i still have not figured out how to do any of this stuff. i don't know how to find the workout manager or any of the stuff. i would love some help too. so, maybe someone will help both of us
Hi Drover:
the whole thing with 1RM seems much more daunting because there are SO many exercises, over 100 it seems... yet, once you get the hang of it, all that really becomes a challenge is 1) figuring out what each of the exercises is and how to do them (for us newbies it can be a challenge to know what everything is officially called) and 2) finding time to actually DO the exercises.
Workout Manager (you will see it abbreviated WM most often) is a free program that you access by looking clear up at the top of any of the Cathe Nation pages... there is a toolbar above... Workout Manager is the 4th from the left... just click on that link (if you place your cursor over the tab, it should be clouded in blue) and it will open a new window and open the login (and in your case sign up/in) screen. I think you just use your log on and password from the forums, but if that doesn't work, you just sign up. I used my same logon and password, so sorry I can't remember if it is the same or not...
Once in WM, there should pop up a calendar. To the left of this calendar there are a number of "TOOLS" that will help you start using 1RM, the workout calendar, and all kinds of other cool stuff...
If you select "One Rep Max Calculation" it will open another window and now you have all the information to start...
Step 1 is a little tricky because you actually have to select one of the radio buttons (circles beside lists of "Choose Exercise list...") Once you select "Show all STS Exercises" the top box will populate with exercises in the entire series... If you select a Disc number, it will show only those included on that workout, but if you just select the STS exercise option it will show ALL STS exercises.
So, if you select Disc 1, and go back up to the drop down box and select an exercise... say "Alternating Seated Overhead Shoulder Press, Seated..."
Step 2: select a dumbbell weight that you think will challenge you to failure between 8-10 reps before you can't do any more... so, say you select 15# DB... You do the exercise and you can complete 9 reps before you just can't lift one more time... You then enter the 15 in "Enter Weight" box for this step.
Ok, here comes the tricky part... say you used 15#'s and you could actually do 14 reps before you hit "muscle failure"... Well, then 15#'s is not enough... You will need to 'recover' by waiting approximately 3-5 minutes and try the test again. You can do another body part and go back to it later... do the same thing all over again with a higher weight in a few # incriments... This is where microloaded gloves, wrist/ankle weights, weight vest or weight magnets come in handy to help keep from having to go up to 5lb incriments. (ie: 15 to 20, since there aren't 18# DB's). If the weights are too heavy and you can only do say 5 or 6 reps, you will need to lighten the weight you are lifting... again, you will need to let your muscles recover for a period of time before retesting.
Step 3: You find your appropriate weight... in the original example you would enter that you did 9 reps.
then hit calculate
Step 4: SAVE the results! Don't forget this step or you will have to go back and do them all over...
So, this will then calculate your 1RM. for this example it is 19. Therefore, when you are actually doing the Disc 1 and Cathe instructs you to do the Alternating Seated Overhead Shoulder Press, Seated exercise, she will also tell you what percentage of your 1RM you should be using. I believe that Meso 1 starts with 60%, so you would select 11#'s and do the exercise...
Now... you continue going through all exercises listed that you can figure out.. google the ones you don't.
Don't worry about non-weighted exercises such as push-ups, superman, etc... these do not require a 1RM test.
However, there is also a way to print a workout card that you can use should you not have a laptop to take to your workout area, or easy access to a computer to do these tests, but that is back in Workout Manager from the calendar...
There was a thread started by JoanC that lists all the exercises as well as how to get to the workout cards... She also said how to get to the workout cards...
Here is the list of all the exercises:
http://www.thecathenation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255451
Here's how to print 1RM workout cards:
Go to workout manager and click on date on calendar ( I started with Jan 5th in hopes that Santa would have delivered sts by then). Click on sts instead of dvd, etc. It then asks you what disc. It shows what you have already tested or you can go to bottom left and print and save. Hope this helps.
I scheduled all discs because I didn't want to delete them later and I wanted to print them all. With the rest weeks and scheduling MWF, discs go from Jan 5 thru April 17.
Joan
thanks JoanC
There are also lots of threads lately and explainations from SNM in the STS Forum that can help a lot...
I hope this helps a little... I have done a few of these tests and plan on doing more before STS arrives...
cats meow: I can't answer to the fact that your 1RM's are higher than the average, but it is just that... an average... Maybe you have just gotten to a point that you can lift heavier and that's a good thing!
don't look at it as though you are doing something wrong... just that you are able to lift more than some folks here... Keep it up! if you are consistantly higher by a LOT, then maybe ask someone from SNM to take a look... but I would venture to guess you are OK...
