Cathe Live: Hi-Lo Cardio & Core

Hi-Lo Cardio & Core is an interesting workout. I guess I liked it, but I’m not positive I will ever return to it. Maybe by the time I finish writing this review I will have decided. It was a good workout, but maybe not as intense as some of her other cardio workouts. The title is a little deceiving–at least to those of us familiar with Cathe‘s low impact workouts. I was expecting a workout that alternated low impact cardio w/ HIIT/plyo cardio. What you actually get, is the first 21:30 minutes (and this includes the warm up) is traditional cardio/old-style cardio moves. Steady state. If you have done Cathe’s older workouts: Maximum Intensity Cardio, Cardio Kicks and Cross Train Express, then you are familiar with the type of cardio she classifies as “Lo.” Then she moves on to the “Hi” portion–this is another 11:30 minutes of high impact/plyo/HIIT drills. I list them below but I do not list reps. You do lots of reps and two sets of every exercise. In between each exercise Cathe has active recoveries. The active recoveries are frequently more of the old-style cardio. She gives you a pretty long cool down/active stretch then you go to the floor for a long core segment.

Hi-Lo Cardio & Core is 50 minutes long; 10 minute warm up, 11:30 minutes “Lo”/old style cardio, 11:30 minutes “Hi”/HIIT cardio, 3:30 cool down, 10:30 minutes core and 1:30 minute stretch. It aired live on 8/14/14 and here is a video clip. The only equipment needed is a mat at the end for the core work.

“Lo”/old style cardio consists of moves such as heel-toes, double knee hops, scoop-skips, slides, ponys, hip twist/hops, side leg lift/hops, kick-skips, knee up and overs, and much more.

“Hi”/HIIT (you will do two sets of every exercise listed):

1. Squat digs
2. Apple pickers
3. 3 hops forward, one tuck jump, and 4 jacks, turning as you jack
4. Side to side sumo hops
5. Grounded switches (low 180 jump squats–staying low the entire time)
6. 4 “pumps” (hops) and 4 air jacks

Core:

1. Plank work: high to low plank w/ plank jacks; walk feet in and out while in low plank; supermans; in high plank bring same knee under body, outside of body then straighten and raise same leg
2. Sit on hip and raise and lower straight legs; sit on bottom and thrust legs in and out in front of you; sit on other hip and raise and lower straight legs; sit on bottom and thrust legs in and out in front of you; sit on hip again and raise and lower straight legs, this time also raising and lowering straight arm to touch feet (so bigger range of movement); move to other hip and repeat
3. Basic crunches
4. Sit ups w/ speed bag arms
5. Crunches w/ knees open and soles of feet touching; alternate doing 4 w/ feet on ground and 4 w/ feet raised
6. Reverse crunch series
7. Raise arms overhead while pushing feet/legs out straight (but a few inches off the floor) then bringing feet and arms in