After the Beginner Rotation, then what??

[SusanMcL]

After I finish the Beginner Rotation, which DVD(s) would be good to start with for building strength (at age 66) and learning good form? With the little bit of weight work that I have done over the years, I am a stickler for good form.

Here's what I'll have..

Muscle Max
High Reps
Body Max 2 (for the upper body chapter)
Pyramid - upper and lower
Supersets / Push Pull
Pure Strength

As I understand it (thanks Peaceful Rainbow), Muscle Max is for strength and High Reps is for muscle endurance.

What are the rest? muscle endurance or muscle strength?

and which is better to start with? muscle endurance or muscle strength? or it doesn't matter at this stage of my journey? Or alternate them.....

And... as a beginner.. is it better to do a total body workout twice a week... or upper and lower body each twice a week..

or start with Pure Strength's split format?

There are so many choices, I just need someone to tell me what to start with after the Beginner Rotation - using the DVDs that I have....

Help ??? !!!!

I will, of course, be doing cardio 3 times a week, but I know what to do for that.....

Thanks in advance Cathe or anyone else who cares to comment !!!

 

[Stacy]

Hi Susan, hope you dont mind me highjacking your post to Cathe, but Cathe has an Intermediate Rotation, not sure if you've seen it or not. You could sub some of your workouts for those you dont have, and if you have any questions which would be okay subs I'd be happy to chime in as I have 99% of Cathe's workouts!

Here's the link/address to the rotation....

http://cathe.com/forum/f100/march-07-intermediate-rotation-236484/

If that doesnt work you can find the link at the Rotations forum under the post for her older rotations, it's the March 2007 rotation.

Forum member Fitnessfreak has also designed alot of stellar rotations, here's a link to one of hers that might be what you're looking for as well. At the end she includeds a "generic breakdown" so you know what kind of workout each day is so you can sub in your own similar workout.

http://cathe.com/forum/f100/basic-intermediate-advanced-12-week-rotation-236312/

 

[SusanMcL]

Stacy, as always, thank you. You have been very helpful and I appreciate it.

I'll go take a look at those. I had looked, very briefly, at Cathe's Intermediate Rotation a couple of months ago and didn't give it much thought because I didn't have most of the DVDs. Then I promptly forgot about it... lol. Thanks for reminding me that it is there...

Now that I have a larger collection of DVDs , I'll go look again. And I'll also look at the other one you linked.

I'm loving watching my new DVDs and making notes i.e. what equipment is needed, what premixes are available, a general gist of the "flow" of the workout. And making a spreadsheet of all of my Cathe DVDs with that info so I can look and pick... say... an upper body workout .... easily.

I'm grouping them by type of workout i.e. upper, lower, total body, circuit, step only, core, stretch.... I am a big spreadsheet fan. Love to make spreadsheets... lol. Yea.. I know..weird.

 

[Stacy]

Susan...I used to organize my workouts according to the color of the cover, I'd have all my red workouts together, then blue etc etc lol, so the spreadsheets arent weird at all!

If you havent seen the post where someone has already sorted and rated Cathe's workouts this might help, but maybe take some of the "fun" out of it for you

http://cathe.com/forum/f96/updated-"ultimate-guide-cathes-workouts"-185761/

Of the two links I sent you I think Fitnessfreak's would be a better choice as far as your strength training goes. The Intermediate Rotation by Cathe looks to be more of a generalized intermediate fitness rotation rather than an intermediate strength training rotation if that makes sense.

I just did Pure Strength Back/Biceps/abs this morning. I'm planning on doing the PS series for a few weeks as I get my workout groove back then who knows after that...maybe kettlebells??

 

[SusanMcL]

Stacy - I'm glad you are enjoying the Pure Strength series. I can't wait to get to that one. We are only finishing Week 4 of the 12 week Beginner Rotation, so we have a way to go yet.... but I like to think/plan ahead.

I need to print out Fitness Freak's rotation (the generic version) and study it more thoroughly. It looks good... and.. as you said.. more geared towards strength rather than general fitness. I'm hoping that at the end of the 12 week Beginner Rotation that I'll be ready for it.

I'm also eager to try out some of my new DVDs, so for this week and maybe next week, I'm going to change things up a bit and deviate from the Official Beginner Rotation.

Monday - cardio at the gym - intervals on the treadmill or elliptical
Tuesday - Lower Body, abs and stretch
Wednesday - Upper Body and stretch
Thursday - Cardio - step at home
Friday - Cardio - gentle 3 mile "meditation walk" on the treadmill
Saturday - Total Body, abs and stretch
Sunday - Cardio - step at home or go to step class at the gym

Friday being my "rest" day. I think I need that much cardio at this point, to help with weight loss. I know that weight training will also help tremendously with weight loss, but I'm at such a low level of weight training at this point that I think the extra cardio is still needed.

Anyway... for the Upper and Lower and Total Body weight workouts, I'll give some of my new DVDs a try... at whatever weights are appropriate and with however many reps are appropriate at this point.

I can try Muscle Max, High Reps, Supersets, Push Pull, Pyramid Upper & Lower and Pure Strength !!!! Should be fun.....

and.. yes.. speaking of fun... lol... I enjoy doing the spreadsheets !!!!