Powerstrike Millenium Series #3

This is a kickboxing workout led by Patricia Moreno and Illari Montagnani. Be prepared to sweat! In this workout, it is straight kickboxing, no cardio or aerobics type drills. The instructors give turns setting up the cueing. The form pointers are great.

I believe there were only two combos to learn, plus a punching drill. Lots of kicks, so if you have hip or knee problems (like I do) modify! Luckily, modifications are shown. I won't go into the breakdown of the combos, as that has been done. The end of the workout was side kick drills, a tai-chi inspired cooldown and a stretch

PROS: Patricia and Illaria seem to be a great team. Their light humor and camraderie really shows. One is not trying to outshine the other, and that is nice and rare in a workout DVD. I like that form and technique were stressed. The pace was slow enough to teach good form but quick enough that the heart rate doesn't plummet. Very challenging. One could really grow with this DVD.

CONS: The set is dark so it was sometimes difficult to see what they were doing (foor placement, kicks, etc.) Illaria has a thick accent, and sometimes it was hard to understand her. Plus, although the music was fine, it repeated. That made some parts of the workout boring and difficult to get through.

For background, I'm an intensity junkie who works out with Cathe almost exclusively. I'm glad I tried this one. Patricia & Ilaria are excellent instructors who constantly remind the viewer of proper form throughout the workout. With the exception of the drills at the end which had pretty much zero cardio benefit, I'd give it a low advanced in terms of intensity. The choreography is very simple, no crazy moves here just butt kicking punching and kicking moves. Perfect for someone (like me) who has a hard time remembering complex combinations but hates to be bored.

Background: This is the first "Powerstrike" video I've done, and my kickboxing experience, while not non- existent, is relatively minimal.

Bottom Line: I LOVE THIS WORKOUT!!!

This is the most fun I've had doing cardio in the approximately 3 months since I restarted. For some reason, cardio has been very much "eating my vegetables" for me lately; I have been hating sweating. But I had a GREAT time doing this one.

I'm not going to break down the video in detail because other reviewers have (thankfully) already done that. This video starts out slowly, as other reviewers have pointed out -- and for me, the slow part is really, really good - - I can tell this video is going to do WONDERS for my form, because the form-oriented segues seamlessly into faster combos, rather than being isolated from the actual kickboxing. Eventually the pace picks up and as an uncoordinated person, I admit I found the combos hard to follow even though they were taught reasonably slowly. But difficult is good -- I have a lot to work on! The fun the instructors seemed to be having was contagious and I didn't even mind much being pretty lost during some combos. I am planning to do this video again on my next cardio day (tomorrrow) and to my shock and surprise I am looking forward to it (I wish today were a cardio day!).

Despite the overall wonderfulness of this video, I do have one gripe with it: the camera work often didn't allow you to see the relevant body parts at the relevant time, sometimes til several repetitions of a move had gone by. Often what you get instead is a close- up on an instructor's sweaty face, and while I like to see my instructor sweat, it's more important that I can see the moves. This will be less of a problem as I become more oriented to the video and I'm not going to worry about it. I highly, HIGHLY recommend this video.

This review is for the DVD version. The DVD has no menu but is chaptered as follows:

1.1 FBI warning and intro
1.2 Warmup
1.3 Punching and kicking drills
1.4 Combo 1 left stance, combo
2 left stance
1.5 Footwork (switching
stances), combo 1 right stance
1.6 Combo 2 right stance
1.7 Side kick drills
1.8 Cooldown

I was glad that they used a new soundtrack. I liked the music from #1 and #2 fine, but it was nice to have some variety. The warm-up is long and thorough, going through all of the punches in slow motion (jab, cross, front hook, back uppercut) and then speeding them up. Then you learn a punching drill:

jab-cross-jab-cross
duck-jab-jab
quick 1-2-3-4-5 jab and cross
punches
2 quick jabs

The kicks (front push, side kick and roundhouse) are also taught slowly, starting with chambering the kick (preparing for the kick by folding your leg up in the appropriate position).

The first combo consisted of:

chamber + 3 roundhouse kicks
jab-cross-hook-uppercut
jab step to the side, low cross
punch with lunge

The second combo was:

low block, cross
step back, 2 front kicks
1-2-3 pause 1-2 punches

The workout ends with side kick drills, a tai-chi inspired cooldown and a stretch.

I know some people have mentioned that this is not as intense as #1 and #2. It does start slowly but I found it quite challenging, especially with the multiple kick sequences. I would still rate this an advanced video.

This is my favorite Powerstrike Millennium. There aren't any sections where it moves too quickly, and I love the way they're incorporated more torso twisting into the combinations - it drastically helps my form during the punches.

The kicks used are front push, side push, and roundhouse, and there are a TON of them, which gives me a nice hamstring workout. All punches are used as well.

Because the tape moves a bit slower than 1 or 2, I can really concentrate on my form, but it is just as intense a workout - I was still sweating a lot, and nicely sore the next day.

I would recommend this workout as the first Powerstrike to try if you haven't tried any of them.