New with questions

[jannylee]

Hi everyone:

I am really interested in obtaining some feedback...here is my story.

I am a new mother of an eight month old baby girl. Prior to the birth of my child, I was quite active...weight lifting, cardio and spinning weekly. I reached the best shape of my life. Now here I am eight months later and carrying around 15 extra pounds and a few dress sizes too many.

My goal is to get back to 130 and size 6. I am going to be 35 and really want to get in the best physical shape before my next child which will happen in the next year.

I have obtained a few videos from the The Firm that can provide a good start (cardio and sculpting)...however, I would like to add to this with Cathe's videos and ultimately use hers 90% of the time. I can only add a couple now because of the cost, but will add more as time goes along. Which videos should I add? I would like a good cardio and perhaps a couple with a focus on weights.

I would appreciate any feedback.

Thanks again.
Jannylee

 

[Jcrew3082]

Welcome Jannylee,

Congratulations on your new baby!

Cathe has so many great options! After a few years of on and off lifting, I would have considered myself to be at an intermediate level about two months ago. I started with the Pure Strength series and those workouts have been fabulous and challenging. I am also doing Power Hour now, and that too is a great workout. My Kick Punch & Crunch DVD just arrived today, and I know it's going to be awesome.

Whatever you decide to purchase, you really can't go wrong. I unfortunately don't have room to do a step workout, so I can't give you any feedback in that area.

Good luck!

Gina

 

[melfitz]

Hi Jannylee!

Congratulations on your baby girl! Boy, can I relate! Three kids later (most recent born Dec '03) and I'm still nowhere near my prepregnancy size despite all my efforts! (Granted, I just recently had a baby.) I was at my alltime fitness best before getting pregnant the 1st time. Back then, I tried to run 3x/week, strength train 2x/week and probably weighed 115-120 (I'm 4'11") and wore a size 4. My personal issues aside...

The CTX series is great! Both the cardio and strength are intense. I did this series most of the time after child #2 was born. I love Cardiokicks. Sidenote: I haven't kept up with my Cathe collection so I'm a bit out of date. (Cost is going to be a major issue when trying to complete my collection.) Bootcamp is awesome...my favorite! I've done the FitTV version and I'm waiting for the DVD to arrive any day now. Power Hour is an excellent total body strength workout! I'm anxious to do Muscle Endurance (which is also on the same DVD as Bootcamp) to compare. MIS is Cathe's first strength video. I did it last week for the first time in years. (I had to blow off the dust.) It really pushed me over the edge. I, also, love CircuitMax. As I'm writing, it's hard to suggest just 1 or 2 to start.

If I had to suggest, based on what I currently own, I'd say get CTX just because all of the workouts are 1 hr or less and comprehensive. For a new mom, time is an issue. With the DVD version, there is more flexibility on creating different workouts. I have the videos so it's harder to mix and match workouts. For example, it's not as simple to just do all of the strength work from the series.

Lastly, just from my personal experience when I went from weighing 140 to 115 before getting pregnant, I didn't experience dramatic fat loss results until I incorprated running. Doing exercise videos alone didn't do it for me. I don't know what it is about running that is so effective...and I'm not the best runner. I suppose I do more run/walk. I hope to start running again when the weather is nicer. If I can find time to run 2x/month I'd be happy. Sorry for the tangent and sorry this reply got lengthy.


-Melanie

 

[scm]

I too was active before I became pregnant. After my sons birth, money was so tight. I knew I would only be able to work out at home (not go back to the gym) to get back into shape, so I purchased two videos; MIS and MIC. Really I think those are two excellent workouts. One is all weights and the other is all cardio. I got back in better shape than I was before my son. If your interested I can email you a pic five months after he was born. Cathe has the most amazing workouts. There are so many to choose from, but those two would be my recommendations.

Susan CM