I love it. It's fun. Which is very important.
And, I'm a beginner. I started a few months ago with StepWorks and StepFit and enjoy those to.
But, there are several caveats:
I'm only looking for 20 minutes of aerobics at a time.
Since I don't have a television, and thus, no vcr, I need to use the dvd format on a small notebook computer. This lets one easily select different chapters. Typically, any two chapters yield 20+ minutes of any sweat-level that I wish to reach.
On most of the videos, there are some chapters that I never do, now. But, who cares? The dvd format lets you select among the chapters equally, and this is where the fun-factor gets a chance to assert itself. I'll get to those other chapters in 6 months, or a year, or so, when looking for something new.
When using RS, I usually do just the warm-up and first step section, for a 20 minute workout. When I'm in the mood for something extra, I'll try part of some of the other step sections, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for most of the workout. If they start to drive me crazy, I just switch to the warm-up or first step section, and have some fun. Give me that rhythmic-L any day. And, to think that a few months ago, I couldn't even do a tap-switch for a basic.
The videos share some of the complex steps, helping to reduce the learning effort. For SF and SW, I tend to not modify, probably because they were my first videos, and I didn't really no how to modify, easily. For RS, I tend to modify a lot, which helps the enjoyment more. Sometimes, I let them do their thing, and just practice different steps. The step-knee tap-out takes a little getting used to.
I think the hard parts on the later sections are where the parts of the step combinations are only two beats long, and they come at you fast. Sometimes it helps to just watch their feet, and forget all the rest, i.e. if you can get the steps right, the upper body just comes along naturally.
There's music? I'm too busy counting, and trying not to miss the step, to notice. (You'll never see this puppie doing a pivot-repeater.)
tk