Meso 3 Leg Workouts

[clothesminded]

I just received STS and finished reading the user's manual. I haven't watched or done any of the workouts yet, but after reviewing the exercises for plyo legs, I'm worried that the exercises might be too much for my bad knee. I can't do explosive anything or I'm looking at 6 months recovery. I can do any type of lunges, squats, step ups, etc. I also don't have a squat rack and have no plans on purchasing one, so using the squat rack workout prob. won't happen.

When I get to Meso 3, should I use another leg workout? One from one of the other mesocycles? Or another Cathe- Butts and Guts, Legs and Glutes, GS Legs...?

Just another FYI- my legs respond best to both high reps and low weights and moderate weight w/12 or so reps. I'm not looking really to gain a lot of muscle in my legs because it tends to make my butt bigger, and I have enough of a bubble butt.

Any suggestions?

 

[unfetteredpast]

For what it's worth, I have two bad kneees, and plyo legs has not been a problem at all. The plyo segments are high impact, but it's not repetitive, bouncy high impact like MIC or any other Cathe hi/lo routine. The moves are controlled and powerful, and if you pay careful attention to how you land your jumps (use your muscles to cushion the landing, not your joints), you may find that your knees hold up fine.

Before you write them off, try doing one and see how it feels. All of the strength segments do 12 reps (which you said you like ) alternating with the plyo segments. If you find you really can't do the plyo segments, try doing kettlebell swings instead of the plyos.

You do have kettlebells, don't you?

 

[clothesminded]

I will give the plyo legs a try, but I'm expecting it to not agree with my left knee. Maybe I'll be wrong.

I don't have kettlebells. Don't enable me. lol

 

[faith4us]

I did not like the first weeks workout for Plyo legs. The next week I tried the squat rack and that bothered me too. The third week I did Plyo legs and thought it was great and easy to modify. I will be doing the fourth week next week so I don't know about that one and I did not do Plyo legs for week 2.

 

[clothesminded]

I think I'll give the Plyo Legs a try, but I'm not hopeful. I just know my knee and it doesn't like airborn squats or explosive lunges, that sort of thing. I'll just sub in another leg workout, possibly the one from P90X. I'm not looking to load up the weight for my lower body anyway, since it responds better to medium weight and more reps.

 

[unfetteredpast]

clothesminded: you may find that some of the plyo segments are less knee-friendly than others, so maybe you could find a few that work for you, and repeat them, and ignore the ones that are a no-no. Weeks 1 and 2 pretty much have the same plyo segments, week 3 introduces new ones, and week 4 is a maytag washer mix-o-rama of all. (Too bad she brings some of the harder ones together in the 4th week!)

The ones I like the most use the step (they are also the ones I was most afraid of before I did it): jumping onto a 12" step is a blast; the lunges over the step are fun, too, and they start out easy and suddenly get really hard; ditto for the explosive running man. Butt kicks over the higher step feel completely different than they in 4DS Boot Camp.

You will probably have to completely avoid the single leg hops in week 3, plyo lunges, squat jumps, slow air jacks.

Good luck! (And go get a kettlebell ... you know you want one!)