DVD review - Crunch: Cardio Salsa

• In my quest to increase my exercise and to add lots of variety to keep from getting bored, I have been renting exercise DVD’s from Netflix. Since I am not buying them, I am feeling pretty free to try all sorts of things I might not have tried if I were buying them. For the past couple of weeks I have been giving “Crunch: Cardio Salsa” a whirl. This DVD features 3 routines within the 30 minute workout, one salsa, one meringue, and one samba. The pros and cons to this workout, from my perspective as a very overweight person are:
  
  PROS:
• The instructor broke down the workout into several sections and taught them bit by bit, eventually putting them all together in one routine.
• Got my heart rate up.
• Relatively low-impact.
• The women on the video were not scary-skinny or uber-buff. They were just regular-looking fit gals and some even had a small bit of belly jiggle. It’s nice to workout with normal people.
  
  CONS:
• As a 300+ pound woman, I found it difficult to keep up with the steps. Moving a 300 pound body that quickly is very difficult to do.
• The quick movements caused lots of calf burn. I think if my calves hadn’t been burning so much I could have worked at a higher intensity.
• Music was manic and distracting. It’s likely that salsa workouts just aren’t for me because I am not crazy about the music.
  
  
  In the final analysis, this one is not for me right now. I may be tempted to try it again after I lose 50 pounds or so. I do think that if you aren’t quite so heavy and like a latin beat, this would be a fun workout for you. So I guess I would recommend this to others but it's not for me.