Drill Max

Length: 75 minutes

Equipment: Step, Stability ball, 3 sets of dumbbells (3,5,10), band

Format:

9 minute warm-up

6 Circuits of:

~ Cardio (2-5 minutes long)

~ Lower Body (mostly light weight and keeps the cardio effect going)

~ Upper Body (2-3 exercises targeting upper body only)

Cool Down Stretch

I really like most of this workout. It is a nice endurance, functional fitness, circuit workout that will keep your heart rate up more than Cathe’s normal weight work. The circuit format really makes this LONG workout fly by.

Cardio: I wasn’t sure if I would like these sections because the drills are long and I was afraid that they would be too high impact. But, although they include plyos and high intensity moves, these are not killer drills. They are choreographed to small degree and include a good mix of higher and lower impact moves. So, while I don’t love jumping jacks, the combination of some step moves with jumping jacks makes the cardio drills more fun. The only drill I really don’t like are the football drills at the end. They are easily skipped, though, and since this workout is long, there is no guilt with skipping!

Lower Body There is nothing heavy in here, but it feels effective. The nice thing is that it really does help keep your heart rate up after the cardio. Actually, sometimes my heart rate is higher with the lower body sections than the cardio. (Most definitely when we are doing the squat thrusts.) You use a stability ball for some of the work, and you will also work your inner and outer thighs a bit which I appreciate in a workout like this.

Upper Body: These sections are excellent. Again, there is very little heavy work in here, but she targets your little muscles in the shoulders and back with lots of functional fitness moves, like the T-I exercises on the ball. There are fun push-up exercises like the Core Pushups, Plank pushups with weights and Dive Bomber pushups.

There is no specific core/abs section in this workout, but you will definitely get some core work in here with the pushups and all the functional moves.

I think this is a very fun workout, and it is easy to break up into shorter versions (i.e. no cardio, upper body only). It may use more equipment than some want to use, but because you are not using a lot of different weights, it doesn’t seem too bad to me.

I just finished doing Drill Max for the first time and me, being an advanced exerciser who has been doing videos for over 20 years and has had plenty of experience in the gym, on the track, etc., etc., I can honestly say, it was one of the best. It is varied, had my heart rate up for 75% of the workout, could be a killer but doesn't have to be - it all depends on you, and pretty much guarantees a good workout. Simple but effective choreography and exercises, some burners, some anaerobic, some challenging, some easier, oh, and I forgot to mention, 18000 kinds of push-ups - off the ball which I've never done before (I fell off at least 5 times!!) bomb diver pushups with your rear up in the air; plank push-ups and I'm sure I left one or two out. This workout challenged me but didn't kill me and sometimes, that's what I need. It'll be a long time before I can do those push-ups without falling on my face!!! My only complaint was no abs, but you can always add on!!

Drill Max is a few new video from Cathe, clocking in a little over an hour. She starts you off with a fun warm up and then kicks up the intensity in the warm up. After that there are 6 drills which include cardio, a leg cardio section and upper body. Cathe uses 5 and 10 pound weights, a mat and a stability ball. There is a lot of variety in this workout. The drills move quickly and are somewhat challenging and get your heartrate up. The weight work is cardio based so your heart rate is elevated for most of the workout. The music is awesome - as is all the new music in her new series. Drill Max isnt the hardest she has put out, but its very fun and has a ton of variety. Definately a keeper on days where I want variety.