How much Slow and Heavy is too much?

A

aschendell

Cathlete
Dear Cathe,

When I reached my weight goal (and maintained it for a few months) I changed my workout routine from mainly cardio to more weight training to add muscle growth and definition. I have been doing a rotation of SH and GS with cardio for the past 6 weeks. I am doing weight work about 6 days a week, making sure to leave 48-72 hours between muscle groups, plus cardio 30-45 minutes a day 4 or 5 days a week. I have seen great results with the mixture of SH and GS. My DH was out of the country for a month and he noticed a definite change in my muscle definition on his return:) .

My question is, can I continue on this rotation, or do I need to change up? In SH you say to only keep this in your rotation for 3 weeks or so...I don't want to overtrain, but I am seeing such great results that I am reluctant to switch at this point:9 .

I have most of your videos and would welcome any advice you have. Thanks in advance. You are my workout guru:D !

Debra
 
I'm not Cathe either ;-) , but now is a good time to do a week of something different, to allow a bit of recovery. Do more stretching, some more moderate total-body workouts (twice in the week), and some core work (if you have ' functional fitness' workouts, now is the time to do them), then come back after this recovery period and get back into S&H if you want.

You may be surprised at the positive results this can bring.

And don't worry, you won't lose anything you've gained in this short week of doing something different.
 
I'm not Cathe either :), but I would stick with whatever is giving you results. I think Cathe recommends doing S&H for 3 wks at a time because of the amount of concentration it requires, and not everyone can focus to that extent for much longer than that. If you can and you're getting good results, I'd keep at it until you stop seeing results or feel as though you're over-training.

Congratulations on your weight loss and fitness gains! :)
 
i agree with Kathryn. do total body and core for a week. after doing slow and heavy for weeks, i got bursitus from over use of muscle so it is probably better to change your routine a little. i do 3+weeks of gs or s&h then mm,me,bootcamp,or one week of body blast series.

laura
 
I'm going to back Kathryn on this one. Your body gets used to a weight routine after about 3/6 weeks (depending on your fitness level and it sounds like you're fit, so it would be sooner). Upping weights will have a benefit, but you can accomplish so much more by taking a week off to shake things up every 3 to 4 weeks or so... If you take a week off to focus on core strength, functional fitness and flexibility, when you go back to your routine, you may just be surprised at how strong you go into it again. Also switch the order. If you start with S&H, switch to starting with GS. Just to confuse the muscles a bit.
 
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