Butts and Guts...feedback please

Hi Cathe

Butts & Guts is in my regular rotation. I am doing a STS Undulating rotation with two leg workouts a week. I use B&G for my second leg workout for Meso 2. (For M1- I repeat the leg workout, and for M3 - I do both plyo and squat rack.)

I do the workout in its entirety, plus bonuses.

I love the warm up - very fun, vigorous, and really warms me up!

Favorite exercises in Legs Standing:

Walking lunges and also Hammer Punch Lunges - I get very dynamic with these and can feel it working obliques, hamstrings, quads and glutes.

Favorite in Leg Floor work:
In addition to the brutal ankle weight portion, I love the Hamstring Roll Ins on the Stability Ball.

What's missing - The Tibialis push/pull. So subtle, but so effective for calf, shin, ankle strength.

What I value the most is you are a professional, you take physical fitness seriously and you don't use tricky angles and awkward moves that could cause injury.

Meso 1 Legs and Butts& Guts have definitely made me look better in my jeans. They have also made my legs stronger for running and I am now less injury prone.

Thanks, Cathe.:D
 
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1. I love the way my butt feels two inches higher when I'm done.

2. I love the cardio moves

3. I love the music!!

4. I love it that we use heavy weights at times, light weights at others, and no weights at other times

5. I LOVE both the core routines

6. The floorwork is pretty tough, but very effective

7. I'd love to see firewalkers again, but with a new Creative Cathe Twist on them. Everyone loves those nasty things. If I don't use them in my weight class for a while, the participants start to ask for them.

8. The leg blast premix is my favourite, especially when following a cardio session such as a run.

9. I love how the workout does indeed focus on the glutes, hips, and core.

10. I love the long stretch at the end.

Cheers!
 
I love this one! I used to use it in a rotation with Gym Styles and CTX Meaner Legs all the time ... but then you went and did STS, and that's captivated me :D


What I liked most:
* the variety of equipment! Nice use of the ball, especially.
* the feel - it's high energy, and the whole workout team is upbeat throughout - it inspires me to keep on doing more myself
* the exercises themselves - fun factor is very high with BG
* premixes (okay, that's four)

What I'm not as sure about:
* for some reason I never do the abs
* it's a little hard to work this into a split rotation,mainly because I enjoy the leg/glute work too much to skip, but I also enjoy the deadlifts/glute work in your other dvds, so I wind up shorting myself on recovery time. Perhaps if you put lots of heavy deadlifts and squats as an additional option - a BG+Meso 3 Legs, say :)

If you're doing BG2, that would be wonderful! Definitely I'd pre-order! The single thing I'd ask has to do with measurability. With STS I can easily tell how I'm improving and the workout manager helps me push myself. The whole science-based approach with 1RMs is great! That's harder with BG. If you were able to add a 'fitness test' option, where we could test our performance and then periodically go back and see where we've improved (more reps, more weight, longer leg holds, ...) that would be icing.

Actually I'd love to have you lead a cardio fitness test in any case :D:D:D:D I'm really motivated by measurements, and it's fun to see if you can beat your previous time or weight.
 
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LOVE Butts and Guts!!

It is one of the best lower body workouts, in my opinion. I love it's longer length, as sometimes I just want to fry myself. The fact that you added bonuses and premixes is what make the DVD stellar, though. A person can do the whole workout one time and a premix another time. Some people prefer one over the other. Those options are the reason people can (and are willing to) do these workouts for years.

That's all I can add. I haven't been well enough to do something that difficult in quite awhile, so I can't give details I like. But overall, I knew I loved it within 10 minutes of starting the workout for the first time!
 
Thank You Everyone! This is very helpful to me. I will read all of your comments here and on FB over the next couple of days. If you have not yet posted and want to, please feel free to :)
 
Top three things I love about B&G:
1. The premixes (which I use as much as the workout as is)
2. The music
3. The variety of exercises including the wonderful core sections

I like that you include standing and floor work, weighted and non-weighted exercises. I like having a bit of a cardio factor like sections of B&G have for me anyway. I like that there are two ab routines to choose from and I find them tough but doably tough and I appreciate that a lot!
I like everything about B&G and would love to see future workouts that include the premixes I've come to know and love and yes, even expect! Your premixes were what set your workouts WAY apart from other instructor's workouts in my opinion. I feel like I get a lot of workout bang for my buck with B&G. I like having a lot of content that I can shorten or mix and match or choose a premix if I don't want to do it all, but I like that a lot of workout content is included.
 
Cathe, I love all your lower body workouts! Whats really great about Butts and Guts is that it is so thorough. I think its the most fun, too. Even though its a long workout, the time flies by for me. Tons of variety, weighted and non-weighted moves, standing and floor work. I do the whole thing plus the bonuses. I don't want to miss a thing! I know its called Butts and Guts, but I would love it if it had calf and shin work, even as bonuses. The core work flies by, too. My favorite moves for the workout would be: In the warm up, squats holding the ball, then letting go of the ball to bounce on the floor, and firewalkers. Oh, and the stretch is the best! That music makes me cry; its so intense! Well, maybe thats the after effects of the workout!!:eek:
 
Hi Cathe,

I have this workout and love the ab work and the stability ball warm up. That is a nice twist. I haven't done it a whole bunch, but it is high quality.

IA with another poster about the outfits and the clean looking set. The colors all work well together ( I am a visual person ).

I think maybe add some more core work and less of the lunges. They hurt my knees.

The firewalkers are my favorite and I think it is so cute when you talk about your boys. That part always makes me smile.

If it was a wee bit shorter that would be better for me. I am a teacher. Too tired to workout after school, so all my workouts are in the morning. I always have meetings in the morning and wake up at 4:15 so I can get a good sweat on.

I am a runner and am currently doing STS. I would love to fit this one in, but it will have to wait until I finish the Chicago Marathon in October.

Thanks for asking our opinions! Thanks for producing such awesome workouts. I only used to run all the time. I am a strict person and would run 7 miles every single day. That is not good fitness. I got injured seriously and had no choice but to try out your workouts after watching FitTV. It has changed the way I workout enormously. Thank you for that! I am so much happier and healthy!
 
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Hi Cathe

I have to say that I agree with all the positive comments about Butts and Guts. It and Disc 6 STS are about my favourite workouts for butts!

My reasons are a little different. My knees and ankles have always been weak and when I go for physio the exercises that they suggest are all on Butts and Guts. I have noticed a big improvement with my knee strength and stability doing this workout. I have been adding it as my second leg day while doing STS.

Suggestions: Add a little calf work in and it would be complete!

This one will be hard to top but a B&G2 would be awesome!
Thanks
Heather
 
Hi Cathe,

I have a love/hate relationship with BG. I love the results I get, I just don't like the pain while I'm doing the workout. I love the firewalkers, the lunge/squat combo, the low pulses lunges and walking lunges. I'm a fan of high reps, low/to no weights. My favorite premix is the Leg Blast premix. Except all those darn leg presses. :D

There is one thing about the workout that I don't like, and that's the ab work. A lot of the moves in the ab section I find uncomfortable to do, and I think the ab section is to long. I'm not a big fan of ab work, but I do like some of your other DVD's with ab work in them. Like Muscle Max. I tend to pull that out a lot and do the ab work from that workout.

I hope we'll see a BG2 in the works some day. :)
 
I too love/hate B&G. This is the workout that never fails to give me DOMS! It is painful to get through but I feel so accomplished afterwards! The one-legged squats in particular are my least favourite - but very effective. I don't know what it is about this workout - but it is somehow the perfect combo and sequence of excercises that really does hit the rear end - more so than any lower body workout including STS.

I love that I am sweating and breathing throughout. I think making it a partly cardio based workout is a bonus. I would love to see a B&G 2 that had cardio bursts - or is a cardio leg circuit.

For the ab section - I actually find the ball workout to be more effective - the V-sits, side raises with the band and double leg raises with the ball extended over head are very good.
Floor work - excellent- I often tack this on after a cardio workout.
Pizza presses OUCH!
Cathe - thanks for asking for feedback and for giving us a chance to tell you how much we love this workout!
 
I like this one for the variety, although like many here, since doing some STS rotations haven´t used it lately!

I REALLY like the floor work. I think this is the best floor work that you have out!
I rarely do it all at once, though, due to time constraints.

I agree that adding some tibialis exercises would make something like this perfect :)
 
Cathe -

I really enjoy B&G - period.

I especially like the bonus stability ball abs workout - it totally rocks!

I like the floor leg work and the firewalkers, so bring on some more!

I guess the only thing that I would have to say that is neutral (not negative) is that the warm-up is tough because I have a lower ceiling so I can't toss the ball during the warm up.

I hope you make a B&G 2!

If you do, please add more floor work - especially prehab / rehab type exercises. I just did disk 9 this week of STS and the bonus work on that disk is virtually the same as prehab and rehab I have done for my knees. It is great and if it were on a video, I know I would be more willing to do it more frequently if I had some workout buddies (you and your crew) to hang out with! ;) Add in some good glute work and you're good to go!

One other thing, glute activation has been a hot topic recently. A lot of us have posterior chain weakness and a lot of it is in the glutes and hamstrings. Something along those lines to help us with that area would be great, too!

Gibbee
 
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I LOVE this workout! I love it so much that I always do the entire thing - I can't seem to bare to not do it in its entirety. I am sure that I am missing out on not doing the premixes and one day will get to them. (I have had this dvd since Aug. 2008)

I swear, after doing this workout for awhile, my Butt actually did lift! I honestly didn't think it was possible.

I love the move where you put your foot on the high step behind you and then have your other foot out in front and you do the half-way up and downs. The first time through I am okay, I can do this. The second time through I am okay on the first leg and then when it comes to doing the second leg, the second time through I am fighting not to stop. My leg is screaming for me to stop. Love this move.

I also love the lying on your back, heel up on the high step other leg up and just going up and down and pulsing - I can really feel this move.

And of course, the pizza press - especially when we go down on our elbows.

I love medicine ball abs! That would be great to have more moves using the medicine ball - especially standing and functional moves.

This is one of my all time favorite Cathe dvds - if you are doing butts & guts 2 I am gonna be ecstatic!
 
I love love love Butts and Guts

This is my go to workout for lower body. I feel every exercise working every muscle fiber I own. And I can't believe how incredibly tight I feel after doing this workout. I expected it to be easier after I did 2 rounds of STS, but it wasn't. The muscle soreness I feel for the next 3 days reminds me how effective it is in working my muscles from different angles.
Love all your dvds, but I especially love working out to this one. I know you didn't ask for feedback on Shock Cardio, but here it is . . . just when I thought your dvds couldn't get any better, they did.
 
Just chiming in with my thoughts on Butts & Guts!

I haven't done this workout in a while, although I remember I used to do everything but the abs section pretty frequently. But then again, I used to omit most ab work in general, though...not sure why, unless it was just laziness? :(

Anyway, I love the workout, so my reason for not doing it anymore is kind of silly. I just don't know how to fit it into a rotation! I work out 6 days a week, and I always include some kind of cardio unless that day's workout is at least an hour of total-body strength (like Muscle Max).

For example, this month I'm doing a Gym Style rotation: to each Gym Style day, I add about 30 minutes of cardio first. My other three days include two all-cardio days, and one total-body strength workout or a circuit. Other rotations I have created include alternating cardio and circuits, and sometimes I'll throw in a week of 4DS.

So, basically I can't find a way to get in a really long lower body workout like Butts & Guts. I guess I could do one of the shorter premixes after a cardio session, but I really prefer doing workouts as they were originally designed! What would be really cool is if there were a new set of workouts that included the following...

- Something like a Butts & Guts 2, only with more cardio mixed in
- And, the same idea applied to upper body?

It would be kind of like a 2 Day Split, circuit style. Because of that set-up, I'd totally be okay with the workouts being 90 minutes each. And just imagine the premixes! :D

Hope this helps!
 
Butts and Guts is, without a doubt, my favorite lower body workout. I usually do the entire thing, but I also do the premixes quite often. I love the versatility of having a standing and floor split with the premixes, and I alternate between those two options with equal frequency when I do the premixes.

I love the blend of exercises in this workout (from using weights to not using weights and so on). I love that the workout feels balanced between standing and floor work....both equally tough. In other words, I don't end the first section and think 'Now's the tough part' (as I do with others like Gym Style Legs or Pyramid Lower Body) or end the first section and think 'Now's the easy part' (like Legs and Glutes).

One of the biggest benefits of this workout, in my opinion, is that it can actually be done effectively without equipment. My husband is in the military, as we move ALOT. I've carried this workout through my last two moves. For things like one-legged squats, I use the stairs. And because of the low-ends and such, I find I can still get a decent workout on most of the moves without any weights (deadlifts and squats being the two exceptions off the top of my head). I even find it easy to do things like tucks instead of hamstring roll-ins in the floor work and still feel the benefits of the workout.

I think, aside from the STS legs series (which really took my legs to a whole new area), I've seen the most benefits from Butts and Guts of any leg workout you've released. I think part of that is the fact that less weight is used combined with variety (for some reason, my body responds to that type of workout....hence the improvements with STS especially during Meso 1). I see it in thinner thighs and more defined hamstrings in particular.

It took me a LONG time to warm up to the abs section because I don't like weighted abs workouts....but now I do it routinely without question. I think I like the weighted portion of the abs section more than the non-weighted section anymore, but I think that is because I feel it focuses more on the overall core and not just the abs. I'm not so much into crunches as I once used to be, but I LOVE overall core work.

I love the add-ons with this workout, which just increases the versatility all that much more. The stability ball abs routine is probably my favorite stability ball abs routine of all time. I love the addition/option of leg presses, the glute squeezes, sit and stands, etc. Those are excellent additions to an already excellent workout, and I do use them frequently.

If I had a record of how many times I've used certain workouts, Butts and Guts would, without a doubt, be near the top of the list.

As far as complaints....none come to mind as I type this.

Thanks for asking! :)
 
Butts and Guts is one of my fav workouts. I love the firewalkers, squat/lunge combos, deadlifts, walking lunges (although these kill me, I feel they work well). I use the floor only premix a lot when I am feeling tired (it is a mental thing, even though I am still working hard because I am on the floor I feel better) and I usually do the stability ball abs over the abs included in the original workout. Even though I do like that section I really love the stability ball abs section. I also use the premixes a lot as well as the original workout. About the only exercise I don't enjoy is the hammer punch downs.
 
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