I am a high intermediate-low advanced exerciser who is currently at a healthy weight for my height. I've been exercising daily for some time. My favorite kickboxing workouts are the Powerstrike millennium series. I also occasionally do some Tae-Bo for variety.

I originally bought this DVD from Collage because it was a staff favorite. After the first 15 minutes I got annoyed by Janis's using turns in her routine, turned it off, and traded it for Bosu Core Synergy, which I love. But then I kept reading all the raves on the forum about what a fun workout this was and so I rented it from Netflix to see if I had missed anything. Nope.

I programmed my DVD player to skip the upper body "toning" sections (this is not a menu option, you must either have a programmable DVD player or have your remote handy to keep choosing segments from the "mix and match" menu), so I can't comment on those.

I wore my heart rate monitor and found I hardly got up into my aerobic zone. Instead it was pretty much in the fat burning zone, which is fine for a light day. However, because there is no instruction on form, I would not recommend this for someone who is new to kickboxing. As someone who does kickboxing but is no expert, I found there was not as much kicking as I had hoped there would be, and I often found myself doing extra jumping jacks or knee-ups in order to keep from dropping out of the fat-burning zone.

This is a better (and longer) cardio workout than Kathy Smith's kickboxing workout, but in retrospect she was less annoying. Compared to HKC, I feel far more worked out by the advanced Tae bo workouts, and Billy and his backup exercisers don't annoy me so much because they're clearly working as hard as they can. From the way the people in HKC were hooting and hollering you'd *think* they were really pushing their athletic limits, but given how easy of a workout I found it I think this was more for dramatic effect, as they are all clearly in excellent shape. I also still vastly prefer the Powerstrikes for an intense cardio workout with focus on good form and quiet background folks.

Instructor Comments:
As a Latina, I found Guillermo's whole "look at me, I can count in Spanish while the white women behind me giggle and whoop" shtick extremely off-putting. My (non-Latino) husband was in the room when I worked out and he commented that Guillermo and his backup ladies were more annoying than Kathy Smith at her worst. I have to agree. If you don't like whooping or Latin cheese, or you believe background exercisers should be seen and not heard, this is not a workout for you.

dianairene