Dance with Julianne: Cardio Ballroom Review

by Natalie Belford

Retail Price: $14.98

I love working out at the gym, but sometimes it’s nice to do something a little different. Dance with Julianne: Cardio Ballroom allows me to do just that. This DVD is hosted by Dancing with the Stars’ Julianne Hough. She leads you through a 55 minute dance workout that gets your heart pumping and blood moving. She incorporates several styles of ballroom dancing, including Cha-Cha and Jive. There’s a warm-up and cool down included, plus a bonus dance lesson to help everyone get acquainted with the different steps used throughout the workout.

Pros:

The Workout is Just Plain Fun: What I really love about this DVD (and dance videos in general) is that you’re having so much fun while you’re doing it that you don’t even realize you’re exercising! Before you know it the DVD is done and you’re on to your next task with a smile on your face. I know I was moving my body in ways I never had before. Sometimes it felt a little silly, but overall when I’m doing this video I’m having the time of my life.

Burns a Ton of Calories with Intense Cardio: This DVD is a dream for anyone who is looking to burn some extra calories (like me). It had me sweating in the first fifteen minutes, and by the end I was both tired out and energized at the same time. There’s a lot of moving around in this workout and all parts of your body are given a workout.

Bonus Dance Lesson Helps You Get Acclimated: I don’t have a background in dance. While I have done a few dance videos, there are a lot of steps I’m not familiar with. I found the bonus dance lesson very useful in getting comfortable with the basic steps. Once the workout gets going things move pretty fast, so having that introduction was great.

Employs Several Dance Styles: Doing one dance over and over is boring. Julianne uses several different schools of dance in this workout to keep things fun and interesting. Cha-Cha, Jive, and Paso Doble each have their own unique segment, keeping things interesting. The segments are pretty equal in time, making it hard to get bored with one particular style.

Cons:

Instruction is a Little Sparse: There is not as much explanation of the steps with this workout as there is with other video’s I’ve seen. Be prepared to jump right in and get dancing. My first time through felt a little muddled, but when I decided to just follow the steps and leave the arm movements to my second time through it became very doable.

A Little Long for Busy People: The full 55 minute workout may be a little long for people with a busy schedule. I can’t do the full workout as much as I’d like because of this. However, you can pick out individual dance segments if you like, you just need to warm up and cool down on your own.

Julianne’s cardio ballroom DVD is a really fun way to burn a ton of calories. It helped me get familiar with a few different dance styles I hadn’t tried before, and Julianne is positive and fun to work out with. While the DVD is a little long, the workout is so much fun I never seem to notice the time passing. If you want to burn some calories and have a really fun time doing it, you’ll absolutely love this DVD.

Click here to buy Dance with Julianne: Cardio Ballroom from Amazon.com