Peak 10 Cardio Interval Burn

This workout is broken up into five peaks of five minutes. You do each peak twice. That makes up ten peaks that you ascend in succession for a sweaty, fun workout in fifty minutes, not counting a thorough warmup and concluding stretch.

Michelle defines four levels of intensity. Level 1 is recovery. It is a very brief interval to grab water, barely move and catch your breath. We will come to why you need it in a bit. Level 2 is like aerobic training. You are challenged but not yet breathless. Level 3 amps up intensity to border on anaerobic. Level 4 is all out, maximum blast time; usually plyometric. After doing a level 4, you get the level 1 to recover for just a few seconds, before you ascend through level 2,3,4 again. And again.The workout maintains the same pattern throughout, except each of the five peaks has different combos of moves.

The moves are favorites dating back to Jane Fonda and early Kathy Smith cardio to more recent choreography.The way the moves are put together makes them seem like a tribute through the ages strung together creatively rather than a rip off. No complex choreography, but not entirely athletic either. At the risk of repeating, I found it a lot of fun.

I found the workout easy to modify whether to make it less intense or take out the impact. Nobody shows modifications, but some of the people in the back use a smaller range of motion to make it less intense. You are on your own for the impact mods.

The workout is pretty intense unless you expect Insanity every time, but is a happy no dread workout. I don't remember the exact time at each level of the peaks.. You spend most time in each five minute peak at level 2, a slightly less time in level 3, just about 30 seconds at level 4 and what seems like even less at level 1 before you start over.

There is a countdown timer at the bottom right corner which is great to pace yourself.

The music is very well done. The tempo and the mood accelerate as you move up through each level and crash again when you go from level 4 to the next level 1.

This workout reminded me of cardio coach. It is a great translation of the concept to workout videos. It doesn't match Todd Wasburn's music or the wondrousness of Coach Sean's voice, but captures quite a bit of the rest of the mood.

The set is bright and simple. There are more backgrounders than then usual four to six, but I enjoyed that.

One of my best acquisitions for 2010.

Instructor Comments:
Michelle looks like she is enjoying herself. Her energy and enthusiasm are contagious. She gets a bit shrill from trying to cue to a large room over the music at times, but it did not bother me at all.. I never liked her early workouts from trying a couple. I thought she was great in this workout.

vee

I really like this workout! Each Peak builds to an all out, intense cardio "peak" and starts all over at square one. Each peak is repeated 2x, I didn't mind this at all. The peaks go by so fast, that they didn't feel repetitive at all to me. There is some high impact but its not relentless pounding for long periods at a time. The cardio peaks can be modified if needed. The music is pretty good (music can make or break a cardio workout for me, a die hard Amy Bento cardio fan) I like Michelles personality and she seems to be enjoying herself. The cardio moves are very easy to learn, old and new moves make for interesting choreo. I like the fact that I can change up the order of the peaks. Instead of playing the entire program, just click on the peak you want, when its over the DVD goes right back to the play list. I see me using this DVD quite a bit, as I can do the full version or just the peaks I want to do at any given time. I will be keeping an eye on Michelle to see what else she produces.

Connie B

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 really wanted to like this workout, and I like the peak concept, but for me, it seemed to take forever, and I really hated doing a peak once, then having to do it all over again for the other side, I also don't like TIFT-ing, so maybe this was not the best choice for me. I do like Michelle and the production was high quality, music was ok. I did this workout twice and was a sweaty mess, but I can't bring myself to put it back in the DVD player

Instructor Comments:
Michelle seems nice, she does get a little nasal-y during some parts, but not too bad, cuing is good and she is encouraging.

poogle