OK, I may have changed my mind. Yesterday I started Stage 7. So very hard! I guess it's been a long time since I've done 15 reps of anything. And these are 4 sets of 15 reps (15-20 but forget the 20!) by the end I was quivering - and oh so humbled!
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To be calm is the highest achievement of the self.
I have to agree with NewDawn - STAGE 7 definitely the hardest because of the rest period and the huffing and puffing.
Stage 5, though, for length of time it took to do it (almost 2 hours for the 4 sets). I really had to push myself to do my workouts where usually I am looking forward to them.
Maybe I'm a masochist. I got bored at the end of Stage 5 and skipped the last 2 workouts. I also skipped Stage 6, and moved right into Stage 7.
I love it. I get done in not much over an hour including warm-up and cool-down. I'm huffing and puffing and *grunting* to complete some of the lifts, and I walk like an old woman the next day. LOL
I'm actually doing the 4x20 (when I can get all 20 done, although sometimes the last sets are 15). My HRM overestimates, but even so it's telling me I burned 900 calories in 1 hour.
Stage 5 was so boring with the long rests, and doing the same stuff we had in Stage 3. This is fun... in an evil, butt-kicking way.
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Karen -- Not going in circles anymore!
I almost left the gym today! I am really hating that 5A workout - its only doing 4 reps and then resting 2 min that is killing me. Well only one more to go before I can move on. I did decide to just skip the bwm or just do it once so that I can keep going. Stage 7 sounds so hard, but more fun (if that's a good term for it).
I liked stage 6 because it was short...I'm liking stage 7 for the same reason. Looks longer on paper, but with the short rest periods it is over quickly, while kicking your butt.
I didn't say it didn't knock me on my butt, lol. But it is over so quickly, it is not too much to endure. And I feel great afterward. I'm definitely sweating hard, my heart rate is up there and I say 'shit' a lot. But then all of a sudden it is time to go home.
That's funny, Kathy (the saying 'shit' part). I'm just starting stage 2. I'm not new to the weight room, and when I was reading through the book I thought these workouts wouldn't be that hard. Actually, a lot of books and magazines that put routines together for women are really not very hard, so maybe that's what I was expecting. But some of the exercises in phase 2 that I've done so far are pretty challenging. Some of them are different than what I'm used to doing and it's going to take me a workout or two just to master the movement. I love that about this program!
I have found them all equally challenging, I try to push myself as hard as I can every time. I just started stage 5, workout A today. I don't do the 2 minute rests. I just don't have that kind of time in the gym. I get 4 sets in with 4 intense reps, rest as much as I need until I'm ready to start again.
I'd say that Stage 7 was the hardest for me (it actually defeated me), but if I remember, I found the B workouts a little easy/boring in Stages 2,3,4,5 - however, if they'd been harder I wouldn't have been able to do the HIIT at the end.
Hardest workout?
Linear Mode
