Body Max 2

This was not Cathe's hardest workout. Not her easiest, but not her hardest. It's in the same tune as Bodymax 1 in that it's a step routine (I didn't find the intensity nor the choreography terribly challenging) and then she does her usual style of step routine/blast/leg weights for four cycles and then the entire rest of the workout is upper body. She tries to change it up with two new moves and a side plank which kills, but I found it to be her usual fare. Weight work is just so blah. NOt necessarily hers, but in general, I find that instructors, Cathe included, are not terribly creative with the weights. Flies, lateral raises, bicep curls, military presses. The usual stuff.... This is more of the same. It was a long and I felt very worked out afterwards. It's definitely a keeper, but no different than all her other great workouts.

I have been putting off writing reviews of the new workouts because I have only been doing parts (or premixes) of the workouts I intend to keep (LIC, BMax2, and Cardio Fusion). Well, I realized I was never going to do any of these workouts as is, so it was time to start reviewing.

I have done my version of Body Max 2 twice now. My version includes the warm up, the power circuits, the bonus cardio and the upper body workout. This slices about twenty minutes off the workout. I do not eliminate the step combos to shorten the workout (although that is a happy side effect of doing this). I do this because I learned the bonus cardio without difficulty and could not imagaine having it broken down over 25 minutes. It would probably be a bit boring. As it is, the 6 minute segment is very fun and there is absolutely no breaking down the moves. There are some new moves and old ones. The music is great too.

Oh-- I forgot the warm up. Well, it doesn't really seem particularly warm up like-- more like just learning a new step combo with a few stretches thrown at the end. I'm not complaining though. Even though it was 9 1/2 minutes long I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Power Circuit Section has great choreography too. The blasts were not too bad either. I am not a big fan of repetitive and super high impact movements. These were neither too repetitive nor too high impact.

The lower body weight sections went by pretty fast-- there were definitely less reps than Cathe usually includes with lower body work. For me, this is a good thing. Some may feel shortchanged. I am not a fan of lunges, so I subbed deadlifts for the last set of lunges. I used Cathe's count for the deadlifts. It worked out fine.

The upper body work uses just dumbbells and a stability ball. I found it probably a little easier than the upper body work on Body Max 2. One thing I had problems with was following Cathe's count on the chest presses. She has a new move for shoulders-- doing arm circles into lateral raises-- that was interesting. The tricep dips were very different too. I don't think I can explain them, but I did wonder if they were effective with the shortened range of motion. The hardest section for me was biceps. The bicep curls with your back and back of arms pressed next to the stability ball was killer! I worked to failure on that one. I have not done the abs. The first section seemed a little frantically paced when I first tried it, so I have stuck with the abs from LIC which I like very much.

Body Max 2 is definately an eat your wheeties workout! We Cathe fans have waited a long time for these new videos but they were well worth the wait! Body Max 2 is over 90 minutes long and the dvd has a lot of premix options on it to customize your workout and make them long or short.

I did the workout in its entirety. She starts off with a great warm up that could be a step routine. She then does step segments that really get your heart rate up. I believe there are 3 step sections and its almost half an hour long. next is a power circuit - you do a mini step routine repeated six times, followed by a blast that kicks it up a notch, and then she does leg work with weights (such as lunges, plie squats, barbell squats etc) There are four power circuits total.

After the power circuit, get ready to work some more. Cathe does weight work on and off the stability ball with 15 and 5 pound dumbbells but you can modify as needed. She works every part of your upper body, and yes..pushups are included. Finally you conclude with some great and challenging ab work with planks included. A nice stretch follows. There is even a bonus 6 minute cardio section but i didnt do it due to lack of time..plus i was tired! I did Low Impact Circuit yesterday and my butt has never been this sore! Cathe never fails to deliver. This is a great series!