Customer Reviews

FitPrime Volume 4: Steamin' Cardio with Kelsie Daniels [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This tape is superb. Kelsie is an awesome instructor. Steamin' Cardio is a much better quality tape than the first few Fitprimes. The moves are a bit different than ordinary cardio tapes. For instance, Kelsie does "handstands" off the 14 inch step. This one does not require a lot of equipment and it does not use heavy weights. The music is great. I would not say the cardio is "steamin', much more like a simmer, but still a good, effective workout. If Anna and Tracie keep making tapes like this one, I predict they will be as successful as they were with the Firm workouts years ago.

This workout is great if your looking for something new. Kelsie is dynamic in front of the camera and the time flew by very fast. This work out encorporates kick boxing and other innovative aerobic moves to maximize the fun factor. Light weights are used to help create shapely muscles but still light enough to use on cardio days as a cross trainer to a heavy weight workout. A tall step is used to effectively shape the lower body.

This workout is challenging and definitely fun for the advanced exerciser. But it can be modified for the beginner.

This is a great workout. I like that it is not traditional take-it-from-the-top, grapevine, step style. Most of my other vids are like that, which is OK. But, when it's time to shake things up, I think this workout hits the spot.I especially like the compound low-impact moves like the handstand/hover squat combo and the hover squat/spring combo, to name a few. However, I recently decided to skip the handstand portion and just do the squat/spring combo thru that segment because it is better at keeping my HR elevated. There's an editing glitch that causes the counting in one area to be a bit off, but I have been able to anticipate it and do the correct counts on the jump move since it was a very minor glitch.

After coming from the FIRM's videos with large classes (smaller now) and varied visual angles, I was a bit skeptical about buying this workout since it was just the instructor. But Kelsie personality and stage presence sqaushed my reservations. It feels like she's right there with me and Ican see her from different angles too. She is gently encouraging and makes me want to eek out the last few reps. It's just the way she says (paraphrase), "Can you do some more? Of course you can." But she's not chatty or overly enthusiastic. Her voice is just dripping with the right amount of honey. She projects that she is genuinely enjoying this workout. This video is a great pick-me-up, especially after I've hit a slump.

This is the fifth video I've tried from the old FitPrime series. I've found the FitPrime workouts to be quite quirky, but I think that's what I like about them. In particular, I appreciate the variety of unique moves, particularly those using the tall box/high step combined with basic choreography and providing an overall great workout. Lately, I've really been enjoying Tracie Long's Fast Cheetah, and I was hoping that Steamin' Cardio would provide another fun, cardio-focused workout. I'm happy to report that this video is exactly what I had hoped it would be-I love it!

The Steamin' Cardio DVD is very well-chaptered as listed below. I've added my own brief descriptions of each segment as well as approximate times. The only equipment used for this workout is the tall box and a set of light dumbbells.

1. Credits
2. Intro
3. Warm Up, 3 minutes. Basic steps and some fun punches provide a good full-body warm up.
4. Tree Stretch, 4 minutes. Includes a few nice hip opening moves.
5. Sashay, 3:45 minutes. A side-to-side sashay combined with repeater knees and kicks.
6. Steppy Squats, 2 minutes. Squats combined with bicep curls and rear leg extensions.
7. Press Punch, 2 minutes. Tall step presses with a punch combination.
8. Hippy Curls, 3:40 minutes. A more dancey segment with lots of swaying hip moves; the choreography was a bit more complicated here, as it included turns/pivots.
9. Handstands, 2:40 minutes. Handstands from a seated on box position-you place your hands on the floor and jump up lifting your hips. These were combined with tricep dips/jacks and "springs" (sit, hover, jump to stand), making this a tough segment.
10. Lunge Row, 2 minutes. Side lunges plus side leg extensions; also curtsy dips with overhead presses.
11. Bootcamp, 3 minutes. Challenging series of lunges to plank and full push-ups.
12. Jab Kick, 3 minutes. More kickboxing, this time on the floor with a jab-cross/back kick combo. This was fun, but the order of the moves felt a bit awkward.
13. Spider, 3 minutes. Not sure where the name "spider" comes from; these were sports cardio drills including jumprope, football drills, jumps, and side hops/skates.
14. Dip Jumps, 3 minutes. The last tough cardio segment: tall box climbs combined with a rear dip/jump combo.
15. Mambo Pivots, 3 minutes. Another more dancey cardio segment, this one includes mambos, pivots, side steps, and hops forward/back to finish the cardio work.
16. Bell Crunches, 3 minutes. A short, effective crunch segment: lying toe touches holding the weights, single leg lowers, reverse crunches/rolls with weights behind the knees, and oblique knee drops.
17. V-Sits, 2:40 minutes. Teaser variation combined with "goddess" move (on all 4s, open up one leg and arm to the side, then the other) and planks.
18. Clams, 2:20 minutes. This final abs move involves lying on side and pulling knees into the chest; leg stretches are performed on both sides as well.
19. V's & T's, 3:20 minutes. This final stretch segment includes lying hamstring and low back stretches plus additional standing moves.

I clocked this workout right around 51 minutes, and according to my heart rate monitor, I was in my target zone for about 30 minutes of this workout-good, and I expect that it will be even better once I get all of the moves down. I used 5-lb. dumbbells for all of the weight work, but the second time I did the workout, I also added my 1-lb. weighted gloves. I can't imagine going much higher than this with the weights, but that's fine since I definitely felt the burn! Also, although the abs work is short, I could feel it a bit in my core the next day. As mentioned above, I really loved this workout overall, especially the kickboxing moves, the tall box work, and all of the great stretches thrown in. Steamin' Cardio is a fun, intermediate level workout; I give it four and a half stars, and I definitely recommend it!

I like this video! Instead of the up, down up, down, side to side, grapevine, etc, you move muscles in your body with this video that have been on vacation...unless of course your vacations includes hand stands, hover, jump straight up, hover...

I like it!! The instructor is pleasant and not too bossy. I also like to leave the DVD in the machine and during the commercials on TV, pick one of the segments (2 -3 minutes long) and move a bit.

I would recommend this particular video to an intermediate exerciser if doing the entire DVD. Beginners can pick and choose workouts from the index.

If you like "The Firm," you will LOVE FitPrime workouts - they were developed by the founder of the Firm workouts and purport to be even more effective ("results within 6 workouts!) What I love about the Firm is what I love about FitPrime - only FitPrime has even LESS repetition - the Firm can be a little overkill on repetition of moves - the cardio is low-impact but extremely challenging - Kelsie's instructions are SUPERB, the moves flow easily and naturally into one another ...and she gradually builds the moves in each segment, so that you "get" the move and then get to really work on it!

This is one of the first two FitPrime workouts I purchased - I will be purchasing more. I'm a HUGE Karen Voight fan and this workout is up there with KV's workouts!

Kelsie has a great personality, she encourages you to keep going without being pushy or patronizing. She incorporates kick boxing and salsa moves into the workout making it different from the "usual" aerobic moves. Even though there are obvious editing clips, the moves flow together nicely and the music is great. This left me s-wetting!! I'm looking forward to more of her tapes!