Gym style or S & H?

[Barbarella9]

I am looking for recommendations. I have PUB and PLB, KPC and L & G and SS/PPull. I was looking for area specific tapes for times when I cannot get to the gym. I really love weight training but have found that I respond best to isolating 1-2 body parts per day. I was looking at the gym style workouts that just came out but someone on the boards mentioned that the workouts were more about endurance. S & H comments seem to concentrate on sets with reps done slowly, more like how I train at the gym. I would love to hear opinions on which tapes would be most beneficial for days when going to the gym isn't possible.

All input will be appreciated!!!
Thanks,
Barbara

 

[clareMc]

Hi Barbara:

Personally I love the S&H workouts. There is no other workout for upper body for which I can lift as heavy as I can with S&H and that matters to me also. I have been working woith the S&H upper body workouts for 6-7 weeks now, and I don't seem able to give them up. I tried goung to the GS workouts and ran back to my S&H immediately! With Back/shoulders and biceps I got a great workout and really enjoyed the difference between this one and the S&H routines. But I really do not like the band much for upper body work, that's where the endurance aspect comes in really. Cathe uses the band for shoulder front raises and I hated it and went straight for my dumbells because I didn't feel the area to be sufficiently well worked out just with the band. And again, when Cathe uses the band for rear delt work, I hated this and could not feel it in that muscle so went back again to the slow raises I do in S&H, which seems to be the only time I really am able to isolate this muscle.

I have yet to try the Chest/triceps GS tape, I am scared off by the excessive number of push ups with which Cathe starts off the tape. I cannot do push ups even though I do all the chest work on S&H with heavier dumbells than Cathe.

GS legs is an excellent workout, which begins with heavy-ish weight then moves to more endurance work, ending with intense floor work to really define muscles. I think it would make the perfect compliment to S&H legs: alternating between the 2 would give great leg strength and endurance capabilities.

Considering the sort of weight tapes you already have, it seems that you would be best served by going with something that is the most different from what you already have: that would be S&H series.

Clare

 

[Barbarella9]

Clare,

Thank you so much for your input. That was just the information that I was looking for. I also hate push ups and when doing chest exercises I feel pain in my shoulder. Thanks for the tip about GS.

With S&H legs, how high in weights do you need to go to fatigue the muscles? I have a barbell with enough weight however, my dumbbells top out at 15. I notice that Cathe uses a 40 lb dumbbell for plie squats (I saw it on FitTV). Do you need to use weight this heavy also?

Barbara

 

[CathydsRNA]

I think Gym Style legs is more about endurance but I don't think Gym Style upper workouts are about endurance. They are more about strength with some small amount of endurance work. These workouts use mostly heavy weights (pushups not withstanding...these are endurance) with some band work. I think the band work can be considered endurance type work. The weight work consists of a variety of exercises for each body part and typical sets dont have more than 12 reps, in fact many sets have only 8 or 10 reps. There is a significant break between sets. There is a lot of slow work in the workouts ( 4-8 counts/rep) concentration curls, overhead lying tricep extensions, barbell curls, reverse grip dumbell rows, bench perss, flies and french press to name only a few and only a few exercises where the reps are done on a 1,2 count. I think Gym Style uppers in addition to the S&H workouts are great to rotate together and if I could only buy two upper body workouts these would be the ones followed by UBP and CTX.

 

[clareMc]

I don't own a 40 pound dumbell either. Who does? I use my barbell here and it works just fine.

On the S&H legs, Cathe uses exercises to pre-fatigue the muscles because she knows tht most women cnnot lift a really heavy barbell over their heads. So, she uses a barbell set at 50 pounds for squats, and at 40o for static lunges. The dumbells she uses to pre-fatigue range from 10 to 15 I believe, so you are fine there.

You might like t oacquire 20 pound dumbells. You will want to reach for them for teh S&H upper, I suspect. On back exercises, also on tricep overhead extensions and maybe chest also, depending on how heavy you lift for chest already. Maybe you'll need 25 pound dumbells?!?

Clare

 

[catwoman]

I see benefits to both the S&H and the GS workouts. When I want to get a good pump in a particular body part, S&H fits the bill, but when I want to really tackle a body part from all angles, I throw in GS.

What I've been doing lately is mixing and matching, and it's giving me great results. For example, I did PUB the other day, but only the chest, shoulders, and triceps work. Then I threw in GS: Chest, Shoulders, and Tris and did the Supersets premix, skipping over the pushups (because I'm just not ready for those, yet). I did the same thing for back and biceps a couple of days later. What an incredible combination of strength work! I was actually thinking about how I would like to combine my S&H series with GS, as well, to really exhaust the muscles for an optimum burn.

The reason I like GS so much is because Cathe incorporates a lot of unique weight work. I mean, I just love those lying down, cross-the-body, triceps extensions. And, all the different shoulder exercises she incorporates, plus the incline bench presses just really hit the muscles in new and different ways! I feel like each body part gets hit and hit, and then hit again from yet another angle with GS...meaning that when she does chest, she hits it from every possible angle (and when she's finished with that, she pulls out the resistance band for a bonus burn that really sculpts the muscle) so that by the time chest is done, no muscle has been excluded and has been hit from all directions to maximize performance.

S&H or GS? This is a tough one, but I'd have to go for GS first, then S&H second.

 

[Barbarella9]

Thank you to everyone for all their input. I think that I will get the S&H series because I like the grouping for the workouts. I also may get the GS legs because the description of exercises looks good on that one and it will be a good compliment to PLB and L & G which I already have.

Thank you again to everyone. These forums are great!!!!:7 I am so glad to see there are so many other Cathe addicts out there!


Barbara