Saundra

Lean and Mean is a 34 minute workout. It is part of Cathe's Fit Tower workout series. This is the advance workout. The workout is broken up into three segments. There is a lower body segment, an upper body segment and a core segment. Cathe uses the Fit Tower mostly as a prop. She adjust the bar of the Fit Tower throughout depending on the exercise.  Cathe also uses the loop and the band in many of the exercises. This workout did seem a little bit more challenging than the intermediate workout. Rest are kept to a minimum as you are moving from one exercise to the next. Along with Cathe, there is one other cast participant. 3 & 3/4 stars

Walking for Weight Loss, Wellness & Energy is a Jessica Smith walking workout.  On this DVD there are two walks, a warm up and a cool down. Each segment is chapter, so you can pick and choose what you want to do. The DVD offers the following options : Intro Play All Warm UP High Energy Walk Power Walk Cool Down If you choose Play All, you will do a 72 minute workout. The warm up is 5:35. High Energy Walk clocks in at 29:50. This is your steady state walk.  Jessica takes your through a series of patterns using arms movements to keep it interesting.  You are walking forward and back and side to side. High Energy Walk has  a bit of a dance flair to it. Power Walk clocks in at 30:10 and this is your interval walk.  There is a definite change in intensity levels. Jessica gives you the option to run or jack during the interval segments.  So there is impact.  Most intervals you repeat twice. The cool down is around 6 minutes in length. The first half you are cooling dow

FitTower Long and Strong is the intermediate workout.It is set up similarly to the beginner workout in that you have a warm up, lower body, upper body, core, and cool down. The exercises are also similar. Cathe varies the rep count and how many sets you are doing from the first workout. Also the rest are shorter. Many of the exercise patterns have you do four reps followed by seven pulses. You are adjusting the FitTower bar throughout. There were a couple of times when Cathe had adjusted her FitTower bar off camera and I was scrambling to get mine in place to start the exercises. That was  annoying. I thought the music included in this workout also very good.  The workout uses a loop and a band on some exercises.  Workout clocks in at 34 minutes. 3 & 3/4 stars

Slim & Trim   is Cathe's beginner workout for the Fit Tower system. It clocks in at around 36 minutes. In 36 minutes, Cathe gives you a total body workout sans cardio. After the warm up, you move into a lower body segment, an upper body segment, a core segment and then a final stretch. Throughout the workout, Cathe uses the FitTower and she adjust the bar of the FitTower depending on the exercises.  The pattern that Cathe uses is she will do a single count series of reps, then she will follow it by a series of  pulse. The pulses are either 3 pulses or 7 pulses.  Cathe gives you rest between the various exercises. Cathe also uses a band in the upper body and core exercises. The DVD Menu offers the following options: Introduction Play Chapters Audio Settings I love the soundtrack on this workout DVD. Overall I thought this a nice workout, even though ti was beginner, I did feel it on some exercises. 3 & 3/4 stars

PHA Training clocks in at under 44 minutes.  In this workout, you are doing two rounds of three sets of six exercises. The exercise alternate from a lower body exercise to an upper body exercise. So there is three lower and three upper body exercises per set. And because there are three sets, you are doing each group of exercises three times through and then you move to the second round where you are given a different six exercises but the pattern is the same. For every exercise, you are doing 12 reps.  Not only is there not much rest between exercises, there is also not much rest between rounds. I did not think I was going to like this workout because we were repeating the same group of exercises for three rounds, but I actually like the format. The equipment list includes a step with three risers, an assortment of dumbbell weights and a mat. On all the 5 main Strong and Sweaty DVDs, you have the following DVD menu options: Play Chapters Basic Premixes - (There is 1) T

Cardio Slam clocks in at under 51 minutes.  There are three rounds of cardio . The first round is called floor cardio, the second round is called mat cardio and the third round is step cardio. In all the cardio segments Cathe intermixes high impact moves with low impact moves. Usually for the high impact moves, you are doing those moves twice through changing leads the second time through. The low impact exercises are only performed one time through. Some of the cardio exercises use light weights (3 or 5 lbs).  Cathe offers modifications on some of the higher intensity moves as she moves you through the workout. The mat cardio uses a standard yoga mat and mostly you are using the mat as a marker; working around it or across it. You will use the mat in the vertical and horizontal position. The step cardio segment uses just the platform of the standard step which is 4 inches.  All the exercises performed are drill base in that you are doing a particular exercise for a certain

Total Body Giant Sets contains six sets or rounds of exercises where you are focusing on a particular muscle group.  There are three leg rounds and three upper body rounds. Each of the giant sets contains five to six exercises. Cathe uses the stability ball, various weighted dumbbells, a heavy barbell, mat, and a sliding device (rag).    For many of the exercises you are varying the rep count (2-2, singles, up 3 down 1 etc). For most of the exercises you are performing the move for 16 reps. Several times Cathe mentioned how slow we were working although at least on three of those occasions I didn't feel we were moving very slow at all. Also, there is not much rest between the exercises.  This was another workout that I didn't have enough time to record my weight selections. Of the three Strong & Sweaty workouts I have done, this is my favorite but really I have enjoyed all the workouts thus far. On all the 5 main Strong and Sweaty DVDs, you have the following DV

Strong and Sweaty Boot Camp clocks in at around 45 minutes. There are six rounds and in each round there are four exercises. The pattern goes cardio, lower body, compound (which is lower body and upper body combined) and upper body. In this Boot Camp workout, core is not a part of the segments, but the Basic Premix does include the Bonus Core making the workout 56 minutes long. In the main workout, you are doing each of the exercises for about a minute. There is not much rest in this workout.  There are times when Cathe is explaining a move, you will get a brief breather but otherwise you are pretty much moving along.  Throughout the workout Cathe shows modifications for the various exercises. Cathe uses a 20 lb barbell, an assortment of dumbbell weights and a step bench. I enjoyed this workout. The soundtrack is pretty good too. On all the 5 main Strong and Sweaty DVDs, you have the following DVD menu options: Play Chapters Basic Premixes - (There is 1) Timesaver Pre

Ramped Up Upper Body is one of the new workouts in Cathe's new series Strong and Sweaty.  Ramped UP Upper Body clocks in at just under 47 minutes and it is an entire upper body workout. The workout works one body part at time. After the warm up, it starts with back, then chest, triceps, shoulders, biceps and then the stretch. Cathe uses various tempos and various rep patterns and sequences to shock the upper body.  For example, for some exercises there are two sets, some three and some there is just one set. If there are two sets, most likely the second time through you are varying the tempo count. The workouts uses a variety of weights, the step bench, and a sculpting cord (the kind with handles). Cathe really moves from one exercise to the next for most of the workout. There were times I didn't have enough time to write down my weight or how many reps I did. Speaking of weight, at the beginning of each muscle Cathe does tell you the weight selection that you will ne

April 2017 - Monthly Rotation This month I will be doing primarily Cathe workouts with a little bit of Jessica Smith sprinkled in. Week 1 will be Cathe ICE workouts. Week 2 will be Cathe Strong and Sweaty workouts. Week 3 will be Cathe Ripped w/ HiiT workouts. Week 4 will be Cathe FitTower workouts and Jessica Smith Walking Weight loss workout.