Cathe Friedrich Interview: Fitness, Workouts, & Nutrition after 40

The incredible Cathe Friedrich is a pioneer of the home exercise video industry with 100s of unique exercise DVDs, fitness classes, and live workouts to fit many fitness levels!

The New Jersey personal trainer and group fitness instructor started creating high quality workout programs back in 1989 with Step N Motion One. Since then, she’s created every type of home workout you can imagine and has one of the largest fitness libraries ever!

If you’re looking for advanced fitness videos, you’ll love her strength training, step aerobics, and bootcamp workout series! She also has low impact series and HIIT workouts available.

My mom and I were looking for high-quality, challenging workout DVDs back in the early 2000s. We had done a few random Cathe Friedrich’s workout DVDs before, but never as a series until 2009. Then, we bought STS which is an intense, 41-disc strength program.

From there, we learned about eating clean and how varying your workouts can help you get better results. Cathe’s following, Cathletes, are amazing about creating rotations and workout hybrids to create advanced training at home or the gym as well!

Cathe Friedrich Interview

We were honored to get to interview Cathe a few years ago! Below is her exact answers to our top 10 questions!

1. You’ve done several gym tours before. How do you eat healthy on the go?

It’s not always easy to eat as healthy as I’d like to when I’m traveling, but I always carry a large water bottle with me. This is great for flying or driving because I can add a scoop of my whey protein powder to a cup of water for a quick healthy protein fix.

I also bring a travel size Greek yogurt, a pack of unsalted almonds/nuts, a mixed green salad (with no dressing) and an apple. This pretty much covers my protein, greens, and carbs for a few hours. Then later once I get settled and go to a restaurant I usually order steamed salmon, steamed broccoli and half of a non-buttered sweet potato.

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2. Do you have a go-to meal or restaurant for eating healthy?

I absolutely love sushi and will have it anytime I find a high-quality sushi place. I find it to be a great recovery meal for hard-working muscles.

3. I’m a fitness instructor, but I have to have….. (junk food, wine, etc).

Ice Cream/Frozen Yogurt!!! I absolutely love ice cream and frozen yogurt. I’m in heaven with all these “make your own” frozen yogurt places popping up, but my favorite one of them all is Red Mango.

I love that they have a variety of healthy toppings and gluten-free yogurt options too. As for a liquid cheat, wink, a glass of merlot is always on my list. But it also contains antioxidants so it’s a “good” cheat!

4.  Do you read any fitness magazines?

Yes, I love to keep on top of everything in the fitness business so I look through many magazines, but my favorite one of all is called On Fitness. It has the best current, cutting-edge, fitness editorial content.

5. What do you feel is the most overlooked aspect of health?

Keeping things in balance and keeping things in moderation. A lot of people take an all or nothing approach to getting in shape and on top of that they many times do it with just one type of activity.

I find that the best approach is to do a variety of activities to keep ALL your muscles working optimally. I also say to do things in moderation because too much of even a good thing can backfire and possibly lead to overuse and injury.

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6. ____________ is always in my refrigerator.

Egglands Best Eggs!!! I discovered these eggs when I was in college and never looked back. They are loaded with bonus nutrition and I have an 18 pack of their eggs in my refrigerator at all times.

In fact, at times I feel I go through their eggs ( especially the egg whites) faster than their hens hatch them, lol.

7. My mom and I both love fitness. She is scared to death of getting the “middle-age spread,” what do you suggest for women in their 40s and 50s?

At 48, I’m right there too and I find that women’s bodies begin to change at different rates depending on when they go through menopause. During this time we have hormones fluctuating all over the place.

This affects how the body responds to many things such as aging, digestion, hair loss, weight loss, etc. To some degree we have to accept these changes but by no means should we ever give up.

There ARE very effective things we can do that can help keep our weight down and body composition in check.

Three things that will help are:

1. A stricter diet that limits processed foods and carbohydrate/fat intake
2. A minimum of 10 eight ounce glasses of water a day to flush out waste & toxins & improve digestion & circulation.
3. A solid night of 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. These three things play a very important role in your metabolism and how your body processes foods/cravings.

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8. For someone that has been working out awhile, but wants to amplify their results, what would be your top 3 tips?

• The first is to change your workout every day. Never do the same workout two days in a row EVER!
• The second is to do at least one high-intensity interval workout per week in addition to a range of moderate to high intensity the other days of the week. Ideally, try to do one high-intensity interval workout every 5 days.
• The third is to lift heavy weights for every body part every other week (but change your exercise order around each time you do it).

9. Your family is all very active. What would you recommend for families trying to get active?

In a world booming with new digital technology every day, it is hard to get kids away from all the video games and computer-based entertainment.

I recommend restricting these activities and getting the kids involved in sports, dance, fitness clubs and social interaction activities. If you start this when they are young they will see this as a natural way of life. If they are older and you’re trying to get them more active, bring them to a fitness class with you.

Make an hour of physical fitness a regular part of their routine and then save the digital activities as something they can do after they have done homework and worked out or moved about.

10. You’ve reshaped women’s bodies for years, and you always seem to be on to the next thing whether it was eating clean or XTrain. What are you working on for us now?

Yes, I’m excited to share with you my new workouts that I have planned for 2013. These new workouts will offer a variety of different types of routines that can help you reach your fitness goals without the dread factor.

It’s easy to become limited by your routine. Once we feel comfortable doing something, it’s easy to keep doing it – but that can also lead to boredom and stagnation.

Plus, as I mentioned earlier, varying your workout keeps you from working the same muscles over and over in the same way which can lead to an overuse injury.

As with all of my workouts, these upcoming ones will offer so many new ways to work out in the comfort of your own home that there’s no reason to ever experience stagnation or boredom.

Thank you so much to Cathe for taking the time to do this interview!

Other frequently asked questions:

Is Cathe Friedrich married?

Yes, Cathe has been married to her husband for several years and has 2 sons. 

How old is Cathe Friedrich?

Cathe Friedrich is in her late 50s. She was born July 20, 1964.

What equipment do you need for Cathe workouts?

Depending on the workout, you may need no equipment! Most of Cathe’s workouts require hand weights, resistance bands, or an exercise step though.

Favorite Cathe Friedrich Workouts

You can access her workouts with Cathe Streaming, DVDs, and digital downloads.

She currently offers:

• Abs & Core 
• Beginner 
• Boot Camp 
• Circuit Exercises
• Compilation Workouts
• Indoor Cycling
• Fit Tower Advanced 
• Hi/Lo Exercise 
• High Step Workout 
• HiiT, Metabolic and Interval Workout DVDs
• Kickboxing
• Low Impact Cardio 
• Step Aerobic 
• Strength & Toning
• Stretch & Yoga