Cathe Fit Split review thread

[FitBoop]

I did the Low Impact Cardio, Metabolic Conditioning and bonus abs. I will have to do this one early in the day on an empty stomach, because all the up and down on the floor and the inverted moves upset my stomach. I felt that the warmup section was not enough to prepare for the intensity of the cardio. The cardio was not a gradual buildup of intensity, and it seemed to start out and stay at the same medium level of intensity. Most exercise sequences were short, but some were repeated more than others, such as the squat turns followed by jacks on the sliders, which went on for a long time. There were a lot of moves on the sliders. I like using sliders, but felt it would have been better to mix up moves off and on sliders, rather than having them all one after the other.

The set and colors (including the outfits) were dull. The music was there, but meaningless, and Cathe sometimes went off the beats deliberately, which always bothers me since I can’t ignore hearing beats and wanting to move with them. The participants did not look like they were enjoying the workout. Some of the participants had trouble following and doing the exercises, too.

The metabolic portion was better, in my opinion, There were compound exercises, utilizing both upper and lower body simultaneouly. For example, there were shoulder and biceps exercises combined with lunges. I am not a huge fan of these types of workouts, but they are good to do once in a while for variety.

The bonus abs portion was a disappointment to me. It was mostly exercises using the sliders under your hands, and was very hard on the wrists. There were a lot of plank exercises and exercises where you lift yourself up to a tabletop position and do crunches and bicycles and these were also very hard on the wrists. There were no traditional core or abs exercises. My wrists were hurting a lot after this, and although Cathe says that the wrists will be able to adjust over time, I feel it is not worth the risk of developing a wrist problem.

Overall, this was not a workout that I liked a lot. I may just do the metabolic portion on occasion.

[poohpeggy]

Does the music go in and out like in her Strong & Sweaty series? Like you can hardly hear her voice, the music gets loud etc...? TIA

[Sunrise]

My computer only recognized the Low Impact/Metabolic Conditioning workout so I can't even watch the others. Did anyone else have this problem?

The music was terrible. I didn't do the workout yet but wow, she has to have access to better music than that.

[angie_nrs]

Originally Posted by FitBoop

I did the Low Impact Cardio, Metabolic Conditioning and bonus abs. I will have to do this one early in the day on an empty stomach, because all the up and down on the floor and the inverted moves upset my stomach. I felt that the warmup section was not enough to prepare for the intensity of the cardio. The cardio was not a gradual buildup of intensity, and it seemed to start out and stay at the same medium level of intensity. Most exercise sequences were short, but some were repeated more than others, such as the squat turns followed by jacks on the sliders, which went on for a long time. There were a lot of moves on the sliders. I like using sliders, but felt it would have been better to mix up moves off and on sliders, rather than having them all one after the other.

The set and colors (including the outfits) were dull. The music was there, but meaningless, and Cathe sometimes went off the beats deliberately, which always bothers me since I can’t ignore hearing beats and wanting to move with them. The participants did not look like they were enjoying the workout. Some of the participants had trouble following and doing the exercises, too.

The metabolic portion was better, in my opinion, There were compound exercises, utilizing both upper and lower body simultaneouly. For example, there were shoulder and biceps exercises combined with lunges. I am not a huge fan of these types of workouts, but they are good to do once in a while for variety.

The bonus abs portion was a disappointment to me. It was mostly exercises using the sliders under your hands, and was very hard on the wrists. There were a lot of plank exercises and exercises where you lift yourself up to a tabletop position and do crunches and bicycles and these were also very hard on the wrists. There were no traditional core or abs exercises. My wrists were hurting a lot after this, and although Cathe says that the wrists will be able to adjust over time, I feel it is not worth the risk of developing a wrist problem.

Overall, this was not a workout that I liked a lot. I may just do the metabolic portion on occasion.

I completely agree! I did the same w/o with the bonus abs and it clocked in at 60 minutes. I would call this workout pretty generic. It wasn't fun. I was constantly watching the clock, which is not a good sign. The uninspiring music didn't help at all. I'm pretty sure we've heard this synthesizer music before....maybe the Strong and Sweaty Series?

The cardio portion was just OK. The weight portion was metabolic with compound moves which is not my favorite way to do weights b/c you can't go super heavy. Plus, there was a lot of weight changes going on. The Ab section I didn't like at all and I'm not really sure why....it just wasn't fun.

I also don't like using the slides. Although, the exercises are easy to modify without using them. Even so, there just wasn't much here that was new and inspiring. I don't think I'll be reaching for this one very often. Overall I would rate it a 6/10.

[Rhonda]

I did the metabolic conditioning workout, no cardio. Only have 30-40 minutes in the mornings to workout. I thought the workout was OK. Still too many shoulder related exercises for my taste. I used mostly 8s for everything because by shoulders are a bit wonky and this is light for lower body so my lower body doesn't feel as worked as I hoped.

Music has never bothered me as I don't pay attention to it and I couldn't tell you if it was good/bad/indifferent or if we were on beat or off.

Thinking of doing the boxing/legs tomorrow.

I wish her premixes had some mixed cardio/toning. Such as cardio/toning/cardio/toning, instead of just cardio, just toning, or switching up and doing the toning first then cardio.

I do like the shorter workouts as you can make them longer if you have time.

[marki64]

Originally Posted by Rhonda

I wish her premixes had some mixed cardio/toning. Such as cardio/toning/cardio/toning, instead of just cardio, just toning, or switching up and doing the toning first then cardio.

I do like the shorter workouts as you can make them longer if you have time.

That's what I was hoping for. Now I really wish I would have cancelled. Never, ever doing another pre sale. And absolutely, no more Cathe's. She is really cutting corners. Why doesn't she just devote herself to her Live stuff, which most seem to prefer anyway? Instead, she puts out the same stale workout dvds. This set doesn't seem like it was a "good deal" anymore. I am really not looking forward to doing these.

[Kathy G]

This morning I did the FitSplit Shred Cardio / Push Day dvd. I loved the warmup, it was like a mini-combo but very brief. I wasn't sure what to expect so I only used a 6" step (so I wouldn't trip myself, lol). There were 12 Blasts which varied in length (a few of them were repeated, some weren't). They were similar to some of her other blasts, maybe re-configured a bit but there were a couple of new ones. The cueing was late or non-existent so I just watched the first time and then followed along. Not too complicated except for a couple that had me scratching my head, lol. But overall, I thought it was short and sweet...not overly done.

The Pull Day segment was very good! It was done in super sets which alternated so you never really had a very long rest. The supersets were:

1) Chest press/chest flies for (3) sets of 10/8/8 reps - finisher was two sets of hand to foot pushups and one set of plyo pushups on the step
2) Close grip tricep press/tricep extension with barbell for (3) sets of 10/8/8 reps - finisher was one set of dips with the bar
3) Overhead shoulder press with barbell/goal post shoulder press with dumbbells for (3) sets of 10/8/8 reps
4) Front barbell squat with elevated heels/high-low pulses (unweighted) with your heels up and using the step to balance
5) Calf raises using two heavy dumbbells for (50) reps

I think the Push/Pull workouts will come in very handy for a total body workout that you can do all in one day or split in two. Great for when you are limited on time for weight lifting. It goes slow enough and there aren't a lot of reps so you can go heavy.

[dianestjohn]

Originally Posted by marki64

That's what I was hoping for. Now I really wish I would have cancelled. Never, ever doing another pre sale. And absolutely, no more Cathe's. She is really cutting corners. Why doesn't she just devote herself to her Live stuff, which most seem to prefer anyway? Instead, she puts out the same stale workout dvds. This set doesn't seem like it was a "good deal" anymore. I am really not looking forward to doing these.

I think Cathe and other instructors are trying to cater to those of us who love dvds and do not like streaming. I have the new set but am afraid to try the first one after reading these reviews I have just finished up the new Kelly dvds and I feel the same way about them - they are done on the fly, phoned in, dull.. It's funny, when I opened the Cathe dvd I was struck by how generic the photo on the front was, I feel like it's the same photo of her I've seen on every other of her dvd sets.

[cataddict]

I don’t read the reviews until after I’ve done the workouts since I don’t want them to factor in to my opinion. I’ve now done 3 of the 4 and my overall review is a thumbs up with reservations. I pay no attention to music unless it’s too obtrusive (like in Rhythmic Step for example) so I didn’t notice it being as bad as some have mentioned.

I liked the low impact/metabolic workout except for the on the floor gliding segments. I modify the crap out of those and no, my wrist joints are not muscle and won’t ‘get used to it.’

I do agree that less time and effort goes into making DVDs since streaming is the wave of the future and mostly of the present as well. I like these enough and feel they are worth the money, at least to me.

[Hazel Porter]

I did Pull Day Only yesterday afternoon and Legs & Glutes + bonus abs this morning. I was seriously impressed by how much Cathe managed to pack into the very short time frames (30 minutes for Pull Day and 22 min for Legs & Glutes). She moves along at a nice clip (but it's not frenetic IMO), and I was sweaty and breathing hard after L&G. I was pleasantly fried after both the weight workouts using the same weights she used. I would like to see her make a circuit workout instead of working each muscle group exclusively before moving on.

I also liked the bonus abs -- lots of new and unique exercises using glide discs, the firewalker loop, and variations of plank. Lots of whole-body movements and a nice challenge. I do agree though that if you have wonky wrists, this is not the abs routine for you.

I agree that the premixes are completely uninspired, just like those on the S&S series DVDs. It seems they may be counting on (or pushing toward) more people going over to streaming On Demand and being able to create their own premixes.