Tae Bo 2004 Capture the Power: Energy

This is what would be considered the straight "cardio" workout from this set, the "Tae Bo Tools" aren't used at all. In the instructional video that accompanied this originally he numbered all the kicks and punches 1-8, rather than calling them cross, jab, hook etc. He goes through each of the 8 moves very slowly and repetitively before doing them at "energy" speed or what I would call double count if the slow version constitutes single count. By the time that is done, you are about half way through. Then he puts together a couple of combos again calling out the numbers rather than the name of the move. Having long since forgotten the numbers and with some of the punches looking similar from the angle shown, I can say I was flailing a bit, but not because anything was too fast or out of control, but because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. At 5 AM the brain works in mysterious ways. On the bright side, the sets felt more even in this one, but that might have been due to the slow nature of the reps.

This is the only one of the three Capture the Power workouts not to use the 1/2 lb squishy balls. It's a straight 45 minute cardio workout (about 30 minutes of cardio with about 7 minutes each of warm up and cooldown), though intermediates may have a hard time keeping their heartrates up consistently thoughout because the pace slows down significantly as each new combo is done a few times slowly before going at tempo, or "energy" as Billy calls it.

The Capture the Power set uses the concept of numbering the punches and kicks which is fully explained in the Foundation video, but is not hard to pick up for anyone who has done Tae Bo or other kickboxing workouts. The warm up and cooldown sections are longer than previous Tae Bo workouts, and emphasize the tai chi movements more which I really liked. The warm up also includes some tough one-armed planks which I usually do with my knees on the floor.

This is not my favourite Tae Bo workout. It feels slower than the old Basics and the new Tae Bo Cardio workout which I find myself reaching for more frequently and is probably a better introduction for Tae Bo newbies.