I can't really compare it to athletic training because athletic training is a step work out and there are no step workouts in the series. Offhand I can't really think of any of my workouts that really match the flavor of what these workouts will have. I just know that rather than pushing to the advanced or extreme for the majority of a given work out the ICE series will be more steady state with periods of ramp up and back off and ramp up and back off so that you're challenged and winded but not crazy winded... Does that make sense? The blizzard blasts will be more along the lines of pushing an advanced style work out with intervals. In these 15 or so minute segments you will be more winded then less winded but still not to the intensity of an all out hard core hiit DVD