Z-Box Fitness - The Workout

I saw this workout on Collage and was intrigued by it. It seemed to be a fresh take on combining different types of workouts, mainly kickboxing and dance. If you want to read more about it, there is this article about the sisters who founded Z-Box Fitness - http://fitnessmotivators.com/Files/A...ESSARTICLE.pdf.

STRUCTURE OF THE WORKOUT

There is a warm up and then 4 sets of a kickboxing segment followed by a dance segment. The kickboxing is not what I would consider either traditional or hardcore kickboxing. They do punches and kicks and repeater knees in a flowing routine that sets the patterns and then repeats the moves in that segment. Some of the dance segments are dance and at least one is what I would consider dancey hi/lo with moves like grapevines. After these four sets, there is a strength workout that I would describe as a flowing low-weight workout. It's rather short and not very intense, so it wouldn't be good for a lot of people for a stand-alone workout. Then, there is a bonus stretch segment. You can pick kickboxing only, dance only, or strength only from the main menu.

INSTRUCTORS

I kept thinking that the instructors looked A LOT alike. It turns out that two of the three main instructors that lead the segments are twins, Debbie and Donna Lim. It's nice to know that I'm not going nuts! One of the instructors is extremely and effusively enthusiastic. She leads the first segment and I was ready to shoot the screen because she kept bursting out with exclamations like, "This is So MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!" After the first segment, she calmed down and it turns out that she is the one who gave most of the form pointers given throughout the workout. In other segments that the others led, once in awhile she would just circle around while everyone else faced forward. I decided that must just be her personality. The other two were more down to earth. They do mirror cue, except for the time or two they forgot. The cueing is not the best, but not as bad as I've seen described in Collage reviews. There are times they cue ahead of the move. There are times they cue right ON the move. There are times they cue after the move has started. There are times when their cues are perfect. There are times their cues are confusing - like the section where she cued the knees up move, but there were at least two different knees up moves. They definitely could improve their cueing.

DETAILS, DETAILS, DETAILS

The three main instructors switch off with the person leading that segment in front and the other two on the first row behind her. Then, there were 2-3 background exercisers on the third row. The music had no vocals, but I thought it was pretty good. I noticed that it matched the moves well in serveral places. Other places, I couldn't tell you what it was. The set was fairly light. It almost looked like an old warehouse or something like that. The camera work was generally good. There were a time or two that they were focusing on the upper body when I needed to see the feet or vice versa. Generally though, I saw what I needed to see.

MY OPINION

I was surprised by how much fun I had in certain places. The kickboxing segments I especially enjoyed as they were flowing and sometimes mixed in tai chi type moves at the beginning or end. Other segments were not as fun for me, mainly the dance segments that were harder for me because I am not a dance person. They looked like fun, but I had trouble following. I guess better cueing would have helped, but it wouldn't have solved the issue for me as I am just a dance klutz. They could have left out the strength segment and nothing of value would have been lost. I guess for someone who doesn't do other strength work, it could be good. This workout isn't for everyone, but people who want a dancey option that includes kickboxing will be pleased, I think.