Customer Reviews

Crunch - Fat Burning Dance Party

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

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.

I just bought this dvd and have done it 3 times, sweated up a storm, and had a lot of fun. The instructor is totally adorable to watch, has a great body, looks great doing everything, and does not insult me with irritating motivational hollering. She just gives some counts and acts enthusiastic. That's what I want in a video exercise instructor.

I don't get all the moves perfectly. If it were so easy I could do it all the first time, I'd be bored with it too soon. I don't care what I look like in the privacy of my own home, so if some of the moves are goofy, who cares? That means, yes, there are some goofy parts.

My experience with exercise dvds in the past has been that they all have pretty cheesy music and this one is no exception.

Finally, I will say that a lot of these moves are standard aerobic class kind of moves - vstep and grapevine (well, that's a dance move, too) - so for some people I can see where they may not feel like it's all dancing. In other words, do not feel that you can hit a salsa club after doing this dvd because you will not be learning hot new moves that you can take out.

From the reviews, I would say this dvd is great for beginners or people who haven't done a lot of cardio in a while. If you can't keep up with the arms and knee lifting and kick stepping, just improvise till you get it. Advanced cardio junkies probably will not find this challenging enough. For me, it's a great choice and I'm so glad I bought it.

I read a lot of reviews stating that people had trouble following the moves, but it seems overall most people had fun trying. Well, I did not. I've had some dance experience so I'm not a total newbie. However, the instructor takes very little time to show each move. I understand this is necessary in order for it to be a cardiovascular workout, but I think it could have been done in a better way. Perhaps less moves per "routine" or less complicated moves overall.

I can't say I was impressed, I was more frustrated then anything because they went to fast for it to be possible to catch on. I more or less just kept walking in place with a few hops, etc. and looked like a fool.

I'll give the DVD a few more chances (and update my review as necessary) to see if it gets easier with more practice of her moves, but I'm not very motivated to do so as they looked a bit cheesy to begin with.

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.

This is a competent, fun dvd. However, it focuses mostly on choreography at the expense of sweat. Let's put it this way: I'm a semi-regular exerciser, but I'm also fat - and I barely breathed hard. It's a fun workout if you just want to get your [...] off the couch and do something for a half hour, but not so great for a serious cardio workout.

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!

I LOVE this DVD!! Love it!! I work out every day (twice a day), and this is the best DVD for "mixing it up" when I'm getting sick of all the DVDs I already have. It's pretty easy to follow (though I must admit that I watched it all the way through before attempting to actually do it), and it's so much fun to geek out to the cheeseball dances. I especially love the very last "retro dance" segment because it's just so much fun. This is an excellent DVD for someone who is relatively new to cardio exercise or for someone who just wants to do something a little different from their normal workout routine. I highly recommend "Fat Burning Dance Party" for anyone who wants a little bit of happiness in their workout.

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.

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.

If there is anything I've learned, it's that when reviews for fitness items are very mixed, it's just best to try things for yourself.

After reading all the reviews for this item, I had expected Jennifer Galardi to be overbearing, irritating, obnoxious. I love her! She reminds me of the instructors in any aerobics classes I've ever had - she's young, gorgeous, fit - what matters to me when it comes to instructors in videos, is that they are someone I would want to look like. She definitely has a body I'd want!

I also expected the coreography to be difficult, and dated. It wasn't hard, it was challenging certainly, easy to get after the first run-through. It's fast, I suppose, but really not complicated. It's not as dated as I expected, it's fun! It's got a good vibe, you're not just marching in place, it's got a dance-feel to it, and you feel good. It really does go quite fast. My favourite section, suprisingly, was the latin section.

My third expectation was for it to be easy, in terms of a physical challenge. It's not the most challenging video I've used, but I sweated, moved, got my ass off the couch, felt good, and that's the bottom line. I'll use it in conjuction with some muscle work for 20-30 minutes or so.

Negative things? There really isn't much of a stretch at the end, and that didn't feel good.