Comparing STS 2.0 to XTrain!

Kellyro77

Kellyro77

Cathlete
I haven't seen this discussion yet, so thought I'd get a thread going.

Has anyone here gone through the STS 2.0/XTrain rotation in the guide yet?

I'm going to start that particular rotation in about a month after doing a fill-in STS 2.0 rotation upon completing the 12-week rotation from the guide.

I'm bringing up XTrain, too, because today I decided to do XTrain's Burn Sets Bi's and Tri's. I was supposed to do STS 2.0 Body Parts Biceps yesterday, but was listening to my body and really felt I needed to give myself a rest day. Since today was Body Parts Triceps on the calendar, I decided to instead make up for missing biceps yesterday by doing XTrain Burn Sets Bi's and Tri's.

I was in for an unpleasant surprise!

For whatever reason, I thought Cathe moved fairly slow in her Burn Sets workouts and had long breaks between sets. Nope!! She moves pretty fast in comparison to STS 2.0, and the rests between sets are only about 30 seconds. I got totally spoiled by STS 2.0! I even found myself saying "nope!" when a 30 second rest was over and pausing for another 30 seconds before moving forward.

So, just a heads up - the pacing in XTrain is different from the pacing in STS 2.0. I actually think this will be interesting when I do the actual rotation from the guide. As we know, changing things up is always good for our body, so maybe I'll see some additional benefits when I'm swapping between XTrain and STS 2.0 workouts, going a little quicker one day with shorter rests and slower with longer rests the next. Although I reserve the right to put in longer rests during XTrain, period (now that I know how helpful they are!)

Bright side is seeing I hadn't lost any strength since the last time I'd made entries on my Xtrain workout notes. In fact, I was able to push a little heavier on some sets. Happy about that!

Anyone else notice the differences between the two series?
 
I'm planning to do a variation of the STS2.0/Xtrain rotation in October/November (some different cardio substitutes). This month I'm re-visiting older 3-day split series (S&H, PS, Gym Styles & RWH). Last week I did P30 - you are so right! The pacing is vastly different! This makes the workout more intense in one sense - I like the rests in STS2.0 - they made the workouts not seem so stressful. Interesting how I was used to the faster pace in other series & didn't give it much thought, but after 3 months of STS2.0, I'm now more inclined to slow things down a bit too.
 
Coming back to this. I never got around to the STS 2/XTrain rotation, but I'm now doing a modified 12-week XTrain rotation (modified, meaning I'm swapping out some of the cardio and lower body days for other Cathe cardio and lower body workouts - the cardio and lower body work in XTrain is too repetitive for my liking).

I have to say, I'm actually appreciating the faster pace and shorter rests so far. Of course, I've only JUST started (on day 1) and did Chest, Back and Shoulders. NOT the Burn Set version yet.

I'm happy to encounter a bit of cardio factor in the upper body workouts. I've been pretty low-key since the beginning of the year where cardio is concerned, so some added cardio is welcome right now.

It remains to be seen if I'm going to want to hit pause during the rests in the Burn Sets workouts, but I'm actually enjoying the pace in the non-Burn Set workouts.
 
Kellyro77 said:
I have to say, I'm actually appreciating the faster pace and shorter rests so far. Of course, I've only JUST started (on day 1) and did Chest, Back and Shoulders. NOT the Burn Set version yet.
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I have not done XTRAIN recently but I can confirm it is an endurance fast series compared to STS 2.0 :D ;)Burnset is the only ten reps in Xtrain series but the rest period is tight.
 
Kellyro77 said:
I haven't seen this discussion yet, so thought I'd get a thread going.

Has anyone here gone through the STS 2.0/XTrain rotation in the guide yet?

I'm going to start that particular rotation in about a month after doing a fill-in STS 2.0 rotation upon completing the 12-week rotation from the guide.

I'm bringing up XTrain, too, because today I decided to do XTrain's Burn Sets Bi's and Tri's. I was supposed to do STS 2.0 Body Parts Biceps yesterday, but was listening to my body and really felt I needed to give myself a rest day. Since today was Body Parts Triceps on the calendar, I decided to instead make up for missing biceps yesterday by doing XTrain Burn Sets Bi's and Tri's.

I was in for an unpleasant surprise!

For whatever reason, I thought Cathe moved fairly slow in her Burn Sets workouts and had long breaks between sets. Nope!! She moves pretty fast in comparison to STS 2.0, and the rests between sets are only about 30 seconds. I got totally spoiled by STS 2.0! I even found myself saying "nope!" when a 30 second rest was over and pausing for another 30 seconds before moving forward.

So, just a heads up - the pacing in XTrain is different from the pacing in STS 2.0. I actually think this will be interesting when I do the actual rotation from the guide. As we know, changing things up is always good for our body, so maybe I'll see some additional benefits when I'm swapping between XTrain and STS 2.0 workouts, going a little quicker one day with shorter rests and slower with longer rests the next. Although I reserve the right to put in longer rests during XTrain, period (now that I know how helpful they are!)

Bright side is seeing I hadn't lost any strength since the last time I'd made entries on my Xtrain workout notes. In fact, I was able to push a little heavier on some sets. Happy about that!

Anyone else notice the differences between the two series?
Click to expand...
I’m, a lot, late in responding, but that’s because I hadn’t done X-Train in a very long time, until recently, and Wow, what a shock! I also thought it was slower, but after STS 2, it felt almost aerobic. Those 30-seconds go by very fast, and for some reason I didn’t want to pause, so kept up the pace. The sweat was pouring off me, and at times I was longing for STS 2. I decided the next time, I’ll pause for the extra 30-seconds, unless I really want to ramp up my heart rate. I think STS 2 is now my favorite, along with 4-Day Split, and the pace is just right for me.
 
Finally hit Burn Sets in my rotation. I feel like with the larger muscle groups... chest and back, at least, I'm needing to pause her rest to extend it out to a full minute between sets. However, I find the 30 seconds adequate for all the rest... shoulders, bi's and tri's.

Pretty happy to be back XTraining since it's been so long. The music is fun, and for sure I've got some serious DOMS going on after all the upper body workouts, especially Burn Sets.

Plenty lower body DOMS, too, with the LB workouts I've been subbing in, in place of Legs and Cardio Leg Blast (those and the XTrain cardio are just too repetitive for me for some reason.) So far subbed in LITE Strong Body Stacked Lower and STS 2.0 Body Parts Legs.

Oh - today's lower body sub was To the Mat, and yowza. It's very clear I've not done thorough floor work in quite some time!
 
Kellyro77 said:
Finally hit Burn Sets in my rotation. I feel like with the larger muscle groups... chest and back, at least, I'm needing to pause her rest to extend it out to a full minute between sets. However, I find the 30 seconds adequate for all the rest... shoulders, bi's and tri's.

Pretty happy to be back XTraining since it's been so long. The music is fun, and for sure I've got some serious DOMS going on after all the upper body workouts, especially Burn Sets.

Plenty lower body DOMS, too, with the LB workouts I've been subbing in, in place of Legs and Cardio Leg Blast (those and the XTrain cardio are just too repetitive for me for some reason.) So far subbed in LITE Strong Body Stacked Lower and STS 2.0 Body Parts Legs.

Oh - today's lower body sub was To the Mat, and yowza. It's very clear I've not done thorough floor work in quite some time!
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When doing the 90-day Xtrain, I'd sometimes sub the 2 ICE LB workouts in too, or the RWH Legs or Lower Body Blast for Cardio Leg Blasts for more variety. Cathe also has Hardstrikes in too often for my tastes, so I often subbed in other kickbox workouts. And sometimes ICE Low Impact Sweat or RWH HIIT or Shock Cardio HIIT for AOLIH - really enjoyed the added variety.
 
Debinmi said:
Cathe also has Hardstrikes in too often
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Agree. I've subbed in a lot of her different kickboxing workouts for her Hardstrikes days. Yes, there's one or two Hardstrikes in the whole rotation, but I've subbed in Rockout Knockout, Kick Punch and Crunch, Gloved up and Sweaty, Rev'd up Rumble, etc, for some variety.
 
Kellyro77 said:
Agree. I've subbed in a lot of her different kickboxing workouts for her Hardstrikes days. Yes, there's one or two Hardstrikes in the whole rotation, but I've subbed in Rockout Knockout, Kick Punch and Crunch, Gloved up and Sweaty, Rev'd up Rumble, etc, for some variety.
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I enjoy the combos in Hardstrikes but find the "round-the-world" jumping jacks uninspiring & boring. Some other kickbox options if you have them are from 4-Day Split and FitSplit - I really like those 2 also.
 
Jumping jacks, freakin’ burpees, mountain climbers, animal moves, things as such, can
go you know where! And I am beginning to feel the same about a zillion different plank moves. I can tolerate plank holds, etc., don’t like ‘em, but will tolerate & try them.
 
aqua girl said:
Jumping jacks, freakin’ burpees, mountain climbers, animal moves, things as such, can
go you know where! ...
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I know what you mean! I was wondering if Cathe showed any new choreography in the Live classes besides animal/gorilla moves- I'm not fond. Curious as to what might be in LMR2 - could be a reason to cancel ....
 
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aqua girl said:
.... And I am beginning to feel the same about a zillion different plank moves. I can tolerate plank holds, etc., don’t like ‘em, but will tolerate & try them.
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Marching planks, soldier planks, one-legged planks, full planks, kneeling planks, side planks, reverse planks, planks, planks, planks!

It's a problem when an instructor gets stuck on a move and its variations --- BORING! It's probably not for them cuz I doubt they do their own dvds over and over like we do! Gotta have variety!
 
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Debinmi said:
Marching planks, soldier planks, one-legged planks, full planks, kneeling planks, side planks, reverse planks, planks, planks, planks!
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Exactly! But I had to giggle, did you see the movie Forrest Gump? The above immediately, for some reason, reminded me of the scene when he & Bubba were on
the bus & Bubba was naming all the different kinds of shrimp there was, for like 5 min. LOL!
I have no clue why that came to mind when I was reading that. :):)
 
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