Billy Blanks Jr.: Dance With Me Groove & Burn

THE WORKOUT: Billy Blanks Jr: Dance With Me Groove & Burn

REVIEW BY: Sophia


WHO CAN DO THIS: Easy enough for beginners, fun enough for intermediates. I found a couple of steps a little bit tricky to master, but not terribly.

THE BREAKDOWN: Three 10-minute dances—disco, African, and Latin—with warm-up and cool down. Each dance ends with a short toning “blast.” The DVD is customizable, so you can program the segments you want to do, and the order. You can also turn off Billy Blanks’ instruction if you want and just listen to the music. Not that the music is so great, but options are always nice.

I’ve been enjoying this DVD tremendously—well, most of it, at least. I can do the disco and African segments but things go horribly wrong every time I try the Latin segment, so I’ve been programming that one out. (This is an ongoing problem for me. I just don't have the Latin beat in my blood.) I also stick mostly with the low-impact alternative, to save both my knees and the bric-a-brac, since I can shake the floor with too much leaping around.

The routines are built slowly enough but energetically and the steps are fun. The dancers are much less distracting than they are in the last Billy Blanks workout I reviewed. Blanks has a likeable, happy vibe and his cuing is good. The cardio toning segments are a good touch—arm toning after the disco segment (ouch), lotsa squats after the African segment, thigh toning after the Latin segment.

THE SWEAT FACTOR: I can work up a good sweat.

BUT IS IT FUN? Absolutely.

WHEN IT'S OVER: I’m not in peak condition at the moment, so two segments (done energetically) plus warm-up and cool down leave  me pleasantly wobbly.

GEAR AND APPAREL: Most of the workout can be done on a fairly small area of uncarpeted floor, although parts of the Latin segment takes more floor space than I have to go forward and back.

FINAL WORD: I’ve been doing this one lots and probably will do it lots more.