Okay, now I can review the new circuit tape I got. It's Denise Austin's Ultimate Fat Burner, and I have it on DVD. It calls for a step bench and 3 pound hand weights. I did it without the bench, but I did use a chair to modify some of the moves. It's about 45 minutes. I think it's gonna be one of my regular tapes.
The workout consists of 3.5 minute cardio sections followed by 1.5 minute resistance sections. Each cardio section has three levels in it. The first level is low impact, then they add higher impact or an arm move, then you go all out for a few seconds. Then you recover at the first level for a few seconds. Then you do the three levels again. It builds up and lessens over and over again, forcing you to work quite hard in short bursts but giving you a recovery in between times.
I pretty much kept to the first and second levels and just put everything I had into them for the third level. It really got my heart pumping nicely.
It's a mixed-level class, but I found it fairly easy to keep it low impact. The only thing that I had to completely not do and march instead was jumping jacks. I modified the pushups to wall pushaways, and did all the step movements without a step. The only cardio section I really had to modify a lot was the "skiing" section since it was mostly slalom-type movements. I just did back lunges while they did ski jumps.
The cooldown/stretch was basic yoga moves and stretches using the step. For some of them I used a chair to get a good stretch. It was a thorough stretch and felt really good.
I got a really good workout, and it was easy to follow. Denise isn't the best cuer, but the movements are easy to learn and easy to follow.
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