Good morning to everyone! I did Power Hour yesterday and loved it! I felt so good after finishing. I have one question though concerning this and other Cathe vids, do you apply the same rules for vid weight training as you would with traditional training, such as increasing poundage? Rule of thumb is to increase in 5# increments for upper, 10 for lower? That would seem to be quite a bit of weight. There is also the saying if you are lifting let's say for 12 reps, and you choose a weight you can only lift for 8 then you should decrease the weight to at least get 10 reps. Can anyone out there give me a guide, cause these tapes leave me breathless to some extent, but I know I can lift much heavier so I need some guideline as to how many reps I should try to be getting when I increase my weight? Does this question make sense? I don't want to overdo, or I will just burn out and give up on these vids. I don't want that!! Thanks for the input. Have a great day! Sandy in Maine P.S. I know Cathe's vids are all different, I'm mostly referring to her tapes that have multiple sets and reps, one after the other!! Such as PowerHour! Whew!
How does one know to increase poundage?
- Thread starter Mainemom
- Start date
Cathe Friedrich
Administrator
Hi Mainemom! Actually increasing upper body by five pounds is high. I would only recommend an increase of one to two pounds on high rep lighter weight workouts (like Power Hour) and 3 to 5 pound increase for slower rep heavy workouts (like PS Series).
I would recommend a three to five pound increase for lower body on hi rep light weight workouts (Pour Hour), and a five to eight pound increase (for lower body large muscle groups) for slower rep heavy weight workouts (PS Series).
During the first couple of tries, Power Hour will leave you breathless, especially on the leg work, but eventually you will adapt to some degree, yet always remain a bit winded to some degree. This is the nature of this workout. It is a conditioning workout that enhances muscular endurance. While it promotes some strength gains, this is not the focus of this video. If you train with heavy weight, I recommend you stay with the more traditional two to three sets of 8 to 12 reps
approach.
When doing Power Hour, you want to find a weight for each body part that allows you to complete the song yet makes you work hard for it by the end of that body part(or song).
As for the saying that you mention........"if you are lifting let's say for 12 reps, and you choose a weight you can only lift for 8 then you should decrease the weight to at least get 10 reps"....... that could be one way to approach it and it is not wrong however, there are many different ways to approach strength gains. For example, getting at least 8 reps of that weight is also very good for developing optimal strength gains. Even a combo of both is great too (one set do 8 reps with heavy weight, another set a little less weight and do 10 reps, another set a little less weight and do 12 reps). Hope this helps. Good Luck!
I would recommend a three to five pound increase for lower body on hi rep light weight workouts (Pour Hour), and a five to eight pound increase (for lower body large muscle groups) for slower rep heavy weight workouts (PS Series).
During the first couple of tries, Power Hour will leave you breathless, especially on the leg work, but eventually you will adapt to some degree, yet always remain a bit winded to some degree. This is the nature of this workout. It is a conditioning workout that enhances muscular endurance. While it promotes some strength gains, this is not the focus of this video. If you train with heavy weight, I recommend you stay with the more traditional two to three sets of 8 to 12 reps
approach.
When doing Power Hour, you want to find a weight for each body part that allows you to complete the song yet makes you work hard for it by the end of that body part(or song).
As for the saying that you mention........"if you are lifting let's say for 12 reps, and you choose a weight you can only lift for 8 then you should decrease the weight to at least get 10 reps"....... that could be one way to approach it and it is not wrong however, there are many different ways to approach strength gains. For example, getting at least 8 reps of that weight is also very good for developing optimal strength gains. Even a combo of both is great too (one set do 8 reps with heavy weight, another set a little less weight and do 10 reps, another set a little less weight and do 12 reps). Hope this helps. Good Luck!
Hi Cathe, thank you for such a quick and thorough response. Fitness info. can be so confusing, and as a reader who wants to get my hands on everything to do with fitness, one can overdose!! I have trad. weight trained and the philosophy is a little different than video training, I'll get it. My fear with doing the videos, is loss of muscle tone. Where I've been trad. training, I can not lift any where near what I was, squatting for instance. Cardiovascular wise, I cannot lift what I feel I should be to maintain, at least, what I have now! Any encouragement in this area would be appreciated. Thanks Sandy in Maine