Current & Upcoming

04/09/24 UPDATE: As mentioned in my last update, I am currently doing both Caroline Girvan’s CGX Unleash Series and Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week 4.0 program. I am alternating weeks. HR 4.0 is 6 weeks longer than Unleash, so when I finish Unleash, I will do some of Caroline’s other CGX workouts, including her Cluster Series workouts. Once I finish HR 4.0, I will probably do Caroline’s newest CGX program called Intent. It is 10 weeks long. But that will not be until July! My strength workouts are completely mapped out through the first week of July. I did pre-order Cathe‘s newest functional fitness program Lift, Move & Restore. It is estimated to ship Summer of 2024. So I may do that before starting CGX Intent, depending on when I actually receive it. In addition to the above, I plan to also do and review some yoga, mobility and rebounder workouts on YouTube. And for anyone who has a rebounder and subscribes to Bellicon Home Streaming, that post is frequently updated since I subscribe to them. I tried to add jumps to that post to make it easier to navigate but it is so messed up it will not allow it, so lots of scrolling is required.

01/18/24 UPDATE: I am still in the midst of the CGX Iron program. I’ll finish it mid-February. At that time I plan to do a mixture of different workouts for about 3 weeks: Cathe‘s newest strength workouts and non program/series CGX workouts I haven’t done yet (as well revisiting some favorites that I have done). Then in March I will disappear for a few weeks for a much needed vacation. When I get back I plan to do Caroline’s newest Unleash Series. ***02/02/24–I have decided that when I get back from vacation in March, I am doing a combination of Caroline’s CGX Unleash + Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week 4.0. In the beginning I plan to alternate weeks (one week of Unleash alternated with one week of 4.0) but Heather’s 4.0 is 6 weeks longer than Unleash, so not sure what I will do when Unleash is done. Maybe just do 4.0 only until the end or maybe alternate it with something else. We’ll see.

11/19/23 UDATE: On December 1 I will have completed 26 weeks/6 months of doing STS 2.0 exclusively for my strength training. I have gotten astounding results (in my opinion). I have thoroughly enjoyed the workouts as well. But all good things must come to an end and I am finally starting to get bored with STS 2.0. It has taken a while! I am finishing out my rotation, which as I mentioned, ends 12/01/23. I am taking recovery week in which I plan to do Jessica Smith workouts exclusively. Then starting December 11–Caroline Girvan‘s 10 Week Iron program on her CGX app. I am excited! Since I have already re-subscribed to CGX, I have seen a few workouts I plan to do in November. Also, because of the length of some of the Iron program workouts, I will occasionally also do some of her shorter CGX workouts. So not just Iron workouts will be reviewed. I am following the 10 week program so it will not be until February 2024 when I will start reviewing her longer CGX workouts.

As for other workouts, I don’t know why, but I haven’t really been that interested in trying new things these days. I have been content to stick with workouts I know and love, as well as revisiting old favorites I haven’t done in years. This is referring primarily to cardio and flexibility/yoga workouts. My favorite YouTube trainers keep posting new workouts that look great and that I save to my “Need to Try” folder, but I still don’t know when or if I will do them.

10/17/23 UPDATE: It’s been a month or so since I have posted anything. I have taken a break from blogging. I am still doing the STS 2.0 rotation I created and am on the last week. I plan to repeat it–or most of it. A 6 week version of it. Then I will take a recovery week and I will start Caroline Girvan‘s 10 week Iron Series on her CGX app. So stay tuned! That will happen in December. I am not sure what, if anything, I will post before then. I have been revisiting a lot of Cathe workouts that I haven’t done in years for some of my cardio and the rest is my go-to of Naomi Joy rebounder cardio. I continue to save a lot of workouts into my “need to try” folder on YouTube, but for now I am not motivated to do them. But they are saved in case I change my mind.

09/11/23 UPDATE: I am still thoroughly enjoying STS 2.0. I completed the 12 week rotation and have created my own rotation, mixing together all 3 phases. It is going so well for me that I plan to post the rotation for others to try. So stay tuned. Caroline Girvan has started a 10 week Iron Series on her CGX app that looks awesome. I will do it eventually but I am not in any rush. I plan to continue working with STS 2.0 until I get sick of it or am no longer making progress. But as it is, I just keep getting stronger. I love it!

08/08/23 UPDATE: I am doing the 12 week STS 2.0 program. Currently, I am in week 10. All of the workouts in that program are now reviewed and you can see them all listed in one place on my Cathe page. I am loving it so much that I will probably continue doing the STS 2.0 workouts for a while longer. I don’t know how long. I have a review of STS 2.0 as a program in the works that will post once I complete the 12 weeks (the end of August). In case anyone is curious, I updated my review of Next Level. I implemented a lot of the recommendations from that book. As for what’s next… I don’t know. I am enjoying STS 2.0 so I will continue that for longer. There was talk of Caroline Girvan’s CGX app releasing an Iron Series. I assume at some point I will re-subscribe to the CGX app and do that. I have saved a lot of workouts to my “need to try” YouTube playlist but who knows when or if I will do them. I get nostalgic sometimes and consider going back and doing a lot of older workouts. In fact, I binged reading my own reviews of AngieFitnessTV‘s workouts the other day and it made me want to do her workouts again. I remember really enjoying them. But who knows what I will do. There will definitely be more flexibility, mobility and foam rolling reviews going up, but that is the only thing I know for sure right now.

05/30/23 UPDATE: The STS 2.0 users guide finally posted! I have been waiting very impatiently for this! After reading through it and looking at the rotations, I have decided to start the 12 week rotation June 5. What this means for the reviews is that I will not post a strength workout review until I have done the workout at least 2 times (maybe more). But I will (probably) post the recovery and core workouts after doing them once. So those will be the first workouts to post. I will also do an overall post of my 12 weeks on the program. That will not post until I finish the 12 weeks–the end of August/beginning of September.

Because of this I will cancel my subscription to CGX app. 😥 I feel very sad about that because I love Caroline Girvan‘s workouts and her app but I want to devote the time and effort to STS 2.0 that it deserves. Once I finish STS 2.0, I plan to do CGX 10 Week Beastmode program. But that is 3 months away–who knows what kind of content Caroline will have added to CGX during that time? There may be something new I want to do first.

05/25/23 UPDATE: STS 2.0 arrived today! I have a lot to do to prepare and I am still waiting for the users guide/rotation calendar to post, so I do not yet know how the workout reviews will post. I will be starting it June 5th regardless. Until then I will be doing more CGX workouts.

5/19/23 UPDATE: Cathe Friedrich sent out an update today–STS 2.0 ships on Monday! FINALLY! That means I should receive it by the end of next week. This is a big program. Not just a few workouts, so I will not be jumping straight into it the moment it arrives. If I get it by the end of next week, then I project that I will start it Monday June 5th. There is preparation to do plus a lot to consider and I cannot prepare or consider anything until the workouts are in my hands. But once I decide how I plan to approach the program I will post an update here.

Currently, I am having a BLAST with Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app. In fact, I just updated the CGX app page with my thoughts after using the app for 2 weeks. Once I complete STS I am sure I will do a year subscription to CGX. I am doing monthly right now since I do not know how long I will spend on STS 2.0. But once I am done with STS 2.0, my plan is to do CGX 10 week Beastmode program.

04/28/23 UPDATE: Like everyone else, I have been  waiting impatiently for Caroline Girvan‘s CGX app to launch. And of course, it launched right around the time Cathe Fredrick‘s STS 2.0 is close to shipping. But that did not stop me from subscribing to CGX to at least check it out for free for 2 weeks. And I am in love! I will definitely be keeping my subscription. As you know, I like (need) to document my workouts for possible future reference. I do not return to all of the workouts I do and review here but I return to a lot of them. Especially Caroline, Naomi Joy and Heather Roberts. They are currently the workouts I use my reviews of the most. But in the past I revisited workouts by other trainers frequently: Cathe, Kelly Coffey-Meyer,  Jessica Smith–in fact all of the trainers that have a link to a page devoted to them and their workouts on my Trainer page. So these reviews are valuable to me. All of this to say, I need to find a way to document CGX app workouts since I am sure I will be returning to them as frequently as I return to Caroline’s YouTube workouts. My Bellicon Home Streaming post is becoming unwieldy but it is too late to redo that monster now. Then I remembered how I reviewed Cathe Live workouts back when I subscribed to her streaming service. I reviewed them like any other workout but they were all collected together on a Cathe Live page. So even though Caroline has her own page here on my blog, I will also create a page devoted to her CGX app workouts. The reviews will post just like any other workout review on my blog but they will also go to the CGX App page. I will find a way to identify them on Caroline’s page as well so we know what is on YouTube and what is on her app.

03/31/23 UPDATE: This is INSANE–still no STS 2.0. But Cathe is sending more frequent updates so it is getting closer. As already mentioned, I have been doing workouts already reviewed on this blog and thoroughly enjoying myself. I have been updating the Bellicon review post pretty regularly as I have been doing a lot of new-to-me workouts from the Bellicon Home Streaming site. And my plan still stands. I am doing strength workouts already blogged here until STS 2.0 arrives, then I will start STS 2.0. I may even do one of the STS 2.0 rotations if I like the look of them. But Cathe will not post the STS 2.0 guide until the program actually ships–so I’ll decide that when I am able to look at them. Whether or not I follow an official rotation will affect how my reviews will post. I will continue reviewing rebounder workouts I do, either adding to the Bellicon post or new stand alone reviews. I plan to do a rebounder workout recently created by Kat Gates-Buettner soon.

I recently posted a review on a book that made a big impression on me: Next Level. It made such an impression that I have revamped much of the way I do things surrounding working out–meal timing, supplementing and structuring my workout rotations. It has been a lot of work and I am still not 100% finished with all of the changes I plan to make. Any type of change like this will take months to see results so in a few months I plan to update the Next Level review with how the recommended training, fueling and supplementing has worked for me. So stay tuned.

02/27/23 UPDATE: Cathe’s STS 2.0 did not arrive while I was on vacation as I expected. But from Cathe’s newsletter today, it does sound like it will be shipping within the next few weeks. So, until then, I am doing workouts already blogged here. I ended up only doing one workout the entire 2 weeks on I was on vacation (that is not counting the MILES of walking I did most days) so my body is feeling it. I did a cardio +  strength rebounder workout this morning (first workout since being back from vacation) that kicked my butt! I was struggling! So I think that until STS 2.0 arrives, I will do primarily Naomi Joy and Bellicon workouts. So there probably will not be many (or any) new blog posts until I start STS 2.0. But the Bellicon post will probably be updated a few times since some great workouts were uploaded to their Home Streaming while I was on vacation.

02/07/23 UPDATE: I do still plan to put together the Caroline Girvan Iron/Fuel rotation but I do not have a lot of extra time to work on it right now, so it probably will not post in February. Also, from what I am seeing, I expect Cathe‘s STS 2.0 to ship the end of this month while I am on vacation. I am going with that assumption now to plan my workouts for when I return. Since it will take me a few days (or a week) to decompress from vacation as well as start prepping to start STS 2.0, I plan to do workouts already blogged. So, if it ships the end of February as I am now expecting it to then I will probably be starting it March 6 or so. That means I will not be doing Heather Robertson‘s 12 Week 3.0 right away. Probably after I finish STS 2.0. So, once I leave for vacation I probably (not positively) will not post anything until the first full week of March.

01/12/23 UPDATE: I am still working my way through Caroline Girvan‘s Fuel Series workouts. I should have done all of her Fuel workouts that I plan to do by the end of January. I am taking a break next week to do some Heather Robertson workouts but then the last week of January will be Fuel Series. Once I do all of the Fuel Series workouts I plan to do, I will create a rotation that mixes up Caroline’s Fuel Series with her Iron Series. I think they will complement each other. I will post it but I will not be doing it. At least not any time soon. The beginning of February will be catching up with Heather Robertson workouts. Then the second half of February I am on a long vacation. So I probably will not post anything. When I get back, I plan to start Heather’s new 12 Week 3.0. That is, unless Cathe‘s STS 2.0 arrives. Then I will dive into that. Either way, the soonest I will start STS 2.0 is the beginning of March; again, that is if it even arrives by then. I am also doing a lot of Bellicon Home Streaming workouts. My husband got me Bellicon’s Shadowboxer for Christmas. I am working my way through the workouts created for the Shadowboxer (all done on the rebounder). Once I get through them (probably the beginning of February), I will create a Shadowboxer post. All of the Shadowboxer workouts will still be added to the Bellicon Home Streaming post that I update every time I do a new-to-me Bellicon workout but they will also all be in the Shadowboxer post.

11/12/22 UPDATE: This morning I completed the Caroline Given Strength & Muscle Building Rotation I created. I updated the post as well, so if you are interested, just click on the link to it and I discuss my results. It is definitely one of the best rotations I have created. Starting Monday, I am doing most of Heather Robertson‘s Fierce 2.0 workouts. Then I will move on to a mix of both new-to-me Caroline Given and Heather Robertson workouts, then sometime in December, I plan to start doing most of Caroline’s Fuel workouts. My husband did pre-order Cathe Friedrich‘s STS 2.0 for me for Christmas or my birthday. Since it is not even estimated to ship until the first quarter of 2023, I should be able to start it relatively quickly after I receive it. I have also re-subscribed to Bellicon Home Streaming so if you are a rebounder like I am, that post will periodically get new reviews added to it.

09/30/22 UPDATE: I am halfway through the 12 Week Rotation I created (or I will be on Sunday). 6 more weeks of it to go then I will be back to posting nearly daily workouts. I will be doing a mixture of Caroline Girvan‘s Fuel workouts and Heather Robertson workouts. She has a Fierce 2.0 starting October 1 so I will be doing those workouts as well as many of the other workouts she has been posting over the past 6 weeks. I also have a few of Caroline’s older workouts on my To Do list. BTW–anyone reading this know what happened to her? She hasn’t posted a new workout since July.

Cathe Friedrich is putting out a new STS 2.0 program that I am very much looking forward to. Unlike every other DVD she’s ever created, there was no pre-order before she even started creating it (that’s how she usually does it–you pre-order before she has even filmed it). I don’t know when I will be able to order it but once I can, I will be the first in line. Or my husband will. He wants to get it for me for Christmas. Which means, if it actually ships before Christmas, I won’t even start it until some time after Christmas.

08/08/22 UPDATE: It’s up! I posted the 12 Week Caroline Girvan Strength & Muscle Building Rotation. For the next 2 weeks I will be doing Jessica Smith and Heather Robertson workouts then starting August 22, the review posts will slow down significantly for 12 weeks while I do the rotation. You are welcome to joint me!🏋🏻‍♀️💪🏼

08/03/22 UPDATE: I am still working on the Caroline Girvan rotation using primarily her Iron Series workouts, but I’ve made a lot of progress and I can share some details with those interested. It will be 12 weeks. I plan to start it on August 22 and I will post it at least a week prior, if not sooner. Stay tuned!

07/25/22 UPDATE: I am almost done with Caroline Girvan‘s Iron Series and I’ve loved it! I love it so much I want to do it (or some version of it) again. But I have some other things planned. Starting next week I will be doing a week of Heather Robertson workouts–usually 2 a day, so a lot of her workouts will post. Though I will be doing a lot of different kinds of workouts, the main workouts will be her new Fusion Flow Series and her new Glow Up 2.0 series. After that, I will finally do the strength workouts from Jessica Smith‘s new Strong + Centered Series. During that 3 week period, I will be putting together a rotation. It will be primarily (and possibly entirely) made up of Caroline Girvan workouts. A lot of Iron Series workouts but others as well. I am not sure of the length yet. I am also not sure if I plan to post it before or after I do it. I do not feel like I can even start it until I do all of the Iron Series workouts. After this morning, I only have 3 more to go. Then I can start crafting it. I think it will be an awesome strength training rotation.

05/28/22 UPDATE: Nothing has changed from my last update below. I am still doing everything outlined there. But what I wanted to add, is that I gave in and ordered Jessica Smith‘s new workouts–the whole DVD bundle. Which is 6 DVDs containing a lot of workouts. I haven’t done a DVD workout in forever but I love Jessica Smith. Not sure yet how I will work her workouts in. I probably won’t even start any of the strength workouts until I finish everything listed in the last update below. But I may work in some of the other workouts before then. We’ll see when they arrive and I start previewing them.

5/22/22 UPDATE: Still working my way through Heather Robertson and Caroline Girvan‘s programs. I am close to being done with Caroline’s EPIC Endgame but I still have a few more weeks of Heather’s 12 Week program. I had big plans for my vacation. Lots of body weight strength workouts were planned. Then I got very sick. I do not know what started it but by the time I returned home from vacation and went to the doctor, it had morphed into bronchitis. I am feeling better but I am having a hard time shaking the cough. This has caused me to redo part of my rotation. I cannot do any straight, intense cardio until this cough clears up so I will not be rebounding nearly as much as I normally do. My favorite rebounder trainers have all come out with new workouts. Luckily, they are all pretty short so I plan to reserve those for Sundays and follow them with relaxing yoga. During the week I am swapping the rebounder cardio workouts I had originally planned to do with the body weight workouts I had planned to do while on vacation. So that is what the next few weeks will look like: finishing up Caroline and Heather’s programs, some body weight workouts (mostly Caroline’s), and a few rebounder workouts on Sundays. I may also do some of Sara Beth‘s new yoga workouts. Once I get through Caroline’s EPIC Endgame program, I will start her Iron Series. Those will be intermixed with my last week or two of Heather’s 12 Week Program. When I am done with Caroline’s Iron Series, I plan to take a recovery week using Heather’s new Fusion Flow workouts. That is all I have planned currently.

04/22/22 UPDATE: I am still working my way through Heather Robertson and Caroline Girvan‘s programs. You can see the progress I’ve made here and here. And just like I knew she would, Caroline is already creating awesome new workouts. In fact, a 6 Week Iron Series. I plan to work through that series once I finish the two programs I am doing now. And, unless something unforeseen happens, I will finish them both in June. The beginning of May I will be on vacation. The workout review posts will slow down and possibly even stop until I am back home. I have plans to do some of the body weight workouts from both programs as well as some workouts from Caroline’s Calisthenics Series while on vacation. But since it is a vacation, I am not holding myself to it! If it happens it happens. If not, oh well!

03/10/22 UPDATE: As you can see by the posts, my back is better. I am back on track, working my way through Heather Robertson and Caroline Girvan‘s programs. I project that I will have completed the workouts that I want to do in their programs some time in June. That is mostly due to the fact I am taking a long vacation in May, so there will be several weeks of no posts. I’m sure by the time I get through all of the workouts both trainers will have posted lots more workouts that I will want to try but that is all I have planned at this point.

02/20/22 UPDATE: Things are on hold for a bit. I hurt my back yesterday and I am basically incapacitated. I cannot even manage gentle yoga right now but when I can manage something, that will be my goal–some gentle low back focused yoga. Once my back is better I plan to get back on track with Heather and Caroline’s programs as well as Naomi Joy’s new workouts. My back goes out from time to time and it is generally better in a week or less. Fingers crossed this is no different.

01/21/22 UPDATE: I finally received Kelly Coffey-Meyer‘s new workouts, Cardio Fit and Power Splits. I had to re-arrange my January schedule to fit them in but now I plan to do and review them by the end of the month. In February I plan to start doing both Heather Robertson’s 12 Week Program and Caroline Girvan’s EPIC Endgame program. I am not doing every single workout in either program but I do plan to do the majority of them. And since I’m creating my rotation practically as they post the workouts, I’ll be doing them pretty chronologically. I will, of course, also be doing Naomi Joy‘s workouts, so things will sometimes be re-arranged (or removed), to fit her new workouts in. Since Caroline’s and Heather’s programs are 10 and 12 week programs, this is what I will be doing for the next few months.

01/01/22 UPDATE: I completed my 7 Week Rotation! I updated the post, giving my results and also making a few changes to make it an even better rotation. I am sticking with my January plan noted in the update below but these YouTube trainers sure do make things difficult! I start Heather Robertson‘s Fierce 14 workouts tomorrow followed by Caroline Girvan‘s December workouts but both Heather and Caroline have announced new programs that start tomorrow! And these are long programs (Heather’s is 12 weeks and Caroline’s is 10 weeks) which means new workouts by both trainers nearly every single day! I will probably be doing new workouts every day for months! In addition, Naomi Joy is now giving us a monthly workout calendar that projects her new workouts for the month (the link to the calendar is under her YouTube Community Tab, which I cannot link to). I am grateful for that but I had to redo the first week of my January schedule because she is uploading a workout tomorrow that I am so excited for that I do not want to wait to try it–so things got moved around! Lots of great things are happening with my favorite trainers in 2022. It will be a good year for workouts!

12/12/21 UPDATE: I am more than halfway through my 7 Week Rotation (4 weeks down, 3 weeks to go) and I am really enjoying it. When I finish it I will update the post. Although I did consider repeating it, Heather Robertson and Caroline Girvan have made that impossible. They are flooding my YouTube feed with new and awesome workouts! I finish the 7 Week Rotation the beginning of January and I have already started building January’s workout rotation. I will be doing many of Heather’s new Fierce 14 workouts and many of Caroline’s short December workouts. And of course anything Naomi Joy posts. That is what I have planned for January!

11/13/21 UPDATE: I decided to start the 7 Week Rotation on Monday, November 15 (referenced below in the last update). This means I will be doing primarily workouts already reviewed on this blog. Normally this would mean the reviews would slow down or even stop. However, I have been sort of “hoarding” reviews. Heather Robertson and Naomi Joy have been releasing short workouts recently. I have done many of them and reviewed them but I have not posted all of the reviews. I decided that, rather than flood my blog with several reviews on the same day, I will save some of the reviews for days when I am not posting anything new and I will post a review then. That way there will continue to be new content most days. I will be making a few minor alterations to the 7 Week Rotation. I am behind on trying some of Heather’s longer workouts. So I am swapping those out for some of the Saturday workouts in the 7 Week Rotation until I am caught up (these are personal substitutions–I am not altering the rotation that has already been posted). I will also be using many of Heather’s Daily 10 workouts and the short workouts Naomi has been posting as finishers for workouts in the rotation. That doesn’t actually change the rotation–just adds to it (again, this is just how I am doing it–nothing is being added to the posted rotation). Finally, I might do some other minor swapping, depending on what the trainers I follow release. For instance, if they release a stretch workout, or if Naomi releases a short rebounder workout, I may swap those for my Sunday recovery day workout. Finally, Monday-Friday I always do a “doubles” workout. For those of you who do not know what this means, I work out for an hour in the morning every single day. M-F I do a second shorter workout (approx 30 minutes) in the afternoon at the end of my work day–that is my “doubles” workout. So if a trainer I follow posts a 30 minute workout that I decide to use as a doubles workout, that will be reviewed here as well. And If I really like the 7 Week Rotation I may decide to repeat it for maximum results. We’ll see!

10/27/21 UPDATE: Currently I am working on a requested rotation that combines workouts from Heather Robertson, Caroline Givan and Naomi Joy for people that also own rebounders. It will be most reflective of the way I actually workout and a rotation I am considering following. I plan to post it probably early November. (I ended up posting it today.) After that I have no specific plans. I will continue to do and review workouts by Naomi, Heather and Caroline. My workout reviews may slow down–especially if I decide to follow the rotation I am creating but even if I don’t, I will be returning to workouts already reviewed on this blog.

09/24/21 UPDATE: I am close to being caught up on all of the Heather Robertson workouts on my To Do list. I expect to post a new 6 week rotation by the end of September. In fact, maybe the very last day of September! (It will post October 1.) It would have been sooner but I got distracted by some of Caroline Girvan‘s new workouts. Naomi Joy took the month of September off but she will be posting workouts again in October. I did get a request for a rotation that combines my 3 favorite trainers: Caroline, Heather and Naomi for people that also own a rebounder. I will start working on that in October. So those are the workouts I will be doing and reviewing for the foreseeable future: primarily workouts by Naomi Joy, Caroline Girvan (I plan to do the rest of Caroline’s Beastmode workouts in October) and Heather Robertson. I also plan to try some new-to-me SaraBethYoga workouts along with a few other rebounder trainer workouts (SanFran Fitness and Michelle Briehler).

08/22/21 UPDATE: I am back from vacation. I have completed my week of Naomi Joy workouts. My plan was to dive into all of the new-to-me Heather Robertson workouts on my To Do list then create a new 4 week Heather rotation in September. That is still the plan, but my Cathe Boss Band workouts arrived this weekend and, after previewing them, I decided to just do them. So those reviews for will post this week then it will be lots of Heather Robertson workouts culminating in a rotation post probably sometime in the second half of September. After that I will return to just doing whatever I want whenever I want. I will probably return to many already reviewed workouts as well as try some new Caroline Girvan workouts and workouts by Naomi and Heather as they post.

07/30/21 UPDATE: I have now posted two of the rotations promised in my last update: Naomi Joy and Caroline Girvan. Tomorrow I plan to post the Caroline Girvan/Heather Robertson hybrid rotation. The beginning of August I will be on vacation for 2 weeks. As noted below, my reviews will probably stop. I say “probably” because I plan to make an effort to exercise on vacation. I am bringing some bands with me and I have chosen some of Heather and Caroline’s band workouts that I have not yet done or reviewed. If I do them and have the time, I will post the reviews. When I get back I plan a full week of primarily rebounder workouts (Naomi Joy) then I will start working my way through all of Heather Robertson‘s workouts still on my To Do list. I am planning to create a second Heather Robertson workout rotation and I want it to be made up mostly of different workouts from the one I posted in March 2021. There will be some workouts that also appear in the Caroline Girvan/Heather Robertson hybrid rotation though. That is unavoidable. I project posting that rotation some time in September.

07/04/21 UPDATE: I am still obviously doing a lot of Caroline Girvan workouts. That will continue. I still plan to create the trainer focused rotations mentioned in my last update. I now have my workouts scheduled all the way into September, however I feel like I will have done a sufficient amount of Caroline’s workouts by late July to create a rotation. I will also create a Caroline and Heather Robertson hybrid rotation shortly after that. I plan to start working on the Naomi Joy rotation soon–in the next week, so that will be the first rotation to post. My final rotation (that I have planned, that is; there will be more rotations, but I only have 4 percolating right now) is another Heather Robertson only rotation and that will post late August/early September.

If I don’t create another update before August, my blog posts will slow down and maybe even stop for several weeks. I have a 2 week vacation planned. I actually plan to do some body weight and band workouts while on vacation and I may even review some of them but honestly, who knows? It is a vacation so I may not workout at all. And if I do, I may only do workouts that have already be reviewed here. Since I have scheduled my workouts into September, I already have the week after I return from vacation mapped out. After 2 weeks without it, I know I will be jonesing for my rebounder. So when I get home I am doing Naomi Joy rebounder workouts and nothing else. Most will be workouts already reviewed here, but Naomi will continue creating workouts while I am on vacation (I hope!!!!), so I am sure I will do all of her new workouts as soon as I am back home with my rebounder. Those will (probably) be the only workouts I will review the week after I return. Things will return to normal late August with lots of workout reviews of Caroline and Heather workouts.

05/14/21 UPDATE: This blog is about to be flooded with primarily Caroline Girvan workouts. As noted in the last update, I am about to start doing her EPIC Heat program. I am not doing it as a program so the workouts will be all over the place. I will also be doing more of her EPIC and EPIC II workouts as well as her non-program workouts. I created a trainer page devoted to Caroline Girvan to help me organize her workouts more efficiently. I also did that for Heather Robertson and Naomi Joy. It is just neater and easier for me to find what I am looking for since I currently use those 3 trainers almost exclusively. Hopefully those pages are useful to other home exercisers as well. I will also continue to do/review Heather Robertson and Naomi Joy workouts. I have my workouts scheduled all the way into July now, so every time a favorite trainer comes out with a workout that I feel I need to do immediately (rather than finding a place for it somewhere in July), I have to re-arrange a lot. As noted below, I still plan to do some more SanFran Fitness workouts and SaraBethYoga workouts.

Rotations–-I have plans to create more of them. Tomorrow I am doing Heather Robertson’s latest kettlebell workout and will probably post the kettlebell rotation I have been working on tomorrow as well. I also want to create rotations dedicated to my favorite YouTube trainers. I have already created a Heather Robertson rotation. I plan to do one for Caroline Girvan but she has so many workouts (like Heather) and I have only scratched the surface. I do plan to rectify that over the next few months. Once I feel like I have done enough of her workouts I will create a Caroline Girvan rotation that mixes everything up–the best workouts (in my opinion) from all 3 of her EPIC programs as well as her best stand alone workouts. Then I want to create a Caroline Girvan/Heather Robertson hybrid rotation. Finally, I want to create a Naomi Joy rebounder workout rotation. She is not as prolific as Heather and Caroline, and I like the rotations I create to be no repeat rotations, so I am holding off a bit on that. She puts out at least one new workout a week, so in a month or so there will be probably be enough.

So that is what I will be working on for the next several months. I did pre-order Cathe‘s newest workouts with the bands so when those arrive I will find a way to fit those in. I do have a long vacation planned in August and those seem like the perfect travel workouts to add to my repertoire of travel workouts. Who knows? Maybe I will do the workouts while on vacation and post my review then.

04/23/21 UPDATE: I did all of the kettlebell workouts I intended to do this month. So what’s next? I’m really into Caroline Girvin‘s workouts right now. She started another program, EPIC Heat. Caroline is so prolific that I cannot keep up with her. I think she uploads a new workout every single day! Even though I love her workouts, I don’t want to do them every day–there are other trainers whose workouts I love, too. For example, this week I have been doing primarily Naomi Joy and Bellicon Home workouts. Next week I have Heather Robertson workouts planned. So, that’s the way I plan to work out for a while. My rotations will be made up of primarily Naomi Joy, Heather Robertson and Caroline Girvin. I have also been updating the Bellicon Home post with a lot of new workouts. I plan to do and review some new-to-me SaraBethYoga workouts and SanFran Fitness rebounder workouts. I will be doing a mix of new to me workouts and workouts already reviewed on this blog–so some weeks there will be a lot of new reviews and other weeks (like this past week) there won’t be many. ***I have my rotation created through the end of May and into June. I will not be getting to EPIC Heat until mid-May. In addition to EPIC Heat, I will also be doing more of Caroline’s EPIC 2 workouts throughout May and into June, as well as many of her non-program workouts.***

04/02/21 UPDATE: This month is kettlebell month. I am doing a new-to-me kettlebell DVD workout tomorrow (it has been a long time since I’ve even used my DVD player!) then I plan to do all of Caroline Girvin‘s kettlebell workouts. I will continue do and review new workouts by Heather Robertson and Naomi Joy. Other than that, Caroline has a few other workouts I plan to try and I’ve saved a few YouTube rebounder workouts by other trainers that I may get around to.

03/05/21 UPDATE: As mentioned in my last post, I am working through a huge amount of new-to-me workouts by Heather Robertson and SanFran Fitness. I expect to be through the majority of the workouts on my To Do list by the 3rd week of March. At that point I will start creating the two rotations–an all Heather Robertson rotation and an all rebounder workout rotation. The last few weeks of March I plan to start doing workouts by a new to me YouTube trainer: Caroline Girvin. Jessica Smith finally released her new workout program Lift & Shift and it will be streaming only, no DVDs. Though I obviously have zero problem streaming my workouts, after watching the trailer I’m not interested in her new program–at least not for the price she is charging ($97). I might change my mind in the future but right now I am in a “mode” where I really only want to do certain trainers and right now, they are all on YouTube.

02/17/2021 UPDATE: I still have 2 more Cathe Live workouts I purchased on Black Friday that I have not done/reviewed. I plan to get to those in the next 2 weeks. I haven’t been terribly motivated by the Live workouts she has been putting out recently. I keep an ongoing list and once it is up to 3-4 live workouts, I purchase the downloads using her coupons. But my list has been sitting at one workout for a long time. I wish she would create more of her heavy weight workouts. I have the next month of workouts mapped out and I am planning to do a lot of Heather Robertson workouts and rebounder workouts from SanFran Fitness. And, as always, if Naomi Joy posts a rebounder workout, I will do and review it. That will be my primary focus over the next month though I am sure I will review some other workouts here and there. I also plan to create 2 rotations. One Heather Robertson rotation and a rebounder rotation. But those are both waiting for me to get through all of the workouts I have scheduled over the next month. I still have not purchased Jessica Smith‘s newest workouts. I have the Amazon gift cards waiting but I was under the impression she created a new program and I am waiting for that before I use my gift cards. One day I will purchase and review her new stretch workouts but not until her new program is released. Finally, I am trying to get back to work categorizing all of the reviews on this blog. I haven’t created a new Workout Type list in a while because it is so time consuming but I started working on it again yesterday.

12/30/20 UPDATE: I have nothing special planned for the next few months. I bought about 5 or 6 Cathe Live workouts at her Black Friday sale so I will be doing those over the next month. Other than that, I plan to primarily revisit workouts that have already been blogged about here. I got stronger bungees for Christmas for my rebounder so I plan to revisit a lot of rebounder workouts. I’ve already started doing that and the difference in the workouts with stronger bungees is amazing. For strength I am doing a variation of my Cathe Live Heavy Weights Rotation but with a few more of her DVD workouts included (Burn Sets and Perfect Pump). There are also a lot of Heather Robertson workouts I still want to do so those will pop up here and there. In fact, I have a list of YouTube workouts I want to try but who knows how quickly I will get to them? Anything on the rebounder that Naomi Joy creates I will do and review. I love her rebounder workouts. I’m considering trying a few of her non-rebounder workouts. And finally, I plan to purchase Jessica Smith‘s newest offerings and eventually review those. Currently, I just want to focus on building strength and rebounding.

11/28/20 UPDATE: I just completed my Cathe Live Heavy Weight Rotation and posted it today. Next week I will finally do Cathe‘s Perfect Pump workouts. I have also been working on a comprehensive Bellicon Home streaming post. The Perfect Pump and the Bellicon streaming review will post next week. As mentioned below, I also plan to do Rippedism Combine and Raw, so reviews for both of those programs will post in December. In addition, I will finally be completing and posting my review of Classical Stretch Season 12 in December. Throughout all of this I have been itching to binge on Naomi Joy‘s rebounder workouts. So as soon as I get through all of the above, I am doing all of Naomi’s cardio + strength rebounder workouts. And any new cardio rebounder workouts she happens to post. As of today, I have done all of her shorter (35 minutes or less) rebounder workouts, but she has longer ones I cannot wait to try. AngieFitnessTV started posting rebounder workouts again. She had been on rebounder hiatus for a while, but she is back, so I will be giving her new ones a try at some point. That pretty much fills my December. I am really not sure what I want to do after that. I have toyed with the idea of returning to ChaLean Extreme. I did that nearly a decade ago and loved it but have not returned to it. One of my favorite YouTube trainers keeps creating new workouts (Heather Robertson) that I really want to try. But who knows. I only have December mapped out.

10/16/20 UPDATE: As mentioned in the last update, I have created a rotation I plan to start on 10/19/20. The strength work is all Cathe, primarily her Live heavy weight workouts with a few of her other strength workouts used. It is a 6 week rotation. I will not be posting it until I complete it. During that time I will probably post a few YouTube rebounder workouts and if Cathe’s new Perfect 30 workouts arrive (I received the email that my shipping label was printed, but she warned of that in her newsletter–doesn’t mean it actually shipped), I will probably review everything except the Perfect 30 strength workouts and those I will review at the end of this rotation. I have a few other posts in the works. A long Bellicon streaming post. I have done a lot of Bellicon rebounder workouts and I plan to do a lot more during the next 6 weeks. So around the time the heavy weight rotation posts, a Bellicon streaming review will also post. A YouTube workout rotation was requested by a reader and I am working on that. I am not waiting to actually do that rotation so it will post soon. After I finish the Cathe heavy weight rotation, I will do/review the Perfect 30 strength workouts, then I will do/review Rippedism‘s two newest programs. Those will each take about a week. So as you can see–I have the next 9 weeks of workouts pretty much mapped out. I am known to change my mind, so none of this set in stone, but I feel pretty confident that this is what I will be doing for the next 9 weeks.

09/13/20 UPDATE: Now I do have a better idea of what I want to do. For the next month my plan is to get through some more new-to-me workouts. I have a Bellicon Streaming review in the works and I want to spend more time doing Bellicon workouts. I have 7 more Cathe Live workouts to do and review. I also want to get through all of my new Essentrics workouts. I have 2 new-to-me Tracie Long workouts I will be doing/reviewing. I will also being doing the Tae Bo Billy Bootcamp workouts I mentioned in my last update. And there will be more YouTube workout reviews. That’s what I have planned through October 18th. On October 19th, I plan to start a 6 week rotation I created. It is made up of a lot of different workouts but the core workouts are Cathe’s recent Live heavy weight workouts. Once I complete that, I will post the rotation. Since I have already done a lot of the workouts in that rotation, I won’t be posting as many reviews during that 6 week period but I am sure for my cardio and recovery days I will find new workouts to do. I always do. In fact, I am thinking that at least one cardio day a week should be a Yvette Bachman workout. But I haven’t set that in stone. I also have another long blog post in the works–Classical Stretch Season 12. That is a collection of 30 workouts and I’m almost 1/3 of the way through it. I insert those workouts into my rotation where they fit, so I don’t know when that will be posting.

08/09/20 UPDATE: I don’t know what I want to do. I mean, I do–I want to do EVERYTHING–but I can’t and I don’t know how to narrow it down. I had a lot of big plans and have created multiple rotations that I keep scrapping and starting over. I thought I was set for the next month then Kelly Coffey-Meyer‘s new workouts arrived in the mail. I really want to do those. In addition, we have been doing a lot of upgrading/redecorating of our house and that includes my workout room. In the process I discovered some equipment I had forgotten about. These really cool resistance band things that connect to your feet and you hold the weighted handles. They came with a Tae Bo Bootcamp series I purchased a million years ago that still has the plastic wrap on it. Which made me pull out the stack of Tae Bo workouts I purchased that are still in their plastic wrap. Then I bought a bunch of Classical Stretch/Essentrics workouts at their recent sale. I have purchased nearly all of Cathe‘s recent Live downloads. And then the YouTube trainers I am obsessed with! AngieFitnessTV and Heather Robertson! They have so many workouts and I want to do them all! I am feeling overwhelmed and there is a large part of me that gets tired of blogging and I just want to workout. But when I stop blogging my workouts I forget things. I don’t have Alzheimer’s or anything but I also do not have an eidetic memory. I obviously have done a lot of workouts (thousands) and they run together in my head. This blog is essential for me to remember what I thought of a workout. Because of this I have neglected many of the blog projects I have started–continuing to create new categories on the Workout Type page and creating a Top 10 rotation (I actually started working on the rotation and it overwhelmed me so I set is aside). I would like to start working on these again.

So what am I going to do? Whatever I write here could change in a week or even a day. But here goes. I am going to complete at least the next week of what I have planned which is some more AngieFitnessTV workouts and rebounder DVD workouts I purchased. After that, I am thinking about redoing my rotation (yet again, for the 3rd time in the past week). I want to do Kelly’s new workouts and some Cathe Live downloads–particularly her Burn Set Live workouts. AngieFitnessTV has so many workouts I want to try plus so many I want to return to. I also want to try those Tae Bo Bootcamp workouts I re-discovered. I have a huge list of excellent rebounder workouts I have now done and reviewed and I want to return to them. And then there is Bellicon streaming. Those are the only workouts I do but do not blog about–they have a lot of workouts. I do their 30 minute workouts as doubles workouts (second workout of the day in the afternoon after my work day is over) but I want to try some of their longer workouts in the mornings. I probably won’t blog those either but who knows? I might feel the need to so I can remember a few of them better. Finally, I am done with physical therapy for my shoulder but my shoulder is not 100% and it won’t be for a long time so I want to incorporate Classical Stretch regularly into my rotations. So that is what I am anticipating (today) will be appearing in the next month.

07/10/20 UPDATE: Today is 8 weeks post shoulder surgery and I am doing much better. I have full range of motion back in most directions. I am still mildly limited in a few directions but overall I am very functional. My PT now has me working with resistance and when I exercise I am using up to an 8 pound weight in my left hand, depending on the exercise of course. My PT says my limit until he says different is 9 pounds in my left hand for back rows–less for other exercises. Any focused rotator cuff exercise I cannot use anything heavier than one pound. I am also allowed to do exercises that include impact within reason. No plyometrics yet, but he said I can jump on my rebounder, I can run–so moderate impact cardio. Currently, I have become obsessed with AngieFitnessTV‘s workouts. Her low impact stuff has helped me get through the early days of my rehab but she has a lot more than that. Plus, much of her stuff is so basic that it is really easy to increase the intensity of the workouts yourself. I have found that I really like wearing the weighted vests and ankle weights and doing her basic step workouts. I find I am pushing really hard without having to worry about any complicated choreography. Plus, she has a lot of rebounder and kickboxing workouts. I am rambling but bottom line, Angie has a plethora of varied workouts. So that will be my focus for the next few weeks. I will also be doing some Yin Yoga again. Plus I have purchased some rebounder DVDs that I can’t wait to try. Once I am able to lift heavier weight and do things like push ups again (another 4 weeks at least) then I have a long list of workouts I want to do. So many new Cathe Live‘s! OMG–her Burn Set Live workouts are calling my name! So frustrating that I can’t do them yet! I am considering building my strength back up by doing Heather Robertson‘s 12 week program. She always has lots of push ups in her workouts so that is at least 4 weeks away.

06/12/20 UPDATE: It’s now been 4 weeks since my surgery and I apparently understood things wrong. I cannot lift anything heavier than a coffee cup or do any sort of resistance work on my arm/shoulder for 6 weeks. So I still have 2 more weeks of this. But even after that 6 weeks passes, I have a specific protocol I have to follow as far as what I can and cannot do. My ortho and PT say it will not be until 12 weeks post surgery before I can start doing things normally again. That was a little depressing. But oh well. What that means for this blog is that I will be reviewing more of the same types of workouts that have been appearing the past few weeks. Very low impact workouts. I am finding ways around things so there might be some different things appearing. For example, my PT said I could do step/agility work on my step platform and that in a week or two might even be able to start using my rebounder again. So both of those will open up some new workouts I can do. The biggest deterrent for me is high impact. I cannot do that for a while but a bit of impact won’t be a problem in a few weeks so I will do some low impact step workouts (AngieFitnessTV has some I am interested in) and some rebounder workouts. I can do upper body workouts but if they have a lot of plank based moves those are out. I can substitute exercises if there are only a few plank based or floor based moves (anything where I am putting weight on my arm or shoulder) but if there are a lot I don’t see the point. And lower body or total body workouts that require me to hold a dumbbell in both hands are out. I don’t want to work one side of my lower body more than the other. I already have a huge imbalance going on in my upper body. I have done some lower body workouts that are all standing and loading myself down with weighted equipment–weighted vest, belt and ankle weights. That actually worked really well so I might try some lower body workouts and rather that use dumbbells, I will weight myself down that way.

These are all just thoughts. I am far enough past the surgery that I am really itching to do more but my PT today told me they see this around the 4-6 week period and to not act on it or I could set myself back. Stay the course and follow their instructions and before I know I will be 100% again–better because my rotator cuff will be fixed. So around the end of July or early August I should be working out (and blogging) normally again.

05/05/20 UPDATE: I finally have a date for shoulder surgery: May 15. I will not be able to lift anything heavier than a cup of coffee for a month afterward and no impact. So….. no rebounding or weight lifting. Which makes me so sad! But once I am able, I will be back at it. So from May 15 to mid-June I will be walking and riding my recumbant stationary bike. From now until May 15, more rebounder workouts! Specifically, a lot of AngieFitness TV workouts, but a few from other trainers, too. I plan to use the month off of blogging to create a few more Top 10 lists, a few more categories under Workout Types and maybe even put together the Top 10 rotation.

04/11/20 UPDATE: My workouts have changed a lot in the past month. If you follow my blog, you know I have had shoulder problems for the past 2 years. Right before COVID-19 blew up in the USA, I finally got an MRI on my shoulder. In fact, COVID-19 was in a nursing home in Washington state when I got my MRI. Neurological tests had showed no damage so an MRI was the next step. My follow up appointment with my orthopedist was changed to a phone consult because by that time our lives had changed and doctors were not seeing patients for non-urgent things. As it turns out, I have a torn rotator cuff. Apparently for 2 years. And I need surgery. But this is elective surgery which no one is doing so who knows when that will happen. Until then, I have to make changes to the way I workout. This makes me very sad because I love, love, love lifting weights. Technically I still can. I still use heavy weights for lower body exercises and I can still do some upper body exercises with weights. I just have to be very careful and some exercises are off limits (upright rows, overhead presses with a barbell or with arms in goal post, full push ups, some tricep exercises, straight arm lateral raises + others–I’m sure by this list, you can see that any Cathe upper body workout is off my “can do” list). Right now the surgery needed is relatively minor and will require a 3-4 week recovery with my arm in a sling. If I make the tear worse, the surgery will be much more involved with a longer recovery. I am also working at home now. I don’t know how long that will last but I am so grateful I have a job where working from home is a reality since so many people are in a far worse situation.

Lots of background but it explains the changes in my workouts. I have subscribed to some streaming sites that are offering free trials (or they were offering them when I signed up). Currently OpenFit and Daily Burn. I am also doing a lot of rebounder workouts. For the streaming sites, I am doing tons of their workouts. So many that I do not have the time to do the breakdown reviews like I usually do. But I am putting together overviews of some of their programs. The main one I am doing right now is Xtend Barre workouts (the link I posted is for the only DVD Xtend Barre workout, all other Xtend Barre workouts are streamed). I will post that review when my free trial ends. I may do the same for a few Daily Burn programs or I may just do a Daily Burn overview post since I am picking and choosing from all of their programs. I have already posted a review of their Mini Burn program, which I adore.

There will also be lots more rebounder workout reviews posting. Because that is my thing now. In fact, I created a Rebounder Workout Type list to get a handle on it immediately–creating my other workout type lists are a huge chore since there are over 1000 reviews on this site, but if I start it when there are only a few reviews–that makes it a lot more manageable. I don’t know what other types of workouts I will be doing. I have so many Barlates workouts still to try and Linda’s workouts in general are likely to be more gentle on my shoulder though they frequently kill me in other ways. But I modify a lot now to protect my shoulder.

03/21/20 UPDATE: So much has happened since the last update. It was already happening across the globe but I had no idea then how it would alter my life now. I am overwhelmed on a daily basis. My husband and I do not work in industries that are closing their doors so we both still go to work every day. I also have aging parents with health problems, so in addition to braving the empty shelves of the supermarkets for ourselves, we also do all their shopping to keep them home and safe from COVID-19. My place of employment is not set up for teleworking and my employer is scrambling to get 90% of the employees working from home ASAP. This is a workcenter of 400+ people. So I will soon be working from home for who knows how long.

None of this affects my ability to workout and I have continued to do so every day. Working out helps with the anxiety that sometimes builds from what is going on in the world. I want to apologize to anyone who has emailed me or posted a comment that I have not responded to. It is not intentional. I do plan to take some time to go through my emails (comments are emailed to me by WordPress) and see if I have missed anything. I have been more distractable than usual.

Tomorrow is my last day of Cathe Live. After tomorrow’s workout review posts, I will cancel my Live subscription and there will be no more Cathe Live workout reviews for a while. I bought a rebounder and a lot of rebounder workouts, in addition to Tracie Long’s newest workouts. This leads me to another thing that overwhelms me. The generosity of all of the fabulous fitness trainers out there. With gyms closing and shelter in place/self-quarantines being necessary, they are offering their streaming services for free! How wonderful and generous is that? But it also puts me in a quandry about what to do next. I really want to do my rebounder workouts but some of these free streaming workouts are calling out to me, too. So I am not 100% positive what will be posting in the coming months. Tracie Long’s new workouts will definitely post. Probably next week as planned and for sure some rebounder workouts will post. But will I follow through with the rotation I created? I don’t know. With more time on my hands I do plan to get back to work on blog organization, creating rotations and Top 10 lists.

That’s all for how. I hope everyone reading this is practicing social distancing, washing their hands frequently (for 20 seonds!), and coughing and sneezing like dracula. Be safe and be blessed!

02/28/20 UPDATE: I will be continuing to do Cathe Live only workouts through the end of March. There are a lot of other things I want to do–workouts and blog content, but doing a workout review every day is very time consuming so everything else will be on hold until April. I received my new Tracie Long workouts and even though I am anxious to do them, they will have to wait. They will probably be the first thing I do once I unsubscribe from Cathe Live. I will re-subscribe to Cathe Live again at some point but it won’t be until she accumulates more content that I am interested in trying/buying. I won’t wait as long between subscription periods this time but it will probably be 6 month periods.

I did something crazy–at least crazy in my opinion–I bought a rebounder. I don’t know why! I blame Linda @ Barlates. So that is also coming–reviews of Linda @ Barlates’ rebounder workouts. And if you know of some really awesome rebounder workouts either on DVD or free on YouTube, comment below or email me (fitness@2lazy4gym.com) and I might check them out. While I’m on the topic of Linda…. OMG, I have an astounding amount of her workouts. I just keep buying them on DVD. So lots more Barlates reviews will be coming. I went to the library sale again this year and bought even more workouts (other trainers–some I’ve never heard of). I have some serious mental issues! Anyway, we’ll see how it all plays out. I will be buying a bunch of Cathe Live workouts at the end of March and I want to return to all of the ones I purchase. I’m also really into her Fit Tower workouts so I will also be doing a lot of workouts that have already been reviewed here. Which is good–if I am not posting workout reviews on the daily then I have time for other things. Which leads to me to the content I am working on creating.

As noted below I was creating Top 10 lists which I will get back to work on in April. I will also get back to work on my Workout Types page. In addition, I will be putting together some rotations–Cathe Live rotations and Top 10 rotations. And finally, I plan to create something for people overwhelmed by the enormous amount of workouts some trainers offer (Cathe, Jessica Smith & Barlates come to mind). Something to give them an idea of where to start.

02/04/20 UPDATE: I’m going to make this quick. I am doing Cathe Live workouts almost exclusively for the next 2 months, so there will be lots of Cathe Live reviews going up. I have created a new Top 10 List page. Once I create quite a few Top 10 Lists, I want to create a Top 10 List workout rotation. And I am always working on the Workout Types page–an ongoing, never-ending work in progress.

01/17/20 UPDATE: I have a problem. Creating workout rotations used to be so fun and easy for me but now it is overwhelming me. I have so many workouts I love and want to return to and so many new-to-me workouts I want to do! Then I have my beloved trainers, both new and old and I want to include a lot of workouts from every one of them all the time. It is impossible! I used to create rotations months in advance. Now I am only mapping out a few weeks at a time. If I do more than that, I end up scrapping it and re-doing it anyway.

All of that to preface what I am about to say–because it may change! Who knows? Not me! For sure, I can say that reviews of the other two workouts in Cathe‘s Step Boss series will post this weekend. In addition, Tracie Long’s other two Core Movements DVDs will also be posting in the coming weeks. I pre-ordered Tracie’s new workouts and I plan to work them in somehow fairly soon after I receive them. Here’s where things get nebulous. It has been years since I subscribed to Cathe Live. When she started selling the Live workouts individually, I purchased some of my favorites–older ones that have already been reviewed on this site. But I also perused her newer ones and saw that she currently has 7 Fit Tower Live workouts. Since I own a Fit Tower, those seemed like a must buy. But then other workouts started jumping out at me–more Live PHA workouts. More Live Giant Sets workouts. This is going to cost a small fortune! And what if I don’t like them? The solution, of course, is try before you buy, and for only $9.97 a month. So, I am subscribing to Cathe Live again for 1-2 months. Probably starting in February. All of the afore mentioned Live workouts will be reviewed, in addition to more that also jumped out at me.

So that is my current plan. I will also be throwing in other workouts here and there. I can’t seem to stop buying Barlates workouts and right now a torturous Barlates workout is usually my Saturday workout. So those will keep showing up. And then if Heather Robertson creates anything that interests me, I will be compelled to do that, too.

12/23/19 UPDATE: Cathe’s new Step Boss workouts have shipped–but I won’t be doing them until January. My family has such a hard time buying gifts for me that I allowed my husband to buy Step Boss for me for me birthday, which is in January. So I have to wait. My current rotation is made up of Cathe workouts, Tracie Long workouts and Heather Robertson workouts, plus lots of kickboxing from various trainers for my cardio. Most of it is things that have already been reviewed here except for Heather Robertson workouts. I am still working my way through her vast YouTube library of workouts, though I have found many favorites that I return to. That’s Monday-Friday. I have changed up my weekend routine and I am liking it a lot so I may be sticking with that format for a while. On Saturdays I am doing a long Barlates workout (currently her Overload Training Series) and on Sunday I do a Mark Lauren workout (currently his Bodyweight Training 2.0 program) followed by a Jessica Smith yoga/flexibility workout. In a few weeks those two series/program reviews will post. After that, I do not have anymore new-to-me Mark Lauren workouts but I have tons of new-to-me Barlates workouts. So on Sundays I will just keep revisiting the many Mark Lauren workouts I already own but I will probably be doing a new Barlates workout every Saturday. However, most (not all) of my new-to-me Barlates workouts are not workouts that are also available for free on YouTube, so I will have to get through all of the workouts on the DVD before the review will post.

As for the workouts that I continue to accumulate but have not yet been worked into my rotation, I still have everything listed in the updates below that I purchased and still have not done! In addition, I pre-ordered Tracie Long’s new workouts, bought a bunch of Barre 3 workouts on Black Friday and a bunch of new-to-me bosu ball workouts. I just have a ridiculous amount of workouts to try. Creating rotations is actually starting to become a bit overwhelming for me.

11/12/19 UPDATE: This recovery is much quicker and easier than my last. I am ready to get back to my regular routine and am frustrated at the loss of strength I have experienced in just 2 weeks–and after working so hard doing Mark Lauren’s 90 Day Challenge! Aaarrgghhh! So here is what will be posting in the coming weeks: more Heather Robertson (of course!), Linda @ Barlates workouts, primarily her Metabolic Training and her Torch & Tone series, but some others, too. And Rippedism has a new series of workouts out–their raw series. 6 bodyweight workouts. I will be doing those as well. I have an absurd amount of new-to-me workouts and a long list of YouTube workouts I want to try. The amount of reviews on this site has passed the 1000 mark and I see no end in sight.

I am still working on the Workout Types page and will be for a very long time. It is slow going but I have a long list of categories that I am working to separate all 1000+ reviews into. And every time I post a new review it gets added to its appropriate categorie(s), so the categories that are currently there are staying current. But lots more are coming. I am currently working on the Bodyweight Training category. Next will be Kickboxing, Fusion Workouts, Kettlebell workouts, and so on. Like I said, I have a long list of categories.

10/15/19 UPDATE: I have another surgery in two weeks (hopefully my last for a very long time) and I have gone Heather Robertson groupie. I have completely redone the last two weeks of my rotation to do more of her workouts. A lot more. So my blog feed is about to be flooded with tons of Heather Robertson workout reviews. After the surgery? I don’t know. I can’t decide! I usually have things planned out better but I don’t know what I am going to do. They have me on lifting restrictions for 4 weeks and nothing appeals to me right now except Heather’s workouts and I can’t do those. I’ll figure something out.

9/30/19 UPDATE: I changed my mind. I loved Kelly‘s new workout Cardio Sculpt Overload so much that it made me want to redo my entire October rotation calendar. So I did! I feel kind of guilty about doing it because I have purchased a ridiculous amount of Barlates workouts and I do want to do them, but right now all I want to do is Kelly, Cathe and Mark workouts. Plus kickboxing. So the new-to-me kickboxing workouts will still be reviewed, as well as Kelly’s other new workout, Strong & Lean, and the YouTube workouts I am doing for my doubles workouts. But all of my new-to-me Barlates are back on hold for a while.

I meant to add this to my last update and forgot so I will do it now. I am still working on the Workout Types page. I have a million different ways I plan to categorize the reviews on this blog but it is very time consuming to create each list. It is slow going but I am still working on it a little at a time.

9/27/19 UPDATE: I finally finished Mark Lauren’s 90 Day Challenge! And I can finally move on to the stack of new to me workouts! I have one month to play before another surgery. In that month I will be doing Kelley Coffey-Meyer’s newest workouts, lots of Barlates workouts and lots of kickboxing workouts from different trainers. A Classical Stretch workout, too. Plus, I am continuing to do my doubles workouts so there are lots more shorter YouTube workouts posting.

I subscribed to Mark Lauren’s streaming. I get two weeks free and during that time I am going to closely review what he has to offer. If I like it, I plan to subscribe and, if I subscribe, a review of his streaming site will eventually post. But I don’t have an exact ETA on that. After my surgery I will have to undergo another recovery period (imagine me stomping around like an angry child at this idea) and during that time I have lots of ideas of what I will do but nothing set in stone. Some of Mark Lauren’s easier workouts from his streaming site? Barlates standing bodyweight workouts? Classical Stretch/Essentrics workouts? YouTube low impact workouts? Maybe all of them? I really don’t know right now.

8/25/19 UPDATE: Another update already? That’s because I changed my mind. I still plan to complete Mark Lauren‘s 90 Day Challenge but my exercise ADD is kicking in big time. Plus I started doing doubles again. So I will be reviewing some 30-40 minute YouTube cardio workouts plus some more Yin Yoga. So, as it turns out, my reviews won’t be slowing down after all.

8/09/19 UPDATE: My reviews are about to slow down significantly for a while. I am in the middle of Mark Lauren’s 90 Day Challenge and that review will not post until I finish it in September. Through the end of the 90 days, only two more reviews will post. Ilaria Montagnani’s BodyStrikes 3 and Classical Stretch Season 8. Once I finish the 90 Day Challenge, I have a whole slew of new workouts to sample and review. 4 new-to-me kickboxing workouts, plus Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s new workouts should have arrived by then and I plan to do those. I have once again been on a Barlates buying binge–and BTW, I already had 5 or 6 of her DVDs waiting to be sampled and I just bought 4 more! In addition, I want to do Linda’s Metabolic Training and her Torch & Tone workouts. She is creating a 3rd similar series and plans to sell all 3 of them together in a box set, so I am kind of waiting on that before I do any of them. I also bought all 3 of Tracie Long’s Core Movements DVDs during one of her sales. That’s just all new stuff I’ve been accumulating! I still have stacks of older new-to-me DVDs I have not yet tried.

Now for the bad news. I have to have another surgery at the end of October. I am not happy about this but it is necessary. It is a much less serious surgery than the reconstruction I had done in April but it will still set me back again. If it wasn’t necessary, I seriously would say smuck it. I have been working very hard on Mark Lauren’s 90 Day Challenge and am back to doing push ups on my toes. Now I am working on how many I can do on my toes before I have to drop to my knees. And shortly after I finish the 90 Day Challenge–more post-surgery restrictions. It’s not 12 weeks this time, thank goodness, only 4 weeks, but still–how much will that set back my upper body strength? Because 12 weeks set me back a lot.

Whining session over. I have a plan for that 4 week period. I plan to subscribe to Classical Stretch’s streaming site and doing lots of Essentrics/Classical Stretch workouts. Plus, I am going to look very closely at all of my Barlates workouts–both the ones I have already reviewed here and ones I have not yet done, and find everything that is lower body focused, done entirely standing and uses no weights. And of course Jessica Smith walking workouts. So November will be Classical Stretch/Essentric reviews, Barlates and maybe Jessica Smith. I already have a ton of Jessica’s workouts to do and they’ve all been reviewed on this blog but if I decide to try some of her new-to-me YouTube walking workouts then I will review those. Finally, there are a few walking workouts on YouTube I’ve saved to try one day. I may give them a try in November.

6/21/19 UPDATE: Next week I see my surgeon and I expect to be released to do whatever I want. I’ve healed great so I don’t know why I wouldn’t be allowed to workout normally again. I’ve had to really pick and choose with the Barlates fusion/flow workouts I do because about half of them have plank based moves in them. I’ve been thinking a lot about what I am going to do when I no longer have any limitations. So here is the plan. I am doing the full 90 Days of Mark Lauren’s 90 Day Challenge. That review will not post until I complete the 90 days. I will also finish all of the Barlates fusion/flow workouts so those will eventually post by the end of July. This will be a 90 day body weight rotation for me. I have several goals. To regain my strength–but without dumbbells. The first tool for that is obviously Mark’s program. But I will be supplementing it with Barlates fusion/flow workouts and Ilaria‘s BodyStrike workouts. I will also be using Mark’s Mobility RX and Ilaria’s Abs & Push Ups Plus. The one other thing I will be doing is Classical Stretch workouts several times a week along with plenty of deep stretching. Because of my exercise ADHD I never stick with one mode of exercise so it is so hard to measure things. But I am doing this. I have chronic shoulder problems and I am hoping with all of the range of motion work I will be doing (Classical Stretch, Barlates, Mobility RX), I can not only improve my shoulders but also be able to do push ups on my toes again. It has been over a year since I have been able to do a push up on my toes. Cancer treatment really messed me up for a while but I am on the other side now. When the 90 Days is complete, I will post the review of Mark’s program, including my 90 day rotation.

5/23/19 UPDATE: As you can see–I finally launched the blog’s new look! It was a lot of work just to get it to where it is today and there is a lot more work that still needs to be done. Specifically on the Workout Types page. It took me a long time just to create the 3 categories that are currently there! I have a lot more categories planned, but they take a lot of time to create and I will not be home recovering from surgery forever. I am returning to work in a few weeks so things will slow down on that page. But I will keep plugging away, slowly but surely. I am sure I have missed things and also made some mistakes. If you happen to come across a mistake I made or something I missed, please shoot me a quick email (fitness@2lazy4gym.com) and let me know so I can fix it. However, with the launch of this new format, I think I will take a break from it for a day or two. I still have blog posts I need to create!

Which leads me to what is coming in the next month or so. I am still limited to lifting no heavier than 3 pound dumbbells, no impact and no planks. Those limits are in place until 12 weeks post surgery. I don’t know if I will have any more limitations after that (I have a follow up with the surgeon at the 12 week point so I will find out then) but even if I don’t, it will take some time to work myself back up to where I was pre-surgery. My current plan is lots of Barlates workouts, Jessica Smith fusion and walking workouts, some Classical Stretch workouts and Leslie Sansone workouts. I purchased 5 Leslie Sansone walking collections at this year’s library sale. They were only $1 each. I have started previewing them and I am hoping I can make it through the 5 I bought! I haven’t actually done one yet, but I feel like Leslie can get irritating real quick. Plus, they don’t look as fun as Jessica Smith’s walking workouts. But we shall see! So that is what is coming in the next month or so. If I am allowed to, at the 12 week point I hope to start Mark Lauren‘s 90 Challenge. I previewed that and I cannot even do the level 1 workouts right now–too many plank based moves.

4/30/19 UPDATE: My surgery is over and I am on the road to recovery. At this point all I am allowed to do is walk–so I am walking a lot! It will be a while before I can lift weights again and even longer before I can do exercises with impact. I foresee at least one follow up surgery but, compared to the surgery I just had, it will be very minor. Nevertheless it will extend how long I can’t lift weights or do impact. However, I have a plan for this rehabilitation. Bodyweight workouts! I plan to do Mark Lauren‘s 90 Day Challenge. I will be starting with the level 1 workouts and working my way up to the level 3 workouts. I will also be supplementing it with a lot of Linda Wooldridge’s (Barlates) new and easier workouts (Warm & Stretch Series, Dynamic Flow Series, Fusion Flow Series, Feel Good Series and Energy Flow Series) as well as more walking workouts from Jessica Smith and Leslie Sansone. I do not know when these reviews will begin posting but they are what I plan to use for my rehab/recovery workouts.

I know that right now my blog looks the same. But I have created a mock blog to test the new look so I don’t screw this blog up. I finally have the mock blog just how I want it, so I now I have to start building some of the content (in draft form) on this blog. Once everything is in place, I will launch the new look. So that is coming relatively soon. It will make this blog even more useful and easier to navigate. And more attractive!

4/09/2019 UPDATE: Rippedism 2 is my last post for a while. I am about to have major surgery with a long recovery period. I don’t know how long until I am recovered enough to start working out again. When I do, there are some new, easier workouts from Linda Wooldridge (Barlates) that are on my wishlist. I may buy and do them during my recovery. Plus, every year our library system has a huge sale. Everything is super cheap. All DVDs are $1. At their recent sale I bought a bunch of workout DVDs, including a several Leslie Sansone walking workouts. I enjoy Jessica Smith’s walking workouts so much, maybe I will like Leslie’s, too? I know Jessica got me through cancer treatment. I previewed some of Leslie’s workouts that I bought and man, she is excited about walking! So I will probably review some of hers. Also, I found some walking workouts by other people on YouTube that intrigued me. These are just thoughts btw. Who knows what I will actually do when the time comes?

I don’t know when I will start posting workout reviews again—but I will, eventually. I have some ideas about changing the look of my blog, so it may be getting a facelift. We’ll see.

2/14/19 UPDATE: Since I have all of my workouts mapped out until my surgery in mid-April, I can talk about what will be posting between now and then. I still have Tracie Long workouts to do–all of her Metabolic Strength workouts, plus I pre-ordered her Grand Total Vol 2 & Vol 3. They haven’t shipped but if they ship before mid-April I plan to do them. I finally received Jessica Smith’s Get Strong! DVD! I will be doing those workouts very soon. I also ran across a few more of Jessica Smith’s free YouTube workouts I want to try. So I might do a few of those as well. I recently learned that some of Ellen Barrett’s workouts are posted on YouTube, so I plan to try some of those. I will be doing all 3 of Cathe‘s Advanced Fit Tower workouts. I have previewed them all and I suspect Total Body will be one of my all time favorite workouts. It looks awesome.

All of this is part of the build up before my surgery. I am pushing myself harder now, trying to rebuild my fitness level for two reasons. First and foremost–to recover from surgery better and faster. But also, I have been asked to try Rippedism 2. Rippedism 1 is an awesome program, but it is advanced and challenging, so I was afraid I wasn’t ready for Rippedism 2, but then I decided it gives me a goal to work towards. So I am building myself up, increasing the level of the workouts I do to prepare myself to begin Rippedism 2 at the end of March and finish it right before my surgery. So that may be the last review I post before a long hiatus. Tracie Long’s Grand Total workouts may post after Rippedism 2 if they do not arrive relatively soon. I really want to do them before I can’t do anything at all–but I also need time to work them into my rotation. I have no clue what I will be doing after that. Not much for several weeks! From everything I hear standing and walking will be a challenge. I will have to rehab again after that and I plan to do that with workouts that have already been reviewed here.

However, since I won’t have anything to do for a month or more, I do plan to make some changes to the way the blog looks. So hopefully during that time I do not delete it by accident. I want to make it easier to navigate. So I plan to spend some time during my recovery re-vamping this blog.

1/18/19 UPDATE: I received Cathe‘s LITE series and I have been previewing all of the workouts. I plan to start actually doing them Monday January 21. But the reviews will not start posting until the beginning of February. The reason for that is twofold. First, I want to do each workout twice before I post the review and I also want to be able to complete the series review (each workout will have it’s own post plus I will have a post for the LITE series as a whole). The second reason feeds into the first. I am in a different place fitness-wise than I was just a year ago or when I first did Cathe’s ICE series in 2016. I am no longer an advanced exerciser. But part of my mind still thinks I can lift heavy so I frequently overshoot what I can actually lift now. So I want to do each workout once using the weights Cathe uses (except for on a few exercises–she lifts too light on deadlifts even for the intermediate exercisers) and record whether I need to lift heavier or lighter to make the workout more effective for me. And then actually do the workout a second time using the (possibly) heavier weight. That way I can give a more accurate review of the series (at least for my purposes).

As for Jessica Smith’s new Get Strong DVD, it finally became available on Amazon again and I ordered it, but now they keep changing the date I should receive it. It has been saying I should receive it today but that changed this morning and now they are saying I won’t receive it till next week. I hope they don’t just cancel it on me like they did the person who tried to give it to me as a Christmas gift! So I have no idea when that review will go up. Obviously not before LITE but some time after the LITE review goes up. In addition, I have 6 or 7 more Tracie Long DVDs I purchased. Those will be reviewed sometime before mid-April.

12/20/18 UPDATE: Time for my monthly update! I’ve really been enjoying doing Tracie Long workouts. I checked a lot out from the library and I only have one more of those to get through. But I have purchased almost all of the ones I’ve tried plus 4 more! So there are more Tracie Long reviews to come. But my #1 priority will be Cathe‘s new workouts. The delivery of these are impending. I always pre-order Cathe workouts the day she starts her pre-orders–in fact, the moment I get wind of them I am at her site pre-ordering. I always receive the workouts at the end of December. Well here we are! And from all of her updates this month it looks like things are moving along as usual. In addition, I have a birthday within a week of Christmas and I have asked for all of Jessica Smith’s new workouts. So I am sure I will get them for Christmas or my birthday. In addition, I have some other reviews in the works: Cathe’s Fit Tower workouts (the ones that come with the Fit Tower, not the advanced ones sold separately on her website) and Jessica Smith’s Walk On Super Set: The Ultimate Walking Collection. So that is what will be posting in the upcoming months–Cathe, Jessica Smith and Tracie Long workouts. My reconstruction surgery is mid-April and that will put a complete stop to any exercise other than walking for at least a month. Then I will be back to building myself back up. Between now and then I plan to focus on intermediate workouts so my reviews will probably dwindle after January. That’s because I really want to focus on all of my new, new-to-me and older intermediate workouts–Tracie Long, Cathe’s ICE and LITE, Jessica Smith workouts and Kelly Coffey-Meyer. Though I do love trying new workouts, I really want to focus on these 4 trainers from now until April. Then, of course, starting in April there will be no reviews at all for a month or two. I don’t know when they will start up again but I am sure I will post something here.

11/16/18 UPDATE: Today it is a month since I finished cancer treatment. My improvement was slow at first but the past week–I feel back to my old self! I feel great! Seriously! I am building myself back up physically every day. The good (and rather daunting) news is–I have a ton of new-to-me workouts to try. I have this urge to do them all. NOW. But I need to take it slow. I have been working my way up using Jessica Smith workouts. I am about to embark on Walk Strong 3, which is her most advanced system. Once I get through that I plan to do Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s new workouts and Jillian Michael’s new workouts. By that time Cathe‘s new LITE series might have arrived. If not, then I will start on her ICE series in preparation for it. Plus! I have already indulged in Black Friday impulse buys! Cathe’s Fit Tower system is on sale for half price. I said I would never buy it but I did! I bought it! So of course I had to then purchase all of the workouts she created to go with it. Good thing she had another coupon for that–I got 20% off and free shipping for those. It’s not even Black Friday yet and I’ve already spent over $100!!! But I am excited. So I will be reviewing those, too. Like I said, I feel fantastic! I did not think I would feel this good this soon and part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop. But treatment is over! So the other shoe shouldn’t drop, right? I have a date for reconstruction surgery–it’s not till April 2019. So I have 4 months to work hard and build myself back up so I breeze through reconstruction recovery (or so I hope). I chalk feeling 100% less than a month after completing treatment to the fact I worked out nearly every day during treatment. I really think that played a big part in getting me through it.

Anyway, that’s where I am now and the more advanced reviews will start posting again. However. I really like Jessica Smith’s walking workouts. I’m not going to lie. This past year made me wonder if there was a point to how hard I used to push myself. I did workouts even when I didn’t enjoy them. There was always an afterglow–I loved hating them. But am a 47 year old cancer survivor. I am not sure I want to do workouts I hate anymore, even if I love the afterglow. But we’ll see, won’t we? I do plan to keep doing Jessica’s walking workouts, even if they are just my doubles workouts. I’m not back to doing doubles again yet, but I do see it in my future. (o:

10/16/18 UPDATE: I am having a hard time getting through radiation due to side effects that will not go away as long as they keep radiating me (pericarditis, pneumonitis, pleurisy). The good news is today is my last radiation treatment! Fingers crossed I start healing and feeling better soon. But I know it will not happen overnight. It will take several weeks (possibly a month or more) until I start feeling normal again. Because of this I have had to reduce my workouts to 30 minutes a day and much lower intensity. I have been doing Jessica Smith only–her newest workouts (Feel Good Fusion and Total Stretch) plus Walk Strong #1 and her Walk On workouts. Because of this, I will be reviewing some more of Jessica’s Walk On workouts/systems. In the next month I plan to do her Walk the Weight Off fitness system and her Metabolism BoosterDVD. Those are the only things I know for sure will be posting in the next month. Once I start feeling better I hope to do my Firm Wave workouts, Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s newest workouts (Step Boxing 2 and Sculpting RX). I don’t know about ChaLean Extreme now–mostly because I remember that the cardio in that system has lots of impact and whether or not I can do impact depends a lot on my lungs. However Cathe‘s Lite series might be here in December and I know that will be low impact so, if I am able, I will probably just jump right into her new series when it arrives. At some point however I really want to do ChaLean Extreme again. But now that may not happen until after reconstruction (which is currently supposed to happen early next year).

9/23/18 UPDATE: I don’t know what is going to happen anymore. I truly thought radiation would be easier than chemo and it was at first. But I finished my 3rd week of radiation with pericarditis, which is inflammation of the sack around my heart. It wasn’t diagnosed properly because it is more common for people receiving chest radiation to develop pleurisy or costochondritis, so that is what my oncologist first assumed and treated for. But it got worse and I became unable to use my left arm. So I was sent to the heart hospital ER where it was finally diagnosed properly. It has improved but like with everything that I have gone through during cancer treatment the medications they use to help with the side effects of cancer treatment have their own host of side effects that cause even more problems. So even though I can now breathe without too much pain and move my left arm again, I still have shortness of breath and other issues that make working out difficult.

This is especially disappointing because right before this happened, I started ramping things up again. I was doing some Cathe workouts (Push Pull and Flex Train) and had more planned for the upcoming weeks (Super Sets, Super Cuts, Great Glutes, ICE workouts). But now I do not think I can do them and I may not even be able to finish my Firm workouts right now. I am doing my best tho. I bought Jessica Smith‘s newest workouts Total Stretch and Feel Good Fusion, and I have also been doing one of Tamal Dodge‘s beginner level Element yoga workouts. I am hoping to get back on track and finish all of the Firm reviews I had planned as well as try out Jillian’s Michaels new Lift & Shred. That is what I have/had planned for the coming weeks but we will see if my reactions to treatment allow me to do it.

What I do have planned when radiation is over, is ChaLean Extreme and I don’t know why I wouldn’t be able to do that but we’ll see. I have created a nice little rotation for that using Kelly Coffey-Meyer premixes and The Firm Express. I will hopefully be able to do and post the review and rotation before the year is out.

8/11/18 UPDATE: I am having a lot of fun doing The Firm. I still have a lot of Firms to review. I’ve done most of the BSS1 & 2 workouts but there are still a few more coming. Whats left is a lot of pinks and some classics. I do plan to do most of the pinks. There are some I remember not liking and only doing once and I don’t think I will bother with those. The Firm Express will be reviewed which I remember loving. I am still on the fence about the Classic Firms so they may or may not be reviewed. There is also The Wave. I think I will review that one but I can’t promise. I do remember finding The Wave workouts easier than most Firms and since I already have more than a month of workouts mapped out, I don’t know if I will feel like doing easier workouts at that point. So we’ll see! I have purchased the first Firm workout program/DVD that I have bought in years. The Firm’s Zip Trainer program. I knew the Firm was no longer in the business of selling DVDs/equipment and their website has disappeared so when I saw that you could still purchase the entire Zip Trainer program–equipment and all–I bought it. So that will be reviewed here soon, too.

On the cancer front–chemo is done! I finished my last chemo infusion 3 weeks ago. I do have radiation in my very near future but the date it starts has not been set yet. So, in reference to the above, maybe The Wave workouts will be perfect for when I am nearing the end of radiation. I have heard the effects of radiation are cumulative so by the end I may need to be taking it down a notch. I am so enjoying my Firm workouts so I will be doing that for a while, but I can never stop thinking about and missing my Cathe workouts. No matter how wonderful I find other workouts and trainers, I feel like no one works me as well as Cathe when it comes to strength training. So I do plan to start working some of her more intermediate workouts in to my rotations in a month or so (Push Pull, Super Sets, Flex Train) as well as my favorite Jari Love workout (Get Ripped 1000). Once I feel like I am stronger and my stamina is where it used to be, I want to start the real build. So I plan to return to ChaLean Extreme. I have done that program 3 times in the past but haven’t returned to it in years–which is why it hasn’t been reviewed here. So that will finally be reviewed. I also recently purchased two more programs. Mark Lauren‘s 90 Day Challenge and RIPT90 FIT. Mark Lauren, like Cathe and Kelly Coffey-Meyer is just an auto buy for me when he comes out with anything new, but RIPT90 Fit I got on some Amazon flash sale. I never intended to get it but I can’t pass up a super cheap workout program–especially when I really enjoyed RIPT90. (I also pre-ordered Kelly’s newest workouts!) And then I have all of the workouts and programs mentioned in the updates below that I still haven’t gotten to. So as I get stronger–there is more coming!

7/18/18 UPDATE: The Firm. That’s the update. I pulled the entire box of Firm workouts out of my closet. That is a lot of Firm workouts. The pinks, BSS 1 & 2, the classics, TransFirmer, Firm Box–even the Wave!!!! I have them all. Doing them makes me happy right now so that is what I am going to keep doing.

6/01/18 UPDATE: Not sure this is truly an update since nothing has really changed. I am halfway through chemo, so there is an end in sight! I’ve got a rhythm down now–I know how it affects me, so I have one week where I do easy workouts then I am able to kick it up and lift heavier weights for a week before the next infusion (I get a chemo infusion every 2 weeks). So an every other week schedule of getting in some good weight training. Currently, I am doing primarily Kelly Coffey-Meyer strength work (Muscle Up, Weights and Your Best Body) on my “good” week, and Jessica Smith walking workouts and Mark Lauren’s YAYOG Novice workouts on my easy week (plus other things thrown in here and there).

Being unable to do more advanced workouts has not stopped me from buying them! I have a lot of Barlates DVDs waiting for me to try, Jillian Michaels’ Lift & Shred, I actually bought more Dream Body programs (what was I thinking when I did that?!?), quite a few Mindy Mylrea workouts, I pre-ordered Cathe’s new series Lite, Jari Love’s Get Ripped 1000 #3, and then all of the workouts I had been accumulating before I was ever diagnosed with cancer that I still haven’t done! So, yeah. When I am able, I have a lot of catching up to do! I don’t know how radiation will affect me when I enter that phase of treatment but I am supposed to have a long hiatus from the time I finish treatment until I undergo reconstruction (something like 3-5 months). During that time I plan to do a lot of these workouts that I cannot stop hoarding. Then reconstruction will tear me back down. But hey, it’s a process and once reconstruction is behind me, I can finally work on getting myself back to my previous fitness level. I truly feel that continuing to do what I am capable of (exercise-wise) is what is getting me through this and will eventually make it possible for me to be strong again.

BTW–thank you for all of the prayers and well wishes. It helps more than you know to know people are pulling for me!

4/24/18 UPDATE: Chemo is a completely different animal from recovering from surgery. My blog posts are going to slow down to a trickle for a while. Not because I stopped exercising but because I need to stick with the tried and true. I am lifting weights again and on my good days I am slowly increasing what I lift. For that I am using Jessica Smith’s strength workouts from her Walk Strong program, Cathe‘s ICE workouts and Cathe Live workouts that I have already done and reviewed. I do have new-to-me workouts that I will probably eventually get to during chemo but they will be Jessica’s Walk On workouts and Barlates workouts. My focus for the next few months is on getting through this. Building my strength back on my good days and just doing something on my bad days.

3/19/18 UPDATE: I can now give a little more info on what I will be blogging about in the next year. The mastectomy is done and I am learning what I can and can’t do. So for now–extremely low impact workouts. I can do advanced lower body barre work–as long as it is all standing. The mat work I can do has to be on my back (bridge work, hamstring roll ins, etc), as I learned through trial and error. Until my incision is completely healed, no mat work on my hands and knees (or elbows). This surprisingly leaves a lot that I can do. I am doing a lot of Jessica Smith‘s walking workouts. Not just her YouTube ones (which I have and will continue to review after I do them) but her DVD Walk Strong workouts that have already been reviewed here. Some of them are already low impact and in others her mother Debbie shows low impact modifications. I never in a million years thought I would be following Debbie in Jessica’s workouts, but guess what? I am now! There are also a lot of Linda Wooldridge‘s Barlates workouts I can do. I have been doing many that have already been reviewed here and I have quite a few marked to try out (so they will be reviewed here, too). When I start using weights again, I will start by doing barre upper body workouts (I have a lot–not just Linda, but Tracy Anderson, Tracey Mallet, Physique 57 and others that all use light dumbbells). I purchased Linda’s 3 DVD set that includes Barre Basics, Barre Intermediate and Barre Advanced. So when I start using dumbbells again, I will start with her Barre Basics and progress up from there, so all of those DVDs will eventually be reviewed. Finally, one of the things I have done is re-subscribed to Cathe‘s On Demand so I have access to Workout Blender. I have created workouts that cater to my specific needs. If you are interested in those, you can visit the blog post about it. I have updated that post with a description of the new workouts and, as I do the workouts, they will be added to that post. Since I am sharing them on blender that means that other people can access them, too, if interested. So that is what I anticipate blogging about in the next year–Barlates and Jessica Smith. When I am able to lift weights and jump again, I will probably start doing (and reviewing) Cathe Live workouts again since I get that automatically with On Demand.

Oh–and one more thing that might appear. I dug out some of my old workouts–Step Reebok (the original step workout/Gin Miller), Leslie Sansone’s walking workouts, some Firm workouts and some Chris Fretag workouts I did when rehabilitating after my heels were crushed 9 years ago. Some of those may end up being reviewed here. I know during chemo I will have ups and downs, so some weeks these easier workouts may be all I am capable of, so I may do them for variety. I do feel that Jessica will be my go-to when I don’t have the energy for an intense workout, but who knows?

2/20/18 UPDATE: I am not sure what I will be posting over the next… year? I have breast cancer and will be getting a mastectomy followed by chemo and radiation then reconstruction surgery, so I have a long road ahead. I will continue to post reviews until the surgery. Afterwards I am pretty sure I probably won’t be posting for a while. I have no intention of quitting working out but I will have to make some changes for a time. Maybe I will post reviews about workouts that are appropriate for rehabilitation. Who knows?

1/26/18 UPDATE: I have been doing some really great workouts lately, as you can tell from my blog posts! It’s been a lot of fun. The “fun” is about to end… at least for a week or so. I have quite a few more workouts I plan to get through but starting next week I am doing Linda Wooldridge’s Drop Sets. I have already previewed them all and I am scared. I paid for them, they look extremely effective but they do not look fun. They look painful. So that’s happening. I want to do all of Yvette Bachman’s YouTube workouts–at least up until today. She will continue to create more but I will have to take a break from them because I have created a 6 week rotation schedule that combines Cathe‘s Fit Split, Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s Build & Burn, Jessica Smith’s Walk Strong 1 and Walk Strong 3, plus two of Jessica’s stand alone yoga DVDs. I plan to start that the end of February and when I complete it, I will post it. So up until I start that, I plan to do Linda’s Drop Sets, more Yvette workouts and all of the Jessica Smith DVDs I bought with the Amazon gift cards that were given to me for Christmas and my birthday. That will take me into April. During my Cathe/Kelly/Jessica 6 weeks, I will also be doing some new Barlates workouts for my doubles workouts. In April, I may create and do the Yvette Bachman rotation I am envisioning. It will consist of primarily Yvette’s workouts but I will mix in workouts by other trainers, too. Probably some Fit Body by Julia.

11/27/17 UPDATE: My December rotation is now complete. The first two weeks will be a lot of Barlates workouts and some more Jessica Smith. The last two weeks will be Fit Body by Julia workouts. Sprinkled throughout will be workouts from Yvette Bachman and one from Michele Lumadue—all of these are Youtube workouts, btw. Since my last two weeks of December will be brutal, I will begin the first week of January 2018 as a recovery week. I bought Jessica Smith’s Walk Strong 1 via Groupon and I plan to do all of the workouts in that program the first week of January. After that? I will be doing a rotation (that I will create) that combines Jessica’s Walk Strong 3, Cathe’s Fit Split and Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s Build & Burn. Until I receive Cathe’s and Kelly’s programs, I can’t really create the rotation. I am also waiting for Linda Wooldridge (Barlates) to offer her Drop Sets DVD. All of the Drop Sets workouts are available for purchase via Linda’s website (not free YouTube workouts) but I messaged her a few weeks ago about them and she said she would be putting out a DVD set with all of the Drop Set workouts on it. So I am holding out for those DVDs. Once I have those, I may also incorporate them into my rotation. It might end up being an 8 week rotation that alternates between 4 trainers. **12/01/17 Drop Sets is now available for pre-order at Total Fitness DVDs–I, of course, pre-ordered it immediately!**

That takes care of the rest of 2017 and the first few months of 2018. After that, I don’t know. I have ideas but my interests frequently change, so who knows? Right now I am considering creating a Fit Body by Julia rotation. If I like the Michele Lumadue workout I have planned, I might do more of her workouts. I have 6 Yvette Bachman workouts planned over the next month and even tho I haven’t done one yet (this weekend will be my first), I have previewed several and I can already tell I will really enjoy her workouts, so I am sure I will do more of hers.

I frequently get questions about Cathe Live. Although I love Cathe Live, unfortunately it is not free like all of the YouTube workouts I have been doing. Don’t misunderstand, I think Cathe Live is worth the monthly fee. When I was paying for it, I did primarily Cathe Live workouts. But for now my interests have shifted. I still love Cathe’s workouts and I still do Cathe workouts (DVDs), but over the past few months, she has stopped being the primary trainer I use. Sometimes I go a whole week without doing a single Cathe workout. Other weeks (like this week) I have 3 Cathe workouts planned. Until I can justify the monthly fee again, I will not be re-subscribing. And, as you can see from my plans above, I am booked for the next few months with workouts.

10/24/17 UPDATE: From the looks of my recent blog posts, I have really been on the Barlates and Jessica Smith train lately. But those are not the only workouts I have been doing. I have also been revisiting my Kelly Coffey-Meyer workouts. I still have all of November mapped out with more Barlates and Jessica Smith workouts—both new workouts and workouts I’ve already done/reviewed here. In addition, I have pre-ordered two new programs by favorite trainers: Cathe’s Fit Split (I probably won’t receive that until mid/late-December) and Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s Build & Burn—another fitness program. I expect to receive Kelly’s sooner than Cathe’s. So that is two programs by favorite trainers. I will obviously be doing those workouts fairly soon after receiving them. However, they are both programs and I feel some planning will need to go into using them. So starting in December I will probably be planning my rotation on a weekly or bi-weekly basis until I have those programs in hand and can start planning. Again, I don’t know how I will be approaching them yet. I like the idea of combining them so I may do that.

By the end of November I expect to have tried the majority of Jessica Smith’s free YouTube workouts that I am interested in. However, I have quite a few of her DVDs on my Amazon wishlist, including her program: Walk Strong (not walking workouts, btw). I always get Amazon gift cards for Christmas and my birthday (which is very close to Christmas), so I will probably buy some of her workouts that are on my wishlist. As for Barlates? I cannot imagine ever coming to an end of Linda’s workouts. She is one of the most prolific trainers I have ever seen. Every time I think I have seen (not done, just seen) everything of hers I am interested in, she creates something new—both free workouts and ones for sale! So, at some point my Barlates reviews will probably slow down, but I have no idea when. I still have a long list of Barlates workouts I plan to try—both free and on DVD.

With all that said, I do sometimes step back and ask myself—what is the point of buying and trying all of these awesome workouts that you love if you never return to them? Which leads me back to my first paragraph—I have been revisiting my Kelly Coffey-Meyer workouts, as well as revisiting Barlates workouts I love. And returning to these workouts is definitely making some of them really stand out as superior. I am creating a list of those workout—not just Barlates and Kelly Coffey-Meyer, but other trainers’ workouts, too (Cathe and Jessica are part of that list, obviously, as well as some other trainers). I want to create a balanced rotation for myself that incorporates all of these workouts that I consider superior. This is not an easy feat considering I have reviewed well over 500 workouts on this blog—and all of them are available to me whether on DVD or free on YouTube (or streamed from Cathe Live—we cannot forget that!). When I do this, I plan to share it on my rotations page.

Other than the ongoing Barlates and Jessica Smith reviews, none of the other things mentioned above will be happening any time soon. December/January time frame is probably the soonest. As for all of the other programs listed in updates below… they are still sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. I just don’t have the motivation to try them right now. Which is sad—I was apparently motivated when I spent money on them. But right now I am really enjoying what I am doing and it is challenging me in new ways, so I am going to keep doing it until I feel the need to do something else.

8/08/17 UPDATE: I have shifted gears so thoroughly that I decided to update here. If you follow my blog, I am sure you have noticed. I’m doing the YouTube thing again–my Streaming page is growing. But that’s not all. I have a new obsession–Linda Wooldridge/Barlates. I am seriously going overboard. This is like when I first discovered Cathe. I cannot stop buying her workouts. And she has so many free ones on YouTube! Why am I buying them? I have no explanation. Some of the ones I am buying are not available on YouTube–but lots of the ones I am buying are. I really have to stop. At this point I’ve bought 15 of her DVDs, each of which contains multiple workouts. And there is one more on my wishlist I really want. So… I’m sure I will buy that one, too. Due to this current obsession, she will be filling my blog feed for a while. Just FYI. I am still trying other trainers on YouTube but the only other one I am also obsessed with is Jessica Smith. So I have plans to do a lot more of her free YouTube workouts, too.

Other things in the works. I am currently doing Paul Katami‘s 4×4 program. That review will post this month. Mindy Mylrea recently had a sale on her website. All of her workout DVDs for $3.99 each and she had some really cool looking ones that use gliding disks and medicine balls. So I bought a bunch of those. I have already created my rotation through September so I know I will be doing a lot of Mindy’s workouts. And of course, I pre-ordered Cathe’s upcoming series–Fit Split, which is estimated to be released Winter 2017. If it’s like all her other series I have pre-ordered in the past, I won’t receive it until sometime in December, which means I probably won’t actually do it until January 2018.

And there won’t be anymore Cathe Live reviews for a while. I canceled my subscription when I started doing Paul’s 4×4 series and I don’t know when I will be re-subscribing. I know I will at some point, but right now I am having fun doing other workouts. I haven’t stopped doing Cathe workouts–I am just doing her DVDs again.

6/21/17 UPDATE: I just finished another round of MetaShred Extreme mixed with my Cathe Blender workouts. I have a lot of new-to-me workouts to try but I am lacking motivation to do them. I am in a place right now where I seem to only want the familiar. So I have been doing primarily Cathe workouts: her blender, her DVD and her Live workouts. I have been doing a few new-to-me workouts here and there. Some Tracey Mallet, so there will be one or two more reviews of her older Method workouts going up. I am doing some Barlates workouts, too, but they come 4 workouts to a DVD so those reviews won’t be going up right away (I’ve been doing one workout a week). And finally, I subscribed to The Yoga Collective (a Groupon). I plan to do an overall review of that streaming site, but I want to do a lot more of those workouts before I even start the review, let alone post it (I’ve only done 3 yoga workouts so far and they have at least 100 yoga workouts, if not more). I do plan to do Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s new “raw” streaming workouts on YouTube. I am excited about those. I’ll do one of those a week starting in a few weeks. I already have my rotation scheduled out into July, and, right now, I am tentatively planning to do Paul Katami’s 4×4 system the end of July/beginning of August, but who knows if I will follow through with it? For some reason I am feeling very resistant to straying from known workouts that I love. Some kind of comfort thing going on right now. I can’t explain it, but I am going with it. I also changed my mind about the RIPT90 FIT program. I have too many other new workouts to deal with. My interest in that has dwindled. I probably won’t buy it. **I also recently discovered Linda Wooldridge‘s Barlates workouts–both on DVD and streaming. I plan to do a lot more of her workouts.**

4/14/17 UPDATE: Cathe‘s On Demand Workout Blender post is taking me longer than expected (*I just posted it–it was taking too long). I am obsessed. So… things will definitely be slowing down here. I can’t stop creating workout blender workouts and I am even neglecting Cathe Live. I have a stack of new-to-me workouts and programs that I still need to try. It is seriously ridiculous. I have to stop buying them because I have no clue when I will get to them. I’ll be honest–Workout Blender is the best thing ever. I said that about Cathe Live a little over a year ago (and I meant it) and did those workouts almost exclusively for a while. Well, that is what is happening again. I do have a Workout Blender review in the works but it is taking longer to finish (and therefore post) than I expected because I keep creating more and more blender workouts. I can’t stop! It currently looks like I will be posting that review at the end of April (as mentioned above I just ended up just posting it–seems like I’ll never stop creating new blender workouts, so waiting till I do is pointless) then I will try to catch up on the newest Cathe Live workouts. Then, I want to return to all of the (almost 40) blender workouts I have created. I will probably just do those for a while because I love them so much. I’ll mix it up with MetaShred Extreme and Cathe Live, but mostly my wonderful blender workouts. So I can only assume things will slow down a bit here until that gets old and I finally decide to try my new-to-me workouts/programs that are collecting dust.

And what are those? Programs: Paul Katami’s 4×4 System, some Rushfit workouts (I didn’t get the whole program–just 4 of the workouts in the program), JNL Fusion, UFC Fit, Teeter Thunderbell Pro 10, DeltFit Speed Shred, SKOGG kettlebells, P90X3, and Asylum 2. Workouts: 5 of Tracey Mallet’s older workouts, 4 Kelly Coffey-Meyer workouts (3 of her pre-30 Minutes to Fitness workouts and one older 30 Minute to Fitness workout), 2 Erin O’Brien workouts, and one Amy Bento workout. Plus RIPT90 came out with a second program: RIPT90 FIT, which I will order at some point. But like I said, I have no clue when any of that will post. All I want to do right now are the blender workouts I created.

2/26/17 UPDATE: I got through a lot of what I listed below in my last update but not all of it and now I have even more on my To Do list. However, things will be slowing down on this blog for the month of March and the first half of April. The beginning of March I am starting an online fitness program called Rippedism–there will be a post about that once I do all of the workouts in the program. I have also signed up for Cathe On Demand–even tho I own every single workout she has created on DVD. However, there is a good reason I decided to sign up for it–Workout Blender. I have been creating my own individual workouts from Cathe‘s vast library–piecing them together in ways that (I think at least) will create the best possible workouts for my own personal goals. Workout Blender is addictive–especially if you have done all of Cathe’s workouts. I have created over 20 workouts using Workout Blender. Now, I need to do them. As you can see from my blog, I have been pretty busy. Once I do all of my Workout Blender workouts, I plan to do a summary post about Workout Blender. That should be about mid-April. So for the next month and half, I probably won’t be posting much. I may use Sundays to do and review some of the new DVDs I’ve continued to accumulate–more Kelly Coffey-Meyer (hey–she had a New Year’s Day sale and there were still 3 of her workouts I didn’t own) and some older Tracey Mallet workouts I bought used. So those may end up being Sunday workouts over the next month and a half. Mid-April… I don’t know what comes next. I haven’t looked that far into the future. Maybe another round of MetaShred Extreme mixed with my Cathe Blender workouts, maybe one of the many programs I have accumulated, definitely more Cathe Live. But we’ll as the time gets closer.

12/02/16 UPDATE: I have a lot in the works and though I know where I plan to start, I don’t know in what order I will be tackling the rest. First, Cathe‘s newest series should be shipping very soon (Strong & Sweaty). I will be diving into that as soon as I receive it. I am not yet sure exactly how I will approach it since the handbook hasn’t been posted yet. I want to look at the rotation before I decide if I want to follow it or not. Around the same time, I plan to sign up for Daily Burn. I am getting an AppleTV (4th gen) for Christmas which will make streaming even easier for me and I have been wanting to try Bob Harper’s Black Fire ever since he announced it (I was very cranky to learn it is only streamed–no DVDs). So I will be reviewing the entire Black Fire program (that will be my doubles workout since they are all 30 minute workouts). Those are the two definites that will be posting.

I have been in the midst of a metabolic rotation I created. I have actually created two rotations and have followed neither of them closely! But I will post them both. One uses DVDs and Cathe Live and the other is DVDs only. What am I waiting for? Strong & Sweaty of course! I feel certain many if not all of those workouts will fit perfectly into both rotations–but I may just use it for the DVD rotation since Strong & Sweaty may already be similar to a few of the Live workouts. But I won’t know till I try them, so that’s all those two rotations are waiting on.

I also know that for my birthday my husband is getting me BJ Gaddour’s upcoming MetaShred Extreme. It isn’t released until January (my birthday month) so it works out well. However, I will not be starting it immediately. I have plans for it. DeltaFit Speed Shred has been sitting on my shelf for months. So the plan is, start with DeltaFit, do a round of MetaShred 21 and finish it off with MetaShred Extreme. Which means that review won’t post for several months–but DeltaFit should post very early 2017.  I also impulse purchased Riptensity. I may work that into the DeltaFit/MetaShred rotation. Not sure yet. But whatever I do, I plan to post the entire rotation since I know a lot of people love the Men’s Health workouts (including me!).

But that’s not all! I have been hoarding again. I bought JNL Fusion. Just because. I got Mark Lauren’s newest workout (Focus 15) half off for Black Friday. He also just came out with a YAYOG 2–bought it of course. I bought another Tracy Mallet workout. And then there are the other workouts/programs I have purchased over the past few years, still sitting on my shelf waiting their turn (SKOGG kettlebells, P90X3, Asylum 2, an Amy Bento workout, two of Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s older workouts, probably more I am forgetting).

Where does that leave Cathe Live? Well… I love Cathe Live, I really do. And like Daily Burn, my Christmas present should make it even easier to stream. But once I start the DeltaFit/MetaShred rotation, I plan to cancel Cathe Live (temporarily of course). No point spending money on something I won’t be doing very often. So those reviews will probably come to a halt for a while. But they will be back! I know I will start missing my Cathe Live workouts.

So that is the plan. Will it all play out the way I want it to? Who knows? I do know I need to stop buying workouts and do the ones I already own (and love). I already have plans this weekend to rearrange my workout DVD library. It is becoming overcrowded again…

9/21/16 UPDATE: Well, things went along as planned for a while. Then I went on vacation (and had a great time) but when I returned, I felt very resistant to doing the rotation I had created. Or at least the first part. The first part of the rotation contained a bunch of new-to-me DVDs that have been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for a while. Every time one would come up on the rotation, I felt this wave of resistance and substituted a familiar Cathe, Cathe Live or Kelly Coffey-Meyer workout. I don’t know when this will end but I feel the need for the comfort of my familiar and well-loved workouts. Now, I have created a metabolic rotation that starts at the beginning of October. It is all familiar (to me) workouts so I am guessing that I will probably follow through with it. If so, and I like it, I will post it to the Rotations page. I still have a growing list of Cathe Lives I want to sample, but again–I am craving the familiar. With Cathe Live that has more to do with having a workout card already created and ready to go. I am even feeling resistant to doing a workout in which I do not already know what (challenging) weight I will be using. Plus, I am feeling burned out on creating workout cards. I’ve been creating a lot of them since I signed up for Cathe Live. It’s getting old and yet it is a necessity to get the most out of my workouts.

This just sounds like a lot of burn out right now, doesn’t it? So, for now I really don’t know what will appear here or when. I’m sure eventually I will start getting that craving for something new. I did pre-order Cathe’s upcoming Strong & Sweaty series, plus Kelly Coffey-Meyer announced upcoming new workouts which I will, of course, order. And I keep looking at B.J. Gaddour‘s DeltFit Speed Shred sitting on shelf… We’ll see I guess!

7/15/16 UDPATE: This weekend I will finish out the 5 week Cathe Live rotation and that will post very soon. I’m sure you can see a ton of streaming reviews have gone up with more to come. Plus, I’ve been bad. As I noted below in the June Update–I’ve been purchasing workout DVDs again. I currently have my workouts scheduled all the way into September–with some holes to fill in. Here is what I plan to do–more Cathe Live. I think I have 12 or 13 new-to-me Cathe Lives planned through to the end of August. Focus T25 will be my doubles workouts starting next week. Once I finish T25 I am doing Livestrong’s Stronger program as my doubles workouts. I bought Jari Love’s new Get Ripped in 6 and scheduled it for August. I’m doing a Tracy Mallet this weekend. Plus, lots more free streaming workouts from Popsugar, BeFit and GymRa. I have discovered new channels I will be sampling from: Live Strong Woman, AngieFitnessTV, Stylecraze Fitness, Body Project, and Shelly Dose. And Even B.J. Gaddour has some free streaming workouts that he did through StreamFITtv! Now, this is what I currently have saved to playlists and scheduled into my workout calendar. However, these are free YouTube workouts. So if I do one and I don’t like it–I will not post a negative review. Here is why; if the first workout I do by them $ucks (in my opinion)–all of the other workouts by this person are deleted from my playlists. I will not try anymore of their workouts. This has already happened with 2 trainers/channels. I tried their workouts, didn’t like them and hit delete. No point in posting about it here. The only time I will post a negative review of a free YouTube workout is if I regularly use their workouts. For instance Popsugar. I love and do a lot of Popsugar workouts, so if I come across one I think stinks–I will mention it here! So if some of the trainers I mentioned above never appear here–well, I probably didn’t dig their workouts.

In the updates below I always mention workouts I’ve bought and still haven’t reviewed. Those are all still on my shelves, waiting their turns and one day they will appear here. However, as I mentioned, I have been bad. I blame it on streaming! Yes, it’s free, but Popsugar’s guest trainers introduce me to new trainers! And I like them a lot! So… I have bought a Tracy Mallet workout and checked out another from the library. I have purchased Christine Bullock’s Evolution 20 program and if her Super Shred drops in price I will be purchasing that, too. I also bought Pop Physique’s Original Butt. That’s not all! I caved and bought B.J. Gaddour’s DeltaFit Speed Shred. I also pre-ordered Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s Amped Up Cardio. I think that’s it for now. It’s a lot. I overwhelm myself. And with the YouTube discoveries…. I just don’t know how to do it all. And do all of my beloved DVDs… Where there is a will…. Right?

6/12/16 UPDATE: Things will be changing a bit for the next month. On Monday I start my Cathe Live only rotation (which will post in 5 weeks). To create that rotation I used only workouts I have already done. So that means there will be no more Cathe Live reviews for the next 5 weeks. However, I do have a list of 10 more Cathe Live workouts I want to sample and I’m sure Cathe will create at least 1-2 more workouts over the next 5 weeks that will entice me. But that does not mean reviews will come to a halt! Not at all. In fact I am jumping on the streaming bandwagon and over the next 5 weeks there will be a lot of free YouTube workout reviews posting. Due to the length of Cathe Live workouts they will be done primarily as add-ons and sometimes as doubles workouts, so all of the workouts I will be reviewing will be 30 minutes or less. The main “channels” I will be pulling from are Popsugar, BeFit, GymRa and Fitness Blender. I will also be reviewing one DVD: Jillian Michaels Kickbox Fastfix. I have had that workout forever. I did it once a long time ago and have never returned to it for some reason. So I will be revisiting and reviewing that workout. Once I finish this 5 week rotation I am not sure what is up next other than some more Cathe Lives. I still have new-to-me workouts on my shelves I bought and haven’t done but for some reason I am not currently motivated to do them. Same goes for SKOGG, Asylum Vol 2 and P90X3. Not sure why, but the motivation just isn’t there for those, either. I am still thinking about doing another round of ChaLean Extreme (it will be my 4th but my first since I started this blog–so I haven’t done it in more than 3 years) and, oddly, lately I have become very nostalgic about my old Firm workouts. So some Firm reviews may pop up–but again, that is more than a month down the road. So that is where I am right now. I am very much looking forward to my Cathe Live rotation starting tomorrow! ***I just won an Ebay auction for Focus T25 Alpha, Beta and Gamma. I have been watching and bidding on this program for more than a year but the bidding always escalates out of my price range. Well–I finally got it for less than my max bid! So that will be reviewed at some point in the future. I can fit that in as doubles workouts, so right now I am planning for T25 to post in August.

3/03/16 UPDATE: I did it. I got through all of the new-to-me workouts on my To Do list. I have also been in rotation creation mode. I created a 12 week rotation that hybrids SKOGG and P90X3 w/ lots of yoga, but I don’t know when I will be doing it. March is a bit of a mish-mosh for me since I have a vacation planned this month. I plan to revisit Hammer & Chisel and Meta Shred, some Kelly Coffey-Meyer favorites, Cathe favorites, barre workouts and lots of Cathe Live. However, starting in April I want to refocus on some of the toughest and, in my opinion, best strength workouts I own. I have created a 10 week rotation and if I like the results, it will get posted on the Rotations page. I have also decided to try really hard to stop buying anymore workouts for a while. So all that will be posting for a while is Cathe Live workouts and workouts I already own but have not been reviewed here.

1/13/16 UPDATE: I have created a rotation that goes into March in an attempt to try all of the new workouts and programs I have managed to accumulate. We’ll see if I stick with it. Now that ICE has been sampled, I will be doing Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s two new workout DVDs Strength & Stamina, and Athletic Conditioning Vol 2. Then it is on to Hammer & Chisel. While doing Hammer & Chisel I will also be trying out some other workouts that have been accumulating (Jillian Michael’s Killer Arms & Back, Paul Katami’s Kettlebell Drills, and a few others) as well as doing some Cathe Live. As soon as I finish Hammer & Chisel, I am doing BJ Gaddour’s MetaShred program and Weider’s P.I.N.K. powerlifting program (I’m hybriding those two). That’s all I have mapped out at this point! I still have Asylum Vol 2, SKOGG Kettlebell System, P90X3 and some other workouts I bought nearly a year ago and have not tried yet. And then I keep thinking about returning to ChaLean Extreme and doing a hybrid with TurboFire (which is already reviewed, but I love both systems and like hybriding them).

At some point I really need to stop buying workouts. As much as I love them all–I have too many! And because I need to actually do all of the new ones I buy, I end up neglecting old (or new) favorites. Maybe I’ll try to put a moratorium on purchasing any new workout DVDs for like a year… or at least until Cathe‘s next program/series is released. In fact, I’m thinking about making Cathe and Kelly Coffey-Meyer my only auto-buys from now on.

12/05/15 UPDATE: Round 3 of STS done! Which leads me to the newest type of content I will be adding to this blog—tho it will appear much less frequently than actual workout reviews. And that is workout rotations. I’ve already included rotations with some of my reviews of fitness programs, but since I frequently hybrid things, alter existing rotations or just create my own for whatever reason I have at that time, I decided to add my rotations to my blog/database. I actually write these rotations on paper calendars I print off but I have no good way of organizing them so if I ever want to return to one I particularly like, I lose motivation sorting through years of paper rotation calendars. So if I really like one that I created (or altered) then it will become a blog post and be linked to the Workout Rotation page. So, up at the top next to “About” and “Current & Upcoming,” you will see a new tab “Workout Rotations.”

Another page will be appearing very soon as well. I have subscribed to Cathe Live. This is her streaming service. Every week she films a live workout that she teaches in her gym and uploads it so we can all workout in Cathe’s gym with her—real, live Cathe classes. None of them are available on DVD. There are currently almost 80 live workouts! I am truly overwhelmed. It is not free, of course. I am locked into a year subscription so I plan to sample a lot of these workouts. Reviews will post just like all of my other workout reviews, but they will also be linked under the Cathe Live page. Now, as things change and evolve, DVD workouts may one day become a thing of the past as more trainers go directly to streaming. When and if that happens, the name of that page may change to something else like “Streaming” or something less boring. But I have no plans to sign up for any other streaming service at this point, so right now it is devoted to Cathe.

The latest update from Cathe is that ICE should be shipping in the next few weeks. Not this week and probably not even next week but possibly the week after. So maybe I’ll have it by Christmas. Who knows? But when I do, I plan to start an ICE rotation the following Monday. Soon after, reviews will post.

As I’m sure you noticed from my latest posts I have been compulsively using my public library to sample workouts. Not as good of an idea as I had initially assumed. Why? Because I loved so many of them I just ended up buying them anyway! Not much of a money saver! But it did help me discover lots of new trainers and types of workouts I would never have purchased otherwise. So no regrets. However, that will probably stop (or at least slow down) for a while.

I still have everything listed in the 10/26/15 Update below to work my way through. Plus I purchased Hammer & Chisel the day it was released from Beachbody! So that will be reviewed here. I also purchased Asylum Vol 2. For Christmas, my husband bought me Weider Pink. So there is a lot on my To Do list. It will all eventually appear here, some sooner than others.

10/26/15 UPDATE: I am on my last week of STS Mesocycle #2; so I still have Mesocycle #3 to get through. It has been a great rotation. I made it very glute focused. In fact, in my mind I am calling it my STS Rock Bottoms rotation! I am considering doing a blog post listing my rotation in case anyone is interested–and in case I want to return to it again at some point! So that might appear when I finish this rotation. Here is what I have planned for the next few months. I have discovered the library’s workout DVD section and a whole new world has opened up for me. It contains the type of workouts I am curious about but rarely purchase. So now, I can try them out for free! And I will review them here. For my upcoming STS recovery week I have checked out a yoga workout, some barre workouts and a Tracy Anderson workout. So those will all go up in about 2 weeks. Cathe is still projecting that ICE will ship in late fall. Since I will be finishing STS the beginning of December, I plan to jump right into an ICE rotation–so that review will go up in December. I also pre-ordered Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s newest workouts. I plan to do those along with ICE. Afterwards, I have some new programs I am going to try. SKOGG Kettlebell System, P90X3 and I am pretty sure my husband is getting me Sagi‘s Hammer & Chisel for Christmas (it won’t be released until December). I also purchased Paul Katami‘s Kettlebell Drills, and I still have all of the other new-to-me workouts that have been stacking up, waiting to be tried (Jillian Michaels newest workout, some old but new-to-me Amy Bento and Kelly Coffey-Meyer workouts, a Patrick Goudeau workout and a few others). So that is what the next few months look like for me!

8/24/15 UPDATE: I’ve gotten through a lot of new workout programs recently, as evidenced by all of the new reviews. I have one more review going up by the end of the week. Peak Fit System review will finally go up (that one has been in the works for 3 years now). After that, however, the reviews will slow down again. I am starting my 3rd round of STS and I will be supplementing it with programs/workouts that have already been reviewed: Edge Extreme Bootie 2, Butt Bible, Ultimatum, RIPT90. I still have some new-to-me workouts sitting on my shelf that I haven’t done/reviewed, plus the other programs I did before I started this blog that I still want to review here (P90X & ChaLean Extreme). But those are on hold for a while. I’m sure workouts will appear from time to time (I have Jillian Michael’s newest Killer Arms & Back on pre-order). Oh! And I have Cathe‘s ICE on pre-order. As soon as that arrives I will do those workouts for a recovery week. Once I finish a 3 month rotation of STS, I’m not sure what’s next–maybe another round of Body Beast? Maybe Sagi‘s newest program (Beachbody is calling it Hammer & Chisel) which I will order as soon as available. Maybe Chalean Extreme and P90X. We’ll see what I’m in the mood for when the time comes.

6/22/15 UPDATE: I usually don’t do updates this close together but I won an ebay auction for a fitness program that I am oddly excited about: Lindsi’s Ultimatum. I honestly don’t know why I wanted this fitness program so badly but I do. That doesn’t mean I will be getting to it any quicker than anything else tho. But I now possess it, so it goes on the To Do list. In addition, I bought a few more new workouts by Amy Bento: Cardio Pump Hi/Lo and A-Team Bootcamp. My To Do List is growing! Oh! I also pre-ordered Cathe‘s new series–of course! It’s called ICE which stands for Intermediate Conditioning Extreme. It is not her usual advanced workouts. Which gave me some misgivings at first, but it is Cathe, so of course I am giving it a try. If nothing else, it will function as recovery workouts. Which is fortuitous! Expected ship date is Fall 2015 and in September I start round 3 of STS. I will use ICE as recovery week workouts during STS.

So, how does starting STS factor into my To Do list for trying out and reviewing all of my new workouts? That is a good question because I don’t really know. I have my rotation mapped out all the way up to when I start STS, but I am considering altering the last few weeks before I start STS to do the Pretty Fierce fitness programs and RIPT90. Ultimatum is metabolic weight training which I can do during STS, so are the new Amy Bentos. The rest–I guess we’ll see! ** Just updated my rotation and the plan is to do RIPT90 the end of July, Pretty Fierce the beginning of August followed by Ultimatum at the end of August. The plan is to have them sampled and reviewed before I start STS. We’ll see if it happens that way!

5/08/15 UPDATE: Burn out has set in. Not on working out but on doing new workouts/programs. I still have so much more I want to do! But I need a break. All of these new workouts and programs have introduced me to some really great stuff that I want to spend more time doing. In addition, I pine for my Cathe and Kelly Coffey-Meyer workouts when I have been neglecting them. So I just need to take some time and do primarily workouts that are already reviewed here. I don’t know for how long. Maybe a few weeks, maybe a few months. New reviews will pop up here and there. I know when I receive Kelly’s new workouts I will probably do them pretty quickly. Amy Bento’s Drop Set Strength will be going up this weekend. I may purchase some more Amy Bento workouts and do those. I was blown away by Slo-Mo Strength Challenge and am feeling the need to do it many more times and soon. I also keep looking at her workouts on Amazon… not a good sign. They are starting to clog my wishlist. But for now, I mentally need to focus on favorite workouts and trainers.

What is lined up for the future? As mentioned, Amy Bento’s Drop Set Strength should post this weekend. I pre-ordered Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s new workouts and they should be arriving this month. Those are the ones I can guarantee will be going up soon. Here are the new ones I’ve purchased that I had a whole rotation laid out to do over the next few months that I scrapped yesterday. I will do them, I just don’t know when now. Like I said, I could start back up in a few weeks–or it could be a few months. RIPT90, Pretty Fierce Weight Loss, Pretty Fierce Lean Out, Michelle Dozois two new Peak 10 workouts: Fastblaster Cardio Strength and Fatblaster Cardio Interval Burn, Patrick Goudeau’s Hardwork Conditioning 24/7, Annie Mair’s Life Force. That is all of my new-to-me workouts. My other workouts that I have had forever and want to finally get up here haven’t changed either: P90X, ChaLean Extreme, PeakFit Challange and Jari Love workouts. All of this is still on my To-Do list.

3/10/15 Update: Whew! I am on a roll! By the end of this week 3 more reviews should go up: Les Mills Pump, Insanity Asylum Volume 1 and Mark Lauren’s Bodyweight Training. And I have my workout rotations mapped out through June. By the end of June, nearly everything that I own that is relevant (to me) should be reviewed on this blog. If I follow the rotations I created, that is. So far I have been. Once that is complete, there really won’t be much more left to review. However, I still have a few Jari Love workouts I haven’t gotten to. Some yoga workouts I bought and still haven’t done. All my Zuzka workout collections (I have 3 now–Cardio, Strength and Kettlebell). I’ll review those eventually. Other than that it will just be new stuff I purchase. I am considering purchasing Insanity Asylum Volume 2, but have not yet. And may not for a while, maybe never. Maybe I’ll wait until Black Friday. Who knows?

So, what is still to come? Kettlebell Kickboxing: The Body Series and Scorcher, and Iron Core Kettlebell workouts are next on the agenda and will be up by the end of March. Interspersed with those will be Amy Dixon’s new workouts. Then in April I am doing P90X2 + Jillian Michael’s new series BodyShred. I’m pretty excited about that hybrid. I’ll also be doing a the last 3 Jillian workouts I have that I have not reviewed (Yoga Meltdown, Kickbox Fast Fix and Shred-It with Weight). I have ordered Michelle Dozois’s newest Peak 10 workouts and they are on their way (they shipped today). I also plan to return to some of my older programs that I haven’t done in a few years and review them: ChaLean Extreme, P90X and Peak Fit Challenge. And finally, I have some other workouts I’ve purchased but not yet done—I will be squeezing those in here and there: Annie Mair’s Life Force, Amy Bento’s Slo-Mo and Drop Sets, Patrick Goudeau’s Hardwork Conditioning 24/7 and two of Kelly Coffey-Meyer’s old workouts (pre-30 Minutes to Fitness). And speaking of Kelly Coffey-Meyer, she just announced she has two more workouts coming out. So obviously I will be buying those. And finally, my husband purchased P90 for himself. I may review that as well. I haven’t decided yet on that one.

I’m actually pretty excited to finally have this completed (well, by the end of June that is). I have created a little “plug in” rotation and with all of my relevant workouts finally reviewed with descriptions at my fingertips, it will make it that much easier for me to create rotations.

As a side note—what do I mean by “relevant”? Relevant are workouts that I keep on the shelves in my workout room and consider intense enough to spend time doing. I have a large box in my closet full of workouts I no longer do and have no plans to do… for now. An enormous collection of Firm workouts, a sizeable collection of Tae Bo workouts and others. I can’t force myself to get rid of them because, well, I am 44 years old and not getting any younger. One day I may not be able to do all of the workouts I now gravitate to. When I was in a terrible accident in 2009 I did have to rehabilitate using workouts such as Leslie Sansone and my old Firms. I cannot part with them out of fear they may one day be needed again. Either due to an injury or health reasons–or just old age. I have no plans to ever stop working out, but if I have to take it down a notch, then I still have the oldies. So who knows? Maybe one day they will be included here, too.

1/2/15 Update: It’s a new year! And I have been getting through a lot of my new workouts, but still have a lot to go. I am loving Cathe‘s new Ripped with HIIT series so much that it’s hard for me to want to do anything else. But I am also crazy about Mark Lauren‘s workouts. I want to incorporate more of his amazing body weight workouts into my regular rotations. And then there are all the other new workouts I now own and want to try. It’s overwhelming! So what is on the agenda for the coming year? Right now I am continuing doing Ripped with HIIT workouts but incorporating other workouts into my rotation. The next review to go up will be Les Mills Combat. Then I will be doing my new Mark Lauren workouts (and adding EFX back into my rotation, too). Today is my birthday and my husband gave me Insanity Max:30, which I am very excited about. So the next planned rotation for February is Tapout XT 1 & 2 + Max:30. I still have all of the workouts listed below in my 9/15/14 update to do, and in addition I got Les Mills Pump at Beachbody’s Black Friday sale which I have been wanting forever but it was so expensive (until Black Friday that is! Great sale!). So I can’t wait to try that. And Jillian Michaels’ new program Body Shred just came out! I must have it! It looks awesome. But, since I still have so much to get through I plan to purchase that closer to summer.

9/15/14  Update: I recently made an unexpected purchase. Beachbody lowered the price of Body Beast ($40—which is cheap for a Beach Body product) so I bought it. It seemed to open a doorway to wanting to purchase “systems” again. I am currently doing the Body Beast rotation (with my own tweaks of course) and will post a review when it is complete (I’m in my 4^th week and plan to do 12 weeks). In addition, I purchased Weider Ruthless (twenty 20 minute body weight only workouts), PiYo (Chalene Johnson’s new system—another Beachbody product) and Tapout XT 1 and 2.I plan to do Weider Ruthless while doing Body Beast, so both of those reviews will be posted in the next few months. In addition, I still plan to do P90X2 and Asylum. I really, really do plan to! In fact, they were next on my list until Body Beast went on sale, and well, I couldn’t resist that one. But now that I have purchased all of these other ones… who knows what will be next in line? (**10/26/14 update: I’ve now also purchased Les Mills Combat and two Kettle Bell kickboxing series (Scorcher and The Body Series) + some more Patrick Goudeau–so lots more coming!)

I have also been buying more workouts than those listed above (Big Surprise, right?). In addition to pre-ordering Cathe’s upcoming new series, Kelly Coffey-Meyer has two new workouts coming out which I have pre-ordered. I’ve also purchased a few of her older (non-30 Minutes to Fitness) workouts, but have not yet done them. Let’s see… Michele Dozois has new workouts coming out which I will pre-order as soon as they are available. Also, from listening to Jillian Michaels podcast, she has another program coming out (not individual workout(s)). I believe she called it the next level of Body Revolution? But I can’t remember and it’s been like a month or more since I listened to the podcast. I can find nothing about it online tho. She has gym classes called Body Shred and I think that is what this program is also called. But I am not positive. I will, of course, order that the moment it is available. I also bought another Anni Mairs workout. What can I say? I am a glutton for punishment. Fierce Force was pretty awesome and intense. I have been doing more yoga and purchased a couple more yoga DVDs—reviews of those will be posting sooner than everything else since I am incorporating a lot of flexibility into my Body Beast Rotation.  And finally, I have Zuzka’s cardio and her strength series workouts (each series has 12 workouts). So clearly, I have a lot to get through. They will all be posted eventually.