Re: Cathe High Step Training

[Guest guest]

Cool! Great job, ! Great workout, and good luck with the sleepover. :)I forgot that I had this one. I had done High Step Challenge, and gave it away, but forgot that I owned High Step Training, and haven't even done it. This looks really great. 

This prompted me to reorganize my DVDS, which also got me excited about revisiting all my Cathe workouts after I finish my current rotations. I also had forgotten that I have a number of Cathe cardio-only workouts. I hadn't been reaching for these when I was training for cycling events. I don't have any events planned, so I'm going to start incorporating these.

 

Wow! This was awesome and tough! Besides the warm-up and stretch there's 5 cycles to this circuit workout. Each cycle starts with anaerobic cardio. Cathe & crew do it on 8 " steps and I did the first 2 like that. The first was extremely tough and the 2nd was not only tough but a little confusing too (all the exercises are very athleticbut the rhythm and pattern seemed to escape me possibly because I could hardly breathe and of course I couldn't focus) so I didn't do all of it, just jumped in wherever I could. She shows each one first low impact, then building on impact moves as variations, usually to 3 levels. For the 3rd cycle, I stayed primarily with the first level and it was still hard. For the 4th and 5th cycles I got smart and moved to a 6 " step and found I could do all the moves at the 3rd level, enjoy it and still work extremely hard.

 

After the cardio, in each cycle there are 2 lower body exercises and then upper body work. Every cycle has at least 1 set of 15 leg presses on each leg. The 4th cycle has 2 sets on each leg instead of two different exercises. Between the leg presses and the absolutely killer hover squats, my butt is killing me! I also realized that what the FIRM calls hover squats, the name of which I always wondered about since you don't hover very long in them usually, Cathe calls sit 'n stands. I found those MUCH easier than her version of hover squats. The upper body work focused on a specific muscle group in each cycle. That seemed to work well for me. She had 3 different kinds of push ups (split between 3 cycles): tricep pushups on the tall step (I did these on my knees and not very well), decline pushups with your feet on the step (I did half on my toes and half of my knees) and then cross over pushups on the short step (I can't describe them now but I actually really liked them, did half on my toes and half on my knees). I think I did plenty of push ups today! There were a few creative exercises (like the cross over push ups) but they were well instructed and it was easy to mimic her form. This workout only uses 2 sets of dumbbells (light & heavy, she did 5s and 10s and I did 5s and 3s but found I definitely could have gone heavier for some exercises which was a nice surprise). It is high rep so that's why she went with such low weights. She also uses a pre-loaded 30 lb. barbell but since I didn't have one I mostly used 2 10 lb dumbbells instead, though for some exercises I went to 8s. The only other equipment is the step & risers (or in my case my fanny lifter) so that was nice too. The music was okay, nothing memorable but good enough. There were no core-specific exercises in this workout, but she points out frequently that an exercise is also calling on the core to do a lot of work too. I'm not sure that is " enough " for me in a total body workout but it was okay too I think. I burned close to 400 calories which is extremely unusual for me for an hour long workout (if I go over 250 I've done well normally) but I hardly ever looked at my watch, just glanced at the heart rate a few times after the cardio sections and during the lower body (nothing like doing leg presses when your heart rate is over 160 as you're just starting them). I was totally engrossed in the work and throroughly enjoyed it. I got this in a trade recently and am very thrilled with that transaction!

 

The kids are home from school now and in a few minutes we're going to run some errands and prepare for 's friends' birthday party which is tomorrow... seven for sure but possibly as many as eight 13 year old boys will be sleeping (ha) in my newly transformed basement. I got a 32 " TV and awesome cabinet that it sits on for FREE, a DVD/VCR player for $10, a big overstuffed arm chair for $15 (and found $2 in change in it) and a heavy duty, really nice foosball table cost $50... that's $75 for everything to make it a teen hang out (I want the kids coming back here instead of not knowing what's going on wherever they are). I feel like our bargain hunter Sara!! (Hugs to you wherever you are, Sara!) We're going to pick up snacks, movies and we also have a Wii and plenty of games. Should be a fun night (for them anyway)!

 

[Guest guest]

Thanks ! I'd love to hear about it when you get to it! Kids will be here any minute... I'm taking a very short break, trying to anyway...

Re: Cathe High Step Training

Cool! Great job, ! Great workout, and good luck with the sleepover.

I forgot that I had this one. I had done High Step Challenge, and gave it away, but forgot that I owned High Step Training, and haven't even done it. This looks really great.

This prompted me to reorganize my DVDS, which also got me excited about revisiting all my Cathe workouts after I finish my current rotations. I also had forgotten that I have a number of Cathe cardio-only workouts. I hadn't been reaching for these when I was training for cycling events. I don't have any events planned, so I'm going to start incorporating these.

Wow! This was awesome and tough! Besides the warm-up and stretch there's 5 cycles to this circuit workout. Each cycle starts with anaerobic cardio. Cathe & crew do it on 8" steps and I did the first 2 like that. The first was extremely tough and the 2nd was not only tough but a little confusing too (all the exercises are very athleticbut the rhythm and pattern seemed to escape me possibly because I could hardly breathe and of course I couldn't focus) so I didn't do all of it, just jumped in wherever I could. She shows each one first low impact, then building on impact moves as variations, usually to 3 levels. For the 3rd cycle, I stayed primarily with the first level and it was still hard. For the 4th and 5th cycles I got smart and moved to a 6" step and found I could do all the moves at the 3rd level, enjoy it and still work extremely hard.

After the cardio, in each cycle there are 2 lower body exercises and then upper body work. Every cycle has at least 1 set of 15 leg presses on each leg. The 4th cycle has 2 sets on each leg instead of two different exercises. Between the leg presses and the absolutely killer hover squats, my butt is killing me! I also realized that what the FIRM calls hover squats, the name of which I always wondered about since you don't hover very long in them usually, Cathe calls sit 'n stands. I found those MUCH easier than her version of hover squats. The upper body work focused on a specific muscle group in each cycle. That seemed to work well for me. She had 3 different kinds of push ups (split between 3 cycles): tricep pushups on the tall step (I did these on my knees and not very well), decline pushups with your feet on the step (I did half on my toes and half of my knees) and then cross over pushups on the short step (I can't describe them now but I actually really liked them, did half on my toes and half on my knees). I think I did plenty of push ups today! There were a few creative exercises (like the cross over push ups) but they were well instructed and it was easy to mimic her form. This workout only uses 2 sets of dumbbells (light & heavy, she did 5s and 10s and I did 5s and 3s but found I definitely could have gone heavier for some exercises which was a nice surprise). It is high rep so that's why she went with such low weights. She also uses a pre-loaded 30 lb. barbell but since I didn't have one I mostly used 2 10 lb dumbbells instead, though for some exercises I went to 8s. The only other equipment is the step & risers (or in my case my fanny lifter) so that was nice too. The music was okay, nothing memorable but good enough. There were no core-specific exercises in this workout, but she points out frequently that an exercise is also calling on the core to do a lot of work too. I'm not sure that is "enough" for me in a total body workout but it was okay too I think. I burned close to 400 calories which is extremely unusual for me for an hour long workout (if I go over 250 I've done well normally) but I hardly ever looked at my watch, just glanced at the heart rate a few times after the cardio sections and during the lower body (nothing like doing leg presses when your heart rate is over 160 as you're just starting them). I was totally engrossed in the work and throroughly enjoyed it. I got this in a trade recently and am very thrilled with that transaction!

The kids are home from school now and in a few minutes we're going to run some errands and prepare for 's friends' birthday party which is tomorrow... seven for sure but possibly as many as eight 13 year old boys will be sleeping (ha) in my newly transformed basement. I got a 32" TV and awesome cabinet that it sits on for FREE, a DVD/VCR player for $10, a big overstuffed arm chair for $15 (and found $2 in change in it) and a heavy duty, really nice foosball table cost $50... that's $75 for everything to make it a teen hang out (I want the kids coming back here instead of not knowing what's going on wherever they are). I feel like our bargain hunter Sara!! (Hugs to you wherever you are, Sara!) We're going to pick up snacks, movies and we also have a Wii and plenty of games. Should be a fun night (for them anyway)!

[Guest guest]

Thanks ! I'd love to hear about it when you get to it! Kids will be here any minute... I'm taking a very short break, trying to anyway...

Re: Cathe High Step Training

Cool! Great job, ! Great workout, and good luck with the sleepover.

I forgot that I had this one. I had done High Step Challenge, and gave it away, but forgot that I owned High Step Training, and haven't even done it. This looks really great.

This prompted me to reorganize my DVDS, which also got me excited about revisiting all my Cathe workouts after I finish my current rotations. I also had forgotten that I have a number of Cathe cardio-only workouts. I hadn't been reaching for these when I was training for cycling events. I don't have any events planned, so I'm going to start incorporating these.

Wow! This was awesome and tough! Besides the warm-up and stretch there's 5 cycles to this circuit workout. Each cycle starts with anaerobic cardio. Cathe & crew do it on 8" steps and I did the first 2 like that. The first was extremely tough and the 2nd was not only tough but a little confusing too (all the exercises are very athleticbut the rhythm and pattern seemed to escape me possibly because I could hardly breathe and of course I couldn't focus) so I didn't do all of it, just jumped in wherever I could. She shows each one first low impact, then building on impact moves as variations, usually to 3 levels. For the 3rd cycle, I stayed primarily with the first level and it was still hard. For the 4th and 5th cycles I got smart and moved to a 6" step and found I could do all the moves at the 3rd level, enjoy it and still work extremely hard.

After the cardio, in each cycle there are 2 lower body exercises and then upper body work. Every cycle has at least 1 set of 15 leg presses on each leg. The 4th cycle has 2 sets on each leg instead of two different exercises. Between the leg presses and the absolutely killer hover squats, my butt is killing me! I also realized that what the FIRM calls hover squats, the name of which I always wondered about since you don't hover very long in them usually, Cathe calls sit 'n stands. I found those MUCH easier than her version of hover squats. The upper body work focused on a specific muscle group in each cycle. That seemed to work well for me. She had 3 different kinds of push ups (split between 3 cycles): tricep pushups on the tall step (I did these on my knees and not very well), decline pushups with your feet on the step (I did half on my toes and half of my knees) and then cross over pushups on the short step (I can't describe them now but I actually really liked them, did half on my toes and half on my knees). I think I did plenty of push ups today! There were a few creative exercises (like the cross over push ups) but they were well instructed and it was easy to mimic her form. This workout only uses 2 sets of dumbbells (light & heavy, she did 5s and 10s and I did 5s and 3s but found I definitely could have gone heavier for some exercises which was a nice surprise). It is high rep so that's why she went with such low weights. She also uses a pre-loaded 30 lb. barbell but since I didn't have one I mostly used 2 10 lb dumbbells instead, though for some exercises I went to 8s. The only other equipment is the step & risers (or in my case my fanny lifter) so that was nice too. The music was okay, nothing memorable but good enough. There were no core-specific exercises in this workout, but she points out frequently that an exercise is also calling on the core to do a lot of work too. I'm not sure that is "enough" for me in a total body workout but it was okay too I think. I burned close to 400 calories which is extremely unusual for me for an hour long workout (if I go over 250 I've done well normally) but I hardly ever looked at my watch, just glanced at the heart rate a few times after the cardio sections and during the lower body (nothing like doing leg presses when your heart rate is over 160 as you're just starting them). I was totally engrossed in the work and throroughly enjoyed it. I got this in a trade recently and am very thrilled with that transaction!

The kids are home from school now and in a few minutes we're going to run some errands and prepare for 's friends' birthday party which is tomorrow... seven for sure but possibly as many as eight 13 year old boys will be sleeping (ha) in my newly transformed basement. I got a 32" TV and awesome cabinet that it sits on for FREE, a DVD/VCR player for $10, a big overstuffed arm chair for $15 (and found $2 in change in it) and a heavy duty, really nice foosball table cost $50... that's $75 for everything to make it a teen hang out (I want the kids coming back here instead of not knowing what's going on wherever they are). I feel like our bargain hunter Sara!! (Hugs to you wherever you are, Sara!) We're going to pick up snacks, movies and we also have a Wii and plenty of games. Should be a fun night (for them anyway)!

[Guest guest]

Thanks ! I'd love to hear about it when you get to it! Kids will be here any minute... I'm taking a very short break, trying to anyway...

Re: Cathe High Step Training

Cool! Great job, ! Great workout, and good luck with the sleepover.

I forgot that I had this one. I had done High Step Challenge, and gave it away, but forgot that I owned High Step Training, and haven't even done it. This looks really great.

This prompted me to reorganize my DVDS, which also got me excited about revisiting all my Cathe workouts after I finish my current rotations. I also had forgotten that I have a number of Cathe cardio-only workouts. I hadn't been reaching for these when I was training for cycling events. I don't have any events planned, so I'm going to start incorporating these.

Wow! This was awesome and tough! Besides the warm-up and stretch there's 5 cycles to this circuit workout. Each cycle starts with anaerobic cardio. Cathe & crew do it on 8" steps and I did the first 2 like that. The first was extremely tough and the 2nd was not only tough but a little confusing too (all the exercises are very athleticbut the rhythm and pattern seemed to escape me possibly because I could hardly breathe and of course I couldn't focus) so I didn't do all of it, just jumped in wherever I could. She shows each one first low impact, then building on impact moves as variations, usually to 3 levels. For the 3rd cycle, I stayed primarily with the first level and it was still hard. For the 4th and 5th cycles I got smart and moved to a 6" step and found I could do all the moves at the 3rd level, enjoy it and still work extremely hard.

After the cardio, in each cycle there are 2 lower body exercises and then upper body work. Every cycle has at least 1 set of 15 leg presses on each leg. The 4th cycle has 2 sets on each leg instead of two different exercises. Between the leg presses and the absolutely killer hover squats, my butt is killing me! I also realized that what the FIRM calls hover squats, the name of which I always wondered about since you don't hover very long in them usually, Cathe calls sit 'n stands. I found those MUCH easier than her version of hover squats. The upper body work focused on a specific muscle group in each cycle. That seemed to work well for me. She had 3 different kinds of push ups (split between 3 cycles): tricep pushups on the tall step (I did these on my knees and not very well), decline pushups with your feet on the step (I did half on my toes and half of my knees) and then cross over pushups on the short step (I can't describe them now but I actually really liked them, did half on my toes and half on my knees). I think I did plenty of push ups today! There were a few creative exercises (like the cross over push ups) but they were well instructed and it was easy to mimic her form. This workout only uses 2 sets of dumbbells (light & heavy, she did 5s and 10s and I did 5s and 3s but found I definitely could have gone heavier for some exercises which was a nice surprise). It is high rep so that's why she went with such low weights. She also uses a pre-loaded 30 lb. barbell but since I didn't have one I mostly used 2 10 lb dumbbells instead, though for some exercises I went to 8s. The only other equipment is the step & risers (or in my case my fanny lifter) so that was nice too. The music was okay, nothing memorable but good enough. There were no core-specific exercises in this workout, but she points out frequently that an exercise is also calling on the core to do a lot of work too. I'm not sure that is "enough" for me in a total body workout but it was okay too I think. I burned close to 400 calories which is extremely unusual for me for an hour long workout (if I go over 250 I've done well normally) but I hardly ever looked at my watch, just glanced at the heart rate a few times after the cardio sections and during the lower body (nothing like doing leg presses when your heart rate is over 160 as you're just starting them). I was totally engrossed in the work and throroughly enjoyed it. I got this in a trade recently and am very thrilled with that transaction!

The kids are home from school now and in a few minutes we're going to run some errands and prepare for 's friends' birthday party which is tomorrow... seven for sure but possibly as many as eight 13 year old boys will be sleeping (ha) in my newly transformed basement. I got a 32" TV and awesome cabinet that it sits on for FREE, a DVD/VCR player for $10, a big overstuffed arm chair for $15 (and found $2 in change in it) and a heavy duty, really nice foosball table cost $50... that's $75 for everything to make it a teen hang out (I want the kids coming back here instead of not knowing what's going on wherever they are). I feel like our bargain hunter Sara!! (Hugs to you wherever you are, Sara!) We're going to pick up snacks, movies and we also have a Wii and plenty of games. Should be a fun night (for them anyway)!