Aerobic? Hmm. Striptease? Hmm. (Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease - Vol.1 (DVD))

Member Name: carly_pussycat

Product:	Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease - Vol.1 (DVD)
Date:	28/03/06 (467 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Instruction is thorough, nice outfits

Disadvantages: Barely anything on the DVD, too easy, not really a workout

I like to try and keep myself fit and toned, but I dislike exercise for the sake of exercising so I try to take some of the pain out of it by finding something I enjoy. I love dancing and dance music, hence I bought both DVDs in the Pump It Up series. I still adore both of those but I like a bit of variety so I thought this might make a nice change every now and then.


AEROBIC STRIPTEASE

This DVD is marketed as exactly what the title suggests - an aerobic workout with striptease elements to it. Now don't get excited, Carmen Electra won't be getting her kit off, it's more about the basic 'stripping moves' than the actual removing of clothes.
The DVD itself looks quite varied when you first insert it. There is a main menu with various different options and if you access the routines you see you have a choice of NINE. Wow, nine?! That is until you realise that number 1 is routine 1 with instruction, 2 is routine 1 WITHOUT instruction, 3 is routine 2 with instruction and so on and so forth. And even though they're cheeky enough to split these things into sections, 7, 8, and 9 are actually the other routines pasted together. So there's THREE routines. Not so good I suppose, but if they're great routines then that'll be ok, right?

Carmen Electra is joined by two other girls doing the same routines behind her and the DVD goes like this:

** 1. Routine 1 with instruction - 15 minutes long **
So, this isn't actually a routine and I thought it was pretty rude to call it that as it's just a bog-standard warm up. In fact, there was NO need to have a separated 15 minute 'instruction' bit for this as it's so easy. It would be much better if Carmen just did the exercises while she was explaining the next one (as all other DVDs do) but who knows, maybe she can't move AND speak at the same time, heh. You can't actually do the warm up while this is playing because she stops to speak and it's too disjointed to warm you up properly.

** 2. Routine 1 without instruction - 8 minutes **

Splitting it into two has actually made it harder to do; the instruction one is too disjointed to work, and this one is near-impossible in parts because you're bending over and facing the floor, or directions other than the screen, so you can't see what she's doing and there's no vocal guidance. And to top it all she finishes the warm up by giving a cheesy all-American high five and shouting "alright girls!"

Rubbish.

** 3. Routine 2 with instruction - 12 minutes long **

The instruction on this was pretty good as some of the moves might be challenging for some people. I don't consider myself to be any kind of striptease queen but I found this far too easy and felt pretty conned that 12 minutes of the DVD was given over to explaining this seemingly easy routine. The crap fake laughing by Carmen didn't help much either.

** 4. Routine 2 without instruction - 2 minutes **

Well now I see why it needed so much instruction. Without the instruction this routine is actually a mere TWO minutes long. Too easy and far too short.

** 5. Routine 3 with instruction - 13 minutes **

Again, the instruction was good, but I felt that the routine was easy enough not to require 13 minutes of instruction for me to be able to do it.

** 6. Routine 3 without instruction - 3 minutes **

Oh, now she's really got the right idea here, a routine that actually lasts one and a half minutes after which she shouts "let's do it again!" to take it up to a whopping 3 minutes when complete.

** 7. Programmable workout x1 (lasts 13 minutes) **

I wonder why it's called x1, that sounds interesting. Well if you choose this option the DVD plays routine 1, 2 then 3 (without instruction) in order.

** 8. Programmable workout x2 (lasts 18 minutes) **

Well there's that x again, what could it be? This program goes through routines 1, 2, 3, 2 then 3.

** 9. Programmable workout x3 (lasts 23 minutes) **

Can you see the pattern? The x is the amount of times you REPEAT the routines. This program plays routines 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 2 then 3. And please don't forget, within routine 3 you're actually already repeating the routine twice, so all in all you'd be doing that particular sequence SIX times in one workout (and they expect you to do this 3x routine 3 times a week).


CONTENTS OF THE DVD

As is standard with all exercise videos there are warnings at the beginning which you can't skip through but luckily these are actually quite quick on this DVD. Read them thoroughly once and then after that just put the DVD on while you go and change into your outfit and get a drink.

Once it's loaded up there are several options:

- Play all - This features a short intro with Carmen Electra saying a bit about the workout series (made up of 5 DVDs bought separately). It then goes on to play each routine with instruction then without instruction, in order.

- Routines - This is the 9 option screen described above.

- Interview - A 10 minute feature with Carmen, a choreographer and a fitness expert. You would only watch this once.

- Photo gallery - Various pictures of Carmen and other still shots of the routines.

- Credits - The closing sequence of Carmen doing a striptease dance in a dark room while the credits roll down the screen. Not very interesting.

- Audio setup - This may be changed during the routines if you have the feature on your DVD player. There is a choice of 'Techno', 'Hip Hop' and 'Rock'. I use the inverted commas because none of them sound at all like their descriptions. They're all equally mundane as they're simply bland repetitive loops which someone has made for the DVD. The default is Hip Hop and I would suggest keeping it on that because the other two sometimes go out of sync because they were clearly never danced to, just laid over the original routine.


OVERALL VERDICT

Now, when reviewing an exercise DVD I'd normally describe exactly how to go about doing the DVD and how to keep it interesting, but to be perfectly honest I've owned it a couple of days, done it once, and I'm totally bored with it. The routines are not hard to learn with the broken down instruction. Ok, so the instruction is quite good in some parts if perhaps you couldn't grasp the moves quickly. However, I found it repetitive and pointless after the first time because I knew the routines and was bored of the rubbish music. And once you've learnt the routines what is there left to do? The 3x program where you do routine 1, 2, 3, 2 again, 3 again, 2 AGAIN then 3 yet AGAIN?! I'm sorry but I think you'd have to be brain dead to do that even once!

To me this is a pointless little rip off. It might be worthwhile if they'd included 2 DVD's worth of stuff but it's obviously been created as a whole then split into 5 DVDs in order to earn the maximum money.

It would only be aerobic if you decided to go with the 3x routine, and who wants to do that? I guess it is a bit of a striptease as you could incorporate removing your clothes into some of the moves but I think if I gave enough thought to it I could choreograph a decent enough striptease for my partner.

This might be useful to someone who's desperate to be able to strip and doesn't have the first idea - but don't be fooled, it won't get you fit unless you stick with the mundane repetition.

Rubbish, rubbish, rubbish.

Luckily I snapped up my copy on eBay for a fiver, which is where it's returning right after I've finished this review. It costs £12.99 in the shops, and quite frankly I find that an insult. Pump It Up (either the first or the second one) has an RRP of £19.99, and although you could find it A LOT cheaper, even at full price it'd be ten times as good value as this.


carly_pussycat - dooyoo UK ©

Summary: A well marketed piece of rubbish which isn't really aerobic or a striptease