Monday, October 21, 2013

The Method: Cardio Boot Camp (Review)

Having seen Tracey Mallett lead a fun dance workout, I searched for her other workouts and found this Cardio Boot Camp (1999). I decided to try it, on loan from Netflix, for one of my Monday cardio workouts. 


This video definitely has some negatives to go along with quite a few positives.  Here's a breakdown...

Segment 1: The only warm-up you get is about a minute of breathing and stretching.  Tracey leads you through jacks, kicks, push-ups, one plyometric move, etc.  She gets your heart-rate up and gives you only a few opportunities to bring it down.

Segment 2: This starts off with a few minutes of Tai Chi, which is not easy to follow, but relaxing.  Then on to some kick-boxing: punches and kicks.  At the end, Tracey grabs some light weights (she uses 3 lbs) and you do some arm exercises.


Segment 3: The first time around, I thought this segment was repeating the first.  It isn't, but they're very similar.  A cool-down consists of one move done at the end.  No stretching.

The run-time of actual exercising is forty minutes.

Negatives: This video, as you would imagine, is extremely dated.  (But, as I've said before, the outfits, the setting, the music should not stop you from doing a video.)  Tracey is extremely young and her cuing is not great.  She's also very annoying.  I usually find her adorably chipper but here she's just annoying.  But if this is her first video, I can forgive her.  No explanation is given for the Tai Chi so you just follow along as best you can.  The entire thing could benefit from a good warm-up and cool-down.  Since the first and last segments are so similar, I can see getting bored with this video very quickly.  I was bored the second time around. 

Positives: My heart-rate went up and stayed up.  I felt like I got a good workout, without getting killed in the process.  This is not "a keeper" but if you're on Netflix and need a change for a week or so, try it out.  


Bottom Line: A good, different, moderate cardio workout.

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