Cher: A New Attitude

[Guest guest]

Yes, Cher. As in platform shoes, feathers, huge hair, bizarre, sexy outfits, Sonny... yeah, that Cher. (Anyone else used to watch The Sonny & Cher Show? I loved it! All those of you under the age of 30 or so can google "Cher" to see what I'm talking about). This workout is from 1991 and I got it from Stacey who told me it was actually good so I figured I'd eventually take the chance on it. I finally got around to trying it today. This tape has 3 workouts: a step workout (38 minutes), then abs & back (10 minutes) and a lower body workout (32 minutes). Since today was cardio + lower body + abs anyway and I had a mostly free day (minus a LOT of errands) I figured an 80 minute workout would be okay. Despite Stacey's reassurance I did have reservations before I tried it. I thought it would be wimpy and/or annoying and was I ever wrong! I ended up LOVING it!!! By way of review, I'll give general comments about the entire tape and then about each workout.

General comments: Cher is not nearly as over the top as she normally is and she is a participant, not the instructor. Keli instructs and she is excellent (she looks awesome in this too). Cher's outfits are all black (everyone's is) and certainly revealing (she even wears fishnet stockings in one) but not in any sort of "I don't need to see that" way. She does an intro explaining the various workouts and that she is a student in them (she calls them classes). She also is wonderfully honest in saying that she doesn't really love aerobics or working out but that she's found that being in shape helps her with her work so she likes to do short, effective workouts. I also liked that she does not interrupt Keli or try to lead at all. She occasionally comments but most of it is non-obtrusive. Every once in a while there will be a very brief, not annoying voice over comment from her saying something encouraging like "Don't worry, it's almost over" and "These are really hard but that's how you get rid of that stubborn jiggle on your inner thigh." She also introduces each separate workout briefly so the workout is 80 minutes but the running time is 90 minutes (due to her introduction to the entire thing and the short in between messages). There is one warm-up and one stretch for the entire tape, not for individual workouts. Since I did the entire tape that was great but it would be really nice to have this as a chaptered DVD for doing the workouts individually.

Step class: There are 3 levels of exercisers shown in the step workout. Keli and a few others are advanced with 8" steps, Cher and some show intermediate on either 4" or 6" steps and there is a beginner modifier doing the entire workout on the floor (no step at all). One of my few criticisms is that the camera is primarily tight on Cher with the people around her shown most. That means you don't see a lot of the advanced or beginner modifiers and sometimes, when a new move is cued especially, I'd like to see more of the advanced modifiers especially. There are also, occasionally some weird camera angles, blessedly short.I did this on an 8" step and that was excellent for keeping my heart rate in my training zone. A year ago I could not do step workouts on an 8" step. I was amazed that, although I got fatigued and wanted to quit or take out at least one set of risers, I was able to keep going for the entire 38 minutes! It is simple choreography, mostly low impact too. She does some over the top, off the side and even on the other side of the step moves though. The only things not so simple were the arm movements which were sometimes confusing and Keli does not mirror cue so I was often on the wrong foot. Luckily, with the simple choreography this was not usually a huge problem. Despite that, Keli cues very well but it is similar to FIRM cueing in that she doesn't show anything, she just tells you what move is coming next and assumes you know what she means. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. She also didn't use what I've come to know as standard step terminology for some moves so I was often playing catchup but will be fine the next time through this. She builds combinations slowly though and doesn't take it from the top more than a couple of times. The combinations also do not build on each other. She does some high impact moves in the last combination but I'm pretty sure modifiers show how to do it without power, I'm not sure though because I was following her and concentrating very hard. My only other problem was that the 8" step is pretty high for my short legs and I'm not used to using it for step workouts so my timing was extra off because it seemed to take me longer to execute some moves. I was getting used to it towards the end though and shortened my range of motion (like on v-steps, not expecting my feet to go really wide) to compensate and that seemed to help. When I got done I felt great. I was sweating buckets and knew I'd worked hard but was not exhausted.

Abs & back: With Cher's intro to this one, I had plenty of time to put away my step and risers and get into position for the work but not any time for rest. I'm used to abs being last but I kind of liked it in the middle. This one is only 10 minutes but you are working the entire time and I definitely felt it. It was very good! All floor work.

Lower body: OUCH! If you have problems with plie squats this is so not for you! Oh my goodness! There are sooooooo many of them and soooooo many variations on them!!! It was very tough, especially after doing the 38 minute step workout on an 8" step, my legs were already tired and so was the rest of me but I kept with it. I did have to move out of the squats a few times because my thighs were exploding but I felt like I did well anyway. I really need to work my inner thighs, the rest of my legs are looking good but I still have that darn jiggly stuff so while this was very hard it was also great for me. There are also toes forward squats at various widths, lunges and a short choreographed (simple though) combination of squats and lunges. She ends it with floor work which eventually gives way to a final stretch that was pretty good but not great. The lack of mirror cueing got me messed up on this one and the stretch sometimes but I managed to even myself out for the most part. The entire workout is done without weights though in her intro Cher tells you that you can use ankle weights but no one is shown using them and it felt tough enough without them. I don't think there are any modifications shown in this or in the abs workout. I was surprised when it was over only because, despite how tough the lower body section was.

When I shut off my heart rate monitor I had burned over 350 calories and was in my zone about 25 minutes (keeping in mind only 38 minutes of this was cardio that's all really good!). I felt incredible too!! I finally had a great workout this week! I hadn't gone to bed any earlier last night and didn't sleep too well but I did have a little more carbs with my breakfast (a half a banana one hour after I ate my egg white omelet and about a half hour before my workout) so maybe that helped. Maybe it was just doing something really different that was not hardly frustrating at all too (just the arm patterns and the non-mirror cueing bugged me but it wasn't enough to make me crazy). I think I'll try the banana 1/2 hour before a workout again soon and see if it was just a coincidence. Whatever made it work, it worked. I was on an exercise high for hours afterwards, even running all over the place doing errands! Thanks again Stacey (and Cher & Keli too)!!!!! :-)