Gotta Sweat: Island Aerobics

I bought this video because I loved Michelle LeMay's style in the Jane Fonda videos, and decided to try something with a little "funk". Boy, was I somewhat dissapointed. Although the tape is cardio/toning, there is no continuity between each set. All of a sudden it will stop, and you don't know whether to march or keep doing what you were doing. Michelles queing is good, and she lets you get used to the moves before you go full throttle into the routine. But the most annoying part is every 5 minutes, there is a break and Cory and Michelle say the same thing.."Ready for some Island Aerobics?". Um, yeah, thats why I bought the tape. It can be really annoying. Also, Michelle has this "Hip Grinding" fettish that is somewhat goofy. I was embarassed when my husband saw this part of the video. All in all, its an ok and fun video, the last part will really kill your thighs unless you are toned. I think the only reason I use this is when I am in a crabby mood and need something totally silly, and when I want to see the beautiful Macaw sitting on the set during the whole thing. (Wonder what he thinks of all this?)

Music: light Carribean
choreography: Difficult
Cardiovascular: Beginner

5 minute warmup
30 minutes aerobics
5 minute slowdown
5 minute stretch

Choreography:
As another poster put it, Cory Everson and I both suffer from White Woman's Disease. The moves in this video are not broken down as much as I would like, although she does break down all the combinations. For example, she'll say "pony" and "triple step", and you're supposed to watch her fast little feet and figure out how to do it yourself. However, I have never been an excellent dancer. I usually have real trouble being graceful whenever I take a dance class. I thought this video would be easier for me, after watching a commercial for it, and knowing that it would involve a lot of hip movement. You see, I am a very fluid dancer at clubs, having no problem feeling relaxed, natural, and graceful. It's just when I'm told what to do that it all falls apart. It's like I need to let my body feel the rhythm, but the instruction gets in the way of that. Also, I felt that if the music had been louder, it would have been easier to move to it. It irritated me that fast steps and slow steps didn't exactly correlate to fast and slow parts of the music.

Cardio-ally:
It didn't feel difficult, and most of it was low-impact. However, by the end, I was definitely sweating all over. It didn't challenge my muscles the way my kickboxing videos do. The only move that I didn't like was thigh fever - I call it knee fever. Perhaps I was doing it wrong, but I didn't feel it in my thighs - just a lot of pain in my bad knee. (The ironic part is I acquired this bad knee in my other Cory Everson video - now it just won't go away). So, you might want to be careful in this section (thigh fever) if you also have bad knees.

Overall:
It's not a bad video. In fact, it's well-produced and *looks* like a lot of fun. It's just not for me. I want to stay with the sharp moves, simple choreography, and elaborate form instruction that my kickboxing tapes have. Dance-Aerobic tapes, even simple ones like Kathy Smith's Fat Burning Workout, tend to frustrate me. If I can't do the moves the first three times I do the video, I don't tend to put it in the VCR again. However, if structured dancing comes easily to you, and it's simple for you to copy someone else's moves (again, something I could never do - quite the disadvantage at junior high school dances!) - then you would probably like this video a lot. If you want to try this kind of aerobics out, this tape is cheaper than Jamaica M'Swet.

BTW: It also takes a lot of front to back and side to side room. Part of why I felt inhibited doing the movements is because I kept thinking I was going to bump into my tv or my couch.