08-20-09, 10:02 AM | ||
Join Date: Mar 2006
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08-20-09, 10:19 AM | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Minnesota
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Lydia - You asked about barre work for the upper body. For me, I've had excellent results in terms of toning/definition/sculpting (whatever you want to call it) using low weight/high rep type barre work exercises. Then again, I am a very hard gainer when it comes to muscle mass, and I think these type of exercises just work better for me than traditional higher weight/lower rep exercises. My arms look way better now than they did after two rounds of P90X! Not all barre work does it for me though. I'm not a fan of a lot of barre work for the UB. I've discovered a couple of ways to use barre work to my advantage -
For one, by doing a combination of Tracy Anderson's upper body work (the unweighted series followed by the short series with light weights in her Mat Workout DVD is incredible) and the upper body stuff from Squeeze Stronger, my arms look fabulous! I think the key is the combination of the two. With the UB set from Squeeze Stronger I use heavier weights - well, 5# for most of it, which is "heavy" by Tracy Anderson's standards. LOL! I don't know, something about the combination is killer for me. When I'm using those vids, I try to get in at least two sessions of each a week. I firmly believe that all the different rotations and the extremely high amount of reps in Tracy Anderson's stuff really shape my arms. If she wasn't such a ditz, I'd call her a genius! Other barre work UB segments I like are the 12-min. totally killer UB bonus section from Cardio Barre Advanced (great workout but not real thorough as it doesn't do anything for the chest and back) and the UB work from the original Squeeze, which is very short, but intense. The other method I've used is doing UB barre type work almost every day. The session can be short, but I try to do them most days. Again I use any of Tracy Anderson's stuff (her A-List Arms workout is very nice and not too long, as is the UB stuff from her "People" magazine workout), Cardio Barre, the Squeezes. On the days I don't do a barre w/o for the UB, I do a Leslie video using handweights the entire time (anywhere from 2# to 5#). I modify what Leslie's doing with the upper body to account for the weight I'm holding. I love doing Leslies this way. Holding weights gives the UB a great long workout and it ups the cardio factor.
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Shelley |
08-20-09, 10:22 AM | ||
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Minnesota
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Vanity - Great results! Kudos to you!!
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Shelley |
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08-20-09, 10:47 AM | |
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Atlanta
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Shelley - I could have written your post. I also didn't get the definition after doing P90X twice but have seen it since I've started doing low weight/higher rep workouts like Slim Series and various barre workouts. I just did Ultimate Advanced Cardio Barre today for the first time and really felt everything working. I started with 2# for upper body, went to 3s and then had to go back down to 2s but was still feeling it. My body really feels like it has tightened up even though I've hardly lost any weight. Now that I'm in my mid-forties, I think my body needs more circuit/cardio/light weight/higher rep workouts. For Firm It Up, I had to put on 5# ankle weights and still really wasn't feeling much of anything. But doing Cardio Barre today, I felt everything working. I also did the Power Thighs segment which was killer.
As far as burning calories, I burned 281 today doing the main workout and 62 doing the power thigh segment. My HR stayed up for most of the workout. I guess bar workouts could help you tighten up and maintain your weight but diet is still key in weight loss. Marcy
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Proud P90X Grad Brought it 4/9/07 - 7/7/07 |
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