But Don’t Try to Chew Gum Too …

Doing two things at once is never easy for the uncoordinated, but in this week’s DVD, Walk and Box with George Foreman, we can successfully walk and box at the same time.

Full disclosure: this is one of my favorite exercise DVDs. It is a great choice for days when you don’t really feel like making the effort to work out. George Foreman and his exercisers are infectious and I end up doing more than I thought I would.

Are the production values unapologetically low-budget? Yes. Are some of the exercisers in the video people that you might not care to see in short-shorts and tank tops? Sure. Is instructor Petra Kolber, genuinely or not, awkwardly starstruck by George Foreman? Absolutely. Does George Foreman spout so many corny, and frequently nonsensical, aphorisms that you start to wonder just how many times he’s been hit in the head? You betcha!

But the fact is, this workout is plain old fun. In fact, I’m adding a new tag to the blog just for this situation, called “Silly Fun Workouts”.

The 7-minute warmup is a little rough, with the camera zooming in on Foreman and his pithy sayings to the point where you can’t hear or see what you are supposed to be doing. It’s just a warmup though, so I figure as long as I’m moving around, I’m on track.

Once the warmup is over, the workout becomes somewhat easier to follow. The general format of the workout includes segments of 5-6 minutes each that introduce a boxing move, alternated with 1-minute segments of high intensity movement called ‘boxing bursts’. It’s basically interval training, but in a very accessible package.

The main workout has four of these instructional boxing move segments: the jab, the hook, the bob & weave, and the uppercut. In each segment, Foreman first demonstrates the ‘real boxing’ way to do the move, then instructor Petra Kolber demonstrates the ‘fitness version’ of the move.

The thing that is great about these segments is that you really do spend 5-6 minutes mastering each of the moves. Everything is broken down to the point where you can’t help but get it right.

Each of the segments starts out with getting your feet in the right position for that kind of punch. Then you add the hip movement for that kind of punch, then add the shoulder movement to the feet and hips. By that time, you’re practically doing the punch anyways, so it’s easy to add the arm movement and complete the move.

Throughout this process, you are going through several repetitions of the move (or partial move) that you’re doing, so you are continuing to keep your heart rate up. The 1-minute boxing bursts help too.

After you learn the four basic boxing moves, you put them all together and run through a sequence of the four moves a few times. Finally, the workout wraps up with a short cooldown.

The workout runs for 43 minutes, but it really flies by. With most workouts of this length, I’m so mentally tired from trying to keep up with the choreography that I rarely make it through the entire workout, but that’s not the case here.

Let’s face it, this workout is not that complicated. There are four moves. Four. As long as you don’t try to chew gum at the same time, you should be fine.