Bodybuilding/Sculpting check-in;-)

Rest day today.

Tom, I haven't had time yet to look for the barbell. However, I am off work for the next two weeks (yay!) so I will do some checking during that time. ICE is being shipped to my work so when I swing by next week to pick them up (yay again!), I plan on going by Play It Again Sports then. I'm hoping they will have something.

So sorry about your injury. I love working biceps so that would be tough for me to have to skip them. Rest a bit and hopefully it will feel better soon.
 
Greetings Everyone,

Week 5 Xtrain Completed

Day 1 Rockout Knockout
Day 2 Cardio Leg Blast
Day 3 Burn Sets- Chest, Back and Shoulders
Day 4 Super Cuts
Day 5 Rest Day
Day 6 Lazy Day- Just didn't want to get out of the bed.

Well I completed Week 5 of Xtrain only 4 days of workouts. Day 6 I just couldn't motivate myself. It was rainy and cold outside and my body said, no not today let's sleep in. So I did. However, I really enjoyed my other workout days. I know I say this often, but I love Rockout Knockout- total fun, sweat factor. I'm looking forward to seeing the rotations with the ICE workouts.

Hope everyone had a great workout week.
 
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Today was a core/ light leg day for me. Starting with crunches x50 x30 x20, followed by alternate bicycles 4x25. Next was goodmornings, 4 sets from 45-105 x8. Then 1x50 inclined sit ups. Deadlifts, 135x5. 205 x 8(sumo) x8 (conv) 225 x6 (sumo) and 245 x3(sumo) x3 (conv). 3 sets of squats 115 x8 135x8. 155x8 and 4 sets calf raises 155 x30 x25 x25 x20.Felt good to do something, no tendon issues with this wo!! Next week will have to skip pull ups, curls etc, therefore no real back work or " pretty boy" arm stuff, will compensate with chest, legs and shoulders! Enjoy the weekend!
 
SarBear, my ICE arrived today too. And what is weird--I should be happy. Except, I told myself I would start ICE the Monday after I received it and since the tracking information said it was supposed to arrive on Monday, I had already mapped out another week of Cathe Live and mapped out my first two weeks of my ICE rotation starting 12/28/15. So when ICE arrived today... I was kind of disappointed! So I decided--I am going to stick with my plan! Cathe Live next week then my personal ICE rotation starts 12/28/15! I am LOVING Cathe Live!
 
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Hi all!

Yesterday was 4 miles on the treadmill.

Today was CTX's Leaner Legs, no abs or stretch, P57's Thigh & Seat Booster, and CTX's 10-10-10, just the cardio and stretch. Oh my word, my legs are still on fire! I don't know why, but I love the 10-minute step section in 10-10-10. Easy to learn and so fun!
 
I did chest day today and started, as usual with a 12 set up and down pyramid from 45-195, hitting more volume on the way down. I was able to do my last 3 sets at 155 where as prior I was finishing at 135. I then did 6 sets on inclined bench and was able to add 20# to my first three sets and finished with 3 sets at the weight I previously used at the end of the chest workout. I finished chest with pushups x20 x18, making 20 sets total on chest. I finished with some assorted ab stuff,crunches, knee ins and alternate leg bicycles. I felt good about the added poundages and where they occurred on the chest work and hope the trend continues!! Hope every one has a great wo week and a better Christmas week!! Jodi...I stopped at a Play it Again Sports and they acted like they don't make 4 ft. bars..bummer! I looked around and the ez curl bars are shorter, of course, but didn't see any other short bars. Do you want short for space reasons??
 
Tom, yes, space reasons. I have a very tiny workout space. The bar I currently have is 6 feet and it's just too long for such a small space, and I really think 5 feet would be too long also. 4 feet would be ideal. If I can't find one, I may get a 5 foot one and have hubby cut 6 inches off each end. That should still leave enough room for plates. Cutting a foot off each side of the six foot wouldn't work, it would leave room for only about one plate on each side.

Since I'm on vacation, workout time was early today. Even though I was up for a little bit before jumping in, I still felt like I didn't have as much energy as I do for an afternoon workout. Anywho, today was the Double Upper Body premix from Body Max 2. Good workout. I didn't like it as much as the UB split from CTX, but it still got the job done. In the future, I will not use the stability ball as much. Some of the exercises just felt more comfortable doing them standing. Oh, and "Double" also means the ab work at the end was doubled. Yikes, that was tough! When I use this as an afternoon workout, I'll stick with one round to keep it closer to one hour.

Still waiting on ICE to be delivered!
 
Today became deadlift day. I did 4 sets of rack pulls and 9 sets of deadlifts, setting a new PR on deads (these are a struggle for me) I haven't done a lot of deadlifting prior to doing Nia's program, but today I added 20# to my previous PR! I finished with inclined sit ups x50. Have a great Tuesday everyone!
 
Sunday I did my first ICE workout--Rock em Sock em. At first I thought the workout was going a little too slow for my taste, but before I knew it we were into the first blast. This workout is set up very similar to her live workouts (which I love). I did the premix that included the blizzard blast. I wore my heart rate monitor and can honestly say that this workout is right up there with other Cathe cardio videos as far as calorie burn goes. As Cathe says, you get out of it what you put in. I love how Cathe's sequencing. She knows the right place to insert a blast in order to keep the fat burning engines revved. I thought the blizzard blast was a lot of fun too. At first I was a little nervous that it was going to be 14 minutes of nothing but blasts, but it starts out with a nice sequence of pure cardio moves that you run through twice before ending with some blasts.

I'm still working my way through Cathe's 3 month transformation rotation, so I've decided that for the next two weeks (while I'm off for the holidays) I will substitute some of my new ICE workouts and Cathe Live workouts in for the cardio and metabolic workouts of the rotation. I'm going to stick with the strength workouts from the original rotation. Yesterday was a strength day so I did STS Meso 3's DVD#28 which was Chest and Back. While it was a long workout, I had forgotten how much I enjoy how Meso 3 takes us up in weight and down in reps. Got in a really good workout that I'm feeling today!

Today I will probably do one of the lower body workouts from ICE. Haven't decided which one yet. I'm also dying to try out the Boot Camp workout. Oh decisions, decisions! Still haven't tried any of my Hammer and Chisel DVD's yet (or PINK for that matter). I'm thinking I may start a rotation of Hammer and Chisel when I head back to work in the new year. I really want to try to follow the eating plan (as best I can) with that program and right now there are just too many Christmas goodies to look forward to this week!

Oh and I'm looking forward to Cathe's Xmas Eve Live Workout! Can't wait to see what she has in store for us!

Hope everyone is having a great week!
 
Today I combined the Kickbox cardio from 4DS with the cardio and abs from CTX's Kickbox. Wow, what a workout! My chest and abs were a little sore from yesterday so I was feeling every punch. I was dripping sweat and exhausted by the end. Loved it!

I can't wait to try some ICE! I'm hoping it gets delivered today and I can start sampling tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
 
ICE time! Today was To The Mat, the premix including everything...main workout, Muscle Meltdown for shoulders, and core 2. Wow! All great stuff and much tougher than I was expecting.

Comments:
The main workout starts off wth a very different warmup. You're on the floor and do some dynamic stretching. It wasn't bad, just not what I'm used to in a Cathe warmup.

Most of the main workout is tough, mainly because of the amount of reps. She burns you out very well. I will say there were some exercises towards the end where I thought the firewalker would make it even harder so I'll probably add that in the future.

Love, love, love the MM! Cathe keeps her weights light to make it intermediate, but I went heavy and really felt it. 3 rounds of 5 basic exercises, 12 reps each, so you can go heavy and keep good form. I can definitely see using the extended MM premixes for a body part a day rotation.

Love, love, love core 2! It is not easy, especially the plank work at the end. She keeps you in plank for awhile!

There is not a lot of time between sections in this premix. You do your last rep of the main workout lying on the floor and you immediately have to jump up to start the MM. I briefly paused the DVD just to get myself together better. There is a short shoulder stretch after the MM but it's not included in this premix. With your shoulders still burning you go right to the core work. Not too big of a deal since I don't think I'll be using this premix very often, but a brief stretch would have been nice before moving on.

Oh, I also added on the first segment from Total Body Stretching since that one just arrived also. It was exactly as it is called - Basic Stretching - but it felt really nice after all that hard work.

Ok, that's all I've got for now. Can you tell I'm excited about ICE? LOL!
 
Good morning ladies, today was shoulder day and yesterday was leg day. Yesterday I did 8 sets of squats, 3 sets of reverse barbell lunges 3 sets of double calf raises and 3 sets of unweighted single calf raises. I did more reps on the left than right since the left is smaller...trying to equalize. Today was shoulder day and since I wasn't able to do side laterals or front raises due to tendonitis, I did 12 sets of strict press, 3 sets of rear delt flys. 1 set of dumbbell seated press and 3 sets or rear delt flys followed by 2 seats of heavy dumbbell shrugs. I did manage a PR on strict press to go with this weeks deadlift PR...pretty good week for this old guy!! Wishing a great Christmas for everyone!!
 
Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I have tried three more of the ICE workouts. In addition to Rock'm Sock'm, I've done chiseled lower body blast, boot camp, and then today I did low impact sweat. It's funny lower body blast and boot camp both started off feeling a little too easy for my taste, but by the time I got through the Blizzard Blasts I had gotten a decent little workout! Lower body blast felt like an easier RwH legs or cardio leg blast. For both lower body blast and boot camp I will probably up my weights a little more next time (I followed Cathe's weights this time through). I just finished low impact sweat and boy did that one surprise me. I did the premix that includes cardio 1 & 2 plus the Blizzard Blast. Doing all three of those segments did not feel intermediate to me at all and I got one heck of a workout! :) The intensity definitely progresses with each segment. Cardio 1 was on the easier side, then in Cardio 2 you break out the step and really take things up a notch. I probably could have happily stopped after that segment, but the BB was only another ten minutes so I figured why not! I really enjoyed the moves Cathe chose for this workout and can see myself reaching for this workout quite a bit. I haven't tried any of the Muscle Meltdowns yet or Icy Core segments. Can't wait to give those a shot. So far I have been really happy with this series. Those blizzard blasts really help adapt the workouts for those of us that prefer more advanced workouts.

Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!
 
Today I did ICE Chiseled Upper Body, Core 1 and another segment from Total Body Stretching.

When I previewed CUB last night I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it because it was a very different type of UB workout. Now after doing it, I would say I like it because it IS so different! Again, Cathe keeps her weights light to make it intermediate. I went heavier, but not by too much because 1) it was the first time through and I was being conservative, and 2) many moves are combo moves so while you may go heavy on one, you can't go as heavy on the other (example-she combines double arm rows with upright rows. I could have gone heavier on the double arms but can't use that same weight on uprights so I had to go lighter overall). Having said that, I have plenty of "up" arrows next to my weight selections for next time, but I still feel like I got a decent UB workout. I think this workout would pair nicely in a weekly rotation with a more traditional UB workout (such as Pyramid UB or CTX UB).

Loved Core 1! It actually went well with CUB because it used some similar exercises so I got a bit more arm work in.

In the future I'd like to try a couple of the CUB mishmosh premixes where you do the entire workout and then repeat either the standing section or the floor section. Those both come in just under an hour and I think would really burn the muscles out. (There's also the double workout premix with is tempting but it is almost 80 minutes. Too long for most workout days).

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!!
 
Hello buddies,

Jodi and Sarbear, thank you for posting your opinions on some ICE workouts. I really enjoy reading them.
Nathalie - You inspired me to do Rock Out Knockout, I was surprised how much I enjoyed it! I always thought I prefer Hard Strikes until this week.
My ICE DVDs (mat and kickboxing) are yet to arrive. I simply couldn't wait anymore so I bought Low Impact Sweat download yesterday. I'm happy! I find Segment 1 easier than Segment 2 but both are enjoyable. I like how Segment 1 uses no equipment except for 1 light dumbbell. This is great for times I have no motivation to workout because I won't need to take out fitness equipment or wear sneakers to do it.
I think I like ICE LIS more than RWH LI HiiT. For me, they have the same level of difficulty but ICE is more fun.

This week, I tried again some Jillian Michaels DVDs which were staying in my drawer for at least 18 months. On the positive side, the woman produces advanced workouts which use minimal equipment. Now I mix up her routines with more motivating (to me) instructors . I found Jillian and the circuit workouts from Chalene Xtreme make a great combo. I feel my core gets stronger with Jillian but I'm losing overall strength in the upper & lower body compared to Cathe. I use Cathe's warm ups and cool downs, they are much better than anyone else's.

My weekly check-in:
Saturday: Rock Out Knock Out Doubles - RWH Circuit Upper Body (no blasts) & abs 1
Sunday: Jillian Michaels 30DS , 6W6P, Ripped in 30 - level 2 of each Doubles JM 1 Week Shred (cardio)
Monday: Ilaria Montagnani Atletica 1 (it's my first time trying it - what a challenging jem!) Doubles - JM Body Revolution cardio (level 2)
Tuesday: JM BFBM Doubles JM Ripped in 30 (level 3)
Yesterday: ICE Low Impact Sweat w/o #1, JM Extreme Shed & Shred (level 2). Doubles CLX Get Lean Circuit
Today: ICE LI Sweat w/o 2, CLX Burn Circuit Planned Doubles - LI Sweat Blizzard Blast and Muscle Meltdown Back

Very very happy holidays, friends!
 
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SarBear said:
I love how Cathe's sequencing. She knows the right place to insert a blast in order to keep the fat burning engines revved.
Click to expand...

That's Cathe's forte---Although I exclusively workout cathe, I have tried cardio and met from other
instructors and felt the workout was not sequenced to keep the fat burning in the zone. This make me question
the effectiveness of the entire workout. Also for some a seamless flow was missing!:(
 
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SarBear said:
Today I will probably do one of the lower body workouts from ICE. Haven't decided which one yet. I'm also dying to try out the Boot Camp workout. Oh decisions, decisions! Still haven't tried any of my Hammer and Chisel DVD's yet (or PINK for that matter). I'm thinking I may start a rotation of Hammer and Chisel when I head back to work in the new year. I really want to try to follow the eating plan (as best I can) with that program and right now there are just too many Christmas goodies to look forward to this week!
Click to expand...

Would you mind posting the 3 months transformation rotation? I must have missed this rotation cause I do not recall seeing it
on the index. I will buy hammer later on based on review but I have to fully explore body beast first. I know I should have joined
the party early ---- I love hypertrophy anyway. As to eating plan, I think it's a good idea. if that is what you want and feel
doing, go for it! I hear you about christmas goodies... Same here, wine on top of all feasting! Glass for the day for me LOL;)
 
catwoman7631 said:
When I previewed CUB last night I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it because it was a very different type of UB workout. Now after doing it, I would say I like it because it IS so different! Again, Cathe keeps her weights light to make it intermediate. I went heavier, but not by too much because 1) it was the first time through and I was being conservative, and 2) many moves are combo moves so while you may go heavy on one, you can't go as heavy on the other (example-she combines double arm rows with upright rows. I could have gone heavier on the double arms but can't use that same weight on uprights so I had to go lighter overall). Having said that, I have plenty of "up" arrows next to my weight selections for next time, but I still feel like I got a decent UB workout. I think this workout would pair nicely in a weekly rotation with a more traditional UB workout (such as Pyramid UB or CTX UB).

Loved Core 1! It actually went well with CUB because it used some similar exercises so I got a bit more arm work in.
Click to expand...

Point 2, spot on that---- combination move add intensity element. I love them cause we get to work various muscle at the
same time. Plus there is definitely more huff and puffing:cool::cool:

As to core, Jodi your comment above has made me think of weighted core segment from To the max where cathe combine upper body
and core. I love that combination:);)
 
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