Am I making a mistake by doing it this way?

[Traildoggie]

I was unfamiliar with many of the exercises in STS and have a limited selection of weights. so instead of wrestling with the 1RMs, I've been winging it. I watch the exercise once or twice, estimate a weight. If it's too light or heavy I switch after a couple reps and record what worked. I've done most of the first 6 disks several times (interfering vacation times) so the second time I'm doing close as I can to a 1RM. From those of you who are further along, will this system work? Can I enter my selected weight as my 1 RM without using the program to do a calculation?

 

[dorothyrd]

Don't enter the weight you used as your 1RM because that should be your 70% or whatever is indicated on the work-out sheet. To get to your 1RM using that weight, divide your weight by the percent. So if you used 15 pound dumbells, and the WO sheet said it was suppose to be 70% 1rm, divide 15 by .7 and you get 21.42. Round up or down and enter the 21 as your 1rm.

 

[Traildoggie]

Oh... of course!!
0.70x = 15 lbs. Thanks, yeah, I can do the math. are a lot of people doing this? Cathe keeps saying "if you do a few reps and it's not heavy enough, increase your weight" and that's pretty much what I'm doing for most moves. I can tell pretty quickly if I over or under estimated. I am pretty good ( now) at looking at an exercise and telling how much to pick up.

 

[BethM1]

Traildoggie

Hi there: I am doing it the way you are - the 1 rep max tests just overwhelmed me. I figure next time I do the program I will know more what I am doing. I just finished Meso 1 - got a late start because had to wait for an arm injury to heal - so I can't lift as heavy as I like anyway. I will wait a couple of months to do the program again and by then I'll be able to lift heavier. I am starting Meso 2 tonight or tomorrow. I have enjoyed my week of active rest - not as tired and hungry.

 

[Traildoggie]

I didn't like the idea of pushing the weight to failure on exercises I wasn't used to doing. I've done the first 7 disks several times each( vacations) and feel comfortable now. the first go I was cautious. If I could do more, I recorded the weight I used with an up arrow, so the next time I'd increase. sometimes I increased a third time. for the paper plate moves I first added weight the third time.

I got really sore from disk 6 legs last thursday so waited til monday and repeated it. Don't feel sore at all today so maybe that's the best approach for me. I did not want to get injured right out of the box by using too much weight! I don't care if it takes me longer as long as I get good results.

 

[JoanC]

If you use the edit button on your sts wo card in the calendar, you can put in weight you used and it will compute 1rm and put correct amts in future wo cards. Hope this helps.

I've needed to change some of the 1rm as I went along. Something you can lift when you haven't done anything else is not necessarily what you can lift half way throught the dvd.

 

[drover]

joan, so do we need to edit every single excercise, or if we do the last month, meso 3, would that change them all?
cathy

 

[JoanC]

I'm only on meso 1 but I would think it would change most of them. I know that discs 1-12 have all exercises except plyo legs. I checked that when I was doing 1rm test originally.
Joan

 

[Traildoggie]

Joanc, you are so right about declining abilities as the disk plays on! I just did disk 7 and the second to the last exercise... I could not lift that bar more than 3 times even though it only weighed 15 lbs. I was spent! I will still be doing pushups in my sleep...