Tips for starting the STS rotation!

P

pbjenny

Member
Hey all!

I'm a newbie. I'm a yoga / cardio junkie - and have decided with the new year that I want to switch up my routine and gain some MUCH NEEDED muscle (I'm "skinny fat" aka <-- long and lanky but no muscle). I really like the comfort of knowing that I have a plan - so I've decided to go with the STS *strength only* rotation. I really want to focus on gaining strength and mass, so am trying to keep my cardio to only 2 - 3 days / week. I was wondering if it would be overkill for me to pair STS with XTrain and do a split like this:

Monday: STS Meso 1 Disc 1 (Chest Shoulders Biceps)
Tuesday: STS Meso 2 Disc 2 (Back and Triceps)
Wednesday: Cardio / Legs
Thurdsay: XTrain (Chest Back and Shoulders)
Friday: XTrains (Triceps and Biceps)
Saturday Cardio / Legs
Sunday: OFF / yoga

What's most important to me is a.) not getting bored with my workouts, and b.) developing as much strength and muscle as I can.

Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much!
 
Hi pbjenny,
Congrats on your exciting new approach to fitness!
In response to your question, yes, I think the rotation above is going to be too much heavy weight lifting, given that you're new to lifting. Your body is going to need to recover after the strenuous STS workouts and you need to allow time for that. Those muscles are built during the recovery time.

When you say 'cardio/legs', do you mean cardio and legs in the same day? For me, at least, I never want to do cardio on a leg day, since legs are cardio-intensive and cardio is leg-intensive. If you want to double up cardio w/ weights, I suggest doing it on an upper body weight day.
If your goal is to built muscle, I suggest keeping your cardio to a couple short HIIT sessions a week. (Or one steady state, one HIIT, if you prefer.)
Also, metabolic stuff tends to be leg-intensive, so why not do a metabolic day instead of a second leg day?

So here's another way you could do it:
Mon: Metabolic (e.g., Afterburn, Supercuts)
Tue: STS Chest/Shoulders/Bis
Wed: 30 mins HIIT cardio
Thu: STS Legs
Fri: STS Back/Tris
Sat: 30 mins HIIT cardio (or a longer interval cardio if you like, e.g., an IMAX)
Sun: Yoga/OFF
Then add a short 30 min HIIT session on Tue or Fri if you want a 3rd cardio. (But STS legs will totally have you huffing + puffing)

I don't know how strenuous your yoga practice is, but if it's strenuous, you may want to do 30 mins HIIT then yoga on Satuday with Sunday totally off. I think it's good to have a rest day every week (and this is the general wisdom, too). Gentle yoga/stretching is a kosher rest day activity.

There may come a time when you want to (and your body is ready to) do STS and, say, a total body weights day in the same week. However, I encourage you to give you body time to adjust to the weight training. Adding in a metabolic weight day would be fine, IMO.

HTH, Roz
 
pbjenny said:
Hey all!

I'm a newbie. I'm a yoga / cardio junkie - and have decided with the new year that I want to switch up my routine and gain some MUCH NEEDED muscle (I'm "skinny fat" aka <-- long and lanky but no muscle). I really like the comfort of knowing that I have a plan - so I've decided to go with the STS *strength only* rotation. I really want to focus on gaining strength and mass, so am trying to keep my cardio to only 2 - 3 days / week. I was wondering if it would be overkill for me to pair STS with XTrain.

What's most important to me is a.) not getting bored with my workouts, and b.) developing as much strength and muscle as I can.

Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

Hi,

I agree with Momvt advise.

I would do at least a full STS cycle as it was designed before pairing it with X-TRAIN.
If you are new to strength and hypertrophy training, selecting the weight load accurately
to match the intensity take time mastering. To gain mass you need burnset and meso 2.
To select an accurate weight load, you need the base from meso 1 as a start off.
Anyone who successfully completed STS will tell you there are notes being taken throughout
the program to later on, meso 2 and 3, ACCURATELY select the weight load.

This is just my opinion.

BTW, i like your first paragraph above, thanks for sharing your thoughts with us here ;-)
 
pbjenny said:
Hey all!

I'm a newbie. I'm a yoga / cardio junkie - and have decided with the new year that I want to switch up my routine and gain some MUCH NEEDED muscle (I'm "skinny fat" aka <-- long and lanky but no muscle).
What's most important to me is a.) not getting bored with my workouts, and b.) developing as much strength and muscle as I can.

Any tips would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks so much!
Click to expand...

Hi,

Based on the description above, I suggest you follow ectomorph training tips listed in cathe's article.

http://cathe.com/fitness-training-body-type-somatotype

Bare in mind to keep your cardio short.

All the best;)
 
Hi Pbjenny! I don't have any advice for you as I, too, am in the advice-seeking phase but wanted to chime in to say that I am in the same kind of position as it sounds like you are and am planning on starting STS on Monday hoping for the same kind of results as you are. I will follow this thread and hope to see updates from you that you are having some successes and that you enjoy your journey to adding more muscle. Us "skinny fat" folks need to stick together and cheer one another on! :) Best of luck to you!!!

Christin
 
[QUOTE="Newwmn3, post: 2273917, member: 155321"Us "skinny fat" folks need to stick together and cheer one another on! :) Best of luck to you!!!

Christin[/QUOTE]

Hi to Both,

It is good to see you both confidently and comfortably use the term "Skinny fat".
There is nothing un-appropriate in the use of the term.
In the actual fact it is a term in fitness environment.

Hope I do not get attacked next time I mention this topic.

Here is a previous thread containing link containing discussions and article.

http://cathe.com/forum/threads/the-curse-of-skinny-fat.295527/#post-2227642

All the very best to you both ladies ;-)
 
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