Tae Bo is a set of 4 tapes consisting of an instructional, basic workout, advanced workout and an 8 minute challenge tape.

The instructional tape is excellent for learning the moves and for those who have never done any kickboxing before, you will learn the moves very slowly and after Billy shows them slow he shows them at regular tempo and then you do them with him and then move on to the next one.

The basic workout starts with a very short warm up consisting of neck rolls, shoulder rolls and some side stretches moving on to some basic stretches for the lower body. The workout starts with basic punches and jabs then moving to double time doing them out to the side and to the front with marches in between exercises. Then you do a move like you are using a punching bag at a quick tempo. The next move is a knee lift but you go acrossed your body working your abs, always contracting your abs throughout the whole workout. Then you get into some combinations, you do 2 knee lifts, 1 side kick and one punch to the side, lots of fun! The kicks require alot of balance and leg strength to stay balanced. Then you do knee lifts to the side using your obliques. Next is a set of side kicks at a very slow tempo which is very hard trying to stay balanced on one leg. After that you pick up the pace a bit with the boxers shuffle and doing different jabs and punches. Then you do front kicks and on to kicks to the rear. Then more side kicks at a quicker pace and on to the cooldown.

The advanced workout is almost exactly the same but you do the boxers shuffle in place of the marches and everything is at a quicker tempo making it very challenging. He adds some new moves to this one. He adds in a set of jumping jacks with jabs and a move called the Machine Gun, this one is very challenging. You stand on one leg and bring your leg out like you are doing a side kick, you bend the knee and then as you stand there you straighten and bend your leg from the knee out at a super quick pace, it's hard to stay balanced on this one. Another fun and tough one is a side quick with a very low squat in the middle. You do a V-step with jabs and then onto the punching bag move but at a super fast pace. Another fun move is a knee up, turn to the side into a small lunge position and punch. Another combo is a punch, jab, punch, knee up, slow and then double time. Then you do a combo of a front kick on one leg and immediately go to a rear kick on the other leg. One that is very intense is towards the end, you do a low squat with a front kick and then a squat with a front kick on the other side and you keep that going til your legs and butt are burning. Another very intense move is called a swivel kick to the side at a slow pace and then double time. Then on to the floor for some tough table work. You start with kicks to the back on each leg, then you raise your bent leg out to the side, a new move where you straighten your leg out to the back and bring it in to your shoulder bending at the knee, then you bring your knee out to the side and raise your leg up and bend and straighten from your knee out, very intense, and a move that combines all of them together. On to ab work, you do oblique work lying on your side and then sitting up your bring your knees in and out to the front and you do the bicycle ab work. Then you get to stretch.

The 8 minute challenge consists of a warm up, an 8 minute short version of some of the moves you already learned in the advanced tape going at a quick pace to get your heart rate up and then a tai chi cooldown.

I know this is long but i wanted to give you an idea of what each tape consists of. This is an excellent ab and lowerbody workout as you can tell by the descriptions of the exercises.

Instructor Comments:
Billy is a great instructor always telling you things to keep you motivated throughout the workout, trying to help you go further and do more each time. He has a great personality and I'd love to have more workouts from him in the future.

Dawn Henson