Different cardio for each mesocycle?

[Nanbo]

I just moved my STS start date up to April 18th eek and am in the process of planning out the cardio for the alternate days. I've been trying to get a grasp of some of the cardio workouts from the posted rotations and was wondering if there are certain cardio options I should be looking at for each mesocycle? I don't own any of the IMAX DVDs and wondered if there is a good substitute??? I have the LIS series and am currently doing the 3.5 Month Transformation Rotation using STS/LIS. The only Shock Cardio I have is HiiT and CCC. I also have KPC, Step Blast, and Intensity. Does anyone have any guidelines about selecting the proper cardio for the STS rotation? Should they follow a certain pattern? I appreciate ANY advice I can get on this...I am so fired up and excited to get started!!!!

 

[marazoe]

Hi Nanbo. I was wondering what kind of results you are seeing from the LIS / STS rotation? I will be starting that at the end of March. I am doing the 6 month STS now and I just do elliptical or treadmill on cardio days.

Jean

 

[Nanbo]

Hi Nanbo. I was wondering what kind of results you are seeing from the LIS / STS rotation? I will be starting that at the end of March. I am doing the 6 month STS now and I just do elliptical or treadmill on cardio days.

Jean

HI Jean!
I've noticed a more defined torso and my thighs and rear end are firmer. If I'd watched my calories a little better, I'm certain I'd see more fat loss. I did not seem to gain definition in my arms, but I have a really tough time with that anyway...I maintained the tone I had and felt that I gained strength over definition. My weight didn't change at all, but there is less jiggle when I giggle!

 

[marazoe]

Nanbo. I am excited to hear about your results. That is exactly what I am aiming for. Thanks for responding and good luck with STS. It's the best.

Jean

 

[jldx2in2000]

I'm not going to be any help but I was wondering what your goal was? Are you trying to determine what mix of cardio with each meso (1, 2, & 3) would give you optimum results for:

• fat loss OR
• muscle building

I would be very interested in knowing both as I assume they would be different. So, if you were using STS primarily with a fat loss goal in mind would you do more, longer, intense cardio? If your goal was muscle building, would you do intense cardio during meso 1 but lighten up the cardio during mesos 2 & 3 and do less of it to focus on the muscle building?

Hopefully someone else with far more knowledge than I will be able to answer your question.

 

[Fembot40]

Nanbo, I'm on my last week of Meso 2, and so far what I've done for cardio in between is kickbox on Tuesdays, Imax or Step on Thursdays, and cycling on the weekends. I try not to repeat the same cardio workout each week. The only other non-Cathe's I throw in there is Amy Bento's Kickbox Surge (LOVE IT!) and Advanced Step Challenge 2. The other thing I've done in this Meso is to add the bonus legs from Meso 1 to the end of the Meso 2, so for M2D23 I added M1D12 to the end. I just love the bonus work, I'll probably add it to plyo legs too.

 

[Nanbo]

I'm not going to be any help but I was wondering what your goal was? Are you trying to determine what mix of cardio with each meso (1, 2, & 3) would give you optimum results for:

• fat loss OR
• muscle building

I would be very interested in knowing both as I assume they would be different. So, if you were using STS primarily with a fat loss goal in mind would you do more, longer, intense cardio? If your goal was muscle building, would you do intense cardio during meso 1 but lighten up the cardio during mesos 2 & 3 and do less of it to focus on the muscle building?

Hopefully someone else with far more knowledge than I will be able to answer your question.

Hi Julie!
You actually were VERY helpful in your answer to me! By asking me to focus on my goals, you helped me to organize my thoughts better! I actually want to get EVEYTHING out of STS: endurance, definition, and strength! I want to make sure I don't overuse any one particular body part and injure myself, so I was trying to select cardio options that would compliment the rotation and not interfere with recovery. I was worried that step workouts should be scheduled to not interfere with leg recovery, etc. But looking through the STS/LIS 3 month rotation, I see that it really doesn't matter! I just probably wouldn't want to do a ton of shoulder work (like in CSS bonus step) the day after I work shoulders, right?
So, I'm going to try to do a Metabolic/HiiT workout, a step workout, and at least one high impact cardio during the week...I'll let you know how that schedule works out !

 

[bethj]

The day after legs I always rest and do a foam roll and yoga stretch workout. The next day is a low impact kickbox. It helps loosen up my lower body on the 2nd day of DOMS. MMA Kickbox is particularly good for that. (I do the drills low impact.) The day after the upper body workouts I do a step workout for one, and a HIIT workout or high impact/high intensity workout for the other cardio. I do my core work on my 3 cardio days because I find STS too exhausting to add on core work, and my core gets worked a bit in them anyway. This rotation has worked really well for me. I feel nicely cross-trained but not overworked. I use it for all 3 mesos, I don't really feel the need to change it up with each meso. I do change up the DVDs each week but keep the same template. So for a meso 2 example:
Monday-ch/sh/triceps
Tues-step-Low Impact Challenge plus STS No Equipment Abs
Weds-legs
Thurs-foam roll/yoga max ( this stretches me better than yoga relax)
Fri-MMA Kickbox plus the core work
Sat-back/biceps
Sun-HIIT 40/20 (I like to do it twice through to get a longer workout) plus STS Ab Circuits Pilates. (Insanity workouts also fit in well here.)
Hope this helps!
Beth