Has anyone here tried this? It's a new, 9 video series - 12 week program.

Kathy Smith's Project: YOU

Looks interesting!

Edited for explanation:

Project: YOU is a 9 video series to give you a total body workout during a 12 week program. This includes 3 levels of cardio, an upper body workout, a lower body workout, and a more advanced total body workout. Also included is a yoga workout and Pilates workout.

A 12 week calendar is given to you so you will always know what exercises to do on which days. You pick the day you want to start, and the calendar does the rest. This program will build you up from any fitness level that you may be at. Kathy Smith is great for giving you a challenge, but allowing you to back off where you need to in order to keep up with the program.

The program also inludes a balanced eating plan (optional). It is basically a reduced calorie plan that does not radically restrict any type of food. You can read more about the program at 3FC , or you can read my journal, linked below.

I belong to Kathy's bulletin board on iVillage, get her email newsletter, etc. I haven't purchased Project:YOU but I know she's been working on it quite a while and she is VERY excited about it. I even had a chance to talk to her about it back this summer and she really has the right idea about what it takes to have a well-rounded, reasonable, no-hype program. I know that some of the other board members have it already -- you might pop on there and see what they're saying. The URL is http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-fbkathysmith.

Thanks! I read the forums at the beachbody site, but it didn't really tell me a lot. This one helped a bit more. I'm wondering if this is any different from taking the Cardio Fat Burn videos and alternating with Lift Weights To Lose Weight. It's fresher material, of course! She's also got Yoga and Pilates in there, so maybe it is more varied through the week. Do you know if on PY, do you alternate videos every day, or do you do multiples some days? (I think I'll just buy it and satisfy my curiosity)

Ok here is what I found, clipped from posts :

For the first 5 weeks:

Mon: Cardio 30 min., lower body weights 30 min.

Tues: Cardio 30 min., upper body weights 30 min.

Wed: Pilates 20 min, Yoga 20 min.

Thurs: Cardio 30 min., lower body weights 30 min.

Fri: Cardio 30 min., upper body weights 30 min.

Sat: Choice day

The 6th week is a recovery week. During that week you are doing Core Flex 3 times and 3 "choice" cardio workouts.

After week 7 the strength training gets bumped up:

Weeks 7- 12 we do Full Body Circuit 3 times a week (Days 1, 3 & 5), 2 other pure cardios during the week (one is a choice workout- Days 2 & 6), and 1 Core Flex (on Day 4).

For the specific videos, it works like this:

Week 1 workouts are Foundation Upper Body/Abs, Lower Body/Abs, Pilates Core /Yoga Flex and 'choice'
Week 2-5 as above but Foundation is replaced with Power Push (30 min w/intervals)
Week six is 'recovery' week & includes Pilates/Yoga, Long Lean, and Steady Strides [choice]
Week 7-12 workouts are Full Body circuit (60 min), Long Lean (40 mins) Pilates/Yoga and Steady Strides [choice]

Jennifer I'm glad you found the info you wanted! I'd be interested to hear what you think if you buy it and try it out.

I'm buying it, so I'll let you know!

Please do! I like Kathy Smith's videos a lot.

After a very impatient 10 days, it came! I've been reading it for a couple of days, and tonight I will practice on the first workout. Looks really nice so far. It has the complete exercise DVD schedule for the next 12 weeks, and so far it leaves little room for questions! It all makes sense. I'm looking forward to this, and very curious to see what kind of results I get!

Cool, can't wait to get an update when you've had a chance to try it all out.

Hi Jennifer -
I also have ordered Project You, and I'm anxiously awaiting it - is there special equipment? I do have hand weights, but have seen that a fitness ball is also used?

Thanks for any help!

Julie

Hi Julie, you don't need the stability ball, but it is helpful for a few moves. I use it for pushups because my knees are bad. I also put it between my legs for inner thigh work while doing crunches. (You can use a pillow for that) All you need is a mat (if you have hard floors) and a kitchen style chair. I'm really loving the program. Read the guidebook straight away, it will make so much sense of the plan. I have a day by day account going on my journal, also. (which I need to update right now!)

Thanks, Jennifer!

I don't have a stability ball (yet) - so I think I'll just wait and see how I do without it for my first round through.

I like the fact that it's varied and structured. I've been doing a lot of reading about it on the boards at ivillage and beachbody. It's been a week since I ordered and No Word Yet I'm hoping that it gets here by next week because that would put me in a great place in 12 weeks - beginning of June.

I enjoy reading your journal too - thanks for doing it!

It took a little over 2 weeks for mine to arrive, so hopefully yours will be there soon. You can write Beachbody to ask about it. If you do, let me know what kind of answers you get. I asked multiple questions in some mails, but they would only answer the first question in my mail. I wrote back and complained about canned messages, and it was the same guy that got the mail. Actually, I think they must have only one guy doing email customer service. His name is Kenneth!

Thanks, Jennifer - I finally got an email from BB saying that it had shipped (only one email), but I had sent them one earlier yesterday asking where it was.

Do you check out the BB forum at all?

Julie

Just FYI, Kathy's forum on iVillage is much more active than the forum on BeachBody, although she visits both. The iVillage forum is much older. If you want to check it out, it's at http://messageboards.ivillage.com/iv-fbkathysmith