I’m reviewing this workout after doing the warm-up, hi/lo, and cool-down several times and the step portion once.

General workout breakdown: This has already been broken down and described so well I’ll just add some technical details and a few impressions of my own.

Hi/lo: aerobics = 54 min., cool-down & stretch = 3.5 min.; total = 57.5 min.
Step: warm-up = 7.5 min., horizontal step = 22 min., vertical step = 22 min., cool-down & stretch = almost 6.5 min.; total step = 44 min. & total workout = 57 min.

I agree that it’s a bit dull to have the warm-up combo stay for the entire hi/lo routine. Christi does tweak the one remaining stretch-like move (the squat into a lower back roll) but not until after the halfway mark, and even then she doesn’t stick with the new move (a jack) consistently. Still, given the interesting other combos I can live with it, although if I did this video more often I might have stronger feelings about that.
After one run through I think I might prefer the vertical step to the horizontal, well, with the exception of the over the top into a shuffle turn series in the first combo of the vertical, which might have been my least favorite portion of the entire step workout! The horizontal felt a hair more complex and intense to me.
I felt the hi/lo stretch was too short, especially since it didn’t touch on much other than hamstrings, calves, and low back; the step stretch was better, adding in the quadriceps and shoulders.

Level: I’d recommend this to experienced exercisers at least at the solidly intermediate through low to maybe even mid-advanced level who are comfortable with complex choreography.
I consider myself an intermediate / advanced in cardio, although I’m more of an intermediate plus when it comes to step, since I’m still working my way through more complex step aerobics workouts. I pick choreography up pretty quickly if it’s broken down and cued well, which is very true here. I felt fairly confident with the choreography after just one run through (again, know I think I’m better than average at picking up – although probably not exactly executing – choreography), although I could stand to clean up my feet in some places, especially the portions in the step routine where my back was to the TV. This gave me a solid steady state workout that had me in a moderate work zone for the hi/lo (which surprised me, as I seem to remember this one being harder, and it certainly felt harder while doing it, but maybe keeping that warm-up routine did bring my heart rate back down every pass through) and a moderately to borderline high work zone for the step, according to my heart rate monitor. It’s too bad I wasn’t wearing a brain wave monitor; I think the readings would have been off the charts in more than a few places! :-P

Class: 2 women join Christi.

Music: upbeat mostly vocal remixes of songs that I recognized but couldn’t name with the exception of “Cotton Eyed Joe” in the step workout. The music keeps you moving and spinning with a big grin on your face.

Set: the 1998 CIA set, with framed images of geometric shapes. (Cathe’s Maximum Intensity Strength also uses this set, for example.)

Production: clear picture and sound, especially since this is a VHS transfer. Christi’s voice is louder than the music. Overall the camerawork is the usual mostly helpful CIA stuff, although at one point toward the end of the step workout someone bobbles the camera off to the side.

Equipment: sneakers that can pivot on your floor space and step plus a step (Christi and crew use a full-sized club step with one set of risers, which is what I used, too) for the step portion.

Space Requirements: The hi/lo requires a lot more horizontal (side to side) than vertical (up and back) space; ideally you should be able to fit in two grapevines to each side plus be able to move forward and back several big steps. I’ve never had the luxury of a gigantic space to work out in, so I’ve usually ended up having to take smaller steps in places.
For the horizontal portion of the step you’ll also need more space side to side. You should be able to work comfortably around the step in a horizontal position plus be able to kick to the sides and front from on top of the step (I ended up changing a kick to the outside into a front kick because things were getting tight for me). For the vertical portion you’ll now need space front and back, as you’ll be going over the top several times in a row, so you need to have plenty of room to land in front and in back. You’ll also be moving around the step on the floor, so you’ll need a few feet to each side as well. Because my TV is in my corner I often set up diagonally across my workout space, but in the future I’ll arrange this step length-wise (its long side parallel to the longer walls) and keep it there for the duration, just changing my own orientation, so I have more room to do this as is.

DVD Notes: This workout appears on the Humble Beginnings DVD, with the warm-up, hi/lo (divided into six combos), cool-down & stretch on one DVD and a different step-based warm-up, step (divided into six combos), and different cool-down & stretch on another DVD inside a regular-sized case.

Comments: After reading on VF reviews that this was the most complex of Christi’s workouts, I saved the hi/lo for last when I was making my way through all of her hi/lo workouts. By that time I was so used to her style I picked up almost all of it on the first try. I was nervous about doing the step and thought about doing the same in leaving it to the end of my journey through her step videos, but I stuck it in the middle and found it challenging but not impossible, again picking up almost all of it on the first try. In fact, I got that rockabye knee the second time I did it, although there were several other seemingly easier parts that kept tripping me up (for example, I just could not remember after the L-step to circle around and end up with both feet on the step before the step kick into an up lunge back & side). I must stress that the fact I’ve done a lot of Christi in my life as a vidiot and a lot of complex choreography in that same time period plus a lot of complex step, including Christi’s stuff, in the past year is the reason why I could possibly find this doable the first time through. I totally sympathize with and understand anyone, even other choreo hounds and/or Christi fans, who find these tricky to master because my brain gets almost more of a workout than my body when tackling these. I’m not sure to what extent the hi/lo still deserves the title of most complex Christi, but the step portion is still very much in the running.

Christi definitely comes into her own in this video. For someone who picked up Humble Beginnings after doing her early 2000s offerings (the ones on the Fantastic Four, the Totallys, the Solid Golds) this felt as comfortable as an old glove, because what she presents is what most of us think of as her signature style with many of her signature moves.
If you’re getting Humble Beginnings, which you would do most likely because you’re a Christi and/or complex choreography fan, 9801 will make you happy you did. This workout alone is worth the (actually quite reasonable) price of this compilation DVD. (Every so once in a while I see someone saying that when their inventory of Humble Beginnings runs out that’s it, and then I see someone else carrying it, so this isn’t a rare collector’s item. At least, not yet.) At this point in time there are so many options I’m not sure I’d recommend it to the general population, but Christi fans, old and new, will always be grateful Christi had the foresight to put these on DVD.

Instructor Comments:
I don’t know what else to add about Christi’s cuing and personality that hasn’t been said already! She mirror cues, and in the step workout she actually does a pretty good job of mentioning direction (both the “right / left” and the “turn back / outside” varieties), which I really needed here. I’m not sure why she dropped verbal directional cues as time went on, because a) they’re very helpful and b) she clearly knows how to do them. I agree that she’ll say “watch me” without verbally breaking down what she does; this becomes more pronounced in her later videos, but at least she usually cues what you should do when it’s your turn.

KathAL79