STS CHECK IN DISC #13

Cathe Friedrich

Cathe Friedrich

Administrator
Hi Everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your active recovery week. Tomorrow starts MESOCYCLE # 2.....Disc 13. Please post your workout experience. It is going to be very different from MESO #1. I'm curious to hear your responses! If you have already done it and want to share anything (or simply warn us to "BE AFRAID", lol) please do!

Nighty,
Cathe
 
STS Check-in

Cathe:

I am wrapping up Mesocycle 1 this week and looking forward to reading your STS check-ins this week and previewing the big adventure that awaits me in Mesocycle 2! I confess that I was tempted to give up on the 5-month rotation last week, rest for a couple of weeks, and start over with the 3-month rotation on Palm Sunday. It sounded like a good way to procrastinate and stay in the fun part of STS for another month. *wink* I consulted with a personal trainer who trains women my size, and she encouraged me that the Mesocycle 2 workouts will be good for me (like veggies). I am ready to recover next week, embrace the challenge, and press on with the rest of the 5-month rotation. The STS honeymoon will be over soon, and I am enjoying this last week of fun before I say goodbye to this fantastic mesocycle! I am not sure if the rest of STS will be my cup of tea, but what I have experienced so far (including Ab Circuits) has been more than worth the investment.

Thank you for the delightful surprise you shared this morning! With my fun favorite STS workouts soon behind me and 3 months of work, work ahead of me, I am so excited to have fun cardio workouts on the way this year! Thank you especially for including Step Moves for your dancy step fans. I love, love, love mambos, cha chas, pivots, and rhythmic step moves! Your good news made my heart smile this morning. I have been dancing on the ceiling all day and did not calm down enough to focus on STS Disc 10 until tonight! LOL! :)

Sweet dreams! I am praying for another smooth and successful preorder. :)

Blessings,
Heather B.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV).
 
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I did Disk 13 today, and loved it! It was nice to have the longer rest periods between sets, and the drop sets sure were challenging. I have a feeling that I'm going to be very sore tomorrow! ;)


Updated on Monday morning: Boy, do I have DOMS today!!! What a fabulous way to kick off this Meso Cycle!
 
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I did this on Friday. One comment - DOMS. Could barely lift my arms above my head the next day. And I'm USED to lifting heavy. I had to cut back on the 1RM recommendations a few times. YOWSA!! :eek: A definite shock to my system. :cool:
 
I loved this workout! On some of the exercises I had to drop down in weight but on others (to my surprise) I actually increased my weight. All I can say is Thank you Cathe! I am loving my sts experience!
 
Holy spaghetti arms batman!

Good Morning Cathe and all to follow-

Finished disc 13 about 45min ago and absolutely loved it! I loved it because I am one of those twisted people who somehow developed an affection along the way for bringing my muscles to the point that I can no longer feel them and they just kind of float through space and time (i think i need therapy lol ) ;)

Anyway, loved the new format for meso 2, the breaks were great and I have to admit it was fun to break out the squat stands and the heavier barbells. :) Bench presses were good, but the flys were super tough inbetween the press exercises, didnt think I would make it through the flat fly set. Shoulders were really feeling it due to the assistance in the chest work, and triceps, well lets just say triceps were an experience all of their own. lol There was a point during the to failure set of the lying extensions that when we went down for 5 counts, well, it took me about 3 seconds of thinking I was pushing them back up, when I realized they were still sitting there in the down position, wasnt going to get them up anymore. :p

So other than having to bend my head down to my arms, cause I cant lift them over my head anymore, so I could wash my hair in my post workout shower, everything is just dandy. lol :D

Enjoy everyone!

Mary :cool:
 
I just finished disc 13 and am singing the KC and the Sunshine band song........SHAKE , SHAKE, SHAKE.......(my version is......) Shake, shake, shake, shake your upper body !!!!:eek::eek:

I literally am still shaking in my shoulders/chest area, and I'm not kidding !

I did stretch afterwards and had a recovery protein drink . but now I am afraid to go wash my hair !!:confused: Will my arms make it up there ????

I loved the workout . I loved the way it was set up in tri-sets and I was THANKFUL they were drop sets !;) Going to failure at the end of some of the exercises was really tough but I loved it !!

I AM seeing a need for a weight rack now. It was hard to hoist the BB up off the ground sometimes and I don't want to risk injury !!

Now I have cardio STS to look forward to too ! I ordered this morning ! Oh happy day!:D:D:D

Becky
 
I just finished Disc 13 and loved the longer rest periods. Some of my target weights were right on but ex. bench press was too light. I also am beginning to see it is time to get some sort of rack. My son left one in his old room so I am off to see if that would work for me. I think I am going to like this cycle. Ask me after the "legs" in 2 days might feel alot different.
 
I absolutely loved it!

I #13 this Saturday to accomodate a trip I'm starting today and did #14 today. I'll be back on schedule on Friday. ;)

I loved the longer rests, it was less fatiguing in the sense that there wasn't so much to adjust (weighted glove, multiple wrist weights etc...)

It was also a little deceptive. I got throught it and thought that wasn't so bad and I don't even feel so weak/spent. THEN I hit the shower and that warm water turned my upper body to jelly so that it was even hard to lather up! LOL

DOMS are definitely present, but not too extreme. I can't say that will be the case for legs... now I'm scared about those, especially since I'm about to hop into a car for 5 hours! LOL

Enjoy this one. I did! (Cathe - awesome job!)

Shani
 
Good morning. I finished Disc 13 a few hours ago and my upper body is still shaking at this point. I'm wondering what tomorrow is going to bring. That 1 minute rest between each set was wonderful and just enough time to set up the next weight set. Loved the drop sets and that little bonus on the tricep extensions was interesting to say the least. I think I was barely moving the weights at that point. Looking forward to legs on Wednesday.

Have a good day and a good workout to those who follow.

Bev
 
Woohoo! Now THAT'S a strength training program! I haven't done a solid bench press/fly workout for chest in quite some time, and it was terrific! I did it Sunday afternoon, and this morning my anterior delts and pecs are, shall we say....sore. Let's say it a few more times: sore, sore, sore, sore, sore! That about covers it. My shoulders & triceps feel fatigued and stiff, but the predominant doms is from the chest work.

Like most everyone else has said, the longer rest breaks really helped me enjoy the workout more. I didn't feel as frantic trying to change weights quickly. I could even sip some water and write down notes!! One thing I've determined is that my 1RM testing was most certainly off for chest presses and overhead shoulder presses. I usually had to go significantly lower than the suggested amounts for any of those variations in meso 1, and this was apparent again with disc 13. So, I've reassigned my 1RM for those exercises, so the rest of my workout cards will have the right amounts on them. I figure, if I stubbornly stick to my initial 1RM, I'm going to end up injured, at worst, or I'm going to walk away from every chest & shoulder workout feeling like a failure. Kind of seems silly not to change them.

This morning I did the BM2 timesaver premix and AC Weights & Plates abs, as per Cathe's rotation suggestion. My goodness, doing those Plates abs with sore & tired anterior deltoids & pecs is an endurance test in itself!! Glad I got that over with! IMO, W&P abs are the toughest of all the AC workouts.

Have a great day!
Sandra
 
I loved this workout and am feeling a very nice case of DOMS today :D! It was so nice to have time to get my weights (I am using ankle weights as added weight on my wrists). I also loved having NO pushups ;). I went a little too light on two of the exercises but quickly went up in weight before going to the next set.

My absolute favorite exercise is the side lying tricep extension :D! I can feel that one work my triceps like nothing else ever has.

I was working hard and it felt great! But I am a bit worried if I worked that hard yesterday, what is Meso 3 going to be like :eek: :p?
 
Its been 3 hours since I finished my workout and I am still shaking! I wasn't really shaking when I was doing the workout (except at the end of some of those reps...) but afterwards it was painful to even wash my hair!! If I lift just one arm to my head its not bad - but two arms is unbearable! Ouch! Thanks alot Cathe! :rolleyes:
 
Just finished this one this morning.
I liked to be able to focus on a few exercises. I definitely was worked to failure, I had a hard time cranking out the last rep with the 12 rep exercises.
I am using my DH bench and it was very handy for this workout.
I am waiting for a serious case of DOMS to set in.
Definitely a very different flow than Meso #1.
Just want to say - I CAN'T WAIT FOR STS CARDIO:D
 
Disk 13 CS&T

Just finished Disk 13, and boy am I feeling pumped! As I sat here briefly while the pages were loading I thought, "wow, I feel funny".:confused: I've never felt so strong. This program rocks! Very glad to be lifting again, although the recovery was lovely too. I was laughing through the side lying extensions on the ball because on the last 2 reps of the 12&10 set I could not get that tricep to move no matter how I tried. The 8 reps were better, but I fought for it big time. Chest felt great, as did shoulders. My weight selections were dead on today, and that extra rest period was perfect. Good luck everyone! :)
 
I feel the term to use for this workout would be "tough-relaxation" Maybe not so original - but I was WORKING during the lifting and the rests after a long day at work gave me a chance to kick back and breathe. Very nice end to my day. My upper body feels tired and shaky. Great workout!
 
I just did this one today and I barely have the strength to type! I LOVED it. I think I will enjoy Mesos 2 and 3 more than Meso 1 (although they were still excellent workouts). I like the slower pace of the really heavy-weight workouts. Disc 13 was very doable, yet left my muscles very FrIeD. I liked the extra sets where we worked to failure. Yikes! My muscles respond so well to heavy weights--I am hoping my muscles will pop right out!

I have a problem this week, though. I need to do Discs 13, 14, and 15 on M-Tu-W, and then I also have to get in Discs 16, 17, and 18 this week (rest on Thursday, and then do STS on Fri-Sat-Sun) in order to stay on track for my triathlon training; I fell a little behind because of an arthritis flair-up. Will that be okay, granted it is the only time I get in all those workouts in a week? I normally would not double-up like that.

Thanks for any input!
 
Just got done with Disc 13. I loved it! Agree that the longer rest periods were nice--didn't have to rush as much. Also, I got to pay more attention to the cast during the breaks & enjoyed seeing them all smiling & having fun! But they were all definitely working & lifting heavy during the lifting.

Anyway, back to me. My weight selections were seemed right on. The only sets I couldn't quite complete were the triceps (the side lying tricep extensions in particular).
Overall, I feel that this was the perfect mix of reps & weight. I have a feeling that Meso 2 will be my favorite! It's funny just as I'm typing all the sudden my shoulder muscles started saying YOWSA! I guess the DOMS is beginning to kick in!

Looking foward to Legs on Wednesday!
 
I just finished Disc 13. My favorite by far. I didn't feel so rushed trying to get my equipment together and could just really focus on form. I continue to be amazed by STS. I am really starting to look and feel good.
 
Hi Cathe and STSer's:D

I just finished up Disc 13. I was afraid to do it since I had a week of active recovery and no weights. So, there was some trepidation on my part before I started Disc 13, but after doing it I think it was great. I did notice that the 70% of my 1 rep max wasn't too heavy like I'd feared after a week off it would be. I liked the groupings of three for the exercises that was great really felt the muscle heating up that way. I was pleasantly surprised that I could do Disc 13. I did reflect back on Disc 1 thinking no way I could have lifted the weights that I do now thank's to STS. So, I'm giving myself a pat on the back for that and I think all STSer's should give themselves a big pat on the back for their achievement thus far. :eek::D The only thing that did seem hard and I couldn't finish all 8 reps. I was able to do 4, just barely.:p That was on the Flat Bench Triceps extensions w/dumbells the last set for me was to lift 20#'s I was ok with three, struggled with 4 and decided not to try for more as the form was seriously ugly on the last one. That was my only hickup in today's workout with STS. I feel great and thrilled with my progress.

I'm so excited about STS Cardio!!!:eek: I can't wait, but I will because Cathe is always worth the wait. I pre-ordered this morning! Wooo Hooo!!!

Hugs to everyone and have a great evening!:)

Nora
 
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