This is a thorough, adequate athletic-style stretch tape that covers all the bases in a solid, not very exciting way. It felt nicer than most tapes in some places, thanks to Karen's very professional and precise instructional style, but that same style left other parts of the tape feeling awkward and tedious. That's a shame, because this really is a high-quality routine.

The tape begins, minus warm-up, which Karen suggests you do on your own, with some standing dynamic stretches that felt very nice. They gently move the arms, legs and torso for a nice stretch that would be a good add-on even if you skip the rest of the tape. This section takes about ten minutes.

We then move to the floor for a long series of stretches that work the lower body. I really enjoyed this part. Karen is a bit dour and unenthusiastic, so it was a bit amusing to see her try to get all yogi on us, offering such advice as "relax between your eyebrows" and the like. Um, whatever. Some of the stretches in this section are held for a really long time, and Karen will offer instruction half-way through on how to increase the stretch you're doing. The problem is that although she says you can stay where you are if you want to, she uses the new advanced position to transition to the next exercise. It's usually not that big a problem, but there were a few that were kind of pretzely and it would have been nice if it had occurred to her that some of us might have taken her up on her suggestion to stay where we were if it was comfortable.

Karen isn't really the most exciting instructor, and this tape is hardly her most motivating. But the stretches are thorough, and every body part is covered with admirable attention to detail. It might have been nice if she had broken the tape into self-contained sections though. The lack of warm-up seems to indicate that she intends this tape to be an add-on, but at close to 45 minutes, this feels a little long for that. I'm also not sure why she's wearing shoes here. Still, she does make some allowances for the less flexible by offering variations, and she uses a strap for some of the stretches. This is definitely do-able for all levels, and is certainly a quality, keeper tape. If she ever does redo this tape though, it wouldn't kill her to smile now and then.

Joanna