Quote:
Originally Posted by bearcatfan
Diane, I have Step Boxing 1 & 2 and Cardio/Sculpt Fitness.
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Okay, gotcha.
What I remember of Step Boxing (the first one, which now has an orange cover) is that the tempo was
really fast. Kelly cues in a short, terse, manner and I wasn't enamored with it enough to keep it. The cardio was rather short (maybe 35 minutes, at most) and followed by some toning that was rather lunge-heavy. Perhaps if I tried it again now, I'd be less inclined to sell it as I'm now more used to the way Kelly cues.
She slowed things down a bit with Step Boxing 2, and the workout is longer. It's divided into vertical step (4 combos), horizontal step (3 combos), and 2 combos done just on the floor. I usually do the first 7 combos and skip to the cool down - for an hour workout. I believe there are premixes for just the vertical step or just the horizontal step combos that will fit into the 30-minute criteria. I picked up on the cueing rather quickly, although I've often read here and at other forums how people hated the cueing. She usually does the first half of the combo several times through and then adds on the rest of the combo. I feel she melds step and kickboxing very well. You can make the kickboxing portions as intense as you want them to be. For instance, she'll do an over-the-step into two hammer punch lunges (she calls them something else). How intense it will be is related to how deep into the lunging part you go. There was really only one combo where she included more step moves (V-step and pivot turn) that I thought was lower intensity. Nothing was very twisty-torquey, but it is more choreographed than Athletic Step.
I discovered the cardio-only premix on Cardio/Sculpt Fitness last summer and just loved it! You won't have any problem with the cueing. I think step portions 2 and 5 have some kick-boxing flavor and the other 3 are primarily all step. It alternates between a more choreographed portion and then a drill section. Lauren shows modifications. I can follow Kelly except for the squat-shuffle drill after combo 3 (I'll do them diagonally on the 8" step, Lauren does them on the floor). I didn't care for the weight work. She did some things at a weird angle (shoulder raises to the back, for instance). I end up modifying so much that it didn't much resemble the original workout. But the cardio premix alone has been worth the purchase.
If you can follow Amy's style and cueing, you'll have no problem with Kelly. She does shorter segments at any given time and they're less complex than Amy. The music has a good beat, on any of the ones you mentioned, but nothing memorable to me. Music has to be really good or really bad for me to even notice it.