How kind of you to say such nice things and ask these thorough questions Ellie. I take so much pride in creating and producing high quality professional workouts and products. It's something I have always placed great importance on and take very seriously.
Yes, I definitely keep on top of research findings and fitness trends by reading trade publications, subscribing to fitness industry reports, attending fitness conventions, implimenting test training on others and maintaining my fitness certifications. But my biggest plus is that I also have a health club that I own with my business partner where I teach and train daily. I refer to my class regulars as my lab rats since they are at the base of all my fitness trend testing. I also maintain contact with many top trainer fitness colleagues and we bounce ideas off each other with some brainstorming sessions too.
As far as designing a workout, each workout is put together differently based on what the workout actually is. But they all have the same "Cathe Criteria" that goes into them. For the most part that is where I give my workouts their signature seasoning and the right mix of kick to make sure it packs the right punch for the intended purpose and audience it was designed for. My warm ups have to build a certain energy, the body of the workout has to build and swell to a melting point and then back off and on a bit with just the right energy to keep that heart rate as high as the fun factor. This gets tested on my students, then brought to the DVD cast where it gets further groomed/tweaked to the point where I feel it has that "Classic Cathe" feel to it. That might sound a little funny but its a term that anyone who works closely with me knows just what that means
Thanks for asking and thank you for your business over the years
