Plyo legs...as HIT cardio

[Connie07]

I wanted short intense cardio last night so I decided to try a STS plyo legs, plyos only...WOW it kicked my butt big time. I started with the warm up, but did my own thing of more dynamic moves to really get my legs warmed up good. I skipped to the plyo section, rested 30-40 seconds after each plyo, skipped to the next plyo seciton, repeat...this was a real challenge for me as I"m not conditioned for this type of cardio. I experienced the "puke in the bucket" feeling..which I don't like. Anyway I was a bit leary of trying this because of knee issues but I've spent the past year doing smarter training and really taking care of my knees and they are so much better! My knees did fine (a little stiff when I first got up this AM) I think I"m going to do plyo legs this way once a week for now as my "version" of HIIT. I really don't want to use weights 2x a week for legs as I don't want to push the knee issue. I want to follow STS as written as much as I can. I've read so much about HIIT and how great a fat burner it is, (I know wt lose is mostly about diet) I love short cardio these days.

 

[drover]

that is exactly what i want to try. i just don't know if i can do all the jumping either. i was thinking a short , hard cardio after STS would be good, although i am usually fried at the end of the workout.
so, how long did you actually go for? after the warmup?
cathy

 

[pugw]

I'm on week 3 of STS and tried the first Plyo leg w/o today. I used body wt only for most of the exercises and very light wt for those I did use wt on. I modified where needed and still felt like I got a great w/o. It was a lot of fun. I could hardly make it back up the stairs. I'm 50 and want to take care of my knees as well. There are definitely ways to take it down a notch when needed and still get the plyo effect. I never thought of just doing the plyo moves though. It would probably kill me. I might try this. I just might need longer rests when I do.

 

[Connie07]

that is exactly what i want to try. i just don't know if i can do all the jumping either. i was thinking a short , hard cardio after STS would be good, although i am usually fried at the end of the workout.
so, how long did you actually go for? after the warmup?
cathy

I'm guessing about 15-20 mns....don't know for sure. I wasn't too concerned about the time at this point, just wanted to see if I could do it. Most of it will depend on how long of rest you need between each plyo. True HIIT has very little rest between each "set" but I went by how I felt and what I judged to be enough rest for me. This is new to me and safety is my #1 priority. I had planned on adding a few minutes of "regular" cardio after this because I didn't know how long it would take me but I didn't need to, this was tough. The plyo moves are a bit slower and more controlled than Cathe's other plyo w/o which really helps. The slower speed really helped me keep my balance and really pay attention to how I land, the slower speed really helped me focus on using leg power too. I'm 48 and overweight so I"m really careful of my joints. I didn't do any weight training last night, Tuesdays are my "start" day of the week. I wouldn't do this type of cardio on a training day, but thats just me.