Cathe's Strength Workouts - Overkill?

[Taramisu]

Originally Posted by Sue B

Most of Cathe's strength workouts are overkill for me. The only one I've used lately is PHA and they have a premix where you go through the rounds only twice instead of 3 times.

There is? I have been thinking about getting this one, but I did preorder Cathe's new series so I will probably just wait to get that, I think there is supposed to be a PHA workout in there too.

I like Cathe but would agree that many of her strength workouts are overkill also.

This is why I like her Push Pull workout, it's almost the perfect workout for me, I find that it's slower paced and not overkill. Same with Legs and Glutes, I usually dread working lower body and it's only gotten worse as I have gotten older but with L & G it's really not too bad, though I tend to skip some of the chapters and not do the whole thing either.

So, yes many of her strength workouts are overkill but not all of them. But I tend to use her intermediate offerings mostly, I ditched her super advanced workouts moons ago.

But it's not just Cathe, I find that many of the older Firm workouts are overkill in terms of working lower body, especially the ones with the many sets of leg press. Just not my thing and really never was. Thankfully with the remasters you can skip chapters I suppose.

[Vintage VFer]

Cathe's Strength Workouts - Overkill?

At my age, yes!

The only Cathe strength video that I do regularly is Body Blast: Push Pull (2003).

http://www.videofitness.com/reviewsd...iew.php?id=332

This workout covers the whole body in about 45 minutes. She doesn't rep you to death, you can go fairly heavy and it is a a moderate pace (for Cathe).

[Sara1000]

I guess I want more time for each muscle group than in Push Pull but not as much as in X Train, 4 Day Split, etc.

[cecififi]

I love Cathe for her many strength training offerings. She is my go to instructor and no matter which new instructor I try out, I always come back to Cathe.

On days when I am not doing cardio, I love the longer weight training workouts. I feel really worked out. I tend to prefer weight training over cardio so enjoy the long workouts. That said, if I want something shorter, I will just play a workout and focus on the body part or two I want to work on instead of choosing a premix. I also use the Workout blender to make my own workouts so that changes things up again. So many offerings from Cathe to make a workout your way. Love Cathe!

[upperwside]

Cathe is my favorite.. I love her strength. I do find chest and bis can be overkill for me on some of the older workouts. I love using her workout blender to create my own workouts. I reduce chest and tris... and get my perfect balance.

[dbclark44]

I find most of Cathe's strength workouts too long, but easily adaptable to be shortened because of her excellent chaptering. So easy to skip to the next chapter with her. Love that about her most recent ones. Can't say that about her older ones though like Gym Styles. She really has come a long way with chaptering since then.

I always say once I retire I plan to aim for at least 2 long strength workouts a week. So hard to do that working full time, at least for me it is.

[Shelbygirl]

I pretty much use just Cathe for weights, but I do find her three day splits to be way too long. I just skip a bunch of chapters as needed, and turn them into two day splits.

Cathe's more recent weight work, on the other hand, has been perfect for me. Specifically the three weight workouts in Strong & Sweaty are my current favorites.

Shelbygirl

[Cowgirl32]

I like Cathe's workouts, but with mild autoimmune issues, I just can't hang with a long Cathe workout like I use to. :/

[Hazel Porter]

Originally Posted by Sara1000

Are they designed for serious body builders?

I'd say no to this question. Serious body builders often concentrate on only one body part a day with much heavier weights and much MUCH more rest between sets than Cathe typically does (except in Meso 2 of STS and the Slow & Heavy series).

That said, I personally like her split routines and feel that 45-50 minutes is appropriate for me when resistance training (and that 51 minutes in XTrain includes warm up and cool down, which don't count as part of the training time in my own schedule).

[Sara1000]

Thank you, Hazel. I'm sure you are right. I'm thinking I may work up to doing the X-Train split routine workouts as intended instead of splitting them into smaller segments. I need to spend more time on strength training.