Customer Reviews

The Cardio Samba Workout

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished doing this workout and it was intense! The workout sections are:
1) samba basic steps - She teaches front foot samba, side to side samba and going back first samba. She teaches it first without music and counts for you. This is excellent as you can get the count and the sway of the hips. I have been doing brazilian dance for years and this is the first time I had someone break it down with precision. She then teaches it with music and at half time and regular time.
2) workout tutorials - She breaks down the workouts (1-4) at half time.
3) Transition samba steps - These are steps you will do between the workouts to keep your heart rate up.

Next is the warm-up. If you have ever taken a dance class, the warm-up will be familar to you. It is a slow warm-up, not very exciting but it gets the job done which is to warm up the muscles.

Then there is the workout which is broken into 4 sections. She does each one slow then up to tembo with a transition step in between each workout. The workouts are on separate chapters in the event you need to repeat one. The steps are not complicated but are fast and challenging as you will be changing directions and turning. I suggest that you have a pretty large dancing space. The last section, 5, is all of the workouts strung together w/o the transition steps at warp speed (up to tempo).

For my first time through I got about 1/2 the steps up to tempo. The samba is very fast and tiring. I sweated up a storm!!! Unless you are in excellent shape and/or a sambanista, you will not get this at tempo the firt time around. That's good because this dvd challenges you so that each time you do it you get a little bit more and a little bit stronger.

The last section is a short but sweet cool down.

Quenia is joined by 3 dancers 2 of whom were on her last dvd. The setting is a soundstage with hard wood floors. (not good on thick pile carpet) The music is very good BUT could have been a little louder. Thankfully, once the workout starts she doesn't talk alot except to cue you.

Over all I loved this dvd and will do it again and again and one today I hope to be able to do part 5 straight thru without stopping. And since workout 5 is its own chapter, you can put your dvd player on repeat and do it several times as you become stronger. I must say that I had the priviledge of taking her class at the Alvin Ailey dance school in NYC and she is the sweetest person and a petite dynamo. Obrigada Quenia

While reading Esther Gokhale's book, 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back: Natural Posture Solutions for Pain in the Back, Neck, Shoulder, Hip, Knee, and Foot (Remember When It Didn't Hurt) I took her advice to learn the basic samba step to help my back and hips. I started doing the very first section of the samba video five days ago (just the how to do the basic step). I have done it twice a day since I am a slow learner when it comes to dancing. I'm getting the hang of it. The video has a slow and a moderate speed for each part, so beginners can catch on more easily. I am enjoying it greatly and I recommend it for someone who wants to learn to samba but may be uncoordinated or lack confidence.

I love Quenia, she is a fluid dancer that you can tell can enjoy the dance in the moment & has a great, friendly, fun personality that comes across that doesn't let you get bored. Like her previous "The Samba Reggae Workout" this is done on stage w/now 3 backup women & no live band, but a great music piped in. Quenia again teaches as she dances, no voice over.
Menu:
* Welcome: 2 min
* Basic Samba: 11 min - Quenia alone slowly teaches fwd, back & traveling to the side. Fwd & back are done differently. She goes very slow here, no music for the first 5 min, but there is for the rest. Luckily Quenia makes up for the lack of music. She occasionally goes into 1/2 speed, but mostly a very slow 1/8-1/4 tempo even for most dance workout dvds. Only at the end does she do a quick at tempo speed practice.
* Step Tutorial: 29 min - broken up into 4 sections, she alone teaches you all the other moves you will learn for the workout, which there are many, but easy to learn, nowhere near as fast as samba, the only hard part being directional changes. She goes so slow, it's hard to picture what it's suppose to look like at tempo. Hip circles, box steps, lunges, etc. She again goes mostly 1/4 tempo, stopping to teach. Again, she is a very good, thorough teacher. She goes over basic samba again for those who need a refresher in the last 2 min.
* Warm-up: 27 min - wow, a very long, thorough stretching that gets even the ankles warmed-up & stretched. Included are yoga sitting fwd bends, standing fwd bends, chair, reclined spinal twists, as well as some crunches, pilates, rib & hip circles, etc. Done w/her dancers.
* Workout 26 min - broken up into 5 sections, she & 3 backup dancers do the previous 4 sections, first in 1/4 tempo, then full VERY fast tempo. She then does all 4 sections all in VERY fast tempo in the last 6 min.
* Cool Down 3 min - basic stretches you'd expect w/the dancers.

The only thing I didn't like about this was that even though 1/8-1/4 speed is perfect for the step tutorial, she should have gone 1/2 speed when doing the workout or at least a summery end of the tutorial. It's too jarring since Latin dancing is VERY fast, you feel you're either going too slow, or it's too fast to keep up. There was very little body placement teaching in the workout section to remind you ahead of time where you're going unless you've memorized really well the previous sections which goes too slow once you get the idea. If she had trouble teaching in 1/2 speed, an added voice over would have been fine to keep the momentum up.
Most of my dance workouts go 1/2 speed w/teaching as you go & then tempo w/an added step tutorial if need it which I find to be a perfect formula.

video clip: worlddancenewyork

I have all three of Quenia's workout DVDs. I absolutely LOVE her Samba Reggae Workout, which was her second DVD. It feels like more of a workout than her first DVD, which I only did once because I found it hard to follow. Since there was so much improvement from her first DVD to her second one, I couldn't wait for this one. Sadly, I was a bit disappointed.

As always, Quenia is wonderfully engaging and energetic in this DVD. She is very thorough with her instruction and cuing. The moves are great and authentic. You will definitely work up a sweat if you do it all the way through. There are also lengthy warm up and cool down segments.

However, something about the format of this DVD really takes away from my enjoyment of it. The routine does not flow as smoothly as her Samba Reggae workout. There are too many interruptions. The segments seem disconnected from each other instead of flowing as one whole piece.

I also miss Grupo Ribiero, Quenia's live musicians. I don't know why the decision was made to play a recording instead of having the live drummers, but that took away from the workout. I loved the intensity and authenticity that the live drummers brought to her previous workouts. Hopefully they will return in her next DVD, which I will buy.

WOW, what a workout! I can feel it in my bones and everywhere else. Worth it's money and I loved learning new dance routines while working out.

Awesome instructor!! Full of energy, fire, and grace that becomes contagious the moment you start doing this program! I certainly can not move as rapidly as she does with the fast sections (but hope to soon), but break a sweat nevertheless! Samba works everything-quads, glutes, back, arms, hamstrings while still being fun and sexy! If you like to dance, YOU WILL LOVE IT!

I loved the music and Quenia's Energy!!! I did find however that there just was a little too many moves to the dance routine. Quenia makes the moves easy to learn with good slow repetitions and takes it from the top of the dance to help you to remember them, but by the time you have learned the whole routine you are too exhausted to enjoy doing it! There wasn't any cool down. But what a great workout!!! I also like that Quenia is curvy and not stick-thin with fake boobs. I feel I can relate to her, because her body is similar to mine.

This a high energy workout with a tutorial included on Rio de Janiero Brazilian style samba. The instructor and her team of dancers present their program well.
Workout 1 inclues 2 segments where you can pace yourself, slow or accelerated aerobic.
Workout 2 segment 1 offers nice footwork for those who like dancing slower paced.
Segment 2 becomes deep and intense when the pace picks up in and you are literally going non stop.
If you have the need to learn samba, the tutorial section is detailed and very well prepared for instruction.
Quenia has previously released "Samba Reggae Work Out" and "Samba Dance Today." If you dont have these programs "Cardio Samba" would be a good choice as it includes much in the tutorial, with great technique, a thorough workout, also warm up and cool down sections.
I am sorry that this program was not met with much enthusiasm in my assemblies. Many preferred a moderate exercise for longer periods to condition and burn calories rather than too fast paced which become short lived and repetitous.

If you are a samba lover, and cardio and aerobic is your choice of weight loss, or exercise, it will suit you well.

I now own four of Quenia's DVDs, and if I were to put them in order, this one would be my second to last. (Last is "Dance Today! Samba" as that's actually instruction and not meant as a workout.) As other reviewers have said, this one moves really fast and doesn't seem to flow as well as the others.

The music was probably the worst of all four DVDs, not only was it just a recording, it sounded more Hawaiian than anything else. (Mostly it just didn't sound good, canned and tinny.)

She had three backup dancers this time, which was really nice (Dance Today! had none, her other two DVDs each had two). Two were the same and one person was new.

If I could give half-stars, I'd rate this 3.5 instead of 4. I suppose if I didn't like her so much I could really knock it down to an even 3, but she has such energy and enthusiasm, I really enjoy working out with her.

Great product and wonderful workout. I'm really enjoying this workout. The best part is that it has a slow version where the trainer shows step by step, and then it has the real samba speed version. It is wonderful.