Interval Party 2
Reviews from VideoFitness
I’m reviewing this workout after doing it once.
General workout breakdown: This hi/lo interval cardio workout runs about 49.5 min.
The first half of the workout is more hi/lo aerobics (mostly athletic or traditional hi/lo, like hamstring curls and grapevines, with some "dancey" moves like mambos and cha chas thrown in), while the second half has mostly kickboxing moves (jabs, crosses, front kicks, side kicks). This is definitely not a kickboxing workout, nor is it a dancey video; it's a hi/lo workout with some kickboxing moves. Overall the choreography is interesting but never overwhelming, and this should be accessible to anyone without an extra left foot.
The workout is constructed like this: build up a combo evenly on both sides, run through it a few times on each side (on the right, then left, then back on the right again, and so on), do the interval, and move onto the next combo. (Each combo + interval runs 4-7 min., with intervals running about 45-90 seconds each.) After the first three combos and intervals, there's a quick break for the perceived exertion chart, after which come the next three combos and intervals. Before the cool-down, the Power Party, or run through all of the combos twice (6 min.; no intervals; as taught, without any weaving / slicing and dicing). The warm-up (8 min.) is a simple combo ending with some dynamic stretching (which moved a little fast for me). The cool-down (9 min.) begins with a line dance-type combo (a little tricky since you move in a square, so your back is to the TV for part of it); it ends with some static stretching almost exclusively for the lower body, which I found pretty thorough and held for a decently long amount of time.
Katina's cuing is adequate. She mirror cues and announces moves a few beats before. I wouldn’t have minded a few more directional cues, although she does point sometimes. She doesn’t pause to break down moves, but there are some moments when she throws a lot of steps at you at once (kind of like some of the most recent CIAs / Amy Bentos; oddly, Katina seems to spend the most time breaking down the first ¼ of the combo, which is usually the easiest, a little less time with the second ¼, before throwing the whole second ½ at you in one go). Fortunately it's pretty easy to pick them up by the next few run throughs; it's something to be aware of if you need extra breakdown, though. Also, Katina sometimes has her own names or uses less common names for common moves; I found myself looking at her a few times and saying, “Oh, that’s what that is!”
Katina appears relaxed here and is having fun. She has no extraneous chatter and not really too many “burn that fat” type comments.