Boot Camp

I am a very advanced exerciser who has just left her 10 year exercise "routine" and decided to try videos. Cathe's bootcamp has to be about the 10th new one that I've tried. I'm very advanced and I will say, this workout IS NOT KILLER, but it's not bad either. I worked up a sweat and you will too for sure. She does some cool stuff (to me besides intensity, the "cool stuff" is what really makes a work out.) She does heavy duty planks, pushups and this crazy move called terminator climb thrust (or something to that effect); and it is HARD. She does some kickboxing. The whole video is done in cycles, cardio - lower body, upper body. There are eight cycles. This is a workout for a day when you want to work hard but not kill yourself. Enjoy!!!

WOW! What a workout. I am a Cathe fanatic who was hesitant to try this one because it seemed so tough, but after I got it for Christmas, I had no excuses! I am so glad I got this one! I really like everything about this one. It's tough, but it flies by since you're always moving onto something else in just a minute. I had lots of fun and sweat my butt off. TRY this! You'll love it.

Bootcamp is an interval and circuit style workout, clocking in I believe in just under an hour. There are eight rounds, alternating one minute of very high intensity cardio with lower body work, then upper body, then core. Cathe and the crew used barbells loaded to 35 lbs. There were two guys exercising as well and they went heavier. I don't own a barbell set so I used body bars, adding ankle weights to make them heavier. I'd read that some people do this, but for me in the future I will not. It felt very awkward and even perilous at times for me when trying to remove the bar w/ankle weights after an exercise. If I start to use my Cathe videos on a more regular basis I think I'd invest in a barbell set. Body Bars are a lot thicker then barbells and while I like them, I think a barbell set would be more efficient for a fast paced workouts such as Bootcamp, plus the barbell bar is a much narrower and I'm thinking more comfortable grip.

The fact that each cardio interval is only a minute long is what got me through them. I found them to be very intense and during a few of them I slowed down to a march in place before they were finished. The strength segments were all doable for me, the hardest being the core work, and I rested a few times during some of it.

Overall I think this was a fun and challenging workout and certainly one for me to grow into.

I love this workout. After a fun and effective warmup, you do 8 cycles consisting of 1 min cardio, 1 min leg work, 1 min upper body work, 1 minute core. At the end is a stretch.

Cathe includes kickboxing style moves in this workout, and while I wasn't a fan of her full length kickboxing workout (I'm a powerstrike fan), I enjoy the moves in this context. I think she executes them well.

Her background exercisers are phenomenal - they are cut, and can keep up with her. Very motivating to see a variety of 'body types' behind her at peak condition.

I recommend this highly and give it an A+.

This is probably my favorite workout from the Intensities series. Although it is hard to classify this workout (cardio? strength?) I think it's a great way to improve your overall fitness and endurance. From the start, the inspiring music gets you going. I love the way the structures are cycled; because each segment is only one minute, I can push myself harder. The workout goes by very quickly because of the constant changes. I love how Cathe incorporates kickboxing into the cardio and leg segments. The core work is very creative and challenging.

I haven't tried the DVD premixes, but I did try the bonus combo with Muscle Endurance and didn't really care for it (too much leg work for me, and it skips some of my favorite segments from both workouts)
A+

Boot Camp is a tough workout, but very fun, too. It is advanced, but can most certainly be modified. I put off doing this one for quite a while, thinking I wouldn't be able to do it because of the impact and intensity level, but I was wrong to do so. I can do this one, and if I can, so can you! Format: warmup, then 8 cycles of : 1 minute intense cardio/ 1 minute lower body work/ 1 minute upper body work/ 1 minute core. The cardio sections include such moves as a jack sequence (including some plyos), sumo squats, ice skater moves, etc. These are intense, but modify and you won't throw up! The lower body work has some barbell work (squats and lunges) and some unweighted kickbox work. Upper body uses medium weights to do one or two moves over and over for the whole minute. Core work is variations of planks, and tough medicine ball work. Cathe is extremely motivating in this workout, and that's what helps get you through! It isn't Cedie's yelling and hooting that helps--that's just there to annoy me! It can be ignored or enjoyed, depending on your mood :-) Although torturous to watch, I have really enjoyed doing this workout. I really feel like I have accomplished something TOUGH, and I feel strong and healthy and elated when I'm done!

This workout is very different than anything I've ever tried. The warm up gets you pumping fast with windmills, leg raises, kickbox moves, etc. Then you're onto your 8 cycles. They consist of 1 minute each of: Cardio, Lower Body, Upper Body, and Core work. The cardio segments are doozies - much like the blast segments of either Imax. The lower body work is standard Cathe - low ends, squats, leg presses, lunges, etc. The upperbody work is done with fairly light weight (8# db in most cases) but you are doing hammer curls, overhead presses, flies, for 1 minute, so after awhile, the muscles will feel it. And when I reached the core work, I thought, 'phew - a chance to relax.' Hah! Cathe works the abs and low back like no other. These are tough minutes! The body has to keep changing focus and I think that was another challenging aspect of this workout. You're done in about 53 min., but you are very tired and sweaty after those 53 min. If you have the DVD, you also get the option of doing 'everything but the core work' and then doing all of the core work back to back. This is a fabulous DVD and comes highly recommended from yours truly!

Wow! What a great workout! I really love this one. I have just recently been getting into Cathe's workouts (I prefer strength workouts) and prior to this one, my favorite was Power Hour.

I like this workout better than Power Hour for the following reason. Both are really intense workouts but the way this workout is broken up into 8 "cycles" of:

1 minute cardio
1 minute lower body
1 minute upper body
1 minute abs

Makes it more do-able. Sure, each 1 minute segment is really tough, but since each segment is only 1 minute long, you know that it will be over soon and you'll be on to a totally different body part.

Her cardio segments are VERY tough (in my opinion) with intense moves like jumping jacks which really wore me out in 10 seconds. A couple of the exercises on this tape were impossible for me to do....most notably the planks where she jumps in and out. I can't do them to save my life, so I simply did a different exercise instead.

I am an advanced exerciser (working out 5-6 days a week for over a year), although about 20-30 pounds overweight, so I think the extra weight made some of moves more difficult.

In smmary, this is a great total body strength workout with some cardio sprinkled in - in my opinion....just enough cardio.

OK, I am a Cathe F. fan, so I may be a little biased, but I LOVED this video. It really moved quickly through eight cycles each one-minute. One minute cardio, legs, arms, and abs (but lots of core, ugh). I felt it was tough, but I am also about two months pregnant (I am usually advanced). The music was great - some vocal, techno. I didn't recognize the songs, but it didn't matter - it worked well with the music.

The warm up was pretty easy but it worked all the muscle groups I felt - some lunges.

I don't remember the order of the cycles, but I do remember some of the stuff I did. For cardio I did jumping jacks (fly jacks), power kicks, jumping jacks and punches, ice breakers, speed skating, and one thing called the terminator (oh, that's intense, trust me). The terminator is hard to describe. You are standing up, then bend down (knees bent) then jump into a plank (I think), do scissors in the plank position, jump into bent knee position, and then jump up. Hard.

The legwork incorporated the barbell, weights, ball, and no ball. I did static lunges, dips and lunges, squats, plie squats, plie squats with the ball, power kicks, step downs using the step.

The arm work included bicep curls with the barbell, hammer curls, military presses, lat work, back work with the barbell, tricep dips, more tricep work, pushups.

The core work was the hardest for me. It used the ball a lot. I don't remember a lot of it (I was too focused on how hard it was). Here is what I remember: planks (straight arm and bent arm), planks on the side, planks on the side using a ball, crunches lower and upper putting the ball in between your legs, and lots more.

In any case, I really enjoyed the workout. There is a little bit of whooping in this video - but it didn't bother me too much.