Customer Reviews
If you work out at home, you must buy Cathe workouts! 
2007-08-25
Simply the best, most efficient workouts on the market today, Cathe Friedrich is a tiny dymano - she knows her stuff, knows how to share it with you (she's a superb teacher), you simply cannot go wrong with her workouts. This workout has already been broken down - suffice to say it's the only back/core/abdominal workout you'll ever need.
One of the best ab workouts around! 2007-06-12
This DVD is great value for money - each workout is just the right length, challenging without being too difficult, and varied enough so that you won't get bored. (The "core" in the title is a little misleading, as these three workouts focus on the abdominal, rather than the back muscles.) An 8 pound medicine ball is recommended; it's used to add resistance to exercises like crunches, roll-ups and rocket shoots.
Cathe has a reputation for being hard core (no pun intended!) but I appreciate that she says things like "Don't worry if you don't have the endurance; it will come over time."
Here's a breakdown of the workouts.
Segment One - No equipment (20 minutes)
1) Supermans
2) Levitation holds
3) Hip lifts (bent leg)
4) Hip lifts (straight leg)
5) Corkscrew
6) Opposite elbow to knee
7) Reach to outside of knee
8) Frog-style crunches (both knees open to sides)
9) Crunches with straight legs in air
10) Crunches with knees bent on floor
11) Three-level crunches
12) Rope climb crunches
13) Frog style crunches (second set)
14) Three-level crunches (second set) with pulses at the top
15) Axe crunches
16) Reverse crunches
17) Crunches with arms and legs extended
18) Reverse crunches (second set)
19) Straight leg prone plank
20) Hip dip planks
Segment Two - Stability Ball (20 minutes)
1) Supermans on ball
2) Roll outs
3) Roll ins
4) Roll ins for obliques (legs pull in on an angle)
5) Pikes on the ball
6) Crunches on top of ball
7) Long lever ball exchange (holding the ball between your feet and crunching up to transfer the ball to your hands)
8) Vertical oblique rotations with legs straight in air
9) Side-to-side chops
10) Woodchops for obliques
11) Pelvic tilt crunches
Segment 3 - Stability Ball and Medicine Ball (20 minutes)
MEDICINE BALL ONLY
1) Superman (no equipment)
2) Curl-ups with medicine ball
3) Rocket shoots holding medicine ball between legs
4) Modified V-Sit (Russian twist)
5) Oblique rotations with knees bent in the air
STABILITY AND MEDICINE BALL TOGETHER
6) Side-to-side rotations
7) Supine woodchops on a diagonal
8) Side-to-side woodchops on stability ball while holding medicine ball
9) Oblique crunches with medicine ball on shoulder
10) Long range crunches
11) Short range crunches
12) Long range crunch (2nd set)
13) Short range crunch (2nd set)
Loved it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2007-02-13
If you are looking for something challangeing look no more. Kathy has once again given me a kicken workout that challenges me.
Tough and effective :-() 2006-08-19
This is about my 7th workout of Cathes and it's great. It's tough but it's going to give you amazing results if you do it consistantly. On the DVD there are three different types of workouts. There is classic floor work, abdominal workout using a stability ball and also a workout with a stability ball and medicine ball. It's fun and gets easier over time.
All of these ab workouts are going to tone you up and flatten you out (if you do a lot of cardio too). She is a great instructor and she cues well so you know what's coming up next. If you want a toned tummy, you need to eat right, do cardio and use this DVD for a fantastic ab workout that you will feel. It's great.
my abs are sore :o) 2008-06-03
This is my second Cathe work out video (the first is the step body fusion). This is a awesome ab and core workout, the length of each workout is perfect, any shorter and it wouldnt be enough and much longer and i'd probably pull something. I'm not in the best shape ever, but I am not completly out of shape either, id say im pretty average for a young woman. I feel that it is NOT too difficult to where I can barely finnish half the program, however there are some areas that i'll have to work up to doing perfect all the way through. Which, I feel this is a good thing because it allows me to have goals and prevents me from getting bored or too discouraged.
Cathe is my favorite workout leader so far, she doesnt yell at you through the TV and she isnt annoyingly perky. However, you definatly dont get bored with the workouts. At first, I was thinking, "how many ways can you work your stomach!?" But I was wrong, there are a lot of different workouts Cathe includes to work all areas of your core without being repetative.
Another thing I love is that she makes sure to explain how to properly do the exercise, and stresses that having good form is more important than finnishing the exercise. She also includes variations of most exercises to either make things easier/less stressful or to make things more challenging
**NOTE** Before you buy this workout, make sure you have a stability ball, and a medicine ball (Cathe uses 8lb, so do i), I also reccomend a mat so you dont get irritated by your carpet or flooring.
This video is def a good investment and I cant wait till i start to not only feel the results but actually start to see them :o)
Cathe Friedich's Hardcore Series: CORE MAX 2008-04-18
Excellent for abs and back. All three workouts are wonderful and easy to follow. Great workouts!!
My First Cathe Video 
2008-03-25
She should've added more vocal cues. Sometimes, it's fairly obvious when a body part is doing something it shouldn't during an exercise. Other times, though, it's not. For example, some of her exercises require that the hips stay on the ground. Similar exercises in the video demand the hips to lift off the ground. It all depends on what the aim of each exercise it. And unless you know something about each muscle group, you might perform the exercise wrong without knowing it. My advice is to carefully watch her shoulders, hips, and arms during the workout. Especially the arms, since they're connected to the rest of the core. Otherwise, she's excellent in front of the camera. The exercises get the job done.
Excellent core workout 2008-01-12
Cathe does a great job warming you up and then really challenging your core. She pushes you hard enough to see real change in your body. I would recommend this for everyone wanting to seriously shape their midsection.
REALLY works the core 2007-12-17
I watched CATHE doing her routine on TV and thought it'd be nice not to have to deal with commercials. I really like her workouts and this CD series is set up nicely in three separate segments....on mat only, with stability ball & with stability ball and a medicine ball. All three segments provide a serious core challenge. The CD provides an intro so that you know what each segment will be like. You can then chose the type of workout you want. All definitely provide a serious core workout! I thought the workout on the mat was going to be the easiest... wrong! She makes you use those core muscles to their optimum. I personally like using the stability ball with the medicine ball segment on the days I do my weight workout...gives me a sense of doing a well rounded routine. It's tough, but well worth the effort.
