This is a nice 40-min intermediate cardio intervals tape. It requires no equipment and not an enormous amount of room. The set is pretty. It reminds me of the Slim in Six/Slim Series set - a spacious living room with hardwood floors and a large window overlooking a green back yard.

There are four very-easy-to-see background people, who do extra-intense or beginner modifications. One of them is a guy; I recognize the other three from other Kathy Smith videos.

The format is six 2-minute hard intervals with a a couple minutes of active recovery between them. The active recovery consists of some marching and step-touching, some "previewing" of the intervals moves (the intervals moves done at a slower, less bouncy pace), and some standing leg work, such as squats, plies, and one-legged squats. These moves are not nearly so intense that I feel like a can't do them in between lower-body strength days, although they would be challenging for a beginner. They don't bring your heart rate down anywhere near resting heart rate.

The intervals moves are easy-to-follow but not entirely boring. They consist of sports-drills type moves, such as shuffles, leaps, and hops, with a few knees up and hamstring curls. They are nice because the intensity can easily be modified, so that they would be doable for a beginner, but an advanced exerciser would not be completely wasting their time.

The video ends with a hamstring, quad, hip, lower back and calf stretch done lying down on the floor.

Instructor Comments:
Kathy Smith is plesant in this tape. She does some typical Kathy Smith things, like start a sentence and not finish it, or whoop at a strange time (this only happens once). But overall she is encouraging, not too hyper, but still energetic. I like her in this tape. She gives you reminders about pushing yourself during the intervals and bringing it down during the active recoveries.

Natalie