Intense Workout - Easy choreography and litte equipment...

[mbschneider]

Hello,

I am having my 1st baby in late May. I am extremely committed to exercise and go to the gym 6-7 days per week. I do 3-4 days of cardio and 3 days of weights. I expect that when the baby is born I will need to workout at home on a regular basis (this will be very new to me!). I am looking forward to exploring Cathe's videos - they sound fantastic.

Right now I have almost no equipment b/c I attend the gym. I am happy to make some purchases, but I would like to do so a little at a time. With that said, can you please recommend some videos that provide a great workout, w/out the need for too much equipment and with easy choreography, to get me started? I expect to build up my collection of videos and equipment along the way!!

Thanks so much!!

Mary Beth

 

[Stacy]

Most of Cathe's videos use a step, so I would invest in a club length step first. That being said, Kick Punch & Crunch is a great kickboxing workout that uses no equipment at all. Coremax has 6 abs workouts, some parts of the workouts use a stability ball and medicine ball, but they can be modified. In general, I'd invest in a club length step and a dumbell set. Not sure what your strength is but a set that contains 5, 8, 10 and 12 lb dumbells would be a good place to start. Even Cathe's workouts that use a barbell can be modified. I used Cathe's workouts for almost 2 years before I purchased a barbell. As far as easy to learn step workouts, I'd look into the Classics dvd, but there are soooo many other great ones to choose from! Congrats and good luck!

Here's the order I purchased equipment....1. step 2. dumbells 3. barbell 4. stability ball 5. exercise bands

 

[kimyenchu]

Hello Mary Beth,

I would invest in the cross training workouts because you can mix and match to use either cardio only or weights only or both. Because they are on DVDs now and some have multiple workouts on 1 DVD it makes selecting them more complicated.

For my first purchased I chose BodyMax DVD and Rhythmic Step DVD. The BodyMax has Maximum Intensity Strength and Power Hour which are both total body weight workouts only. MIS is medium to heavy, PH is light endurance weight and BM1 is cardio and weights. The Rhythmic Step DVD has 3 cardio workouts, IMAX, MIC and Rhythmic Step. IMAX is interval cardio, MIC is endurance cardio and a fun stepping workout. I think with these two you have all the training you could ask for to get a variety of training.

You don't need much equipment with these either; a step bench, a barbell and some dumbbells.

I would recommend these to start with and then build up your collection.

Yen

 

[Stacy]

I agree. The CTX Series is a great purchase. I thought the choreography on a few of the step sections was a tad tricky to learn at first, but wasnt bad at all. Since the cardio segments are short it'd be great for a new mom. It also contains an upper body workout, a leg workout and a few great ab routines. You get alot of bang for your buck with this one!

 

[marcy]

I would also recommend getting the Rhythmic Step DVD (this was also one of my first.) Interval Max is a great, intense, interval workout with easy, athletic choreography. MIC is also intense (the hi/lo is still my most dreaded cardio). Rhythmic Step is the most complex which you can work your way up to. It's worth it, it's so much fun and the music is great. I would also recommend Kick, Punch & Crunch and Kick Max. KPC is a great steady state kickboxing workout. You use a stability ball for the ab work but you don't need one. I think they show modifications if you don't have one. Kick Max is also a great kickboxing workout that has 10 intensity blasts in the workout along with kicking/punching combos. It also has leg intensity drills at the end which you only need a chair for.

Marcy