Step Pump

Tonya Larson
Year Released: 2008

Categories: Step Aerobics , Total Body Workouts


I thought this was a very good intermediate-intensity/complexity workout. The choreography style is reminiscent of Gay Gasper's or Nekea Brown's. The strength workout, while short, was quite efficient and very good for a short-on-time day.

Set: Warm earth tones, hardwood floor in a loft studio with comfortable furniture seen on the side. Rectangular windows in the background appear to open to blue sky.

Music: Generic Dynamix instrumental, nothing special.

Step: One of Tonya's two backgrounders always sticks with the basic move while Tonya shows the more complex version.

The step is 30 minutes and made up of about 4-5 combos that you eventually put all together. After the first combo you do a very brief dynamic stretch. You start with a knee up-straddle, then knee-behind (some call it a "scissor back over the step") with each leg. Then reverse box on the step (you get on the step, face the back wall and tap with other foot, then get back down) and one jack.

Other moves, not necessarily in this order, include knee up on the corner, go over the step, shuffle around, kick the corner, back up three steps, kick again, return to step and do a "basketball shoot." There is a rocking horse on the corner, into step-pivot and basic step. L-step, box-step, cha cha cha. Mambo on the step, straddle, mambo, ham curl, then four ham curls straddling the step and going around in a square.

What really made the step workout shine to me is that all these moves were seamlessly strung together. In the end you can't tell where one combo end and the next one starts. They are connected together really well.

Weights: The basic pattern for reps is four slow, 8 fast, 3 slow-one-fast, and finishing off wth 8 more fast reps ("8 more and we're done!") You do squats, squats with side to side leg raises, plies, lunge with bicep curl, shoulder lateral raises, pushups on the step, and lat row plus kickback. By using 8-lb weights, I found this to be an efficient tight-on-time weight workout.

Then you do planks, crunches with leg raise, and oblique twists in V-sit.

I had been a little concerned about the religious element, since I am not. But apparently it's only in the optional "spiritual" warmups. During the workout, the only reference to God is "thank God, right?" after completing one lively combo. :)

Instructor Comments:
Calm, steady demeanor without being robotic. Very good cuing! I would definitely buy more workouts from her.

acey

04/25/2008