Kickbox 2000 Basic Workout

John Savidis
Year Released: 1999

Categories: Boxing/Kickboxing/Martial Arts


I want to start off by saying if this is the Basic, then I am afraid of the Advanced tape in this set! I thought this was a pretty challenging tape. You begin with a decent warmup and stretch. Then you move to Round 1 as it is called on the tape. This is supposed to be the cardio section of the workout. I didn't find it to be particularly cardiovascularly challenging. You don't keep moving to keep your heart rate up. It is just a series of kicks and punches. However, I thought it was tough as it really challenges your muscles. No dance moves or steps are in this tape so that may be boring to some people.

I was also initially frustrated at the great background music that was totally ignored. This part would have been much better had they used the music to do the moves to. Round 2 is very challenging and you don't notice the lack of attention to the music as much. This is the combination section. This is a series of punches and kicks put together and done in rapid succession. This is where he does the counting of reps. He tells you that you are working anaerobically here. My muscles were burning. You sort of break it up and work arms, letting them rest while you work the legs. Then you do combinations that encompass both arms and legs as well as the perennial favorite move, squats with front kicks. Tough!

At the end, you do speed bag work first with punches and then with kicks. A couple of the background exercisers are actually using bags with boxing gloves but there are several exercisers that aren't. He tells you that you don't need one for this to be effective. This really gets your heart rate up.

The only problem is that next you drop to the floor for abs with no cooldown. There is also no ending stretch which is much needed after the hard work done in the second section.

One other complaint that I have about the tape is that you definitely do not work each side evenly. He does the ENTIRE combination section on the same side! You do not move to the other side even once! I guess I could just switch off the next time I do the tape but I really think that this is a major flub.

Overall this is a decent tape. I would give it a B-/C+. It would get an A if they would have paid equal attention to working both sides of the body, provided a cool down and stretch and followed the music in Round 1.

Instructor Comments:
John does a decent job of instructing this video although it is assumed that you have done the Instructional tape. He counts out reps which may bug some people and does 10 count reps rather than 8 count. He occasionally misses the cueing for the next move but overall you can tell that he really knows his stuff. One other thing is that he is very "exuberant". It can be slightly annoying.

Joyce Thurman

06/30/1999