Cardio Step Challenge

Cathe Friedrich
Year Released: 1992

Categories: Step Aerobics


Warm up: 10 min.
Step: 44 min.
Cooldown: 7 min.
Stretch: 3 min.
This video was my introduction to Cathe Friedrich. I consider myself an "advanced-beginner" stepper, but I did not find this workout much of a challenge, despite Cathe's claims that it was definitely going to be one. By the third time I did this tape, I could include the arm movements. (Gives me encouragement to try her newer productions.) I agree that this 1995 tape is more intermediate than advanced because, if this is advanced, I'm emboldened to try her other videos. The inferior EP recording is unfortunate, but it didn't interfere with the workout for me.

What I did not like:
I did NOT like the constant whooping and hollering in (mostly) the first half of this tape!! It seems to lessen as you get to the second routine, however. I don't know how long I can endure the extraneous whooping/shouting before I either learn to tune it out or put this on the exchange.
During the warmup, I felt there was way too much "unnecessary" arm movements before getting the body moving. I cue this tape up to bypass most of the beginning arm movements, so I can get to the *real* warmup quicker. (I also find arm movements like clapping and "one potata, two potata" silly -- I want to get my *body* warmed up.)
I did not care for the cool down. After getting all worked up, standing there to tap my toe on the step is BORING. After the second step segment, I hit rewind and do my own cool down and stretches.

What I liked:
I liked the two stepping segments. I found there was just enough instruction before moving on.
I liked the fact that there's 44" of aerobic activity on this tape.
Despite the above-mentioned dislikes, the 44" of actual workout are effective. I get a good sweat going with this tape and feel I've completed a beneficial cardiovascular workout. If you can tune out the enthusiastic whooping, this may be a good Cathe Friedrich video to cut your teeth on -- it gets you moving around the step without being too advanced, in my opinion.

Suzanne

07/01/1997