Kelly Coffey-Meyer's Cardio Kick Step-Boxing

I just finished a premix of Kelly Coffey-Meyer's newest Step-Boxing workout: Cardio Kick Step-Boxing. I had tried her original Step-Boxing DVD and ended up selling it. The pace was too frenetic for me and I felt like I just couldn't keep up. This new one is still fast and full of energy, but not impossible to follow. She even includes a very good tutorial section where she breaks down the more complex moves and does them to both sides (I also love Amy Bento's tutorial section on Advanced Step Challenge 2, but I wish she'd done both sides on it like Kelly does here).

This is a big calorie burner and loads of fun--and I only did the vertical step part (which is basically the first half). The second half is horizontal step-boxing. This is an ideal workout for someone who loves both step aerobics and kickboxing because it's such a nice blend of kicking and punching incorporating the step. I'd say the choreography is more complex than most kickboxing workouts because of the step use, though not perhaps as complex as Amy Bento's Kickbox Xtreme (a favorite of mine which I have heard described as sort of a hi-lo and kickboxing blend). This new Step-Boxing DVD is something of a space hog, but it's easy enough to modify for a smaller space (like my small living room). For instance, she's behind the vertical step, backs up a bit, then lunges back--I don't have that much space, so I turned sideways just before lunging.

I should mention that some of the music is a little repetitive and one little annoyance was some weird noise in the music--I heard it both in the warmup and in the first routine. It's a weird sound like what a dying turkey must sound like--a sort of choking gobble--but tinny because it's electronic. Kind of weird, but I can overlook it for a fun workout.

I think this will be an ideal workout for those days when I just can't decide if I want to do kickboxing or step aerobics, but I just know I want some fun cardio. Why not just do both? Thanks to Kelly, I can.