TA Meta and everything else - Fall/Winter 2020

[ebianco]

Hi all,

Today I started my workout week with another oldie but goodie that I haven't done in about 8 years, 10 Pound Slimdown Xtreme - Total Body with Chris Freytag. I've been going right down the list of total body circuit workouts on the video fitness review forum, and pulling out the ones I have that fit the bill. Just to circulate some oldies but goodies in. It's fun! So I'm still on the numbers (10 Minute Solution, 10 Pounds Down with Jessica, 10 Pound Slimdown with Chris), LOL. Next up will be 30 Day Shred, ACE HIIT, Art of Strength, Barry's Bootcamp, etc. Anyway today's workout was only 40 minutes, but it covered four fast moving metabolic style strength circuits with cardio drills in between the circuits, and it really got my heart rate up! I tried to go heavier on my weights too.

Tomorrow I plan to pull out another random workout. Maybe the 10 Pounds Slimdown the original 20 minute workouts and do TB and UB or something. Chris is definitely pleasant to work out with, very friendly and warm.

Eventmom waves!

Buzzer I need to do some of those upper body openers! I focus so much on hip openers and in general lower body flexibility. I definitely shortchange my upper body. I should start doing camel every day too!

GD is slower moving and I agree it seems like a lot of sad news with people passing away and all! But I still like to check it out every couple of days. I think Anna definitely knew what she was doing with the Firms but she became more eccentric in her post-Firm days. Still, there are a lot of fabulous Fitprime workouts so I can't argue with her vision! That one workout is just really kooky though LOL. I'm so glad I picked up most of the Firms on DVD because I knew they would be out of print eventually. I guess for all DVDs really, but those that are not mass produced in particular would be harder to find and more expensive later. I hope all of my DVDs hold up too! I really don't buy duplicates in general.

Best of luck with Eugene and his surgery! It is a risk but hopefully it all turns out well. Sundae has found a way to pick on her stitches today so we researched online and read that you can put a shirt or something around their belly, so DH and I found an old knee sleeve that I had in the gym that I don't really use anymore, and cut it a little shorter as a sleeve for her torso! I thought it would be too big on her but it's actually slightly snug. It's perfect for not slipping up past her stitches! And she has stopped picking on them. It looks like a couple of the closer stitches (that she could reach) are now lightly infected. I hope they can still come out on Monday.

I have a LOT of my DVDs from getting them at bargain rates and thinking "yeah I'll use this!" Unless I absolutely "need" a DVD, I always try to buy it on sale or second hand. I hope you enjoy them! I am still having a Cathe moment. I've tried out almost all of the DVDs I purchased of hers (which is a lot - maybe 20+ DVDs in such a short timespan!) with only 2 or 3 left, then I will start repeating. But I made myself promise no repeats until I've cycled through all of them!

[eventmom]

hi!

today I did a 20 min up to the beat fitness easy walk. My procedure has not helped the problem (constant headache and constant tinnitus) but they still want me to limit my activity. so I'm very frustrated - what's the point of being careful, etc etc and of course some $ god knows how much.

sorry to be a downer, it's just the headache and tinnitus has impacted every facet of my life and now I don't even have horses and exercise to try to manage the negative impacts - and I have to impose on people for help with things.

buzzer - sorry about the dog injury, poor baby!

ebianco - glad you were able to find a solution to the stitches problem.

I'll probably keep walking every day now super easy stuff and no arms which is not going to do anything for my fitness but it helps me mentally.

[ebianco]

Hi all,

I kept with my 10 Pounds Down series today and did the 20 minute "recovery"/original workouts, the Total Body and then the Upper Body. I had to cut it a few minutes short (half of the last circuit) because I was running out of time, for an overall 45 minute workout. My observations from today's workouts are that they are definitely easier than the Xtreme full length, but also that a lot of the exercises are similar. Just less reps and easier modifications. I went a little lighter than I did yesterday on my weights (I'm surprisingly sore from yesterday!) but still went for moderate weights and got an excellent total/upper body focus workout. I'm thinking I may pull out the 20 or 40 minute yoga workout of this series tomorrow along with the 10 minute bonus abs.

Eventmom welcome back!! That is sooooo frustrating that you are still experiencing headache and tinnitus. Is it something that should have been an immediate difference or will take time to feel a difference? I'm so sorry

Buzzer waves!

[Buzzer]

Wow. I am behind!!
Ballroom Aerobics... DONE!
Body Beast Shoulders... DONE!
Buns of Steel the floor aerobics and abs one.... DONE!

After reading Ebianco and Ballroom Aerobics, I decided to do it. I love BR Aerobics! I went to my workout room, and looked with my Firms.... not there. Looked with my current workouts I'm doing... not there. Looked in the bookcase where I keep the "not in my current workouts, not a Firm" workouts... not there. I start to panic. It's OOP so I know I can't get another (which is my first thought). I seriously looked around for 10 minutes before I remembered that over the summer, when it was so dry, I put a basket together of my favorite workouts that I would take in case of a fire. It was there! It has been since the summer that I did this workout!!

It was fun. I used to small part of the fanny lifter (the small square one) and jazzed it up. I love dancing to ballroom aerobics! I did NOT get all the tango closes, rarely do I, however it was a good workout.

I did the fun BOS aerobics two days ago now. I did it with flair and bounce. I love that workout too!! I really focused on the abs and did my best, held them in and went with good range of motion. My abs felt it for sure yesterday when I did my Body Beast Shoulders. I went heavy, went slooooow, and enjoyed it. I watched BOS the original while I did it, and the music is this slower drum beat with like an electric piano. So I did it in time to that. My lifts seemed very slow, but it was good.

I am enjoying watching workouts while I do my lifting, because the music in every one is different and it changes the speed of my workout. I remember that the different ways to change up a workout without changing the weights include changing the tempo, or the grip, or the angle of the lift. So it's a good way to change up my workout!

Today my shoulders are tender.

So ends my week of Body Beast. I will do a yoga, stretch, or another cardio today. Then, on to metaboost and week 2 of the Fitprime rotation. It's just alternating two workouts, metaboost and one other workout twice for a 4 day "week". So I will get to know metaboost this week!

Eugene's surgery went well yesterday. The vet said we should be able to pick him up sometime today. I am excited to pick him up, but not excited because we have up to 3-4 months of recovery. I just did recovery with Otis, I am not excited about doing it again. Walking the dog every. time. on a leash. Keeping the other dog away, no matter how much they want to play. It's a lot of commitment, and I just did all this!!! Sigh. I will do it though for my love of my doggo.

Otis has been looking for Eugene so fervently though. He has been sniffing around Eugene's favorite places, and looking over the little fence on the back deck to see if Eugene is back there. I feel so bad for him. He is right now sleeping next to Eugene's favorite rug, after sniffing all around it last night where he usually sleeps. Poor guy. I think he's afraid Eugene is gone for good, since he knows he's been injured. He's been super clingy too. I will be glad to have Eugene home for poor Otis!

We spent the last 2 days helping train the horse and doing woodworking. She was trying to get the horse to stand, and the horse would always take a little step at the last minute. So I finally, after the horse was kinda scaring LB, took the rope and used my dog training to get the horse to stand. Know what? It WORKED. The horse stood, even as we backed away. We tried it again yesterday, and the training has stuck. She stood. It was amazing, it was great, it made me feel like the horse whisperer. However, I don't know how to apply that to any of the other training, especially the training that involves turns and the reins. HA! But I did it!! I did it more out of frustration and this habit button clicked in me (the one that trained the dogs). It was funny though, the lady that owns the horse just stood there and watched. She didn't try to interrupt me or jump in. I think she was impressed dog training worked too.

So they are out of town for a week or so, so LB and I are going to go over and do a little training on our own and make sure it sticks!!

Ebianco: Of course, after picking up the Cathe's for cheap cheap cheap I started looking for others. Luckily I didn't find any! I have bought backups of all the volumes, because I know if those go kaput I will miss them the most. I actually think I have 3 copies of Volume 1 because that was my first workout and I know if I lose all of my workouts, that is the one I want back the most! I don't have backups of most anything else. I sometimes worry about that, however some of my DVDs are 15+ years old and still fine. I do think often about how LB will be working out with me and she will inherit my collection, so I want duplicates of some so if she moves on and I still want them, I will have an extra.

That may come to pass, may not. Who knows. However it frustrates me to know that ballroom aerobics is my only copy! HA! I also worry that a new technology will come along and replace DVDs and the players will become like VHS players, rare and hard to find. Then I'm stuck with these hundreds of DVD's that I can't use and can't unload. Exercises gems that are stuck on the surface of a DVD, and I am unable to get it out to use it. That's a scary thought! I have no idea what the future holds though.

I laughed when you said you are going through the reviews starting at the top! That's a genius idea! I love it!

So I agree also about buying DVD's only second hand or on sale. I think I get more second hand anymore for the last few years. The only ones I can think of that I've bought have been a few Linda Wooldridge's and my Firm Volumes, however all of those were on sale when I bought them. I am not a "pay retail price" shopper at all. Other than that, I cruise Ebay and thrift stores. I'm sure that's not being a good supporter of my favorite instructors, however I refuse to pay $22 for a workout on Cathe's website, when I can get it on eBay for so much less!!

Eventmom: All I can say is "seriously???" and give an eye roll. I can't believe it didn't work!!! I thought this sounded the most promising of all! Did they say it would take time to work? I am just floored for you. Ridiculous. I'm so sorry. I hope it's just a delayed better. I am angry for you though. With all the medical knowledge we have now, I can't believe they can't solve your issues!

Well, walking is a good workout. Frustrating, but good. Ugh. Just get it behind you and I guess keep on going. At least it didn't make it worse, and you got it fixed in case it caused problems on down the line. I'm sorry

[eventmom]

20 min soul walk up to the beat

still being very careful.

ebianco & buzzer - so this procedure normal has a positive impact pretty fast, sometime immediately. But, since I've had this headache for 3 years, my body adjusted to the leak and now it's got to readjust to not having the leak - at least that's what I was told. But they don't really know why it is taking this long and there is no promise that it will work. They can't promise that. but as far as I know there isn't a next step which is what freaks me out.

now I want to find ballroom aerobics LOL.

have a great weekend!

[ebianco]

Hi everyone,

Today I tried another new Cathe, Fit Split, which I actually purchased a couple of years ago before my recent Cathe kick, but had still never done LOL. It is a 4-DVD set but the one I did was the Low Impact Cardio+Metabolic Conditioning. She had a premix combining both of these plus the bonus abs for a 61 minute workout. The cardio part was fast and fun, just drill style with drills repeated once then move on. She used gliders for about half of it and I modified. For the metabolic strength, true to what the description said, it was very upper body focused which worked out well because the cardio hit the lower body somewhat. I added my own back work to make it more well rounded, she did a lot of shoulders, and some good biceps, triceps, and chest. Finally the ab work wasn't really mat ab work, it was total body dynamic exercises like planks and bear walks. It wasn't what I was looking for today, LOL, but I still really liked it.

Tomorrow some type of barre, probably Pure Barre or Barlates.

Eventmom I really hope you see some improvement and it is just taking a while to kick in! I can't believe you would have to endure a procedure and then not see improvement I'll keep my fingers crossed!

Buzzer Firm Ballroom Aerobics is the best!! Years ago I thought "I would never buy that DVD" because I hadn't really done Tortoise or Hare and assumed I would hate the ballroom. Now look at me! LOL. I have also become slightly frantic when I can't find a specific DVD, I think it is a vidiot thing!

I'm glad Eugene's surgery went well, but OMG 3-4 months is a loooong recovery time!! It has been a LONG two weeks (hopefully to end here on Monday) of Sundae in her cone, picking on her stitches, trying to keep her in this sleeve which she constantly gets out of. We ended up putting liquid bandage on it...internet says it's safe for dogs and she doesn't seem to want to pick now? I really hope they can come out on Monday.

I'm hoping since I don't do most of my DVDs over and over and over again, that even though they are older (15+ years for me too) they aren't necessarily going to "wear out". Also since they are mostly real DVDs and not DVD-Rs I'm going that will help. I keep meaning to get 3 or 4 DVD players and just store them for future use when they don't make them anymore

I think I'm going to have a fun time with my alphabetical tour of my DVD collection LOL!! It's already been fun to revisit 10 Minute Solution, 10 Pounds Down Cardio Abs, and 10 Pound Slimdown Xtreme. It will probably take me a year to work through the alphabet and I'll just be revisiting so many awesome workouts! So far no duds!

I don't feel bad spending retail price on Barlates because they are already so underpriced. But still I try to get them a couple dollars off if I can! I don't think I bought the Firm classics on bargain either. Those were just "must have". Thinking of it, it was the same with my Pure Barres! Most of my other DVDs were on sale though! Or from VF Roost or yayas a few years ago. I haven't had much luck with thrift stores myself!

[eventmom]

gin miller's salsa walk - since I'm basically doing t-rex arms this is super easy.

yeah, so I found clips of ballroom aerobics and dang I would like it! LOL

ebianco - thanks! I hope eventually things improve.

hi buzzer!

[ebianco]

Hi all,

Today I finished my workout week with Youtube Zumba and Pure Barre Resistance 4 (I think?) for a total of 65 minute workout. Every week I say to myself 'another barre this time?' and I respond 'nah, Pure Barre again' LOL.

Tomorrow and Tuesday are rest days!

PS, can you believe tomorrow will be February already??

Eventmom LOL about Ballroom Aerobics. I did Firm Cardio Step Mix (or something?) the other day and liked that the 'step finale' from Hare and the warm up from Tortoise were both on there. No ballroom series though.

Buzzer waves!

[eventmom]

yesterday - 30 min walk around 10 min of one person, didn't love it, switched and added on 20 min gina b
today - 30 min TA dance + cardio = her super easy cardio that I ditched years ago but found on youtube.

speaking of youtube - several workouts I saved to play lists have been pulled off youtube. so may hang onto some dvds just in case. like yoga in the garden of serenity - keeper!

ebianco - I keep meaning to find some youtube zumba - some is too fast for right now but there's got to be some slower ones out there.

hi buzzer!

[Buzzer]

Bob Harper Yoga for the Warrior... DONE!
Two "rest"days... DONE!
Fitprime Metaboost.. DONE!


So I finished Bob's yoga, and LB had come in for the last 10 minutes. She decided it looked like fun and wanted to do the workout. So I went back to the beginning and she did the Yoga. The full thing! She loved it. It was so hard for her though! That kinda made me happy, because she is so flexible, strong, and has such good endurance that it was good to see her struggle and tell me "this is hard!" She enjoyed it though. I helped her get into the postures, we laughed, and she actually did really well. I don't think she's ready to seriously workout with me yet, but she's much closer than I thought she'd be!

Saturday was a "rest" day, and I put the blocks for the garage on the dolly, rolled them up a hill and into the loose stone floor garage, across the garage and dropped them off. Then I went back for more. Repeat repeat repeat. I moved about 50 -75 blocks that way. I was pooped at the end! Then I helped DH with what I could for the rest of the day. LB played with friends.

Sunday was another "rest" day, and we again worked on the garage. This time I did gofer stuff.... gofer the screwdriver, gofer the mallet, gofer a piece of wood. I just did whatever DH needed me to do. I am not good at construction stuff, but I am a good gofer.

Yesterday I started my week of Fitprimes. It was metaboost yesterday, which I did with 12's and 5's. I liked it! I went deeper into my lunges, focused on my step up sequence where she just does little step ups, and tried to flex and push myself. I liked it. Today is lean, then I'm supposed to rest but I'll probably do a yoga or cardio.

So the garage is about 2/3 done. We are to the top of the windows, and have about 8 more rows of blocks to go. However, that sounds easy, it's not. because it's getting so high up now! I am not good with heights, so it's frustrating for me and for DH becuase he's the one that has to get up there to do the blocks. I can, but it takes me forever because I have to make sure I"m balanced. He's looking into getting scaffolding, and as long as it doesn't move, I can do that. I think.

LB and I cleaned my car yesterday, we fed the horses and trained him a little bit, and went to karate. The weather was supposed to be warm but ended up being a little chilly. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be warmer though.

So Eugene had his surgery on Thursday, and I was worried about him coming home. We picked him up Friday night, and seriously 4 people came out with him. He was so happy to see us, and then two guys went on either side of him to pick him up and put him in the car, and he looked at me with such panic in his eyes. He looked like he thought he was seeing us, and then being kidnapped. he was pleading with me to help him. It broke my heart! I kept telling him "it's OK, they are putting you in the car!" So when we drove away, he was so happy to be with us. I think he thought he was given away. So he wouldn't sit down, and was almost howling and whining with joy. DH called as LB and I drove super slow through the neighborhood behind the vets, and I told him "I have no idea how I'm getting this dog home."

We pulled over, and LB sat in the back petting him and calming him down. He finally laid down, and she spent the whole trip home keeping him calm and down. I was so afraid he would stand up! Then any move I made driving would have made him fall. We made it home, got him out, and he has been a dream recovering. He is tapping his foot down and trying to use it, he is so happy to go outside, taking his pills like a champ, and just doing perfectly. I seriously couldn't ask for a better recovery so far. He's even able to get up from a laying position by himself!

So I am once again rehabbing a dog. He's so good though. We love that guy. Otis is over the moon to have him home. It was really cute, because Otis would get a drink of water, like 2 laps, then lift his head, and Eugene would lick the water off his face. Then Otis would do it again, and Eugene would lick his face. They have been doing that. I think Otis is taking care of Eugene. They were so excited to see each other! It's been a crazy week.

Eventmom: seriously, Ballroom aerobics is fun. I know a lot of people are looking for it, so it'll be hard to find, but if you ever do find it, get it. I have done it on a short step (like they do), on a tall step, even on the floor and it's fun every way I do it. It's one of those workout but not working out workouts.

Hope things are going well, and maybe you are just a delayed healer

Ebianco: I was a "I would never buy that!" person too. I figured I had it in tortoise and hare, I didn't need it all together. I bought it on a sale I think, and it was like a switch turned on when I first did it. I loved it!! Now I'm glad I have it. I remember going through tortoise and hare when I taught seniors aerobics, because I wanted to teach a ballroom aerobics themed class to them. I did it, and it was actually kinda hard to teach them. At least I tried though!

Eugene has been licking his leg occasionally, but stops when we tell him to. he hasn't been doing it constantly so I'm not worried yet. They said to keep it dry, so I am making sure he doesn't lick it enough that it gets too wet. We are luckily home a lot, so I can watch. So far he's a really good patient!

I don't have great luck at thrift stores, the best I have done is some beach body stuff (P90X, so I got a backup copy for like $4.00, Piyo, which had 21 day fix hidden in it, and I haven't done either one except for one workout on each yet). I occasionally see Firms, but no classics. If I ever find ballroom aerobics though, I'll get it for Eventmom! Oh, I did find the bottom part to a fanny lifter, which ended up being good because when I ordered one from Annette, it was bent so she sent me a new one now I have two complete fanny lifters so LB has one when she is older. I put some 20 pound weights on it and put it on the extra bottom I have, so it'll hopefully bend back into the right position and fit. I haven't checked it, but hopefully it works!

Especially since it's been sitting like that for about 6 months. By the time we use it, it'll probably have sat with weights on it for a year or two so it should be bent to the correct position! I might put it in the sun too this summer to get it to un-bend.

So anyhow, it's been a busy few days, and the rest of the week will probably be busy too. It's supposed to be nice weather though, which is good and bad. Good because we can get garage stuff done and be outside, bad because we need to be inside doing school and getting stuff done and that's hard when it's nice outside!!