Billy Blanks Jr. Dance With Me Cardio Fit with Sharon C. Blanks

A well-taught dance workout featuring three dance sections: hip hop, Bollywood and country line dance. Billy Junior is the son of Tae Bo founder, Billy Blanks. But this is nothing like kickboxing. Instead, you get Tae Bo-style energy and motivation in a completely different workout format (this Billy can definitely dance!). You'll begin each segment by learning the moves at a slower pace. Then it's “play time” — having fun, burning calories and grooving to the music. Between each segment are two-minute “cardio bursts” — high-impact athletic moves like jumping jacks (the dance sections are nearly all low-impact).

Put the fun into fitness!

Experience the hottest new dance fitness sensation with Billy Blanks Jr.! Billy Jr. and his wife Sharon take you through three complete dance routines showing you how to shake it and burn mega fat – Hip-Hop Country and Bollywood style. The “Dance with Me” System combines easy-to-follow dance routines with 2-minute cardio bursts to help you build stamina and burn up to double the calories. This workout is specifically designed for all ages, shapes and sizes, so get ready to put the fun into fitness for the best time you’ll ever have losing weight!

Dance Workouts:

WARM-UP: Heat up the body with active movements and light stretches

HIP HOP: Get funky while you groove to Billy and Sharon’s beat! The crossover moves and deep lunges will burn fat fast and tone muscle.

COUNTRY: Kick up your heels and get moving with this down-home favorite! Start with a fun line dance and then blast away fat with an up-tempo “cowpoke” dance move that will keep you sweatin”.

BOLLYWOOD: Shake things up with Billy’s unique moves that will get your hips swaying and your heart racing.

COOLDOWN: Flow through easy movements to decrease your heart rate and soothe muscles.

Consider yourself old--well, experienced--if you didn't know that Billy Blanks, one of the first fitness gurus and the creator of Tae Bo, has a son who's something of a star in the fitness and dance worlds himself. Billy Blanks Jr.'s Dance with Me Cardio Fit combines those two disciplines, with the express aim of offering fat-burning routines that are not only challenging, but fun--"regardless of size, age, or fitness level," as he puts it. It works. Blanks, who's accompanied by wife Sharon and a quintet of relentlessly upbeat fellow workout enthusiasts, has energy to spare, with a positive and encouraging attitude that does indeed heighten the enjoyment of this vigorous workout. (The video can be viewed with or without Blanks's instruction; after a few times through, the latter option may appeal to those who don't care to be reminded to "make it funky," "get gangsta with me," "give me some flava," or Blanks's various other exhortations.) Following a brief explanation of proper breathing technique and a five-minute warm-up, the program offers three ten-minute sequences: hip-hop, country, and Bollywood. Each contains music and moves specific to the respective genre; the hip-hop portion features the "wassup," "lean rock," and "patty cake in the 'hood," among others, while the country section includes the "cowpoke" and other hands-on-the-belt-buckle-type steps, and the "bollyrock," "bollywave," and others can be found in the third and final part (a "custom workout option" enables users to sequence them in any order), with a two-minute, calorie-burning "cardio burst" at the end of each one. Blanks does a fine job of showing a move, repeating it, then gradually adding more steps before combining them all in one extended sequence. One need not be especially coordinated to handle all of this, although it helps; and while mastering the moves may not land you in a Madonna video (which can be found on Blanks Jr.'s résumé), Dance with Me Cardio Fit will assuredly put some fun into your fitness. --Sam Graham