Perhaps I should be worried that I’m approaching this review thinking about whether this workout is salvageable, but I actually think it’s worth considering. It’s easy enough to add on a stretch separately, and ironically, two wrongs almost make a right here: I think the drills are somewhat too fast (152-168bpm), but because the workout doesn’t match the beat of the music, it’s actually pretty easy to work at one’s own pace without getting too distracted by the video. The left-right problems are a bit harder to work around, unfortunately: John does not mirror cue, and most problematically, the middle segment (“Round 2”) containing the choreographed kickboxing combinations is performed on only one side. Back in the days of the Firm volume 5, which boasted about the possibilities for doubling your workout time by rewinding the tape to repeat the aerobic segment (ah, the miracles of rewindable media and tape counters!), this might have been more acceptable. Now, nearly two decades later, the solution may be to hope that this comes out on a well-chaptered DVD, or to create a home-remixed version that plays round 2 twice. At least then John’s cueing will match what you’re doing for one of the segments.

So is this worth the effort? I might not feel so sanguine about this had I not acquired the tape very cheaply off the swap. But I see it as a welcome challenge to work up to the pace of the drills here, rather than an unrealistic presumption (as in Tae Bo, for example). I also enjoy the choreographed combinations in the middle section; they remind me of my kickboxing classes, in which we would try to keep up with the instructor’s commands for the ten repetitions of each sequence that he demanded.

Had I only borrowed the workout to try it out, I probably would have decided against hunting down my own copy. Until I get tired of the novelty and need to clear out space for more-effective and better-designed workouts, I’ll probably hang on to it for the amusement of having this addition to my eclectic kickboxing collection.

Instructor Comments:
John’s “nice-guy” persona reminds me a little of Larry Lam (from XKO Kickboxing), although without quite as much earnestness. He seems a bit new to being in front of the camera, bursting into occasional motivational pep talks and “Are you ready?” exhortations mid-workout that prompted me to yell back, “Come on, start already!”

KickDancer