I honestly hope you do like it. :sun::sun:

I loved the looks of this one upon preview. I plan to do it today.

I think I was expecting it to be more on the ground and relaxing. It started out standing and then doing some side lunges and all I wanted to do was sit down :p.

I also tried the mobility workout today, and I loved it! I plan to make this part of my weekly routine. I haven't tried any of the other workouts yet.

I did the Upper Body + Upper Body Bonus Premix. I liked that the bonus exercises were incorporated into the workout and not just tacked onto the end. I like this for the same reason I liked the lower body workout:
1. A variety of exercises done at a heavier weight without several sets or many reps of the same exercises.
2. The length of the workout.
3. It felt refreshing and a little bit different.
4. You can work up to heavier weights.

I needed ALL my weights from 3's to 30's on this one.

I also did the Low Impact HiiT and I liked it. It moved fast. There are not too many sets or reps of the same moves.

I also tried Mobility Basics. I enjoyed the music and it was nice to have time to flow a bit instead of rushing through static stretches. It felt good but you are still working. It felt good to do this coming off of a workout. If I did this cold, I may not be warmed up enough.

Thoughts on High and Low Hiit and the Yoga:

I did the low impact HiiT the other day and was disappointed by the level of intensity. It is well-paced and a great production, but I felt like the drills were sort of more-of-the-same that are available in other videos/premixes... and my HR did not exceed 130 bpm (my threshold is 151) on any of the intervals.

When I did the High Impact this morning, I was prepared not to be as challenged as by other Cathe HiTs, but I was pleasantly surprised! Definitely a good, solid high intensity workout.

I also have completed the yoga section and was not enthralled. It's ok. I feel like there are a lot of better yoga options out there for 20-30 minutes.

The core bonus was easy. :)

These criticisms aside, I am soooo grateful and stunned by Cathe's professionalism and production. She is inventive and, IMO, the best video instructor out there. I've been with her since 1998.

Oh no! Joni O did a Joni O! :D

I did Cathe's Low Impact HIIT this morning and found it fresh and fun! She had several new moves in it plus some agility drills. My heartrate stayed in the 130's - 140's which is really good for a steady state cardio for me.

I'm going to try the High Impact HIIT but do lower impact substitutions. My knees just can't handle too much jumping anymore but I enjoy her workouts a lot and just make it work for me. ;):heart:

Totally agree with you! She's my favorite instructor by far! And I've also been doing her workouts since 1999 or there about.... :sun:

I love Cathe - she was my first venture out into the worlds of step and strength after starting off my vidiocy with a year of nothing but Taebo. I have ALL her workouts.

However, I did 20 minutes of her High Impact and couldn't make it to the end because I could not stand the idea of doing one more burpee/squat thrust. There was just.so.many. It was like 3/4 of the the workout, supplemented by air jack after air jack after tuck jump. I wish she had thrown in some boxing moves and other cardio moves. Even mountain climbers (maybe they were there in the last 10 minutes, I dunno).

Now that I KNOW this is the case, I might someday do the workout again, mentally prepared. Maybe. I agree that it packs a good strong HIIT workout in 30 minutes; I just prefer, say, a TurboJam style HIIT for 30 minutes if I'm going to get constant variations on the same move.

I did the upper body workout this morning - and didn't Joni-O it. I might even do it again after I forget what I didn't like about it. :D

The warm-up seemed like more of a workout to me. Of course, if you're actually using 35# for the workout, I guess it is a warm-up.

I know that you have to come up with innovative new moves if you want to keep putting out DVDs. I guess I'm just a traditional gal and like the plain old strength moves that I've done for years.

Also, when you purposely don't work out to the beat of the music, the music distracts me because I'm used to always working to a beat - and I prefer to.

It's a good little workout, just not really for me.

I don’t know, Joni, Leslie Sansone was successful for years without doing any innovative new moves. I couldn’t help but laugh this morning when I was doing a Leslie Mini Walk and got all excited when Leslie started doing a mambo. 😂

Yes, I have dumbbells that range from 3lbs to 100 lbs ;)

:d :d

I have dumbbells that go up to 50lbs but I understand that it can be hard to store a variety. I would prefer to add at least some 60/70s but in negotiation over space issues, I made an agreement with DH to cap at the 50s. So for some moves, I use a weighted vest to increase poundage.

You guys are cracking me up with this conversation! Love it! :D:love:

I tried Perfect Pump Upper Body this morning and liked it pretty well. For background, I've only dabbled in Cathes; I have LITE and Slow & Heavy and don't use them that often. This one went really fast (because of the 30 minute deadline, I'm sure) ... the lifting speed was appropriate but there wasn't much time between and I paused a couple times to change equipment. agree that the warm-up is a little too much - she uses 3# dumbbells plus the band, and I put the weights down after the first couple sets and just used the band. There were a couple times during the workout when the cuing wasn't great - during the toss row we're looking down, but Cathe did not tell us how many reps we were doing and did not count, so it was AMRAP for me. That's not a big deal. I have weights up to 35 but only used through 20 - for some exercises I may be able to go a little heavier now that I've done them once, but not by a lot. I didn't feel any need to add on the UB bonus :p but I notice the bonuses on this one add up to a nice 30-minute full-body workout - upper, lower, abs, and extended stretch. So I'll try them that way, sometime, probably.

Copied from my check in:

So I was preparing myself to feel a dread factor with High Impact Hiit based on other reviews. It sounded like many of the moves were repetitive which I am not a fan. Much to my surprise, I really enjoyed it despite the number of burpees. I think Plyo Hiit One helped in preparation. I wasn't totally wiped as I remember being with other hiit workouts.

I added on the mobility workout. As other ladies have mentioned, it seemed like an extended stretch, which I really liked. This is definitely my weak area. And unlike many on this board, I don't use other instructors to do yoga or any other practice. Cathe's basic moves appeal to me and I was actually able to hold the more advanced version of each exercise. I can definitely see using this in my weekly rotation.

My biggest disappoint is the premixes aren't as creative as in the past. I was really hoping the premixes for Perfect Hiit would be similar to Plyo Hiit...mixing high and low impact in a variety of combos, etc. I think the reason for this is because those who have the On Demand option can create their own, which is awesome. But not for me

Also, when you purposely don't work out to the beat of the music, the music distracts me because I'm used to always working to a beat - and I prefer to.

This. I previewed the upper body workout and immediately didn't like the fact that the lifts weren't to the beat of the music. I think I'll still like the workout but I don't get why the music and moves can't be in sync.

I did lower body this morning and enjoyed it. I did the premix, with lower body bonus and extended stretch.

I liked that the workout itself did not repeat moves. She does move pretty quickly but was able to keep up. I actually used my kettlebells more with this workout as they are heavier than my dumbbells. So that was nice.

I used the loop band for the bonus workout where Cathe uses the band with handles. I was fine with the loop band. To me the bonus section rounded out the workout and I think I will probably do it this way as it adds on another 7 minutes or so.

Extended stretch was OK. I prefer other stretches more so not sure how much I will do this one but I am sure I will do it again just because it is on the DVD.

Lastly, I did some of the mobility workout yesterday and I will have to do it again. For some reason it felt choppy to me. I have done other mobility workouts where it seems to flow better but maybe I was in a bad mood so will do it again as I love doing mobility workouts. I usually don't do Cathe for yoga/mobility so will see.

I've been reading through this thread with interest. Believe it or not, I have never done any Cathe because her stuff looks very intimidating, but I'm looking at her Perfect Pump DVD and considering buying it. I see all of you talking about using 30-40 lbs and I'm a bit confused. I know Cathe likes to use heavy weights but the heaviest weight I have is...10 lbs! I don't have room to store a lot of dumbbells and the adjustable weights are expensive, so if I did this DVD with only 10 lbs, would I get anything out of it?

Yes you can still get something out of it. Even Cathe mentioned you can do it with no weights. If you have a weighted vest, you can use that.

We have 40 lb dumbbells here, but that's only because my husband works out at home as well. I did use it in the Lower Body workout.

Lower body: I really liked this one. Because no exercise is repeated, it really moves along. I also liked the bonus and I think I'll always do this workout with the bonus added.

High impact hiit: This felt like high intermediate to me. As I had warned earlier, there are a ton of burpees/squat thrusts and air jacks. Still, it was a nice addition to my hiit collection and I will use this one quite a bit. Her 40/20 continues to be the hardest one for me.

Mobility/Yoga: I approach every yoga workout that is not Ultimate Yogi as something that I will probably like but not love. That keeps me from having to Joni-O it. I don't have any other mobility workouts so I have no comparisons. As a result, it was fine to me. Liked it, didn't love it. It will be perfect for a weekend workout where I need to do something, but don't feel like doing anything where I have to work too hard.

I will get a lot of use out of the extended stretch segment. I feel like cool down/stretches are getting shorter and shorter in some of these new workouts.

Still left to try: Upper Body, Low Impact Hiit

The maximum I have is 10 pounds as a set. I have a 12 lb kettlebell if a single weight is called for. I did the workout the other night and if was fine. Use what works for you.

I did the Mobility one today. It was harder than I thought...my leg muscles were definitely feeling the burn at different points of the video. An effective blend of exercises that I really enjoyed. Would love to see more of this type of video from Cathe.

I did the upper body/core bonus/extended stretch premix today; it was a little over 45 minutes which was perfect for me.

I will never go as heavy as Cathe, especially since I don't have weights greater than 20 lbs but think I will get a lot of use out of this. Really like the chest flies with leg extension move as I can feel it in my core. Overall it felt a little rushed but she packed a lot into 30 minutes.

The core bonus I loved! The moves were slow and controlled so I felt I could really concentrate on the working muscles. The stretch was okay, nothing special but am glad it's included in some of the pre-mixes. I prefer the extended stretches in the LITE series.

Copied from check in:

I finished all the workouts in Perfect 30...yay!

Today I did Perfect Pump Upper and Lower Body including bonuses followed by the Yoga routine.

Let me say for those of you who can lift as heavy as Cathe for every exercise...just wow!!! My heaviest dumbbells are 25s. I was basically able to keep up with her for lower body except when she exceeded my weight limit. If I wasn't lifting as heavy, I tried to go a little deeper into the move. As I said in another post, the bonus is a nice add on to work those butt muscles. The upper body had me quivering. I'm nowhere near as strong as Cathe so I lifted as heavy as I could and wow did I feel it! I added the bonus at the end but I heard she mixes it throughout the routine in a premix with the appropriate muscle group. May try that next time. I am not a fan of heavy weight work or repetition so these workouts are literally perfect for me...haha. Short and sweet with no dread factor.

Yoga has also never been a favorite. Recently I've been trying to add on chapters from Cathe's other workouts. Therefore, I didn't have high expectations. But I really liked the pace and exercises in this one. The intense floor hip stretch was done in a previous series. It always gets me...my hips are usually tight so I really like this move. I definitely will be using this one at the end of other intense workouts.

I'm now looking at the rotations posted in her guide to see how I want to use this new series.

Can't wait to hear more thoughts and reviews!!!

I finally got the workouts in the mail today! I tend to prefer interval and Hiit workouts so one of the Hiit's was my first choice.

I did the Low Impact Hiit with the bonus pyramid Hiit and extended stretch premix. It was a nice little 47 minute workout. Perfect:)

I liked that it was slower paced so that the moves could be big and full. I also liked that there was a lot of lateral work that hit the outer butt and inner thighs. It also helps keep my ankles strong. I appreciated the unique moves that haven't necessarily been in her other workouts, making this one feel brand new. The queing was excellent. As far as the music, I remember the first song from another Cathe series but can't remember which one. Other than that, I don't really recall anything about the music, so I guess it was fine.

The pyramid add on was also slower paced. I like that the harder exercises are at the beginning of the w/o including jumps on and off the step. I also liked the timer at the corner of the screen. Great add on!

The extended stretch was nothing special.....pretty much the same stretch on other workouts. I did LIC and BM2 last week and I think it was pretty much the same stretch as one of those. Actually I went back and just did the regular stretch and liked that one better b/c it stretched the inner thigh better and hammies as well.

It wasn't as hard as her original Hiit workouts, but it's certainly not a waste of time either, largely b/c you are in control of how big you want to go. I even added a bit of impact. I was out of breath at times and I was soaked with sweat and red faced when I was done.

I really liked this workout and will definitely get lots of use out of it! Yeah!

I did the Mobility workout today. I do lots of yoga, so I won't do this one regularly, but I did like it. It's a good, thorough stretch. I'll use it when I'm very sore from workouts or recovering from illness/downtime and feel extra stiff.

I've got a bit of DOMS from Perfect 30. I did MBF Week 1 Total Body Burn and started the Perfect 30 yoga but I was too dang tired and quit. I think I will like the yoga though. Another thing to note in the Perfect 30 workouts is there are no exercise demonstrations. I don't mind this as Cathe packs quite a bit of workout and exercises in 30 minutes. The more I do them the more familiar I will be. Also, with the workout blender if I wanted to, I could add an extra 5 to 10 second break.

She does this ALL THE TIME! I’ve never understood it. Why can’t you pick music that would be the same tempo?

I did notice in Giant Sets today that she doesn't work to the beat there either - or in many others. I guess that's okay. Maybe the music in Perfect Pump was distracting to me itself, versus not working out to the beat.

I tried the yoga workout today from Perfect30. I really enjoyed it. I will definitely reach for this again.

I did the Perfect 30 Upper Body with Core and Ext. stretch premix that was about 47 minutes.

As with most others, I liked the heavier weights with the lower reps. i matched most of the weights except the 35# for triceps.....nope, not me. I liked the newer moves and those for core too and was happy that it wasn't overly long. Cathe usually does at least 10 minutes on core, so I like just having a shorter core w/o. I don't know how long this one was, but I kinda wish she'd round out some workouts with just a 5 minute or so core finisher. Anyways......I do feel some back DOMS and my forearms are feeling it too.

I'm not crazy about the push ups or the tricep dips but other than that I liked all the exercises. I didn't notice the music again, except when she did moves not in sync with the music. I'm not a huge fan of that, but it didn't bother me too much. It moves pretty quickly, but it's not frantic and Cathe does take a few water breaks, which is nice.

Overall, I'm glad to have a heavy weight workout that is short! I will get a lot of use out of this one too!

I did Lower Body and liked it MUCH more than I expected to, lol. Ahead of time I looked at my card for UB and saw that I ended up using about 2/3 of Cathe's weight most of the time so that's where I started from. There are a couple exercises where I'll increase it - she used a high step with 4 risers and I used my circuit step with 1, which was fine but I could go a little heavier. I liked the pace and the exercises. Happy with this one.

Lower Body
 

I did the Lower Body only today without any add ons since I was pressed for time. It was a solid workout. My legs and low back are most definitely feeling it! I matched Cathe's weight and am glad to now have another workout using my heavier dumbbells b/c they usually sit there unused unless I do 'slow and heavy'. However, I may try doing some of the exercises, like deadlifts, with a barbell in the future.

Going from exercise to exercise was a quick pace, but not frantic. I'll know better what to expect next time and also to have my mini step with 4 risers ready. The cueing at the beginning wasn't the best but I just added a rep at the end. She kinda just starts without saying anything and she doesn't match the first move with the beat like she usually does. She also doesn't match the beat with the rest of the moves either, but that didn't bother me. The music was pretty good and has been used before in one of Cathe's other series. I liked that Cathe also introduced a couple new moves that I really liked.

I took a peek at the LB and UB bonuses and if I added that on next time it would be about a 47 min. workout which is right in the sweet spot for me. The Total Body Express premix looks enticing as well. I'll have to try that one soon.
Still, with only a 30 minute workout, I'm certain I will be feeling it tomorrow b/c I'm already feeling it today.


I love this disc and will be getting LOTS of use out of it. I'm so happy to have another heavy weight workout!:sun: Woohoooo!

High Impact Hiit
 

I did High Impact HiiT this morning. Wow! This one got the sweat rollin' for sure. Honestly though, I prefer her other HiiT workouts with the timer in the corner. I wish she would have done that with this one. Her queing is awful on this! I guess I'll have to do it a few times in order to get everything down.

I didn't mind the burpees, but it felt like it was heavy on jumping jacks, which I really don't like. I subbed exercises for the jacks b/c at my age, the bladder has a problem with jacks. I liked the different moves and I will likely get some good use out of this. I would say it's harder than 30/30 and DWP but not as hard as 40/20.

When I was done with this, I felt zero need to add anything on to this one in order to feel worked out for the day.:D I wanted a good sweat in 30 minutes and Cathe definitely provided that with this workout.

I wasn't planning to do High Impact anytime soon but I like jumping jacks! Might change my mind. Thanks Angie!

I wasn't planning on doing Low Impact Hiit, but did it Saturday and enjoyed it. Time went by quickly, and was very doable. I know I won't touch the High Impact one as I don't like all that jumping.

Not sure where the LowImpact Hiit fits into my rotation but it will be one I will do again.

Cathe used custom music to match the tempo in her STS series. I thought I would like it, but not so much... I hate the STS music! I'd rather have regular music and lift off beat. But that's just me.. :)