Cathe Friedrich- Cardio Fusion
Equipment needed: step; fitness ball; 5 lb weight
Level: Advanced
Bottom line: diverse exercise styles, high intensity and a lightning pace challenge your mind and endurance in this top-quality workout.
Honestly, I didn’t think I’d like this- why bother with a compilation if you already own (or deliberately don’t own) the workouts contained therein? I tend to view compilations as a marketing ploy intended to milk extra money from successful DVDs. Well, I am happy to report that in this case I was wrong: the combination of these workouts (Body Max 2, Drill Max and Low Impact Circuit) was synergistic, forming an entirely new, exceedingly challenging and highly enjoyable cardio workout.
In fact, Cardio Fusion is one of the best cardio workouts I’ve ever done. I live for workouts like this one, which catapult you rapidly through several different styles of exercise, never decelerating the intensity but challenging different elements of your conditioning throughout. I spent a good deal of the workout in my high aerobic or anaerobic zones, but it never even occurred to me to stop before it was over- I was enjoying it too much.
Since I’ve done many of Cathe’s workouts before, I was familiar with some of the workouts from which this was compiled, but the breakneck speed and lack of breakdowns still got me the first time through. Let me be clear: this workout is very difficult choreographically. There are little to no breakdowns or specific cuing in this workout since it is a compilation. For those not familiar with Cathe, even advanced exercisers may want to avoid this one. Body Max 2 is a much better one to start with because the complex step moves are broken down into much more palatable portions. For those familiar with Cathe, though, you can hardly get better than this.
Overall: Cathe hits the nail on the head with this one as far as I’m concerned, and it’s going straight to my regular rotation. The exercises are very diverse, integrating dancier step aerobics with more straightforward, higher impact step and conditioning drills, the intensity is consistently high, and the production is (as always in Cathe workouts) superb.