Urban Belly Dance

Quick Facts:
Run time: Approximately 31 minutes, 29 minutes and 30 seconds active
Equipment needed: Mat optional, dance experience recommended

My Details:
Height: 5'4" or just under
Weight: 130ish lbs. Darn female curse, making me uncertain.
Fitness Stats: In massive pain because I'm so weak. Brief bellydance background (Ever seen Shimmy on TV?)

Quick Review:
Calories burned: 160 for 29 minutes, about 125 more than daily life
Highest heart rate: 134
Lowest heart rate: 107 once the workout started, 94 during warm up
Difficulty: 6/10 (taking in both intensity and confusion)

Extended Review:
Seeing as my arms are still killing me, I decided to NOT do another Jillian Michaels DVD for this one. If you are untrained and tried doing Level 2 of the 30 Day Shred, you know how much it hurts... and to just jump in to Level 3 with so much pain... Results would be skewed. Anyway. So, in light of all of this, I decided to do a Belly Dancing video. Mmm, fun. My wonderful older sister gifted me recently with Denise Druce's Urban Belly Dance, so I figured it was the perfect opportunity.

First of all, despite saying "with Denise Druce" on the cover, she does not appear in the workout. She talks for a minute in the beginning about herself, and then you can watch a very brief snippet about her saying how she's been in the fitness industry and she is taking her workoutS (emphasis on the plurality) to us and hopes we enjoy THEM, nevermind the fact that it's only one workout here. So if Denise isn't instructing, who is? Three people: a guy named Cory in the back (who might make you laugh), a girl that has some more womanly curves in the back as well, and this other girl with her belly showing in the front, the true "instructor." The girl doing the workout, whose name I honestly can't remember, looks a little bit like Britney Spears, or perhaps if Britney had a love-child with Sharpay Evans from High School Musical. Her instructing is hardly any better than what you'd assume right now. She basically assumes you have a background in both "urban hip-hop" and bellydance. If you don't have any experience, you will find yourself confused. Thankfully I took one jazz dance class in elementary school and have my small passing interest in bellydance, so I already knew how to belly roll and figure eight. If you're confused now, you will be during the workout. The woman, who I will name Heather despite not knowing for sure, uses terms like "sashay" and "rocket step." She also uses "pattycake," but it is NOT like your cherised game from your childhood. It's basically odd arm circles while you hip roll in a circle. She shows you the routine, but only while you're doing it, meaning if you want to keep up with her, it's a good idea to watch the video once through at least to understand what's going on when your back is turned. Considering how most people who do workout DVDs aren't usually well-versed in dance (chances are you'd just take classes like you have been), then this might go over your head. Despite trainer helpfulness being so low (meaning confusion is high), the intensity was very mellow. Most DVDs- even the marching ones- get my heart rate to 150. This never got me into my target zone. On the plus side, the addition of the more urban steps raised the calories burned- my exercise trackers tell me I'd burn 107 extra calories with 30 minutes of belly dance. This is in part due to the urban steps and in part due to the fact that the music, though yogi-sounding (and thus somehow fitting the mood), tended to be a bit more... fast paced? It wasn't awfully fast, but it was not like my beloved Shimmy.

Overall, it was nothing special. The instructor kind of sucked and I got lost many times in my step (and I saw her off-beat once too), but if you've got some kind of background and have the money to waste, it's a moderately okay, easy workout for days you just are too darn sore to do anything else. And I'm sure the more you do it, the more you'll be able to understand. Oh, and the DVD case makes it seem a lot more appealing than it really is. The pictures on the back? Not from the vid. At all.
Trainer explanation level: 4/10
Fun level: 4/10
Confusion level: 7/10
Intensity level: 4/10