Bodybuilding/Sculpting check-in;-)

I am very unhappy. My left neck/shoulder is so bad I couldn't workout this morning. It was yoga. I tried, but every move hurts my neck/shoulder. )o: I guess I am taking the weekend off and hopefully this will heal. I don't know what I can do outside of riding a bike, walking and maybe doing some unweighted lower body exercises. Everything pulls on it. I can't turn my head, I can't do push ups, chatarrungas, lift my arm above my shoulder. I am very unhappy. I do not like missing workouts and now it is messing up my rotation.
 
jengollf said:
I am very unhappy. My left neck/shoulder is so bad I couldn't workout this morning. It was yoga. I tried, but every move hurts my neck/shoulder. )o: I guess I am taking the weekend off and hopefully this will heal. I don't know what I can do outside of riding a bike, walking and maybe doing some unweighted lower body exercises. Everything pulls on it. I can't turn my head, I can't do push ups, chatarrungas, lift my arm above my shoulder. I am very unhappy. I do not like missing workouts and now it is messing up my rotation.
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Sorry ladies, I'm busting into your thread. But Jen, try putting wet heat on your shoulder and neck. See if you can get a little mobility back into the area. Just a heating pad on low would work also. Good luck.
 
Today was treadmill day. Today's music was provided by Kelly and Meghan.

Jen, that really sucks about your shoulder! Get some rest, and do like Karen says, put some heat on it to see if you can get some movement.
 
thanks ladies. I have been doing heat and ice today and I even did some foam rolling. Still killing me but I sure hope it is better by Monday.
 
Today I started Meso 3, Week 1--Chest and Back. Went as heavy as I could (safely). However, while my muscles were tired at the end of the workout, they really didn't feel "fried" the way they do after those RwH strength workouts so it got me to thinking. I've been dealing with a lot of stress these past few months due to a lot of changes going on at my work so I think I may just end my current STS rotation here. I am so ready to move on from all the stress of the past few months and I feel like a new workout rotation would be a great first step. Perhaps I'll pick up STS again later this year when things are a bit calmer and I can really focus on getting the full benefits of the program. We have also booked a beach vacation with some of our friends for this summer so that's going to be my new motivation! I haven't decided 100% on what my new rotation is going to be, but I'm excited to be switching things up! No matter what you can bet some of my new LB Pretty Fierce workouts will be included!

Jen--so sorry to hear about your shoulder! Hope you start feeling better soon!!!
 
jengollf said:
This morning was P90X2 Plyocide and planned doubles is JMBS Launch. P90X2 is really surprising me... or I am better shape than I think I am because I expected Plyocide to be killer. It was not. So I had to go in an change around the rest of this month's rotation. Now all of the Plyocide days have been replaced with Cathe's plyo-leg workouts--STS plyo Legs, CLB, RwH leg workouts. It wasn't a horrible or pointless workout, but compared to what I already own in the same vein, I can get a much better plyo workout from Cathe or Shaun T.
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Thanks Jen for pointing out this above. I have never tried P90x. You know i have litterally workout 95-99% cathe.
It is helpful to have your review comparing cathe's stuff to other trainers. I found Beachbody product too over priced
for what it offers.

I am sorry to hear about your shoulder and neck hurt. Hope you get up and running promptly.
Any idea about what happened? knowing how diligent and discipline you are regarding your training, I can
imagine how unhappy you are now.

I had two days off training. Not planned but I just could not get my mind into it.

Before I did both upper body workout from RwH. I have experienced major DOMS from leg and 2 upper
body segment from RwH.

Jen, I could not match cathe weight for chest and back. I have work to do for chest and shoulders.
I have been off heavy stuff for a while so I need to regain my conditioning back.

To SarBear: Work can really get in way of our fitness routine. Just do your best.
STS 3, for some reason does not bring DOMS I can recall. No DOMS but I know it does not necessarily mean
the input was poor.

To Mary: Hope you get good news for your knee very soon.

One arm Row was frustrating cause I could match the weight from my strongest side right.
My left side let me down!:(:(

I will be doing the same workout this week and I decided to revisit these RwH often in my future rotation.

Today workout was intensity. I forgot how fun it is. I will be adding a fun challenge twist to it next time
by adding a riser.

That is all i have to share today. Hope to hear from you ladies
 
Today was Physique 57 Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout Second Edition (that's a mouthful!). This was a good workout. Definitely not as challenging as Turbo Barre, but still good. The warm up is the upper body work, and I definitely can go up in weight next time. Then it moves in to leg work with a focus on the thighs and the glutes, and then finishes with core work. The core stuff was relentless! It focuses on the lower abs so your legs are off the ground and moving most of the time. For the leg work, I wish there was more hamstring and calf exercises, but I know you can't get everything in an hour-long total body workout. And that hour flew by...very fun workout with good music. The instructor talks a lot, but it's mainly for counting and cueing with some goofy chatter thrown in. I look forward to trying the other P57 workouts I purchased.
 
catwoman7631 said:
Today was Physique 57 Classic 57 Minute Full Body Workout Second Edition (that's a mouthful!). This was a good workout. Definitely not as challenging as Turbo Barre, but still good. The warm up is the upper body work, and I definitely can go up in weight next time. Then it moves in to leg work with a focus on the thighs and the glutes, and then finishes with core work. The core stuff was relentless! It focuses on the lower abs so your legs are off the ground and moving most of the time. For the leg work, I wish there was more hamstring and calf exercises, but I know you can't get everything in an hour-long total body workout. And that hour flew by...very fun workout with good music. The instructor talks a lot, but it's mainly for counting and cueing with some goofy chatter thrown in. I look forward to trying the other P57 workouts I purchased.
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I have been eyeing physique57 for a while. How is it compared to turbo?
Do you think you can enable me?;)

I would like to add some strength/stretch yoga and barre workout.
 
Nathalie, I'm sorry to hear about nasty posts against you again. I completely missed out on seeing it and I'm glad because I don't even care to read it. You are one of my favorite people on Cathe forums because of your encouragement, helpful information, and positive outlook. Just keep on being the wonderful person that you are!

Jen, I hope you are feeling better soon. Please take it slow, you're probably anxious to get back to your workouts, and yes I know you will listen to your body. Just be careful.

Jody, P57 not as challenging as Turbo Barre? I didn't expect to hear that! From the clip I saw, I'm not sure I clicked with the instructor but good music is a huge plus! Hmm, I look forward to hearing more about P57 from you ... ;)

Getting tired of my knee updates yet? I am. I saw a new doctor last week and we are back to the original assessment -- torn MCL (which is now healed, tho it doesn't feel like it) and torn cartilage. I am to have physical therapy for a month, starting tomorrow, and then arthroscopy if needed. I specifically asked for a therapist who works with athletes, PT exercises can be sooo lame! Last summer for my achilles therapy, for seated heel lifts she said I could use a few pounds on my knee for extra weight. Well, by the end of the week I was using a 30 lb dumbell. I looked up PT exercises for knees ... oy! :rolleyes: there was only one exercise I'd consider doing. This whole thing is going to take some time, more than I thought...

... so I'm loading up my cart at Total Fitness with a bunch of barre workouts and looking for low/no impact cardio, neither of which are my fortes, so it feels like hit-or-miss decisions and since I can't just order a dozen $15 DVDs ... I don't know ? What do you think would be good for cardio for me? Has anyone ever tried Michael Olajides's Aero Barre? or Chris Freytag's ACE HiiT?

Yesterday I did Leah's Ballet Body Lower Body -- That was hard!
This morning was Amy's Slo Mo Strength - Back and Chest -- I loved it!!
followed by Rodney Yee's Power Up Yoga - Connect

Happy Easter everyone!
 
Happy Easter Ladies! Today I was going to do PFLO Lower Body Strength, but when I popped it into the DVD player I was disappointed to discover that my DVD is defective! The sound that plays is for the lower body strength workout, but the video footage is actually from lower body endurance. I purchased my PFLO set from that Steals website so I'm hoping they will work with me regarding getting a replacement. We will see though. I checked their return/exchange policy and it says that in order to keep their prices so low, they don't except return/exchanges. Then when I looked up their policy on defective merchandise it said that you need to contact them within 3 days of receiving the product if you've received something defective. I've had the set for a couple of weeks now, so I'm certainly not within that timeline. I went ahead and emailed them anyways. I've already heard back from a customer service rep who apologized for the issue and said that someone from the returns dept. would be contacting me within 24 hours to help me get the issue resolved. I am keeping my fingers crossed that all goes well and that the returns dept doesn't simply tell me that I'm out of luck because I'm outside of the 3 day window. They are not sold out of the DVD sets yet so at least I know that they have some in inventory if they do decide to be nice and work with me. If things don't work out with them, I suppose I could try contacting Lindsay via her website and pray that the website I bought her DVD's from is considered an authorized vendor and maybe she'd be willing to replace the defective disc. Hopefully I won't have to go through all that though.

Oh and since I couldn't do the lower body strength video, I decided to go ahead and try the lower body endurance one instead. Thankfully, that DVD worked without any problems! I thought it was a pretty good workout for 30 minutes. I love how she really gets your heart rate up on the endurance workouts. I also liked that she included some barre moves. Afterwards, I did her core strength workout. And I definitely woke up feeling the DOMs from yesterday's STS workout. Tomorrow I may do the STS, M3 W1 bicep, tricep, shoulder workout just to hit the other UB muscles I didn't hit yesterday. Plus I need a little more time to decide on what my next rotation will be.
 
LOL, Nathalie! I have 2 other P57 workouts to try before I can say for sure if I would give a positive recommendation (I bought the Volume 2 set). I would say Turbo Barre is more challenging because Cathe seems to be more thorough in both the upper and lower body work. Now the core work on P57 was much more challenging. Again, that's not to say the P57 workout was easy. I can already tell I'm going to be feeling it tomorrow in my legs and core.

Mary, I've got that Leah Sarago workout scheduled for later in the week. I already previewed it, and it definitely looked hard. I haven't tried either of the workouts you mentioned. Hopefully someone else has here. I bought one by Tracy Mallett, one by Suzanne Bowen, and another by Leah Sarago. I'm trying to keep myself from revisiting the site and buying more!

SarBear, I hope steals.com will fix your problem for you. If not, a lot of people on the PFLO Facebook page have said that Lindsay is very responsive when they contact her directly so she might be able to help get the issue resolved if needed.
 
jengollf said:
This is off topic. I don't really visit the other boards on this forum anymore because I don't like the toxic tone of a lot of things being discussed. But of course Nathalie's name popped up as a subject line on the Open Discussion board today and I saw it on my way to visit this board. Anyway--I just have to say that I think that is just wrong for someone to start a public post like that about another person and it turns my stomach. I don't know all the details and I don't want to go back and read a bunch of unpleasant posts to find out. I have known Nathalie through these forums, PMs and FB for years and I have a hard time believing she deserves that. She has always been supportive and helpful to others.

I have never contributed to any forum regularly until I discovered Cathe's. I would occasionally visit other forums and on a very rare occasion do a post, but nothing like I do here. I really enjoyed this place and the people who frequent it. I don't know what or why things are changing, but it is a big turn off for me. I'm not signing off at this time. I am going to try to stick with this check in only, but if this environment (not this particular check in ladies!) continues to be toxic I may just withdraw.

I think you ladies are great and I am glad we keep this check in supportive, non-toxic and a feel good place to visit.
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To sarBear and catwoman

Thanks again Jen, I have just seen this post now.
Glad you have explained the ladies what was going on. Yes it was horrible. Two users posted threads.
With my user name as thread title, with no other aim than to discredit me!
It was very upsetting. It did turn more than my stomach. Both thread are now removed. I am glad! Let's put all behind and enjoy our healthy checkin.

As Jen stated, indeed we do not dwell in negativity here.
No narrow minded folks against heavy lifting here. No fake, fake fake cathlete. We keep it REAL.
No toxic in our checkin and we will keep it this way.
 
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bzbnmom said:
Nathalie, I'm sorry to hear about nasty posts against you again. I completely missed out on seeing it and I'm glad because I don't even care to read it. You are one of my favorite people on Cathe forums because of your encouragement, helpful information, and positive outlook. Just keep on being the wonderful person that you are!
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Thanks Mary for your support. I won't let the bully win. I am sticking around with YOU true lovely cathletes;);)
I am happy both thread are now removed.

I know there are sales on Mary website. If I had known I would have held my order.
I bought Chris Freytag ACE Hiit Mary. I think it is worth a try. I have viewed few of clips, including the youtube ones.
Her cueing is very good. I received it few days ago and have not tried it yet. It contains a vinyasa yoga segment.
To be honest we can not go wrong for the price we pay. I have not heard about the other dvds you listed.
 
I feel like I am way behind! I will catch up here and post again later. I took the weekend off, did lots of heat, ice and foam rolling. My husband rolled a tennis ball hard into my shoulder, too. It is feeling better but not 100%, so I decided to go lower body this week. Next week, hopefully my shoulder will be a 100% and I will pick up where I left off on my rotation. So this morning was Turbo Barre Lower body only premix + I added on the abs section. It fried my legs! No doubles this week. I still have to construct my workouts for the rest of the week. I need some intense cardio that doesn't rely on a lot of upper body work--so no burpees or mountain climbers. Right now I am thinking Low Max, maybe the Imax workouts or Intensity? Maybe Party Rockin Step 2? The other lower body workouts I am considering for this week are Xtrain Legs, KCM's Body Training and putting together some workouts from Weider Ruthless (Wicked Lower Body, Nitro Burn and Core and Flex). Or maybe if my shoulder is good by the end of the week I'll do something like Butts & Guts, Lower Body Blast or Legs & Glutes--the I can test it by at least holding dumbbells for lower body. When I got up this morning I thought my shoulder was 100% and I started considering jumping back into my rotation and doing the P90X2 workout I had originally planned, but decided to just be smart about this and give it the time it needs. Then during the warm up for Turbo Barre when she has you doing some wide arm movements, I felt it in the shoulder and I was glad I decided to take it slow! I probably would have re-injured it and made it worse!

Mary--I own ACE HIIT series and I liked it a lot. Not Cathe level intensity but still good workouts. Here is my review of it: ACE HIIT SERIES.

I'll come back later and catch up on everyone's posts!
 
SarBear—that’s actually how I feel about several of Cathe’s (and other trainers) workouts. I did feel like I got a lot of benefit out of STS, but I’m not going to lie—Gym Styles and RwH just seem to hit my muscles so much harder. That’s also how I felt about Body Beast’s back workouts—nothing really hits my back as well as Sagi’s back workouts. But then I also consider that even when I am not feeling it as intensely the next day (DOMS) it is still working them. Though DOMS is a sign that we are working hard—it’s not the only sign that we are working our muscles. Also, are you using the 1RM? That made a big difference for me. When I used it for STS I found I could always lift heavier than I thought I could. I surprised myself.

And I hope my PL workouts aren’t defective. I haven’t even checked them out. All I did was open the cases and verify they were all present and accounted for. /o: The plan is to do them next month, but my plans have been temporarily derailed, so not even sure now. Anyway—I hope you get it worked out. Maybe if you contact Lindsay Brin directly through her website, she will replace the defective DVD. Or maybe at least give you access to the download. Oh—reading on I see Jodi already suggested that!

Nathalie—aren’t those RwH RIHI upper body workouts killer? Some of the hardest strength workouts I’ve ever done!

Mary—I am sorry to hear that your knee is continuing to give you problems. I don’t know a lot about knee problems but it seems any major joint problem significantly hinders our workouts and that just $ucks. You really are doing a great job working around it tho.

All right, I think I am caught up now! Today I am going to try to work out my rotation for the rest of this week. Hopefully next week I can get back on tracks!
 
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jengollf said:
Nathalie—aren’t those RwH RIHI upper body workouts killer? Some of the hardest strength workouts I’ve ever done!
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Yes Jen, I agree with you. I do own all cathe's pure lifting program and I have done them all
I usually take time to fully understand and try the program to at least 50% of it's potential.
There is nothing in Cathe's collection I could compare the intensity to.
IMO, well someone might argue stating I am biaised, the rep range and the speed did make the difference.
I forgot to add the speed lol:):). Cathe's speed is higher compared to other trainers, Imo.
2 elements: rep range and weight load.

The weight load especially for Hiit circuit is the heaviest I have ever lifted. There is nothing in cathe collection
I could compare to. May be high step challenge but the rep range is high in endurance style.
RwH are for improving, developping power and strength.
Hope this answer your question.

How would you compare RwH circuit to michelle dozois, patrick Goudeau or Paul katami?
I know they do do circuit.
 
That's a good question, Nathalie. They are all very different, which is what I like about them--the variety. And they are all very challenging. I feel like Cathe makes it easier for you to go as heavy as you can in a circuit workout and therefore reap the great results. But Michelle Dozois, Patrick Goudeau and Paul Katami put out very intense metabolic workouts. The problem with their workouts tho (MD and PG especially) is fast-paced compound moves with no rest between, meaning you cannot change your dumbbells to a more appropriate weight when the exercise morphs into something else. This is more of a problem with MD and PG's Hardwork workouts. PG's other metabolic conditioning workouts are usually set up so that you can choose the appropriate weight for each round--but once the round starts, it moves too fast to change dumbbells again. They also all generally do longer metabolic workouts than Cathe does that usually wipe you out completely--again, especially if you go as heavy as you can manage. Paul Katami's more recent offerings have been shorter and therefore less taxing, but he usually does the super long metabolic workouts, too. Another thing you will find with MD and PG's Hardwork workouts is that you aren't going to get a ton reps of any one exercise--however, you are hitting all muscle groups multiple times but with different compound exercises each time.

One trainer who does superb metabolic workouts that IMHO are the most intense out there PLUS she makes it possible to use the appropriate weights is Ilaria Montagnani's Atletica workouts. You can work your muscles extremely well and get a serious metabolic burn while at it. She is an excellent trainer as well.

I think it's worth it to do metabolic workouts. I love both heavier lifting and metabolic workouts, so I like to mix things up. Which is what I plan to do more of once I get through reviewing all of my workouts. then I can vary things in different ways. Have metabolic weeks and heavy weeks--or do both in the same week--splits at the beginning and end the week with a tough total body metabolic workout.
 
This morning I did Tracie Long Defining Shape.

I had my first PT session this morning (I'm going to a different place for this injury) and I really really like the therapist! He asked me a lot of questions and explained A LOT to me, so I feel much better about recovery. He said I can continue my lower body workouts along with the PT exercises and, the best part of all, he's pretty sure I won't need arthroscopy. I'm happy.

Jen, thanks for the link to your review of ACE Hiit. Ughh, I'm finding I want to buy a whole bunch of new workouts right now until I can work back up to Cathe's level of intensity. :oops: I think it's a good idea to give your shoulder extra time. Several years ago I had a shoulder injury from water skiing that lasted for more than a half a year. I had PT, which did not help. For almost a year(?) I didn't work out (just biking in summer and skiing in winter) and then went back to my DVDs and the shoulder was perfectly fine. So I'm not actually sure at what point it healed during the second six months. It only hurt when I did exercises. From my experience, all I can say is give your shoulder enough time to heal.

Nathalie, I have 2 of Michelle's, a few more of Patrick's, and 1 of Paul's. I haven't spent much time with any of them BUT my favorite, by far, is Patrick G. It is a personal preference, but I think he makes the workout fun and the music is good. I have enjoyed Lean Hot Body, Body Weight Blast, and Kickbox Burn and would like to get Turn Up and Slim Down sometime. I also have Hardwork Conditioning 24/7 that I haven't tried out yet (Jen mentioned about these above). I agree with Jen - Michelle and Patrick are definitely challenging! Paul - I haven't given much of a chance. Oh yes, I want to give Ilaria a try too!! :D
 
Today was Cathe's Slow & Heavy Chest & Back workout. Hello, heavy weights! I have missed you! It's been so long since I've done this series, and I'm so glad to finally revisit it. I love, love, love the focus on form and really taking the time to feel the weight. I had forgotten how important the retraction she stresses is to getting the most out of the moves. Did I mention how much I love this series? Haha!
 
This morning was Low Max. I had forgotten how much that workout burns you out! Doesn't seem to hard at first, but Cathe fries the legs. That's the theme this week--frying my legs! Shoulder is getting better but still not healed. I actually felt it this morning during side kicks which surprised me. Didn't realize the shoulder was involved but it is!

Jodi, I revisited S&H a few months ago and was impressed, too. It gave me some DOMS! Cathe has so many awesome workouts. I am always wanting to revisit my old favorites to see if I still love them and if they still challenge me. Two I've been think a lot about is Push Pull and Supersets. I used to love those two workouts. Muscle Endurance used to really burn me out (in a good way) and I used to do her Body Max workouts every Saturday--again, wiped me out. It's been so long since I've done any of those workouts. I need to create a short rotation where I revisit the oldies but goodies. And the high step workouts! They have always been my absolute favorite workouts. I haven't done them in a while, but I always return to those. I am missing those now!
 
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