STS 2.0 Done! What's Next?

ashaw

ashaw

Cathlete
I've pretty much finished STS 2.0. I did 3 full weeks of Total Body, 3 full weeks of Upper/Lower and probably 2 weeks of Body Parts. I went back and did another week of Total Body and Upper/Lower split. I finally got to do Body Parts Legs because I was delayed on that one due to my sprained ankle, which thankfully, has healed nicely one month later.

So, now I'm ready to go back to other Cathe workouts, but not sure which direction I want to go in. I found a rotation with a few Strong & Sweaty workouts (Boot Camp, Ramped Up Upper Body and Total Body Giant Sets) that I'm thinking about adding Pyramid Lower Body for legs, some form of cardio and a yoga day (thinking about Yoga Max) too. I absolutely loved STS 2.0 with the Total Body phase being my favorite. But, it was tough and very demanding and sometimes that focus is hard to maintain. Even Cathe said that about the Slow & Heavy series. I'm thinking more along the lines of 45-50 minute-ish routines. I know I'll come back to STS 2.0 again but I think right now, my mind and body need a break from the intensity of heavy lifting. I also got great results from my tank top rotation earlier this year which I think helped me prep for the heavy upper body work in STS 2.0.

For those who have finished STS 2.0 and are doing something different, what are you currently doing?
 
Congrats on finishing!

When I finished STS2.0, I did a deload week for recovery ... in STS1.0, Cathe has you do a Recovery Week after every Meso cycle ... it really helped! So I did a week of Band work ... Boss Bands & Loops, LITE's Body Weight & Bands, & Travel Fit. I'm now doing a month of older 3-day splits - Slow and Heavy, Pure Strength, Gym Styles and RWH. It has been interesting comparing & contrasting these with STS2.0. I'm contemplating the 2 month Xtrain/STS2.0 Rotation for next month. .. not sure yet....
 
Debinmi said:
Congrats on finishing!

When I finished STS2.0, I did a deload week for recovery ... in STS1.0, Cathe has you do a Recovery Week after every Meso cycle ... it really helped! So I did a week of Band work ... Boss Bands & Loops, LITE's Body Weight & Bands, & Travel Fit. I'm now doing a month of older 3-day splits - Slow and Heavy, Pure Strength, Gym Styles and RWH. It has been interesting comparing & contrasting these with STS2.0. I'm contemplating the 2 month Xtrain/STS2.0 Rotation for next month. .. not sure yet....
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I was sitting on the fence about a recovery week using Pvolve. I might do it at some point.
 
ashaw said:
I've pretty much finished STS 2.0.
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Congrats! I've just finished it too. I did total body, upper/lower, mixed body parts (i.e. 2 body parts per workout), then back to total body, and finished with individual body parts. I've definitely gained strength with this series. Most notably was when I did the triceps body part and did the bonus side-lying push up. I've always struggled to do these and before this series the best I've managed is about 4-5 reps per side. This time I did 10 reps on one side and 11 on the other. I've increased my weights on several other exercises too.

I've now moved on to a YouTube series by Tom Peto Training. It is a 6-week Dumbbell Lift series consisting of 5 workouts and 2 rest days per week. One of the 5 workouts is a mobility one, so it is really 4 lifting workouts per week. Each lifting workout is about 30 minutes, and the mobility ones are a bit shorter. I chose this because I wanted to take advantage of the strength gains I made, and work is getting busy at the moment so my workout time is limited. Tom also uses minimal equipment, usually only 2 pairs of dumbbells, a heavy pair and a lighter pair, and a mat, so it is quick to take out my equipment and put it away at the end. The workouts are quite fast paced which is a change from STS 2.0.

Once I've finished this series, I'm thinking of doing a few weeks of Barre/Yoga/Pilates workouts. By the time I've finished that I am hoping my hip will have healed enough to start getting into some cardio workouts again.
 
I'm enjoying my results from STS 2.0 so much that I'm not ready yet to shelve them. I'm on an active recovery week. Next month I'll be doing a mix of full body, upper/lower, and body parts workouts, and then after that I'll be following her STS 2.0/XTrain rotation in the guide... so a little re-introduction to older workouts, but still quite a bit of STS 2.0 mixed in.

I did a deload week last week (50% of my usual weight selections) and it felt like a vacation. Also threw in a couple actual cardio days, and actually, my rear delts were pretty sore after doing Rev'd Up Rumble. Muscles weren't used to punching after so many weeks, so that was an interesting surprise.
 
randidiane said:
.... It's so much fun bringing her older workouts back!
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I agree! Today was RWH Legs ... what a workout! Drenched in sweat, sucking air (it's free, so it's all good ;)), heavy-ish weights with intense cardio ... I had to pause it a few times to catch my breath to maintain good form for the weights ...whoa. Changing things up is good!
 
I had a total change of plans to my week, thankfully I always have a mental Plan B when it comes to my rotation. I originally was going to do Boot Camp, Ramped Up Upper Body, Pyramid Lower Body, cardio or yoga, Total Body Giant Sets and cardio, but after not sleeping well last night, I didn't feel up to doing S&S Boot Camp, so I totally changed my direction......back to heavy weights, but with a twist!

I did Body Parts Legs this morning, tomorrow is Ramped Up Upper Body, Wednesday will be light cardio or yoga, Thursday will be Pyramid Lower Body, Friday will be Perfect Pump Upper Body and Saturday will be light cardio.

For some reason, I tend to have trouble sleeping on Sunday night and I have no idea why, maybe from sleeping later on Saturday and Sunday morning, but I always try to avoid cardio or a cardio/weight circuit on Mondays for that reason.

I forgot to add that I absolutely love the push up modification using the orange boss loop. It’s a game changer for me because I feel like it gives me much more stability. When I do them in Ramped Up Upper Body tomorrow morning, I’ve got my orange loop ready to go!
 
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WOW! I did Ramped Up Upper Body for the first time in probably 6 months and I forgot what a tough workout that was. Coming off STS 2.0, I was huffing and puffing and like wait, where the #%$& is my 1 minute break!! The reps were also done at a bit faster tempo but Cathe was still using 30's for the one arm rows and it was 16 reps. Some of the exercises were almost like a giant set because you did them once, then ran through them again, but this time there was no 1 minute break anywhere. I paused a few times intentionally to get water or stretch because I've gotten so accustomed to the pace of STS 2.0, seeing that I've spent the last 3 months doing it. Tomorrow will be a light cardio, but Thursday is Intensity Series Pyramid Lower Body and Friday is Perfect Pump Upper body. I might be taking a few pause breaks because for one thing, I've done less cardio during STS 2.0 and I also need to get used to the speed of these other workouts!
 
Looking ahead to the end of STS 2.0 with these exact thoughts in mind. I loaded the “STS/LIS 3-month Transformation Rotation” as my next go-to after STS 2.0 is officially done. Looks great for weights AND modified cardio. Might want to take a peek.
 
ashaw said:
WOW! I did Ramped Up Upper Body for the first time in probably 6 months and I forgot what a tough workout that was. Coming off STS 2.0, I was huffing and puffing and like wait, where the #%$& is my 1 minute break!! The reps were also done at a bit faster tempo but Cathe was still using 30's for the one arm rows and it was 16 reps. Some of the exercises were almost like a giant set because you did them once, then ran through them again, but this time there was no 1 minute break anywhere. I paused a few times intentionally to get water or stretch because I've gotten so accustomed to the pace of STS 2.0, seeing that I've spent the last 3 months doing it. Tomorrow will be a light cardio, but Thursday is Intensity Series Pyramid Lower Body and Friday is Perfect Pump Upper body. I might be taking a few pause breaks because for one thing, I've done less cardio during STS 2.0 and I also need to get used to the speed of these other workouts!
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This — 100%. I’m used to feel “weak” for taking breaks during workouts. Not anymore. If I need a break (a la STS 2.0) I’m taking it!
 
AVeyRa said:
This — 100%. I’m used to feel “weak” for taking breaks during workouts. Not anymore. If I need a break (a la STS 2.0) I’m taking it!
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I think STS2.0 has given me guilt-free permission to take more rest between sets now. The rep speed in older workouts is so much faster (except in Slow & Heavy) & with very little rest between sets makes the older workouts more intense. It may take me longer to get thru a workout tho, but I figure if I'm lifting as heavy as in STS2.0 then the little longer rests are okay.
 
Absolutely! After doing STS2.0 and seeing how heavy I'm capable of lifting with proper breaks, no longer am I going to feel insecure about hitting the pause button to take a quick break between sets. If that break means the difference between curling 20's instead of dropping to 15's, I'd rather err on the side of taking that break. And, that trick for push ups using the orange Boss Loop has made a world of difference in a short time. I used it during the push ups in Ramped Up Upper Body and did all of them on my toes. I wish somebody had figured that one out sooner! That is a game changer for sure!
 
I did the 12 week STS 2 rotation and now I'm part way through the 10 week. After that, I'm thinking that using Cathe's videos and LIVE I'll create a rotation that has a total body, a lower body, an upper body, a barre or band workout, and 2 days with cardio and a rest day. Not sure what order yet. And I don't need to actually create the rotation for another 5 weeks.
 
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