Cathe's One Dumbbell Total Body Workout

[FitSaxe]

I have been on this rotation for the last ~2 months and I'm planning on sticking to it until I stop progressing. I've increased my weights which is what I'm looking for. I do weighted cardio workouts on the other days plus walking on the treadmill (50 to 90 minutes per day depending on schedule). I may take a day off per week or not. I started STS2 last March following Cathe's rotation. Stopped in July. Restarted in late November with 2 total body workouts a week from STS2 but increased it to 3 around Christmas. I'm ~6 months older than Cathe and eat a mostly vegetarian diet.

However, I'm trying to recover from long Covid which made everything challenging for the last 4 years. I had gained weight and lost muscle mass and was left with extreme fatigue, dizziness (fell multiple times), and severe insomnia. I used to need a 3 to 4 day rest after a 30 min workout. What worked were supplements to support mitochondrial function which became impaired after Covid. I did a lot of research on safety, dosing and toxicity before taking anything. The ones that worked for me are taurine, beta alanine, and alpha ketoglutarate (a rate limiting compound in the Krebs cycle which generates ATP in the mitochondria).

Taurine is probably the most important. Unless we eat a lot of liver/ organ meat/ oysters on a daily basis, we become deficient starting in our 20's and the deficiency becomes more severe as we grow older. By age 60, the body produces about 20% of the taurine it used to make in our 20's. If you want to read about taurine, there is a paper in the scientific journal Science from June 9 of 2023 which makes a case for "taurine deficiency as a driver of aging". Taurine is needed for the mitochondria to make its tRNAs which are needed to produce the proteins used for energy production (ATP). Muscles can't work without ATP. I was having problems with my heart. My doctor didn't find anything wrong. I wasn't able to get my heart rate up during my workouts which meant I couldn't do much and felt exhausted. Taurine took care of that. I started with 200 mg a day which was not enough at my age. I increased it gradually to 1.5 to 2 grams a day split into 2 doses. It took me over a year of very gradual improvement to reach this point. Increased my workouts slowly, diet stayed the same. If I stop taurine for 3 days, my heart starts struggling and I can't do my workouts.

On a side note, the mitochondria makes the non-essential amino acid proline. Without it, there is less proline to repair the collagen in so many organs from the skin to the bones. All the hallmarks of aging.

If you try beta alanine, it may cause some skin tingling or itching. It's a harmless reaction that some people get from activation of a G-protein coupled receptor. It dissipates within an hour. My husband had that and thought he was having an allergic reaction. He now takes it with food in small doses. I take a gram a day split into 2 doses. I don't take high doses (loading) of anything. All of these supplements are dirt cheap. Unlikely to see any clinical trials.

I wrote all this just to say not to give up if you're feeling like you're not progressing, sliding backwards or you can't do as much as you used to. It's not growing older. It's more likely a nutritional deficiency. YMMV.

Hello,

Thank you for your message above. I am considering your suggestion for Taurine. I was thinking of creatine. what are your thoughts. I have access to books through YMCAFIT Uk and other various publication and I will research about Taurine. I am just praying that it won't upset my gut It is very sensitive.

My understanding is you are currently on STS 2.0 for a while with breaks and you are intending to stick to it on a progressive basis. I think you are on the very good path to progress and gain what you desire. That is why you have mentioned total body workout.

A bit of thoughts about total split. It can be used by both beginners and advanced in my opinion. Many mention it as Beginners but All totals are not equal!!! A high rep circuit using less than 10 pounds is ranked as a total for many. For example Muscle Max is a total body split, So is a Total premix from INTENSITY series. So is Total body sculpt. The later is a circuit. The point I am making is depending on the content, the rep range and weight selection, the total body in question is ranked on the building side or not. To work on the progressive load one need to focus on building rep range 6-12 reps and strength 3-6 reps. Total body split is actually more efficient for building muscle. I must admit I did not know this fact during my debut! Here below is the link which explain various splits.

The Best Workout Splits for Gaining Muscle—Explained

A workout split refers to how you organize your exercises throughout the week. Should you do 2, 3, or 9 workouts? Should you stack all your chest exercises into one of those workouts, split them between two, or do a few sets every workout? There are a few different workout splits, each of them...

bonytobeastly.com

The Best Workout Splits for Gaining Muscle—Explained

A workout split refers to how you organize your exercises throughout the week. Should you do 2, 3, or 9 workouts? Should you stack all your chest exercises into one of those workouts, split them between two, or do a few sets every workout? There are a few different workout splits, each of them...

bonytobeastly.com

As a cathlete, I worked out total split for years before embarking on split rotations. I gained good results both aesthetic, strength, cardiovascular ability etc.... I did power hours, Muscle max, pyramid, high reps total etc.....The entire Cathe collection.

Now STS 2.0 (the 3x total rotation) is on my radar, after the original. It is not going to be my first attempt. I have done both in the past. I have all that in my head being in the process of fixing in terms of mobility, flexibility, imbalances etc..... I want to complete and enjoy all my push up from meso1 and head forward to meso 3. I do not want to cut corners nor do I (Me) want to dilute anything. Now 3x total is a rotation I did back in the day years before STS original came out. I am excited to tweak my own rotation mixing both total and split. Thus,my interest toward that 3x total STS 2.0 rotation.

Thank you again for recommending Taurine. I will eventually try it out and let you know. Yes nutrition is the key.

 

[Soapmaker]

Thank you for your message above. I am considering your suggestion for Taurine. I was thinking of creatine. what are your thoughts. I have access to books through YMCAFIT Uk and other various publication and I will research about Taurine. I am just praying that it won't upset my gut It is very sensitive.

I tried creatine before finding taurine. Creatine did not help with fatigue or improve my workouts. Before I started taurine, I did 18 months of a variety of workouts (low and high intensity) without seeing any improvement. I was still struggling with 10lb weights for overhead presses after 18 months. By that time, I had lost muscle mass and maintained fat mass which is exactly the opposite of what I was working out for. It's what clued me in that there was a problem with mitochondrial function. That was a hard lesson to learn. Exercise with poorly functioning mitochondria means muscle loss (used up for glucose) and a starvation response including a drop in daily calorie requirement (weight gain). The opposite is true when mitochondria has everything it needs to burn fat. From that point, it was easy to find the research about improving mitochondrial repair and biogenesis which meant providing the missing rate limiting nutrients and exercise.

There is one argument for supplementing with some creatine. To make creatine, the body uses a lot of methyl groups which are required for everything from DNA and cellular repair to detoxification of external and endogenous toxic compounds. Methylation declines with age. Taking creatine frees up some of the methyl groups to work elsewhere so everything stays in balance. I add it to my water on strength days when I remember.

I can take taurine on an empty stomach without any problem. You can take it with food. It is absorbed the same with and without food. Start with small doses if you decide to go ahead. I wouldn't go for more than 2 to 3 grams if you're average size like me. The highest concentration of taurine is in the retina followed by the brain and heart. The kidneys use it to reduce loss of minerals like calcium and magnesium. They also tightly control the amount of taurine in the body. They preserve all available taurine under deficiency conditions but get rid of up to 40% of it when there is excess. That why the dose is important. The 1.5 to 2 gr dose solved the issues I was having with my heart. My maximal heart rate is back where it was when I was 20.

It will take months to return to normal assuming that no other nutrients are missing. Safety studies have been conducted with 6 grams of taurine for 6 months without any issues but I wouldn't ever go that high. Supplements are not regulated like pharmaceuticals. Make sure to buy from a manufacturer that uses independent third party testing for every lot. Since we're all genetically different, aim to get routine blood tests to make sure everything is normal especially kidneys and liver. That's what I did. HTH.

Please don't take anything until you understand how the body clears it and what doses are appropriate. I don't have a book to recommend. I read the raw research.