Don't Shed Your Sports Bra

Author's Rating:

Pros: Fun, flirty dance workout

Cons: Not very demanding

The Bottom Line: 
This is a fun break from your usual workout, but not great for a primary conditioning aerobic workout (nor a lesson in the art of the strip!)

Author's Review
CARMEN ELECTRA'S AEROBIC STRIPTEASE is the first in a series of low impact physical fitness techniques combined with dance. Others in the series include disc two: Fit to Strip, disc three: Advanced Aerobic Striptease, and disc 4 & 5: Lap Dance & Hip Hop. (May be purchased in a 5 volume set or separately).

Disc One is supposed to be an introduction to the basics of striptease, but might more aptly be described as a body conditioning workout that specifically concentrates on toning the abs, hips, thighs and buns, but done in a stripper 'style' dance routine.

After a comprehensive "dancer's warm-up", that combines the elements of several dance styles, Carmen and friends (Ashley and Stacy) lead routines using a few stripper staples (head and shoulder rolls, hip bumps, thrusts, floor work) set to music.
Each is done in two parts: instruction and run though, so that once you are comfortable with the moves you can skip ahead and just do the run throughs to music and save a lot of time.


I actually really like this workout a lot. Special attention is given to the importance of the warmup, the routines are simple and easy to follow, and it's fun- especially when compared with other workouts. (Just between us, you might even feel kind of sexy when you do it.)

Recommending the Aerobic Striptease, however, has to depend on what an individual is looking for. From an exercise perspective, in spite of the time it takes, the Aerobic Striptease is just not very demanding. It just doesn't feel like it gets my heart rate up enough to be doing a whole lot of good. Fun, yes, but in spite of enjoying the workout itself, I don't recommend this one as an comprehensive workout. It is, however, a nice change of pace that works great as an occasional break from your usual routine.

As for the 'striptease' in the title, anyone purchasing this disc will be disappointed if they expect to get alot of inside pointers here. Sexy, yes. It's Carmen Electra (she could make clog dancing look sexy), but other than some very basic moves, there is really very little 'striptease' going on here.

Electra instructs, "touch your butt and smack it," at one point, and during another routine she suggests the moves be done with your finger in your mouth (which, by the way just feels weird), but that's about it. There is no strip, and the tease is all in the execution. Thoughout, you are simply encouraged to put your own personality into the dance because, "the secret to sexy is you".

Included excerpts from later tapes in this series imply much more in depth instruction (read: more provocative), but this one just doesn't really go there. Discs three and four (Advanced Striptease and Lapdance) look far more exlanatory, but if learning to strip like a pro is really your goal, you might do better by just going to a nice club and sitting up close to the front...

Total run time : 53 minutes
Extras: Music selection, interview, photo gallery