4 Day Split: Higher Intensity Step

Total time: 59 minutes

~ Step workout (30 minutes)
~ Chest & Back: (29 minutes)

If I lost my 4DS set (since the case is so tiny, it could happen!) and I could only afford to buy one download of the workouts, this is the one I would buy. The step on this workout is one of my favorites from Cathe ever. It has a fun little warm up followed by 3 great 32-count combos. The choreography is interesting, but not overly complex. The cuing is not great in this workout, but if you like step, it is a workout worth learning.

The intensity is moderately intense. Mostly this is a nice steady state workout. There is a blast after each combo, but these are not as intense as usual Cathe blasts/intervals. They are slightly choreographed, and more complex than just doing plyo-jacks or something like that. They are quite fun though, and they do up the intensity from the workout.

The Chest and Back workout is excellent. There are 5 rounds of work where you alternate a Back exercise with a Chest exercise. On the early rounds you repeat each exercise twice, but on the later rounds, only once. This is a heavy weight workout and Cathe is using 30 pound dumbbells and a barbell at 60 pounds. On some exercises you might want to go heavier than Cathe. Because this is a lower rep workout, you shouldn’t be afraid to push yourself. (Keeping safety in mind of course!)

Warm-up (supermans, plus 1-arm row with light weight)
Round 1 (repeat twice)
~ 1-arm row
~ pushups (variations)
Round 2 (repeat twice)
~ Underhand barbell rows
~ Chest Fly's
Round 3
~ 1-arm row with dumbbell horizontal and elbow out to side
~ Pushups with a slight decline
Round 4
~ Dumbbell Pullover
~ Bench Press
Round 5
~ Seated Band work (T's and Y's)
~ Pushups (around the clock)

The music in this series is pretty good. It is a mix of instrumentals and vocals and I enjoy most of the vocal songs.

The dvd this comes on has a great premix “Double Trouble” which combines this workout with Lower Intensity step for a 60 minute step workout. This is one of my favorites. There are lots of other premixes but I haven’t really explored them.

Lisa C

This is a GREAT workout. The step choreography is fun, challenging without being frustrating. I got most of it the first time through. The weight work is one of my favorites. One thing I tend to dislike about a lot of Cathe's weight workouts is the endless reps and sets and pulses of the same exercise. Not the case here; she moves on quickly. Great way to squeeze in both some cardio and weights on the same day.

mmis29