CTX series or Power Hour??

[SarahLA]

Hi Cathe,

I just ordered the CTX Series, and already have all of your other videos. I was trying to decide which would be better and get me leaner quicker! By doing the CTX Series as it says - 6 days/week.......or doing Power Hour 3x/week and doing straight cardio the other 3 days?

I don't know which one would be better to start with? What results has anyone else gotten by doing a rotation like this? Is Power Hour considered cardio in nature too so that would count as a cardio day? I'm struggling with the fact that everyone seems to say to focus on more cardio in a fat-loss phase, but I'm concerned with only working 1 bodypart 1 time a week as opposed to doing Power Hour 3x/week and getting the total-body in there 3 times. And my diet will be completely clean and strict of course!!

PLEASE HELP ANYONE!!! I need advice and to hear others results.
What do you recommend Cathe?

Thanks!
Sarah

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Sarah! I don't really have an answer for you but I will point out some things which may help you decide which direction you want to go in.

Let me start by saying that although Power Hour is intense and gets your heart rate up there, it is not considered a cardio workout. Secondly, since you say that you already have my other workouts, then you need to think about how your body responded to those workouts. Did you find that your body needs more cardio (say 4 or more a week) to keep your body fat down? Or did you find that you could do three days of cardio plus weight training and still lose body fat?

CTX series is a highly intense cardio series but less focus on weight training. As for weights, this series will maintain your current strength gains for about a month before needing to go onto a more challenging strength series.

Power Hour three times per week will improve your muscle endurance more than promote huge strength gains so if strength is what you want in addition to body fat loss, you may want to use Power Hour once a week but MIS the other two days, since this promotes more strength gains than Power Hour, yet still encompasses a total body workout.

I don't know if your diet already was strict and clean or if that is something you are going to start now, because if it is something you are going to start now, that change in itself will have a huge impact in your body fat loss.

Just some food for thought. Good Luck!

 

[SarahLA]

Thank you Cathe!

I'm not completely sure what my body responds to better. I had always changed things around and not stuck to any "one" rotation for a very long time. The only thing I remember is back about this time last year(Nov. 2000) - I cleaned up my diet severely, was very strict - and started a program of doing a total-body "freestyle" routine on Mon/Wed/Fri with free weights, moderate weight........took about 45 minutes and I didn't really rest between sets, and I did supersets for a few of the exercises. I then did my cardio on alternate days Tues/Thurs/Sat for about 45 minutes on my recumbant bike. I was not using tapes at all at that time. Since that time, my diet has been terrible, and I've slacked off on the exercise. I was making great progress back then, but then hit some rough times. So I'm getting myself back on track!!!!

From that - what do you recommend? Would that be more weight training that seems to work? So I would stick to Power Hour 3x/week? And add your cardio tapes on alternate days? My goal is not to get great strength gains right now....but to burn the most fat possible. Just to get rid of this layer of fat, because I know I still have good muscle tone underneath! I cannot do the full MIS tape in one day - it's just too much, so I usually break that one into upper and lower.

What would you recommend?? I'm still confused as to what I should start with.

Thanks!
Sarah

 

[Bobbi]

Hi, Sarah, I like to use CTX cardio with Cathe's other strength videos. This week I am doing Power Hour and MIS once each. If I can, I am tossing in a BodyMax on the weekend( but my daughter has a game Sat. and the hubby and I are seeing an opera on Sun., so that's iffy!) Anyway, I love CTX but I rarely do it as it was intended. I run 3-4 times a week so the cardio on CTX rounds out my regimen. I'll choose one or two workouts to do. They are not the all out killer workouts of Interval Max or Maximum Intensity Cardio so I like doing them along with a total body strength workout a couple times a week!

Bobbi