Crunch: Fat Burning Dance Party

I'm reviewing this workout after doing it once.

General workout breakdown: Terri P, Lynnee, and Sheba have already described this workout well, so I'll just add some details and thoughts.

This just over 41-min. workout begins with a warm-up of 5.5 min. Jennifer starts you off right away with a little combo, and before you get into the main workout you'll do some lunges to finish warming up the legs.

As mentioned, the main workout is divided into the salsa party (5.5 min. each; 11 min. total), party funk (5.5 min. each; 11 min. total), and retro dance party (about 5.5 min. each; almost 11 min. total). Jennifer builds up mini combos, two for each dance style. She'll go through the first set of moves, then the second, then combine those together. You'll then spend some time learning the third set of moves. Finally you'll put all three sets together. Then it's time for the "breakdown," where you'll run through the full combo usually twice in a row. For the salsa and funk parties, you'll cut the number of reps in half, so the full combo will be a little faster during the "breakdown"; for the retro party you'll just do the combos back to back as you learned them. You'll then learn the next combo, but you'll never put the two combos from the same party together; each combo is a throwaway. Most of the combos are asymmetrical - you'll learn the moves on one side but may or may not do the moves on the other side - although there's an exception to that in the retro party. Although you will march in place for a few counts in between learning moves or repetitions, you'll spend most of your time doing dance move. I also like that Jennifer teaches moves pretty much at the tempo they'll be used at in the workout. In other words, she doesn't use the usual dance routine teaching techniques but rather the usual cardio workout teaching techniques, which is good if you want to get a workout.

Once you've finished the retro party, Jennifer will lead you through a short cool down of about 3 min. with some simple moves that have a vaguely dance flavor. You'll then finish with some dynamic stretches for the torso, low back, and lower body as well as some short static stretches for the calves and hamstrings.

My favorite section, surprisingly, was the funk part, mainly because it's different than anything else I have on my shelf. The salsa part wasn't bad, but I have a few other dance videos of similar intensity and choreography. The old school dance party didn't flow as well, IMHO, and like the other reviewers I found that the trickiest section to pick up. I also found the funk was the most intense of the three sections because of the hops included. The choreography overall is pretty interesting, with good variety between segments. Jennifer emphasizes arm movements and engaging the abs, too, to increase the calorie burn, so that makes things a little trickier to pick up but means there's more to add some oomph into when you get to that point.

Except for those small hops in the funk section, the moves are low impact. The retro part is also the only part with some potentially tricky moves for those working out on carpet (definitely make sure your sneakers"tread won't catch on the pile) and/or those with cranky joints; if you do have either or both of those issues you may want to substitute similar moves that don't involve quick pivots or are smoother.

Level: I'd consider this a beginner/intermediate workout. Beginners with dance experience could certainly tackle this; if you're not up to the entire workout, you can do a section at a time, adding on until you're at the full thing. More intermediate exercisers can put some more oomph into this, but for solid intermediates it will take a lot to make this even a moderately challenging workout.

I generally consider myself an int./adv. exerciser, but after some starts and stops I've recently been working back up to an intermediate level. I found this an appropriate workout. I sweated a little and felt like I got a nice lower moderate cardio workout in, but I certainly didn't feel wiped out.

Class: 6 women and 1 man (does Jennifer really call him the "token guy" at one point, or did I just imagine hearing that?) join Jennifer, who does the full routine as she cues live. Yes, there are some silly Crunch outfits - seriously, who works out in a sleeveless jean jacket or a choker? - but there are some more normal-looking woman (Don't we all run into someone who looks just like that black-haired woman on the right on our errands or at the few gym or studio classes we try out? And the "normal-sized" blonde woman in the back looks a lot like me when I'm at my "normal" weight.).

Music: upbeat stuff by Daveed, appropriate to the genre at hand, but not actual recognizable songs.

Set: It's a Crunch gym set, a bright space with the Crunch logo in the back and a view (or is it "view"?) of NYC outside of the windows off to the side.

Production: clear picture and sound, mostly helpful camera angles but, since this is Crunch, there were some close-ups of background exercisers at times when I would have preferred to see Jennifer. Still, I was able to follow the workout easily enough the first time through, even without a real preview.

Equipment: You'll just need supportive shoes (see my comment above if you have carpet) and maybe a jogbra, if applicable.

Space Requirements: At 5'8" I used most of 9 2"by 2"puzzle mats, or an area 6"by 6'. That said, I could have contained this within a space 4"wide by 5-6"deep, if I needed to, which would have meant turning the second funk segment perpendicular to the TV.

DVD Notes: The main menu options are Start Program / Main Titles, Warm Up, Salsa Party 1, Salsa Party 2, Party Funk 1, Party Funk 2, Retro Dance Party 1, Retro Dance Party 2, Cool Down, and Credits.

Comments: Like at least one of the other reviewers I got this on sale, although I didn't get quite the bargain she did (I paid less than $5, which isn't bad, but it's not $1!). It's so easy to find this for about half price or even less that I don't see any need to pay the full MSRP for this, especially since you just get one workout of less than 45 min. on this DVD.

Jennifer Galardi's Crunch Fat Burning Dance Party vs. Crunch Latin Rhythms Fat Blasting Dance: I've enjoyed Jennifer Galardi's Crunch Latin Rhythms enough that when I saw Fat Burning Dance Party on sale I went ahead and snapped it up. Originally I chose LR over FBDP because I thought I would be able to get into the Latin aspect more and because some of the outfits in FBDP struck me as odd, but in the end I'm glad I have both. Here's a side by side comparison:

- Both are about the same length, although FBDP is about 5 min. longer (36 vs. 41 min.).

- FBDP has three distinct styles (Latin, funk or hip hop, and "old school" or disco-inspired) while LR is mostly Latin with some other dance styles (including funk / hip hop and "old school" / disco) thrown in. Basically you cover the same types of dance moves in both, but it depends if you like all of your Latin moves in one place or either want mostly Latin and/or if you don't mind throwing in some disco arms with your mambos.

- FBDP is chaptered (great chapters, by the way - just what they should be, IMHO, for a cardio workout) while LR has none.

- The FBDP background crew may have some sillier outfits but the LR background crew whoops.

- FBDP is set in the grey Crunch "gym" space while LR is set in that brick alcove space that was used for so many workouts (I used to have almost as many with that set as I have had with the CIA's "blue barn doors"!). Upon preview clips I thought the grey gym would be darker, but once I played both DVDs on my regular player I don't really see one as being significantly darker (but then something has to be really dark to catch my attention in that department).

- Both will take up about the same amount of space in your workout room and will give you about the same amount of difficulty if you're wearing sneakers on carpet.

I'm actually enjoying these two Crunch DVDs more than Jennifer's first two Dance Off the Inches (DOTI) hip hop DVDs. I'm finding her choreography in those to be more complicated than I want to deal with when I pull out a cardio video for a lighter day (the combos are significantly longer on the DOTI videos, too, which doesn't help if your brain is already feeling fried), and I find that as much as I respect hip hop as a dance style, I respect it all that much more for having tried it and found out how difficult it is to make my body move that way (as I like to say, there's little that's hip about my hop). I think, too, the fact that I paid about $5 apiece for the Crunch DVDs and didn't have huge expectations for them may have helped; I probably paid almost double that for the DOTI DVDs and may have had higher expectations from them since they have a more professional quality or at least lack some of the Crunch cheesiness and hamming it up. Interestingly, I see that Jennifer was not the main choreographer for the Crunch FBDP; Julianne Arney gets the credit. Now, I tried Julianne's Quick Fix hip hop DVD and ended up trading it, and I'm trading off Jennifer's DOTI hip hop DVDs, but apparently I prefer Jennifer leading Julianne's old school funky/hip hop style choreography, because as I mentioned above that was my favorite part of this workout. Who knew…

I found this video at Dollar Tree!! yes, only $1. I saw it and didn't buy it because I have never had luck with Crunch's videos. Then I went home and looked up reviews for it on the internet and they were good so I went back and bought it but changed my mind again! Finally I sent my boyfriend out for him to buy it and I am so glad I did! This is a fun workout. You really don't even know you are working out because of the great dance moves. I had so much fun doing this video I went back and bought another one. LOL. This had me so hot and sweaty after just a few minutes into it. I am an intermediate exerciser. I work out no less than 6 days a week for no less than half an hour. The moves are fun and the arms may be confusing but you know what? I use my own arm movements. As long as my feet are going, I can do different arms. lol. I am just glad that I have a workout that keeps my interest while not being boring and has actually motivated me to exercise more and as a result I am feeling so good about myself. I love everything about this video. The first part is really heart pumping. After each part I went to my boyfriend who is a paramedic and had him take my heart rate. He was freaking out because it was so fast. He thought I was having a heart attack. lol. You might have a challenge with the Retro dance but if you do your own arm routine you will be fine. I give this take two thumbs up all the way and five stars. If Crunch makes more videos like this, I will be willing to pay full price, though I do like the Dollar Tree price. LOL

I'm having a great time with this workout. I was really pleasantly surprised. It's taking me a bit of time to master some of the moves, partly because the cueing isn't detailed and partly because I'm not quick to learn choreography. The set is bright and the music is better than your average bland workout music (although nothing outstanding). I worked up a bit of a sweat and was mildly sore the next day. There are three types of dance routines on this DVD, Salsa, Funk and "Retro." It's heavy on the funk. A big plus for me is that this is a dancey video that can be performed in a smaller space--quite a find for someone like me who works out in a small room and likes to dance a bit without too much choreo to learn.

About me: I'm an intermediate exerciser who enjoys kickbox and basic to moderate hi/lo choreography.

This is a 45 minute aerobic workout consisting of a warm-up and three different dance-style workouts. The first segment is a latin style workout, and it is lots of fun and easy to learn. The second segment is hip-hop/funk and was also a lot of fun and fairly easy to learn. The third segment is retro (disco). This one was harder for me to learn, so I just did my own thing to some of the steps and still got a good workout. I think I will pick up a little more of the routine each time I do it. The set was typical Crunch, with varied background exercisers in colorful outfits. There was a little whooping but it seemed to go well with the party atmosphere of this tape and did not bother me at all. I wore my HR monitor and stayed in my zone throughout the workout. Overall, I would recommend this video.