I Work Out So You Don't Have To

Today's dvd was Crunch: Fat Burning Blast.

This is basically three workouts in one: there's the Latin one, the Thai Box, and the Sweatshop. There's also an ab workout that I didn't do because I didn't feel like it.

The Latin workout is fairly easy. By that, I mean that even a clumsy poop* like me can do it without falling down or embarrassing the kids cat. I do NOT mean that it is easy in the sense that you can just walk your way through it; it's a pretty good workout, with lots of movement and sweating.

The Thai Box (and I'm guessing on the spelling there; it might be Tae Box, whatever, it's just boxing) is also easy enough to catch to quickly, but it introduces lunges, which I have decided that I am not doing anymore. In every woman's life, there comes a time when she has to make the tough decisions, and I, at my advanced age of 32, and my knees, which are approximately 57, are done with lunges. It's best for all of us. Anyway, this workout, too, was pretty good.

The Sweatshop, apparently, is one of Crunch's most popular fitness classes. I quit halfway, on account of all the grapevines and deep vees and chassees and lateral arms were making me crazy. I could not get coordinated, which is no surprise, but I would have thought that a Denise Austin veteran could have gotten all this stuff with no problem. Well, it was not to be. Plus, there were side lunges.

You can do each workout individually or stack them on top of each other; it's your choice (in education, we call this differentiated instruction). There's a warm-up at the beginning, and then you can skip to whatever workout you want to do, and there's a cool-down at the end. I skipped that, because: deep knee bends. I don't do those either.

I really liked the first two workouts. I felt them, which is important to me. I didn't think the boxing one was as good as a Tae Bo workout; there was not enough kicking.

I would recommend this dvd to intermediate exercisers, probably.

P.S. I realize I am very picky about workout dvds. It's difficult to find any workout program that does not require one to do knee-stressing exercises. One solution would be to do thigh-strengthening exercises, but most of these are--you guessed it--lunge associated. It's difficult being a moderately young adult with geriatric knees.




*what's that from?