Attention: Annette a.k.a. Aquajack

C

Cynthia8828

Cathlete
[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jul-12-02 AT 11:10AM (Est)[/font][p]Please, please, please help me. I have two questions that I need help with.

First, I am now in week 9 and I STILL have not lost ANYTHING from my hips or thighs. What is UP with that!!! I am eating very healthy on a 40/40/20 split, drinking my water, and still lifting heavy (per your suggestion if you remember). Further, my exercise routine is pretty much three days lifting, three days HIIT cardio training. My upper body is shaping nicely, my abs are looking pretty good, and my body fat is down 4% (although the scale doesn't move, but I say screw that scale, it's a liar anyway). Do you have any idea as to why this is happening. My hips and thighs are serious problem areas for me, and I haven't moved not ONE size down because nothing is moving from there. My clothes are starting to look ridiculous because I lost 2.5 inches off of my waist and now everything is baggy there but still tight in the hips and thighs.

My other problem, which I posted but didn't really get a response is this: My thighs are looking even more bumpy and filled with cellulite then ever before. They actually look worse. Initially, the cellulite was in the back hip/thigh area, but really did start to smooth out (much to my surprise because everyone says that it doesn't disappear but mine did). Then, all of the sudden, I got it ALL over my legs. In the front and in the back. Again, WHAT IS UP WITH THAT!!! Someone said that it is the fat exiting the body and that it is a good thing, but I have never heard of that before. Any ideas?

Okay Annette, thanks for letting me pick your brain. I am getting pretty discouraged here. If I had lost 1/2 inch, at least I could say I lost SOMETHING, but 9 weeks of hard work and nothing moving from my #1 problem areas is EXTREMELY discouraging.

Bless you for all your help,
Cynthia
 
RE: Hey, Cynthia!

Hey, Cynthia!

I really don't know anything about the comings and goings of cellulite, so I really don't know what to suggest; maybe if you bump your previous post-inquiry someone else might know.

Regarding not losing anything in your hip/thigh area, what I will suggest is:

#1: Don't decrease your weight loads, but let's look at how long in terms of time each of your leg-strengthening sessions is, and what tempo or movement speed each of your leg exercise sets is, and work from there. It could be that you are spending more time on leg strengthening than you need to. It could also be that you can now increase, to a moderate degree, the speed of each squat and lunge now that you can maintain a heavier weight load.

#2: Maybe give some thought to re-shuffling your weekly program so that each of your workouts has a high-intensity cardio AND a strengthening component. That is my personal preference for a land workout (keep in mind that I teach and do two high-intensity aqua workouts per week that provides cardio AND muscle endurance conditioning). In all honesty, I've never really been interested in splitting off cardio and strengthening into separate workouts; I like to use blast-your-butt off cardio as a pre-game warm-up for the weight work as well as the cardiovascular fitness conditioning.

#3: Along the lines of #2, give some thought to doing leg circuit workouts. {If I'm totally repeating something I've already said, please forgive me - it happens to women in my "age group :)"} As I'm mentioned in several previous posts - and possibly already to you - I really enjoy doing Cathe's Circuit Max with strictly leg circuits using a 45-lb barbell (am gonna shoot for 50-lbs this coming week - wish me luck!). The total running time of the strengthening segments is 12 minutes, and it is just a great combo for cardio and leg conditioning. Also, I like to hemstitch the Interval Max warm-up to the Body Max step circuit segment to the Power Circuit leg circuit segment - another leg and heart blaster!

#4: Are you doing Interval Max? If not, start - at least once a week, and work your way through getting thru all the intervals with no modifications!

Those are just some suggestions off the top of my head. However, please respond back here with a bit more detail as to your current weight loads for legs, the total running time of your leg strengthening program, AND what you are doing for cardio and we'll talk further!

Annette
:):):):):)
 
RE: Hey, Cynthia!

Hello Annette:

Thanks for your quick response. Here is some info.

I have been rotating a week of slow and heavy with a week of power hour/circuit max or any other endurance type of weight work out. Per your suggestion, I have added Interval Max 1x per week and am running a 20 minute HIIT run 2x per week. A typical workout week is

Monday: Upper body s/h
Tuesday: Run
Wed: Lower body s/h
Thursday Run
Friday Upper body s/h
Saturday: Interval Max
Sunday: Rest

Next week:
Monday: Lower body (such as PS or Power hour portion)
Tuesday: Run
Wed. Upper body (such as PS or power hour portion)
Thursday: Run
Friday: Lower body (same as mon.)
Saturday: Interval Max
Sun: Off

Then, I will do the same routine again, but switch it around to where I do 2 lower body s/h and one upper body s/h, etc., so that I am getting even workouts for upper and lower body.

I am squatting 60 pounds right now, and won't be able to go higher because I can't get more than that on my shoulders. We are getting a Bowflex soon though.
I am lifting as heavy as possible for upper body as well.
I do ab work 3x per week when I lift weights.

Thanks for all of your help Annette!!! I really appreciate your thought and effort you put into helping everyone here on the board.
You are a true blessings!!!!
Cynthia
 
RE: Hey, Cynthia Again!

That's helpful information on your current program. I stand by my suggestion that you consider re-shaping your current program so that at least five of your six weekly workouts include at least 30 minutes of cardio EACH (this does not include warm-up). This may mean going to a CTX-type format, even if you don't do the actual CTX workouts. Perhaps you could so portions of each of the Slow and Heavy routines each day, just less time.

Also, it looks like I-Max and running are your principal means of cardio; maybe it's time to increase your kickboxing, and throw hi/lo (a la MIC and/or some of the CTX workouts, as well as continuing with Circuit Max {one of my alltime faves}) so that you increase the variety of cardio - the body gets amazingly efficient at cardio modes done consistently, so you DO want to keep it "guessing".

Re your current leg weight load - guess what? There's a cute little gizmo out there called a weight vest; All-Pro makes a weight vest that has a zillion little half-pound iron rods that you insert into these little inner pockets, and the one I have goes up to a max of 40 lbs. If your back / shoulder strength is what's limiting you from going higher than 60 lbs on the barbell for squats/lunges, consider investing in a weight vest! I love mine!

Lemme know if this helps (or doesn't) and / or if you have any other questions!

("And/or" - what a paralegal thing to say!)

Annette
:):):):):)
 
Annette...

I love the combo of the I-Max Warm-up, then the step circuits from Body Max and Power Circuit! I'm definitely going to try that - thanks for the idea!
Erica
 
Thanks!!!!

Annette:

Has anyone told you lately that YOU ARE THE BEST!!! I am going to sit down this weekend and re-write my routine. (I have to write it down or it won't get done).

Once I have it written down, I will post it here and if you could review it and tell me what you think, that would be great.

Thanks again, really!!!

Cynthia
 
RE: Erica . . .

Yes, I really love that little mish-mosh I came up with; my only problem is, given my nature of "anything worth doing is worth doing to death", I get in these grooves where I do it so frequently that I start to get a little jaded, and then have to shelve it for awhile. I hit that last night; I'd planned on doing it but my brain rebelled, so rather than quickly pulling something off the shelf, I blew off working out altogether and went to Chile's for dinner instead! (that's not good)

By the time you get to the power hops and ice-breaker arms in the Power Circuit segment, you will just be gasping! It's awesome!

Annette
 
RE: Cynthia!

Glad I could share some helpful thoughts. In fact, like you I took a lunch hour today and re-wrote my own routine through this coming October, of course incorporating the anticipated Powerstrikes, not to mention the new Cathe Ab Hits DVD. Slowly, over time I've gotten much less squeamish about incorporating different modes of cardio, and I've gotta write it all down or I'll space and go back to the same-oh-same-oh!

Lemme know what you come up with; maybe I can steal some of your ideas!

Annette
 
Hello Annette:

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON Jul-13-02 AT 10:49AM (Est)[/font][p]Well, here is what I came up with. A couple of things. First, regardless of the tape chosen, I will only be doing abs every other day and will be alternating the swiss ball, plank work, and traditional ab work. Specific tapes for this work are not mentioned in this routine because most of my ab work I currently do alone. I consider power hour, circuit max, and body max to be total body endurance workouts because my heart gets pumping with them, so I do not add an additional cardio and do not follow any of these with another weighted workout. I give 48 hours rest period for these tapes. Also, something I like about this rotation is that I have incorporated kickboxing, step, runs, and intervals, but have not chosen specific tapes. This allows me the freedom to choose what I want to do, i.e. cardio kicks, cia, or tae bo for kickboxing; cathe, christi, or cia or step, etc.
Please, please, please critique this and tell me what you think.

Week One (SH Week):
S. Off
M. SH-CB + kickboxing
T. SH-TB + step
W. SH-LS
T. SH CB + 20 min HIIT run
F. SH TB = Interval max
S. SH-LS + 20 Min HIIT run

Week Two:
Cathe Express in this order
XPSRES
However, working upper body weights 2x per week with Chest/Back, Bi-Tri, and Legs/Shoulders together.

Week Three (PS Week):
S. Off
M. PS-BBA + 20 min HIIT run
T. PS-CST + kickboxing
W. PS-LA
T. PS-BBA + 20 min HIIT run
F. PS CST + interval max
S. PS LA + step

Week Four
Same as week two

Week Five (Power hour week)
S. Off
M. Power Hour
T. Kickboxing
W. Power hour
T. Step
F. Power hour
S. Imax

Week Six
Same as week two

Week Seven (To the MAX week)
S. Off
M. Circuit Max
T. MIC
W. MIS
T. Kickboxing
F. Body Max
S. IMax

Week 8
Same as week two

Repeat weeks 1-8

Something to keep in mind. I do NOT have DVD's (although hubby did get me a dvd player for Christmas). So, mixing tapes alot can bet frustrating, which is why I have kept that to a minimum and mainly in the xpress series. Who knows, maybe I'll get those dvd's for Christmas this year.

Annette: I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this for me. That really is kind of you, and I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your input. Please, please, please critique. I am NOT thin-skinned.

Blessings to you and yours,
Cynthia
 
RE: Hello Cynthia!

Sorry I've been out of pocket - I don't go online over the weekend, so only now have I been able to see your new schedule:

IT LOOKS GREAT!

It gets a little tricky sometimes, keeping the mix going without overstressing joints; I like how you've shuffled among running, step, kickboxing and hi/lo. My own personal re-shuffling now has a Monday circuit workout (either Circuit Max or my little BodyMax-PowerCircuit mish-mosh), Wednesday aqua, Thursday either kickbox or MIC hi-impact segment, Saturday aqua, and Sunday Interval Max; each of the "land workouts" also includes an ab routine with planks (doncha just LOVE them?!) and an upper body routine (weeknights 30 minutes; Sundays an hour). I ordered Powerstrike Millenium I and II this past Friday; I may have to pre-order Millenium III as well!

I think the best "critic" of your new program is YOU - and I'd dearly love to stay in touch with you so you can tell me how it's working for you.

Keep on keepin' on! Let's stay in touch!

Annette
 
Thanks Annette

I am going to give it a whirl and see what happens. I started today. I too like the idea of hi/lo, kickboxing, step, and running for various cardio workouts. That way, who could get bored? I am really excited because in December I am getting a spin bike for my birthday!!! Spinning is my FAVORITE cardio, but I refuse to buy a gym membership just to spin.

Anyway, I will keep you apprised of the progress and let you know if this routine gave me that much needed kick!!!

Blessings,
Cynthia
 
Did it this morning...

Hi Annette,
I did your combo this morning - great workout and the time just flew by!
Thanks again,
Erica
 
RE: Did it this morning...

Hey, Erica! Glad you enjoyed it!

It gets a little tricky for me to keep things fresh since I'm largely a "Cathe Monogamist" in terms of land cardio workouts (although I do have Powerstrike Millenium I/II on order), but this one's been a standby for me for a long time!

Lemme know if YOU come with any good mish-moshes!

Annette
 
an older combo...

I read about this one a long time ago and like it - the step portion of Body Max with the step portion of MIC.
I also add on the drills from Cardio Kicks once a week to any shorter cardio video.
Hope you love the Powerstrike Millenium workouts!! I only have Powerstrike 4 (which I love), but haven't broken down to buy the new ones. It's just a matter of time :).
Erica
 
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