Workout DVD #2: Kathy Smith: Kickboxing Workout

See the DVD cover | 45 mins

Day 2 

Netflix tells me that

Aerobics guru Kathy Smith joins the Tae Bo craze in this 45-minute, fat-burning workout. Teaming with martial-arts champion Keith Cooke, Smith offers a vigorous routine packed with punches, kicks, jabs and squats that Tae Bo fans will enjoy. The video is appropriate for the supertoned and the untoned; Smith and Cooke help beginners with ample suggestions for low-impact alternatives to the moves presented.

The intro makes me smile – “joins theTae Bo craze”, man that dates this DVD! But even though it is 9 years old it is doesn’t really look dated at all. There are 2 kickboxing workouts on the DVD – basic [45 mins] and more advanced [55 mins]. Since it has been a good while since I did any kickboxing I thought I would go basic [did 30 mins].

Kathy is pretty good at the moves but her form is outshone by Kelli Roberts’ and Keith Cooke’s. Anyhoo, the warm up was about 10 minutes which was good and I eagerly got into the main part nicely prepped. However, after about 20 minutes my legs felt like lead balloons – no juice left in them at all! The knee up, kick, kick quickly dissolved into knee, knee kick to slight leg raise to marching! I felt that cardio wise I wasn’t sucking in huge breaths [I am sure a real life Kathy Smith would say I wasn’t trying hard enough] but I felt like my blood was pumping and it all felt great.

The workout that changed direction with leg and but work using a chair for balance. Seeing as I had done my legs yesterday with Jari Love I decided that I wouldn’t do the routine but switched out on the main menu to the Tai Chi ‘workouts’ by Roberts and Cooke that involved stretching [it felt like a reward, let me tell you] and energizing. I enjoy Qigong so the Tai Chi part was a nice bonus [that I didn’t realize was on the DVD at all before].

My Polar heart rate monitor showed these workout results:

2/8/08

49:51 [workout time]
17:15 [in aerobic zone 60% -80% Target Heart Rate]
139 bpm [average heart rate]
197 bpm [highest heart rate] – didn’t feel I got that high!
360 [cals burned]

I kept my monitor going through the Tai Chi additions and so the stats are skewed somewhat – my average HR must have come down considerably.

Bottom Line: definitely try this workout if you like kickboxing.