Lifetiquing Reviews

Equipment needed: step

Level: Advanced

Bottom line: this advanced aerobic and anaerobic interval workout has much less breakdown and fewer pauses than its predecessor, Imax 2, and requires a very high level of both cardiovascular and lower-body endurance.

GO JARI!!!

Why am I cheering for Jari Love in the context of a review for Cathe’s Imax 3? Well, when I first did Imax 3 about six months ago, I could barely get myself through the second half of this workout. Mind you, I was already in excellent cardiovascular shape, but Imax 3 involves many, many grueling lower-body drills (emphasize grueling- think long sets of plyometric jacks, plie jacks and jump lunges, among others), and I quickly exceeded my anaerobic threshold. I had heard that it was one of the most intense aerobic workouts out there, but it was one of those rare workouts (for me) that was just too intense to enjoy.

Having done what feels like at least 167,584 squats and lunges with Jari Love so far and knowing my lower body endurance has improved, I decided to try Imax 3 again. I simply could not believe the difference. Imax 3 is still tough- definitely one of the tougher aerobic workouts I own- but because my lower-body endurance has so vastly improved, I happily worked it hard through the whole thing with energy to spare at the end.

This workout is extremely intense and fast-paced, and the choreography is whirlwind. I had some trouble keeping up with it even though I am familiar with Cathe’s other step workouts, but that was part of the aerobic challenge- no breakdowns meant that the intensity was very high throughout the whole workout. And, I absolutely love that this workout is so compact (about 41 minutes of intervals) and yet so varied. I feel that I will be reaching for this workout often because it is so efficient and will not get boring due to the diversity of moves.

Overall: this is a compact and ultra intense workout with a huge variety of step combinations and anaerobic intervals that keep the level high and the workout enjoyable. I would only recommend this for advanced exercisers, and even more so for those who have already done Imax 2. Most exercisers would also benefit from building up lower-body endurance (for example, with one or more of Jari Love’s Get Ripped videos) before attempting this one.