STS Ab Circuits

Posted on May 14, 2013 by

AbcircuitsSTS Ab Circuits contains the abdominal workouts that are created to be done with the STS strength program–but of course you can do them at any time and in combination with any workout. The STS hand book doesn’t give a lot of guidance on how to include them other than to use them 2-3 times a week. My goal, initially at least, is to do at least one Ab Circuits workout a week but to work my abs at least 2-3 times a week—the other two abdominal workouts don’t have to be an Ab Circuits workout. There are 7 abdominal workouts. #7 requires a partner so I will not be reviewing it. However, I will review 1-6.

#1 Yoga-Based Abs is 15 minutes long. This is an interesting workout that I have mixed feelings about. I liked it and didn’t like it at the same time—at least initially. I didn’t think I was crazy about it as a core workout until my core was sore later that day. While doing it, I felt there was too much “yoga”—it is a core workout after all. I like yoga, btw, and I like all of the yoga moves she included, but I was expecting more core, less yoga. But clearly it hit my core harder than I thought. Just as background, I am not new to core work. I’ve always worked my core and over the past 90 days I’ve been working it via Xtrain. I think one of the reasons this workout was more effective than I first assumed was how slow some of the exercises are done. It takes more effort to hold some of these poses for a long time.

On to the review. The first move was variations on boat pose. Next was levitation while sitting cross-legged (holding your body off the ground with your hands). Then she does an advanced levitation if your able, with your legs extended in front of you. I was not able, btw. Next you do reverse plank, isometric crunches, a slow bike maneuver, spinal twists (or windshield wiper move), cat/cow, plank to side plank to crocodile to updog, child’s pose.

#2 Pilates-Based Abs 19 minutes. I really liked this ab workout; it combines solid core work with some nice stretching. Pilates is always a great core workout and this one is no exception. Cathe also keeps you from getting too fatigued during the workout by frequently letting you “rest” your core by pulling your knees to your chest.

You start with the basic pilates 100

Roll up and down

Double leg stretch with swimmer arm

Raise and lower straight legs while lying supine

Side twist–lay on back with bent knees and twist legs from side to side

Cross-cross (slow bicycles)

Scissor legs with pulses.

Corkscrew

Teaser

V-sits.

Side plank–touch top foot to floor behind you and top arm to floor in front of you

Saw

Mermaid

Stretch

#3 Weights and Plates Abs 19 minutes long. I did not do these ab workouts in order. Weights and Plates was the last of the 6 I did and I have to say, I saved the best and hardest for last. Wow. This core workout was very intense and difficult. And for this workout in particular, I want to stress the word “core” because I think it works the whole core area–front to back–better than any of the others. The “weights” in this workout are ankle weights and weighted gloves or wrist weights. Cathe uses two 2.5 pound ankle weights and two 2 pound weight gloves. I used the same thing. The plates are either paper plates or Slide N Glide disks. You start out with the weights on your hands and ankles.

Rope climbers

Sit up with two jabs at the top

Torso twists–first lift one leg, then the other, then both legs

Hip lifts–first straight up, then swiveling hips to one side while lifting, then to the other side

Lying supine with legs straight and one arm out to the side, lift the other arm and the opposite leg and touch them

Bike maneuver

Rollbacks–lifting hips/legs in air and lowering very slowly

Superman

Remove the weights and get the plates; the next section could also (ominously) be called the Plank section since for the entire plate segment you will be in plank. Get into plank with feet/toes on plates for the rest of the following exercises:

Knee pull ins–in straight arm plank slide your knees into your chest

Pike pull ins–in low plank (on elbows) slide your feet in, legs straight and butt going straight up into the air

Alternate knee pull ins and plank pull ins

45 degree pike pull ins: do pike pull ins but slide out at an angle

Plank jacks–in plank slide legs open and closed

Single leg adduction–in high/straight arm plank slide knee in and under body to the opposite side

The workout ends with some wrist stretches.

#4 Stability Ball Abs 20 minutes long. This one was a pretty good core workout. I liked it but I didn’t love it. It was kind of hit and miss with me. It had parts that I really liked and parts I didn’t like at all. It makes me feel like a wimp, because the parts I do not like are the extremely advanced parts. I have encountered them on a few of Cathe’s other workouts and I have a problem doing them. Not only because they are so advanced but I have serious balance issues with the stability ball. The moves I had a problem with are the final ones in prone and pike position with feet on the ball. Some of them I had no problem with, but when balance was required, the ball rolls away from me and I end up on the ground. The end result is the few seconds I start the move I seriously feel it, but then then ball escapes and I spend the rest of the move trying to get into position again. So in the end, I feel like I don’t get the benefit of the prone/pike exercises at all.

The workout starts with you laying on the ball. You do crunches with your arms over your head and then in a chest fly move. Move to the mat and, holding the ball in your hands, sit up while lifting one leg and extend the ball to the leg that is lifting. Rolls ups with ball in hands over head. Seated twists–twisting ball from side to side. Ball exchange–raising upper body (holding the ball overhead) and legs at the same time and taking the ball with your feet/legs and lowering, then raising again and grabbing the ball from between feet/legs. Side bends on ball–you do this one by a wall to keep from sliding (press one foot against wall), lay on side over ball and raise and lower upper body. Reverse hyper-extensions–lay prone on ball and lean upper body forward (hands braced on floor and legs up and straight) and raise and lower legs. Rocking–lay on the ball so chin and hands rest on ball and rock side to side, stopping yourself with obliques before elbow touches the ground. Roll outs–face ball on knees with sides of hands on top of ball, roll out using hand/arm/core strength and roll back in.

Here is where it starts getting crazy, though the first exercise is no problem. All of the remaining exercises will be in prone position with different areas of your lower body on the ball and your hands on the ground. Prone knee pull ins–thighs on ball, roll ball in and out toward body. Prone ski twist–roll ball so that knees are resting on ball and rotate legs/knees from side to side. Prone knee twists–similar to ski twist except bottom knee pulls while top knee extends out straight to the side. Double leg pike–similar to prone knee pull ins except ball starts at shins and is rolled in so that toes are on ball, legs are straight and butt is up in the air in a pike; you hold this position for a few seconds each rep. Single leg pike–same as double leg pike except when you pull in and hold, one leg is straight up in the air. Yeah. Those last 4 are no joke. I tried all of them but the ball kept rolling out from under me! Very frustrating. I suppose my difficulty with the last 4 exercises is a reflection of my core strength (or lack of) and that I should work on it more. But how do I “work” on it, if the ball keeps rolling away from me?  

#5 No Equipment Abs is 17.5 minutes long and tough. The lack of equipment doesn’t stop Cathe from hitting the abs so very hard. You start with a series of crunches, first with legs bent then with legs straight and reaching for feet. The next exercise was quite painful; with legs in an “L” you pulse up–wow! I felt this one. You do each side twice and I was ready for that exercise to be over! Legs go straight up in the air and you reach for your toes–64 times. The next one was interesting and one I wouldn’t expect to feel as much as I did; reverse crunch then tap you feet out 3 times, further each time. Climb the mountain–this is just a slow sit up where you parody climbing a rope to the count of 4 till your at the top, then “slide” down. Now she moves to obliques. Lying on your back with knees bent you bend to one side and reach to tap your foot. Immediately roll to your side and side crunch up, working the same obliques as the last exercise. Now you move to your side–or one glute–and with legs straight and to an angle, lift both legs toward upper body. Stay in the same position, but this time pull the knees to the upper body.

Plank exercises! Get in high plank (straight arms) and bring your knee to your elbow–on the outside of your body. After a brief rest (child’s pose) get into plank again. You will do a series where you bring your knee to your elbow–inside of body then rotate out (but not exactly bringing your knee to your elbow) then straight out behind you where you lift it and bring it to the ground then immediately do the other side of the body–alternating for each rep. The last exercise is a superman series; first with hands under chin then with elbows bent and to the side. The workout ends with a brief stretch.

#6 Medicine Ball Abs is 10 minutes long and actually goes straight into the bonus with a partner. But obviously if you do not have a partner, you stop it at 10 minutes. The Bonus Medicine Ball with a Partner Abs is also listed on the menu separately. I really liked this ab workout. Not only was it a good length for an abdominal add on but it was varied and functional. A nice of change of pace. 

The exercises are a combination of floor and standing exercises. It starts on the floor. Laying supine while holding the medicine ball over your head, crunch up raising the the medicine ball and one leg at the same time. After doing this on each leg you will do the same exercise with both legs. Bring the ball over your head to rest on the floor. Do the scissor motion with your legs, 8 reps with ball on the floor, then you raise the ball and your head up and do 8 reps, then repeat. Next you will do sit ups. Start with ball over head, one leg bent and one straight. When you sit up you lift the straight leg and touch the ball to the shin. Seated rotations–these were not what I expected. Sit up and twist one way, placing the ball on the mat behind you, the twist the other way and grab the ball–so you will really be twisting!

Next come the standing exercises. You start with chops. In plie/sumo, swing the ball down between your thighs then overhead like a kettlebell swing. Do the same thing but diagonally to each side. Then you do twists; holding the ball at waist level twist side to side. Hold the ball overhead and do side to side twists. It ends with circumference circles. With the ball overhead you will rotation your upper body in a circle–overhead, to the side to the floor to the other side and back overhead.

#7 Bonus Medicine Ball with a Partner Abs Only 9 minutes (I didn’t do this workout)

Posted in Cathe, STS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

STS Weeks 5 & 6 (Workouts 7, 8 & 9)

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

For more information on the STS program see STS Overview and Prep.

I was excited about new STS workouts. That is one thing I am loving about this program—every two weeks (every week if you do the 3.5 month rotation) I get new strength workouts. In addition, I am already seeing results—particularly in the strength department. Anyway, I printed out my workout cards for workouts 7, 8 & 9 and look with horror what I am supposed to be lifting in workout 8 for back rows. 105 pounds! I lifted 75 last week! The workout card even says it is supposed to be 65% of my 1RM—which is the same as workouts 4, 5 & 6. It makes no sense! But as it turns out, it is just some glitch in the workout card software. So… where did the extra 30 pounds come from? I went to the STS handbook and read about workouts 7, 8 & 9. It stated that we will not be increasing weight with these workouts and that we will remain at 65% of our 1RM. So, my weights should not have changed. And for the rest of the exercises they did not. So I am just going to lift 75 pounds for back rows. If my workout cards continue to have inconsistencies like that I will figure up my own poundage for the exercises with the software glitch. For these workouts it was only that one exercise. And figuring up your own percentage isn’t hard. Workout manager already figures out your 1RM for the exercise. Just grab a calculator and figure out the weight you actually use based on the percentage. For example, my 1RM for chest flys is 45 pounds. 45 x .65 = 29.25. So 65% of my 1RM for chest flys is 29 pounds, which is exactly what my workout cards say. I just round it up to 30 pounds.

 

Here is something else I have been noticing. This really isn’t a big deal as it doesn’t detract from getting an excellent workout and it really doesn’t make me like Cathe as a trainer any less; however, I am noticing repetition. Not the obvious repetition—some of the exercises are repeated. The repetition is in things Cathe says. It’s weird, too, because it’s not just similar, but identical. Almost like parts of earlier workouts are edited in—but I know that isn’t the case at all because not only are Cathe and crew dressed differently in each workout, but it each workout is one smooth ongoing sequence–editing cuts like in some of her other workouts (Crossfire, To the Max, Xtrain), which makes them work very smoothly for the many premixes are not present. For instance, in some of the workouts at the end of the warm up she comments on how excited she is to get started with the workout—and, in more than one workout, the comment is identical—including the odd hesitation in her speech when she says it (which btw is not typical for Cathe—she doesn’t hesitate when she speaks, so this stands out). Other identical comments make more sense—she will explain form when doing an exercise. She is a trainer who teaches classes at her own gym and trains people, so I’m sure some of her descriptions are rote and memorized. Still, when you do similar (yet different) workouts each week, you pick up on these things. Finally, there are comments that are referring to earlier workouts as if she has them mixed up! For instance in workout #9 Legs, you do 45 degree lunges once. You don’t alternate legs either, you do 15 reps on one side, then 15 reps on the other side. In Workout #6 Legs, you do 45 degree lunges twice—first you alternate legs, and the second time you do all reps on one side, then all the reps on the other side (just like in workout #9). Well, when you get to 45 degree lunges in workout #9, she states that “this time” we are going to do all of the reps on one side first “instead” of alternating like we did “last time.” Except we didn’t do that exercise earlier—this is the first (and only) time it is done in workout #9. Another time that stands out was workout #5 Back and Triceps. You double up your dynaband and do lat pulls downs. In Workout #2, you do this also, but you do lat pull downs twice. First with the band not doubled as one of your first exercises—kind of a warm up after the warm up. Then when you do it again later in the workout you have the band doubled for more resistance. Well, in workout #5 you only do it one time—no warm up lat pull down. But when you do it, she refers back to doing it in the warm up… except that didn’t happen in workout #5. Anyway, none of these things are big deals, but they do jump out at me.

 

And finally, during this two week period I had my own glitch. I had planned to do doubles on my strength days throughout STS, but week 6 I had to workout overtime. I cannot workout overtime and do doubles. On a normal day (Monday through Friday) I get up at 4:30am and workout for an hour. Then if I do doubles, I do a 30-40 minute workout when I get home from work. I still have to shower, make dinner and make my lunch for the next day before I can finally relax. Well, none of that can happen when I work overtime. I go into work earlier and get off work later. So I get up at 4:00am to get in my morning workout (and don’t eat breakfast until I get to work). Which means, I have to go to bed earlier as well. So, unfortunately, no doubles on overtime weeks.

*** This is being added at the end of the two weeks, on my rest day. I have a few pounds I need to loose, which I have been unsuccessful doing so far on STS. This past week, the only things I did different was not do doubles–and I finally dropped the pounds I’ve been trying to drop! Since doubles suck up what little time I have anyway (not just the 30-40 minute workout, but showering afterward, too), I decided to stop doing doubles for a while and see if I continue to get the results I want. I have some ideas–sometimes adding on very short cardio segments after my strength workout so that I am getting something. And of course days I am off workout (which I have several coming up in the next few weeks), I’ll just tack a cardio workout on right after I finish my strength work.

Disk 7 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps 55 minutes; 4 minute warm up, 51:30 training time, 30 second stretch. The dropsets, 21s and push ups just don’t stop coming. This was tough! What’s new, right? The first thing I want to point out is that 50 push ups are so much easier at the beginning of a workout (like in Disk #4) than at the end. I did stay on my toes, but I kept thinking all throughout those drops sets that I was not going to be able to stick out, that I would drop to my knees.

Equipment needed: bench or step with 5 risers, chair, stability ball, barbell, dumbbells and dynaband.

 

Exercises

Crossover Pushups

Standing Overhead Press Both Arms—dropsets (dumbbell)

Standing Overhead Press Both Arms—dropsets (dumbbell)

Standing Overhead Press Both Arms—dropsets (dumbbell)

Barbell Curl

Pushups on Stability Ball Elmo Style

Standing Front Raise (barbell)

Seated Incline Hammer Curls Both Arms

Chest Flys (Flat Bench) (dumbbell)

Seated Overhead Press (dumbbell)

Preacher Curl on Stability Ball One Arm (dumbbell)

Push Ups – Standard 1.5 count

Push Up Wide 1.5 count

Push Ups – 30 Standard

Alternating Seated Overhead Shoulder Press (dumbbell)

Seated Barbell Isolation Curls (chair)

Chest Flys on Stability Ball (dumbbell)

Lateral Side to Front Combo (dumbbell)

Incline Band Hammer Curl (bench/step)

Straddle Pushups (step)

Side Leaning Lateral Raise (dumbbell)

Seated Curls Alternating + Both Arms (dumbbell)

Staggered Pushups

Bow and Arrow w/ Band

Barbell Curl Wide Grip

Pushups Drop Sets   14  

Pushups Drop Sets   12  

Pushups Drop Sets   10  

Pushups Drop Sets   8  

Pushups Drop Sets   6  

Standing Upright Rows (barbell)

Alternating Standing Curls

Pushups 21s

Standing Barbell Front Press 21s

Barbell Curl Narrow Grip 21s

 

Disk 8 Back and Triceps 56 minutes, 3:30 minute warm up, 52 minute training time, 45 second stretch. It seems like, at least for Mesocycle 1, the Back and Tricep workouts are my favorite. I just really enjoyed this one. But my back has always been my favorite muscle group to work. And this workout really challenges me in new and heavier ways! After the warm up, you get another warm up—a strength warm up consisting of exercises for the back and triceps that use the dynaband, stability ball, bench/chair and body weight.

 

Equipment needed: bench that inclines or step with 5 risers, chair (or just use step/bench), dumbbells, barbell, pull up bar or bands, dynaband and stability ball.

 

Exercises

Lat pulldowns with band

Double Arm Band Rows High End

Seasaw Pushups (stability ball)

Dips (bench or chair) 

Chinups

Seated Overhead Extensions One Arm (dumbbell and chair)

T-Pull with band

Flat Bench Barbell Triceps Extensions

Barbell Rows

Y’s with band

Kickbacks One Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Horizontal Row (dumbbell)

Deadlifts (dumbbell)

Close Grip Bench Press (dumbbell)

One Arm press Down with Band

Chinups

Seated Overhead Extensions Both Arms (dumbbell)

Barbell Rows

Double Arm Rows with Band

Side Leaning One Arm Overhead Extensions on Ball (dumbbell)

Dumbbell Rows Both Arms (drop set)

Dumbbell Rows Both Arms (drop set)

Dumbbell Rows Both Arms (drop set)

Kickbacks Double Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Band Kickbacks

Pullups

Cross Body Kickbacks (dumbbell) (drop set)

Cross Body Kickbacks (dumbbell) (drop set)

Cross Body Kickbacks (dumbbell) (drop set)

Straight Arm Flys Prone on Incline Bench (dumbbell)

Side Lying One Arm Pushups

Scapular Retractions (barbell)

Superman on Floor Arms & Legs Elevate

 

Disk 9 Legs 55 minutes; 5 warm up, 50 training time, no stretch. Holy cow—it just keeps getting harder and harder. There are some more new exercises along with repeats of exercises from the previous Leg workouts. I’ll tell you the one that keeps reappearing and I wish it would go away—the wall squats with stability ball and dumbbells. OMG. That was is so hard and painful. That one strains my back as well as my glutes and quads. My legs are shaking from the beginning to the end of that exercise. I hate it! It is obviously doing the intended job though, I just hate that damn exercise.

 

This is the first lower body workout since I began STS to give me DOMS. My inner thighs were aching the next day. I think it is from the plie squats with a 40 pound dumbbell. And I drank my whey protein shake after I worked out, too. So far, that whey protein has done an amazing job—other than some core soreness from Ab Circuits, this is the first DOMS I’ve had during STS, thanks to whey protein. That stuff really works!

 

Equipment needed for this workout: high step, dumbbells, slide n glide disks or paper plates, stability ball and ankle weights.

 

Exercises

Squat Lunge Sequence 8/4 count 

One Leg Sit N Slide with Paper Plate or disk

Lateral Step Ups (dumbbell and high step)

Deadlifts Wide Stance (dumbbell)

Side Lunge onto Six Inch High Step (dumbbell)

45 Degree Lunge (dumbbell)

Squats Narrow Stance (dumbbell)

Static Low End Lunge Same Leg 3/1 Count (dumbbell)

Plie Squats Alternating Hand (dumbbell)

Deadlifts Wide Stance (dumbbell)

One Leg Slide Back Lunges with Paper Plate (dumbbell)

Side Slide Lunges with Paper Plate (dumbbell)

Front Lunge Same Leg (dumbbell)

Squats (dumbbell)

Calf Raises (dumbbell)

Leg Press (dumbbell, High Step)

Stiff Legged Deadlift on Platform (dumbbell)

Wall Squats Double Leg (stability ball and dumbbell)

One Leg Deadlift (Toes Elevated) 3/1 Count (dumbbell)

Leg raises (ankle weights)

Outer Thigh (ankle weights)

Hamstring and Glute Work with Plate (or disk) Alternating leg

Hamstring and Glute Work with Plate (or disk) Both legs

Adductor Glide Ins (plate or disk)

Adductor Hamstring Glide Ins (plate or disk)

Glute Presses

 

Rotation for weeks 5 and 6

 

Week 5

Day 1: Disk 7 Chest, Shoulders & Biceps

Doubles CXT 10-10-10 (cardio only)

Day 2: HIIT Pyramid + Ab Circuits No Equipment Abs + Extended Stretch

Day 3: Disk 9 Legs

Doubles: Xtrain Hardstrikes premix 16

Day 4: Disk 8 Back & Triceps

Doubles: Imax 2 Express premix 1

Day 5: Kickmax

Day 6: Bootcamp + Extended Stretch

Day 7: Rest

 

Week 6

Day 1: Disk 7 Chest, Shoulders & Biceps

Day 2: Intensity

Day 3: Disk 9 Legs

Day 4: Disk 8 Back & Triceps

Day 5: Xtrain All Out Low Impact HIIT Extreme premix 16 + Extended Stretch
Day 6: Drill Max
Day 7: Rest

Posted in Cathe, Fitness program, split series, Strength, STS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

STS Weeks 3 & 4 (Workouts 4, 5 & 6)

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

For more information on the STS program see STS Overview and Prep.

Two weeks down and getting ready to start week 3. So I print out the new workout cards for workouts 4, 5 and 6. Now, I understand the point of 1RM, but I was really surprised at how much my weights increased on some of the exercises. And dubious. But I want to do this right and that is one of the reasons I am doing the 5.5 month rotation–so I can tweak each workout the second time around. There is also an… “unevenness” to the increase in pounds. Cathe does address this. Let me explain. For tricep kickbacks I started with 15 pound dumbbells. This mostly worked well for me on Disk #2. The only time it didn’t was the first set of tricep kickbacks; I could do them all, until the end when we hold isometrically at the top of the move then lower slowly. 15 pounds was too much for that final burn move. But that’s ok–I went to failure and completed almost every rep. Disk #5 wants me to do 17 pounds for tricep kickbacks. Dumbbells aren’t made in 17 pounds. They just aren’t. I do own Select Techs which have a 17.5 pound setting (which is useful for some shoulder and bicep odd poundages btw) but we’re talking triceps here–a small muscle group. I am skeptical about 17 pounds let alone 17.5! Cathe makes weighted gloves with a zip pouch. You can add and remove the weight. So if all I had is 15 pound and 20 pound dumbbells (which is what most people would have), I could wear the gloves and add or subtract the appropriate weight from it to get the weight I need.

There are problems with this. I own Cathe‘s 2 pound weighted gloves and Beachbody’s 1 pound weighted gloves–I use these for kickboxing. Cathe’s do not cover the palm and Beachbody’s has the weight in the palm–so Beachbody’s is out since I cannot grip a dumbbell with the weight in the palm. In essence Cathe’s should work, right? But they don’t and here is why. I am lifting weights, therefore I am wearing weightlifting gloves. Do you know how long it would take to force the weight gloves over my weight lifting gloves? They are both tight fits to begin with. And then if I had to start adding and subtracting weight from the glove? That means I would have to pause the DVD player–which not only extends my precious workout time but defeats the purpose of meso 1! We are only supposed to get 30 seconds of rest between exercises–it is a fast-paced program. If I have to keep pausing the DVD to make these adjustments I am resting more than 30 seconds and I am not getting the “true” workout.

How did I handle this? My first attempt was to push through. Let’s talk about Disk #4. I increased weight based on what dumbbells/plates I had available. This did not work out as well as I hoped. In some cases it was great. For instance, standing upright rows with a barbell. It said I needed 34 pounds. So I just used 35 pounds. It was challenging, but doable. I did all reps. Same with alternating standing bicep curls. It said I needed 19 pound dumbbells, I used 20 pound dumbbells and did it–again challenging but doable. Lets go to standing barbell front press. It said I needed to lift 42 pounds. WTH? I’ll be honest–I didn’t even try. I loaded 35 pounds onto my barbell and I did not get the 21 reps. Going to failure is fine if you you’re failing one or two reps short of how many reps you are supposed to do. But I did not fail at 19. I failed at 15. So, the next week I dropped to 30 pounds and was able to do all of the reps–and it was challenging, not easy. In a sense, it makes me feel like a failure. I’m supposed to be able to do this, right? Why else did it calculate that amount for me? 

Let’s talk about disk #5 now. This one is more significant because it is Back and Triceps. Since I was failing on tricep kickbacks during the bonus burn during disk 2, I kept it at 15 pounds for kickbacks. However, some of the tricep exercises had me at 11 pounds or 13 pounds. For the 11 pound exercises I just went straight to 12 pound dumbbells and that worked. I was either able to do all of the reps or I failed on rep 14 (total reps 15). For the 13 pounds, I used my beachbody weighted gloves. Since they secure with velcro, I just wrapped them around the top of the handle. It didn’t cover the entire handle so I could hold it fine. That actually worked really well. So, if it makes me do 14 pounds, I’ll just use Cathe’s 2 pound gloves and do the same thing. For back, it initially had me doing barbell rows and deadlifts with 71 pounds. I used 70 pounds for Disk #2. For Disk #5 it wanted me to do 78 pounds! Again–a pretty big jump! I did 75 pounds. It was tough but doable. On a side note, at the end of Workout #5 you do drops sets using 3 different sets of weights. Cathe actually uses her weighted gloves! You have 10 seconds between each drop set–so she used the 10 seconds to frantically rip the little sand bags out of the back of her gloves and throw them on the floor. It was a little too frantic for my liking. I think I will stick with the way I am currently doing it. 

 

Disk #4 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps: 55 minutes; warm up 4 minutes, 50 minute training time and stretch approx 45 seconds. With this week, you increase the amount of weight you are lifting by 5% (to 65% of your 1RM). Holy cow! This workout was brutal on so many levels! First, as you can see below, it begins with 50 push ups! I actually prefer this. I can do lots of push ups on my toes–if it is fairly early in a workout that is. But the more fatigued my muscles get, the harder push ups become. This is obvious, but Cathe litters pushups all through these workouts and I won’t lie–by the end of the workout, I dropped to my knees. The final set of push ups–21s, I did on my knees (this review was started the first week I did this workout; the second week I did every push up, including the final 21s, on my toes, so I am clearly getting stronger). But all the others I did on my toes. Also–that 5% increase in weight had me reaching muscle failure a few times, which is a good thing, except when it happens as I described above in the overview of weeks 3 & 4. But that is why I am doing the 5.5 month rotation–so I can tweak it the second time I do the workout. 

For this workout you need a bench or your step with 5 risers on each side, a chair (or just use your step), dumbbells, barbell, stability ball, mat and dynaband.

Exercises:

Pushups Drop Sets  14   

Pushups Drop Sets  12  

Pushups Drop Sets  10  

Pushups Drop Sets  8  

Pushups Drop Sets  6  

Standing Upright Rows (barbell)

Alternating Standing Curls (dumbbell) 

Incline Chest Flys (dumbbell and incline bench or step on incline)

Seated Rear Flys into Band Pulls (chair) 

Bonus Band Pulls

Incline Curl Alternating & Rotate at Top (dumbbell and stability ball)

Stability Ball Pushups- Ball at hips, knees, feet

Functional Overhead Press to the right, the left then Front raise (dumbbell)

Barbell Curls with Band Attached

Prone Pushups on Stability Ball

Seated Lateral Raise Both Arms High Ends (dumbbell and chair)

Seated Concentration Curls 1.5′s (dumbbell and chair)

Straddle Pushups (step) 

Side Leaning Lateral Raise (dumbbell and stability ball)

Seated Curls Alternating + Both Arms (dumbbell)

Chest Flys (Flat Bench and dumbbell)

Seated Overhead Press (dumbbell and chair)

Preacher Curl on Stability Ball One Arm (dumbbell)

Core Pushups – boot camp style

Seated Front Press Double Arms 1.5′s (barbell and chair)

Reverse Dumbbell Curl

Staggered Pushups

Bow & Arrow w/ Band

Hammer Curl Double Arm (dumbbell)

Pushups 21′s

Standing Barbell Front Press

Barbell Curl Narrow Grip

Disk #5 Back and Triceps:

58 minutes; 3:30 minute warm up, 53:30 minute training time and 1 minute stretch. It is already becoming redundant for me to state that this is a super tough workout—but it is! And like Legs, I attribute it as much to the exercises as to the increase in weight. I will say I like Workout #5 better than Workout #2. Not sure why, I just do. The first 4 exercises are “warm up sets”—in addition to the 3:30 minute warm up. So for the dumbbell rows you are not lifting 65% of your 1RM—you are going lighter.

 

For this workout you will need a bench with 5 risers each side, a chair, a pull up bar or bands, a stability ball, dumbbells, barbell and a dynaband.

Exercises:

Dumbbell Rows Both Arms

Close Grip (tricep) Push Ups

Dumbbell Rows Both Arms

Close Grip (tricep) Push Ups

Chinups

Seated Overhead Extensions One Arm (dumbbell and chair)

One Arm Row (dumbbell)

T-Pull with band

Flat Bench Tricep Extensions (dumbbell)

Barbell Rows

Y’s with band

Kickbacks One Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Horizontal Row (dumbbell)

Deadlifts (dumbbell)

Seasaw Pushups (stability ball)

One Arm press Down with Band

Chinups

Seated Overhead Extensions Both Arms (dumbbell and chair)

Barbell Rows

Double Arm Rows with Band

Side Leaning One Arm Overhead Extensions on Ball (dumbbell)

Pullovers (step and barbell)

Kickbacks Double Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Band Kickbacks

Pullups

Cross Body Kickbacks (dumbbell and step)

Lat pull downs with band

Side Lying One Arm Pushups

Double Arm Row Horizontal (dumbbell and chair)

Double Arm Row Horizontal (dumbbell and chair)

Double Arm Row Horizontal (dumbbell and chair)

Kickbacks Double Arm (dumbbell)

Kickbacks Double Arm (dumbbell)

Kickbacks Double Arm (dumbbell)

Superman on Floor Arms & Legs Elevated 

 

Disk #6 Legs: 56 minutes; 5 minute warm up, 50:30 training time and 30 second stretch. For this workout you will need the high step at various heights, a chair, dumbbells, slide and glide disk or paper plate, dynaband, stability ball and ankle weights.

 

OMG. This workout was brutal. BRUTAL. I attribute it as much to how advanced these workouts are (and this includes the fast pace of the workout) as to the increase in weights. My workout card jacked me up to 45 pound dumbbells for squats. That is 90 pounds. I know from experience I can squat 90+ pounds with a barbell—but dumbbells are a different story. The first time I did the workout I used 45 pound dumbbells and got through all the reps, but I felt like my arms were going to rip out of my shoulders. Then you go straight into calf raises while still holding the dumbbells. OMG. When it was over I just opened my hands and released the dumbbells. I never do that. My heavy dumbbells are expensive Select Techs; when I finish a move I carefully place them back in their stand, I never just dump them. Well, I did this morning. I am seriously scared of workouts #9 and #12. So scared that the next time I do this workout I am dropping to 40 pound dumbbells. I would so much rather be using the squat rack and barbell. Other than for squats and deadlifts, the weight you use is much more moderate—but this workout is still killer. It never stops and it is tough. My glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves are still stinging hours later. If I do not suffer serious DOMS I have only my post-workout whey protein shake to thank for it. It has served me well so far throughout STS.

Exercises:

Front Lunge + Back Lunge (One Leg At Time) (dumbbell)

Alternating 45 Degree Front Lunge (dumbbells)

Leg Press (dumbbell, High Step)

One Leg Elevated Lunges (dumbbell, High Step)

Deadlifts Wide Stance (dumbbell)

One Leg Slide Back Lunges with slide and glide disks or paper plate (dumbbell)

Side Slide Lunges with slide and glide disks or paper plate (dumbbell)

One Leg Sit N Stands (chair and dumbbell)

Squats Narrow Stance (dumbbell)

Calf Raises (dumbbell)

Low Pulse Lunges (dumbbell)

Stiff Legged Deadlift on Platform (dumbbell)

Wall Squats Double Leg (dumbbells and stability ball)

Lateral Step Ups (dumbbell and high step)

45 Degree Lunge (Same Leg) (dumbbell)

Squats Narrow Stance (dumbbell)

Static Low End Lunge Same Leg 3/1 Count (dumbbell) 

Wall Squat with Ball and Leg Extension

Leg Press with band on High Step

Firewalkers (band)

Calf Raises (dumbbell)

Standing Kickback with band

Supine Double Leg Outer Thigh Press with band

Inner Thigh Raise with ankle weights

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Here is my rotation for weeks 3 and 4:

Week 3:

Day 1: STS Disk 4 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps

Doubles: Intensity step only premix

Day 2: HIIT #2 30/30 + STS Ab Circuits Stability Ball Abs + Extended Stretch

Day 3: STS Disk 6 Legs

Doubles Xtrain Ride premix 3

Day 4: STS Disk 5 Back and Triceps

Doubles Slide N Glide cardio only premix

Day 5: Xtrain Tabatacise + STS Ab Circuits Medicine Ball Abs + Extended Stretch

Day 6: Terminator Viper

Day 7: Rest

Week 4:

Day 1: STS Disk 4 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps + STS Ab Circuits Pilates Abs + Extended Stretch

Doubles: 4 Day Split Kickbox cardio only premix

Day 2: Imax #2

Day 3: STS Disk 6 Legs

Doubles Cardio Supersets

Day 4: STS Disk 5 Back and Triceps

Doubles 4 Day Split Bootcamp cardio only premix

Day 5: Kick, Punch & Crunch

Day 6: Body Max #2

Day 7: Rest

Posted in Cathe, Fitness program, split series, Strength, STS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

STS Weeks 1 & 2‏ (Workouts 1, 2 & 3 + Extended Stretch)

Posted on April 13, 2013 by

For more information on the STS program see STS Overview and Prep

I have decided that in mesocycles 1 and 2 I will review STS biweekly, which will equal out to 3 workouts reviewed per post. Since I am doing the 5.5 month rotation I will be spending 2 months in mesocycles 1 & 2 but only a month in mesocycle 3; however in mesocycle 3 I will be doing 4 STS workouts a week, so I’m not sure how that mesocycle will play out just yet. I’ll decide as I get closer. I may do one post a week for 4 weeks reviewing 3 of the workouts in each post then a separate single post at the end that reviews all 4 of the squat rack lower body workouts.

I have also decided to do doubles on the days that I do STS strength workouts. “Doubles” for me is just two workouts in one day–usually one (the strength workout) is a full length workout and the cardio is shorter (approx 30 minutes). Since I cannot do both cardio and strength in one sitting (due to the length of the STS workouts and the fact I only have approximately 1 hour to workout in the mornings), I will be doing my cardio double after work on strength days. Also, I had initially planned to do the extended stretch on my rest day, but I would really like to keep my rest day a true rest day. So I am fitting in the extended stretch wherever it fits. I want to do it at least once a week, but hopefully 2-3 times. But we will see where it actually fits.

Since I am reviewing 2 weeks at a time, I will be writing the reviews over a two week period. At the time I started this review I had only done two of the STS workouts: Disc #1 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps and Disc #3 Legs. My first is impression is WOW. Just two workouts (out of 40) into it and I am impressed, even more excited and a little scared! The two workouts I have done so far are HARD. Very, very challenging. I have almost every Cathe workout available for purchase, including her new Xtrain series (which I adore), and so far, these are different from any of her other workouts I’ve done. First impressions—few exercises are repeated (tho some are). So, in a sense, Xtrain seems to have taken after STS in the variability.

************************************************************************************

I am nearing the end of week 1 (have done the first 3 workouts now) and one thing I noticed, that is unexpected, is no DOMS. Every time I do one of these workouts, they are so tough that they totally burn out the muscle group they working so that I feel it for hours afterward. And of course, I am expecting some serious DOMS the next day. Except, that hasn’t happened. I am not sure what to attribute this to since I was sore throughout Xtrain. Part of me thinks maybe Xtrain prepped me for it, but part of me wonders if it is the whey protein shakes I am drinking after the strength workouts. I started doing it just for STS. I have read that whey protein increases muscle recovery and reduces soreness. So I am wondering if that is the reason because it just seems so odd that these workouts are so hardcore and challenging and my muscles feel completely burned out afterward… and yet, no DOMS.

**********************************************************************************

This format for blogging is kind of weird–adding things at different times during the two week period. But as of wiritng this I am almost done with the first 2 weeks. I’ve done each workout twice–so next week is new workouts. I can’t wait! So lets get on with the actual workout reviews.

Each workout has a short warm up and stretch before starting. Each workout also has a very short stretch at the end, which was something of a relief for me. I feared that because each disk has the separate 15 minute Extended Stretch, that we would get no stretch at the end of the workout. As it is, the stretch is very brief (1-2 minutes), but it is better than nothing. Also, she frequently has you stretch throughout the workouts; not after every exercise but probably 4-5 times throughout a workout. Since this is the first STS review post, I will also be reviewing the Exteneded Stretch in this post, but it is the exact same stretch on every disk.

Disc #1 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps: 50 minutes;  4 minute warm up, 45 minute training time, 1 minute stretch. This workout is crazy tough and moves very quickly with a lot of equipment needed: step with 5 risers each side, plus you will be inclining it (or use an incline bench if you have one), stability ball, dynaband, dumbbells, barbell, matt and chair. There are A LOT of push ups. A LOT. Very challenging workout.

Exercises:

Push Ups 1.5 count

Push Up Wide 1.5 count

Push Ups – Standard

Alternating Seated Overhead Shoulder Press (dumbbell)

Barbell Curl (crazy 8s)

Incline Chest Flys (step/bench inclined & dumbbell)

Seated Rear Delts (chair & dumbbell)

Bonus Band Pulls

Incline Curl Alternating & Rotate at Top (dumbbell & stability ball)

Decline Pushups (off inclined step)

Incline Front Raise on Stability Ball (dumbbell)

Standing Quarter Stop Curls Both Arms (dumbbell)

Prone Pushups on Stability Ball

Seated Lateral Raise Both Arms High Ends (chair & dumbbell)

Seated Concentration Curls 1.5′s (chair & dumbbell)

Straddle Pushups (step with 2 risers)

Side Leaning Lateral Raise (stability ball & dumbbell)

Seated Curls Alternating + Both Arms (chair & dumbbell)

Chest Flys (Flat Bench) (dumbbell)

Seated Overhead Press (chair & dumbbell)

Preacher Curl on Stability Ball One Arm (dumbbell)

Core Pushups – boot camp style

Seated Front Press Double Arms 1.5′s (barbell)

Reverse Dumbbell Curl

Staggered Pushups

Incline Rear Raise on Stability Ball (dumbbell)

Barbell Curl Wide Grip

Disc #2 Back and Triceps 56 minutes; 3 minute warm up, 51 minute training time, 1.5 minute stretch.

Another toughie. I really loved this workout and it is one of the reasons I wanted the squat rack/bench press rack before starting STS. When I did P90X, I was unable to use a pull up bar during the workouts because my workout room has no place for one. French doors, no closet and low ceilings (so no doorway bar and I couldn’t bring a stand alone into the room). I had to use a heavy band in the top of the French doors. In my own time (outside of the workouts), I worked on assisted pull ups in another room in the house (I bought a doorway pull up bar). By the end of P90X, I could do two full unassisted pull ups. STS has pull ups, but I didn’t want to use the bands again. With a the squat rack, I can lay a barbell across the top (where it goes for squats) to do regular pull ups (legs bent and lifted off the ground obviously–I’m not that short!), or supine pull ups by laying the barbell on one of the lower levels. Since I haven’t even attempted pull ups in a long time, I would have to do assisted ones anyway in the beginning, so for this workout, I did the supine pull ups. I LOVED it! I felt it so much more than I ever did using the bands during P90X. And I did feel it when I used the bands. I used the heaviest band Beachbody sold, so I was giving my back a good workout, but this was different. So that was a very cool part of this workout.

Just like Disk #1 and Disk #3, this workout moves fast. She does a lot of superset/burnsets in this workout, too, especially for the back. For this workout you will need a barbell, dumbbells, a bench or step with 5 risers, a chair (or just use your step which is what I did), a dyna band, and a pull up bar or bands in doorway.

Exercises:

Lat pulldowns with band

Dumbbell Rows Both Arms

Dips on chair

Straddle Pushups using top of step

Chinups

Seated Overhead Extensions One Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Row (dumbbell)

T-Pull with band

Flat Bench Barbell Triceps Extensions

Barbell Rows

Y’s with band

Kickbacks One Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Horizontal Row (dumbbell)

Deadlifts (dumbbell)

Close Grip Bench Press (dumbbell)

One Arm press Down with Band

Chinups

Seated Overhead Extensions Both Arms (dumbbell)

Barbell Rows

Double Arm Rows with Band

Side Leaning One Arm Overhead Extensions on Stability Ball (dumbbell)

One arm rows

Deadlifts (dumbbell)

Kickbacks Double Arm (dumbbell)

One Arm Band Kickbacks

Pullups

Cross Body Kickbacks (dumbbell)

Lat pulldowns with band

Side Lying One Arm Pushups

Superman on Floor Arms & Legs Elevate

Disc #3 Legs: 53 minutes; 5 minute warm up, 46 minute training time, 2 minute stretch.

This is a very intense workout! Many of the exercises are very challenging with or without dumbbells and it moves at such a rapid clip (plus you are exerting yourself a lot) that you get a cardio workout from this as well. Very, very challenging. Both times I did it my glutes were stinging for hours afterward! You need dumbbells, a high step with 3 risers, a stability ball, a firewalker, a chair and a slide and glide disk or paper plate.

Exercises:

Walking Lunges & Plie Squat jumps

One Leg Touch Down Squats

Firewalkers (band)

One Leg Elevated Lunges (dumbbell and high step)

Deadlifts Wide Stance (dumbbell)

One Leg Slide Back Lunges with Paper Plate/discs

Side Slide Lunges with Paper Plate/discs

Wall Squat with stability Ball and Leg Extension

Squats (dumbbell)

Calf Raises (dumbbell)

Front Lunge Same Leg (dumbbell)

Stiff Legged Deadlift on Platform (dumbell)

Wall Squats Double Leg (stability ball and dumbbell)

Lateral Step Ups (dumbbell and high step)

Drop Side Lunges & Stand with Knee Lift (dumbbell and high step @ 6 inches)

Sequential Lunge Into Front Kick Combo (dumbbell)

Squats Narrow Stance (dumbbell)

Calf Raises (dumbbell)

Deadlifts Wide Stance (dumbbell)

Pulse leg to side strait leg 24 reps (chair)

Bent Leg Pulse to Side balance paper plate or disc (chair)

Front/Back fan Kicks 12 reps (chair and stability ball)

Calf Raises (chair)

Tibialis Press and Pulls with Stability ball (chair)

Extended Stretch: 15 minutes

The extended stretch starts with side bends

Arch back with fists in small of back

Chair twists

Swan dive then touch the floor; alternate flat back/round back in this position

Runners lunge; in runners lunge twist and raise one arm toward ceiling while other stays on floor–do to each arm

Cat/cos

Child’s pose; while in child’s pose stretch hands to each side

Cobra

Pigeon

Cat/cow

Sit on butt with legs straight in front of you and reach for toes

Bend one leg and touch foot to inner thigh–reach for toes of straight leg

Butterfly stretch

Pilates saw stretch

Roll onto back into happy baby but no rocking

Still on back bring soles of feet together and press elbows into inner thighs

Still on back raise one leg straight in air while other bent and rotate ankle

Cross leg over knee and pull up (hands on bent knees hamstring) in a glute stretch

Sit up cross-legged and rotate to the side, looking behind you and stretching your spine

Stretch neck looking down, up and to each side

Place hands behind you on floor and stretch back (chest stretch)

Round forward

**********************************************************************

Here is my rotation calendar for the first two weeks:

Week #1

Day 1: STS #1 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps

Doubles: CTX Step and Intervals (warm up, cardio and stretch only)

Day 2: HIIT #1 40/20 + Ab Circuits: Yoga Abs + STS Extended Stretch

Day 3: STS #3 Legs

Doubles: CTX Kickbox (warm up, cardio and stretch only)

Day 4: STS #2  Back and Triceps

Doubles: CTX All Step (warm up, cardio and stretch only)

Day 5: Cardio Core Circuit + Extended Stretch

Day 6: Body Max #1

Day 7: Rest

Week #2

Day 1: STS #1 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps+ Ab Circuits Medicine Ball Abs+ Extended Stretch

Doubles: Xtrain: Hardstrikes premix 16

Day 2: Imax #1

Day 3: STS #3 Legs

Doubles: Xtrain: Ride premix 1***

Day 4: STS #2  Back and Triceps

Doubles: Xtrain: All Out Low Impact HIIT

Day 5: 4 Day Split Cardio Power premix

Day 6: High Step Challenge

Day 7: Rest

***This was the “planned” double that did not occur. I am pretty religious about working out. If I decide I am going to do doubles add them to my rotation schedule, I stick with it. But sometimes life happens and you have to be flexible. About two years ago it was a tornado. I had to get in the closet with my daughter rather doing my planned doubles workout. This time–a freak ice storm destroyed the huge tree in our front yard. My husband and I left work early to cut it up since it crashed onto the roof and driveway. Hey, life happens. Rather than do the Ride premix, I dragged branches around outside while my hands were numb with cold. I have done all my other doubles without issue; however, it has made me recall one of the (many) reasons I love to workout early in the morning when everyone else is in bed. Sometimes during the doubles my cell phone would not stop with the calls and the text messages. I never answered the phone and would only reply to my husband with a brief text telling him I was working out (implied message–you will get no more replies until I am finished). But the little distractions (and the tree falling on the roof) are just a few reasons why morning workouts rule–no one bothers me! It is me time!

Posted in Cathe, Fitness program, split series, Strength, STS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Xtrain: Wrap Up

Posted on March 31, 2013 by

For more info on Xtrain see My Intro to Xtrain , Week 3 Update, Week 6 update and Week 7? Update

As I start writing this blog post (it will probably take me a day or two to complete), I am nearing the end of my 90 days of Xtrain. It did not play out exactly as I expected it to. My long vacation definitely put a crimp in things as well as the fact I worked over time almost the entire 90 days (which limits my workout time on M-F to no more than 60 minutes–and of course makes me tired, stressed, pressed for time and my diet wasn’t what it should have been). Nevertheless, I stuck with it. In fact, I am posting the remaining weeks of my rotation below. The first 6 weeks can be found in Xtrain: Week 6.

I love Xtrain. Cathe workouts are my favorite workouts that I have ever encountered and Xtrain workouts are, overall, my favorite of all Cathe workouts (so far). They are fun, they are advanced and they do the job beautifully. I definitely had an increase in strength and muscle definition. I will definitely come back to these workouts. The cardio workouts I will return to immediately during STS and the strength ones after. I will probably even do Supercuts during STS at times. I really cannot recommend these workouts highly enough. At the end of 90 days these workouts were still giving me DOMS. Keep in mind, I always increase my weights; meaning every time I do a strength workout I record the amount of weight I lifted for each exercise and whether I can lift heavier the next time. Then the next time I do that workout I increase my weights. However, this is not unique to Xtrain for me—I have always done this. But I will say that something about Xtrain made me challenge myself more than I usually do, therefore I lifted heavier than I have ever lifted before in this program.

Having now done all of the workouts multiple times, I am going to give some additional commentary on them. First, Tabatacise never got easier. I think it is the hardest cardio workout Cathe has created to date. Throughout the program I did premix 5 every time I did Tabatacise which is all 5 tabatas + Core #1. Every single time I did it I started getting mildly queasy by tabata 4 or 5. I never threw up or had to stop the workout; nevertheless it wrung me out every single time I did it. BTW–I work out first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. In addition, I have done Core #1 with many of the workouts, but when I end Tabatacise with it, I usually fail during the core exercises several times. Usually during the moves that require hip flexor strength. Cathe just beats the crap out of me during the workout and my hips cannot handle some of the core moves! When doing Core #1 after other workouts, it challenges me, but I don’t fail. Only after Tabatacise do I experience this!

Cardio Leg Blast is still one of my all time favorite workouts. I just love that workout. It always challenges me and gives me an awesome cardio and lower body workout, especially when I did the extreme premixes. I felt it for days afterward! This leads me to the 100 Rep Challenges. Those things never got any easier. I feel the hip thrusts are incredibly effective and worked my glutes like nothing else. All of them were pretty effective, to be honest. I see changes all over, and I really do believe the 100 Rep Challenges contributed to that greatly.

This especially goes for the strength workouts combined with those 100 Rep Challenges. I don’t think my biceps and triceps have ever been worked so hard. My arms are solid now. I still love the combination of the strength workouts. Chest, Back & Shoulders and Bi’s & Tri’s were tough, comprehensive and fast paced. Burn Sets BURNED! I never followed the rotation calendar exactly. I am weird. I loved all of the strength workouts and I didn’t like how the calendar neglected some of them. I wanted to use them equally. So I defeated the undulating purpose of it. Oh well. I still got great results.

Supercuts is another of my all time favorite workouts. My thoughts about it have evolved over the past 90 days. I initially compared it to Afterburn, and though there are some similarities, I feel Supercuts, at least the way I did it, was more strength than cardio. It is still a metabolic weight training workout and you get a very good cardio burn, but the two workouts differ in significant ways. They are both low-impact, fast-paced and use dumbbells to increase cardio intensity. However, there is more “down time” during Supercuts. I don’t mean you stop working out, I mean you isolate muscles for some of the strength work, which gives your heart rate a chance to lower. This does not happen in Afterburn. Though in Afterburn Cathe uses heavier dumbbells than she does in Supercuts, she doesn’t hit all muscle groups, so Afterburn cannot be considered a strength workout. Supercuts hits every major muscle group. And I use heavier dumbbells than Cathe on every single exercise, so I feel that I am getting pretty decent strength work. In addition, the heavier weights increase my cardiovascular burn. You’ll see how I situated Supercuts in my rotations below. I kept it separate from most of the upper body strength work because I felt I was getting strength work in Supercuts.

I continue to love All Out Low Impact HIIT and Hard Strikes all through the rotation. Once I discovered the Extreme All Out premix, that is the only way I did All Out—and I always used 8 pound dumbbells instead of 5 pounds to increase intensity. Hard Strikes I have some issues with. Sometimes doing it with the conditioning drills wasn’t appropriate when I was very sore. Which made the workout shorter than I like. I love the cardio boxing—it is super intense, but it is only 30 minutes! I want more! After I did the Heavy Bag tabatas I always tacked those onto the end. When I did the full workout with the Heavy Bag Tabatas, that got me an hour long workout. But when I had to exclude the conditioning drills that dropped it to under 50 minutes (47 I think). I will still use it because I love it and those tabatas work muscles in my back that nothing else seems to touch, but I wish the cardio aspect of it was longer.

Legs is still my least favorite of all of the Xtrain workouts. I still like it and I think it is an incredible workout, but it is HARD and kind of boring at times, in spite of the fact there is a ton variety. It is a high rep/endurance workout, so you can’t really escape doing an exercise a zillion times–which can get boring. I will probably not return to Legs as often as I should, though I will return to it. Like I said—excellent workout. I especially like the Rear Delts Bonus and I generally do Premix 3 which has it all—all of the leg segments + Rear Delts. Then I add on 100 Rep Hip Thrusts. So I completely burn my lower body out on Legs days.

And finally, Ride, which I said I wouldn’t purchase or review and I caved. I had initially intended to review it on the blog but I changed my mind and will just discuss it here. Ride is a spinning workout and I do not have a spin bike, so I don’t feel I can give an accurate/authentic review of it. I have a recumbent bike. Nevertheless, Ride was still very HARD! I was sweating buckets and breathing hard, even though I could not stand up while riding like Cathe and crew did. Incredible workout! My legs were burning during and afterward. It has a lot of 30 minute premixes that will make it a perfect add-on workout or doubles workout. And I’ll start getting some use out of my bike again!

Here is my rotation for my final 5 weeks of Xtrain. The first week was after I returned from vacation and  I mention in my Xtrain: Week 7? post, my feet were suffering so I did more of a recovery week, which included no Xtrain—because Xtrain has zero recovery level workouts. Technically it starts at week 9, because that is where I was in the 90 rotation. However, workout-wise it is actually week 7 since I didn’t work out for 2 weeks while on vacation. I wasn’t initially going to post my little recovery week, but then decided it might give someone an idea of good recovery week workouts when you need to take it easy for whatever reason.

Week 7 (recovery)

Day 1: Slide N Glide

Day 2: Supersets

Day 3: MMA Kickboxing

Day 4: Cardio & Weights

Day 5: Low Max

Day 6: Push Pull

Day 7: MMA Boxing

Week 8 (back to Xtrain!)

Day 1: Chest, Back & Shoulders

Day 2: Cardio Leg Blast

Day 3: Bi’s & Tri’s premix 1 (with Core #1)

Day 4: Hard Strikes premix 12 (with heavy bag tabatas)

Day 5: Supercuts premix 2 (with Core #2)

Day 6: All Out Low Impact HIIT premix 16 (extreme premix)

Day 7: rest day

Week 9

Day 1: Burn Sets: Chest, Back & Shoulders + 100 Rep Scarecrows

Day 2: Tabatacise premix 5 (with Core #1)

Day 3: Burn Sets: Bi’s & Tri’s + 100 Rep Bi’s & Tri’s

Day 4: Kick Max (minus leg drills)

Day 5: Afterburn

Day 6: Legs premix 3 (all legs + rear delts) + 100 Rep hip thrusts

Day 7: rest day

Week 10

Day 1: Chest, Back & Shoulders + 100 Rep lateral raises

Day 2: Crossfire

Day 3: Bi’s and Tri’s premix 1 (with Core #1)

Day 4: All Out Low Impact HIIT premix 16 (extreme premix)

Day 5: Supercuts premix 2 (with Core #2)

Day 6: Cardio Leg Blast

Day 7: rest day

Week 11:

Day 1: Burn Sets: Chest, Back & Shoulders + 100 Rep Scarecrows

Day 2: Hard Strikes premix 12 (with heavy bag tabatas)

Day 3: Burn Sets: Bi’s & Tri’s + 100 Rep Bi’s & Tri’s

Day 4: Tabatacise premix 5 (with Core #1)

Day 5: To The Max Extreme premix

Day 6: Legs premix 3 (all legs + rear delts) + 100 Rep hip thrusts + Ride

Day 7: rest day

STS starts on April 1!

Posted in Cardio, Cardio + Strength, Cathe, Fitness program, Metabolic Weight Training, split series, Strength, tabata, Xtrain | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

STS Overview and Prep

Posted on March 14, 2013 by

STS

**4/19/13 edit–I will be reviewing the workouts as I go through the program. Scroll to the bottom for links to the individual workouts (new links will be added when each review posts).

STS is a weight-lifting/strength program. That’s the short description. But it is so much more complex than that and in so many ways. The program itself is complex. The preparation to begin the program is complex. And the creation of personal rotation calendars is complex. This overview will cover all of that and I will try to do it in that order. But first I will reminisce on how I first heard about STS and decided to give it a go.

STS is my first knowledge of Cathe Friedrick. I have been working out with home videos/DVDs for over 20 years (I started with Tamilee Webb’s Buns of Steel series–on VHS!). At first it was on and off, but then about 10 years ago I discovered The Firm and it became a ritual—no less than 5 days a week, often every single day. My DVD collection and fitness equipment collection slowly grew so that when we bought our current house, I needed an entire workout room to house it all. Using the living room to work out was no longer adequate. I was getting serious about lifting weights (going heavy that is—the heaviest weight I owned at the time was 20 pound dumbbells which I only used for back and lower body work) about the same time STS came out (it came out in 2009–but Cathe always “forecasts” her new/upcoming series and programs, so there was information online about it in 2008, which was when I first read about it). I was looking at P90X and ChaLean Extreme, too. They won out over STS for 2 reasons—they were both cheaper programs and they both required much less equipment. If you’ve read my reviews of almost all of Cathe’s other workouts, they are equipment heavy and STS is no different. Though I had been accumulating equipment I still didn’t own nearly the amount of equipment that STS requires. One other thing factored in that I have mentioned before—I knew how advanced Cathe workouts were and I was an intermediate exerciser at the time. I had heard from other Firmies that when you want to take your workouts to a higher level, go to Cathe. So, thinking I was ready to advance, I bought her Bootcamp/Muscle Endurance combo DVD and a step cardio DVD (which I ended up selling so I can’t remember which one it was). They were HARD—the strength ones were too advanced for me and the choreography of the step cardio was too complex. So I bought ChaLean Extreme and P90X (and have done both several times) and lots of Insanity. I had also got myself a set of SelectTechs so I could lift heavier than simply 20 pounds. With the help of Tony Horton, Chalene Johnson and Shaun T I became an advanced exerciser. I was also serious about strength training and HIIT workouts. Though I had sold Cathe’s step cardio workout I still had Bootcamp/Muscle Endurance. So I pulled them out to see how I measured up now. They were not nearly as hard as I remembered! They were, in fact, at my level! They gave me excellent workouts. So the hoarding of Cathe workouts began. The more Cathe workouts I bought, the more equipment I also acquired so that I could get the best possible workout. The pinnacle was my Christmas gift this past year—a bench and squat rack. I was finally ready for STS.

STS Program Overview

STS is a strength training program that consists of 3 “mesocycles.” A mesocycle is a block of training designed to accomplish a specific goal. STS was created to be done as a 3 month, 5 month or 6 month program. It can be purchased in various ways: as 40 DVDs + users guide (all 3 mesocycles plus the lower body squat rack workouts in meso #3), as 36 DVDs + users guide (all 3 mesocycles minus the lower body squat rack workouts in meso #3), or each mesocycle  (Meso #1, Meso #2, Meso #3) individually (each mesocycle is made up of 12 workouts). You can purchase the meso #3 lower body squat rack workouts separately and the user’s guide separately. There’s more! STS Ab Circuits DVD which contains 7 core workouts. And last, STS Total Body which has already been reviewed on this blog and is not included in any of the mesocycles. It’s actually separate from the program. It’s something she came out with after STS for people who wanted an STS level total body workout (and btw—I adore STS Total Body and it was another thing that prompted me to finally purchase the full STS program).

STS stands for Shock Training System. There are two ways you can view more information about STS; using the links above, or this very cool website Cathe created solely for the STS program. STS is a split series workout program, meaning you will be doing 3 strength training workouts a week, each working different muscle groups so that each muscle group is worked once per week. If you do the 3 month rotation you never repeat a strength workout. If you do the 6 month program you do each strength workout twice.

STS consists of 3 mesocycles, each done for 4-8 weeks (depending which the rotation you choose). Mesocycle #1 is muscle endurance in which you lift weights 60-70% of your 1RM (one rep max—more on that in a moment). Rep range is 15. Mesocycle #2 is hypertrophy (building muscle and definition). You lift weights 70-80% of your 1RM. Rep range is 8-12. Mesocycle #3 is strength. You lift weights 80-90% of your 1RM and your reps are 6-8.

STS is based on 4 training principles: periodization, muscle confusion, one rep max and progressive overload. Periodization is the organization of the workouts to get the best results. Muscle confusion is constantly changing your workouts to always keep your muscles guessing (that is why there are 36-40 different workouts—you are constantly doing something new). One Rep Max (1RM) is the maximum amount you can lift for any one exercise (more on this under the “prep” section). Progressive Overload is the gradual increase of intensity over a period of time. All of this combines to create something pretty spectacular by the end of the program: increased strength. In fact, that is the point of the 1RM—by the end you will be lifting 90% of your 1RM at day 1; but because during mesocucle #3 you will be lifting it for 6-8 reps, it will no longer be 90%; your strength will have increased and your new 1RM will be much more.

After you finish each mesocycle you will have an active recovery week. As Cathe puts it—you’re taking a break, not a vacation. So you continue to exercise, but you need to give your muscles a break from strength training. That means cardio, yoga/stretch, metabolic weight training, and even high rep strength workouts if you choose—but no heavy lifting.

Users Guide

Another excellent users guide. This one is very comprehensive, but in a different way than other users manuals. You get the usual breakdown of the program and rotation calendar. You also get a breakdown of every workout! Well—not every. You get a break down of the 40 workouts. No Ab Circuits workout breakdowns. Still, that is pretty significant. At the end is a 1RM chart that lists every exercise that “requires” a 1RM test. Each exercise is assigned a star rating ranging from 1 to 5 stars; 5 stars meaning 1RM is very important and 1 star meaning 1RM negligible.

Prepping for the program

There is a lot of prep work that goes into getting ready to start this program. To begin with, you need to be sure you have all of the equipment. Dumbbells, barbell/plates, step with 5 risers, slide n glide disks (or paper plates), dynaband and stability ball. You need either a pull up bar or heavy resistance tubing that connects to a doorway (or somewhere where it can be secured above your head). Other optional equipment is a bench, a squat rack/bench press and weighted vest and gloves.

Next, you need to do your 1RM testing. This a very time-consuming process. There are 95 exercises you can 1RM test. They are listed in the user’s manual with stars ranging from 1 to 5 stars; 5 stars meaning 1RM is very important and 1 star meaning 1RM is negligible. For me, this corresponded into the exercises with 1RM of 4 and 5 stars being essential (44 exercise) and 3 stars being very important (21 exercises). 1 and 2 star exercises I will just use my best judgment when doing the workout. More on this in a moment.

The tools Cathe gives you to do your 1RM testing do simplify it, but at the same time, continue to make the process complex. On her website at the right hand top of the screen, you will see a black tab for Workout Manager. This is a free program with all kinds of neat things in it. One of those things is a 1RM testing calculator. You can do 1RM for all kinds of things, but most importantly for STS exercises. In fact, when you choose STS (from drop down tab) and the exercise you want to do 1RM for, you even get a little video so you can be certain you are doing the exact exercise you need to be doing to get the proper results. Say you are doing 1RM for standing bicep curls with dumbbells. Go as heavy as you think you can lift to do approx. 10 reps with good form and lift to failure—until form fails, that is! Only count reps done with good form. Then you input the weight and how many reps you did into the little calculator. It calculates your 1RM and this translates to “workout cards.” The workout cards are vital for getting the optimal results from STS. For example, before doing Workout #1, you print out the workout card. It will tell you the weight you need to use for every exercise in Workout #1. The weights listed are all derived from your 1RM testing. So in order to get the “progressive overload” this program delivers, you have to do it properly and that includes doing 1RM testing.

Because of the great users guide and the online workout manager, you can preview every exercise you will be doing. This made it easy for me to realize that most of the 1 and 2 star exercises didn’t need 1RM testing done. Quite a few are familiar from other Cathe workouts and are not the kind of exercises you lift heavy on anyway. For example, one leg deadlifts. Xtrain uses one leg deadlifts in several of the workouts and I use a different weight in each workout. It depends on a lot of things—how many reps are being done, the work that came before that exercise (how fatigued your muscles are) and whether it is a strength or metabolic weight training workout. Obviously STS workouts are strength workouts, so I would be going to the heavier end of the spectrum, but still—a lot depends on what comes before that exercise. This also applies to all of the exercises. After doing a bunch of my 1RM testing I took a look at some of the workout cards and was surprised and a little worried. It seems, according to STS, that I can lift heavier than I think I can. That is probably true, but I also wonder if that still applies in the middle of a workout (or at the end!) when I have already fatigued the muscle groups—will I still be able to lift that 1RM? I am assuming the workouts are structured with muscle fatigue in mind, but as I haven’t done a workout yet, I don’t know. This also leads to the decision of what type of rotation you want to do.

The workout manager has a calendar that you can track your workouts in. You can input any Cathe workout you want (including premixes!) into the calendar. Also, when Cathe creates a rotation, it shows up there as well. You choose the rotation you want and it automatically inputs the rotation into your calendar. There is a whole STS tab in the workout manager and it lists 4 different rotations: two 3.5 month rotations, one that uses the squat rack lower body workouts and one that doesn’t, and two 6.5 month rotations, one that uses the squat rack lower body workouts and one that doesn’t. There is also a “rotation” tab that has tons of rotations created by Cathe and other forum members. Cathe has even more STS rotations if you browse—but more on that in the next section.

As mentioned previously, the difference between the 3 month and the 6 month rotation is how many times you do each workout. For the 3 month rotation you do each workout once, for the 6 month rotation you do each workout twice. To break it down further, for both rotations, in week #1, you do workouts 1, 2 & 3. For the 3 month rotation, in week #2 you move on to workouts 4, 5 & 6; but for the 6 month rotation you repeat week #1 and do workouts 1, 2 & 3 again. Week #3 you move on to workouts 4, 5 & 6 (and then repeat week #3). I like this idea for several reasons. #1, Cathe prefers it! She actually created STS to be a 6 month program, but then assumed that most exercisers would be daunted by something that long and condensed it to 3 months. #2, you get some familiarity and the ability to tweak your 1RM. What if 1RM test just wasn’t right? Then fix it the next week. BTW—here are Cathe’s thoughts (scroll to the bottom) on doing 3 vs. 6 month rotation. She also talks about doing a 5 month rotation, which is what I have decided to do. There is a lot of fluctuation in the first 2 mesocycles, which is why she prefers you to be in them longer; however, she states that mesocycle 3 is more straight forward so there isn’t as much benefit in repeating it. On top of that, I am really pushing it to the limit in mesoccyle 3—more than she recommends, actually. For meso 3, you have the choice of plyo legs or squat rack legs. If you want to do both, she has actually recommended doing meso 3 twice—once with plyo legs and once with squat rack legs. Well, when Xtrain came out many people were comparing plyo legs to Cardio Leg Blast—which I ADORE; one of my all time favorite lower body workouts. However, I also got a squat rack for Christmas which I have every intention of using. Cathe’s Xtrain rotations have you working your lower body twice most weeks. She also has other lower body rotations that hit the lower body more than once a week, so I know it’s not a problem to do it. So for me, in month 5 meso 3 I will be doing both plyo legs and squat rack legs each week—another reason why one month of meso 3 will be sufficient for me!

Creating a rotation

As you can see, STS appears to be a pretty complex program. Part of your rotation is laid out clearly for you: your strength workouts. It is up to you to supplement with cardio workouts. About a year after STS came out Cathe released a series of cardio workouts called Shock Cardio and they were created to supplement STS. She has an official rotation in Workout Manager under the rotations tab. Select it and it will be created for you in the calendar. Or, have a look at it right here.  She posted it on her forums and it has been “stickied” so it is always at the top. Though it is a great rotation, it is not exactly what I am looking for. Though I do love the workouts in the Shock Cardio Series, their intensity varies. I want consistent high intensity. Plus, there are so many other things that need to be crammed into a week—without overtraining! In addition to the STS strength workouts, I wanted to do a minimum of 3 cardio workouts. I also want to do one full body strength workout (so each muscle group gets worked twice a week), at least one of the Ab Circuits workouts, at least one HIIT workout and the STS extended stretch (I haven’t mentioned that yet, have I? More on that in a sec) done at least once. In addition, I would like to work my core/abs at least 2x a week. Oh—and I want to take a rest day. That is a lot to cram into a week!

At this point I have planned out my first 9 weeks—that is 8 weeks of STS + the active recovery week. I’ll give you an example of week #1:

Monday: STS Disk #1 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps

Tuesday: HIIT #1 + Ab Circuits Yoga Abs

Wednesday: STS Disk #3 Legs

Thursday: STS Disk #2 Back and Triceps

Friday: Cardio Core Circuit (cardio + core)

Saturday: Body Max #1 (cardio + full body strength + core)

Sunday: STS Extended Stretch

This week manages to cram everything I require into one week—and in fact work my core 3x. I hesitate to post my entire 9 week rotation because rotations are fluid. Things change. I have decided to post Mesocycle updates. When I complete a mesocycle, I will post about it and lay out my rotation for that previous 9 weeks. But for now, that is an example of how I am structuring my weeks. How will I post the workout reviews? I’m still not sure about that. 12 workouts in one post seems rather excessive. But maybe I will post them bi-weekly—then it will be 3 workouts in a post. Still debating.

I have actually started taking a rest day each week—Sundays. Which leads me to STS Extended Stretch. It is a 15 minute stretch that is a combination of yoga, pilates and athletic based stretches. The description of the extended stretch states that it is included at the end of every STS workout—but it is not. It is included on every workout DVD, but not as part of the workout. This disappointed me. I like a good stretch after a hard workout and many of these workouts are over an hour long. I only have an hour to work out in the morning. I can push it to 70 minutes (none of the STS workouts are that long, but a few are as long as 68 minutes), but an hour workout + a 15 minute stretch? I can’t fit that in and get adequate sleep. So I will do it on my rest day. A 15 minute stretch on my rest day is no big deal.

So that is the STS Overview and Prep. I start STS April 1—and finish my Xtrain rotation on March 31. So I may write a final Xtrain post between now and then.

Workout reviews:

STS Ab Circuits

Mesocycle #1

Disks 1, 2, 3 + Extended Stretch

Disks 4, 5 & 6

Disks 7, 8 & 9

Posted in Cathe, Strength, Fitness program, split series, STS | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Xtrain Week 7? Update

Posted on March 8, 2013 by

For more info on Xtrain see My Intro to Xtrain , Week 3 Update and Week 6 update.

Week 7? Update: As expected, nothing went quite as a I planned. There is a ? after week 7 because I’m not exactly sure what week I am in. Technically week 7 I suppose, but it doesn’t really matter. I am doing Xtrain until April. April 1 I start STS. I’m pretty excited about that, but first I’ll summarize what has gone down between my last post and this one.

Vacation! I had plans to possibly workout on vacation which did not occur, at least not in the conventional sense. As I knew we would, we were on the go non-stop on this vacation. We went to several locations in Europe so there was a lot to see in a short amount of time. Plus, it is expensive over there! The dollar isn’t worth shit and the exchange rate sucks. So we used a lot of public transportation and walked. Taxis were ungodly expensive. We know this because we were forced to use them several times. We did not rent a car like we often do in the states. So we were exhausted every night and started early most mornings. No time or energy for working out. I had planned to jump right back into Xtrain the day after we returned home (our plane landed around 10pm). Silly me! Serious jet lag. Wow. This isn’t the first time I’ve flown internationally, but I have never experienced jet lag like this. Maybe I can chalk it up to age? There’s more. Something I haven’t shared on this blog because it isn’t pertinent until now, but I have an injury from several years ago. Thanks to a drunk driver (3x the legal limit) slamming head on into my car, I have 12 screws and 2 plates in each heel. I get along fine (now—very long recovery) on a daily basis, but our active vacations now give me some pain. But I’m generally fine a day or two after returning to my normal routine. This is the first 2 week vacation since the accident tho—all the others have been week or less. So in addition to severe jet lag, I was nearly crippled with heel pain. Xtrain was not happening when I returned. After taking two days off to recover from my vacation, I did a recovery week of lower impact and lower instensity workouts. This week, starting March 4, I was back to Xtrain.

It felt so good at the beginning of this week to be working out at my normal level again—invigorating… until about day 3 when every single muscle in my body was screaming with DOMS. Insane! How is it possible to become so physically unconditioned in only 3 weeks? It’s not like I sat on my ass for 3 weeks. I was on the go for 2 weeks on vacation and I worked out at a lower intensity for one week. For me, this translates into what an awesome and intense program Xtrain is, that it crippled me with DOMS after jumping back into it at the same level I was at before I went on vacation.

So that’s the progress I’ve made on Xtrain since my last post: NONE. It looks like I am not really doing the full 90 days of the 90 day rotation either. In the end it will be 10 weeks rather then 12/13 weeks. Including this week, I have 4 more weeks of Xtrain before I start STS. This month, in addition to Xtrain, I am doing the 1RM (one rep max) testing to prepare myself for STS. There are 95 exercises you can do 1RM testing for. That will take some time, so I have to spread it out. I will be writing  a lot more on 1RM testing when I post about STS, but here is Cathe’s definition: http://cathe.com/one-rep-max-test.

So that is what is going on and what is coming up on this blog. I posted the review for MMA Boxing, but I don’t forsee any other reviews going up until I start STS. I had big plans to add in workouts by other trainers and get some more reviews in, but I’ll be honest, I am a total Cathe groupy. I simply do not want to do any other workouts. I adore Cathe’s workouts and no other trainer measures up. I wonder if one day I will return to some of my other workouts? Part of me hopes so, I used to love those and I know they are very good workouts! But if I can’t bring myself to do them now…..? Who knows? In the end it doesn’t really matter, because Cathe’s workouts do the job.

 I still have’t made a decision on how I will be reviewing STS. Total workouts for 3 mesoccyles of STS is 40 individual workouts. And this doesn’t include STS Ab Circuits, which I will also be including and therefore reviewing. It is a big and complex program and I will be reviewing the whole thing. I guess we’ll see how in the coming months.

Posted in Cathe, Xtrain | 1 Comment