WHY SO MUCH UPPER BODY IN NEW DVD PREMIXES??

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BeautyandGrace

Cathlete
For the new DVD menus that are showing on the blog, I counted 8 upper body focused premixes, and only 2 lower body focused premixes. Why such an emphasis on upper body???? And why so little lower body? And why such a big difference between the # of upper body focused premixes and lower body ones?
 
I can't speak for Cathe, but I for one appreciate the emphasis on upper body work. I guess because I'm an apple and it seems my lower body takes less work to make the legs look great. I also do a fair amount of stepping for cardio, so that helps, too. Where I need work is the upper body.

Besides it occurs to me, as women we could all benefit from more upper body work. That's where we are generally weaker in comparison to our lower body and to men...what I mean is that men are generally so much stronger than we are in upper body strength, we could use the extra work. HTH:)

ETA: You might want to post this question over at Ask Cathe.
 
There may be more premixes focusing on upper body, but I have a feeling the lower body is going to get toasted with this series. Don't forget that intense cardio is intense cardio precisely because it uses the large muscles of the lower body. Kickboxing itself is like a lower body workout with cardio thrown in for good measure. Notice that the leg work is on the same dvd as the kickboxing and bootcamp workout. While Cathe may not have made many premixes herself using those workouts, having those three on the same dvd provides the opportunity for a wide variety of home made lower body-focused mish moshes, either by using the mix 'n match menu, or programming your dvd player. Oh yes, with a little imagination, your lower body will likely get toasted in a number of different ways! }( }( }(

Sandra
 
Well, there are five upper body segments (chest, tris, back, bis, shoulders) and only one leg segment. This fact alone would lend itself to more upper body-flavored premixes. Also, thanks to some sound information from an instructor friend of mine, I've come to the realization that often times cardio is leg work itself. Especially Cathe cardio. So many plyos, kicks, certain step moves, etc - these really tone the legs and add strength and endurance to them.

Though it isn't the same as having more leg-oriented premixes, you could always do the leg segment from Kickbox twice a week. I found that when I cut out doing 'leg' specific days and did a variety of more cardio, my legs became stronger and more defined.
 
I guess I'm assuming that in order to work the legs to get them lean, you have to do heavy weight workouts, like Gym style Legs. Is this not the case? Am I wrong in thinking that the way to get lean, defined legs is through slow and heavy weight work?
 
>I guess I'm assuming that in order to work the legs to get
>them lean, you have to do heavy weight workouts, like Gym
>style Legs. Is this not the case? Am I wrong in thinking that
>the way to get lean, defined legs is through slow and heavy
>weight work?

This is really dependant on your body type, and there is no pat answer to this. What works with me(cycling is my answer if I want to lean out my legs), may not work for you.

As far as this series. Cathe in the past has put out many series that have a lot of leg work. Maybe this time she decided to put an emphasis on upper body. I for one am glad as sometimes it seems I have more lower body than upper, and having these upper body premixes really please me. Also, don't under value kickboxing in working the legs. It is a tremendous work-out and you don't even need to drag the weights out!
 
I agree with Dorothy that what works for each person is different depending on body type. I tend to gain muscle very easy so high rep/low weight, kickboxing, and cardio is what helps me slim legs- high weight/low rep gets me huge legs which isn't my goal. I also tend to not have to work my upper body too much to keep it defined- kickboxing I'm sure has something to do with that.

That being said, the lower body has less parts to work where upper body has biceps, triceps, delts, back, etc... so it makes sense that there is more footage directed at those. I am really happy to see boot camp, kickboxing, and legs all on one DVD- you can create so many different mixes for lower body using those three & I have no doubt that it will hit the legs VERY well.
 
i believe its just the way they filmed. every muscle group gets hit and since the upper body as smaller muscle groups they need more focus to increase that group, whereas legs are larger muscle groups and many of the smaller groups of the legs also gets worked doing squats and lunges. for some this is a good thing since i did notice in the last series there wasn't as much focus on upper body other then short segments in LIC and DM and a 1/2 in BM2 while the rest was lower body and cardio. maybe it was just to mix things up

kassia

http://www.picturetrail.com/ldy_solana

"And do what thee wilt as long as ye harm none"

http://images.meez.com/user03/06/01/04/060104_10010099873.gif
 
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