone is barefoot. Also, I am an advanced exeriser, but I always have room to grow!


Broken into 3 distinct segments:


Section I - Warm up. Approx. 15 minutes - runner's lunge, triangle, twists, some ankle stretches - very thorough, I thought. She says that this workout will strengthen your feet since your toes are gripping the floor. I was VERY warmed up and already sweating after the warm up. The warm up had Stacey and two background exercisers, and they showed three levels of the moves, where appropriate. Stacey has a nice voice and presence, and I liked her. There is not a lot of interaction with the background exercisers, as I recall.


Section II - Cardio. Approx. 17 minutes. ALL squat and lunge variations, using no weights, with balance moves added for difficulty (e.g., curtsey lunge swinging forward into a front kick, back lunge bringing the back leg forward and up into tree pose). Some of the balance poses are increased in difficulty by adding swinging arm movements. There are some plyo squats, but you can easily modify to make them low impact. Stacy very clearly tells beginners which background exerciser to follow. Stacey does all the exercises on the right side first, then the left. I was kind of hoping she might forget to do the left side - this was a tough segment and my legs were feeling it. There are four background exercisers in this segment, all dressed like Stacey (which I thought was cute - she's dressed like she is on the cover of the video.) The background exercisers show modifications, and Stacey refers to them often. The music was club-like (although I haven't been to a club for a while), but not obnoxious or overpowering. No vocals and no tunes I recognized.


Section III - Cool down. Approx. 10 minutes. She holds the stretches for a nice amount of time, I thought - really lets you relax into a hip opening pose. You squat and round your back, do side to side lunges, runner's lunge, sit and bend forward at the hip and reach for your toes, etc. The music was soothing for this segment.


Section IV - Core. Approx. 25 minutes. Starts with a very long superman - she really guides you step by step through the pose, starting stretched out face down on the mat, then slowly tensing and stretching your arms, tensing your buttocks, drawing in your belly to create a "mouse hole" to protect your back - all before you ever raise your arms or legs off the mat. I thought her instruction was terrific. Followed by plank variations, then that exercise (sorry - can't recall the name) where you're on all fours and stretch one arm out in front and raise the opposite leg to the back. Then she guides you step by step through dead bug. She said, "Remember, the key to this exercise is the journey of going through it, so take your time with each step." I liked that idea - it's not all about just getting to the final position. She ended with the longest bridge pose I've ever seen - like, 4 solid minutes or more. I couldn't hold it for the whole time - my buttocks were already feeling it from the lunges and squats earlier. I can't believe the core section was 25 minutes long - it really flew by.

This makes a nice workout all together, or is easily broken into add on segments (chaptered at each section and the cardio section is broken into a few chapters as well).

Instructor Comments:
Stacey has a nice voice and presence, and I liked her. She gave great instruction on form and safety and often mentioned the modifiers.

judy5150