***We're In This Together*** (May 2013)

[cokonkel]

TGIF!

Rest day today for me. Yesterday's workout was PUB (minus ball/core) and since I ran out of time for them on Wednesday I decided to do the 100 rep hip thrusts (with 50 lb barbell). I thought it might be a breeze considering I usually do those after a tough leg workout but I was wrong. I still had to stop and rest at 40 reps, then again at 70 reps, heart pounding the whole time. If anything, it almost felt a little tougher! I'm thinking it could have been one of two things: the slight DOMS from the leg workout the day before or the fact when I do a leg routine before hand I have plenty of blood coursing through the muscles down there. I also wonder how much the cardio induced endorphins play a role for me. When I'm flying high on endorphins, I almost feel like Wonder Woman.

Body Beast came yesterday! I've worked out a hybrid rotation for June incorporating BB, one day of Hoco, a second leg day with Cathe, cutting it down from 6 days a week to 5 days and doubling up here and there. I'm omitting the chest work and alternating some of the upper body discs biweekly as well as with XTrain Burn Sets, so it's sort of turning out to be an undulating rotation of sorts.

Here's the outline. What do you guys think?

Week 1

Sunday: Cathe Cardio/Leg (STS Plyo legs, Cardio Leg Blast or LBB standing) + BB Shoulders (maybe attempting to shorten it a bit, I'll have to see what is doable once I get going).

Mon: Rest

Tues: HoCo

Wed: BB Bulk Legs + XTrain Burn Set Tri's

Thurs: Cathe Cardio

Fri or Sat (alternating depending on schedule): Body Beast Back and Bi's

Fri or Sat: rest

Week 2

Sun: Cathe Cardio/Leg + Body Beast Tri's (on preview the disc looks chaptered well so I can skip the chest stuff)

Mon: Rest

Tues: Body Beast Cardio

Wed: BB Build Legs + XTrain Burn Set Shoulders

Thurs: HoCo

Fri or Sat: BB Total Body

Then alternate/repeat for following 2 weeks. I want to get hip thrusts in there, too but I'm not sure where to put them...Sun or Wed? I'm thinking after doing that, I may do a week of circuits and cardio since I'm pretty sure I'll have a pent up craving for cardio by that point. Then the week after (which should be the second week in July) taking a yoga/light cardio/rest week.

Natty- thanks for the link on facebook! I liked his page so I'm looking forward to his posts. He seems like a very common sense guy (wish there was more of that in the fitness industry!). LOL about the people buying soda at intermission during JM's talk. Just goes to show how so many people are really not that serious about changing their lives with exercise and nutrition. People will pay a lot of lip service, and then their actions totally betray their actual attitude. I don't think I could have held back on saying something if it was someone I knew...talk about cognitive dissonance! LOL
Speaking of Nia Shanks, she was supposed to do an AMA on the /r/advancedfitness on reddit May 13. I'm not sure what happened though, since I can't find it on there. An AMA is when a public figure comes onto the board for a subscribed period of time and people shoot questions on the thread, and the person tries to answer as many as they can. Sort of like what Cathe does on occasion, actually.

Sarah- I'm totally the same way, in that fitness has been such a learning and discovery journey for me. I so wish I had been more serious about it when I was younger. Think about the benefits I could have had! Especially with strength training...what a revelation that was! I always have to kind of chuckle at the people who live on the extreme ends of fitness and diet. It's like human nature prevents a consistent middle ground of moderation. I guess because it's just not exciting enough. hehe

Gotta run! TTYL girls!

 

[mini-natty]

Colleen & Sarah
Can I suggest you both start out with the Build w/o's first? I find Build Legs to be very cardio intensive, and you will for sure be getting that CSOTT DOMS (Bulk is killer too, don't worry! I find you have to go a bit heavier to get DOMS though). I also find the pace a little more slower in the Build w/o's. I find this to be important so you can get used to Sagi's style and cuing. Speaking of cuing, I'm not sure if Sagi even mirrors at all . I believe you might have to remember which side you completed -- I don't think he ever mentions right/left sides. I don't recall ever having a problem because I usually start with my right side and then change to the left the following week so they get worked evenly.
Beast Cardio is brutal . I always feel DOMS in my entire body after that one, so just chose the w/o's you are going to do the next day, wisely.
There are some moves that require an EZ bar, but there is a modifier using dumbbell's. I think you can still use a reg barbell if you prefer. One helpful tip about using an EZ or barbell, sometimes Sagi goes WAY too fast when changing the weight plates during drop-sets and does not give you enough time to change yours . He even helps out his exerciser change plates, and this pisses me right off! Of course he is gonna be ready before me, he has help changing the plates for pete's sake! Grrr.... So of course using dumbbell's will prevent this frustration .
One lady from my other check-in expressed concern that in the Build w/o's, between super-sets & giant-sets, there is a 60-90 sec break. I think she found this break to be a little too long. I feel the break is adequate, and here's why:
During the super-sets and giant-sets, you are doing a fair number of reps (15R, 12R, 8R, and sometimes a drop-set of 8R). During these reps, your break is fairly short. By the time you complete the sets, your muscles will need the adequate rest to keep going. You are not alternating muscle groups, so when you do chest & tri's, you do ALL your chest exercises first. If you find the break is too long and you don't need that long to gain some composure back then just do jump rope or plank jacks .

HTH! BB later!

 

[mini-natty]

I'm back

My w/o yesterday was Bulk Back. I didn't have that much gas in the tank but I gave it my best anyway. Hate TTOTM .

I forgot to tell you guys that I bit the bullet, took the risk, and bought this DVD:
Walking for Weight Loss, Wellness & Energy - Jessica Smith. It was the only place I could get it, and I really, really wanted it . So good news is that I didn't get hit with any duty fee's! I was kinda scared of that, but I think if the pkg is under a certain weight, then I'm ok. So I did 30min of that w/o today. Great walking w/o! I think I like it better than all my Leslie's. Later on tonight will be Bulk SHoulder's. I can't believe I am actually starting to see shoulder definition!

Sarah
I think you are 100% right about JM. I feel like I have disconnected from her. On to bigger and heavier things!
Good luck w/ selling your TM . I hope you get a good deal from it.
I'm super impressed that you can squat to parallel! That IS awesome . You and Colleen have thighs and buns of steel I tell ya!
I am in love with any type of Thai cuisine . Over here, Pad Sew has the thicker noodles. Have you ever had coconut curry pad sew? Holy %$#@ is it ever amazing.

 

[mom2kttj]

Nat - Never heard of coconut curry pad sew ew. But I love anything coconut curry. I could drink the stuff. Tonight I made a really good curried turkey peanut soup. I am going to do the rotation straight up. Except for walking, an occasional Zumba, a and maybe a few tabatas or hiits. So in other words not straight up Lol. I will have to be good about paying attention to switching up what legs I start on, I'm not so good at that. When my body is working super hard and focusing on form I can't think about anything else. I also have a very hard time keeping track of weights and writting shit down. I start the beginning of the WO out good and about 1/2 into it I'm like the rest is more important than recording weights and reps. Congrats on a new DVD. New stuff is fun fun fun.

Colleen - I'm not going to sugar coat it but your rotation looks massive. I' worried about the first couple of weeks being overly sore, so I might have to wait longer in between WO anyway. I believe Nat was extremely sore. I know whenever I do something different my body reacts with DOMS, big time. As much as I would like to continue to do Hoco : (
You hiit the nail of the head with what you said about human nature prevent moderation and middle ground. So true for politics too, yet most of America is in the middle.

Nia was voted one of the best fitness related twitter accounts. I don't do twitter though.

Today I walked with the girls and their friends, thats it I was suppose to do Tabatsize but wasn't feeling it. TTOTM for me too. Maybe tomorrow.

Right now I am on throw-up duty with the dog. She's vomitted twice tonight, huge amounts. Once on the floor, no problem cleaning up. Secong time on the rug. Still cleaning : (

Sarah

 

[cokonkel]

Drive by check in!

Today I did Xtrain's All Out Low Impact Hiit (extreme premix). Now I'm getting ready to go out tonight with Mark. We're going to see Les Miserables at the Community Theater here in town with a couple from his work. This will be his first real experience with a play...3 1/2 hours and a musical? Hmmm, should be interesting to see how he holds up!

Natty- So do you think I should maybe stick with BB Build Legs for those 4 weeks? I mostly wanted to get familiar with all the workouts, which is why I wanted to throw those total body ones in there, too (I'm going to alternate the Total Body one and the Lucky 7 one).

oops, gotta run! TTYL

 

[mini-natty]

Hope everyone is enjoying the long w/e

Yesterday was my official rest day, but I went on a 3 mile walk. WTH it was so cold out . This up/down weather is seriously peeving me off .

Colleen
I would suggest, at least for the first week, you start with the Build w/o's. Sarah is right, my DOMS was insanely crazy for the Build Phase (3 weeks). I think my body was so used to Cathe for 2yrs, that it was indeed shocked by the change . Within 2 weeks of this program, my plateau was busted! You know what I just realized, you and Sarah didn't get the Tempo w/o's . With my package, I got those 2 bonus w/o's (Back & Bi's/Chest & Tri's). Those ones resemble S&H, and IMO are absolutely worth getting. What makes them different from S&H though, is that after each set or circuit, you do intense core work (mostly plank-based). So for instance you do a set of bicep curls, and then proceed to mt climbers . All the w/o's repeat in this fashion, so your HR is elevated nicely. Not only that, but working in a S&H manner always makes my muscles quiver! I'm excited because these w/o's make a comeback in the Beast Phase .

Sarah
Regarding remembering which side to work, you can always mirror the background exercisers (or Sagi). They work in an organized manner. It's just that Sagi never mentions which arm/leg to work, as in right or left. He just say's "1st leg, 1st arm" ect.
Sagi will constantly remind you to write your #'s down. He will say "do you know what you gotta do next? WRITE IT DOWN!".
My cats were constantly throwing up on the rug . I'm sure dog puke is worse, but I feel for ya . My boy cat (the one who passed) would smear his poop around the entire house. He lost the ability for a few years ago to "cleanly" poop in the litter box . I felt bad for the little guy, so my patience was very high, even though it was gross.

Marie
Hope you and B are doing well . I love your pics on FB.

Jen
How are you doing? Hope all is well .

 

[mfv3]

Hey everyone

B and I went for a 2h walk today. I had him in the carrier. Made for a better workout with an extra 17lbs attached to me. Tony gets off at 6 so I'm excited to have an evening with my family Sleeping B in my arms right now. I don't want to move but I haven't showered yet today. Now that he is crawling I can't leave him alone at all lol. Usually I would put him in his Exersaucer and we would play peek-a-boo but now that he can get around so well he is like get me out of this thing Have a good rest of the weekend

 

[mfv3]

Morning!

Working for me today. I got here a bit early so I'm walking the path around the building with my soy latte. Yum!

Walking has been my workout of choice lately. We went for a 2h family walk last night too so that was about 4h of walking for me yesterday. I'm trying not to feel guilty for not doing Cathe lately. B is the king of cat naps and less sleeping at night too so it's been harder to get my workouts in. Now that he is on the move he isn't digging the Exersaucer either. Oh well! I've been enjoying my walks and chasing his cute little butt around lol

Hoping to catch up on personals today. Crossing my fingers for a slow day on the psych unit!

 

[mini-natty]

Hi everyone!

Yesterday w/o was Bulk Chest. This week my stamina and strength has not been very good because of TTOTM. We also spent the afternoon at the park called Fairly Lake (we frequent that one often).

Marie
Cat-napping is very normal at that age, especially while they are conquering milestones like crawling, walking, talking. They are just too darn excited to sleep! Have you read the Ferber tip on cat-napping and how to alter the schedule, so for instance get them to go from 3 naps to 2. I swear that helped tremendously! Bella would love 2 naps in the morning and 1 nap in the afternoon, but they were only 30min each . By the time bedtime rolled around, she was a cranky baby. So I extended her morning wake time to around 10am and then she had another nap at around 2pm. Gradually she took 2 longer 1hr naps. The transition from 2 naps to 1 nap was TOUGH. I knew I needed to change that though because Bella only wanted her morning nap and refused to take an afternoon nap. The first time I kept her up until 11:30am, poor kid was falling asleep in her high chair while eating. Eventually it all came together and she was taking these awesome 2hr afternoon naps. But of course, babies/children are ever-changing and have their own agenda. Apparently, they didn't read the Ferber book .

Have a great day ladies!

 

[mom2kttj]

Today was my first bb WO! I was good, with the exception of the push-up parts which I ended up doing extreme modifications : ) I started with TTM step Tabata just because I haven't walked the weather is awful : (

Saturday was Tabatsize. Sunday was my rest day and spent the entire day experimenting with cupcake recipes. So to say the least, I got my fill of sugar. Saturday I also went down to portland for another eating tour with my niece. We went to a place called lardo we had a Korean sandwich with slow cooked pork and kimchi then dirty french fries. The French fries were, yes cooked in lard with pork scraps, pepperoncinis, rosemary, and parm. Doesn't sound like it would be good but both were excellent. Then we went to a place called Bollywood theatre that does Indian street food. We had really good beets in a yogurt sauce with cumin, and cilantro. Then a Kati roll with beef, shrimp curry, and Vada pav. All really good except the vada pav. But the beets were my favorite, I love beets. I know this sounds funny but when I was a kid I asked for beets on my birthday every year.

Nat - I sorry your not feeling your WO's lately but I know you'll make up for lost time when your feeling awesome again. I did get the temp workouts

 

[mom2kttj]

Marie - does b do the rocking when he is crawling. I love that! So cute. Don't feel bad that you haven't been doing anything formal as far as exercising goes. Walking is just as good plus the change is good for your body.

Sarah

 

[mom2kttj]

Colleen - are you starting BB this week? How was the theatre?

Nat- I also recorded everything today. I even made a cheat sheet that says like ww = wrist weights and k = knees and 1 = 1 LB wrist weights. So hopefully I won't forget because I always did abbreviations in the past but then would be like hmm what was I talking about? I felt like my chest was massive after today.

Sorry my post was all over the place today.

Sarah

 

[mfv3]

Marie - does b do the rocking when he is crawling. I love that! So cute. Don't feel bad that you haven't been doing anything formal as far as exercising goes. Walking is just as good plus the change is good for your body.

Sarah

Thanks Sarah! It's definately been harder lately but I figure walking is better than nothing.

He did the rocking thing at first. It was so cute! Like I'm trying to go forward but I don't quite have it yet. He learned quick though and is now all over the place.

Nice job making your cheat sheet today! Best of luck when you start. Can't wait to hear how it goes. Bring on the DOMS!

 

[mfv3]

Today was my first bb WO! I was good, with the exception of the push-up parts which I ended up doing extreme modifications : ) I started with TTM step Tabata just because I haven't walked the weather is awful : (

Saturday was Tabatsize. Sunday was my rest day and spent the entire day experimenting with cupcake recipes. So to say the least, I got my fill of sugar. Saturday I also went down to portland for another eating tour with my niece. We went to a place called lardo we had a Korean sandwich with slow cooked pork and kimchi then dirty french fries. The French fries were, yes cooked in lard with pork scraps, pepperoncinis, rosemary, and parm. Doesn't sound like it would be good but both were excellent. Then we went to a place called Bollywood theatre that does Indian street food. We had really good beets in a yogurt sauce with cumin, and cilantro. Then a Kati roll with beef, shrimp curry, and Vada pav. All really good except the vada pav. But the beets were my favorite, I love beets. I know this sounds funny but when I was a kid I asked for beets on my birthday every year.

Nat - I sorry your not feeling your WO's lately but I know you'll make up for lost time when your feeling awesome again. I did get the temp workouts

Oops! I see here that you already started BB. Nice job!

Your food sounds amazing! I heard Korean food is real good!

 

[mfv3]

Hi everyone!

Yesterday w/o was Bulk Chest. This week my stamina and strength has not been very good because of TTOTM. We also spent the afternoon at the park called Fairly Lake (we frequent that one often).

Marie
Cat-napping is very normal at that age, especially while they are conquering milestones like crawling, walking, talking. They are just too darn excited to sleep! Have you read the Ferber tip on cat-napping and how to alter the schedule, so for instance get them to go from 3 naps to 2. I swear that helped tremendously! Bella would love 2 naps in the morning and 1 nap in the afternoon, but they were only 30min each . By the time bedtime rolled around, she was a cranky baby. So I extended her morning wake time to around 10am and then she had another nap at around 2pm. Gradually she took 2 longer 1hr naps. The transition from 2 naps to 1 nap was TOUGH. I knew I needed to change that though because Bella only wanted her morning nap and refused to take an afternoon nap. The first time I kept her up until 11:30am, poor kid was falling asleep in her high chair while eating. Eventually it all came together and she was taking these awesome 2hr afternoon naps. But of course, babies/children are ever-changing and have their own agenda. Apparently, they didn't read the Ferber book .

Have a great day ladies!

You'll be rocking your workouts again soon! No guilt!

Thanks for mentioning Ferber tip. I will for sure be trying that. Sounds exactly like B. Cat naps and cranky around bedtime...yup! I hope to switch that up soon. Thanks for the tip

I can just picture Bella falling asleep in her high chair lol! Too cute!

I have to try and get him on a better routine and let my mom and MIL know about it. The other day my MIL let him sleep 4h. Oh wow! Oh course I didn't say anything because I'm thankful she watched him but he was up until 1am. Not cool!

 

[mfv3]

Drive by check in!

Today I did Xtrain's All Out Low Impact Hiit (extreme premix). Now I'm getting ready to go out tonight with Mark. We're going to see Les Miserables at the Community Theater here in town with a couple from his work. This will be his first real experience with a play...3 1/2 hours and a musical? Hmmm, should be interesting to see how he holds up!

Natty- So do you think I should maybe stick with BB Build Legs for those 4 weeks? I mostly wanted to get familiar with all the workouts, which is why I wanted to throw those total body ones in there, too (I'm going to alternate the Total Body one and the Lucky 7 one).

oops, gotta run! TTYL

Nice job on AOLIH! Love that one!

Hope you had a great date night. Those are the best! Tony and I love community theater!

 

[mfv3]

Hi Jen- Sorry to hear the job didn't go as planned. Glad you followed your heart though. I know something that feels right will come along. Best of luck!

 

[mfv3]

I went for a 25m walk during my break Felt so nice to get outside.

Alright back to work!

 

[cokonkel]

Afternoon ladies!

Quickie post before I eat lunch here, and then I'll try to be back later for more personals.

Sunday, I did: CF w/u + firewalker tabata (~11 min), Body Beast Build Legs (minus calf work so it came in at ~ 30 min) then HoCo December 102 (~30 min). I was actually slated to do Meso 2 legs and wasn't planning on starting any Body Beast workouts until next week but I couldn't wait to check out Build Legs! Oddly, I didn't get much in the way of DOMS, though. I guess I didn't go heavy enough, but will remedy that next time especially now that I am more familiar with the workout itself. I was also a little off due to ttotm, which I think took the wind out of my sails as far as challenging myself.

Yesterday I wound up doing Bob Harper's Kettlebell Sculpted Body. I normally take Monday as a rest day but since I was home anyway it was too tempting for me to do something! I remember why I'm not doing his KB workouts anymore, though. The workout is so scattered and disorganized and he takes so much time in certain parts instructing on form (I like it better when instructors put the tutorials in a different section so as not to distract from the actual workout itself) or just yakking in general. At least with this one he isn't leaving out reps on entire sides like in the Cardio KB one but it's still frustrating. I like Bob, but honestly I find many of his and Jillian's workouts a little sloppy and lazily put together.

Today, I did XTrain Bi's and Tri's (minus the crazy 8's and crazy dips at the end ~ 35 min) and then walked for 20 minutes on the treadmill (2% incline, 4mph). There were several parts where I could only make it to 12 reps instead of 16, even though I was usually going lighter than Cathe. At least I know I wasn't going too light for my own ability and not challenging myself!

Mark and I had fun at the theater, although truth be told I'm not a huge fan of musicals. I prefer my plays with more talking, less singing. A little is fine. I actually really want to get Mark to see Chicago or Guys and Dolls sometime. I think he would appreciate something a little more contemporary. But hey, at least he went! lol

okay, I'm gonna get a little lunch in me...BRB!

 

[mini-natty]

Heya ladies

Yesterday's w/o was Bulk Legs. My energy returned so I was determined to heavy up . During the warm-up, I did some firewalker's w/my blue band . Holy DOMS going on right now! I thought I didn't work chest hard enough the other day, but man are my pecs screaming. I've also noticed that the BB Leg w/o's always give me nice butt DOMS .

Today will most likely be a rest day because I got 4hrs sleep last night . I was tossing and turning until 1am and then was up at 5am . I might take an indoor walk or something. It's raining out .

Colleen & Sarah
Speaking of BB warm-up, Beachbody has a new interview w/Sagi and he discusses the "lack of warm-up" expressed by people doing the program. He says that after the official warm-up, the w/o's always start off w/15R of a light weight, and so he considers that an extension of the warm-up because it prepares the muscle for the more heavier loads. He also says that's the way he does it, and he has never gotten injured and his clients have never got injured doing it this way. The whole interview was actually very interesting.

Colleen
Glad to hear you and Mark had a nice time . TBH, I'm not a fan of musicals either. You know Glee? I hated that show! It would bother me when they started singing. Speaking of shows, are you watching Vikings? Oh man, what an awesome series! Another one I have been into is Bates Motel .
Sorry to hear you didn't get DOMS . I'll never forget my first time with Build Legs, I had DOMS for 5 friggin' days! How did you like the w/o though?
I unliked Bob off FB. His new book has a diet plan that is 800cal/day . For some reason this kinda put me off and I could not believe he would advocate a diet with such low cal restrictions. How can he expect someone to have the energy to complete one of his tough workouts with such a low calorie intake?

Sarah
Your eating tour sounded AMAZING . I was literally drooling when you were describing the food. Love me all that ethnic cuisine. Indian food is amongst one of my fav.
So how did you like Build Chest & Tri's? You can tell Sagi loves working chest . Do you like his personality?

Marie
Don't ever feel guilty for walking and not doing Cathe! You know how passionate I am about walking in general, so I won't say more .
I was really anal (still am ) with Bella's sleep schedule. I have been criticized time and time again for giving her an early bedtime, but I don't give a crap, really. It's important TO ME that she get's adequate sleep. Family always tend to critique parenting styles .

Have a good day everyone!