Beginner/Intermediate Check-in 3/12-3/18

B

bethj

Cathlete
Wow, here I am starting this thread again this week. Our injuries have taken their toll. I actually messed up my shoulder yesterday doing Core Essentials, the pushup-plank series. I hope it is just a muscle pull and not tendonitis.
Today I was able to do Cardiokicks but this evening my shoulder was killing me. I followed CK with the Karen Voight back and abs DVD. This was a great combo, becuase my core was so warmed up from kickboxing and cardio that I got a really good core workout. Having done abs/back cold I realize how much better it is to be thoroughly warmed up first. This week's plan is something like this:
Mon-Firm it Up-lower body
Tues-rest (Kathy Smith yoga basics-very stretchy and relaxing)
Weds-cardio and Denise Austen Pilates
Thurs-Muscle Max upper body premix if my shoulder is ok by then
Fri-cardio and stability ball abs
Sat-maybe a Firm or Fitprime
Sun-hopefully my Kathy Smith kickboxing will have arrived from Netflix or my 5 mile walk with Leslie from Collage!
Have a great week!
Beth
 
Well, I changed up today instead of Firm it Up I did Muscle Max lower body premix followed by Legs and Glutes ankle weights premix. Except I started a couple of segments late with the calf raises and i did NOT use ankle weights! It is a good combo becuase the MM legs are pretty short and the ankle weights premix gets your calfs and then all the floor work. It makes a nice well rounded workout I think. Not sure how long it was but probably about 40 minutes.
My shoulder is much better today so I'm glad it was just a sore muscle and not tendonitis.
Tomorrow is rest/stretching. But I have to clean house. I'm not sure if I should take another rest day and count cleaning house as exercise. It certainly makes me tired, stiff and sore. x(
Debating that one for now....
Beth
 
Hi Beth and Chris,

I was having late nights lately and too tired to get up early in the a.m. but I made it this morning. I am visiting my grandmother more often at the nursing home so I try to come home first then eat dinner and then go visit her. I was visiting her first and then coming home and eat dinner about 8pm and going to bed around 9pm or so and that is not good. I didn't want to eat fast food while I was out.

This morning I did Karen Voight Sweat Effect. This really energized me this morning. Tomorrow I plan on doing the entire workout of GS Back, Shoulders & Biceps (62 min). I am coming straight home from work today so I can go to bed early. It's nice to be back!!


--Kimberly C


"Here's to your health, to every moment, every week and month that you wake up to the privilege of another breath - another chance to get it right!" Oprah
 
Hi Beth and Kim,

I am still resting my knee sprain so no workouts this week. I see the ortho specialist on tuesday, so maybe he'll let me use the recumberant bike to get some constant motion going again. We'll see.
 
Thanks for letting us know how you are doing, Chris. I hope your ortho ok's your return to some form of exercise. Its so frustrating to just sit around.
Kimberly, I'm jealous of your advance copies of KV's new workouts!!!!!
Today I cleaned house and may do some yoga tonight-but it would have to be before American Idol. I don't feel too sore from cleaning so I will count this as my rest day. Tomorrow I may rest again or do very light cardio. I'm really having to back off on the cardio because my knees keep giving me twinges of pain over the kneecaps, its that old patella-femoral syndrome again. It seems to have a mind of its own when it wants to get better.
I have on order: Yoga Sculpt (Karen Voight), which I will use as a light weights day; Leslie's 5 mile walk, which I will probably use a lot until my knees finally get better; and from Netflix I'm renting Kathy Smith's kickboxing for some more low impact high intensity cardio. I still plan to use Cathe exclusively for heavy weights training, she is simply the best in that domain. In fact, I think that is why I am doing so much better cleaning house without getting back pain anymore.
Beth
 
I didn't get the yoga done last night so was going to do it this morning. But I got out the tape and realized when I rewound it last time, it had broken!!! What a bummer. But I was able to find the DVD version at Deep Discount DVD so I ordered that. So..I ended up doing a very short yoga from Kathy Smith's Menopause DVD. I just wasn't up for cardio today becuase I had a migraine. This afternoon we walked a lot around a historic neighborhood with a lot of antique stores so that was my cardio excercise for today! I'm counting it anyway. I may have to join the I Hate Cardio check-in.
Tomorrow is Upper Body, I will do the Muscle Max premix and abs.
Beth
 
Hi Chris & Beth,

Chris, I hope you get well soon. I hope you are not in a lot of pain. Beth, I am going to check to see if my co-worker found out when Karens Voights New DVD's will be on the market.

This morning I did GS Back & Biceps instead of the entire workout of GS BB&S. I lifted heavy and I could have gone heavier on some. I noticed that 5 pounds are very light to me. I remember when I had a hard time trying to lift 5 pounds. Tomorrow I might do KV Sweat Effect again.

Beth, I saw the new check-in. I know everyone has basically left this one but hopefully they will come back or maybe someone new will join us.

--Kimberly C


"Here's to your health, to every moment, every week and month that you wake up to the privilege of another breath - another chance to get it right!" Oprah
 
Hi... I'm new to the forum,and not sure how these threads work.lol
Can any newbie post in these sign-in threads?
I have only been doing the Cathe workouts for about a little over a week. Been taping them on FitTV because they are cancelling it in my area and I can't afford too many workout tapes. I did the Imax2 today..well, I TRIED to do it. Got through most of the stepping, but had a very hard time with the jumps. Too high impact for me right now.
I ordered the Low Impact Step + Total Body Sculpting DVD ..which I should be receiving soon, so in the meantime I am just following the workouts I taped. Tomorrow will be doing Legs and Glutes. Love that one. Just bought a barbell set yesterday..and I also found some "in between" size dumbells at Sport Authority. They actually have 4,6,7,and 9 pound weights! Love that because sometimes 5 pounds is too light, but 8 hurts too much.Great to be able to just grab a 6 or 7 pound weight! lol
Take care!
Janet
 
Hi Janet! Welcome and please join our check in. Thank goodness there are more than 3 beg/int willing to admit it and post on this thread. I have 6 and 8 pounders but not the 7 or 9. Interesting...but I don't really have any more room for more dumbells!
BTW, Cathe has posted a good beg/int rotation now-finally, although quite similar to her previous one.
Today I did the Muscle Max UB premix and tacked on the abs. It felt easy after those Gym Styles! But I needed an easy week, for next week I tackle....The Pyramids! I haven't done them for a long time. They are also pretty tough.
Both my Leslie 5 mile walk and my Kathy Smith Kickbox came today! I previewed kathy first since I just did a Leslie. It looks really good and has some interesting extra features-leg drills like Kickmax but not nearly so many reps. And some floor work-planks, side glute raises and hip flexor drills. Also some tai chi things that might be a nice way to calm down if you need it. So I'm doing that one tomorrow, just the cardio part, then some Denise Austen Pilates.
We're supposed to get rained out again this weekend so what a great time to go on a 5 mile indoor walk-can't wait to do that one next!
Beth
 
I love Kathy Smith. I do her Lift Weights to Lose Weight DVD when I am pressed for time. And I have her Fat Burning Breakthrough,which I still do once a week when I need a bit of a simpler step routine that can still make me sweat. Sometimes after doing one of Cathe's routines, the next day my legs feel so fatigued..especially after the intense Legs and Glutes...so an easy to follow cardio the next day helps me to still keep going when what I really WANT to do is take the day off. lol Then it's back to Cathe for the rest of the week,
Tomorrow I am going to try out my new barbell! I only have 25lbs of weights so far. I figure thats a good start for now, since I never really used one before.
Janet
 
Hi everyone,

Welcome Janet!! :) We would welcome anyone to our board! I have exercising off an on for years and would still consider myself a beginner/intermediate. I don't like to do high impact at all. You are off to a good start. That's a good weight to start with on your barbell. I like switching from dumbells to barbells. It's a great change for the workout that Cathe does.

I was so depressed yesterday after I went to the store and started trying on clothes. Pants don't fit me like they use to because I have actually slacked off working out because of being sick and few times. It kind of puts me in a rut and then sometimes it is hard to get back into the swing of things. I would workout good for about 3 to 4 weeks and then "bamm" something knocks me down then I stay down for a while. I can tell the difference when I stop exercising. Now spring is on its way and I haven't made any progress and I am back to square 1.


--Kimberly C


"Here's to your health, to every moment, every week and month that you wake up to the privilege of another breath - another chance to get it right!" Oprah
 
Kimberly,
I know how you feel!
It's hard to get back into it after stopping for any length of time, especially if you happen to be a procrastinator like I am. I have to really push myself each day. Not that I don't enjoy the workouts, because I really do, especially once I'm in "the zone".
I do know that if I don't do this every day, and if I stray from my routine and start procrastinating again, it just gets harder and harder to find my way back and the progress I have made to this point would all be wasted, so I sometimes have to force myself to just do it. It's just not easy for me.
Hope you are feeling better today.
Janet
 
I have also noticed my stomach fat creeping back since I have had to stop all impact aerobics with my knee pain. Its frustrating, 2 steps forward and 2 steps back.
Today I decided to do all of the Kathy Smith kickbox (about 75 min.) It was a lot easier than KPC or kickmax and the calorie burn was pretty low. But i really enjoyed the total workout. You do a warmup with a lot of form pointers, and the "routine" which is really almost more instructional. But I felt like a learned some better forms for my kicks which is good. Then you do some slow motion drills to perfect your kicks and I finally feel like I know how to do a side kick vs a roundhouse. Keith Cook instructs parts of it and he is an awesome 5 time world karete champion. Then there is a short floor leg section. Then there is "stances" which is done by Keith and he shows these cool martial arts poses that you do in slow motion. I would really like to see more of Keith in a martial arts video. Then Keith shows some advanced kick/punch combos. Then he does a Tai Chi energizer which was great. I never liked Tai Chi before but I like his version of it. There are 2 short stretches for you to chose from. Overall this makes a great light day workout when you would like to go long but don't want too much intensity. I felt great all day afterwards and not worn out like I usually am after Cathe.
Tomorrow is yoga day and I got my new Karen Voight so that was good timing! It is only 45 minutes and includes some Pilates. Then Sunday will be Leslie's 5 mile walk. I will need to preview to see which segments I want to do first, since I don't think I can go the whole 5 miles. Kimberly, which ones do you like the best?
Beth
 
I think I might try that Kathy Smith kickboxing. I have never been able to do kickboxing, but if that video is instructional, it might be what I need to learn how to do it properly.
Yesterday I did Kathy Smith cardio fat burning as a warm up to Cathe Legs and Glutes. My lower back is feeling the effects of that one today. I definately need to work on my form because sometimes when Cathe mentions which muscles are being worked, I dont actually feel it in that spot. My lunges I feel more in my knees than anywhere else, though my thighs are burning afterwards. Side leg lifts using the stability ball, I feel a bad pinching/cramping in my hip when doing the left side. I did get to use my barbell yesterday and that was fun, but my neck is a little sore. lol
Today, I am going to do a 30 minute cardio, treadmill or bike.. and a full upper body weight workout and give my legs a break.
Have a great weekend!
Janet
 
Legs and Glutes is NOT a good video to learn form, becuase it is very fast paced and Cathe does not have time to give good form pointers. I would recommend Power Hour for that. She gives detailed form pointers for each exercise.
I suspect your hip cramping was from doing the second side. You've already exhausted both sides of your hip-one stabilizing and the other lifting-and then you have to do it all over again on the other side. I would just cut the number of reps in half on the first side and then work up. Legs and Glutes is a very high rep workout.
Giving this advice only from prior overtraining issues, learned the hard way!
Today I did all of Leslie's 5 mile walk then the Karen Voight Yoga Sculpt. I was only going to do 2 miles to warm up for yoga, but it was so much fun and I felt great so did the whole thing! I think it is her best ever, but I haven't done a lot of her recent ones. I can't believe I made it through the entire 65 minutes of aerobics. I'm kind of stiff and sore tonight though! I think I will just do three miles next time.
Since I was going to do Leslie on Sunday now I will have to sub something else. Yes, I'd like to do it again but I don't want to burn out on it right away! Anyway I need to cross train. I may attempt Low Impact Step or Basic Step and see how my knees do.
Beth
 
Thanks for the advice Beth..It's always appreciated!
Got my new Super Stepper bench today! I love it! Now I finally have a bench for weight training, instead of using my little bedroom vanity bench. lol This is definately the best stepper I have ever bought, I just have to get used to it being a little bit longer in length than the step I usually use. I did Rhythm Step today and had a bit of a hard time with all that extra space on my step.
My kids like the stepper too. All day they took turns launching off of it and onto the couch! That was an accident waiting to happen. I have to find a place to store my stepper to keep them away from it. It's HUGE!
Janet
 
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