Quickfix Cardio Hip-Hop Workout: A Review

Quickfix Cardio Hip-Hop Workout is a dance DVD that teaches some short dances with an emphasis on both having fun and getting a cardio workout. The focus is more on dancing than toning, and having fun doing the steps than working out, so it's a good choice for those who like to learn dances and don't want to feel like they're working out, but a bad choice for those who really want to focus on toning, strengthening, flexibility, etc.

It's divided into 3 ten-minute dance workouts, which is a nice feature because it allows for more variety, as well as giving people who don't have a lot of time the opportunity to work out, since you can always choose to do just one dance workout at a time. Unfortunately, the DVD is not set up so that you can pick and choose which workouts you want to do and which order you want to do them in. In fact, the DVD only has one menu option, and that's "play." But the dances are divided up into tracks, so you can skip back and forth between them somewhat easily. So the menu thing is only a minor inconvenience, but still an inconvenience, especially when there are plenty of other dance DVDs that allow you to mix and match the short workouts from the menu screen.

Another downside is that there are no warm-ups or cool-downs on this DVD. They go straight into the dancing, and at the end of each segment you can return to the basic move you learned earlier and just do it slower, but that's all you get. That, and the instructor, Juliane Arney, mentioning something about how you should try to do some lower body stretches at some point. (Thanks, Juliane. Really helpful.) So if having a warm-up and/or cool-down is important to you, you should probably skip this DVD.

Each 10 minute dance workout is set up in two segments: first you learn one segment bit by bit, then put it all together--this takes about 5 minutes. Then you learn another dance segment in the same manner, and at the end of the 10 minutes you put both segments together to create the full dance sequence. This is a pretty good system, as getting to focus on different sections makes for more variety, and makes it easier to learn the moves, then putting it all together at the end is a fun challenge.

Unfortunately, these dances are still rather difficult to follow. The instructor isn't great with verbal cues, such as how specifically to move your arms/legs. She'll specify which foot to start on, sure, but then not give a lot of information when it comes to continuing the steps, adding the arms, etc. She doesn't talk you through it well while you're doing the dance. When dancing, succinct and informative verbal cues are key to learning the steps, but she usually just calls the moves by silly little names that don't help you figure out what you need to be doing. And the camera work just adds to the frustration, as the camera jumps around instead of focusing on the important parts (usually the feet). The thing is, I don't really care what the instructor's torso looks like, but for some reason, the camera always assumes I do.

However, while I was totally lost and frustrated the first few times I did this DVD, I did learn the dances over time, with practice. There are still a few moves I can't quite get, but for the most part, the dances aren't impossible to learn. And once you get the hang of them, they can be pretty fun. Still, at the point I started on this DVD, I had done a number of dance DVDs before, which made it easier to learn the moves quicker. I definitely wouldn't recommend this DVD as someone's first dance DVD.

Of the three dances, I find the second dance the least enjoyable. One of the main moves, a diagonally traveling triple step with a weird twist, is a bit goofy looking (and it feels goofy to do as well). On top of that, the step travels too much. This DVD seems to assume that everyone practicing it has a wide open, spacious practice area, but let's face it, most of us don't have dance studios in our houses. Instead, we have living rooms with things like couches, coffee tables, chairs, and televisions, the latter of which I'm pretty much running into every time I try to do the traveling step. In addition, some of the other steps in the second section feel goofy and watching the background dancers do the steps only makes the steps seem goofier. I usually just skip the second segment altogether, which is kind of a bummer, since there are only two other workouts on the DVD, and then it's only a 20 minute workout.

I think the first and third workouts are a lot of fun, though (at least once you finally get the hang of them). And they're both high energy, and the instructor manages to be upbeat without being over-the-top and annoying about it. I definitely get sweaty and thirsty doing this DVD, but it doesn't feel like working out because it's more fun than that.

So, overall, I would give this DVD about 3.5 stars out of 5. To recap, it loses points for: a) not having a format that allows the viewer to easily choose dances/change the order of the dances, b) not having warm-ups or cool-downs at all c) being somewhat difficult to learn, with too little instruction and inconsistent camera work, and d) having some goofy steps and too much traveling in the second workout. However, it gets points for a) being broken down into 3 ten minute dances b) the workout format in which the dances are broken into two sections, approximately 5 minutes each, then put together, c) being fun to do, d) being a good cardio workout, and e) not having an annoying instructor (which is surprisingly common in dance DVDs). Overall, I would recommend this DVD to: people who like hip-hop and have some dance experience. I would NOT recommend this DVD to: people that have little or no dancing experience , and people who aren't interested in hip-hop.