S&H rotation - alone or mix it up?

[workout junkie]

I'm going to start a Slow and Heavy rotation (S&H upper body and more endurance type workouts for lower body) and was wondering how most of you use S&H.

Do you do strictly Slow and Heavy workouts or do you mix it up with some total body or endurance workouts? I'm not sure what will give the best results. I can't remember what I did before, but I think I just focused on S&H for about 3 weeks.

What has given you the best results?

Thanks for any ideas.
Melissa

 

[kathryn]

With something like S&H, I think recovery time is important, so doing each one once a week (one upper body on Monday, lower body on Wednesday, the other upper body on Friday) with cardio and stretching in between would be my suggestion. Then after 3 weeks of that, take a "recovery" week and do less intense weight workouts, stretching and core work.

The only time I'd mix S&H and other workouts is if I use Chest/Back in with some other workouts from other series.

 

[nastsm0m]

Kathyrn-I too am planning on a slow and heavy rotaion after doing august 05 rotation. I plan to do skow and heavy for both upper and lower. So how would you suggest I rotate the 3 workous in this series? Or was the lower body you mentioned on wednesday the shoulders and legs workout? Thanks in advance!

Terri

 

[exercise forever]

Cathe has a older rotation with S&H and Pure strengh. I think it has 3weeks of S&H and one week of PS. I hope that helps.


kim

 

[clareMc]

When I do S&H weeks, I reduce my cardio to 2 or 3 sessions per week. this gives my body a better chance of actually building muscle. I then do the S&H upper bodyb sections twice per week. For legs I too prefer endurance: either LL or GS legs.

I had such great results with this that I stayed with it for 6/7 weeks. I saw the greatest gains in strength (changing up the weights) after the 3 weeks, that's why I stayed with it so long. Peopleare different. I have a long, lanky frame with arms to match, so it is hard for me to gain muscle. But with this series for 6/7 weeks, I broke through plateaus.

After that time, I changed it to S&H upper body once per week, and CTX upper body once per week. I liked this too, for variety.

Clare

 

[kathryn]

>Kathyrn-I too am planning on a slow and heavy rotaion after
>doing august 05 rotation. I plan to do skow and heavy for
>both upper and lower. So how would you suggest I rotate the 3
>workous in this series? Or was the lower body you mentioned
>on wednesday the shoulders and legs workout? Thanks in
>advance!
>
>Terri

The lower body was actually "legs and shoulders".
You could rotate it in several ways, but I prefer chest/back on day 1, legs and shoulders on day 3 (actually, I don't like S&H legs: the slow count on lunges is a killer on my knees-at least the one time I tried it--so I substitute another lower body ex, like PS), and arms on day 5 (smallest muscle groups last in the rotation). If your shoulders are a weak area or prone to injury (I have to baby one of mine), then even putting an extra day between chest/back (which hits the shoulders as well as an agonistic or helping muscle group) could be helpful to give those muslces more time to recover.

 

[workout junkie]

Clare and Kathryn - thanks for the advice. I will stick to doing just S&H upper body, no muscle endurance type workouts for upper body. Do you think kickboxing would be ok to do during this S&H rotation or should I just let those upper body muscles recover?

Also, since I'm not going to be doing S&H legs, do you ever do the Shoulders segment with either the Chest/Back or Biceps/Triceps workouts?

Thanks again,
Melissa

 

[nastsm0m]

Thanks Kathryn! I appreciate that you are always willing to help out

Terri

 

[kathryn]

>>Also, since I'm not going to be doing S&H legs, do you ever do
>the Shoulders segment with either the Chest/Back or
>Biceps/Triceps workouts?
>
>
I would do it with the biceps/triceps workout, and put at least 2 days in between chest/back and sh/bi/tri to let the shoulders recover. Doesn't PS have a legs/shoulders workout? That seems familiar. If so, you could do that instead of SH legs/shoulders.

 

[clareMc]

Yes, I agree with Kathryn. I rarely do shoulders and chest on the same day. I can give my all to only one of them, the other muscle group will suffer by comparison because there's an overlap in the muscles used for both shoulders and chest.

Clare

 

[workout junkie]

Thanks again Clare and Kathryn! You both always give such good advice. I'm looking forward to starting my S&H rotation tomorrow with Chest and Back. I've been waiting to do this for awhile so I could do it for at least 3 weeks without being interrupted by having to travel, etc.

Melissa

Edited for spelling. I had a margarita and can't remember how to spell interrupted. I think it's two r's. Oh well.