Bodybuilding/Sculpting check-in;-)

roegriff, hi and welcome! The Chicago RT must have been so much fun. I imagine by the time you get home you're totally exhausted, in a good way. Did you get to meet Cathe?

Well ladies, I started Gym Styles/Jan 2014 Rotation today. I wasn't sure if I'd be ready, but I was. The last 2 weeks of Meso 3 Squat Rack Legs was really hard on my lower back. I started my recovery week doing UY Flexibility, PRS1, and Jessica Smith 10 Pounds Down Better Body Blast when I realized I needed more rest because my back was so sore and very tight. I continued my week with a gentle yoga for back and hips, and a Jessica Smith Power Walk on YouTube (I don't think walk workouts are for me), more back/hip yoga on YouTube, Yoga Relax, and yesterday when I did the Kari Anderson DVD I ended with a Rodney Yee 20-min yoga segment. I just bought some of Rodney's DVDs with 20-30 minute segments to do at the end of workouts. I hope I will do this. I think I need to continue to do more stretching in my week. I feel I lost some flexibility in the last month or two of STS. When I did Meso 1, I did the Extended Stretch every time, then somewhere in Meso 2, I only did it once a week. I should have been doing it all along. It really did make the workout long, though!

I have UY but will probably stick mostly to the Yin and Gentle DVDs and Yoga Relax for my rest days. To me, the rest are more like workouts than a recovery day!

I did Afterburn Express (single intervals 1-10) and Ab Circuits Weights & Plates today. It was so good to work hard again! :D Tomorrow I do Gym Styles Legs and I have no idea what weights to use. :D:D:p
 
Bzbnmom
I love yin yoga! I just got introduced to it recently on you tube trying to find yoga and ran into that kind by accident and love yogi Nora! I wish she would do more or that kind!
I am going to start STS after May because we are wanting to go on vacation to visit then and from what I gather you need no distractions?
I have the same thing going about to many DVD I'm not complaining! I want more but I want to do them all lol!
 
Reogriff
Hi there, so how do you feel about STS as far as concentrating on it goes? I am leaving for vaca in May so thought I better wait till after to be able to focus on it. I'm a little scared of the program for some reason!
I have not done it yet at all so not sure if I'm gonna be really tired or what. I have already done the one rep max so I'm ready. !! I hope I can learn some from u as well!
 
Natalie and Jengoff
Hi to both of you! I can't remember the usernames for everyone so I had to pilots separate ones lol! Eek

Today I wanted to do a cardio but knew I had to do legs, so I did a premix from KPC and I loved it! It was fun it was 35 minutes of the cardio drills and then standing portion or the legs it came out to be about 55 minutes so not to bad. And I had a good sweat going!!
Oh I ordered the squat rack from Sts also! Can't wait to get it! Legs are my weakest thing on my since I had surgery on my feet years ago so I'm hoping to use these to build muscle and strength! I want straight forward legs no hover squats my back can't take that. I think 8 to 10 reps as heavy as I can go and build up to heavier just keep doing this over and over maybe? I don't know but I'd like to try so I can SEE progress.
Okay ladies time to try to sleep!that is hard for me to do lately !
 
Hello roegriff and welcome! So glad you decided to join us. That Rock Bottom rotation was intense, wasn't it? I'll be honest, I didn't enjoy it, but it did make me focus more on my lower body than I ever did before. And I have tried to keep that focus.

Mary--what is Sweat Express and UY? I'll be honest, Cathe rotations are my favorite. This week I am doing a lot of Cathe and I cannot explain it--there is something "comforting" about doing so much Cathe. It makes me want to do mostly her workouts. Well, hers and KCM whom I love almost as much. I have this Ilaria rotation planned out for next week and now I just want to do this week all over again with a few tweaks.

Ladies, we all seem to be similair in size, tho I am taller! I am 5'6" and 140--NOT happy with that weight. I maintained the low 130s for many, many years and over the past few it has creeped. I have been lifting heavier than ever the past few years so no double some of it muscle--not not all of it! I know this for a fact by the way my clothes fit! And NOT looser! I want to be back in the low 130s. That seems to be my perpetual goal. As for clothing size, I used to be a solid 6 as well, but now am a 6-8. :(

Mary--how is Gym Styles going?
 
I have some Michael Peak 10 workouts as well Jengoff! I have insanity and that kills my knees and I don't mind the workouts but the music needs to be better! I think the dread would be less dread for me!
I can't do a rotation unless it is Cathe either! The only one I have Ever been able to stick to is A Cathe one and the first ever was X train! Something about Cathe is fun! See u are five inches taller so you probably are the correct weight! But for 5 1? Umm not so much! I need to at least get to a comfy 125 or 120 I think. I will be satisfied there!!

I did turbo fire 40 today, it was so fun I didn't think I'd like it because I did turbo jam along time ago and didn't didn't know y. But this one seems faster and exciting lol they played that song we got the funk lol. How come those songs sound like the original one? I guess is that y the DVDs are so expensive ? Cause they are really overpriced, I never but BB crap new I buy used so I can buy cheap!! I then did a 30 minute upper body workout of heavy weight. Wow my arms are burning!! Tomorrow I am going to do legs and gluts from body blast I think. Hope you all have a great night!!
 
I really like the look of Cathe's May rotation. In fact, I'm thinking of using a version of it rather than "straight" bodybuilding rotation. It uses Gym Styles and 4DS--but I like how it is including Slow & Heavy. Maybe rather than doing a month of Gym Styles and a month of 4DS, I might mix them into a 6-8 week rotation and include Slow & Heavy. I'm usually good with rotations but lately I am feeling very resistant to something that has me doing the same workouts week after week. I am really enjoying doing something different every single week. Plus I am loving all my new workouts so much I don't want to stop doing them even for a month. In fact, this weeks rotation was just so much fun and so perfect and tough that I want to do more rotations like it. I totally redid this upcoming week's rotation into a similar week.

Here's what I did this past week:
Mon: Flextrain + Michelle Dozois Ultimate Cardio Blast
Tues: Patrick Goudeau/Heather Corndorf's Kickbox Burn + X10/X38
Wed: Great Glutes Extreme + Michelle Dozois Ultimate Sculpting
Thurs: KCM Circuit Burn (combined workouts premix) + bonus abs + X10/X42
Fri: Rockout Knockout + Heavy Bag bonus
Sat: Jari Love's Get Ripped & Chiseled + Michelle Dozios Ultimate Flexibility
Sun: Rest

I LOVED this week. I was sore somewhere every single day! I love the variety but even tho I loved it so much a part of me wants to do it all over again, another part of me really wants to do something similar but using other favorite workouts!

I really love the TurboFire workouts, too. I haven't done them in a long time tho. I did them to death tho back when I got them and then continued to use them for years afterward. But now I am stuck on other workouts. I will probably return to them one day. They do have awesome music. One of the things I loved so much about that program. I really like Chalene's ChaLean Extreme too. She's coming out with a new program call PiYo I think? I saw a trailer for it and I have zero interest in it. In fact, I disliked her in the trailer. Not sure why because I've always loved her in other things. But she turned me off. And I'm burned out on buying programs. I've bought a lot from Beachbody and other trainers and even tho I do like them, I am just not inclined to spend that much $$ anymore. Unless it's pre-ordering Cathe collections! I'll always do that!
 
Jen, I just now went to look at Cathe's May Rotation. Looks really good with a nice variety! I have Slow & Heavy but have never tried it. I also have Amy Bento's Slo Mo Strength, never tried that one out either. UY is Travis Eliot's Ultimate Yogi set and Sweat Express II Cardio and Dance Celebration - Kari Anderson is an intermediate "lite" dance-y workout. I have not been able to comfortably do a dance-y workout but this one looked easier -- though it was still somewhat confusing for me. Cathe's advanced step workouts feel intuitive to me, but dance-type workouts do not. :(

Jen and Nathalie, I just don't know where you come up with all the energy to do doubles! Jen, your workout week did look like you picked a bunch of fun ones.

This was my week:
Sun: Sweat Express II (Ch 1 & 2 - 41 min) + Rodney Yee's AM Yoga For Your Week: Forward Bends (24 min)
Mon: Afterburn Express Single Intervals + Ab Circuits Weights & Plates
Tues: Gym Style Legs + Yoga For Your Week: PM Release
Wed: Flex Train Timesaver #2 (no disc/no firewalkers) - had an early appointment
Thurs: Gym Style Chest & Triceps + AM Yoga For Your Week: Backbends
Fri: Ellen Barrett Fat Burning Fusion (from library) ... and later PRS2 Timesaver 1 + Rodney Yee's Power Yoga Flexibility (library)
Sat: Rest-too tired
Sun: Rest-no time

My kids were in a musical this weekend Fri, Sat, & Sun, Anne of Green Gables, so it was a very busy weekend. I wasn't able to get Gym Style Back Shoulders and Biceps done on schedule so now I'm a little off. So far Gym Styles has felt really hard!!! And crazy DOMS! Maybe the 2nd week will not be as hard on me.

Renee, I wouldn't be worried about STS at all, Gym Styles feels a lot harder lol.

It's late, I'm tired. I hope I feel refreshed tomorrow for my workout, after all I've had 2 days off. :eek::p
 
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Bzbnmom
I hear you on the doubles and Jen and Natalie's energy! Wow!
I honk Sts will be up in June for sure. You workout schedule looks great to.

Jengoff I can agree with buying ANY thing that Cathe puts out! It seems she really is just great in every way! I also like doing HIIT and MWT but I can't do them to many a week or it makes me more tired so I am hoping to make myself do more and maybe I will get better at them.
I have noticed I got better improvement with intensity I live that one with the music and all.

Today after two rest days I had on the cal a low HIIT 20 and I wanted to make sure I got in my weights for whole body so I did push pull it was easy today even though I even went up in weight a lot more then before so now there was some improvement!! Yeah! Lol tomorrow I have a fire 40
 
Hi ladies how are you all doing? Nathalie, hope you're having fun in Paris!

My previous week, first week of Gym Style, went pretty well despite all the DOMS. However this past week did not. On Monday, I did Gym Style Back Shoulders and Biceps, which was left over from the previous week, and I hurt my back. I'm pretty sure it was the Lat Rows. My lower back hurt with pain going down my left hip/thigh. I think I need to lower my weights for Gym Style or start off with the Timesavers. It's so different from STS with slow reps.

This is how my week went:
Mon: Gym Style BSB + Rodney Yee Am Yoga - Twist (loved this)
Tues: Shiva Rea Yoga Flow for Beginners (library)
Wed: Ultimate Yogi - Yin Yoga
Thurs: Cardio Supersets (today my back felt so much better)
Fri: Low Impact Circuit - Upper Body Circuit ("shorter" premix 65.5 min)

Tomorrow I may do Ellen Barrett's Grace and Gusto or a yoga (I have several DVDs from the library right now). Ellen is so popular and our library system has so many of hers, but I don't know, every time I go to BUY something more intermediate I back off and don't. The one I tried 2 weeks ago, Ellen's Fat Burning Fusion, felt more low intermediate and it was great for the day I did it ... hmmm but then I see that I did a second workout that day. I feel so tired right now that Ellen may be just what I need tomorrow. I'm beginning to think that I really need some easier workout options on hand. :( Do any of you have any low energy day favorites? I suppose a 30-Min KCM would be good for that. This morning's workout, LIC, really made me tired. I've had low energy all week. I'm not looking forward to a month of Gym Style or any lifting at this point. I hope this is just a temporary mind-set. I did have a heavier TTOTM this week, but I usually don't get so tired. What workouts do you like to do for an "easier" day?

I was looking through Cathe's Rotations for an easier month but I don't think there is one. :D I'm losing my motivation and drive for weight lifting and at the same time worried about losing the little definition I've gained. I guess I'm just not sure how to proceed. My diet has been getting bad too. When I'm tired I eat poorly.

Renee, I'll have to try some of Yogi Nora on youtube. Yin yoga feels so good afterwards. Good job going up in weights with Push Pull!

Jen, I'm looking forward to seeing what workouts you did this week. I'm still looking at your last week's workouts and thinking how wonderful it looks!

I hope to have a more positive check-in next time. Hope you are all having a great week!
 
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weekly check in

Hi Ladies,

Hope you are all well and enjoying your rotation.

To Roegriff: Very well done with Rock bottom rotation. which one did you do? Did you do the original one? 2011 version? It is a great rotation. I gained great result and learnt how to activate my glutes muscles properly before hitting muscles with heavy load. Hope to hear from you soon;)

Mary: Yes I am enjoying Paris. I came back Thursday and I travelling back by train tomorrow 7pm. By the time I get to the hotel it will be time to go to bed. Will have to prepare all my clothes first for Monday. I did found it difficult to say no to wine while dinning out with colleagues. a glass twice for the week was enough for me. Thanks goodness the work restaurant offer a variety of "reasonable" healthy choice. I do not know what they put in dressings and vinaigrettes. I was surprised to see quinoa as part of the menu;):). I opted for it straight away with peas and chicken. Had plain yoghurt with a tea spoon of marmalade.

My week workout:

Monday: at hotel gym extremely limited in equipment. 30 interval on incline 2.0 on a threadmill. Followed by abs

Tuesday: 30 minutes interval plus chest and triceps 10 reps 2 exercises for each muscle group. Push up and dips body weight

wednesday: Same interval plus one arm row with dumbbell 8kg, biceps hammercul

Thursday: Rest
Friday: PRS#1 Premix step mix
Saturday: pedal power
Sunday: tomorrow I am planning to do high reps

Jen: Is there any more improvement on your wrist? Has it fully recovered?

To Renee: Hope you like your new squat. Most importantly hope you find it helpful. Meso 3 moves a traditional bodybuilding/strength moves. You will be fine!

Hope to hear from you all.
Will read your post on here.

Have a good week all ;-)
 
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Hi everyone
Wanted to touch base with you today starts off my week this is third week on turbo fire and I really love the workouts It makes me feel like I'm dancing again yet kickboxing lol strange but on days that it calls for 20 minute HIIT I try to do my weight workouts I am going to try sts total body today or Muscle Max. I love MM for some reason. Except my squats! Hate low ends! Hurts my back! I wonder if I just do regular deep squats while she does low end would that be effective enough? Y do low ends? Does it hurt you alls back? And I'm not being a smart ass but really what does the low end squats do? Engage the quads more? Or where am I suppose to feel it? Maybe I am not loading my weights correctly or squatting right?
Okay hope all of u has a good weekend. It's a ruff one for me kinda of but exercise will help that.
Have a great day everyone!!
 
I just wrote this long reply and when I hit "submit" it locked up and now it's gone. :( I don't have time to re-write the whole thing--but I will try again later today or tomorrow.
 
Hi guys, thanks for the welcome!

I've been MIA kinda because of the same reason Jen just mentioned. I wrote a long reply post using the Ipad app and it disappeared before I hit send, so disappointing. .... I have yet to try again. A lesson learned, guess I'll just use the actually website from now on.
 
I’m going to try this again—in fact I am writing the post in another program then I’ll copy and paste it! I hate spending all that time writing something then it just vanishes.

Nathalie—my wrist seemed 100% better, then last week it started giving me issues again. Not like before, so overall it is much better, but still—why is it taking so long! Very frustrating! Sounds like you are doing well in spite of the challenge of being in a hotel so much!

Renee—my favorite TurboFire is Fire 45. I used to do that with HIIT 15 for a fun and intense hour long workout. As for back pain from squats—no I almost never have that problem. The only time I have is in STS Meso 1—wall squats where you set the dumbbells on the floor and pick them up. That one hurt my back. When I do squats I really focus on putting all my weight in my heels, making sure my knees don’t go over my toes (and in fact, I focus on going straight down so thighs are parallel to floor and knees really don’t go anywhere near toes) and powering the move through my glutes. I feel it primarily in my glutes. I did Lower Body Blast this morning and there were lots of low ends. Low ends are just another way to burn the muscle group out. If you notice, she never starts with low ends—you are already feeling it and then you do low ends!!?!?! Ouch. These are endurance workouts rather than heavy weight strength, so she uses techniques like low ends and pulses, etc, to really burn that muscle group out. And I felt the low end squats in my glutes this morning! The low end plies in my inner thighs! Low end lunges hit everything! The key is form. If your form is right, you are hitting the muscle group intended by the exercise.

Mary—I saw your post on another forum and you got a lot of good suggestions for recovery workouts. It sounds like you really need to take the time to do some lower intensity work so your muscles can recover and you can get your mojo back! Maybe you need more than one week? And I know what you mean. I have lost some of my motivation for heavy strength work. I am really enjoying all of the total body and metabolic workouts I’ve been doing, but I am also afraid of losing all of my gains. I am still going to do a version of Cathe’s May rotation starting in June, but I think after that I may try something more along the lines of what I have been doing—a mixture of Cathe and KCM + lots of metabolic strength work—Patrick Goudeau and Toby Massenburg excel at that. And of course Cathe has lots of great MWT and KCM has some really good stuff too (Circuit Burn and Trim Down are intense MWT!). I’m really crazy about both KCM and Cathe. They both create such amazing workouts. What I am discovering about KCM is the unique spin she puts on strength work. She tweaks so many strength moves in ways that makes them more challenging, hitting more and different muscles, and you cannot lift as heavy as you can with Cathe workouts for that reason. I think I after I do that May rotation that will be my focus. I say that now, but I change my mind so quickly and easily. So we’ll see! But for now—my version of the May rotation will start in June.

I didn’t enjoy last week’s workouts as much as the week before, but it was still a good week. I think this week is going to be great—lots of new-to-me workouts that I am loving so far. But I’ll post this weeks workouts next week since things are always subject to change due to life!

Here is last weeks workouts:

Mon: KCM Your Best Body Upper Body & Cardio premix + Toby Massenburg’s Ignite
Tues: KCM YBB Lower body & Cardio/Core & Yoga premixes + Atletica 4
Wed: Xtrain All Out Low Impact HIIT Extreme premix + Michelle Dozois Slim, Strong & Sexy Body Sculpt Upper Body
Thurs: KCM Body Shop workout 1 & 2 premix + X10/X37
Fri: Tabatacise (all 5 tabatas) and Core 2 + Michelle Dozois SSSB Lower Body
Sat: Patrick Goudeau’s Hard Work Conditioning 2
Sun: KCM 30MF Step Boxing 1 & 2 premix
 
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Just had to pop in and say I am having a lot of fun creating a 7 week rotation calendar based on Cathe's May rotation! I am definitely putting my own spin on it, but so far I have 7 weeks blocked out with the main workouts and I am inserting certain KCM strength workouts as doubles. I also plan to do lots of HIIT and tabata workouts, but I haven't gotten that far yet. This is fun!:D
 
Yes I do feel it in my lower back before I get to the low ends ekk but I am putting the weight into my heels. So I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I have a hard time with lunges as well but that is because of feet surgery years ago has mad balance an issue! So what used to be my fav things to strengthen is now my least fav! I used to have a strong lower back and legs and butt however, since the surgery it left me very unbalanced and therefore I hated working on the lower half so I didn't. Now it is very weak. So I think what I need to do is do reg squats with weight and lunges till I get stronger then add low ends. Idk
I have been having a blast with TF I have not tried the 45 minute one yet! I may try it tonight! I bought me a disco ball lol it was cool last night! I waited till dark to do my TF and turned lights out and turned upped the TF music and had a ball! Day before that I did turbo fire HIIT 20 plus mm weights. I'm sore! I should be losing some weight to. I was told the other day by an acquaintance I have lost a lot of weight what have I done? I don't see it but okay !! lol
I do feel stronger with my lifting! Oh and For Mother's Day I got a Juicer!! Yummy!
 
Renee--what surgery did you have on your feet? In 2009 I was hit head on by a drunk driver. Among many other injuries both of my heels were shattered. I have 2 plates and 12 screws in each heel. It was a very long and difficult recovery but within a year I was doing TurboFire with no modifications followed by Insanity with no modifications.

However that is one of my residuals, too--balance issues. But it affects me in actual balance moves (standing on one leg,etc.)--yoga has become the main type of exercise I always have to modify for that reason. I do remember that first year lunges were difficult due to balance but I haven't had balance issues with lunges in years.
 
Whoa, where has the time gone??? I'm just going to post what I did last week so you all know that I'm still keeping up.

Sat: Elllen Barrett Grace and Gusto (library) I just can't see buying any of Ellen's DVDs, maybe 10-20 years from now?
Sun: Hard Strikes Timesaver - no conditioning + Bike ride (52 min) and kettlebell swings (8 min)
Mon: Legs and Glutes
Tues: Anthony Diluglio and Beth Chamberland's The Kettlebell Way to Your Perfect Body and Rodney Yee's AM Yoga: Twist
Wed: Gym Style Chest & Triceps Timesaver (32 min) and Rodney's Power Up Yoga: Connect (25 min)
Thurs: To The Max Triple Tabata (21 min) and Sweat Express II: Chapter 2 - 5 songs did each twice to learn them (48 min)
Fri: rest day (very tired)
Sat: Gym Style Back Shoulders & Biceps Timesaver (36 min)

I'll try to post again soon! :)
 
Jengoff
The surgery I don't think caused the PF at all but I am not sure what caused that! I think maybe trying to run when I was to heavy? I'm not sure.

The balance came from the surgery and it was both feet had my big toes was it was broken and then put back straight with screws or it was suppose to be. My toes were hammer toes curling together but they were not hard to balance on. And the outside of the little toes they actually took the little bones out of there. I'm not sure why they did that but it's like I don't have any little toes to balance at all. So it really is frustrating to do lunges with weights lol I'm thinking of getting a vest and using a stick for balance to get stronger. Lol
Wow I hope your heels don't give u problems later!

Today I did kick box burn with Heather Corndolf! Yesterday I did turbo fire HIIT 25 day before that I did burn sets upper body 73 minutes and turbo fire 55 but only got to 45 !! Lol I tried to do two! I was proud to get to 45 ! But man I was hungry all week and I don't think I did enough the rest of the days to account for y I'd be to hungry. So I have tried to watch it but I feel like a pig !!
Hope to do a HIIT and gym style legs or legs and gluts I like legs and gluts! The music is awesome !!

Bzb that looks like great workouts!!
 
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