I hate to run. There I said it. If I‘m playing a sport, I‘m cool with running, but I’d rather poke my eye out than go for a run. Still, I love cardio. Other forms of working out like strength training, yoga or pilates are important and necessary in any fitness routine, but cardio is what I’ve heard some call the “icing on the cake” because it’s a big time calorie burner. And while I will go for a run on a rare occasion, I prefer to find other ways to burn calories.

Like I’ve said before, I’m a work out DVD kinda girl. But, I have also have a problem when it comes to most cardio DVDs. I get bored with them. The boredom may derive from different sources, too. It could be because the music sucks or the work out being too short or not challenging enough for me. Sometimes it’s because I’d really like to punch the trainer or the background people (ok, background people annoy me more). I can do these DVDs, but I have to space them out and really mix things up so I don’t throw my water bottle at the TV. So, when I got the chance to try out Turbo Jam’s Cardio Party Mix 1 a few months back, I was a bit excited but expected more of the same. I’d enjoy it at first, then I’d be annoyed.

And I was wrong. This is my favorite of all of my cardio work outs. For 40+ minutes you punch, kick, and dance(man, do I get down in my living room. Kidding. Sort of). The trainer, Chalene Johnson has broken the work out into segments (notice a pattern here?). You start out with a warm-up, then there are 3 segments broken down into 5+ minutes. By then end of these segments, you should have a nice sweat started. Then comes this little thing she calls Turbo. It’s 2 minutes of kicking your tail. By the end of Turbo, my water bottle is my best friend. Oh, but wait-you’re not done. There’s the recovery period, then the finale and finally, the cool down. Before you know it, the 40 minutes is up and you are soaked(well I am anyway). It’s the fastest 40 minutes of my day.

I’ve done this work out dozens of times, and I’m not at all bored with it. Chalene say’s “if exercise isn’t fun, you won’t do it”. And isn’t that so true? How many times have you sat and dreaded your work out because it just isn’t fun anymore? Well, this one is a lot of fun. Chalene is upbeat but not annoying, the music is decent, and the background people crack me up. I haven’t once had the desire to hit any of them.