? for those doing Suzanne Bowen's Slim & Toned DVD

[lillaguma]

Thanks to the suggestion of a few on here, I bought Suzanne Bowen's Slim and Toned DVD and tried it out last night for the first time. I really liked it - so thank you all! It was nice to be doing some strength exercises again, it has been several weeks now since I've been able to go to an actual barre class, and this was great.

Quick question - for those who do it, do you split up the workouts onto different days? Ex legs segment one day, upper body another? I did the legs and the cardio sculpt last night, and was sort of tempted to do upper body as well but didn't want to overwhelm myself. I just was thinking that generally when I'd go to barre we'd do everything, although maybe heavier on legs one day and heavier on upper body another - anyhow. I hope this is making sense...just curious what others do!

[stategirl08]

I'm going to start it next week and planned on doing one area per day. Although I haven't done anything heavier than light walking yet his pregnancy so mainly trying not to jump into anything too fast.

[kellsbelles]

I feel like the cardio segment is very leg heavy as it is so I usually do that one first followed by the upper body. Then I will do the lower body and the upper body one the next time I work out. My legs and glutes really feel it from the cardio segment so Im not sure if I could do both that and lower back to back.

But just listen to your body and do what feels the best. On days you have more energy go for it. The segments are only 20 mins each so that whole DVD (minus the stretching segment) would be equivalent to a regular 1 hour barre class. I love this DVD and am interested in her other prenatal one too!

[Deleted]

I actually have both of her prenatal DVDs - the Barre one you just mentioned, as well as a yoga one that follows a similar format.

I stacked 2 of the 20-minute segments at a time plus the 10-minute stretch throughout the 2nd trimester. In the 3rd trimester, I did 1 20-minute segment plus the 10 minute stretch. That lasted up until 36 weeks, at which point I must bashfully admit to throwing in the towel. I am too tired to wake up earlier than necessary, and I just don't have the energy when I get home from work.

[lillaguma]

Thanks for the input!

kellsbelles - I did notice that the cardio segment was super leg heavy, my legs were dying by the end. I like the way you suggested pairing it, that makes a lot of sense.

sju1982 - no judgment here - I'm impressed you lasted until 36 weeks! I'll look into her yoga one, I feel like her dvds are something I'll hopefully actually do.

stategirl08 - good luck trying them out! I hope you enjoy them as much as I have so far.

PS - my husband did it along with me that other night and is still complaining that his butt hurts. I've been telling him forever what a great workout barre is, but I think he kept assuming it was something sissy. I'm having the last laugh now.

[genet313]

With Suzanne Bowen I do the first leg section and the arm section together, typically.  It's about 45 minutes, which is good. 

With the cardio sculpt section, I do a portion of a Tracy Anderson arm workout beforehand (which is about 15 minutes) and then do the cardio sculpt.   Basically so that I'm always doing arms at some point in a workout.

I also do the Tracy Anderson pregnancy workout (that's split into months).  

Sadly my doctor no longer wants me to work out, but I made it to 31 weeks doing these workouts.  I feel pretty confident I could have done them up until delivery.  The past couple of weeks have definitely been more challenging on my legs, now that I'm carrying real weight around.  But a great burn w/o feeling like I was stressing my body too much.

Good luck!!