Step Aerobic experts, I need some help, please! (long)

[beachgerrrl]

I am new to step aerobics/aerobics, though not new to weight training. I have only "stepped" to Buns of Steel 2000 Step, so I was really used to having "very repetitive, very instructional" type tapes. I've stepped to that same tape though forever, it seems, and I got bored, so I decided to try Cathe. I had read so many great reviews on her programs.

I bought 5 vhs tapes (still waiting on Rhythmic Step), and I bought her "Classics" dvd. I first watched Step Heat. I'm choreo-useless, so I got tired just watching her. lol Though, I do love the energy she exhibits. She seems a lot of fun to workout to. I loved the music.

Then, I watched her first/oldest step tape: Step N Motion. oh boy, that sure was quite a throwback to my 80's days. lol

I was suprised to see that I actually much prefer the later "Step Heat" over the oldest tape (which I thought would be much easier). But I was confused that her "oldest" step tape had no instruction as to "safe foot to knee placement while JUMPING onto the step", etc. With all the jumps and jumping lunges, etc, I found that a bit odd. Squats and lunges are easy for me, but not when jumping is also involved. lol Are all her tapes this way? I tried a few of the jumping lunges, but my knees just didn't think it was a good idea to continue. lol So, I did the moves without the "jumps". I actually found the Step N Motion tape to me much more confusing with her cues. To me, it seemed that she often gave the cues "while doing the move", as opposed to cuing before the move (as she does in Step Heat).

I guess what I want to know is, will all the other tapes I purchased be more like Step N Motion, or Step Heat? I don't want to open them all, as I'm hoping I can exchange a few of the unopened ones IF they are not going to be good for me. The other VHS ones I have now are:
-Mega Step Blast
-All Step
-Step Blast

I still found the "moves" in Step Heat hard to follow, but after viewing in slow-mo a few times, I finally got them down to memory. lol So, I'm hoping to find more like Step Heat (I haven't tried the other 2 included in the Classics dvd, yet).

I'm thinking about ordering her new "beginner step" dvd (Basic Step & Body Fusion). Does she give in-depth instructions on this dvd? I'm hoping this will TEACH me all the various "steps" used in her other videos. I had no clue what a "box" was, or "repeater", or "hop jump", etc, and despite years of weight training, these Step tapes are making me feel so inept. But, I'm trying not to lose hope here. At least today's try of Step Heat went much better. Still haven't made it all the way through the first section, lol, but I did get a bit further than yesterday's attempt.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

[clareMc]

OK. There are several different questions you are asking here and several other thngs for you to consider.

Cathe is known for her high intensity, often high impact cardio workouts. That is something you have to accept. If you find some of her early work to be too much impact for you, then consider that Cathe may not be the instructor for you. As her workouts progress, the impact is still there and gets greater after Step heat. Step Heat is considered to be one of her easier workouts, both in terms of intensity and choreography.

I do not own Mega Step Blast (an oldie) and so cannot comment on that one.

All Step (from the CTX series) is much more difficult choreographically than the very straight forward Step heat, as is Step Blast. Step Blast is harder and longer than All Step and features high impact (on the floor and on the step) intervals in the last section.

Now, with all that said, one of the things that concerns you is the choreographical difficulty of Cathe's workouts. None of us knew what a repeater, turn step, etc, were before we started step either! You pick it all up as you go along. You don't have to know what the step is called before doing it in order to be able to do it.

Before doing any new Cathe workout, you should preview it a couple of times to see which are the tricky bits you will want to focus on. Accept that there will be a learning curve and welcome it also (it challenges your brain also which helps keep you young!). It may take 3 or 4 tries before you can get all the moves down and that's fine. Cathe deliberately refuses to break things down too much and too slowly because she knows that you will be doing the DVD over and over again, and if she were to break the moves down even more, we would soon be demanding our money back due to boredom! As Cathe says in one of the CTX workouts: "I'm here to challenge you, right?!?!?!" Right. So don't feel inept. We've all been there!

Yes, ordering the new Basic Step & Body Fusion sounds like a good plan for you. It will help you learn Cathe's choreography style and begin to increase your intensity slowly.

You need to increase intensity slowly. If you try to do too much too soon, then yes, your knees/joints may hurt. Bear in mind also that mild to moderate aches and pains are to be expected as you introduce your body to new physical challenges. For example, anyone beginning a running prograam is expected to start off slowly indeed, with a walk/run program because it's not just the heart and lungs which need to acclimatize, but the joints also. The body does increase its endurance to intensity, but give it time.

If however you are in excrutiating pain and this persists every single time you do Cathe cardio, then you will have to accept with humility that Cathe is not the instructor for you. No-one can make that decision for you.

The middle stage of Cathe's cardio career involves the most impact (I do not include here consideration of her interval workouts where the impact is always high): we are talking here of Step Fit, Powermax, Step Works and Body Max. After that, Cathe's step cardio becomes more dancy, more challenging choreographically: Rhythmic Step, Step Blast, SJP.

Hope some of this helps,

Clare

 

[beachgerrrl]

Thank you, Clare. I think I will go ahead and order Basic Step then. After viewing/trying that one, I will decide what to do about the other unopened vhs tapes. If need by, maybe there will be some other tapes I can exchange these for. I do like Step Heat though, so I'll keep plodding on with it! lol