Tae Bo 2004 Capture the Power: Power

I'm going to preface this by saying that I have been exercising with mostly videos for almost 20 years, There was a time when I would have considered myself low advanced, thyroid problems derailed my exercise train but now on proper medication I've been working my way through all I own and decluttering along the way. So after 18 months or more of little to no exercise, I made myself a challenge to workout daily, I'm probably an intermediate now, may a low intermediate at that.

This is one in a set of workouts realeased in 2004 by Billy Blanks called Capture the Power. The set came with two small squishy balls. Originally I thought they were referred to as Billy Balls (which sounded like a marketing nightmare to me) but in this workout they are referred to as Tae Bo Tools. When I first got this set I loved it, I hadn't seen anything like it before and it was a reintroduction to kickboxing which I had always loved. The group counts throughout this one as in all Tae Bo workouts and the number of reps is lopsided (also as in all Tae Bo workouts). You hold the "tools" nearly the entire time as the other reviewer mentioned. The warmup consists mostly of butterflies and step touches and is followed by a stretching segment. Once the stretching is done you get right into the workout, all of the typical Tae Bo moves, only this time done with the "tools" which Billy reminds you to squeeze. There are a couple of "strength" sections which involve arm movements with the "tools" while in horse position. The shine is off this penny for me.

Of the three workouts in the new 2004 Capture the Power set, I find Power to be the most fun. It is mostly cardio with two short strength segments, one at the beginning just after the warm up and one at the end just before the cool down. The 1/2 squishy balls are used throughout the entire workout except for a short segement of jabs and kicks. Billy frequently cues to squeeze the balls as you work to increase the intensity. Punching while holding the balls takes a little getting used to, and doing speed bags while squeezing is definitely tougher.

This workout will seem familiar to anyone who has done Tae Bo in the past. The combos are made up mostly of typical Tae Bo moves. Some of the combos are a bit awkward (even Shellie messes up at one point) but they're only repeated a few times each. Each combo is done slowly a few times through before going at tempo. One of the differences in this new set is the numbering of punches and kicks which is described fully in the Foundation instructional video, but it's not hard to pick up: jab = one, cross = two, etc. Though this system is used pretty conisistently in the Energy workout Billy kind of drops it for the most part in Power.

Overall, I felt that this workout kept my heartrate up more consistently than the Energy workout. This is a great workout for Tae Bo fans, and a good place for newcomers to start. The warm up was a bit short, but I like the new extended tai chi cooldowns.