Still Going Strong: Interval Training With Karen Voight

See the DVD cover and video clip | step, mat, fan

Day 76

Energy Sprint is such an amazing workout – it uses your large muscles groups over and over ensuring a real sweatfest calorie burner!

Yesterday I did the Jillian Michaels Back DVD and that kicks butt, but it doesn’t work your butt very much. So today, being cardio day I thought I would incorporate a great butt workout in there too.

Karen Voight’s Energy Sprint is a great butt and leg workout. Your inner thighs will burn during the inner thigh segment – with one foot raised on the step you do plie squats, on and off the bench, which absolutely works those muscles way more than just standard plie squats. But that’s not all, because you spend most of the workout squatting on and off the bench, doing side leg raises, rear leg lefts [for more butt shaping] as well as lunges. All in all you legs will get very tired!

Because I did a vigorous workout yesterday this one was more challenging. My legs felt spent much more quickly than they had on previous times doing the sprints. I was sucking in wind a lot earlier too. This is a great interval workout and the sprints get anaerobic for longer, as they get longer throughout the workout. The first interval is short but by number seven it’s loooooong!

The whole DVD is an 80+ minute workout but I used the menu selector to pick and choose what I wanted which was just the leg work and sprints, with warm up and cool down too.

I was truly thankful for the cool down! If you like stepping and you like interval training this DVD is definitely worth doing.

4/22/08

55:00 [workout time]
20:16 [in aerobic zone 60% -80% Target Heart Rate]
150 bpm [average heart rate]
178 bpm [highest heart rate]
479 [cals burned] – Awesome!

Workout DVD #22: Kathy Smith’s Power Step

See the DVD | step | 45 mins

WARNING: a real overuse of links are peppered throughout this text. Click at your own peril!

Netflix writes:

Step your way to a better body with fitness guru Kathy Smith’s cardio Power Step Workout. Set to energizing music, Smith’s workout begins with the all-important warm-up, followed by three aerobic segments that increase in difficulty. The Power Step Workout is appropriate for all levels of fitness; Smith and her assistants show viewers how to tailor the workout based on fitness level, and the routines can be mixed and matched.

Day 35

I actually felt good this morning when I woke up. Thank you health angels! I was really pleased that I could work out today as yesterday I felt like a blob just sitting about at the PC all day.

Kathy Smith does some really good workouts. I wrote about her kickboxing DVD on day 2/Feb 9th of my 3 month get fit program, so 33 days on Ms. Smith makes a comeback.

Another member of fitness royalty, Kathy Smith has been around for a very loooong time, and she knows her stuff. This workout was like a typical step class – well ones like I am familiar with anyway. I digress: check out this guy’s amazing step class! I have never done anything like that – wish I could.

Back to this workout: there is a nice warm up that lasts about 8 minutes and then you have the option to do the cardio sections 1 [25 mins], 1 & 2 [35 mins] or 1, 2 & 3 [45 mins]. I went all the way through to section 3.

There are lots of easy moves [I thought] but with the addition of jumping, or ‘power moves’, to up the intensity. The production is top notch and flawless.

Kathy uses an ‘air bench’ which looks like a lot of fun, but you can just use a regular step. I went to kathysmith.com but there was no information about the air bench under her list of products so I guess it just went the way of the thighmaster… shame, looked like a blast.

What I can’t believe is her age! Wikipedia says she is 56!!! Unreal! If I could look like that now, let alone 56, I would be so blessed. That motivates me to get moving, big time.

As I had felt pretty crappy yesterday I didn’t use the usual 2 risers with my step. I used one to start and then near the end, none. I felt that my workout was going nicely but I didn’t want to overdo it. I kept looking at my heart rate monitor and only a handful of times did my HR go above 85%.

So here are my stats for today:

3/12/08

52:56 [workout time]
34:35 [in aerobic zone 60% -80% Target Heart Rate]
139 bpm [average heart rate]
164 bpm [highest heart rate]
385 [cals burned]