I can’t believe that since April, I have managed to purchase almost every single Cathe DVD available. In fact, other than Xtrain (which I have on pre-order and it ships 12/27/12–whoo-hoo!), there are only 2 more Cathe DVDs I am “on the fence” about buying. The remaining 5 I don’t think I will ever get. So that is only 7 of her vast library I do not own. Amazing. I clearly drank the koolaid and am loving it.
Travel Fit was a Christmas present. It is a Cathe workout I very much wanted but held off buying because I knew I would not use it frequently. In fact, I want it for exactly what it was created for: travel. I received it on Christmas morning in my stocking and it was my Christmas workout. I couldn’t wait to test it out. And I love it. Like I said, it will not be a frequently used workout, but it is perfect for it’s intended purpose.
Though Travel Fit is a cardio + strength workout, it is primarily a strength workout with a few cardio bursts to keep your heart rate up. The only piece of equipment required for this workout is a resistance band. The only other thing I would recommend is weight gloves–the band can get painful on your hands after a while. The cardio can easily be done low impact so that if you are on an upper floor of a hotel, there is no noise. In fact, most of the cardio Cathe already does low impact. Because I was doing the workout in my home, I did higher impact moves to increase the intensity, but I very much appreciate the option of making this a quiet workout that disturbs no one.
Travel Fit is 50 minutes; 4 minute warm up, 42 minute training period and 4 minute stretch. The warm up is done sans band. After the warm up, you grab the band and do some lat pull downs (from over head to chest level), then lat pulls at chest level (pulling band out to sides). Next you do rear lunges with more lat pulls at chest level. Then you fold the band in half to increase resistance and do more late pull downs.
First cardio burst is squat digs–no band.
Grab the band again and loop it under both feet and do a lot of bicep curls. Next is curl and press, where you do bicep curls then overhead presses, followed by lunges with more overhead presses.
The second cardio burst is plie jumps–no band.
Grab the band again for tricep kickbacks. Next is a rather painful bow and arrow move that focuses on the triceps and the delts. Then you move onto tricep overhead press. You then do one legged deadlifts and static lunges. I felt those more than I expected to. You finish that section with bent arm lat raises.
Third and last cardio burst is puddle stepper/jumper–no band (I did skaters).
Now you move to the floor. You start with push ups, then you do back rows with band wrapped around feet. Next, you lay on your back with legs in the air and band looped around both feet, criss-crossed and held to the floor with hands. You work the outer thigh by opening and closing the legs.
The workout ends with abdominal work. First you do a reverse crunch, then sit ups. L leg crunches. Bike maneuver. The strength exercises end with plank. Finally, you stretch.
No, this wasn’t the most difficult or challenging Cathe workout out there, nor is the cardio up to her usual standards for a circuit workout. But it is still a very good workout for its intended purpose with minimal equipment. Perfect for travel. You can still get an awesome Cathe workout when away from home. I have a long vacation coming up and I am bringing Cathe with me. I plan to bring Travel Fit with a resistance band and her Slide N’ Glide workout with my slide and glide disks and firewalkers. Slide N’ Glide gives you a great cardio workout that has zero impact (so no noise). I will be all set to get excellent cardio and strength workouts on vacation–and very little of my luggage room will be used to carry the equipment needed.
Ah! That clears that up…I was totally wrong! I look forward to your bike reviews when you do get a spin bike. And good information about the heavy bag workouts as well as the step workouts. I did step classes for many years when I was younger but complicated choreography just frustrates and irritates me. I would probably want to watch those DVD’s many times to “rehearse” beforehand, but really, who has time for that? I probably will get the Basic step + body fusion since I haven’t done step in many years, but I can see why you wouldn’t bother with them. And the tip about the weighted gloves for the boxing workouts is excellent!! Now I feel like those ones aren’t off the list. And I literally DID make a list of all of Cathe’s workouts from her website…wow, she has tons!! If they weren’t so expensive for us to buy from Canada, I’d probably have a quite a few already. Anyways, thanks again. I probably will have other questions, if you don’t mind!
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Tell me what you think of Body Fusion. I have been interested but held off due to the level. And you are welcome to ask me anything! If I can answer, I will!
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Hi: I know this is an old post, but which 5 Cathe videos did you not want and did you end up ever purchasing them? I’m thinking 3 of them might be the ones involving a stationary bike? Curious minds!!!! The only 2 videos of Cathe that I actually own are Xtrain ride and Pedal Power, but I plan to start buying them all up at some point. Love your blog.
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That is a good question! I had to think about it. I actually did want Cathe’s cycling DVDs and own them all except one (Cycle Max, which is still on my wishlist). I don’t review them here because I don’t own a spin bike, I own a recumbent bike, so I don’t feel like my reviews would be accurate. I do plan to eventually buy a spin bike tho. One day!
The ones that I never thought I’d buy are some of her step workouts w/ complex choreography–but I did end up buying them and doing them. Well, all but one. The last hold out was Step Moves and though I own it, I haven’t gotten around to doing it yet. I’m not motivated to right now either, so who knows if I ever will. Some of the step workouts I ended up getting anyway and trying were hit or miss. I hate some and ended up loving others. I workout to get a good workout, not to spend time rehearsing and learning dance moves. So some of those will just collect dust on my DVD shelf. For instance the Party Rockin step workouts. I love #2, but #1 was ridiculously complex and I’ll never bother with it again.
I also didn’t plan to ever get MMA Boxing because of the heavy bag bonus. But then I did heavy bag bonuses on other workouts and realized that with weighted gloves on, all it is, is more shadow boxing. And I am so glad I ended up getting MMA Boxing–it is the best of the 3 MMA workouts.
She also has a Basic Step + Body Fusion workout I’ll never get. They are beginner level so that’s why I don’t bother with them. There are maybe 2-3 Cathe workouts I don’t own. But not many! And I love about 95% of them.
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