Low Impact Series: Athletic Training

Intensity: High Intermediate

Length: 56 minutes

Premixes:

1. Express

2. Leg Cardio Express

3. Upper Body Express

4. Athletic Step Extreme

Background exercisers: Cedie, Jai, Brenda and the new girl, can't remember her name. The cameramen like her a lot in this series. ;^)

Set: Nice brightly lit set with cute black and green outfits.

Grade: A

I don't do this one often because it is hard to categorize. Certainly it's straightforward cardio for the first section (step) but after that it is a mix of cardio and weights because you are constantly moving while you are lifting. I personally like this style of working out, but I never really feel as if I have done a "strength day". There is fun band work for legs at the end using the firewalker bands.

I have never done the premixes as they don't really appeal to me. What would have been nice was a circuit workout premix to sort of break up all the step stuff. Unfortunately, the step segment is one big chapter so I can't even do it manually. :^(

Overall this is a fun workout that is intense but without a huge dread factor. I will try to work it in every other week or so.

This is a 56 minute dvd that offers plenty of premixes & is chaptered very well. Cathe works out with 4 exercisers in a nice open set. You will need a step, dumbbells, tubing, loop band, and gliding discs for this workout. Cathe takes you through a warump, a short step routine, and then strength work- much of which wil keep your heart rate up.

After a w/u exercises include: bench knee pulls, straddle & touch step, repeater knees, touch step -knee up, front swings, hip abduction off step & arm swing, shoulder tap pushups, disc dips & bi curl, band & dumbbell curl, tri dips w/ 1 leg disc slides, lying tricep work, standing loop donkey kicks, deadlift variations, seated band delt fly, crunches, reverse crunches, plank knee drops & concludes with a c/d & stretch.

I rate this is a high intermediate/ low advanced workout- it is simple choreo but nonstop heartpumping cardio and strength work. The first portion of the strength kept my heart pounding. This is a lighter/ medium poundage workout that moves at a fast pace but is not high rep. I really love the low impact but high intensity & simple but not boring choreo- this is definitely a unique, fun & effective video. I look forward to more from this series! I received this video to review.

About me- Intermediate exerciser, I have done mostly split heavy weights/cardio in the past I have been trying out more circuit type workouts and high reps training

Review-

I quite like Athletic Training, the step drills part in the beginning are not that interesting, but they really work the legs and because the moves are simple, you can really concentrate on your form and keeping low, I also only use 2 risers on my step compared to Cathe's 3 and this is quite a cardio workout for me. After the step drills she moves on to 4 limb type moves using the step and an eight lb weight, for me these weights seem more like they are there for additional cardio rather than any toning, but the section is short and fun, and the balance aspect is nice, it reminds me of a Jillian Michaels type workout in this section. You then move on to doing more traditional type weight moves, by the time I got to biceps my heart rate was back down, but I dont think I could have made it through the rest of the workout if the rest was as hard as the first part. cathe also has a great leg toning section using the firewalker band, which I really enjoy and find really effective as well as working the back using resistance tubing, which I also liked.

currently I am using this workout once a week along with high reps twice a week and cardio, it does have somewhat of a dread factor for me due to the first 10min or so of the step drills, but the rest of it flies by, I would not suggest this as your only weight work for the week, but I can see myself using it for quite a while, it is easy to modify by lowering your step height, or not adding the balance challenge. I also really like the fact that there are not tons of squats, lunges or pushups, and no mountain climbers or burpees. I think this was the first cathe workout I could do all the pushups in the workouts without collapsing:)