Cathe's CrossFire: Let the DOMS begin.

I received Cathe's latest workout videos in the mail on Monday after pre-ordering them--CrossFire and To The Max.  I was excited to receive them not just because I love me some Cathe Friedrich (I envy the woman's lats.  I know this is strange, but when you're staring at the woman throughout a workout video you tend to notice these things) but also because I really wanted more of her higher impact routines.  After suffering an ankle and hip flexor injury because I am too stupid to recover properly after running a half marathon, I have been sticking to her Low Impact Series (very awesome) for my strength and low-impact cardio needs.  However, I am one of those freaks of nature who really enjoy jumping around in the privacy of my own home to get a good workout, so I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of her new DVDs to satisfy my jumping urges all in the name of "It's a new workout and I have to try it even if I am still slightly injured because it's new and I can't let it sit there and collect dust after I paid good money for it now can I"

So, after running an 8K race on Wednesday, I decided to throw Crossfire into the player yesterday for some cross-training.  Cross-training, indeed. I feel like someone broke into my house during the night and beat me with a police baton.  Or a bassoon.  Or rebar.  Or any other object that could cause the trauma I feel in my back and legs this morning.

If you're an intermediate or advanced exerciser, the moves in this workout won't be difficult to do; they are pretty typical of Cathe higher impact workouts.  But this time she organizes them into blasts and tabatas, The main difference between the blasts and the tabatas are that the tabatas include exercises that you do for 20 seconds followed by 10 agonizingly fleeting seconds of rest (helpful countdown clock included onscreen).  While all the moves in the blasts or tabatas are very doable, I found that they were deceptively simple--I really didn't think much of the complexity of the workout until I tried to get out of bed this morning and had to ask my husband to give me a push because my lats and back were refusing to get up with me.

But that's why I love Cathe's workouts--she uses simple but effective moves that get the job done.  For example, in the Circuit Blast (the longest segment, clocking in at almost 23 minutes), the moves were simple but new--many were ones I had never seen before in the Cathe workouts I owned, like the warrior lunges or the power scissors with a jump tuck.  I appreciated that she doesn't just recycle old moves over and over again like some fitness personalities; when you buy a new workout, you get some new moves.  However, the learning curve with these new moves was small, which was very much appreciated by this exerciser with no sense of rhythm.  


Another deceptively simple segment is the Bonus Core segment.  After doing this segment, I thought I had wasted my time, since it does not include any crunches or other typical ab exercise--it only includes moves that work the entire core (which didn't feel sufficiently worked afterwards because my abs were not crying out in pain).  Unfortunately, a lot of them involve holding a plank of some kind, so your wrists take a hell of a beating (or at least mine did).  But my core region can tell you this morning that I was not wasting my time; those 9 minutes I spent were working not just my abs, but my entire back and obliques as well.

She is also creative, and manages to come up with some ideas that at first make me think, "Whaaaaaa?" and after I do them make me think, "*Bleepitybleep* I'm going to feel THAT tomorrow."  Take, for example, the Firewalker Tabata.  This is where you do all sorts of insane things with a resistance band (what Cathe calls the Firewalker band) around your legs.  You do a variety of crazy jumping and squatting moves with that band around your legs, which set all my legs muscles a-quiver by the end of the tabata.

But what really turns me on about this DVD is the premixes.  Now, all of Cathe's workouts come will uber-cool premixes you can do if you want to focus just on cardio, strength, a body region, or just are short on time, and this one is no different.  However, I think this DVD includes some really thoughtful premixes that make sense.  For example, there is a less impact premix for people like me who injure themselves frequently; there is a "CrossFire Extreme" premix for the workout crazies (as I like to affectionately call them); and there is a veritable cornucopia of timesaver premixes to stop anyone from having an excuse to get in a workout.  If there's any reason to pay that little bit more for a Cathe DVD (because they are more expensive than others), it's for the premixes alone.  The premixes allow you to buy one DVD and use it every day--but get a different workout each of those days depending on the premix you select.

If you're on the fence about getting this DVD, jump off that fence and then run to your computer to go buy it.   You can't go wrong with this simple-to-do yet versatile workout if you can handle the high impact--and if you can't, she's got a premix just for you! But if you won't listen to me, you can listen to my back and leg muscles; that is, as soon as they get back from trying to find out who broke in last night and hurt them.