A 34-minute step aerobics workout and 22-minute Pilates routine on one disc. Jules Benson is your instructor.

Intermediate to advanced exercisers. The step routine is fairly sophisticated (although not overly difficult), as is the Pilates segment. You will need a step and a mat.

Although I enjoy them, I rarely review step aerobics DVDs, mainly because I am not exactly a speedy learner when it comes to choreography. Every time I tackle a step DVD, it seems like my exercise world grinds to a halt as I go over it — over and over and over until I get it right (talk about dedication!). If I reviewed step DVDs frequently, I'd probably end up updating this site only about once a month or so. That said, this DVD resonated with me because 1) the step routine was only a half hour long and I heard the choreography wasn't all that hard and 2) the Pilates sounded appealing. Well, it's over 3 weeks later and now you're getting my review.

 

If you're pretty good at learning choreography, you probably won't have anywhere near the sort of struggles I did. Benson's steps are very creative and very fun (once you get them down), but do keep in mind that you usually only go over the basic version of a step a couple of times before she changes it into something completely new, or adds a reverse turn (my nemesis). You ball-change off the step into the nether regions of your living room (you do need some lateral space), side kick around the step, use syncopated timing and more. Lots of very refreshing moves. My problem is that my brain tends to numb out around 30 minutes into a choreographed workout, which made the last couple of steps harder to master. And I might never have gotten the last couple of steps right on this DVD if I hadn't started fresh one day, done the first routine as a warm-up, then skipped to the last routine. Then I could do the whole thing through, no problem. So if you're a slow learner like me, you might want to try this. One other note: there's very little cool down time and no stretching, so if you aren't going right into the Pilaters segment, then take five minutes or so to stretch out. Your legs and glutes will thank you.

 

The Pilates segment is equally satisfying for intermediate and advanced exercisers. As in her step workout, Benson takes classic moves and builds on them, and her instruction is excellent. (Finally somebody called me on my wobbly knees!) She works your core to the edge of endurance, but if you're in good shape, you should be able to get through it feeling great and very worked out.

 

Incidentally, this DVD was produced by someone who might be familiar to you step enthusiasts out there — Christi Taylor. If you like Taylor (and I do), you will probably like Benson too, and I think Benson's workout is a little easier to learn than Taylor's are.

 

 

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