Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Amy Bento's All Cardio Hi-Lo Knockout Review



This is an 85 min (with multiple shorter premixes and its very well chaptered) hi lo and kickboxing w/o led by Amy Bento with 2 background exercisers. The set is bright and open. You will need one set of lighter dumbbells for the ab section. I usually dont notice the music unless its really good-and this is! Very upbeat, recent songs that I recognized-made me want to get & keep moving!

The dvd has some (I think 3)  hi lo "combos"  The cardio is nonstop heartpumping and will keep you moving! The choreo is more advanced than I usually go for but its not truely advanced choreo. Amy combines some classic floor aerobics (grapevine, repeater knees, kick ball change) into unique combinations. Her cueing is very good or I wouldnt have been able to follow (I am choreo challenged as many of you know). She teaches you a move and then builds on it. Then you go through the entire combo a few times. Its not repetitive or boring because you have to pay attention to the moves to get them right. I did combo one twice and had it down 100% by the 2nd go through.

There are 4 kickboxing "knock-out" segments. These are shorter than the cardio combos but also more intense! These kickboxing combos are not as choreographed as the cardio segments -I followed along very well. She combines classic kickboxing moves (cross punch, side kick, front kick, speed bag) with some tough cardio (squat thrust variation, fast feet, jump rope, plyo jumps) to really get your heart rate up without a ton of impact.

The ab section is awesome! First you do some standing ab & oblique work with a dumbell. Then you go down to the floor for a Turkish get up variation (with a dumbbell), and some weighted crunch varations.

This dvd is really a few different workouts because of the premixes included. You can do all "combos," you can do all "knock outs," or a combination of both. I did combo 1 twice, drills 1-3, and then the weighted core segment for a 50 min sweatfest! I really enjoyed this workout and will definatly use it again. There really are so many options of how you can use it.

Because of the choreo and the nonstop high intensity I will go ahead and say this is an advanced workout. It was definately intense and a real calorie burner but I dont think I went anarobic. If you are good at moderate choreo and like kickboxing and/or cardio I would say this is the workout for you! Its got 85 minutes of footage on it! Quite a bargain IMO!


5 comments:

  1. Thanks for the review of All Cardio Hi-Lo Knockout. It's one of my many virgins - I've been scared off by Amy's reputation for being too challenging for we choreographically-impaired people, but you make it sound very do-able.

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  2. Red-I bought this dvd when it was 1st released and for the exact reason you post, I had not touched it until today! Combo 1 was not so bad, the KO's were fine (you will rock those since you box). Im interested to know how you like it!

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  3. I'll definitely report back - it looks like so much fun and the music is great!

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  4. the music IS great! I just love Amy's energy!

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  5. great review. Amy's one of my faves and I just got around to revsisting some of her workouts in the last couple of weeks. They can be tough to catch on to the first time or two, but once you do, there's no wasting time reviewing moves, taking it from the top, etc. Jus6t a good old sweatfest...to good music!!

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