One Rep Max - the final say

[letswork]

Okay...I'm feeling overwhelmed. I've previewed, read, watched and feel totally ready to tackle STS. I'm raring to get started, but I'm still wondering the easiest way to tackle the actual 1RM testing. I have my "STS One Rep Max Chart" in front of me (the one with the stars of importance), but could someone tell me the best (and fastest) way to group them into workouts?

Also, I'm wondering about spotting. My husband could probably spot me to accomplish a much heavier weight...but will that put my max's too high?

By the way...I LOVE Cathe TV.

 

[Dela]

Hi, hmm first time I heard the question about spotting, so my opinion, I would do without it, trust me when I tell ya that 60-70% of the 1RM is pretty darn challenging, and using a spot just might make your weights too high.

There have been a bunch of threads on how people are doing their 1RM tests, did you try a search on 1RM?

But some of the popular thoughts are:
Use the pdf guide, and test the 5 and 4 stars first, but IMO, I feel the 3 stars are also important.

Replace your workout for the day with a 1RM workout, and do a variety of exercises to hit all the body parts. To reduce having to rest a full 5 minutes between each exercise, I would do for example, a chest exercise, then a squat, then a shoulder, then a hamstring, then bicep, a lunge, then tricep, and so on. So essentially, don't do the same body part twice in a row, and alternate upper and body exercises to allow for more rest time.

If you find a test too easy, just do a few others, then go back to it and re-test.

I did mine in about 5 - 2/2.5 hour sessions. But honestly, I was not moving all that fast, and was doing them mainly on Sundays when I had lots of free time.

HTH!

 

[poohpeggy]

In the Workout Manager you can click on the 1 REP MAX icon and then go to Step 1 and click STS..then you can click on the individual disc. This may be a good way to start so your not overwhelmed. Peggy

 

[bethj]

This is how I tested-doing it like a rotation:
day 1-all the exercises from disc 1 (chest-shoulders-biceps)
day 2-cardio/abs
day 3-all the exercises from disc 3 (legs)
day 4- Rest day
day 5-cardio/abs
day 6- all the exercises from disc 2 (back and triceps)
day 7-cardio/abs
day 8-all the chest, shoulder and biceps 1 rep max only from the rest of the discs
day 9-cardio/abs
day 10-all the leg exercise 1 rep max only from the rest of the discs, skipping plyo legs
day 11-rest
day 12-all the back and tricep 1 rep max exercises from the rest of the discs
day 13-cardio/abs
day 14-all the plyo legs discs ( I skipped these for now but this is where they fit in)

I liked doing the first 3 discs "as is" to get a feel for STS. So I did all the whole workouts, including band work and body weight exercises, along with the one rep max test. For the rest, I used only the 1 rep max tests so I could get quickly through the rest of the them. This put me a few days behind Cathe's start but I liked doing it as a rotation and not trying to do 2 hours of weight lifting every day. Also it got me used to the new splits of chest-sh-bis and back-tris for meso 1.
Oh, and I am totally incapacitated the day after Legs. So I always put my rest day there!
Beth