Cardio Karate: Cardio Intense

Amy leads this 63 minute cardio workout in a martial arts studio with 2 b/g exercisers. You will only need your UR & light sand weights for a few of the final ab exercises. The exercises are split into 4 pods (groups) of exercises which you learn and repeat and then are strung together at the end for a full cardio karate workout. Nice Asian-esque music.

After a 9 min warmup, exercises include: hammer strike, knife strike, elbow strike, body toss, plyo horse stance hops, elbow strikes, low slides, hi block, around the world knee strike hops, side knee blocks, front & back kicks, cat stance hops- add a kick, palm strikes, leg sweeps w/ a side hammer strike, and concludes with a 13 min ab section & a stretch. The unique ab work includes: sand weight strikes, plank dives w/ a kick, crunch & hip hikes, plank reach around & kick.

I rate this an intermediate workout but you can easily modify up or down to suit your needs. I added weighted gloves & some more hops & got a good workout. Amy is, as always, a fantastic instructor-great cuing & form pointers. This dvd has a lot of unique exercises. Some of the exercises are performed at a fairly slow pace & then there are some plyo type exercises, so it is a good variety of intensity levels. There is a countdown bar that has occasional tips & reminders along side it. Love the functional work and felt my core working throughout. I received this dvd to review.