increasing weights by 5% how do calculate?

[elys]

Hi all


I'm in second weeks of my sts program and Cathe mention in the bigining of each dvd the that we need to increase the weigths by 5% but to be honest i don't know how to calculate that. I know increasing by 5% is not that much. how do I do that?. do i go 3, 5 pounds heavier.


elys

 

[hriacobacci]

One way to increase by 5% is to get the weighted gloves. Each pack is 1/2 lb. I found mine at an Academy Sports. Depending on the types of weights you have, there are platemates. Some people have posted that they wrapped ankle or wrist weights around barbells or dumbells. Sometimes you just need 1/2 a lb, sometimes up to 2 lb. I've even gone so far as to duct tape 1 lb weighted bags (from a weighted vest) to the dumbbells (as I don't have a barbell). Probably not the safest thing in the world of course.

Hope that helps some,
Heather

 

[mgm1]

Elys- have you done your 1 RM? If you did, you can record them in the workout manager. Then for each disk you can print the card with the excersizes and weights will automatically be calculated for you.
If you have not done the 1 RM I would recommend that you enter the weights used so that in next mesocycle they will be automatically calculated.

 

[elys]

thanks Girls!!.

hi magda Yess i have done the 1 rm and i printed bothe card from firstn week and 2nd week and it does increases the weight.

hriacobacci yess that is a great tip to duct tape the weights i will do that

elys

 

[kathryn]

FYI: if there are any exercses that weren't automatically calculated (or for anyone, like me, who didn't bother doing the 1RM tests), it's not hard to figure out 5% this way: 10% is easy to figure, right? So just half that. For example, if in week 1 you used 30#, 10% of that is 3, and half of that is 1.5, so you would add 1.5#.

 

[mgm1]

hi magda Yess i have done the 1 rm and i printed bothe card from firstn week and 2nd week and it does increases the weight.

OK, I know what is happening. If the weights are like 5 lb or 8 lbs they will not change the value when you increase by 5% because it would be like
.25 lb. So the workout manager will not change the value. I think I have increased the weight anyway by adding weighted gloves with 1/2 lb in each hand.

 

[hriacobacci]

Actually, some people posted super micro loading by adding sinkers to their gloves. If I had such a low increase, I went ahead and did the 1/2 or 1 lb increase. You'll be surprised at how much your really can lift!

Heather

OK, I know what is happening. If the weights are like 5 lb or 8 lbs they will not change the value when you increase by 5% because it would be like
.25 lb. So the workout manager will not change the value. I think I have increased the weight anyway by adding weighted gloves with 1/2 lb in each hand.

 

[drover]

kathryn, how did you figure out how much weight to use the first time you did STS? i did my 1rm's , but i ain't doing it again. i actually went up 1# for most of the excercises in meso 1. what is a sinker? are ya'll editing as you go? i'm a bit confused about the editing thing. what does it do? does it change your 1rm?
cathy

 

[hriacobacci]

A fishing sinker. You can find them in sporting goods stores or sections.

kathryn, how did you figure out how much weight to use the first time you did STS? i did my 1rm's , but i ain't doing it again. i actually went up 1# for most of the excercises in meso 1. what is a sinker? are ya'll editing as you go? i'm a bit confused about the editing thing. what does it do? does it change your 1rm?
cathy

 

[kathryn]

kathryn, how did you figure out how much weight to use the first time you did STS?

I'm just doing STS now (in week 2).

To figure out what weight to use, I pretty much did what I do for all other weight workouts: I wrote down the exercises in my workout notebook (I couldn't find how to print a workout 'card' with blanks to write in my own weight) before I did each workout, and guesstimated, based on previous experience, how much weight would let me do the number of reps (or less) for each exercise. I also noted how each set went (whether I did a full ROM, or could have done more reps, etc.).

For the second week, I did the same writing down of exercises and bumped up the weights by 5-10% on repeated exercises (though on some where my ROM wasn't as good or I didn't get the full number of reps, I stayed with the same weight to work on it).