Breakdown of workout:
0:00:00 Intro: Ilaria explains (and both demonstrate) all punches & kicks
0:03:15 Warmup: J, C, H, U, torso twists, front chambers & push kicks; calf stretches & 8 pushups facing each side
0:08:45 L Punching drills: J C JC; H H; U U; put sequences together
0:13:44 Front & Back Kick drills – L front, R front, L back, R back
0:19:49 L: Combo 1 – Punch-kick combo (2 counts of 8):
JC C Drop U U; Front kick Back kick Front kick
[Transition: 16 jumping jacks]
0:24:59 Side Kick drills – R, L, R, L: side chamber & kick
0:27:07 L: Combo 2 – Kick-punch combo (4 counts of 8)
L front, R front, L knee, L side; squat to R, L side, scissors; JCJ JCJ C; JCJ JCJ C
[Transition: jogs]
0:35:13 R: Combo 1 – Punch-kick combo (2 counts of 8)
0:40:36 R: Combo 2 – Kick-punch combo (4 counts of 8)
0:47:32 R: Punching drills: alternating JC JC H H; JC JC U U; J, C, H, H
0:53:20 Cooldown: Squats w/ blocks
0:57:08 Stretch (Tai-Chi style)

J = jab, C = cross, H = hook, U = uppercut
(No spaces in between the letters means the punches happen in rapid succession. In the combinations, I’ve used boldface to indicate the first beat in each count of 8.)

As a passionate fan of this workout (and of Powerstrike more generally), I felt obliged to explain exactly what I love about it, while also addressing specific criticisms I’ve read from other VFers about it and acknowledging a few ways in which it might not suit everyone’s needs. My prior kickboxing experience comes from a couple years of semi-private self-defense training, plus a few more years of group fitness classes, and 80+ kickboxing videos. I guess I would classify my cardiovascular fitness level as advanced.

What I find most outstanding about this workout is the way it builds and maintains intensity without too much high-impact and without wasting time. Many other cardio tapes rely on jumping of various kinds to add intensity, but this workout shows that that’s unnecessary. There are some jumping jacks and scissor jacks in the choreography, but they’re very short and easily could be skipped or modified without compromising the workout. Instead, the nonstop kicks and punches, at a fast tempo of 144-152bpm, are what propel your heart rate up. In 54 minutes, from warmup to cooldown, you execute 2000+ punches, 160+ chambers, and 700+ kicks. Compare this to 3326 punches and no chambers or kicks in 46 minutes with Michael Olajide’s Aerobox; 816 punches, 128 chambers, and 528 kicks in 26 minutes with Dewey Yung’s Dawei Cardio Kickboxing; and 2000+ punches, ~270 chambers, and 600+ kicks in 54 minutes with Cathe Friedrich’s Kick, Punch, & Crunch. Unlike the other workouts, however, Powerstrike Millennium #2 has very little marching and jogging in place to fill time while teaching the choreography, without throwing complicated combinations at you too quickly for you to execute every move with good form and power.

The brilliance of Ilaria’s and Patricia’s teaching is that they keep you moving constantly and give you plenty of practice and advance notice so that you can put your full effort into every move. Because they break down the routine into smaller chunks and cue ahead of each move, it’s possible to get all the moves even on the first time through. For example, Patricia introduces combination #1 (punch-kick combo) by focusing on just the punches. After practicing 24 jab-crosses, you add on the second cross and drop, repeating that 10 times before adding on a block at the end. Four repetitions later, you add an uppercut, and ten repetitions after that, you add another uppercut with the other arm. Patricia then sets that aside and moves to the kick portion of the combination, practicing just front kicks, then front and back kicks, then front and back and front kicks. After practicing the kicks, she puts the punch segment and kick segment together, repeating the entire combination 10 times. This approach ensures that you’re prepared for each additional move and can focus on form and power, rather than just flailing about clumsily trying to keep up with the instructor (which is how I often feel as a choreography-challenged exerciser doing other videos!).

Because this is designed as an hour-long workout, with the intensity gradually building up from a thorough warmup and then gradually cooling down to the final stretch, you won’t be able to split it up into halves easily. As you can see from the breakdown above, the workout starts with punching drills on the left, effectively extending the warmup, and it ends with the same punching drills on the right, which become a preliminary cooldown. Both combinations are taught on the left side, during the first half of the workout, before moving to the right side. While some people have complained that this format exhausts one side of the body before the other, I don’t perceive that to be a problem in this workout because all of the combinations utilize punches and kicks on both sides of the body, even if you’re always staying in left stance. However, if you don’t like revisiting the first combination of the video significantly later in the workout, it’s possible that this format won’t be right for you. Some people have suggested creating their own "remix" of this workout by changing the order of the segments to avoid this.

This particular workout is my favorite among the Powerstrike videos, since it’s more intense than Millennium #3 and feels more balanced than Millennium #1. I was surprised to discover that this has approximately the same number of punches as but more kicks than M1, since M1 is noteworthy to me for its long kicking sequences. I think the difference is that M2 does a better job of balancing the kicks on the two sides within each segment, and it has fewer knee chambers and high-impact jacks.

There are some other characteristics of the workout that might not suit your preferences. The greatest drawback is the abbreviated stretch; I personally need to add on more stretching to relax those muscles after working them so much. Also, the number of repetitions isn’t exactly the same from one sequence to the next or from one side to the other. While I don’t think it’s a problem given what a small percentage that deviation constitutes of the total number of punches and kicks, it might bother someone who’s a stickler for perfect symmetry. Finally, there is some whooping and counting, not so much from Ilaria as from Patricia, who lets out a few enthusiastic shouts and sometimes encourages the class to count down the number of repetitions remaining.

Some production details to note about this video are that it is only available on VHS; it uses the same music as M1 (good if you like it, bad if you want more variety or distinctiveness); and the lighting isn’t stellar. But if you can forgive those flaws, you can get an incredible workout from Powerstrike Millennium #2—the best kickboxing video on the market, in my opinion.

Instructor Comments:
I absolutely love Powerstrike! I think Ilaria and Patricia provide excellent instruction and demonstrate fantastic form, while also serving as a wonderful model of how to structure a safe but intense kickboxing workout that’s relatively low-impact. In addition, they know how to teach a combination in such a way that you can get it the first time without having to sacrifice intensity, and you can actually practice the moves to work on your own form while also improving speed and power. More specifically, they actually work on transitions between sequences, so you don’t have that “oh-wait-a-minute—what's-next-again?” feeling of having to scramble and catch up when you move on to the next series of moves. I think it’s a shame that this practice is so rare in fitness classes and videos. It makes perfect sense that people need to practice putting together tough sequences (this is how my violin teacher taught me to practice). This is what helps keep the intensity high throughout the workout, since you don’t have those little lapses where you miss something and can’t do the moves full-out.

KickDancer