Kick Cardio Kickboxing

If you were one of those VFers who weren't thrilled with her previous kickbox/box DVDs, I'm not sure this will turn your mind around. However, I "sort of" liked her first two and this is an improvement to "pretty well like." I found it a decent intermediate intensity workout with some bursts of higher-level intensity.

Lynn and two others work out in a gritty warehouse-style loft room with a view of an elevated freeway out the window. The music is unrecognizable but pretty good -- good strong techno beat, I thought.

After a 10-minute warmup that includes TONS of jacks done in sets of 16 plus some basic kicks, squats and stretches, you move into the first workout (a scant 20 minutes). It is all drills. It starts out with a long set of squat kicks - 16 alternating, then 8 on one leg, 8 on the other. Then slow side kicks and fast sidekicks in that pattern, and same for back kicks. You also do a front, back, side and roundhouse kick on one leg for a set of 8.

The second 20-minute-ish segment, Combos, is really just drills of simple moves taught separately, then paired together. You might do a series of four roundhouses stepping forward between each one, then step back four times. After doign that series about 8 times, you do a series of step-forward fast low roundhouses and step back four times. After doing that series 8 times, you do the first and second series in succession. I found this section to be less intense than the first section. Often I've seen kickbox workouts where the drills are more intense and the "choreography" section is, well, more choreographed. But lovers of even simple kickbox combos won't find much here in that regard.

In between each set of kicks in each segment, you do a signature "interval" move - i.e. four slow cross-punches, then a burpee and fast feet for 4 counts. Or a jumping sequence with criss-cross patterns that I found impossible to keep up with since there is no real cuing for it. One of the final bursts includes regular jacks, then Lynn speeds the jacks up - I thought at first that the DVD was fast-forwarding! Her legs were moving almost comically fast during those super-fast jacks.

Aside from the cross-punches in one combo and some speedbags, there is almost no punching.

These will be usefull as add-ons to other workouts or good for days when I want a decent sweat but have zero need for anything approaching creative choreography. You'll certainly get a decent burn and plenty of chances to work on kicks.