Can't do 60% 1 RM

SunKissed

SunKissed

Cathlete
I think I might have gone too heavy on my 1Rep maxes because I can't do what the manager says on my workout card. My form was good while I was taking them. I'm kinda bummbed after all that work I did. I'm now just guessing at the weights. I couldn't do too many at one time because the heavy weights were wearing me out. Although I am sore after the STS workouts.
Also my husband is working out with me and he is a pretty big guy. Cathe is kicking his butt! He used to make fun of us, calling us psycho (joking of course). But he is now a Cathe fan!!

The series is awesome! Great job SNM!!!

Bridget
 
Obviously not Cathe

My sweetie ordered the series for me and we did our 1RMs together. Even pushing as hard as we can, we can't even come close to doing 60% of our 1RM for the entire workout.

My SO can just about eke out 1/2 of the reps for most of the exercises if he uses 60%. I have to cut back on weights significantly to manage even 1 or 2 reps. (If my workout card says 17 pounds, I try 15s and usually scale down to 12s.) I guess this means we did the 1RM testing wrong, although it seemed pretty straightforward?

It also varies from exercise to exercise. I can manage my 1RM on concentration curls, but not barbell curls. Oh well - we figure as long as we're feeling challenged, we're getting some kind of benefit.
 
And remember, as Cathe says herself in one of the workouts I just previewed, if you've already worked the muscle hard with a previous exercise, you may have to go lighter than the designated 1RM%.

1RM may work fine if you are only doing one exercise, but I think its accuracy is less when you do those exercises in the context of an entire workout.
 
Hi Bridget,

I haven't started STS yet, but I've been working on my 1RM's and I can tell you ,what you are experiencing is a thought that has crossed my mind too. I've only worked on 1RM's twice. The first time, I tacked them on to another workout, and I couldn't lift as heavy as I did the 2nd time I tested. The second time I did 1RM's, I did it as a workout in itself, and I went pretty heavy. While previewing disc 1 & 2, I thought to myself, there is no way I will be able to lift according to my workout card with soo many exercises. I am not discouraged at all, but to be honest, I'm thinking I may just not bother with completing all of the 1RM's. I think I'm just going to use my own judgement and go for it. I want to have fun with STS and I'm afraid if I insist on structure, STS will just be work and no fun. I need to enjoy my workouts. I am by no means advising anyone against testing your 1RM's, just speaking for myself :)
 
kathryn said:
1RM may work fine if you are only doing one exercise, but I think its accuracy is less when you do those exercises in the context of an entire workout.
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I agree with this statement. And I also think the 1 RM concept probably works much better with the strength phase (maybe even the hypertrophy phase) of STS. I would love to hear SNM or Cathe's input on this though.
 
This has happened to me on a couple as well and my first thought was: "was I crazy when I did my 1RM?" But I would rather lighten then go through the reps with too light of a weight. Also, a couple of times it did have to do with the placement of the exercise in the workout and I just didn't have the "umpf" to do all the reps! My muscles are definitely getting a good workout! I feel that even for those where I've had to adjust I'm pushing myself harder than I have in a while. I love it! I'm sure I'll see some positive results!

Jo
 
Yikes!

When I started entering my weight and my reps, I took a look at what my 1RM calculates out to be and thought, "Maybe not."

I've lowered a couple of them because I know that I would be in over my head at even 60%!

Starting tomorrow. This should be interesting. :rolleyes:
 
Wow thanks guys or girls! That makes me feel soo much better that I'm not the only one experiencing this. I do seem to be doing the same weight as Cathe though, just making pretty ugly faces! LOL!

Bridget
 
I've also lowered many of my weights a bit from what the 1RM % says I should be lifting for any given exercise. I'm figuring Meso 1 is muscle endurance, and if I'm lifting a weight that will only allow me to do 10 reps instead of 15 on an exercise (especially those toward the end of the workout), I'm not achieving the goals of this mesocycle. Even with the lower weights, I'm really eeking out those last few reps toward the end of the workout.

I'm doing the 6-month rotation, at least for Meso 1, so that'll give me a second time around for each of the weeks. By the time I hit Meso 2, I should be able to work more with what the 1RM % says I should lift.

Sue
 
I, too have found some of the rep calculations to be either too high and then some of them too low....

I'm also doing the 6 month rotation. This week I'm repeating week one of meso 1. My legs are stilll crying and I didn't even do what the calculator said...

I'm ok with lowering it as long as I know I'm not letting myself off easy. During the leg workout in particular it helped seeing what the cast was lifting, I didn't feel so bad for not going heavier, since they didn't seem to either, and I know some of those girls could do a lot heavier.

I'm taking notes every workout to adjust the weights and also note when I think next time I could add a pound or two. This way I will make progress based on the experience of the exercises in context of the workout as opposed to isolated from the rep testing.
 
The exercises that are most off for me are things like the "21's", I don't think I was testing them properly. I did disc 7 today, and I failed twice at rep 4 on the last set of 7.
 
Dela said:
The exercises that are most off for me are things like the "21's", I don't think I was testing them properly. I did disc 7 today, and I failed twice at rep 4 on the last set of 7.
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Not sure, but I thought I read somewhere that you don't do the 1RM for the 21 exercises. Seems like SNM said it won't work for any exercise like that. Maybe someone else can chime in.
 
Wow! I had the same experience. I did all the 1RM tests and found that a few of them were WAY off. What I found was that, had the actual STS drills been done more SLOWLY, I may have been able to achieve the 60% that the workout card demanded. Some of the reps were done at a speed that just burned me out too fast. But I guess that's the point?

I'm wondering if - you're a seasoned Cathe exerciser - that just by knowing the exercise you could judge on your own what weights might be best based upon the cadence.

Another thought occurred to me...and that was about the whole "do something different every day" slogan not necessarily being a "plus." I found that, after screwing up on the weights for some of disc 1, I wanted to go back again and re-do the disc with the proper weights...because it only took me ONE TIME to know what I could do. And I DO push myself.

I LIKE "conquering" a workout and then "moving up the scale." But if I stick with the slated routine, I won't be able to repeat disc 1 for months!

Oh well!

It's a challenge, that's for sure!

:D Meecher
 
Yup, I tried to have fresh muscles when I did the 1RM tests to get a "true" 1RM, and in the context of fatigued muscles, 60% for 15 reps is too heavy. Now I am just doing the exercise, noting when I reach failure, and then reentering my 1RM so that next week will be closer to the weights I need. I also find that even though the discs are different, I am getting used to what a good weight for each muscle group is.
 
This is interesting to hear because I did an STS-like rotation last year with the Cathe dvds I already had with some other women on a VF check-in and we felt the same way with Meso 1. We couldn't do 60% of our 1RM for most of the muscle endurance workouts because of the speed of the lifting and the number of reps. Many times my 60% was much higher than Cathe and her crew were lifting (and I knew they were stronger than I was).

I wondered if the STS workouts would be designed differently for Meso 1 (than ME or PH) to make that 60% more doable, but it doesn't look like it. I haven't been able to start STS yet because I've been sick (grrrr! :)) so I haven't been able to see for myself. Fun to read all of your experiences . Thanks for sharing.
 
I too had to go down in weights.

Janie
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For those who are comparing Cathe's and the crew's weights to their own...just for fun, or to help pick a weight if you didn't do a 1RM test...(or just observing)...remember that these are most likely NOT their actual 60% (or 65%, or whatever is called for that day) of 1RM's. They have stated that due to long days of filming, and doing so many workouts so close together, that often they did not use their real values. Also, the footage for some of the exercise segments is reused in several workouts- very nicely edited, and nearly seamless - almost unnoticeable! But that means that the second time it is used, it is still showing the same weight, even though the % may have gone up for us viewers.
 
I kind of suspected as much.... :)

They would be some kind of super human if they were able to do all those workouts for so many hours for so many days....
 
snowbelle said:
For those who are comparing Cathe's and the crew's weights to their own...just for fun, or to help pick a weight if you didn't do a 1RM test...(or just observing)...remember that these are most likely NOT their actual 60% (or 65%, or whatever is called for that day) of 1RM's. They have stated that due to long days of filming, and doing so many workouts so close together, that often they did not use their real values. Also, the footage for some of the exercise segments is reused in several workouts- very nicely edited, and nearly seamless - almost unnoticeable! But that means that the second time it is used, it is still showing the same weight, even though the % may have gone up for us viewers.
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I thought Cathe's sweat stain on her shirt looked smaller torwards the end of disc 6 than it did in the beginning!:)
 
One rep max

I think that is why Cathe lets us know to keep track of what changes you may need to make. I like seeing everyone making notes on the clipboards to increase or decrease for the next workout. Lets me know I'm not the only one that didn't get it exactlly right. I can tell ya that my muscles let me know the next day that I got the 1RM correct!!
Bobbie
 
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