Hi again, all!

I'm trying not to get so far behind, so lo and behold, I'm posting to myself LOL.

Today was a gym day with DH and when we got home I did CL #369 mobility and yoga fusion. Yes, I liked this one. I think it did me a lot of good since I am recovering from the Caroline workout from yesterday. I posted about this on the GD thread, but I enjoyed it more than the one she did on Perfect 30. The Live is longer, and it seemed to me that she spent more time explaining the moves and more time in each move so I could really feel what I was doing. Some parts of Perfect 30 mobility seemed a bit rushed to me, possibly in part because she was intent on keeping within the allotted time frame. The Live clocks in at 47 minutes, but didn't seem too long. I really need to fit this kind of work into my routine more often.

Hope everyone is doing well! Waves and hugs!

Thank you for this report!! I'm so far behind (as usual) but I wanted to know how this Live was as my gut told me it'd be exactly like you said. I'm hoping her new series will incorporate more like this!

Just a quick recap, I've been doing (and loving) an Xtrain rotation I'm going to stick with for a bit, and as a recovery day today, I did Paul's Hips and Hammies practice on Inner Dimension which was excellent! Lately all yoga has been irritating the heck out of my hamstring/thutt issue, but this one? Nope! Got in there pretty good without any irritation. I seriously don't get it, but I filed that practice under my favorites for sure!

Happy WAY belated Bday to BabyW!!

And FOLV, I loved your description of the road trip! Very helpful. :heart:

Sorry so short, Watulans...gotta run but have loved reading each and every one of your posts. Stay fierce!! :sun:

Hi All! I cannot believe it's Friday -- this week really flew by for me. Mostly all good.

I am another who got rid of some of my KCM's for probably the same personal reasons, but.... I guess I am less principled because I kept some and actually did Cardio Quick Fix after reading about it on the GD. It was a decent steady state sort of cardio -- good for what I needed that day. This week I also did LITE Stacked Upper Body -- I think that's part of LITE, right? I liked it. So funny to go back to the highly "produced" dvds after Live. Love them both! I think I did one other Live at the beginning of the week, maybe? and other than that it was walking with friends. Still struggling a bit with my sore butt, but!.... Linda pointed me at the [P]re-hab guys on instagram -- they also have a youtube channel and podcast -- and what she pointed me to has really helped! Some stretches and mobility work. Kittybug, I no longer have ID active but that practice sounded great. You might want to check out some [p]re-hab stuff.

Speaking of mobility.... I cannot wait to try the latest Live. It sounds good!

Sounds like many of us are quite busy -- guess it's partly the time of year? Seems like after Halloween time always speeds up tremendously. Waves and hugs to all!

Cataddict what a nice surprise to find some beans on your plants! Glad ya'll are going to keep them a little longer. Hope they continue to produce and ya'll can enjoy them. I also like that Caroline's workouts are different from the Cathe's Lives. That's why I'm sticking with Caroline's weight workouts. It's good to mix things up with different moves and heavier weights. That's incredible you were able to use weights almost as heavy as Caroline! But you are FN2, so you're fierce and strong. :music: I'd be curious to know how STS compares to Caroline's workouts.
I also liked Cathe's Live mobility #369 better than the dvd. I actually don't remember much about the dvd, so my guess is that I thought it was good, but I haven't returned to it. I would return to the Live. The Live reminded me alot of Tracie's mobility work, especially from Signature Series #2 (I think) where she starts the workout with about 15 minutes of mobility work. Sometimes I'll just do the mobility section of Tracie's workout since it's 15 minutes and is a great cool down/stretch.

KB sorry to hear your hamstrings/thutt has been irritated. That's no fun. :( Glad Paul's workout helped and felt good. Keep us posted on how the XTrain rotation goes, esp. after your STS rotation. Hope things settle down for you soon.

Bee HA on being less principled than others since you kept a few of KCM's workouts! That made me giggle. :D I agree that Cardio Quick Fix is a good steady state cardio. I've found that sometimes KCM workouts are just what I need on a particular day. That's been the case for me with the past 2 workouts of hers I've done. And glad the pre-hab moves are helping. MamaW taking care of her peeps. :D

Workouts:

I did my Fun Friday workout on Thursday. I did Amy Bento Ross Studio Ross Hi Lo Aerobic Workout and glad I did! It was a fun, steady state workout with great music. Wish the music was louder, but understand that it would be hard since Amy was playing it from her phone. This workout isn't as hard as her dvds, but still worth doing. The cardio part was easy to learn, and Amy has some balance/bodyweight moves, so that was good. I also did Cathe Live #369 and liked it. I'm glad there's a mobility/flexibility Live option. Wonder if Cathe was tired from the Roadtrip and thought this would be a good time to do a Live mobility/flexibility. It did remind me of Tracie's mobility moves, which I like.

Friday....I think Caroline did kill me! I did Day 29 of EPIC Isometric & Dynamic Dumbbell Full Body Workout and all I can say is YOWZA! :eek: The reps were slow, done for 30 seconds, then you hold the "pose" for 30 seconds, and end with 30 more seconds of slow reps. There are no repeats in this workout, which is a good thing! I didn't think holding a move for 30 seconds would be that hard, but I was WRONG! It was HARD holding a lunge on both toes holding weights. And it was hard doing a renegade row for 30 seconds, then holding it for 30 seconds, then doing 30 more seconds of rows, all while in a plank. I liked the structure of this workout, meaning that Caroline starts with core, then moves to LB, and finishes with UB. I kinda like doing core at the beginning because I'm not wiped out and likely to skip it or not give it my all. And I think it's a great way to ease into the workout. I like the progression of doing core first. I do have to say that I felt like I was in the AT&T commercial with Gordon. Gordon has the most popular gym in town and is doing an online kettlebell class but his internet connection is spotty, so his class is stuck holding a KB overhead while he's telling them to put it down. One gal falls over and ruins something her kid has built. I didn't fall over with Caroline's workout, but I sure felt like I could. :eek:

Today I did Amy D & Paul K Double Down, which was a great workout. I had to modify the one-legged burpees, russian kicks on the floor, and renegade rows/tricep kickbacks in plank position. I was still feeling Caroline's workout from yesterday so this was hard for me today. I've noticed the past 2 times I've done Amy's workouts the cardio seemed hard. But I can do Cathe's Perfect 30 High Impact Hiit and it doesn't seem as hard. I think just a change of pace, tempo, muscle memory, etc. I like Amy and Paul's progression of each move and their focus on form over speed. There's also a nice cool down/stretch. This workout reminded me of Amy's BB4, which I also like. Exact same set too.

Hugs and waves to all! I hope everyone is having a good weekend! :heart:

Hello Watulans!

Weekend winding down.... it's been productive here. I like that!

This morning I did part of a Cathe Live -- it was a Total Body Giant Sets. I did two repetitions of the sets and then she said there would be two more times of each set and I said "I'm out" -- just tired of the repetition. So I put on a Cardio Strength from Get Healthy U TV and the first move was the same first move as Cathe had!!! That'll teach me.

I watched a little more of the [p]rehab guys and found I should not be doing curtsy lunges for a while, nor RDLs. Seems like I need to focus on floor work for lower body for a while -- clamshells, etc. They did a standing clam shell with one foot on the wall -- hard to describe, but it seems like a good balance challenge, too -- I'll be trying that.

manleym, I have not seen that AT&T ad but I could totally picture what was going on and had fun imagining you in that workout thinking of the ad. I want to try that one -- sounds different.

Oh, and I meant to comment on the beans, too, cataddict -- so cool to find them! I was thinking that we never did get many beans and then it occurred to me that perhaps I should do a more thorough search and maybe I would be surprised, too. All in all, the garden was a huge disappointment here this year.

Is everyone beginning to brace for the holidays????

Hi all!

I've done CL #91 Metabolic Mashup and two trips to the gym. #91 was meant to be a "break" as I was feeling low in energy. I took a "rest" day yesterday limited to walking and I felt more ready to go today at the gym.

We got a few more beans and the plants are still flowering! We are newbies to bean farming so maybe they are more tolerant of cooler weather as long as there is no frost? Kate, I think you are the agriculture expert of the group, aren't you? What say you?

manleym, I think that Caroline moves more quickly than Cathe does in STS. I haven't done a ton of Caroline so I'm only basing my opinion on that. I also haven't done a complete Caroline program. I really do like her weight work, however, and it challenges me in a different way since Cathe uses many of the same moves and I'm very familiar with them. Does Caroline ever use a barbell or other equipment in her workouts? I think I saw one that used the big band but don't recall her using a barbell.

bee, LOL at not wanting to repeat the same exercises four times. I am okay with two repetitions but any more than that if they are two close together and I get bored. Funny but Caroline Girvan said that repetition of exercises was a good thing, even if people don't like it. I guess she had feedback from people who said they didn't want repetition. Oh, and nope, not in the least ready for the holidays. The split second that Halloween decor came down the Christmas decorations went up----too soon IMHO. It takes away from the special meaning when it lasts for months and months.

Waves to all busy Watulans and hugs to those who need them!

Girls!!! I'm still here, just not finding time to post. Today I felt I needed to make time..I love VF and you all and should keep up. :D

cataddict: I didn't even realize Amy Bento had a YouTube channel. I may just have to check it out.
I'm interested in the new Cathe Live 369. I like that it's a little longer.
Yes beans are a cooler weather crop. Your weather is much different from ours..we've had too many frosts/freezes here in MN now. Although I must say my Brussels sprouts are still ok.

manleym: I will preorder Cathe's new STS but I'm over KCM. But do I need to check out Caroline's workouts? Everyone seems to rave.

kittybug: We'll be behind together! I can't seem to keep up either!

bee: I think it's so fun how Cathe's Live classes are so fun! The produced DVDs of course are excellent, but I love seeing all the "normal" backgrounders.

Backtracking:
Nov 3: Amy Bento Slow Mo Strength Legs. YOW!!! Felt this one for two days. I love the unique moves.
Nov 4: Les Mills on Demand Body Combat Extreme Cardio remix. Fun mix from other BCs. It was fun of course.
Nov 5: Amy Be Slow Mo Strength Back and Shoulders. Zowie!! I just love these slow weight workouts! I can go heavy!!!

This week.
Yesterday I did Live #220 Lower Body Upper Body Dumbell Challenge. Great stuff! Cathe works through each body part well, doing about 4 exercises, twice through. I had weights all over the place. LOL

Today I found a new Body Attack on LMOD. #112 so that was up today. LM is always fun and one of my favorite type of workouts. This had the ever-exuberant Lisa and 2 other instructors on a fun set. No crowd yet.

I am still doing Yoga every afternoon and meditating EVERY morning, no fail. Keeping me sane during insane times.

Waves, hugs, love!

Popping in for a moment.

Kate, thanks for bean info. I knew kale/spinach/collards were cool weather but not beans too! We aren't even close to a frost and DH picked some more beans yesterday so we will leave the plants to their own devices for now. It's 70 here today and lowest it's been is 45. The *&^% mosquitoes are still around! Oh, and there was a thread on GD about Amy's YouTube channel. And I think Caroline Girvan would be right up your alley. She does a lot of weight focused workouts that I'm sure you would enjoy and she goes pretty darn heavy---at least to me.

Later, Watulans!

Hello!!

cataddict, interesting that you think Caroline moves faster than Cathe in STS. Note that I haven't done an STS workout in quite some time, but.... in general, I feel like Cathe moves faster than Caroline. That's part of what I like about Caroline. But maybe it depends on the workout! I also think it's interesting that she said repeating is good -- I can see how that could be true, and there are times I don't mind it, but something about the way the workout was structured the other day, well... I just couldn't do it. Oddly, I think I don't mind if the same exercise is repeated again and again right after itself, but when there are a series that is repeated..... I don't know why but I just don't like it.

Kate, the cool thing about Caroline is you can try her pretty easily..... right there on youtube. I have liked her previous offerings (not that I've done an entire series), but I especially liked the Epic III (3?) workouts I tried. And I'm right there with you on the Amy Bento channel..... I need to check that out, too. And yes, I love having both formats of Cathe -- Live and produced dvds. I'm sort of surprised at myself..... I do tend to be biased about having better productions, but I'm really loving the Lives and even the casual feel of them.

Just a long walk outside for me today -- a friend in town from PA so we caught up while walking. TTFN! :D

Hi Watulans!

Yesterday I did CL #139 Upper body express plus core but I didn't do the core. I added on a 20 minute upper body weight workout by Chris Dorner. I've not done any of her weight work and although this one was structured for beginners based on her weight choice, I went heavier and liked it. She's very encouraging and showed a lot of form pointers which obviously she should for beginners. It was a good add on for biceps, triceps and shoulders. She didn't work chest or back which was okay by me since I went heavy (for me) in the CL---heavier than Cathe anyway. Today was a gym day featuring the elliptical, stair climber, and walking. :sun:

Back to the Caroline v Cathe STS, I don't think I was very good at describing what I meant by Caroline being quicker than STS. In the last Caroline I did, the rests between exercises seemed too short for the workout not to be somewhat metabolic. There were somewhat longer breaks between at least some exercises in STS, at least IIRC. In a sense it's comparing apples to oranges as Caroline sometimes favors doing a movement for a specific time whereas STS tends to do a specific number of reps. It very well could be that I haven't done enough Caroline to really comment at all! :p I'd love for someone with more experience with both STS and Caroline to chime in! It's an interesting topic---at least to me.

Kate, that CL Lower/Upper body dumbbell challenge is a good one! I think this is the one she offered as a freebie when her gym was closed during the pandemic. Please check out Caroline--I'd love to know what you think!

bee, glad you are enjoying the feel of the Lives! It's more like being in a "class" with the casual feel and "regular" people. I still enjoy the DVDs (particularly when I want a more difficult challenge with weights) but they are different!

Waves to all busy Watulans and big hugs to all who need them! :heart: