your workout videos

[NailsbyDeborah]

I am told that most women are pair shaped. I was wondering if you gear your video workouts to that specific body shape. I of course am one of those that has a smaller bottom area and my top is heavier. If I am not mistaken I think I am suppose to do lighter weights and more reps for the top and heavier weights and less reps for the bottom? Please give me some advise on what I should be doing and if your videos are ok for me. When I say I am heavier up top I mean more fat content. The bottom half is skinnier and more muscle definition. Now if I can only get the top half liket he bottom I will be doing good lol.
Thank You
Deb

 

[DebbieH]

Hey Deb!

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON May-16-00 AT 08:40PM (EST)</font></center>

If we put your bottom with my top, we'd be looking pretty cooool! My definition is in my top!Hee-Hee! Yes, I think you are right as far as the weights go. If you want to build in your lower half, heavy should do the trick. As far as fat in your upper half, you definitely need cardiovascular to lose fat. Cathe's Step tapes are great for this. Also, her Maximum Intensity Strength tape (also refered to as MIS) would be great for you because you can do all moves with heavy or light weights. Hope this helps. DebbieH

 

[NailsbyDeborah]

response to my question

I wonder why I never get a response back from Cathe on this question. I thought maybe the first two times I had posted this question in the past that it was just overlooked.....but this is the third time and I still get no response. Dont think I am doing anything wrong as this is the first question I have ever asked her. Bout to give up!!!
Deb

 

[susan p]

Hi Deb!!

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON Jul-08-00 AT 05:27PM (EST)</font></center>

Cathe has been planning, rehearsing for, and filming EIGHT new videos in the past couple of months. She has been SUPER busy and so those of us who've hung out here for a while and learned a lot from Cathe (she calls us "an educated crowd", it's because she has educated us with all her responses over the years!) try to jump in with answers to people's questions. As a general rule Cathe is really active on the board and tries to personally answer questions, but she had a baby about 6 months ago, and moved, and has since been doing all the work of putting together the 8 new videos, so bless her heart she just doesn't have much computer time available!! I know she cares a lot about her fans and tries hard to keep in touch but sometimes life just gets a little overwhelming. I'm sorry you've posted more than once and not gotten a personal answer. I'm sure if Cathe gets a chance to see this she'll pop in with a little note! In the meantime, Debbie H has given you some good advice. Use heavy weights and slow reps to build muscle on the bottom to even out your shape, and whenever fat is an issue ANYWHERE the answer is cardio and clean eating!!

I am fairly evenly shaped but have quite a stubborn thin layer of chub all over. Just like a nice, warm blanket, LOL!!

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Deb!

Please don't be offended if I do not get a chance to answer your question personally. Susan P has pretty much summed up the last 6 months of my life(thanks Susan). Not to mention that the past few days I have been SUPER busy cleaning my house and entertaining my family (from out of state) who stayed with us to celebrate my little baby's Baptism yesterday. Today marks the start of things slowly returning back to normal. I will be out of the office to edit here and there in next week or so, however, I will be much more active on the forum after that. I do need to get over to the gym and teach my 3:30 class now, but I will answer your question tonight. Thanks for listening and being so patient Deb

!

 

[jennifer2]

top heavy

Deb, I have the same body type as you (heavier on top, and leaner and more defined on the bottom), so I'd be interested in hearing the responses to your question

.

Me personally, I do notice a little more bulking in my upper body when I go the high weight/low rep route, HOWEVER, my diet isn't perfect (I am going to meet with a nutritionist soon, though

), and I've also never done the high weight/low rep training for more than 6 consecutive weeks, just because by nature, Iget bored very easily and hence need to change my rotations frequently. I know many people have said that after the 6th week, they start to see their bodies get less bulky and in fact, leaner, because they're starting to lose the fat on top. It could be that this may have happened to me if I had just stuck with it long enough, who knows?

Now I rotate between endurance and heavy weight training: 3-4 weeks of one, then 3-4 weeks of the other. I'm trying not to pay too much attention to whether I'm bulking or not because I know it's important to train both ways, but in a few months of this (once my nutrition is under control as well), I'll evaulate everything and see what (if anything) I need to adjust

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Again!

<center><font size="1" color="#ff0000">LAST EDITED ON Jul-11-00 AT 07:25AM (EST)</font></center>

Rather than gear my workouts to meet a specific body type, I instead design a wide variety of safe and effective workouts which allow for individuals to modify them to meet their own specific needs.

Unfortunately there is no exact answer to your question. Some people respond better to light weight training while others do better with heavy weight training. And some even do better with with both methods.

The best advice I can give you is to try each method for a period of about 6 to 8 weeks. If you are not seeing a hint of improvement by the end of the 6 to 8 week period, then try another method listed above. When you actually start to see improvements, stick with that method for a longer period(around 12 weeks total including the 6 to 8 you just did). When the results start to slow down, shake things up by still sticking with your favored training method but making small changes such as adding heavier weight to your exercise sets, or adding higher reps to the exercise sets, and/or changing the order that your exercises are performed in.

I, personally seem to respond better to heavier weight training for the first few exercises of each body part. Then I switch to medium weight and go to 10 to 12 reps per set(for the remaining exercises in that body part). Then to change things up, I will do about three total body, high rep, medium weight workouts followed by about four days off to let my body recover.

I strongly recommend that you get away from placing yourself in a particular category of body types and instead take the time to really connect with your body and learn about what makes it perform better for you, bring on improved results, and of course, give you the leaner more sculpted appearance you are asking for.

While you will never be able to change your genetic make up entirely, you can definitely improve, enhance, and reshape your physique to more of what you want. Of course, as someone mentioned above, good, healthy, clean eating is the other important part of the equation which will work towards making this happen. Also, a well rounded cardiovascular conditioning program is paramount too.

Hope this helps

!

 

[NailsbyDeborah]

body types

Yes that did help. Thank you very much. From what I got out of this is to not worry about the body type and do the same training for all over. Thank you.
Debbie