I am not going to lie, being a huge Country Music fan I wanted to try Julianne Hough’s Cardio Ballroom workout. What is not to like about Julianne Hough, she is beautiful, she can sing and she can dance. Who wouldn’t want to look like her, or for those fans of Dancing with the Stars, dance like her. Her DVD has 3 parts:
- Cardio Ballroom Workout
- Personal Dance Lesson
- Behind the Scenes Interview
Here are a couple of things, you will look silly, I used to be a dancer and even I didn’t get this the first time. I was so glad my roommate wasn’t home to watch me. This is primarily a cardio dance DVD. There are no strength exercises only dances. It is a fun way to get some more cardio into your workout routine. If you have never danced before this will be more difficult she moves pretty fast and doesn’t tell you what foot your starting on, you have to mirror her. Now I won’t tell you if you haven’t danced to not get it because you can it will just take longer to nail the moves.
If you have never danced before or even if you have I recommend doing the personal dance lesson, she breaks down some of the more difficult moves for you more slowly. This was a huge help. I was a little upset that she only broke down about 6 moves because there are some things that will take you a couple of times to learn. It is only 12 minutes so it doesn’t take much time.
The cardio dance workout lasts about 40 minutes. It starts with a quick warm up and then you move into the cha cha. The cha cha was a lot of fun and it was a sexy little dance. I did not get this the first time, and I looked pretty stupid doing it. The second dance, and in my opinion the most fun even if you look stupid is the Jive. This one even if I wasn’t doing it correctly I felt like I was getting my heart rate up. The last dance is the Paso Doble which is the most serious and you need to position yourself correctly to get the benefits. This one I looked pretty ridiculous doing but got better towards the end.
Overall, Julianne is a descent instructor. She does move quickly which will get discouraging but the best advice I have is to keep doing it. You will not have this DVD down the first time, maybe not even the second, third time or fourth time. It moves very fast. Julianne is very sweet so it doesn’t make it too intimidating and she comes up with funny names for all the dance moves so when she shouts it out you know what is coming next. Some names are: the twist, the flirt, the hussle, the cape, and the kill.
In order for you to get a good workout you MUST do it full out every time and you have to work on your positioning. If you don’t do it full out you won’t even get out of breath, and if you don’t work on positioning you will not be targeting all the muscles you could have. If you watch Julianne she does it full out every time. For $7.99 on Amazon it is not a horrible DVD. In my opinion is it the best, no but it was fun. If you like dance or you want to learn some quick easy dances to get your heart rate up this is not a bad option. Will it leave you feeling like you just had the most amazing workout of your life, probably not. I do not recommend this DVD to anyone that does not like dancing and really wants to be sweating heavily by the end of their workout. I will give it a couple more tries and update you with my progress but I have to say I miss my Tae Bo.
You can buy the DVD on Amazon here http://tiny.cc/nsOr2
Filed under: DVD | Tagged: Cardio, Dance, DVD, Julianne Hough | 2 Comments »