Gin Best of Step TV

[Guest guest]

I've had this for quite a while and finally did it today. This is three 15 minute workouts from her television show but there is one warm-up and one cool-down/stretch so it seems you're expected to do all 3 unless you want to mess with the tape to get the wu and cd to use them separately. The first workout is called "Basic" but it is not really for step beginners because there's actually quite a bit more choreography than I would have expected for a workout with that title. Besides basic & v-step there's also turn-step and some other stuff too I think. I haven't done Step Reebok the Video in quite a while but it seemed like this was a lot more complicated than that which surprised me. It is not actually intense or complicated though. I did it on an 8" step and that gave me a good workout. Gin has a "team" of 4 backgrounders, 2 men and 2 women and they all take turns cueing specific moves that are in the routine. They're very silly so if you don't have much tolerance for silliness than this is not your video! I thought it was funny but they do show the backgrounders' faces & torsos a lot and not their feet and I would have liked to have seen the feet more. Doing this my first time through on an 8" step with them being rather distracting made it hard for me to keep up with what should have been a pretty easy to follow workout.

I noticed my left glute REALLY hurting, as if I'd pulled a muscle too. It has been bothering me on and off for a while and it was bad during the 1st workout so when I saw the 2nd workout was the Power Workout, with lots of propulsion, I brought my step down to 6". As it turns out, that was a really good move. This is an advanced workout. Not Cathe style advanced step but lots of leaps and turns including a jumping L-step that took me a bit of time to get down but I did get it and really liked it. My heart rate was way out of my training zone through most of this. There was less silliness so I was able to concentrate more and got the routine down really well overall so I was able to put a lot into it. I really liked it a lot. An 8" step would have been okay if my glute was okay but definitely not with it hurting.

The 3rd workout was Hip Hop. I am not a hip hop fan but the music was pretty good. The moves were confusing for me because there's a lot of those hip hop style hand motions in this one and I do not get those at all. A little bit of it is on the floor too, again, hip hop style dance and I've never done any of that before. I eventually got it though. All 5 of them were wearing hip hop style clothes and more over the top silliness was part of it. This was the least intense of all the workouts and I didn't get a lot out of it.

There's also a very short lower body toning bit at the end, squats off the step and on the floor, then the stretch. Each workout's routine is completely separate from the others but within each one there is one combination that is built gradually and then taken from the top several times. I don't mind that too much but some people do so I thought I'd mention it. The music is fun and upbeat. Gin cues extremely well most of the time and comments herself when she cues early or late (each happened once). There is one backgrounder who always does the workout on the floor, without a step and one who always does it with low impact moves.

I'm glad to have finally done this, to see what it is like but it is going in my trade pile.I didn't like the Hip Hop workout and while I liked the other two, I have Step Reebok the Video, Power Step and Circuit Step (or whatever it is called) and those cover the kinds of workouts done in the first 2 sections and for longer amounts of time. I wouldn't want to do the first 2 of these workouts, then have to fast forward to the cool down and stretch. I also found the silliness too distracting in the first one and probably wouldn't be amused by it as much in subsequent times through the workout (I actually do get tired of Tony Horton's goofy comments when I've done a particular workout too often too and I'd get annoyed by this in much less time I think).

Tomorrow is supposed to be The Original Buns of Steel workout but with my glute bugging me (I just took some ibuprofen for it) and having done a lower body cardio workout today, I think I will switch it with Friday's workout which was supposed to be Cathe's Chest & Back. I'm not looking forward to not being able to use my upper body for a few days after it but I will do Cathe tomorrow and Greg ey on Friday instead.

If anyone wants the Gin workout, let me know & I'll pass it on to you. It is worthwhile.