Cross Train Express: Step & Intervals

The DVD:

This is Cross Train Express Disc 1, which is a double density disc. On it are Power Circuit, 10•10•10, Step & Intervals, and All Step. All 4 workouts have the options of PLAY and CHAPTERS. No premixes are provided. The chapters for Step & Intervals are Warm-Up, Step Aerobics, Intervals, Chest, and Stretch. Hitting PLAY for any of the 4 workouts takes you to the same introduction for the CTX series, but if you hit CHAPTERS and select Warm-Up, it will continue to play through the entire workout from there.

The Set:

This is the sandstone arches set, which is light and spacious.

The Team:

With Cathe are Rhonda, Hope, Andrea, Brenda, and Lisa. The colour theme is black and purple. Four are in long bell-leg pants, Rhonda, Brenda, & Cathe in black, Andrea in purple. Hope and Lisa are in black stretchy shorts. ALL wear purple crop tops except Andrea in black. All but Hope are on a 6" step.

Equipment:

Step, barbell (~30lb), handweights (~10lb)

Breakdown:

(44:59) Total Duration

(8:29) Warmup

(31:02) Workout

_____(20:52) Cardio

__________(10:09) Step Aerobics

__________(10:43) Intervals

_____(10:10) Chest

__________(4:41) Bench Press

__________(0:53) Chest Flys

__________(0:32) Bench Press

__________(1:05) Press / Fly Combo

__________(2:38) Pushups

__________(0:21) Stretch

(5:28) Stretch

Me: 59, intermediate, 4'10" so step height really matters, enjoy (and 'get'I complex choreography. Usually match weights with the vid, or a smidgen heavier.

Review:

This is a great workout to mix in a rotation. The Step Aerobics part isn't tough and by 2022, all the moves are very familiar. You could increase the intensity by using an 8" step if just 10min of standard step work doesn't work for you. The intervals pack in the punch to make only 20min of cardio more effectively improve your fitness but they're not horrific - and there are only 3 intervals of step-blast-recover that became the pattern for her Interval Max workouts. Since this was released, much more scientific evidence has come out that HIIT is really good for us. The chest was thoroughly worked to the point that I could not complete all the pushups at the end on my toes - went to knees. The staggered pushups are tough. Not staggered hands forward/back, but staggered in the timing: half-way down, pause, finish going down, pause, half-way up, pause, finish going back up. I didn't mind, especially, that there were more chest presses with handweights after the barbell work as this was made well before she began introducing incline work. I think of it as a feature of its age. The music felt positive and I've always liked the chimes that feature in the stretches in this series. So for a workout that's 22 years old, it stands up rather well. I'd certainly recommend the sets as a new purchase, particularly as it appears on Cathe's Daily Deal now and then. The duration of 45min reduces the dread and the whole set is great.

People have already broken this one down, so I'm just going to post my impressions. I really liked the cardio portion of workout. The choreography is fun but not too complex, and the intensity is high but not killer. Loved the interval blasts at the end with the plyo jacks and plyo jumps. Cathe is fun and encouraging, reminding us to take it low if we need to, and telling us how to modify (even though she doesn't always show how). She doesn't make you feel bad if you have to modify. The chest work, although effective, is boring - chest press, chest fly, pushups. I think they went a little long on the chest presses and not enough on the flyes. Also, the reps are paced a little fast sometimes. I wish there had been more pushups, particularly at the beginning. At the end of a workout, I am too fried in chest to really do well on pushups!

What I Liked

Simple step choreography that is good to do in the morning. Can get a little bit of strength and intense cardio in 45 minutes.

What I Didn't Like

Too many chest presses! Sorry, but chest presses feel the same with a set of dumbbells or a barbell, so she could have substituted another chest exercise for variety.

What You Might Want To Be Aware Of

There is a lot of impact in this workout. Additionally, there are lots of chest presses, so if you have tweaky shoulders, choose your ewight wisely.

Again, I haven't broken down the cardio, just the weights portion. In this one it's the chest.

Cathe starts you off with three pre-exhausting sets of bench presses. She's using a 30# barbell, I sub in a pair of 15# dumbells. She follows this with alternating flies and bench presses using lighter weights, 10# dumbells. Then of course, pushups...staggered and singles.

I usually feel this one the next day. Cathe reminds you constantly to watch your form, esp. with the bench presses.

This video of the Cross Train 6-pack includes a chest workout as well as a 30-minute high-intensity step workout. The first part of the step workout is a "regular" step routine, and the second half is intervals. I enjoy doing it, but if you don't like Power 3's, 7's, and 15's, you might not care for this -- there are a lot of Power X's. That's the downside. The upside is that you'll get a great cardio workout in a short amount of time. Nothing very innovative; just good old-fashioned intense work. The chest workout is nothing to write home about. I find it a little on the boring side, but it's not so bad that I want to skip it. You do LOTS of barbell presses, then some chest flyes and pushups. There is no ab work in this tape. I think I would like the tape better if some of the barbell presses were omitted and some plank work thrown in instead. (Love those planks!) The full workout clocks in at only 45 minutes, and you'll have no doubt that you worked! While this is not a favorite of mine in the series, it's still good. Grade A-.

This is my favorite of the CTX series. It includes most of my favorite Cathe step choreography, such as rhythmic Ls, L-step/shuffle up, a new step-kick/mambo back/cha-cha front move that's really fun, and a reverse scoop on the board. The very first song is so uplifting and fun to work out to. Even though the same music is used in most of the other CTX videos, I think this choreography fits it best.

The step choreography is fun -- complex as usual, but the 3 step intervals at the end of the cardio portion really give this workout an extra kick. Of course, there are plenty of plyojacks and plyojumps in interval #1!

The chest work is very thorough, although I think the reps are paced too fast at times, particularly during the first warm-up set of chest presses. Cathe uses several rep variations -- 2 counts down, 2 counts up; 3 counts down, 1 count up; 4 counts down, 4 counts up; etc. The staggered pushups at the end are very tough!

One thing I miss in this video is a very thorough hip flexor stretch at the end. Cathe includes plenty of stretching for the hamstrings and glutes, but I could really use a good hip flexor stretch after a step workout like this.

This video contains my favorite cardio of all the CTX series, probably because it is almost pure step with a nice mix of new choreography, beloved old choreography and 3 tough intervals. Also, I believe Step & Intervals includes the toughest upper body strength work (chest) of the series.

The cardio is all on the step, where Cathe really excels as an instructor. There's a nice warm-up routine, including the rocking horse/triple shuffles around the step move from Step Fit and a new move where you do reverse scoops on the step in an L. Then a stretch and Cathe comes back and teaches 3 different step combos. The step speed is comparable to Power Max, so it feels almost relaxed -- until you hit an interval, of course. The choreography includes lots of old favorites put together a little bit differently so they feel fresh. There's a new move called a hesitation repeater, where you are doing insoles around the world and on the 3rd corner, you hold the insole up in the air for 3 counts before doubletiming down to the floor. My favorite new move is a knee up, step back and mambo back with a chacha forward that's a kick. There are 3 separate step combos -- you learn them all the way through, then do an interval, then learn a whole new step combo. So there's no taking it from the top or splicing here. Variety is the name of the game. The intervals are tough: I don't remember them all, but I'm sure there's a plyojack interval and one with lots of power 7s and 15s. Cathe makes every minute count.

The chest work is about 10 minutes long and very tough. The music changes from a James Bondish-type soundtrack used during the cardio to some really nice guitar instrumentals. There are 3 long sets of barbell chest presses with lots of changing tempos; a couple of supersets with presses and pec flyes and 2 very difficult sets of push-ups, including these "staggered" push-ups where you go down for 4 slow counts and back up for 4 slow counts. One staggered push-up feels as if you've done 400 single push-ups. My workout log book simply says, "Owie!" There's no ab work on this one and the cooldown is wonderful: nice long stretches, beautiful music.

This is a great workout: varied, intense and versatile. I like how Cathe structured the tapes in this series so that it's practically painless to combine sections of the different videos. Well … I take that back. I was feeling some pain during those staggered push-ups.