Fit and Firm

This is an intense 60-minute total body strength routine that uses dumbbells and ankle weights. The backdrop is a beach setting and Cathe has 5 exercisers, one of whom is her sister.

After a long, thorough warm-up, standing upper body work is first. The tempo is faster than Maximum Intensity Strength - more like the Firm or Body Max. Cathe uses a variety of exercises in addition to pyramiding the weight up and down, so my arms felt like rubber after this segment.

The second segment uses the step and leg weights (you can easily choose to stay on the floor) to work the hamstrings, quads and outer thighs. Balance work is included as well as some compound exercises like overhead shoulder presses while doing outer thigh extensions. Cathe uses the heaviest weights of the workout for the upright rows and finishes off with tricep dips and overhead upright tricep extensions.

The third segment is great, tough classic floorwork for the chest, inner/outer thighs, glutes and abs. The tempo changes and the fact that she does all the leg work on the right leg before switching to the left really adds to the intensity. Cathe concludes with a short stretch.

As usual, Cathe gives a lot of form pointers throughout all the exercises.

I have this video for many years and still feel the upper body is extraordinary. You can use 10 lb. dumbells for this workout. You progress gradually from light to heavy for the same exercise (pyramid, I believe). The upper body is nearly 1/2 hour. She then does lower body with an ankle weight on the step and I find I am too wobbly so I skip this part and do the floor leg work which I love. It's a great tape from Cathe - I don't know if it's still available. It is quite long covering the entire body, including a nice ab section. If you skip the short middle section, and do the rest of the tape, it's a great total body workout.