Home Workout Enthusiasts - Week of Feb 11

[cniles]

Good morning from icy central Pa!! No school today - snow/freezing rain and ice expected all day today - yuck. We have to make up the day during Easter break. Bummer of it all is that it's not even a good snow day. Only a coating right now - kids can't sled, build snowmen etc.. It's just plain yuck.:(

Ok - weekend report. No exercise Saturday - ran errands all day. Sunday I did Total BodyTime Crunch and yesterday I did Cardio Sculpt Fusion with Emily - both FIRM workouts. TODAY... since I have all day I plan on a good cardio workout - probably a Cathe step - maybe Cardio and Weights or Step BLast with Coremax.:)

Wanda - Congratulations on soon becoming a Grandmother!!!! How exciting!:) On the health front - I hope you get over your chest cold soon!!

Everyone - I know the flu is wandering around - I hope everyone stays healthy - Daylight savings is less than 4 weeks away - Spring is acoming!!!!:)

[Valerie226]

Back from vacation... I forget if I said where we were going... Yellowstone NP area. rented a house, skied and snowshoed. We got there in one day ( last sat)and skied sunday. Not a huge accomplishment except the elevation was 7800 feet and we live at sea level, so it's a shock to the system.
We skied or snowshoed significant amounts on mon,tues, wed, and a little on thursday. Weather was bad thursday and roads were closed due to a snowplow running off the road and needing rescue. that was a quiet day with only a little walking. we planned on staying friday and driving saturday but unfortunately the weather was dismal in Washington with huge snow dumps and pass closures due to avalanches. so we left friday morning instead. We had to drive the "long" way, down to oregon and I-84 to get thru the Cascades, then north on I-5. An extra several hundred miles. so we got home mid day saturday giving us a chance to recover sunday before work.

The ski conditions were excellent and we saw the usual critters. loads of elk including many bulls with antlers, bison, big horns, a few coyotes, & saw one wolf but heard them alot. also eagles and dippers, mergansers, goldeneyes. The thing about winter is the critters pass much closer ( people need to be careful not to make them try to get away) due to the deep snow, plus they are down lower where the snow is less deep. We got some great pics of a bighorn that walked right past us while we were getting our snowshoes on. Funny, because we were snowshoeing up the ridge to get another look at where we saw him two years ago, but he came to us! He walked right past us maybe 15 feet away and went on across the road.

In other news, an exercise equipment specialist is coming to put an extra ground wire on our treadmill console. Hope this works.

charisse, there's not much to be said about freezing rain except hope it melts soon! When we get freezing rain the power always goes out so hope you keep yours. I did treadmill & coremax on sunday. I'm working hard at #2 to get into the pike position and seem to be making some progress.

[JoanneOR]

Hi all! Don't think I've posted here in awhile! I was home last week since DH was on days for the week, so didn't get on here as much as when I'm at work. That doesn't sound too good, does it?? ;)

Charisse, I think you get our weather after us. We had the ice, snow, all the fun stuff. Just to warn you, it was below zero yesterday and the night before. Our kids have only had one snow day, though. I think they make it up at the end of the year. I am so ready for the winter to be over!

I'll have to go back and read last week's thread, but it sounds like you became a grandmother, Wanda! Congrats!:)

Valerie, sounds like a great trip. Glad you made it back safe and sound!

I've been following Cathe's February rotation. It's three days of cardio (with one being a circuit workout) and then three days of strength. Kind of different, but I'm liking it. I finished last week. She used the Slow & Heavy series which I have but have rarely done. It moves really slow since she has one minute rests between each set. I used the time to fold laundry. :) I'm on the strength part of the next week now using the Gym Styles. Today was GS chest and triceps. Tomorrow is GS legs. That one is scaring me! Wish me luck!

Stay warm everyone!

[cniles]

Valerie - good to have you back!! It really sounds like you had a great trip! ONE DAY we are going to get out to Yellowstone. Dh wants to fly out and then rent a camper and travel around to the national parks out west:) Also good news about your treadmill - fingers crossed it works!!

Joanne - NO school again due to icing overnight. This totally takes away our Easter vacation (Not that we were going anywhere but it is Jack's birthday on Sunday...) Oh well. Your rotation sounds cool. Good luck with the leg workout today (I have to admit I'd rather do abs then lunges etc...!!)

So yesterday I ended up doing Cathe's Step Blast and Coremax #1. Today I did the FIRM's Burn and Shape (although it took me forever to finish b/c I kept getting phone calls related to the school closing today!)

Jack is already bored with day #2 at home:rolleyes: - lovely. We have our neighbor here as well b/c his mom had to go to work. So I guess my day will be trying to get the kids to entertain themselves!!!:D

I hope everyone has a great day - stay warm!!!

[JoanneOR]

Charisse, our ONE DAY trip is the Grand Canyon. We'll make it there someday! Not this summer, but maybe next. I'd love to go to Yellowstone, too. For right now, we'll just live through you, Valerie!

That stinks about your Easter vacation. That's when the weather will probably start to finally get nice, too. My kids get so stir crazy when they're in the house all day. Heck, they even get stir crazy in the evenings after being in school all day. Last night was just nuts. Is it normal for boys to constantly fight?? Ugh! I'm an only child - so this is still all new to me!!

Charisse, great workouts! Isn't step blast fun? I have Burn and Shape, but haven't tried it yet.

Anyway! Today was GS Legs. I'll be lucky if I can get out of this chair later. :eek: I had to stop in the middle to referee an argument. :rolleyes: But I did get through. Tomorrow is GS back, biceps and shoulders.

Have a great day all!

[srahndennis]

Well, I'm back in the swing of things. DS came down with the same stomach virus I had but he's recovered at back at school today. Here's hoping DH isn't next!!!

Did GS back, biceps and shoulders this morning. It was my first time through and I liked it. My biceps feel a little tight already!

Charisse -- So sorry to see spring break fly by the wayside. I'm always envious of those snow days but I sure wouldn't want to lose those vacation days.

Joanne -- GS Legs scares me! That was one of the workouts I missed when I was sick but I'll get to it next week. Fun!

Valerie -- Welcome back! Sounds like your trip was fabulous. We visited Yellowstone several times when I was a kid. Once we visited Old Faithful before breakfast (didn't have time to stop) and I didn't do well in the car on an empty stomach. Family joke now is that we erupted at the same time!! I still tease my Dad about it.

Wanda -- Congrats on being a Grandmother-to-be!!! I can only imagine how exciting that is.

Stay warm, everyone!

[JoanneOR]

Stacy, hope your DH didn't get that stomach virus! Sometimes they're harder to take care of than the kids! ;). I did GS back, shoulder and biceps today. Definitely works the biceps the hardest. I'm really sore from the gym styles. Tomorrow is Imax2! I love that one!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

[srahndennis]

Joanne -- DH is fine so far; I'm starting to think he may miss this one (fingers crossed!). I didn't workout this morning but it's funny that you mention that the GS back, shoulders, & bicpes works the biceps the hardest. Mine are quite sore from yesterday!!! How are your legs?? I really like the GS workouts I've done so far. If I could ever get on a roll, I *think* I could handle working out six days per week on a schedule like this.

[Valerie226]

Tuesday I did 10 bike, 20 treadmill, 20 elliptical and Power hour. also a one hour yoga class in the morning. Wed we went skiing. so dismal compared to Yellowstone, with it's dry fluffy snow and critters all over the place. yuck, concrete snow and raining. but we did get in 3 or so hours of reasonable exercise.:o

Yellowstone is my favorite place, must have been there 25 times at least.. and I've been to Old Faithful once.... I'm not a big geyser person... I like everything else more, speciallyu the animals. Never been to Grand Canyon either but hope to change that this year or next. We usually do parks in off season to reduce the crowds.

In good news , I've lost 4 pounds. I need to lose 10 more but seem to have finally got things moving. I've changed up the diet a bit, cut back wine, and have not skipped many workout days.

Joanne & Stacy, can you enlighten me a bit on Cathe's Gym Style and Slow & Heavy series? Are they similar? do you like one better than the other? I recorded a pyramid one and watched it once & know I would not do it much. I have been reading about the STS program but am not sure I want to invest that much money in it if I don't know I will actually "do" heavy weights. Any insights?

[JoanneOR]

Valerie, that's the one bad thing about vacations. Sometimes it makes back home to the same old stuff a bit depressing! Kind of like now you know what you're missing! You're really making me think about taking the kids on a trip there. Wow, that was alot of working out on Tuesday! Yesterday, too! Congrats on the four pounds.

I think if you were going to choose one or the other, the Gym Styles would be the way to go over slow and heavy. S&H moves along so slow - it would be really tedious to do over any extended period of time. In fact, I think Cathe recommends only do it for three or four weeks and switching to something else. They are good workouts, but I just couldn't do them on a continual basis. They use really heavy weights - like 20 pounds for chest flyes (I think) - at least that's heavy for me. She does three sets for just about every exercise. And each set is 8 reps - up and down really slowly in counts of six. After each set she takes a full one minute rest. That's when I fold laundry. :) All the exercises are pretty traditional stuff. The Gym Styles have a bit more variety - she uses the band, too. And different counts and rep patterns. She uses heavier weights than in some of her other weight workouts, but not as heavy as S&H. I just finished doing all three this week and everything is sore. I didn't get too sore from S&H. The Legs one is good, but I think you could do the standing work one day and the floor another. They could both stand alone as workouts. Doing both was a bit overkill, I think. I can barely get out of my chair today!! That's probably way more than you wanted to know, but I'd definitely recommend the Gym Styles. I think you'd get alot more use out of them.

Stacy, I'm feeling my biceps, too. My legs are pretty sore - especially the front. I think if I did these on a regular basis, I could see some results.

[srahndennis]

Valerie -- Wonderful that you've lost 4 pounds!!! It certainly sounds like you've worked for it, though. I'm 4.5 lbs over my ww goal but really would like to lose about 10 more after that. I'm relatively new to Cathe's workouts so Joanne may be a better resource. Cathy's February rotation alternates 3 workouts from Slow & Heavy one week then 3 workouts from Gym Style the next week (in addition to cardio). I didn't have either one and didn't want to buy both. I chose Gym Style based on comments from others, reviews, and that it's listed as a favorite on Collage Video (Slow & Heavy isn't). A couple of people have commented that they had S & H but didn't use it often or didn't really like it. I think Joanne has both and Allison has S & H -- I'm sure they'll chime in, too. Most of my workouts have been cardio-based so this is a little new for me. I like it, though. The chest & tricep workout didn't really keep my heart rate up but the back, shoulders, & bicep one did. I have yet to try the legs DVD but I'll be heart rate won't be an issue with that one.

I'm not sure about STS, either. It's a lot of $$ at one time and I've already been spending quite a bit. I may just keep doing what I'm doing for a while as there's still a lot of progress I can make. Most of the time, I can only lift half of what Cathe's using (except biceps) so I wonder if it wouldn't be a little premature for me right now anyway??? If you haven't checked the Cathe forum lately, you might want to take another look. Cathe wrote a post that better explains STS and how it works. That helped me but I still don't know....

[Valerie226]

No, not too much at all! I recorded pyramid chest & KNEW I'd never do those endless repeats, first 8 lbs, then 10 lbs, 12 lbs. or the other way around. yech! Boring boring boring! I suspected S&H might be like that. I have trouble doing the same thing even twice in a week, except for cardio which for some reason I tolerate again and again and don't get tired of.
20 lbs for chest flyes would qualify as "heavy" in this house too. I'll take a look at GS series on her web site. DH is asking what I want for my birthday ( the big, nasty 6-0) & that might work if I think I'll do it. That said, after a week off and being quite active, I still got sore from power hour.
My arms look better than they did a year ago, although there's lots of room for improvement. but I'm happy that there's visible change. If I can get the 10 pounds off it will make a big difference. I have a fairly muscley look naturally but too much fat on top of the muscle. Same for the abs I work so hard on. I need to work very very hard to get weight loss though.

[srahndennis]

Happy Friday, everyone!!! Whohoo!!! Had a great workout this morning -- CTX Step & Intervals then Coremax #1. It's the first time I've done Step & Invertals -- a little fumbling but I enjoyed it. The blasts really got my heart rate up! CTX Kickbox is on the schedule for tomorrow.

A pretty low-key weekend for us. DS has an early basketball game then a birthday party to go to. Having dinner with the DILs on Sunday then they're keeping DS for the President's Day holiday.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

[Valerie226]

TGIF! Did Drillmax yesterday with a bicycle warm up but that was it. Somehow that seems to be enough, although DH pointed out that he did that plus some cardio.
I looked at the GS leg workout but for some reason couldn't get the upper GS body ones to play. I'll give them another try this morning. I have loads of leg workouts already just don't do them often. I hate getting so sore that I can't get out of a chair or have to go down stairs sideways. Butts and Guts is still looking at me from the shelf with its evil eye.

I bought a cathe calendar this year and it came with little stickers for each different workout. It's fun to go stick one on the day and watch the weeks fill up as you complete things. Small, but a motivator.

Have a good weekend everyone! I think we're going xc skiing at Manning park in British Columbia, assuming weather works out OK.

[cniles]

Happy Friday is right!!

I jumped on the old nordic track yesterday- the first 5 mins were torture!!!! I bargained with myself and ended up doing a total of 15 mins. I then did workout #1 of Coremax. I ate soooooooo much chocolate at school yesterday - ugh!

Not sure I'm going to get in a workout today - I have 5 boys at the house right now:rolleyes: Goal is 2 workouts this weekend.

Valerie - congrats on the weight loss!! Your workout the other day sounded like Michelle's!!! I gotta question for you - Drillmax... is that pure weight work? I should probably check out collage for a peek. I have a hard time with just weight work - I feel like I need cardio as well (even if it's just a bit!) And I don't have a treadmill - just the nordic. If I continue with the nordic I'm gonna need some entertainment bigtime!!!

Stacy - Great job with your workouts!! How old is your son? I have 2, ages 8 and a very soon to be 11!

Joanne - wow. You're doing great with the rotation too! Son question... Jameson's your oldest (11?) Is he going through girl stuff now? Unknown to me Jack gave a girl (one that he's like since first grade) a teddy bear for xmas - and I just found out from her mother!:rolleyes: I think hormones are beginning to kick in a bit and wondered if you were going through it too?....

Dh and I are going to a very romantic restaurant in Harrisburg on Sat while my MIL has the boys. We really need it and can't wait!:) Otherwise it's a 3 day weekend due to Presidents day.

Have a great one!!!

[srahndennis]

Valerie -- How do you like Drillmax? I just bought it but haven't used it yet. I think it will be hard for me! I think that Drillmax with a bicycle warm up is plenty, for sure. I haven't done many leg workouts but I'll be doing the GS one next week. I'm sure I won't be able to move for days. But.I.will.do.it!!

Cross-country skiing sounds fun! I hope the weather holds out for you.

[Valerie226]

I like Drillmax a lot. It's 6 cycles with a mix of cardio and strength moves & agility drills but no heavy weights. the heaviest weights used are 10 lbs( I use 5's for the whole thing yet) but most are 5. a variety of tricky pushups stuck in here and there. But as you would expect, cathe gets a fair amount of work out of you with those light weights. ... remember these words...little hops.... It uses a stability ball and a band at one point. no formal ab section. Uses a standard step but I work around it using a high step. you dotraveling with jumps/ bounds/walking lunges so more floor space than on most of her workouts. I could do most of the moves right out of the box ( at least approximately) but it is a GOOD workout. there are a couple sections of pushups/dips on the stability ball that I do with the ball propped against the treadmill. Don't want to do a face plant if the ball moves! a good variety of not too complicated things and it's not dance-y. I just cannot do things on a standard step beyond extremely basic stuff.

Ohh, charisse, a nordic track! we have one but the drive wheel died for the 5th time & we haven't used it since. we went thru 2 but when the company went chapter 11 we couldn't get parts so finally pitched the newer one. I always had posture problems and got low back pain if I used it too much. Regardless, have a GREAT romantic dinner minus the kids.
Joanne, congrats on doing the Feb rotation. I should try that too.

[Alleycat]

Whew -- a lot going on this week with you guys!

Valerie, your trip to YS sounds like it was amazing. I can't imagine being that close to so many big guys without the safety of the zoo walls!! Cool trip -- I bet your pics are awesome!

I have GS and S&H. I don't like S&H much, but to be fair, I don't have the strength (or the weights) to do "heavy" so I'm not able to do the workout as intended. I need to buy some heavier dumbbells, and bring up my cumbersome barbell from the basement. GS is great. And I finally dusted off PUB/PLB (which I bought during the '05 Road Trip and have never used :o). PLB kicked me hard in the glutes and hamstrings!!

I'm still on the STS fence. I'm sticking to the rotation I started, and really pushing myself to get into weights. I've always been one to do cardio instead, but at 34, it's time to really address the body fat/muscle mass shifting!!! If I'm able to get into weights appropriately, I might get STS. The more explanation Cathe provides, the more interesting the program sounds. I love the pics on the blog too.

I haven't been able to workout much this week :( Sunday I did a 5.5 mile walk around Valley Forge Park. Wednesday I did PLB + 100 walking lunges. I see why walking lunges are both loved and dreaded!! I hit my hamstrings in places I didn't even know existed! Tomorrow I'll be working out at home (forget what's up in the rotation), and Sunday is an 8 mile walk.

Off to bed now :)

[cniles]

Ohhh Allison! I am so jealous! We used to walk the park all the time. In fact when I was in my early 20's :eek: I used to walk it 4 times a week before going to work (I did 3-11's) Then DH and I would do "the loop" as we called it - we're going "loopin'" :D I really miss it! I've walked it on 4th of July many times and would get so patriotic :)

Nothing like that around here - we do have a small lake in town and I can walk from our house, down around the lake and back again in 50 mins. It's very pretty but totally different atmosphere!

[pointerhaven]

OK since joining we've all been sick here. DD had a miscarriage, :-(
DH has had the flu, I've been taking care of everyone and I have a sinus infection...Finally went back to work 1/2 day on Friday....

Today is the best I've felt, now tomorrow am I'm going to get upstairs and run... Posted my home gym on Craig's list tonight...I don't use it and would rather do cardio and run...

Hope everyone is doing well...glad to be back amoung the living. Wanda

[srahndennis]

Oh, Wanda! I'm so sorry for your DD......and the rest of your family!! What a terrible week. I hope you will all be on the mend soon. Take care of yourself.