Tuesday, August 5, 2014

My Fitness Routine Lately

Any of you that know me personally know that fitness is a huge part of my life. My fitness journey began nearly twelve years ago (I was a freshman in high school) and it has been quite a winding road! At some point I will give you all an in-depth story, but for now we'll just discuss what I have been up to lately!

I remembered to take a picture! :D

I truly enjoy running. But this summer I haven't been finding myself doing a whole lot of it. I lift three days per week, which I'll get to more in a moment. The days I don't go to the gym on my own, I try to wait for Judah in the evenings and we go to the gym together. Even though we don't do the same workout, it's fun to both be there, rather than me staying at home while he goes by himself. I think it also takes the pressure off him to cut his workout short so he can get back home to me sooner. I'll either run on the treadmill or ride the spinning bike.

Back/biceps day! 

I've mentioned before, but right now I am using Cathe Friedrich's Shock Training System for my lifts.  In total, it is a 12-week program with three separate phases: endurance, hypertrophy, and strength. I am currently using the hypertrophy phase. Although this program is designed to build muscle, I also like to use it to build strength all around and I find the set up more enjoyable than the endurance and strength phases of the program. During the endurance phase you perform exercises with ~15 reps every 30 seconds. It's quick, intense, and you see results, but I've found it's not ideal for a gym setting. I enjoy those workouts better when I am at home with no one to disturb me and I don't have to run all over to set up the equipment I need. The strength phase is great, but the workouts are broken down to only a select few exercises since the goal is to build strength and that is best accomplished with only a few sets and reps, but high, high weight. So you don't want to be doing lots of different exercises and the rest time is very long (90-180 seconds).

I find the hypertrophy phase to be an excellent middle ground. Each exercise is performed for 8-12 reps using decently heavy weight. Rest time is only a minute long, which is just enough to let the body recover, but long enough to allow you to grab a drink of water or stretch if needed, as well as set up for the next exercise when switching between. The workouts are divided into chest/shoulders/triceps, legs, and back/biceps. I just began the second half of this phase yesterday. I knew I didn't want to do just a four week phase, so I have been repeating each week. So technically I am on week three of the program, but this is the fifth week of my training period.

Many of you may wonder, if I was an aerobics instructor for four years, why would I not write my own programs? Truthfully... it's a LOT of work! I'd spend at least ten hours a week working on my four hour-long classes that I taught. It's not that I can't do it, but when I can pay a one time fee for someone else to do it for me, why not?


I came across Cathe when there used to be FitTV on cable television. I believe the channel still exists but they have renamed it. Cathe was the only instructor on there that I found challenging and enjoyed working out with. Her DVDs are slightly pricy (about $23/workout), but I assure you that they are TOP quality. She has been in the fitness industry for nearly 30 years now and she hasn't stayed there by sitting back and doing the same old stuff. She constantly is improving her workouts to meet the latest crazes and to make the workouts most EFFECTIVE for her clientele. I own her STS series, XTrain series, Low Impact Series, and three or four single workouts. I have also preordered her Ripped HiiT workout that will be completed and shipped this fall. If you follow her on Facebook and subscribe to her weekly email updates, you'll find out first when she is releasing new material and you can usually preorder for over 50% off the selling price when the product becomes available.




What I love best about Cathe is she has definitely grown with technology too. I believe every single one of her workouts is available for download so you can use your ipod/phone/ipad. You're no longer tied to a dvd player and TV! She now has Cathe OnDemand Streaming, which allows you to view ANY workout for only $20/month and right now if you sign up, you can also view Cathe Live, which is a weekly viewing of a live class from her gym in New Jersey! I can promise you that when I have a complete home gym, that is what I will be purchasing.

Some of you may be wondering if I was paid to promote Cathe's products, but I haven't! I so strongly support what she has been doing and she is my go-to fitness resource that I wanted to share all the great opportunities available to you! And honestly, if I can look like her when I'm 50, that'd be amazing!

Dang girl!

She definitely promotes towards the female fitness realm, but if you watch any of her live class previews, there are men in the audience and she also includes men in some of her workout videos because ANYONE can benefit from her programs. If you check out her DVD website, pretty much every single DVD has a YouTube video preview so you can see exactly what it is like! It also explains what equipment you need and if there are premixes for the video, what those entail.

Definitely check her out :)


Last week I purchased the Lean and Lovely Program by Neghar Fonooni, because she had a 50% launch sale, so I figured why not? I know she focuses a lot on kettlebell work, which I have little experience with and figured I could definitely learn a lot. I will be starting that program in September and I'll be sure to share how I like it :)


Readers: What is your favorite type of exercise? Running, yoga, lifting, kettlebell work, playing a sport? What motivates you to exercise?

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