Just like Bootcamp, I am updating and rewriting the Muscle Endurance review. It was the second review I wrote for this blog (posted 4/20/12) and like I mentioned in the new Bootcamp review, I knew what I wanted, but I clearly hadn’t achieved it in those two reviews. However, I am leaving them up–so if you want to check out the original review, here it is.
I love Cathe’s multi-workout DVDs. It’s always awesome to get multiple full length awesome workouts on a single DVD, but some of them contain bonuses. You not only get the two main workouts and their associated pre-mixes, but you get bonus premixes that mix the two workouts together! It just doesn’t get any better than that. Bootcamp + Muscle Endurance is what started my Cathe obsession. They are fun and effective and, Muscle Endurance in particular, is super tough. And though I love them both, Bootcamp isn’t one I do often because it’s not the best strength workout–however, the bonus premix that combines Bootcamp + Muscle Endurance changes everything. See below–I will review the amazing bonus premix after the Muscle Endurance review.
Cathe has a lot of super tough strength workouts and this is one of them. As you can tell by its title, it is an endurance workout, so expect a lot of reps. I went moderately heavy and really burned my muscles out (in a good way!). One thing I now know about this workout, that I didn’t know when I first started doing it, is that Cathe is using a 16 inch high step for leg presses! Not a 14 inch step like I originally assumed. I didn’t have a high step or a club step when I first got Muscle Endurance–I only had a transfirmer, which goes to 14 inches. I thought that was the standard height of all high steps. Well, with a high step and a club step, they are as high as you want to them to be by adding and removing the risers. In Muscle Endurance she uses 6 risers + the topper, which equals 16 inches. That is quite a high step! But I loved it. I am so glad I bought a club step and a high step, they definitely give my workouts more versatility. No buyer’s remorse here!
Muscle Endurance is a 65 minute strength workout; 6 minute warm up, 45 minute strength training, 10 minutes of abs, 4 minute stretch. The workout time clocks in a little longer than 65 minutes because Cathe does an intro that last a minute or two–just fast forward through it after watching it once.
Equipment needed: barbell, dumbbells, 16 inch high step, 8 pound medicine ball, mat for ab workout and stretch, and she uses a 10 pound barbell plate when she does leg presses, but you can easily substitute a dumbbell of the appropriate weight. I initially thought 10 pounds was too light for me–and it was initially, but keep in mind you are doing a lot of leg presses on a 16 inch step. I started out holding a 25 pound plate and by the end of the workout, I was holding a 15 pound dumbbell.
Legs:
Leg presses with barbell plate
Squats with barbell
Deadlifts with barbell
Back (5 minutes):
One arm rows with dumbbells
deadrow/clean and press combo with barbell
Biceps (3:30 minutes):
Barbell curls–lots and lots of reps (crazy 8s, too)
Legs:
Leg presses with barbell plate
Static lunges with barbell
Chest (5:30 minutes):
Chest flys with dumbbells
Pec squeezes with medicine ball
Push ups
Triceps (4 minutes):
Tricep dips off high step
Double tricep kickbacks with dumbbells
French press with barbell plate
Legs:
Leg presses with barbell plate
Glute raises
Shoulders (4:30 minutes):
Standing rotation presses with dumbbells
Front/side raise combo
Seated rear delt raises
Seated side lat raises
The workout ends with 10 minutes of abdominal work. I tend to not care for the long abdominal sections in Cathe’s older workouts because they are not very creative, but that is not the case with this one. She uses a lot of different exercises to work out the entire abdominal area. You use the medicine ball through the first part. If you’ve done Bootcamp, then you’ll recognize a lot of the moves like long lever medicine ball crunches, reverse medicine ball crunches, side plank hip raises with medicine ball and oblique twists with medicine ball–to name just a few! Muscle Endurance however has many more and varied core exercises than those (Bootcamp has 8 different core exercises). I would only skip the core work if I was trying to keep the workout under an hour–otherwise I will always include Muscle Endurance’s awesome core work.
Premixes: Express 53 minutes, Upper Body Split 44 minutes, Leg Press only 7 minutes, Lower Body Split 39 minutes (lower body includes all of the leg segments + warm up and stretch).
Bootcamp + Muscle Endurance bonus combo is 67 minutes long; 6 minute warm up, 47 minute training time, 10 minute abdominal work and 4 minute stretch. The bonus combo uses the warm up from Bootcamp and the abdominal section and stretch from Muscle Endurance. The training time is broken down into 4 circuits that combines segments from the two workouts.
I LOVED this workout. It was a tough and excellent full body workout that gets the heart rate up there. I’ll probably use this premix more than I use the other two individually now that I know it exists! But I do love all three. Another Cathe gold mine!
Equipment needed: barbell, dumbbells, high step at 16 inches, an 8 pound medicine ball and mat. Cathe uses the 10 pound barbell plate for leg presses.
Bootcamp: warm up
Circuit #1
Bootcamp Cardio: jack series
Bootcamp Legs: Squats
Bootcamp Upper body: Barbell rows
Muscle Endurance barbell deadlifts
Muscle Endurance deadrow/clean and press combo with barbell
Circuit #2
Bootcamp Cardio: Sumo squats
Bootcamp Legs: Static lunges
Muscle Endurance: Leg press with barbell plate
Muscle Endurance: static barbell lunges
Muscle Endurance: barbell bicep curls
Circuit #3
Bootcamp Cardio: Sequential power kicks
Bootcamp Legs: Front and side kicks
Bootcamp Upper body: Military dumbbell presses
Muscle Endurance: Seated rear delt raises
Muscle Endurance: Seated side lat raises
Circuit #4
Bootcamp Cardio: Jack-jab, plyo jacks
Bootcamp Legs: Plié squats
Muscle Endurance: Leg press with barbell plate
Muscle Endurance: barbell squats
Muscle Endurance: Triceps dips off high step
Muscle Endurance: dumbbell tricep kickbacks
Mucsle Endurance: dumbbell chest flys
Bootcamp Upper body: Pushups
Muscle Endurance: abs and stretch
I’ve had this dvd for YEARS!! I finally did the Bonus Combo this morning. Holy crap! Cathe knows how to fry the lower body. Thanks for your reviews, as always!!
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I know! I had the DVD for years, too, with no clue there was a premix that mixed the two workouts together! And it is an awesome workout!
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Greetings! I’ve been following your site for a long time now and finally got the bravery to go ahead and give you a shout out from Kingwood Texas! Just wanted to mention keep up the fantastic work!
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Thanks! I’m so glad others find it useful!
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