Thursday - Low Max

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I actually made it through Low Max this morning. I was concerned about how I would do since I haven't done step in a long time. I started with the idea that I would do the pre-mix of Intervals 1-4 and then add on Intervals 5, 6, & 7 as I felt I could. Well, I got through Intervals 1 through 4 and then added on 5,6 & 7 with no problem! YAY!

To give a quick run down of this workout (as I see it on sale at Advanced Workouts.com and someone - maybe - may be interested):

It is a lower impact interval workout - for each "interval" Cathe does a step combo - moderate, I'd say in choreography - nothing terribly fancy, but it helps to have had some exeperience with step in general and with Cathe in particular as she does repeat some moves from her other workouts. There are some turns that can be tricky, but with practice it is do-able. I was fine with it (except for Combo # 3, which I had to rewind to the beginning at one point since I got a little lost) but I have done this workout before. After each combo is a "blast" - these are mostly low impact moves that engage your leg muscles- some are done on the step, and some are done off the step. These are all athletic in nature and offer a "bonus" of working the legs. There are 7 cycles like this. Cathe and her crew use an 8 inch step - I did today as well - but for learning purposes a 4 or 6 inche step might be better.

The DVD offers several pre-mixes as well as the ability to just go to a particular chapter. The premixes are - Intervals 1-4 (w/ warm up and cool down), Intervals 4-7 (warm/cool included), Step Combos Only (warm/cool), and Blasts only (warm/cool). The workout in its entirety is over an hour, the pre-mixes are all about 45 minutes except for the blasts only pre-mix that is 23 minutes. I recall at one point that I did the Blast only pre-mix as an unweighted leg workout.

I added on some stretching of my own while watching Jackie's One on One workout on Demand. It looks interesting, but I'm not sure about it. Could be that I'm in a weight lifting mindset right now and the lower body workout I previewed was more endurance based. From what I could tell it is solid stuff. I am not sure I connect with Jackie though and I didn't really love her backgrounders or style - she demonstrates a series of exercises with one backgrounders while the rest of them sit on stability balls in the background. She comments on their behinds quite a bit! One of the ladies looked like she was topless b/c she was wearing a bra type exercise top underneath a vest and her hair was covering her breasts giving the impression that she was topless! Weird. This may be one to try On Demand or via Netflix or the library to see if it is a worthwhile purchase!

Anyway - off to get ready for the day!

Take care!

Donna