Michelle Dozois Cardio Strength Remix - Thoughts

Cardio Strength Remix is approximately 59 minutes long.  The workout contains five ten minutes blocks and each block consist of two rounds.  The two rounds are a repeat of each other with the only difference being the lead leg/arm/side you start with.

Within each round, except for block one, there are four stages:
Base camp - used for recovery
Ascent - In Cardio Strength workouts, this is your weight segment
Climb - Cardio
Peak - High Intensity Training Drills,  usually some type of high impact jumping exercise.  There is a modifier that shows a less intense and/or low impact alternative.

The DVD Menu:
Introduction
Movement Review
Warm Up/Block One
Block Two
Block Three
Block Four
Block Five
Cool Down/Stretch

More on the Stages:
Base camp is relatively short.  There is enough time for you to get a drink a water and maybe towel off.  Michelle starts the next group of exercises prior to base camp concluding. Although, she tells you if you need more time, take it.

The Ascent stage is about 2 & 1/2 minutes.  In this workout, it is your strength stage.  Michelle uses a set of light and heavy dumbbells to take you through a series of multi-joint compound exercises.   I wanted to catalog the exercises for you but you move so quickly through them and you are constantly layering and combining moves.  For example one such combination is a rear double pulse lunge with an upright row going right into a lunge with triple row and a rear chest extension.  In all but one block, the  Ascent stage also included some type of plank work.

The Climb stage is the cardio stage.  This is where you ramp up your intensity.  Michelle does a lot of athletic and kickboxing moves.  Burpees do appear in this workout as does shuffles, drop squats, gate squats, and jumping jacks. 

The peak stage is your high intensity stage.  It might be 15 to 20 second long. The peak exercises are side touch down lunge for Block Two, Tuck Jumps for Block Three, single knee power drive for Block Four, and Diamond Jumps for Block Five.  There is not a peak stage in block one.

The Cardio Strength workouts have never been among my top favorite workouts even though I do think I get a good workout when I do them.  I don't like the fact that you go straight into using weights in the warm up/block one section.  When I do these workouts, the first round of block one, I will do without the weight and the second round of block one I will pick up a light weight.

Also I feel that some of the exercise combinations in the Ascent sections are awkward to do.  I typically go lighter in weight with these workouts - 4lb for light and 7lbs for heavy are what I used for this workout.

My biggest gripe with this workout is that I cannot get a balance workout by just choosing to do one round in each of the blocks.  That is because you are normally focused on one side of the body for the duration of the round.  Then when you do the round again, you focus on the other side.

As always, Michelle is fantastic as an instructor.  The soundtrack was decent and the set bright and airy.

3 & 1/2 stars