I have been back on my fitness journey for almost two months now, thanks to the helpful answers I received to my last couple of quests from so many of you. So, I'm back, asking for more guidance. lol I'm coming along on my upper and lower body strength pace - slow, but steady progress. For abs, however, I am ready to increase the frequency. I was working them 1 time a week - usually using Cathy's basic stability ball ab workout that came with my step. This week, I'd planned to do 2 core workouts a week, with the intention of working up to 3. I need more variety though. I randomly grabbed a DVD today and did the bonus ab and I had to take so many breaks that it took me 25 minutes to do a 10 minute ab workout. I own almost all of Cathe's videos (not the spin cycle ones), and in the past, I've done all of the ab workouts, but I can't remember which ones are on which DVDs. So... I was wondering if someone with a better memory than I (or someone that has ranked them in order from easiest to hardest) could help me out. I need a list of "less challenging" ab workouts. I do have a few of Jessica Smith's that I've been sprinkling in every once in awhile, but honestly, I feel I get a better ab workout with Cathe's. I can do medicine ball abs (but it's very challenging), so I'm looking for Cathe ab bonuses that are around that level or slightly easier - I learned the hard way that I'm NOT ready for pikes yet. lol I made that mistake when I assumed LMR would be easier. lol
Order of difficulty of Cathe's ab/core bonuses?
- Thread starter Braille
- Start date
Debinmi
Cathlete
Braille, interesting question! I'm interested to see what others say too!
I think Cathe's oldest workouts have easier core workouts, however, they are mostly crunch-based. I'd add in something like planks, Supermans and bird-dogs to be sure to get the back-side. Or combine a couple that have them. She usually does something for the obliques though. If you have her Ab Hits dvd, there are 12 older core workouts on it. If you don't have it, these are the dvds from which they were taken:
"Cathe Friedrich's Ab Hits DVD Contains 12 Abdominal Workouts from:
Maximum Intensity Strength
Power Circuit
Kickbox
Body Max
Slow & Heavy Chest, Back & Abs
Slow & Heavy Biceps, Triceps & Abs and All Step
Step Heat
Power Hour
Leaner Legs
Pure Strength Strong Legs & Abs
Pure Strength Back, Biceps & Abs
Ab Hits DVD has tons of chapters, including seven premixed ab workouts, and is also broken down by exercise group to give you almost unlimited possibilities."
I think Cathe's oldest workouts have easier core workouts, however, they are mostly crunch-based. I'd add in something like planks, Supermans and bird-dogs to be sure to get the back-side. Or combine a couple that have them. She usually does something for the obliques though. If you have her Ab Hits dvd, there are 12 older core workouts on it. If you don't have it, these are the dvds from which they were taken:
"Cathe Friedrich's Ab Hits DVD Contains 12 Abdominal Workouts from:
Maximum Intensity Strength
Power Circuit
Kickbox
Body Max
Slow & Heavy Chest, Back & Abs
Slow & Heavy Biceps, Triceps & Abs and All Step
Step Heat
Power Hour
Leaner Legs
Pure Strength Strong Legs & Abs
Pure Strength Back, Biceps & Abs
Ab Hits DVD has tons of chapters, including seven premixed ab workouts, and is also broken down by exercise group to give you almost unlimited possibilities."
Thank you. I do have Ab hits, but I remembered that most of them were crunches. I don't remember the 7 premixes - that sounds like it would have the variety I'm looking for, without being too far above my ability level. I'm going to check it out. Thank you!
I own STS 2.0, but I never had a chance to get into the set before my workouts came to a halt a couple of years ago. I'd read that the standing abs on it was easier, but I didn't realize there were 4 ab workouts - cool. Reasonable reps is EXACTLY what I'm looking for. I've found that my "form" (not sure if that's what it's called with ab work) gets bad with too many of the same challenging moves, because I'm too darn stubborn to do less of them - I'm one of those people that has to has to do them all to get that "sense of completion". When I do the last half of them improperly... I'm not actually accomplishing anything. I'll check out STS 2.0 - I'm not ready for the entire program yet, but I've been looking for an excuse to get into it. lol The ab workouts will be a good way to play a bit with STS, until I get in good enough shape (and build the confidence) to do it in its entirety. Thanks for the suggestion!
