Thanks for you're input, hoping someone familiar with both programs will chime in. By the way, sorry I dropped out of communication, Sharaz, I got really busy & began researching John Kiefer's Carb Nite & Carb Backloading & have been experimenting with them.
I am used to Slim Series, & it took a while of trying many different things to realize that my body seems to respond best to that sort of workout (at least for my goals & preferences), but my research has led me to believe, at least from the educated bodybuilder's standpoint, such as Kiefer, that perhaps I have too much bodyfat & that's why I tend to look stocky, bulky & boxy when I lift heavy, rather than lengthened, lean & dancerly like I want to.
The solution seems to be twofold, to build more muscle, but to stretch thoroughly after workouts to develop the lengthened, stretched look I'm after, & also, of course, to reduce body fat, which has more to do with diet, which I know we can't discuss here.
It seems though that the more lean muscle, the easier it is to reduce body fat & the less time needed to invest in being like a hamster on a wheel with endless repetitive cardio...& basically setting oneself up for less time spent working out & more time for other fun stuff ;-D
For the last two weeks I did CLX Burn Circuits, using heavier weights than I'm used to & found it left me much more tired & achey than I'm accustomed to, most days too tired to keep up with my daily kundalini yoga practice, but I did manage to keep going for my hour long walk at the beach just about every day. I also tacked on an extra Ballet Beautiful 10 or 15 minute segment after each workout to try & stretch & lengthen my muscles...I began feeling burnt out on CLX pretty fast, but I don't want to scrap the whole thing before I've given it enough of a chance to show results.
So over the weekend I switched to JNL Fusion, starting the first set with light weights & getting progressively heavier so by the third set I'm lifting heavy enough to only complete 8-12 reps with good form. I'm continuing to tack on abs & 15-20 minutes of Ballet Beautiful segments afterward, which works pretty well since JNL really doesn't offer much of a cool down.
I had a busy, stressful (but fun stressful ;-) weekend & today I feel achey & wiped out, not at all up for the Crazy Cardio Circuit that's on the schedule, so I think I'll skip that today & just do yoga, go for a walk, work in my garden & maybe do Slim Series' strech tape later - I like that one, it goes by so fast & I feel well stretched all over by the end. I'm going to search these boards & perhaps start a new post for suggestions on how to build lean, lengthened, stretched muscles...I'm thinking Essentrics, but I welcome your suggestions. I've tried barre type workouts but find them kind of wimpy & hard for me to get into & stick with, so I'm thinking short segments I can tack onto the end of workouts like I've been doing with BB is probably more up my alley.
I also welcome input on the results I can expect by going from light to heavy each set, or if it's better to do the opposite, heavy to light/low to higher reps in order to build leaner, lengthened, stretched muscles...any input at all on what I'm doing is very appreciated! I love these boards & the generous sharing of information & experiences from y'all, thank you!
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