January

It turned out to be a stormy month.We had 3 snow storms in 3 weeks, and there is another one in the forecast for this week.

In between all those storms, things have been busy. Some fun stuff and also some work stuff, so I ended the month feeling pretty tired out.

I have also been trying out some new workouts – from The Female Body Breakthrough by Rachel Cosgrove. I had followed along with great interest as Charlotte and her gym buddies tried it out. I read the book for myself in early December.

I won’t go into any detail about the book here – because it’s been so long since I read it – but I will say it was a quick read. I actually got through it in an evening, though I skimmed/skipped some parts. The ‘why you should lift weights’ arguments are not new to me, and I found the client success stories got repetitive. Hence the skimming. I guess the ‘Revolutionary’ bit is the reduced cardio in Cosgrove’s program.

I can’t claim that I have been following the program; basically I’ve been trying out the strength training routines. I’ve done 3 of the 4 phases so far. A lot of it feels pretty familiar to me, especially having worked with Lindsey last winter & spring. Again, the difference would be the reduced cardio – and reduced overall training time.

I do think it is a solid program and would probably be good for someone looking to get started on a weight training plan. I’ve enjoyed the workouts, I find they go by pretty quick – though that may have something to do with my discovering The Great Buffy Rewatch on Nikki Stafford's blog; I’ve been inviting Buffy and the Scoobies along on my workouts (Yes I own all of the DVDs. Shut up.) which keeps me entertained.

I should mention here that I was able to skip through the early phases as a lot of this is familiar to me. The 3rd phase is definitely more difficult – Ms. Cosgrove increases both the difficulty and the reps for a lot of moves. Seems a little unfair.  :)

Also, these workouts are designed for a gym, not for a home exerciser. I was able to adapt/adjust/substitute based on past workouts (Lindsey in particular is good at adapting gym moves to home equipment). And I did the same thing if the difficulty level proved to be impossible – either adjust to make the exercise doable or reduce the reps. It’s good to challenge myself, but trying to do something that is too hard for me is just going to lead to frustration or injury – neither one of those is good. So my philosophy is to back off and work my way up.

Workouts

Jan 31: RC Dial It In Workout B[40 mins]
Jan 29: RC Dial It In Workout A + Treadmill Walk[60 mins]
Jan 27: RC Dial It In Workout B[45 mins]
Jan 24: RC Dial It In Workout A + Treadmill Walk[75 mins]
Jan 21: RC Define Yourself Workout B[45 mins]
Jan 18: Treadmill walk[40 mins]
Jan 16: RC Define Yourself Workout A[40 mins]
Jan 13: Burn & Firm Pilates DVD[45 mins]
Jan 11: UB Circuit + Abs[40 mins]
Jan 10: LB Circuit + Treadmill walk[40 mins]
Jan 08: RC Define Yourself Workout B[40 mins]
Jan 07: Treadmill walk[45 mins]
Jan 05: RC Define Yourself Workout A[60 mins]
Jan 03: RC Base Phase Workout B[40 mins]
Jan 01: RC Base Phase Workout A[40 mins]

 

I also read The Hormone Diet this month. That one took a bit longer to get through than the Cosgrove book. Still mulling that one over, but I will post my thoughts eventually. Maybe there will be a shoe post as well. You never know.