This tape is (in my opinion) one of, if not the easiest of the advanced tapes. I think this is so, mainly because Billy breaks up the aerobic parts of the tape by putting the floorwork in the middle. It also seems that he doesn't do as many sets in a row as he does on other advanced tapes, and there is a fair amount of walk it out time involved. The warm up and cool down on this video seem to be sufficient in comparison to some other tapes that either lack one, or the other, or just cut them a bit short. This is really a great starting video for someone who is making the change from live basic tapes, to advanced tapes. This tape, or the original studio advanced tape, are both hour long videos, with enough walk it out time to keep you going. The other thing about this tape that makes it a bit easier is the length - it's about 52 minutes; most other advanced tapes make it to 57 or 60 minutes. I was hesitant to give this video the "easy" symbol above, because I don't really find any of the hour videos particularly easy, but in comparison to others, this one is quite easy. The floorwork here focuses more on abs and butt areas, and the ab work is nothing to laugh at - however, for some reason, I find the floorwork in the original studio advanced a bit more of a challenge in the leg/butt area. Of course, it could be that I'm better at ab work due to using the "8 minute abs" tape for the past few months. As boring as that video is, it really does help your abs.

Well, let's get started on this video here. Billy starts by telling you he's going to warm you up from your toes on up. He does mean this. This tape has one of the better warm ups in the series. First, you'll start out by going into a 'lunge' stance, and pressing the back of your heel down to the floor, and then lifting it up. This helps you stretch your hamstring muscles. You'll do this on both sides, for a few sets each. Then you will stand facing front, and do some toe raises, up and then down, for a few sets. After this, you move into some various light punching combinations: 1 hand speed bag, 3 jabs + punch (alternating sides) and some side to side punching. Now the tape moves into a new variation of speed bag work. For this one, you hold your left arm up in a speedbag position, but you do not circle or move it. You take your right arm, and rotate it around the left arm, in speed bag fashion. You do this on each arm (left and right) facing to the right, and then you do 2 arm speedbag with both arms moving. Time for some more speed bag combos - Billy takes you into a 3 speedbag + punch combo, alternating sides, first slowly, then double time.

Now that the warm up is pretty much over, Billy takes you through a new move - "circle jabs". Basically, what you do is stand in fighting stance facing front, then jab with your right arm in front of you, now rotate a quarter, jab again, rotate your body around some more, jab again, and one more time till you've basically made a circle with about 4 rotation/punch combos. You do this slowly for 2 sets, then you do it double time, increasing it to 2 jabs per rotation. Hopefully now you're not dizzy, because it's time for some squat/punch combos. This is the one where you squat, punch down with your right, then release your squat position (coming up) and punch up with your right arm. You will do this move slowly first, then double time, on each side. Next is a 3 punch combo done with some great upbeat music in the background. He really works the double time on this one, you don't just do 2 sets... you do several! Following this is another new move (at least it was for me) where you do a combination of jabs and uppercuts. It basically works like this. You face right in a fighting stance (right horse stance) and then you do a jab, uppercut, jab, uppercut, jab, uppercut, jab, uppercut while moving to the right (all done with the right arm). Then you turn to the left, and do the same moving to the left with your left arm. Slowly at first, then double time! These are alot of fun! After a breather, you move into a 3 punch knee raise combination (where you are punching to the front and alternating raising your left knee, then your right). and then Billy slows it down, and takes it to the floor work. At this point, you are about 20 minutes or so into the video. He puts the floorwork RIGHT in the middle this time. Interesting.

It's floorwork time. This floorwork can really be considered a "gut buster" segment. You start off with all kinds of ab work, and for the 10 minutes or so that you are working your abs, Billy does NOT let you let out your abs once! When you are done doing a set of crunches, you're resting time is spent "holding it in" before moving to the next set of crunches. You will really feel these as you work. After a good bit of ab work, you turn over and start on some great but work. leg lifts, and a lot of holding it up for 2-3 sets of 8 counts will get your butt burning. Most of the butt work here is nothing new, just in a different order, but for longer, and again, you end up holding your leg up or out between most moves. You really feel a burning in this floorwork.

Okay, floorwork being done, you have still about 15-20 minutes of tape left, so it's time for some kicking. You start out with low/high roundhouse kicks - one kick low, then one kick high. You do get to touch your toe to the floor in between these. Then after you do low/high kicks where you don't touch in between. Both sides get this workout. After this, it's time to get that heart rate back up, and you will do some "can-can" kicks (as I call them) You basically are doing a knee raise, front kick on one side, then a hop and a knee raise front kick on the other side. You do this pretty quickly for about 3-4 sets. This one gets you winded! Next it's time for some front kick-back kick work, then a 2 knee raise, roundhouse left, roundhouse right combination. Well, that's about the rest of the aerobic parts - so it's on to the cool down.

The cool down is kind of fun - Billy starts you out in a horse stance, from where you practice a "karate kid" move - Wax-on, Wax-off. He has you doing this for awhile, to work your shoulders and arms. Then he moves into a new Tai Chi type move, hard to describe, but it basically looks like a slow motion punch. Then you do some more typical Tae Chi moves, and Billy finishes you off with one more "karate kid" type balance move. You stand on your left leg, with your right knee raised, and your arms up, then you extend your right knee as high as you can, hold for an 8 count, and then put it down. You do this on the other side, and that's it! The workout's done.

Some the usuals are in this video - Shellie, Debi, - but you know, I didn't notice if Irene was in this, and I did not see Jasmine. Of course, I could be wrong - I don't usually watch to see who's in the video, I'm too busy trying to focus on the moves! Of course, I do notice that Billy is always there (LOL!).

The music is very good in this video - most of it is good upbeat stuff, there is only a little bit of that 'studio' music that we so hate.

Songs like "Shake Your Groove Thing" by Peaches & Herb, "Let the Beat Control Your Body" by 2 Unlimited, "Move on Up" by Curtis Mayfield, and 2 others - "True That" and "Shame" (not sure who those are by - it was hard to read the credits). You know, if Billy did a tape and used K C & the Sunshine Band's songs for the whole video, it would ROCK! Or, heck I'd LUVE to hear "Brick House" by the Commodores in a video. Man, I'd be going nonstop! When the music's good, you just can't stop! This is one of my favorite music tapes, besides AL2 & 1.