Cathe has a great forum on her site and one of the most frequent questions of any member who has done STS is what to do after the program is done. This piqued my interest, of course, mainly because I don't want to lose the muscle I've gained.
So for the next 12 weeks, I'll be following Cathe's suggested regimen, with a few changes. For the first four weeks, for example, I'm throwing in a few Peak 10 workouts for the cardio, just to have a short break from so much of Cathe's cardio. Hopefully, this shocks my body. I'm also curious to try new-to-me Cathe workouts - there are so many! This should be fun!
After these 12 weeks, I'll do a more intense Peak 10 session before and during the holidays, to get an even longer break from Cathe. You need to mix things up, after all!
So, here we go!
Monday: Cathe's Gym Style: Back, Shoulders, and Biceps + walk + Jessica Smith's Breathe Stretch & Relax
Wow. So. After having done STS, this Gym Style program moves fast. I could barely grab the right weights before Cathe was lifting them! This will take some getting used to. And I may need a weight sheet. Oy. I have four weeks of Gym Style videos and I want to make the most of those four weeks. It's so different from STS, I can see why Cathe chose them! At lunch, I walked at the rec center to get steps and stay awake. Once home, I decided to take a slight departure from YWA. I've heard a lot about Jessica Smith's free YouTube workouts and decided to try one of her yoga workouts - this one was a very lovely stretch. Super good after a long day!!
Tuesday: Cathe's Gym Style: Legs + YWA
After yesterday's abrupt introduction to Gym Styles, I was a bit nervous about this leg workout. Cathe continued to move quickly through exercises but at least I know what my legs can handle. But the reps.... so many reps!!! This workout hurt. And while holding the weights for these exercises, I learned just how much my arms ached from yesterday! Sigh. No workout at lunch today - in an effort to not do too much. After work, I did a slightly longer YWA - for tired legs. I needed it after this morning's torture session!
Wednesday: Cathe's Rock It Sock It Live + YWA
I was excited to do cardio this morning! And kickboxing! I did this workout six months ago but nothing about it seemed familiar - except the classic Cathe moves, of course. It was a lot of fun and kept my heart pounding!! At the end of the day, I wanted to work, but not too hard. This YWA was a good compromise - and I did not remember doing it with Yoga Revolution. My memory is horrible! It was a nice practice and made my body happy!
Thursday: Peak Fit Pure Cardio + weights
Time for some serious cardio this morning so I turned to Michelle Dozois! This workout is non-stop - but still fun! It works you hard without killing you, which is nice! I had to skip the last circuit, which has lunge jumps. So sad. At lunch, I did weights at the rec center. I hadn't done these in a month! Wow! I was able to keep my weight amounts but decreased in some of my reps, which is expected. It felt good to get this done!
Friday: Peak Fit Dynamic Flexibility + Cathe's Ripped with HIIT: Abs One
It was so nice to do something light this morning. I love Michelle's Flexibility workout - it flows so, so nicely and really stretches you out. After that, I tuned into one of Cathe's many ab workouts. This one was 10 minutes and started with standing work, which was different and nice. Thankfully, none of the moves were impossible - as some that Cathe devises frequently are for me.
Saturday: Cathe's HIIT 40/20 + Gym Style: Chest and Triceps
This morning started with HIIT. It's amazing how fast my heart can't keep up once this HIIT starts. This is one effective workout! I added on some of my own cardio to get in 35 minutes. Then, Gym Style. Okey, dokey. I just finished 3 months of STS....and this workout almost killed me. It started with 72 push-ups, with short breaks along the way. I did ALL 72 push-ups (on my knees). Yay! But....I burned out my muscles before the the weights began! So I was hurting and shaking like nothing else for the rest of this workout. I've never seen my muscles shake so bad. I got through it but I didn't get all the reps in sometimes. It was that bad. I won't be able to lift my arms tomorrow. A stretch and sit-ups after that.
Sunday: Peak 10 Cardio Interval Burn + my butt, legs + 160 lunges + Cathe's Ripped with HIIT: Abs Two
I woke up aching this morning. Wow. I did this CIB - which I haven't touched in quite some time - and really enjoyed it. It's deceptively difficult and my heart rate stayed way up there. I then did 20 minutes of walking lunges, deadlifts, hip thrusts, and other leg/butt exercises. It was fun coming up with my own routine! I used a 12-pound weight for my hip thrusts and 20s for my deadlifts. Whew! Then, Cathe's ab workout was a doozy. It was nice to finally get to stretch after all that!
Calorie Counts:
Monday - 1256
Tuesday - 1256
Wednesday -1321
Thursday - 1355
Friday - 1474
Saturday - BAD
Sunday - bad
I think I may have lost weight for our wellness program's summer challenge. That doesn't mean anything because I remember when I weighed in and thought, "there's no way I could weight more than I do today." Ha! But at least I haven't gained weight in two months.
No comments:
Post a Comment