Crunch: Fat Burning Dance Party

Rating:
Summary: Very Fun and Effective Dance Workout
Review: I am a fan of many of the crunch series exercise videos, but this is my favorite one so far. It's a great way to throw some dance into your cardio work out routine every now and again when you get bored of the hum drum, mechanical movements of tae bo, floor and step aerobics.

With some dance based exercise videos (for example, Paula Abdul's Cardio Dance) you can't really get a good work out until you've used the video 4 or 5 times, because it takes time and concentration to learn the routine. But the movements in this video aren't too complex and I got a good work out with the first viewing. The other advantage this video has over others is that the moves do not require tons of space or a non-carpeted floor.

The video is split into 3 dance themes: latin, funk, and retro. All 3 are fun, and fairly easy to learn. The portion I enjoy most is the funk, I think because that's the type of dancing I have some background in, and I find that to be the part of the video where my heart rate gets going. The moves in the funk portion are old school and in my opinion the retro portion is still funk with a couple of John Travolta moves thrown in.

The video runs about 45 minutes and the instructor and students are pleasantly non-annoying.

I strongly recommend this work out to anyone with at least moderate coordination and an interest in latin or urban dance.




Rating:
Summary: So much fun!
Review: I loved this workout! It's totally fun and challenging too! I LOVE to dance so this was perfect. You can add your own personality to the dance moves and have a blast with it! Jennifer was very good at breaking down the dance moves and simplifying it. I can't wait to do the video again and master all those moves! The ultimate dance party right in your living room!



Rating:
Summary: Great Workout to Keep you Going
Review: I own 11 workout Videos/DVDs and this one I added to my favorites list.
When I FIRST GOT THE VIDEO: after reviewing the DVD I thought "ugh! How cheesy & annoying" So I tucked it away for another couple days.
The FIRST TIME I WORKED OUT: I thought this is great! Since then I've really been digging it.

PROS: the dancing is fun and moderate enough to keep me in the workout zone for the entire 45 minutes. The music gets stuck in my head & so do some of the movies (I've been doing some of the funk moves in my head for weeks now!). Also, I do work up a sweat and if you do the moves right (i.e. the Ole) you will feel it in your muscles.
CONS: The background dancers are particularly annoying and seem pretentious, plus their outfits don't coordinate. Small thing, but it does make a difference. The choreography annoyed me at the beginning. Many of the moves are done way too fast and it seems to me that if done slower, would provide more of a benefit. Still, for me the pros outweigh the cons.

All in all, I recommend this video to anyone trying to get out of the ordinary workout routines (step, weights, sit-ups, etc.). I prefer less traditional workouts like this one because they keep me enticed while still burning a lot of calories, within the same breath I must admit I know many people that prefer more standard workouts like the Firm series though. Good luck in your decision, and remember that buying a video a month is still less expensive than going to the gym!

Rating:
Summary: Way too dancey, and too many lags.
Review: If you like to dance and your main goal is to get your butt off the couch, this workout is for you. If you're looking for a good solid cardio workout with easy to learn but intense choreography that will get your heart pumping, go somewhere else. All this workout requires is the ability to pick up semi-complicated choreography quickly and the inner strength not to yell at the video lead to SHUT UP already.

Pros: This is a lower intensity cardio workout. For a beginner exerciser who enjoys dancing, I think it would be a great way to get into exercising to videos at home. The DVD is chaptered, so if you only want to do one or two segments, that's pretty easy to accomplish. If it were 1997, you could whip these dance moves out at the club and people might think you were cool. I could really feel that I'd worked my abs after this video, but I don't do a 45 minute cardio workout with the expectation of only feeling it in my abs afterwards.

Cons: Oh, the instructor. Oh, her "attitude." The cheesy dance moves, the "LOOKIT MEEEEEE" backup exercisers. This workout is cheesy as all get out, and it takes a lot of cheese for me to be distracted enough to not want to do a DVD again. For the intermediate to low-advanced exerciser, this video is not a challenging cardio workout, and the lulls in between segments are long enough that your heart rate drops out of your training zone. As with most workout videos, the stretching segment is too short.

I would have given this workout two stars if it weren't for the fact that I'm aware much of my problem with this video is personal preference and NOT that it's a horrible workout. I think it's a great beginner cardio workout for people who'd rather dance than "exercise." I think it's a lousy cardio workout for anyone who has been exercising in a serious way (4+ times per week) for more than six months.

Rating:
Summary: soo much fun
Review: If you love dancing, you will love this DVD. Andrea Ambandos is creative, energetic and fun. It will take you a couple of tries before getting the moves down but it will definitely get your heart rate up the first time. Well worth the money!

Rating:
Summary: Very retro
Review: Just so you know, the majority of the video is very, very retro. There is a warm up, 3 dances, and a cooldown.
The first one is Salsa Party, followed by Party Funk and Retro Party.
So the first one is modified Salsa and is not too bad choreography for a workout in that it is repetitive but not too repetitive (unlike some that are more dance instruction than a workout, for example).
Although the 3rd dance is called "Retro Party", really the 2nd "Party Funk", is too.
"Party Funk" is circa 70's and 1980 and "Retro Party" going way back, is circa 60's and 70's. At one point the instructor Jennifer calls a step " a little John Travolta."
Is retro the style for young people these days?. I am in my 30's. I just didn't like this style. I would have given it 2 stars but gave it 3 because I thought the instructor gives clear directions, it contains good workout choreography, it keeps the heartrate up through the video, at least for an intermediate exerciser like me who works out 3-4x a week, and because I like the instructor's personality and attitude which is upbeat and she encourages individual style.

Rating:
Summary: Definitely Not for Beginners
Review: My DVD just arrived today and I tried it out as soon as I got home. I have to say that it is not a good video for a beginner and/or someone who does not catch on to moves quickly. The steps are broken down but they are done so very quickly. Also, the instructor is pretty cheesy with her "attitude".

However, I was definitely sweating by the time I finished the video and felt like I really had worked hard. The video is fun. I used to own all of the "MTV The Grind" workout videos, and I would compare the level of difficulty to those.

This is 1 of 3 Crunch videos I own and am very satisfied with them. They have a good variety of body styles reflected in the participants and they make exercise fun.

Rating:
Summary: fun, but don't like the people in the background
Review: the moves are fun and easy to catch on, and I imagine if I got better at them they might actually be of use in a dance club. however there is not enough ethnic diversity in the "cast." it's 8 caucasians and one black woman and one (possibly latino) guy. there are no asians. it is nice they are not emaciated and yet not so fat or flabby that they look absolutely repulsive, except for that girl with the weird haircut on the right, who is really annoying and seems stupid. the instructor seems like a nice person.

Rating:
Summary: good fun workout
Review: The tape consists for a warm-up, three "workouts", and a cooldown. Each workout consists of two sets of steps, and each set has four steps. I'm sweating by the end of the first workout, but I don't collapse if I do all three, so it provides a nice level of exercise. The steps are generally quite fun, and each step gets its own soundtrack (the soundtrack was composed for the video, not a set of already-known songs)--the soundtrack changes provide an extra step cue. FYI, the "salsa" part is a bit of a misnomer, since the second set is cha-cha.

You don't need much space, and it's easy to tone down any steps that may make downstairs neighbors irate. It can take several tries to get all the steps down, but you get a good workout even if you're not doing the steps perfectly. A couple of the leg movements aren't really explained, although the camera does zoom in for a better view of the legs.

Jennifer Galardi, being honest-to-goodness live fitness instructor at Crunch-Los Angeles, acts like one. So she encourages you to "give it your own style" and "get loud" etc. The only different is that they force her to give chirpy speeches to introduce and end segments, which are slightly annoying. I really liked the background dancers--they actually looked like real people (all of them are fit, but lots of different body types--a couple don't even have flat stomachs!), and they all had different cute/funky outfits.

Rating:
Summary: LOVE IT!
Review: When I first bought this workout, I had no idea what to expect. As a dancer, I can say that this workout isn't quite as intense as a studio class, but its a great workout. The different segments add a lot of variety, and its become quite a hit amongst my friends. We've started to have our own "cardio dance parties", and love every moment of it. The steps are simple enough that if you don't get them the first time you do the workout, you will get them the second and third. Jennifer Galardi is a great instructor and makes the workout as much fun as any hip-hop or aerobics class I've gone to.