Jessica Smith and Friends 2022

[Pam61]

Hi Ladies,

Well, I've been itching to do a Cathe workout with the talk in the GD of Cathe now filming STS 2.0. I was going to pull out STS and thought it would be too much for me with all of the equipment. Instead I dragged out my barbell for Muscle Max. It used to be one of my favorites from the Gym Style workouts, but it's been a number of years ago that I'd done it. I did okay but it was HARD for me now, haha. I have been away from heavier weight lifting for a while now and the last thing I probably did was Jessica's Lift and Shift. Doing this Cathe workout today made me really appreciate how great of an instructor Cathe really is, but she's not for the faint of heart and I don't want to kill myself trying to lift like I once did! Yikes! But, this total body workout was great and clocks in at 68 minutes. It could be shortened with the premixes, which is what I will do next time.

I might consider a Cathe rotation for October, but would have to do plenty of stretching to lengthen the muscles afterwards. So maybe a Cathe-lite rotation with yoga next?

[Leonana]

This evening I did Jessica’s newer you tube workout, Total Body Short Circuit 5, followed by 8 Minute Standing Total Body Stretch.

Work has been interesting, never a dull moment with the kids. Especially the 7th graders. During lunch, one girl jumped on the table in the cafeteria and started dancing around. Sheesh! They have no common sense lol.

Donna, I know it’s hard to make that appointment. It sounds like it is her time.

Pam, the Japanese inspired bike sounds great. I’m sure it must have been relaxing.

Waves to wishiwasinhawaii.

[donnamp]

Hi Everyone,

Today I finally did Ellen's new workout - Full Body Blast - it was 45 min - 15 min cardio, 15 min weights, 15 min stretch. She did jump right into the cardio - I could have used a few extra minutes of a warm-up, but I think it may not be a problem the 2nd time doing this as I'll be prepared.

Pam - good going w/ Cathe. She is amazing - I never got into her workout though, other than to dabble. They just carry too much dread for me!

Sherry - yes, those kids are crazy!! LOL! It looks like Jessica is going to be releasing some new You Tube workouts over the next few months. I signed up for notifications.

waves, wishiwasinhawaii.

I need to come up with a plan for October......I'll try to think of something over the weekend.

Hope everyone has a good day!

Donna

[donnamp]

Hi Everyone,

Today was a random one -

FitPrime Lower Body Burn - random observations - Once again, Anna proved herself to be ahead of her time - using the block between the legs for squats, etc. does help stabilize the hips and engage the inner thighs better! And, she ends her workouts w/ back extensions! Back in 2005 (!!) when these came out, I don't think these were common practices. The workout was also much harder than I remembered, back in 2005 I viewed these as "too easy" or "for a light day" and I probably used heavier weights and used weights when they didn't. Today I followed along - and in fact, modified some things that I know are bad for me (any type of pelvic tuck and crunch). I went w/ 3's for my weights. I did enjoy this one. We will see if I do the next one in the rotation, Lean, tomorrow...

Caroline Jordan's October calendar is focused on Hips. You have to join her Patreon to get it - it is $10. I may buy it - I definitely need to work on my hip strength and mobility. I think it is a huge contributor to any back pain I have. Plus my hips are so stiff from sitting so much all day

Hope everyone has a good day!

Donna

[Pam61]

Hi Ladies,

I went to bed last night with some low back pain and felt the same in the morning. So today I did David-Dorian Ross' Tai Chi for a Healthy Back, which was excellent. Very highly recommended if you ever have one of those times when it's too painful to move and need a "lighter day" or more gentle form of movement. This is all done seated in a chair, which was great for today's purposes.

Donna, great job on the FitPrime workout!

Sherry, I enjoy hearing about the kiddos at school! Fun times for you!

Also, yesterday was an easy hike which I forgot to mention.

[donnamp]

Hi Everyone,

Today I did another FitPrime - Lean....

Not much else to report, a rainy Saturday here.

I'm feeling a little tired today - probably the weather.

Pam -hope your back is feeling better!!

Waves, Sherry and wishiwasinhawaii!

Donna

[Leonana]

Just housework today, and then stretching this evening. I think Sundays are the best day for my strength workout. I don't sleep as well on Sunday evenings, so hopefully the exercise will relax me.

Usually we have one short day on Wednesdays, the kids get out two hours early at 12:40. The teachers can attend training seminars on those days. Our time with the kids is done at 12:40 instead of 1:15. We assistants do some office work until 2:00. Next week is the week before fall break, so we have three short days, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then we are off for a week. I have an appointment with my TMJ doctor to adjust my mouth guard on Monday of Fall break, and am planning on getting some stuff done around the house. But you know how that goes!

The 7th graders are the most stressful of the bunch, they make me want to smack them at times! Being that it's a school in a lower income area, some of the kids come from bad situations. You can usually tell by how they act out, it's pretty sad. I think the 7th grade class has more than it's share of kids from difficult situations. But sometimes they make me laugh, how they try to figure out ways to break the rules. I told some of the girls they should use their smartness for good rather than evil, lol. I also told them that they are smart, they just needed to use it for something else. They did smile at that.

Wednesday was dh's and my 26th wedding anniversary. We went out to eat yesterday evening with dd and friends. We had Chinese, it was pretty good. It seems like yesterday we were dating!

Donna, I put Jessica's newest in my Watch Later. I'm hoping to do it tomorrow, hopefully I can manage a 40 minute workout! I was searching for beginner workouts to use for strength and I found a couple of channels that looked good. FitnessType and yes2next. My thoughts are with you for tomorrow.

Pam, I hope your back is feeling better. I have a lot of stories now! Especially how the boys tease the girls, you know they like them but don't know how to handle it. Yesterday, one boy in the fifth grade ran up to me and said help, she's going to dump water on my head. My response was, so what did you do to her? The girls said he grabbed my water bottle, took a drink, then threw it on the ground! I said to him, well she should have dumped water on you! Then I gave him a talk about not drinking out of other people's water bottles, if he was sick he could pass on germs. They both looked grossed out by that. Kids don't think, lol. The day before that, some fifth grade boys told me two other boys peed behind the tree. I said look, I know boys like to do this, but this is school. Use the restrooms! There was a fire yesterday on the other side of the school. Fortunately, I don't think it was serious. A couple of fire trucks drove by while the third graders were on the playground, and they went wild with excitement. We had a hard time keeping them from running to the fire. They keep us on our toes!

[wishiwasinhawaii]

Hi! I've just been busy and haven't had a chance to post, but I have been keeping up with workouts, even if I sometimes don't do them every day. I'm on week 2 of S&C. I see Jessica has been posting new workouts on Youtube that look interesting so I may swap out a day on the schedule and do one of those instead just to try them out. I also have been taking walks outside when the weather is decent, but it's been windy and rainy the past couple of days from the remnants of Hurricane Ian.

Donna, Sorry to hear about your lab, but it sounds like it's for the best at this point. Caroline Jordan's hip workouts sound like something I also need. Like you, I spend far too much time sitting for work and I know my hips are an issue.

Pam, I hope your back is feeling better! I'm going on a 'senior' hike in a couple of weeks. It won't be strenuous, but it will be good to get out with other people in nature.

Sherry, Wow, your job sure keeps you on your toes! It sounds like you're enjoying it, which is great!

[donnamp]

Hi Everyone,

I'm three for three - today was FitPrime Lean -this is probably the toughest of the FitPrime series. it is almost an hour long. Heidi Tanner leads it - she is/was such a great lead. I wonder what she went on to do fitness-wise after the FIRM/FitPrime/Kickbutt era?

I hope everyone has a nice Sunday. It is rainy and dreary here. Will probably just read and putter today.

Sherry - it does sound like your job keeps you busy! Happy Anniversary!!!

wishiwasinhawaii - god job plugging along w/ S&C. We are getting the dreary weather from Ian as well....and yes, as much as I don't want to do it - I think it is time for my Lab.

Waves, Pam.

Donna

[Pam61]

Hi Ladies,

Took a rest day yesterday with lots of errands to run.

Today I did Cathe's LITE Upper Body Stacked sets workout. She does two rounds of each set of workouts focusing on a different body area. For being described as an intermediate series, I think she moves too quickly in these. I might switch out the LITE set workouts with something like ICE instead. Or just do something like her Slow and Heavy series or Pure Strength. Not sure yet, haha.

I had planned to alternate strength days with yoga, but might add in days of Tai Chi or Pilates for lower body. We'll see....

Good to see everyone reporting in!