frusterated!:(

J

jistbrenda

Cathlete
Hi Cathe, I really would appreciate it if, you could help me come up with a specific rotation. i am 39 and losing alot of my muscle strength and tone. i need to get my cardio , strength training, abs, and stretching in there, i want to do overall but i also need to focus on my chest and back, well actually i need it all over but i notice my chest is changing alot with age. anyway, i'm not new to workingout, just new to your workouts. i used to workout to joyce vedrals books. they were good when i was younger but i am not seeing results now. i used to do lower body pyramid one day then upper body next day and walk in between. but this doesn't do it for some reason anymore. can you help me?? I would be forever in your dept. :) thanks brenda
 
I'm not Cathe, but have you tried her Gym Style series? I used the Pyramid work outs, and while they are good, the Gym Style ones are great! Gym Style legs is my favorite, I am always wobbly legs afterwards, which means she exhausted my muscles totally. May be just that you need to keep changing your work out periodically so that your muscles will have to work harder to keep guessing. Muscles easily get used to doing the same thing and eventually they don't respond anymore. That's why it is good to mix things up. Maybe instead of walking on some days you could bike or swim. On your weight days, incorporate some different Cathe videos like Boot Camp or Legs and Glutes. Good Luck!
 
HI KAT, BY THE WAY THAT IS MY DAUGHTERS NAME:) TY. AND CAN YOU TELL ME WHAT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GS AND PYRAMID IS? AND I WAS WONDERING DOES CATHE'S DVD'S COME WITH SEVERAL ROUTINES ON THEM AND IF SO, DO YOU DO ONE PER DAY? HOW ARE HER ROTATIONS DONE? I'M TRYING TO FIND THE RIGHT ONES FOR ME. IT'S DIFFICULT. ANY HELP? I DID LEGS AND GLUTES TODAY, THEAT ONE LEFT ME WOBBLY IT WAS WONDERFUL!:9 BRENDA
 
Hi!

Not Cathe here either, but I do have a suggestion. If you get the book READY SET GO! by Phil Campbell, I think your questions are answered in that book, including rotations, etc. You can get it fairly cheap at www.borders.com.

:)
 
Pyramid legs are when you do three sets per muscle group. The first being lighter, getting heavier with each set and then working your way back down. Gym Style legs GS, is to me a little more advanced and has more variety in it. Seems to get into those target areas we all want to work more intensely. Pyramid is good for the large muscle groups, but one problem I found with it is that while my legs are able to go heavier with the sets, it is hard for my upper body to pick up the heavier weights to work my legs. Make sense? Don't know if anyone else has that problem (need to work on my uppper body strength) but it causes me to have not as challenging a workout. I really like the GS legs a lot. Legs and Glutes are also one of my top three favorite Cathes.
 
HI!

One more thing on Cathe's DVD's - noticed you had an unanswered quetion -- most all of her DVD's -- and all of her new DVD's come with premixes and are chaptered so that you can have many workouts on one DVD. I like these particularly since I can't always do a 70 min. workout, but the premixes will often have TimeSaver Workouts.

There are many people on these forums who are so creative with these premixes. Anyway, again, as regards rotations and why they are so important and how to figure out your own for your lifestyle and for what you need to keep in shape, really, this book, READY, SET, GO! by Phil Campbell, should help.

Have a terrific 4th!:7
 
Thanks so much everyone. I am working with debbie "fitnessfreak" she is making me a routine with the dvd's i have already. but i do have a question about cathes series videis, does that mean she has a workout per day on each of the "series" videos? i am still kinda confused how you know what exercise to do what day. like is it ok to work your .. say... chest and back on monday, tris and bis on tues, legs and glutes on weds, etc. can you do this and still get maximum results?
brenda
 
> I do have a question about cathes series
>videis, does that mean she has a workout per day on each of
>the "series" videos? i am still kinda confused how you know
>what exercise to do what day.

Cathe's 'series' aren't created as a rotation, though she does create rotations for them when they come out (you can find different rotation ideas in the "rotations" forum).

As for what muscles to work which days: there are different 'splits' you can do. Most beginners to weight training do well with full-body workouts, doing them 2-3 times a week. When you progress, and want to get more gains, you usually move on to a split, like a two-day split (lower body one day, upper body the next, then a day off, then repeat, so you do each workout 2x/week).

Three day splits can be divided into 'pushing' upper body muscles (chest/front shoulders/triceps) one day, 'pulling' upper body muscles (back/biceps) the next, and lower body, or can include 'push/pull' workouts (chest/back one day, leg/shoulders another day, and biceps/triceps another day, for example).

There are also "one body part per day" systems, like CTX, where you literally work one body part per day (often seeing the lower body as 'one part').

Splitting the body up lets you give more time to each muscle and can be beneficial for strength and size gains.
 
You know alot about this:) how do u put your abs and stretching and cardio into this? i only like to workout for about 1 1/2 hours a day, but not 7 days a week. and i must admit i like the wt workouts better than cardio, but i know i need some. and in case i haven't done so... thank you for your time.:7
 
>You know alot about this:) how do u put your abs and
>stretching and cardio into this? i only like to workout for
>about 1 1/2 hours a day, but not 7 days a week. and i must
>admit i like the wt workouts better than cardio, but i know i
>need some. and in case i haven't done so... thank you for your
>time.:7


I usually do stretching after the workout, and try to (but don't always) get in one 'stretch' day a week. The ab/core work is done with the resistance (weight) workouts, and kickboxing works the core well.

I like to alternate resistance training days with cardio days (though if I feel like I need/want more cardio, I will sometimes do a shorter cardio workout--like the warm-up to "Cardio Kicks," which is 12 minutes long, or something up to 20 minutes long--as an extended warm-up to a weight routine, especially if I'm doing a split routine like the Pyramids).

I only workout an hour a day, sometimes less, sometimes a little more.

Here's a sample rotation (very general)that is more resistance-training focused:
Day 1: upper body weights (PUB)(with cardio "warm-up" if I feel I need it--see above)
Day 2: Interval cardio (Interval Max, Imax 2, etc.)
Day 3: Lower body weights (PLB) (with optional cardio "warm-up")
Day 4: Stretch day (stretch or yoga)
Day 5: Full body weight workout
Day 6: steady-state cardio
Day 7: off or stretch

Here's another example, with more cardio (this is the rotation I did in January):
Day 1: interval cardio
Day 2: cardio + full body weights (usually a circuit workout with weights and cardio)]
Day 3: kickbox
Day 4: Cardio and lower body
Day 5: yoga/stretch
Day 6: cardio and upper body
Day 7: stretch and core
 
>You know alot about this:) how do u put your abs and
>stretching and cardio into this? i only like to workout for
>about 1 1/2 hours a day, but not 7 days a week. and i must
>admit i like the wt workouts better than cardio, but i know i
>need some. and in case i haven't done so... thank you for your
>time.:7


I usually do stretching after the workout, and try to (but don't always) get in one 'stretch' day a week. The ab/core work is done with the resistance (weight) workouts, and kickboxing works the core well.

I like to alternate resistance training days with cardio days (though if I feel like I need/want more cardio, I will sometimes do a shorter cardio workout--like the warm-up to "Cardio Kicks," which is 12 minutes long, or something up to 20 minutes long--as an extended warm-up to a weight routine, especially if I'm doing a split routine like the Pyramids).

I only workout an hour a day, sometimes less, sometimes a little more.

Here's a sample rotation (very general)that is more resistance-training focused:
Day 1: upper body weights (PUB)(with cardio "warm-up" if I feel I need it--see above)
Day 2: Interval cardio (Interval Max, Imax 2, etc.)
Day 3: Lower body weights (PLB) (with optional cardio "warm-up")
Day 4: Stretch day (stretch or yoga)
Day 5: Full body weight workout
Day 6: steady-state cardio
Day 7: off or stretch

Here's another example, with more cardio (this is the rotation I did in January):
Day 1: interval cardio
Day 2: cardio + full body weights (usually a circuit workout with weights and cardio)]
Day 3: kickbox
Day 4: Cardio and lower body
Day 5: yoga/stretch
Day 6: cardio and upper body
Day 7: stretch and core
 
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