I really have no business liking this workout. It feels unpracticed and haphazard, mixing in bits of martial arts, modern jazz dance, plyometrics, and even some weight training. The cueing is flawed, the warmup and cooldown are insufficient, it’s neither steady-state cardio nor high-intensity interval training, and it’s at best a pseudo-kickboxing workout-- all reasons why I’d typically vote “thumbs-down” for a workout. Yet here I am, publicly admitting that I actually enjoy this workout.

How could that be? Unclassifiable workouts usually irritate me because I feel like they try to do everything but fail on all counts. Tracy’s no martial arts master; she throws in some tai chi because, ahem, “the Chinese believe that when the chi flows smoothly through the body, health and wellness will prevail.” Sounds to me like a high-gloss pretense of borrowing from an ancient discipline without actually having committed to studying or practicing it. She mixes up her “jab” and “cross”, and she intersperses kickboxing sequences with straight-leg kicks in the style of modern jazz dance, as well as with squats, lunges, and speed-skater-hops taken out of an aerobics class. The weights segments are too inconsequential to build strength, increase endurance, or challenge supporting muscles as in true functional-fitness workouts.

And what about that unshakeable feeling that someone just dropped a camera in front of Tracy and her team without any rehearsals or extra film for a second take? The background exercisers often are late to switch to the next move Tracy demands, and she herself doesn’t seem to know how many more repetitions she wants. On more than one occasion, she announces, “One more time!” only to correct herself afterward and request two more reps. There’s no sense of the workout progressing through a carefully planned routine. I don’t know why we pick up weights in the middle segment, or why go down to the floor for 10 push-ups immediately after doing jumping jacks— twice!— and I still can’t tell when each segment is going to end, despite having done the workout multiple times. Tracy talks about doing certain moves to raise the heart rate, and then to lower the heart rate, but her words don’t seem to correspond with what’s actually happening, nor with my expectation that a workout should gradually increase in intensity from the warmup, then decrease to the cooldown. My pulse rises during the plyometric portions and falls when she teaches a routine at half-tempo, in arbitrary cycles that are quite the antithesis of Gin Miller’s carefully timed intervals in Intense Moves.

So how could I possibly like this mess? Well, it’s entertaining. I may not know what’s coming next, but I’m along for the ride and I give it my all. The “grab-bag” style actually feels less intimidating, since the varied moves happen in bursts too short to provoke much anxiety or boredom. I like the longer, choreographed kickboxing sequences that challenge my focus and my stamina. Even though I often dread high-impact, the plyometric jumps here are conveniently spaced out between low-impact segments, and they resemble the deliberate jumps I’d practice in ballet class rather than the constant bounces that annoy me in many hi-lo workouts. The weights segments feel like short interludes that challenge the muscles in a different way before resuming the cardio workout, and they’re not so long that my heart rate plummets too low.

But is this workout for you? Consider yourself forewarned. If you’re willing to jump in to this mishmash of moves, be sure to precede it with your own warmup, especially to prepare your ankles and knees for the high-impact segments. I’d also recommend trying the DVD version so you can reorder the segments (#2, #3, then #1, since #2 starts with some very slow tai chi that doesn’t fit in the middle of a workout, and since #1 has the most impact). I suppose you could also leave your tape cued to the second segment and consider that the starting and ending point of your workout, if you don't mind waiting for the tape to rewind mid-workout. Another option might be to start CBC from the second segment and end with Workout #2 from the New Method Cardio Kick DVD, since that’s the same as CBC #1 but with a short pilates segment tacked on. Keep the remote handy so you can hit the pause button while you insert your own cooldown before hitting the floor for the pilates segment.

Instructor Comments:
Try to watch a clip of any of Tracy Mallett’s workouts to see if you can tolerate her style. She definitely has the potential to be annoying, with a shrill voice and strong British accent, a camera presence that tends toward artifice, disorganized choreography, and confused cueing. For some reason I don’t really mind, perhaps because I don’t take her too seriously when I do her workouts.

KickDancer