Ectochick check 2/10

A

AKirkland

Cathlete
Hi Ectos,

We had a good thread going last week, so I thought I'd start us off again. How's everyone getting on with the new workouts?

Now that I've had a chance to try all of the ones I ordered (DVDs #2 and #3), I'm ready to settle into a rotation for a few weeks:

Saturday - CTX UB
Sunday - Leaner Legs
Monday - PUB
Tuesday - PLB
Wednesday - off
Thursday - ME
Friday - Bootcamp Core Only

I'm still working on getting back up to the level of fitness I'd achieved before I became ill in late Nov./early Dec. I'm making progress...

Y'all have a great week and remember to do something special for your honey - Friday is Valentine's Day!

Angela

:*
 
Hi Angela,

Glad to see that you're still making progress. I'm really just very happy to have you back. :)I missed checking in last week but I will go back to that thread for motivation for this week! :)

Here are my plans for this week:
Sun- Power Hour
Mon- Cardio/stairstepper
Tue- Muscle Endurance
Wed- Kickboxing or Imax 2
Thu- Cardio & Weights or Power Yoga
Fri- Rest
Sat- Boot Camp plus 20 minutes on the stairstepper
Sun- Cardio and yoga or Cardio & Weights (can I do this the day after Boot Camp?)

Hope everyone has a great week!

Angie
 
Hi Ectos, I was just going to start this thread when the baby hit a button on the library system and zapped me out of cyber land and when I came back on Angela had beat me to it and Anna had already posted to boot!!!

I always glad to see Angela up and posting here :) :) :) .

Again, no definite plans this week. I did ME yesterday and plan to do PH tomorrow. I'm just trying to get in a workout every other day while on vacation and primarily am sticking to endurance weight workouts. Don't have much to work with equipment wise so I'm getting really creative. Glad you all are sticking to your daily grind and am hoping your all staying healthy (getting better soon!)

I bid on BTR on ebay, but when I checked today, I didn't get it. Oh well, there's always another (hopefully). Have a great week, keep on pumping!!!!

Briee
 
Angela, I'm so glad your plate is so full this week. Hope you can keep on keepin' on.

I'm in recovery from a sadistic sinus infection. Today was the first real day of exercise for me in the last week. Got sort of carried away, did Imax2 1-5 and was going to do chest from PUB, but did the whole dang thing.

PUB experiment #1: I did PUB using half the number of reps that Cathe did. (Example: reps would go 6-5-4-5-6 rather than 12-10-8-10-12) I really, really liked how that felt. Much slower and much heavier. It's going to take me couple of more tries to get the timing worked out perfectly. But, at this speed it's more more of what I'm looking for. Now I'm thinking about going through all Cathe's weight tapes and adjusting this way.

I think I'll just do the rest of the Intensity series this week with a Terminator workout on Saturday.

Anxiously awaiting the arrival of the BTR. And Robin I read about a cool technique of working the legs that BTR would be perfect for.

Angie! Good to hear from you, gotta ask what kind of yoga you do. I've really gotten back into it and my back is SO straight. I'll give you my three faves: Rodney Yee-Yoga For Athletes, Bryan Kest Power Yoga 2, Patricia Walden, PM Yoga. Tell me what you're into. I really love it for the fexibility aspect.

I hope you all are warmer than Minneapolis. -7 when I woke up. How cold is WI, Briee? Hope your BTR wish gets granted.

YOU GO GIRLS!!!!!

Julie:)
 
Hey Julie,

I've recently gotten back into a daily yoga practice. I have the a.m./stress relief/p.m. yoga DVD and the Yoga for Beginners VHS with Patricia Walden. I've been switching off between a.m. yoga and stress relief each morning and try to do the (long!) Yoga for Beginners once a week. It's hard to fit in a 75 min. yoga workout on top of my strength training, but it sure feels good. After that deep relaxation at the end, I feel like melted butter.

I haven't tried the p.m. yoga yet. It's hard for me to get the T.V./DVD player away from hubby late in the evening. Once my strength training workout, which I do immediately after I get home from work, is over - he pretty much takes over the T.V. for the rest of the evening.

Angela
 
Hi, Gang!

I'm also glad to 'see' you, Angela. :7

I plan to start an endurance rotation this week and go with it for 3 weeks (if I can..;) ) and then move to the rotations that Cathe suggested for me. So, this week:
Mon-BNTR routine with some cardio
Tues-C&W
Wed-IMAX 2
Thurs-ME
Fri-DH is having shoulder surgery, so I'm sure it's a rest day.
Sat-BC

Uh, Julie...please share the cool new way to use the BNTR!!!:+

Briee, when I bought my BNTR, they had a bunch with the Buy It Now option for $39.99. Are they all gone? I've only heard of one other person getting a better deal than that.:(

Gotta scoot. Have a great week!
 
Hi All! :)

Julie - For yoga I'm using Autonomy Cardio Yoga. It's 45 minutes of a faster paced yoga - I do work up a bit of a sweat but really got the video from a friend because I didn't like the workouts where you held the pose for forever before moving on to the next. I also have Bryan Kest's Energize and Tone workouts (Volumes 1 and 2).

Just this morning I got around to reading last weeks check -in. Robin, thanks for thinking of me! :) Had a rough week or I should say the hubby did. He just can't or won't stay put. He's working part time (which is good most days) but last week while driving through a parking lot saw something a little suspicious and instead of calling for back up first he went to check things out. He thought it was a simple case of a guy having a little trouble getting into his car. Well to make a long story short it was a crime in progress. The accomplice saw Gary coming, tried to get away, was backing out so his buddy could just hop in and Gary was struck. Hit twice actually, the second time when he was trying to move out of the way while still attempting to grab one of the "bad boys". And boys is the correct term they were both teens. Anyway, Gary was hit in the thigh by the bumper of the car fell and broke his ankle and then when he stood up was struck by the open passenger door and fractured a rib! He was in the hospital for a few days because he started having complications with clotting. When he finally made it home I told him if he feels he must work then he needs to find a desk job! ;-)

We were able to laugh about the incident Sunday. The guys at work are calling him the "Fall Guy". I'm seriously thinking about building him a padded room to live in! }( I guess my talking him into taking short runs on the weekends (something we used to do together a lot) is out of the question for now! :(

You all have me re-thinking this bun & thigh rocker deal. I finally got it out of my system to have one and now...... hmmmm, I may have to look into this again.

Have a great week everyone!
Angie
 
Good grief Angie, is DH in the police biz or is he just an awesome citizen? Too bad he got hurt for it.

And I've never heard of Autonomy cardio yoga. Interesting. Isn't Bryan Kest a dream boat in those first two productions? I wasn't so happy with the later one I have. He talks way too much.

Angela, I don't see any reason why you can't do PM Yoga earlier in the day. I think you'll feel energized by it. I don't *think* Patricia Walden will jump through the screen and stop you. Funny thought. :+

Robin, got the Bun & Thigh Rocker yesterday. It's still in the box. Plan to set it up and try it out this morning. The plan I was looking at is in Body Rx magazine. It involves working the lower body one leg at a time. So as to insure total burn out in an isolated set of muscles before working out the next. I believe it was called unilateral training. It would be hard to do while standing. You've got to have some type of machine to make it possible, because obviously you can only do most standing leg work with them BOTH underneath you. I'll probably have some type of "postable" program with it by next week. (But I can just see you, Robin, buzzing down to the drugstore to grab a copy right after you read this.)

Of course I can't my copy of Body Rx right now. My teenage boys keep carrying my fitness mags off. Must like the bikini chicks in there.

Hope you all are warm. I'm freezing.

Julie:9
 
Oh, My Goodness, Angie! I'm so sorry that happened to your DH.:-( I hope those "boys" are locked up!!!! Twirps!x( I'm sure he'll recover soon, tho and y'all can enjoy those runs again.

Actually, my DH is having shoulder surgery on Fri and says that he'll be in a sling for 3 weeks and will probably stay off work that whole time...:eek: :eek: :eek: GACK! I may hurt him before it's over.:p

Julie, altho I can't wait to see your posted routine, I promise I'll wait for it. I didn't even know they had a Body Rx magazine. Maybe they don't carry it around here. I hope not, cuz you're right, I would have run out to pick it up. Please post it, cuz it actually makes sense. I hope you like the BNTR. I did a workout on it on Mon. and was tight and a bit sore yesterday. I swear my butt was higher...:D

Amyfit30 has decided not to be in a bodybuilding competition and is going to do a killer fat blasting rotation....Of course, I've signed up. Just hoping to stick with it and not get bored. :+

Have a good one, Guys!
 
Hi Julie!

My DH is an ex-cop (had to leave due to illness) but it seems he can't leave that line of work alone! I've tried to get him to do something much less strenuous. But that's his "life", what he was born to do and he feels lost not having some type of connection to it. He's involved with some friends/businessmen starting a security company - he's supposed to work on contracts only and hire employees - just couldn't stay away from the sites. :) But this gives him something to do. He hated having to take time off - it drove him nuts and me too! :) At least now I have him at a desk or mostly home because he can review contracts from home.

I can't think of who does the voice over for Autonomy Cardio Yoga. Some people don't like the tape because of it - she's either a step ahead or one behind the two exercisers but I don't really notice because I'm not watching the TV anyway. I just listen to the directions given. But when all at the same place when the series of poses is completed and we're "just hanging out with out injuries, with our weaknesses, with our strengths"! But check out the reviews at videofitness.

So in Volume 3, Bryan talks to much, hmmm. Guess I won't look for that tape! I like his voice too and he is a little on the cute side. ;)

Can you get a Bun & Thigh rocker in the stores? Isn't there a copycat version of this somewhere? Like K-Mart maybe? I thought I saw something similar in one of the discount stores - maybe I was dreaming!

Angie
 
Once a cop, always a cop? Sounds like it. I was surprised to find out Cathe's DH is State Trooper. Something about the uniform, huh?

My DH, not a cop (but watches them on TV), does snow removal and we've had unusally little this winter in Minneapolis. So . . . guess who's been my "home buddy" for the last 6 weeks. It's definitely been a matter of temperance and tolerance. I just can't stand the way he pouts when the weather forecast is wrong and we are once again passed by for a huge snow dump. Oh, and everything else he does bugs me, too. But I LOVE him! ;-) Isn't marriage grand?

Robin I'll conduct a thorough interrogation of my 3 sons to see who absconded with my mag. They are SO weird.

MY MAIDEN VOYAGE ON THE BUN AND THIGH ROCKER:

Today I put BTR together myself, yahoo! I used it during the compound work on Cardio and Weights with one pair of 25lb resistance bands on. It was fun and it really hits things differently than standing work does. Icna go MUCH heavier on the BTR and I like to slow Cathe's reps down a bit. But, (or should I say "butt"?) after I went through the whole workout I put all the bands on and did three real slow and heavy sets of leg presses with it. Six counts up six counts down. This was killer! I absolutely can't believe how it just burned the quads into jelly. My thighs were a bubbling heap of nuclear waste by the time I finished 3 sets of 6-8 reps. I am so pleased with this unit. :9 Can't wait to experiment with different foot/plate positions.

Robin, if you have HoneyBunch's BTR W/o's would give me a clue?

Can't wait to see how sore I am tomorrow. Aren't we a nutty bunch? Who loves sore muscles? I do! }(

Keep warm, everyone

Julie
 
Julie,

See here, Woman! http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=41677&mesg_id=41677&page=7

And here for Francine's. http://69.0.137.118/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=41400&mesg_id=41400&page=7

Angie, I've seen a knock-off at K-Mart. I looked at it, but it looks like you push up instead of backward on it. I know that makes no sense...but let's just say that the angle is different on the K-Mart machine. Not sure if that's better, worse, or makes no difference. Someone said that it's made by Jake's brother. Not sure of that tho. Also, there is a Weider Rock N Tone. Now, pictures of that machine look like it works exactly like the BNTR. I've seen it on Ebay also and, if you look at Sam's, for some reason I'm thinking it might be there. Good luck. This machine is a flat-butted ectos dream, IMO!;)
 
Butt's probably my best feature. What about us flat-hamstringed ectos? Oh, for that nice curve on the back of the thigh...

I'm considering posting my "success story." I know most folks think of weight loss as "success," but as we've discussed on ecto threads before, you can be tormented as much or more if you're out of shape and underweight.

Peers made my life miserable and Mom told me it was all inherited and nothing I could do would ever change it. (Thanks, Mom!) Years of working out with the Firm did little or nothing. It was only after finding Cathe's weight training workouts that my life changed for the better. What do you guys think? Should I post?

Angela
 
YES!! Of course, you should post. You're a success story...you met your goals. I wanna hear all the details.

How come your butt is your best feature????? Genetic? You worked for it? Tell me what you did in your SS.:7
 
Well, I'm not sure I want to talk about my butt in my SS... *blush*

My Mom has no butt, short waist and "bird legs" with a tendency to put all the weight on in the tummy, particularly after her histerectomy. (sp?) As she was so fond of pointing out, I did inherit pretty much the same body type, with the exception of the butt. This has always been a good feature for me and it's always the first body part to respond to squats, lunges and leg presses. Must have come from my Dad's side of the family.

However, even though we do obviously inherit body traits from our parents, it is still possible to improve greatly on what nature has given us. My parents - WWII generation - never exercised and were never involved in any regular physical activity, and so never encouraged me. I was the classic "98 pound weakling" who was always the last chosen for teams in gym class, so I hated and avoided any kind of physical activity, too. It's a shame it took me until my 30s and a chronic illness to wake me up.

I know my situation is a very different slant from what most folks are used to as "success stories," but I think it's important for people to understand that being "thin" doesn't necessarily equal health and/or happiness.

Angela
 
I am your Mother!!!! :p

Angela, please post your SS. They are plenty of folks out there that have trouble putting on wt. and muscle and/or have health issues. I know that you will inspire a lot of people.:*
 
:)

And here's your surrogate mom chiming in! Post, please! You would be great inspiration to many!

I have a fairly decent butt too - not as grand as my sisters but I do look nice in clothing. I think mine came from squats, lunges, deadlifts etc. But I would definitely like to have some fuller hamstrings. ;)

Robin - hope your husbands' surgery goes well and that he heals quickly and as pain free as possible! LOL! Don't hurt him to badly!:) Also, I checked the K-Mart site and it's the Weider that I saw. Didn't know there was a second knock-off! Didn't know there was a difference in the positioning of the seat and lift. Thanks! I'm glad you pointed that out.

Julie - glad to know that you "felt" the muscles working almost immediately. Lately my knees have been feeling achy and swollen. They don't appear swollen just feel like when I'm working out. I may need to cut back to one per week of Muscle Endurance or Leaner Legs. Maybe doing Power Hour twice weekly- until the knees simmer down. I think all those leg presses are what's doing it. Last night after doing LL, I made sure I took 2 Glucosamine Sulfate capsules before going to bed. Looks like I'll be taking those again for a while.

All you B&TR users, can you work the inner and outer thighs as well? Is it all in the foot positioning? And can it really be done considering how small the foot plate looks? Please let me know.

Thanks! You all are the best!
 
Unilateral training

Okay, Robin, et al,

Here's the scoop on Unilateral Training from Fitness RX magazine, Feb. 2003 issue, page 88: (Unilateral training is working one side of the body at a time.)

"Unilateral training helps isolate muscles better than traning both sides of the body at once. Researchers found that doing one-leg squats overloaded the glutes better than doing two-leg squats."

"Unilateral training creates more muscle invlolvement because of bilateral deficit. This means the total weight you can lift with each limb working independently is greater than two limbs working together. Training with one side of the body at a time loads the muscles more than working them together."

So, with that said I am thinking the following exercises would be good for one-leg work:

Floor:
Tall box leg press
One legged dumbell squats (body weight on one leg, other used only for balance, I can expand on this if need be)
Lunges
Static Lunges

BTR:
One-leg press
One-leg press with toes pointed to the outside

Take these exercises, choose several that you like and do 2-3 sets on the right and then 2-3 sets on the left. Remember to do all of them on one leg first then switch to the other. Example: 3 sets tall box leg press, 3 sets lunges, 3 sets BTR ALL on the right leg and repeat for the left. I won't give recommendations on the reps, you all know yourselves. (My reps will of course be slow and heavy. That's the way uh-huh, uh-huh I like it!) To the point of let down. Doesn't it sound like fun?

And I'm sure more BTR uses will pop up as I get more familiar with the "unit". I'm looking forward to Francine's BTR usage pic's.

Anyone willing to try this with me and post results?

Hey, we might hit 20 degrees today! :7

Julie :9
 
RE: Unilateral training

The one legged thing makes sense to me. I feel like the low end static lunges in Leaner Legs have been extremely effective for muscle development in my glutes and quads.

Speaking of exercises for the hind quarters, I've only done PLB once - I'm scheduled to do it again tonite! - but there's something in that workout that hit the outside of my glutes. I experienced a soreness there I never had before. I'm not sure, but I'm thinking it was from the froggy things with the stability ball. If you're really wanting to target glutes, that may be a unique and effective exercise to include.

Angela
 
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