The New Method 20/20: Core Cardio

This tape is comprised of two 20 minute workouts. Both are made up of a 15 minute modern dance routine followed by a 5-minute pilates workout. Both dance routines are quite complex and take up a fair amount of floor space. There is also quite a lot of TIFTing. I do like the rhythm of the dance, especially in the first one.

Now, on to the problems with this tape. The first is that there is bascially no technique instruction, particularly in the pilates section. As someone new to pilates, I had a hard time doing those sections without clear instruction. So I usually skip them.

The second problem is cueing, particularly in the second dance routine. First of all the lefts and rights are opposite from normal (you know, your right is their left, but normally they cue from your perspective to make it easeir to follow). For simpler choreography this wouldn't be a problem, but in a routine as complex as this one it gets very confusing. The instructor also makes some mistakes towards the end, and it is clear that even the background exercises can't follow her. There's also a brief moment where the camera focuses on background musicians during an important piece of choreography! All of these problems make this routine very difficult to follow and I honestly can't believe that they didn't re-tape this before releasing it. I consider it kind of negligent of The Method to release a workout this poorly done.

Oh, but there's a third problem! The box says "each heart thumping workout will blast the calories and concentrate on strengthening the muscles." I certainly wouldn't describe these routines as heart thumping. More like a mild warm-up. I also don't think that 5 minutes of poorly instructed pilates will do much to strengthen muscles.

Anyhow, I know that this is a rather negative review but I wanted to make sure that others don't waste their money on this one! I did use it a lot when I was recovering from a car accident and coldn't do anything longer or more intense. In that way it could be useful. It may also work well when you need an extra warm-up or cool-down, adding on to a tape that doesn't include enough of one.