Giving myself the gift of barbell: A slightly useful workout review.

This morning I gave myself the gift of barbell.

Bonus cat not included.

I decided it was time to get back on the heavy weight-lifting wagon, but I want to go back and revisit some older workouts by Cathe to see if I wanted to include those in my next marathon training cycle.  So I browsed through my workouts and came up with the back, biceps, and shoulders Lift It HiiT It workout from Cathe's Ripped with HiiT series. 

Now, I love me some Cathe weight workouts, but for some reason I'm not a huge fan of the ones that only do certain body parts.  I prefer getting a total body workout or an upper body workout that hits all of the upper body muscles, not just three.  But I used to do this workout and its sister workout (chest, tris, and shoulders) all the time, so I needed to remind myself what the allure of these workouts were--and why I stopped doing them in the first place.  Let's tackle each question in turn, shall we?

Why I used to do these workouts, like, all the time:

• Heavy weights-and lots of them
• Barbell.  So much barbell.
• No complicated exercises.
• Have I mentioned the barbell yet?
• There's a dude in the background!  Omg!
• There's a workout mix for every mood.  I did the one that replaced what Cathe calls "finishers" (exercises after the three sets of the main exercise meant to torture your muscles one last time) with ab exercises from one of the bonus ab workouts on the DVD: (Please note it was the 10th---TENTH--premix.)

Why did I stop doing these workouts?

• I got new workouts so the old workouts are automatically, like, SO outdated once you get new ones (not really - it's all in my mind)
• Three sets of the same workout is kind of a snoozer after awhile.  Sorry, Cathe.  
• The finisher exercises were more annoying than challenging.
• The cat felt the cool-down wasn't sufficient and demanded I give him rubs for my workout recovery.

While I still think the three sets of the same exercise is kinda boring, I found that I liked this workout enough to consider putting it into rotation during my upcoming marathon training cycle.  This decision is based on the following facts:

1. My back is currently sore
2. My biceps are currently sore
3. My shoulders are currently sore.

From a workout, I can't really ask for anything more.  Well, maybe we can ask for some post learnings:

• Barbell is back!  Rejoice.
• Even though there are only 12 reps per exercise, this workout is no joke, people.  If you've never done Cathe before, lighten up on those weights.
• Cats in my workout area.  Buh.
• The dude in this workout totally threw me for a loop.  I felt the same way I feel if a dude accidentally walks into the girls' bathroom.

Tomorrow's workout: Some easy running with large dog.  Unless I do something else.