Looked through the Collage catalog...thoughts on the following non-Cathe workouts?

workout junkie

workout junkie

Cathlete
Cathe workouts make up about 90% of my library. It seems every time I try a non-Cathe workout, I end up being disappointed. Either the production stinks, the workout is boring, or it is ineffective and feels like a waste of time afterwards. So any thoughts on the following would be appreciated:

Amy Bento's In the Ring
Amy Bento's Slo-Mo Strength Challenge
Tracy Effinger's Squeeze
Tracy Effinger's Squeeze Stronger
Gin Miller's Serious Strength
Jari Love's Get Ripped & Chiseled
Michelle Dozois' Slim, Strong & Sexy Body
Michelle Dozois' Your Best Body Circuit

Thanks!
Melissa
 
Of these, I have In the Ring, Slo Mo, and Get Ripped and Chiseled. Do you have any other Jari Love DVDs? I like her - she bothers some. It is a good workout but her stuff is more endurance than strength so depends on what you are looking for. I definitely feel it but have to be careful of my joints sometimes on hers and need to go down in weight b/c of the many reps. I LOVE Slo Mo. It has all sort of different moves - it is a 3 hour workout so you split the parts over 3 days. The leg portion is my favorite on that. I'm thinking I may do that one tomorrow - it's been a while and this is making me want to pull it out! A lot of people like In the Ring. I started but never finished it, only b/c I put it in to try before dinner and only had a few minutes -never went back b/c I got burned out on KBoxing. It seemed fun though and not too intricate. Her step workouts leave me standing around with a dumb look on my face :eek:
 
Michelle,
Of the ones that you named, I have only tried Jari Love and Amy Bento. Amy Bento's was "okay" for me. I still have 3 of JL's. but they just sit on the shelf. I'm sure they are effective workouts, but the fun factor is just not there for me.
I have purchased other workout vids and rented from NetFlix, but I ALWAYS come back to Cathe.
I don't think I have helped you any, except to help you save money!!:p
 
The collage clips are so short, it's hard to get a feel for the workouts. I LOVE Amy's stuff. The workouts are typically sweatfests with great music and interesting choreography. I really enjoy her weight work as well. (SloMo legs is killer!!) If you go to Amy's website www.nrgfitness.net you can watch long clips (8-10 min) of everything she has to get a better feel for whether it meets your standards and interests.

Re: the Squeezes -- www.totalfitnessdvds.com has longer (4 minutes or so) youtube clips of squeeze, squeeze stronger and the newest one, squeeze lower body.

I recently preordered some Kelly Coffey Meyer (her bootcamp and kickbox) ones. She has clips up too in her forum area that are around 3-4 min. long. I tried her NYC weight training one recently from netflix and will probably order that one.

Ilaria's newest ones - Powerstrikes and Bodystrikes are interesting. I watched the clips at totalfitnessdvds and order Bodystrikes.

I agree about looking Jari Love too as previously posted.

I think it get boring to work out with one instructor all the time. I like different music, personalities, energy levels, choreography, sets, styles, etc. There are a LOT of other instructors who have the same intensity as Cathe (or higher), but different approaches. HTH!
 
meowracer - I have Jari Love's Get Ripped to the Core and it doesn't get much use, but I think that's because I'm not fond of compound moves. I like her instruction fine, so maybe Ripped & Chiseled would be better. I also have been wanting to try Slo Mo. I read a lot of good things about it, and a few bad, but I think I'll put it on my wish list. I really like split workouts.

Will probably hold off on In the Ring since I haven't even been doing the kickbox workouts I already have. Maybe once I get back into the groove...

Gin - thanks for sharing. I know what you mean about always coming back to Cathe. She is my fave!

Thank you both for your input!
 
Last edited:
Jonahnah,

Thanks so much for your opinions and for posting those links. I'm going to go research them now so I can decide what to put on my wish list for DH.

Melissa
 
Melissa,
I just finished Amy's Slo-Mo. I really enjoyed it, but you have to watch your form. All the exercises are very different from Cathe's which I loved. With the legs workout, I had to drop the weight totally on some of the exercises because it bothered my lower back. Other than that, all 3 sections are great workouts (core is kind of different and I didn't really feel it very much). Also, I found this on deepdiscount.com for only $11 with free shipping! They also had 3 other Amy's as well. Good luck.
Paula
 
Hi Melissa,

I have both of the Amys and the Jari Love and enjoy them all. They've given me some good alternatives to Cathe.

I'm a big Amy fan and I like the variety she provides. I have almost everything she has done so far. ITR is a bit complicated as far as the choreography goes but not undoable IMO.

I first tried Jari Love for a change from Cathe and found it really helped me to mix it up. Cathe doesn't have anything really comparable IMO to the high rep lower weight focus of Jari so it works me in a different way. Some find Jari dull, but to me it's just a difference in style. I'll take laid back over too much perkiness any day. I hate "perky". :p
 
I tried everyone you mentioned except for Amy. The only ones I kept are Jari's. I thought I liked them at first but they wore thin fast. I have all of Jari's except for her original Get Ripped which I didn't like. But I do like her other ones and plan on taking a break from Cathe at some point and doing a Jari rotation again. I feel I got good results with Jari.
 
The only one I've owned out of your list is Amy Bento's Slo-Mo Strength Challenge.

It does have very different exercises from Cathe's, which you might find an advantage. I personally must stick to pure gym style workouts so I found some of her moves a little hard to get used to. They aren't ineffective in the least, just more unique. I really enjoy her as an instructor and the production on the series is very good.
 
Just wanted to post a positive vote for Amy's Slo-Mo! I LOVE these workouts! Her strength moves are very different, but they're a good complement to Cathe's weight work. I highy recommend Slo-Mo!!
 
I'm sitting here eating a big piece of pumpkin pie, sipping some tea, and checking out the responses to my question...

Thank you everyone for all of your replies! I'm putting Amy's Slo-Mo and Jaril Love's Get Ripped & Chiseled on my wish list. They both sound like they'd be good additions to my collection, and should hopefully complement my Cathe workouts. I hope I get them both!

Now, I just need a big push to get me off of the computer and onto the treadmilll...
 
Of the ones you named I have both of Amy's.

I love Amy, she has great music, great energy and is fun. She is difficult and there is a learning curve with her workouts. But once you learn them they are awesome.

In the Ring is more hi/lo with some kb thrown in, it is not typical kb workout. Or at least not in my opinion.

Slo-Mo is good. Amy does 3 sets of everything. And she uses different exercises from Cathe. I think the leg work is some of hardest and is not your typical leg routine. There are also several premixes.

I would definetly check out her site to see previews.

Jenn
 
workout junkie said:
Cathe workouts make up about 90% of my library. It seems every time I try a non-Cathe workout, I end up being disappointed. Either the production stinks, the workout is boring, or it is ineffective and feels like a waste of time afterwards. So any thoughts on the following would be appreciated:

Amy Bento's In the Ring
Amy Bento's Slo-Mo Strength Challenge
Tracy Effinger's Squeeze
Tracy Effinger's Squeeze Stronger
Gin Miller's Serious Strength
Jari Love's Get Ripped & Chiseled
Michelle Dozois' Slim, Strong & Sexy Body
Michelle Dozois' Your Best Body Circuit

Thanks!
Melissa
Click to expand...

amy has long clips on her site http://www.nrgfitness.net look under products. i have both of these and i enjoy them although i use total body or upper/lower split premixes for slo-mo other then the other splits as produced. ITR is a little more tricky to follow then your average kickboxing workout but its very fun and great music IMO. i love amy's energy. slo-mo is nothing like slow and heavy from cathe as the tempos change and the exercises are a bit different then the traditional workouts you see. more like a new twist on them if you will.

i also enjoy michelle dozios's workouts although personally i found slim,strong and sexy body a bit to easy compared to amy and cathe. not sure what you are going for level wise. she moves rather fast to go your heaviest and moves fast between band/dumbbell exercises so it was hard for me to adjust. i enjoyed them but just not what i was looking for so i traded it. however i kept best body circuit b/c its a solid intermediate circuit workout that seems more organized and simple to follow. it also has a 30 min. express premix.

i haven't tried the others so i can't comment although from the clip jari love doesn't seem to be any different from some of her other stuff but a clip is hard to tell.

kassia
 
Jenn - Thanks for your thoughts on Amy! It's always hard for me to try out a new instructor after Cathe. I tried Mindy Mylrea once and just couldn't click with her. I hope Amy is more my style. Although what's most important is the workout - Slo-Mo sounds great - I hope DH gets it for me. Might hold off on In the Ring though, not sure that's what I'm looking for...

Kassia - thanks for the info! I'm sold on Slo-Mo, and as I said above will do some more research to figure out what other kickboxing workout I might want.
I think I might ask DH for Dozois' Best Body Circuit too. Sometimes I'm in the mood for a good solid intermediate workout.

Thanks again,
Melissa
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Our Newsletter

Get awesome content delivered straight to your inbox.

Top