Cathe, Is It Safe To Do Metabolic or Hiit/Tabata type training every day?

Newwmn3

Newwmn3

Cathlete
Hi Cathe,
I am a very fit (largely thanks to you!) and active 42 year old woman who works to maintain my weight and improve performace and strength. I am hoping you can speak to whether or not it is safe or advisable to do your metabolic or Hiit-type DVDs as many as 5-7 days per week? Is there a recommended limit so as to provide the best cardiovascular and strength benefits? I have read lately that too much High intensity training of any type can do more harm than good. I would love to hear your thoughts on this. What is a good mix for someone like me? Thank you very much! Christin
 
I'd like to know how often is safe to do metabolic/circuit workouts too. I do HIIT about once or twice a week on the advice of others on this forum but I don't know about the metabolic/circuit workouts. They seem to work best for me for results.

Susan :)
 
I'd be interested to hear about this too. For her Jan 2014 metabolic rotation, Cathe had 2 or 3 metabolic workouts each week, but no HiiT. I've done other rotations from other trainers, however, where ALL the workouts have been metabolic-type ones.
 
Intensity/impact

Hello,

I am not cathe....

This question has been asked numerously. In my opinion each person is different. Fitter we get, less time it takes to recover. It is recommended not to do it more than 3 times per week as it can cause overtraining. On top of the intensity (yes intensity is not synonymous to impact:p:cool::cool:) if there is impact involved there is risk of injuries.

That being said intensity is not everyone cup of tea. Some do not like it much. It does not mean aiming to train at high intensity is not a necessity nor is it harmful. We all learn to listen to our body. if body X can not take it, it does not mean it is not necessary for body Y to do it. In fact INTENSITY has always been one of the principle of training. Just saying :p;)

Cathe Friedrich - New Research Shows How High-Intensity Exercise Helps You Get Fitter - Cathe Friedrich

HTH
 
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Thanks Nathalie! I was thinking maybe 3 times a week for metabolic, one HIIT and the rest weights. I really like the metabolic training for its variety and cardio. Haven't tackled X10 yet but it's on the list. I like the leg workouts too so I do one of those and then an upper body with abs 3 times a week mixed in.

I would appreciate your input too. I always enjoy your posts and learn so much from you!

Susan :)
 
And bear in mind that metabolic workouts often use weights in them throughout, so make sure your muscles are rested before doing weights......

Could you do HiiT/tabata/metabolic conditioning every single day? Can you mentally handle the challenge (often we have to gear up for these, psychologically)? How is your boredom threshold when you do the same type of workout every day?

Working out to max intensity every day is not recommended. That way lies burn out and injury.

Clare
 
Good point Clare! Yesterday I did XTrain Legs and rear delts and mowed the yard and today I'm pretty sore so I decided to knock off today and do XTrain Supersets tomorrow and another upper body one Saturday. I'm trying to space the weight work out. Sunday I did Flex Train and there was a lot of upper body in that so I waited until Wednesday to do the rear delts with the legs.

I do listen to the old body and respect its limits but I so love the metabolic workouts. I really get good results from them. I have about 30 pounds to go now and I guess I'm getting anxious to get it off.

Thanks for your input!!:)
 
SusanBC said:
Thanks Nathalie! I was thinking maybe 3 times a week for metabolic, one HIIT and the rest weights. I really like the metabolic training for its variety and cardio. Haven't tackled X10 yet but it's on the list. I like the leg workouts too so I do one of those and then an upper body with abs 3 times a week mixed in.

I would appreciate your input too. I always enjoy your posts and learn so much from you!

Susan :)
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Hi Susan,

I take your sentence above as a compliment:):eek:. Thanks. Some metabolic can be HIIT. Example cathe's TTM full program is a metabolic with Hiit inserted. This is really demanding when done correctly. You can even count it as a leg workout because of Plyos. This is just an example.

Hiit done correctly is a metabolic.

How many time per week would like to train each major muscle group. upper/lower back....1-2 or 2-2?
 
Nathalie,

I like to do each muscle group twice a week so I count the circuit training as one depending on the body part the emphasis is on. I'm not sure what TTM is but I avoid high impact like plyo's. I can't seem to handle that over a period of days. I did all the Timesaver workouts a few weeks ago and by then end of the week my knees and legs were pretty much done. Small doses of it are fine. Maybe my legs aren't conditioned to it yet.

I have pretty much all of Cathe's DVDs except the STS series of DVDs. I have the STS Total Body which I've done once. I've singled out about 10 that are circuit training that I can rotate around and mix with weight training and again depending on where the muscle emphasis is in the circuit training, count it as a weight session as well.

Susan :)
 
To Susan,

TTM is cathe's To the max. Yes I agree that Hiit segment from TTM contain high impact moves. I suggest you try afterburn. This one does work legs really good for legs at low impact . The only issue ( not for me:D) is there are burpees and push up which require endurance from your wrist. I remember the very first two time I did afterburn I felt it in my wrist. I was not happy cause I knew I had build up the endurance. Now I am fine and no longer feel the pressure on my wrist. Afterburn was not named ramdomly. you will feel the afterburn throughout the recovery time 24 hours. Those burpees on the sliding disc felt evil the very first time:D:D . I would recommend high step training this work full body with focus on legs. you can modify if you need to. It is a met, really effective compound moves. You will be spent by the time you complete the hour. Feel free to do premixes should you need to.

Susan let me know if you need any help setting up your rotation. I would be happy to help.
 
Nathalie,

Thanks so much! Yes, it was a compliment on the first post!

Afterburn is quite a workout. I did it once and backed away but that was months ago so I need to go there again. High step training is on my list too. I have To the Max and Crossfire...a lot of high impact so saving them for later too and will have to modify some and avoid high impact Tabata. I wonder if there will be low impact Tabata some day? That would be cool!

So do you think 3 times a week for the circuit and a couple of weight days is too much if I balance it with the circuit workouts and don't repeat the same muscle groups too soon?

Thanks again!! I really appreciate your help.

Susan :)
 
I think you might the Crossfire Less Impact premix. The premix takes out a lot of the higher impact moves or you can modify the few that are there. I do that one usually once a month.
 
Crossfire

Firemedic,

I did Crossfire this morning and wow! What a workout! I did the lesser impact premix and did better with it than I thought I would. Had to pause a few times to catch my breath but did okay. I was pretty much spent by the end of it. Not sure what to do tomorrow after that one. It was pretty intense. I'm sure I think of something!

Susan:)
 
SusanBC said:
Firemedic,

I did Crossfire this morning and wow! What a workout! I did the lesser impact premix and did better with it than I thought I would. Had to pause a few times to catch my breath but did okay. I was pretty much spent by the end of it. Not sure what to do tomorrow after that one. It was pretty intense. I'm sure I think of something!

Susan:)
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Susan, I'm glad you enjoyed it. At first, I wasn't sure about the lesser impact premix, but it does pack a punch.

Kim
 
SusanBC said:
Firemedic,

I did Crossfire this morning and wow! What a workout! I did the lesser impact premix and did better with it than I thought I would. Had to pause a few times to catch my breath but did okay. I was pretty much spent by the end of it. Not sure what to do tomorrow after that one. It was pretty intense. I'm sure I think of something!

Susan:)
Click to expand...

Susan,

I have another suggestion for you.
INTENSITY, yellow one contain low impact premixes.

kind impact but heart rate is high!
 
Nathalie,

I did Athletic Training this morning and that was another intense one. I need to work on cardio endurance for sure! I've done Intensity once a few months ago and it's on my list to do again. Maybe I'll do that Friday! I think I'll do LI Barre tomorrow.

Any hints for cardio endurance? I guess I just need to keep doing it to build that endurance... At least its better than it was a few months ago.

Thanks!

Susan :)
 
Thank you!!!

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has contributed in answering my question. All your advice has been helpful to read. I think I may be overtraining a bit and, from your comments, it looks like I may be correct. I have been doing HIIT, Tabata, or Metabolic Conditioning 5-6 days a week (all Cathe's workouts) along with lighter cardio (fast walking) several times a week, too. Lately, it feels like I am always sore which I know is a solid sign of overtraining. Looks like perhaps I should back off of the high intensity stuff a bit. Tough, because it is SOOOO addictive! Does anyone have any recommendations for some "lighter" or lighter-impact cardio-based workouts of Cathe's that I should try other than step workouts? (I am the least coordinated person I know and, for the life of me, I can't follow choreography. Thank you so much!

Christin
 
Kristin:

do you own the Low Impact Series? It is full of cardio workouts that are lower in impact, varying degrees of intensity, only 1 uses the step as the main focus, and they are highly original and creative ways to get your cardio in.

Also, don't be afraid to take 2 days off in a row. I am doing so because my legs are still feeling tight and sore from all my recent workouts that have all been leg intensive. It's OK! When you come back after a couple of rest days, you come back with renewed vigour, energy and enthusiasm.

You could also check out some of Cathe's kickboxing workouts, to get cardio without the step. KPC (Kick, Punch, Crunch) is one of her absolute best kickbxing workouts.

Also, think about trying another instructor and adding that into the mix. I workout mainly with Cathe and Kelly Coffey Meyer (in addition to my outdoors workouts of my own creation), and the variety helps: I work the body in different ways, each instructor has different focal points, methods, fave moves, tendencies, so having at least 2 different instructors to workout with helps ease boredom, provide intensity variation, exercise variation and helps create better all-round fitness and conditioning.

Kelly Coffey-Meyer has a couple of workouts you might really like: Circuit Burn which provides multiple cycles which each contain 1 min of cardio, 1 min of leg work, 1 min of shadow boxing and 1 min of weights work for the upper body. This workout is stuffed full of variety and creative moves, very different from Cathe's moves. Her 30 mins to Fitness Boot Camp is similar in nature, but the cardio and weights intervals are held for 2 mins each. Also consider Trim Down, a workout that offers fun intervals of boxing moves, followed by weighted intervals of compound moves that shape the whole body, upper and lower. You can find Kelly at coffeyfit.com, and watch extended clips of her workouts DVDs on totalfitnessdvds.com. Right now, though, I believe collagevideo.com has the cheapest prices on her DVDS.

I'm sure others will chime in...

Clare
 
You haven't mentions weight training. Do you do any heavy lifting? Taking out a couple of cardio sessions and adding in some lifting will do wonders for your body. Aesthetics and health!
 
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