Search - Dance Fitness for Beginners with MaDonna Grimes: Urban Street Heat on DVD

Sarah F. (Ferdy63) from DALTON, GA
Reviewed on 6/9/2008...

This is a great, high energy workout but I'm a bit of a klutz so I had a hard time keeping up with the steps. If you like hip hop and want a good workout, this is great!

1 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Real, Funky, and loads of Fun

Raina Singh | Auckland, New Zealand | 06/10/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you're looking for a workout that is so much fun that the time just flies by, look no further! This workout combines innovative choreography and a fast pace to get the heart pumping before you know it.

Here's what you get:

10MIN WARMUP - This combines a few low impact dance moves with a few stretches. Some of the stretches are a bit 'hmmm...', but you only do them after you're VERY warm. This is around 10 minutes, which is a good length for a warmup. Some of the moves you learn in the warmup will be re-used in the dance portion of the workout.

15MIN DANCE - Madonna teaches you the moves one by one, building together a longer routine. One thing that I love about her teaching is that once she's taught you a move, she practices what I like to call 'the transition'. This is where you practice the move that comes just before the new move, as well as the new move. If that doesn't make sense, say that she's taught moves 1-3 and is teaching you the 4th move. Once she's taught the 4th move, she practices moves 3 and 4, before going through the whole routine from the 1st move. This Hip-Hop combination includes some innovative steps, like 'The Snake', 'The Electric Slide', 'The Wobble', 'Lockdown', and so on.

5MIN COOL DOWN - Here, Madonna takes you through some of the stretches that you did in the warmup, as well as some neck stretches - some people will need to be careful with these.

10MIN BONUS - This is not a urban-street dance segment, but rather a set of intense tonin moves. She takes you through around 3 minutes of squats & lunges, done at such a pace that it BURRRRRRRRRRNS! She then goes through some standing and floor abdominal work. The standing work includes possibly some of the most effective oblique exercises I've seen without putting pressure on the neck & back.

Madonna and her group of exercisers - both male and female - exercise in a nice street-dance-studio-esque set. If that doesn't set the scene, the floors are polished wood, and the walls are dark red brick, with pillars and windows scattered throughout. It kind of reminds of the old Ricki Lake sets (back in the day!).

In terms of instructor personality, Madonna is a breath of fresh air. She is relaxed, laid back, and interacts with the other exercisers in a 'hey-wassup-mate' manner. In addition, they also interact with her the same way - giving a fun atmosphere; like being in a class, but not an extreme 'whoop-it-up' atmosphere like in Kathy Smith's Timesaver Cardio. She says things like "Dis mah mama's daynce!", "I'm wi-choo, aight?" and "C'mon y'all!" That certainly is refreshing compared to "Smile, you're burning fat!" [Denise Austin], "Two more please!" [Tamilee Webb], and "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!" [Kathy Smith]

For those of you who are absolute beginners to dance, you will find this difficult. What I suggest you do is ignore the arm movements for the first couple of times that you try the DVD, and focus on the getting your legs right. Madonna moves through the moves pretty quickly, only giving a couple of opportunities to learn the steps before incorporating them into the routine. She is good at cueing, but not so good at teaching the moves.

One thing you need to watch out for is that some of the turns and pivots might put pressure on your knees if you're working out on carpet. I knew this before I did this workout since Juliane Arney warned me in QuickFix's Cardio Hip Hop DVD, but Madonna doesn't mention this in her DVD. Just eliminate any turns and pivots if your knees are dodgy. Also, go easy on the head swinging during 'The Snake' move, it could be quite easy to click your neck out if you don't be careful.

The only reason why I didn't give this DVD four stars is because I found Madonna's other DVD, 'African Beat - Latin Heat' more fun.

A refreshing, intense, short workout that's fun! Cheers!"

Light, dance workout

Morgana | Washington, DC | 05/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I really like dance workouts, so I thought I'd check out this one. While this DVD is fun, you really aren't going to get much of a workout. It lasts a little over 30 minutes (including warm up and cool down), I think, and is very low impact and the dancing is slow paced. I hardly sweat at all and suspect I burn less than 100 calories using it.

But one nice thing about this DVD is that Madonna and her background dancers are friendly and interact with each other during the workout. You get the sense that they all knew each other before creating the DVD. The dance moves are not at all difficult to learn, and a beginner could probably pick them up quickly - especially since the music is rather slow. The set and production are good.

I use this DVD on days when I don't feel like exerting myself much, or to loosen up after a strength training workout. For something slightly more intense, try Madonna's African Beat, Latin Heat DVD.
"

Not for the dancing challengend

Jaime Corey | 04/11/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I just got this video- thinking it would be a bit easier to follow. However, it's not as easy as I thought it would be. If you aren't already a hip-hop dancer or don't have good rhythum- I wouldn't recommed it. I think I'll have to watch it quite a few more times before I can use it to really work out. The video itself is very good and she does explain everything, but I'm not dancer so I'm having a little bit of trouble following all the steps"