STS Check-in Week of 8/30 (for those starting in Sept)

rcsaros

Cathlete
Here is the new thread for us beginning the STS rotation in September. I figured I would start it now since I know some start the week on Sunday.

Here is to STS : )

Rhonda
 
As I sit here typing this I am so mad.

I won't be able to start STS tomorrow as planned. I am not sure what happened but my neck is absolutely hurting me today. It was never this sore when I had my neck problem so I figure it probably is best to not start heavy training until it subsides.

so I will read how everyone is doing and join in if and when I can.

I will continue doing what I am doing, which is one of Cathe's rotations, not sure which one and go from there.

Rhonda
 
Oh Rhonda, {{{hugs}}}

I feel your pain! What a crushing disappointment! Have you made a dr. appt?

I know you started and stopped once before, and you know your body and your injuries better than me, but Meso 1 is light weights lots of reps, so maybe you could modify it to meet your needs...?

Well - I just finished disc 1.

I love this program. I am glad I am starting round two! This time I was able to do all of the push ups along with Cathe, except for the staggered ones at the end, for some reason those sent shooting pain through my shoulders, so I went back to standard push up on those. I also was able to increase my weights this go around (compared to my last rotation) with the exception of the side lateral (shoulder) stability raise, I had to drop my weight on that one for now. I am wondering if I was just all tuckered out from the push ups! (lol:D:D)

This week I have to re-arrange my workout schedule; I need to move Wednesday's workout to Thursday. For Meso 1 I am going to do legs twice...(I did this the first go around too) so I plan on doing legs tomorrow and again on Friday.

How did everyone else do?
 
Hey Everyone

I am going to start STS next Monday... we are going camping this weekend and I know I can't focus on my routine this week. The kids will be back in school then to so I can really take some extra time. I have just taken almost two weeks off in hopes of getting my achilles tendonitis under control. I done physio and it was getting better and I moved to fast into impact cardio again. I did Butts and Guts this morning without breakfast first and by the time I was done the standing legs I was quivering. Oops. I am so looking forward to STS and getting back into things. My plan is to really work on following the BFFM too at the same time.

Rhonda - It will get better just don't go to fast!

Janis... I have been thinking of doing Butts and Guts and Leg and Glutes as an extra leg day along with STS legs. What does your week look like with the extra legs day? How much cardio are planning on doing?

Heather
 
Janis... I have been thinking of doing Butts and Guts and Leg and Glutes as an extra leg day along with STS legs. What does your week look like with the extra legs day? How much cardio are planning on doing?

Heather

I thought about butts/guts too! Maybe I should buy Legs and Glutes. I need to round out those glutes!

I am doing Meso 1 legs Tuesday and Friday. Meso 2, I am thinking maybe I'd try a legs/glutes on a Saturday, or just stick with Tues Fri legs.

As for cardio, I am trying to run 3 days a week, and will probably row on a leg day and bike on an upper body day. I'd really like to run more frequently, but I seem to be prone to injury.

Hey, did you order the tower? I am EXCITED it will be arriving soon.

Have a great camping trip. It's the full moon too!
 
Hello Everyone-

I started a rotation of STS this week as well, so if you dont mind I would like to join the check-in too. When STS first came out I got through meso 1 then work obligations went up a few notches and I havent had a good chance until now to put 3 months of a solid rotation together.

For my main morning workouts I am going to be doing STS on TU/TH/SUN with 3 days M/W/F of set cardio, a steady state step, an interval step and kickbox/sports drills cardio. In the evening I am going to add in something else as well, usually its on the treadmill or playing tennis. So we will see if I can lay down a whole 3 month rotation and not get pulled away from it which will be a minor miracle in and of itself. lol ;)

Rhonda - Sorry your hurt, heal up first, STS will be there when your body is ready for it.

Heather - I just finished reading BFFM last week, so I will be trying to work more of the ideas into eating with STS too.

Janis - More power to you if you can do STS legs twice a week. Once is plenty for me, especially if I am going to have any legs left to run around playing tennis.

I look forward to getting to know everyone as we go along. :D
 
Hey All

I am walking funny today but hey the DOMS will get better today. I swear I only took one week off from weights but you'd think that I took a year. Anyways, I want to do STS 3 days and cardio 3 days and try to stick to that. Last round I ran on STS days and did between an 1 and 1.5 hours of cardio on non STS days. I ended paying in injuries so I am going to focus more on what I am eating. I really can't wait till Monday to get back into it.

Littlefiretop - I haven't got all through BFFM but working on it. I did purchase and body fat tester to figure out the numbers better. Life just seems to side track you when you are not focused!

Janis - I didn't order the tower. My husband actually rigged up a pull-up bar onto the ceiling. Funny thing is I can't do it unassited so I have to use a chair under it to help me take a little weight off my arms. I also went for a squat rack so I am set. The towers look awesome though.
Keep you posted on camping.

Heather
 
Hi Heather and MJ

I did sts legs today. I am thinking I need to go heavier on squats and dead lifts, which means using the barbell instead of dumbbells for Meso 1, I just don't think I am getting into the hamstring.

I am a huge fan of Tom Venuto and BFFM! I am so glad you are both following it too!

MJ "Littlefiretop" - I love your user name and avatar! I get pulled away from intended rotations by distractions/obligations. I am always struggling with my always-already-present lethargy and my 'must do vigorous exercise' addiction. One leaves me a sloth and the other leaves me injured! :)

Heather, I used my ds19's rigged up chin up bar. I was only able to do five chin ups for each chin up set...on the second set I had to do a little hop-skip! I was told that was cheating. lol. I'm looking forward to working on it this time around. I have a squat rack, but it is living outside at the moment, so I don't know what I'll do when bad weather comes. Hope you have a fab camping trip. Canada in the summer/fall transition must be lovely.:)
 
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Good Evening :cool:

Finally have some time to check-in for today. This morning I did disc 2 and spent 45min on the treadmill. I enjoy the back workouts, although the barbell rows always feel a little off, I think its the position, its going to take me a while to really feel comfortable with that stance. Other than that it was a good workout.

Janis - i call the avatar "self portrait in wordpad" ;) As for the sloth vs overdoing it, i can relate. It was one of my goals this year to figure out where my balance point is between destroying myself with too much and becoming consistent enough to never feel the need to overdo it. I am happy to say I think I almost have it down the last few months, this rotation will be a good test of my resolve. lol

Heather - Reading all of BFFM was a process, i ended up skipping a couple of chapters like the supplement one, already know the dangers and hoopla and do not take them, and the chapter on really low carb body building formulas until your brain shuts down from exhaustion, at least for me, i need to have a certain amount of good carbs or I am useless lol
Other than that I really like alot of the concepts and will see what I can apply. I am learning how to use the calipers with some consistency too. Enjoy your camping weekend, it sounds like great fun and I admit to jealousy over the north at this time of year, i miss the seasons :)

Alright, off to sleep so i can play tennis in the morning.

Take care and see you tomorrow. :D
 
Hi Ladies

Hope you are having a great Labor Day. The weekend has gone tooo quickly! I did my Disc4 Shoulders, chest, bi's this morning. I must have been confused when I adjusted my workout card for this round! I must have confused the standing rows (for shoulders) for the rows for back because OMG! I went way to heavy. Once I got my weights adjusted the workout was fine. Holy crap I have to make sure I don't do that again! LOL.

After that I used the stationary bike for about 20 minutes. I have an foot/ankle/shin issue I am waiting to see a podiatrist about, the strap on the pedal was pushing against a vein in the top of my foot, since I don't want to aggravate things more, I stopped.

MJ - if you ever want to do the carb cycling that Tom V talks about in BFFM it really isn't ridiculously low carbs. What he recommends is front loading your carbs and calories to the first two meals of the day. It never is a no carb plan, and he recommends three days on three days off. It's working for me and I never feel foggy or exhausted or excessively hungry. But I know what you mean by wading through the book....there is a lot of information to take in and process!

Tomorrow is legs and a round with the rower. I am going to start swimming again since I can't run; I'll do that on Wednesday.
:D
 
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Hi ladies,

I am also on my second round of sts. I started on the 1st and I am up to disc 4 today.

Today I did disc 4, I got through the whole workout and then the last 2 exercises of 21's came. I went to lower bb weight and couldn't get the dang clip on the stupid thing. How irrating!! So I did the entire w/o except for the last 2 exercises.
 
Happy Labor Day Janis & Jenn (glad you joined in :)), all to follow and all those reading along (by the way if you are reading, come join in, the more the merrier :D)

Well here is my weekend recap, lets see if we can spot the running theme shall we? ;) ......

Saturday, I played tennis for 2 hours in the morning, watched tennis all day while reading a Jill Mansell novel, did cardio & weights timesaver step premix and abs in the evening, watched more tennis, slept....

Sunday, I played tennis for 2 hours in the morning, watched tennis all day while finishing the novel, did STS disc 3 legs (ouchie! not a big fan of endurance lower body workouts, but am determined to learn to like them doing STS) in the evening and watched more tennis, slept....

Monday, slept in, walked on the treadmill (while watching tennis) for over an hour with my DOMS-jello legs and did a segment of total body stretching, watched tennis while reading Body Fat solution, did laundry, cleaned all the house while watching tennis, and is now watching more tennis before sleeping and facing work tomorrow....

Thinks its a very good thing that grand slam tennis tournaments are only 4 times a year :p lol

Janis- Sorry about your foot injury, I hope you get it healed soon. At least you have good alternatives with rowing and swimming to keep you going. As for BFFM, there are many, many good ideas to apply and add new tweaks to the eating plan. I think the best way for me to approach it is to take a couple each week and try them out and see what works for me.

Nice job to both of you on finishing disc 4. :D

I have step and abs on the workout plan for tomorrow, I will check back when I am done.

Have a good night everyone and a happy Tuesday. :cool:
 
He Everyone

Tuesday is finally here and I actually got to go for a run. I have been nursing achilles tendonitis for the last couple months and had to stop running for a while. It felt so good to just run and be out in the morning. Yesterday I did STS disc 1!!! It felt great and I was able to do almost every weight from the workout card. I had been adjusting my 1RM's up during the last time I did STS and was afraid that I had lost strength over the summer. I even did all the push-ups on my toes except for the last half of the 30 reps after doing the first two sets of push-ups... I'm happy!

Tomorrow I am going to do legs... so we'll see if I can still walk on Thursday!

Janis: I hope you get your issue sorted out! I ignored my achilles for too long and it took a long time to get better. Not smart on my part!

Hope everyone is having a good day!
Heather
 
Hi STS friends,

Today I did a short run. About 25 minutes in length. Felt good. Breathing was good, I didn't feel tired, legs didn't feel like they had cement blocks tied to them.

MJ, you watch tennis the way my DH watches golf. Playes everyday and then comes home and watches it on TV.:D


Hope everyone has had great workouts. Tomorrow I am onto disc 5.
 
Hey Everyone

It's too bad that I am a week behind everyone...guess you'll have to warn me about what's to come.

Jenn, I hadn't run in almost 3 weeks and I couldn't believe it that I it was like I had not missed any time. I didn't push myself too hard but I still ran for 30 minutes. It just feels soo good to run. I was really expecting the cement block running feeling too!

Janis's message reminded me of a time that I had thought I had loaded 35lbs to do a bent over row and I had actually put on 45... I was really mad at myself that it seemed extremely hard. I was in alot of pain after that, but I guess that's what I get for working out early in the morning!
See you all tomorrow!
Heather
 
Good Evening All-

This morning I did the step combos from Imax2 twice, no blasts and ab circuits no equipment abs. Tonight I was walking on the treadmill for 75min while watching tennis (surprise, surprise ;)).

My legs are still a bit sore from disc 3, hopefully working them out and stretching today will take care of it. Onward to disc 4 tomorrow.

Looks like everyone had a good workouts, excellent job on the running. :D

Good night and see you tomorrow. :cool:
 
Hi Everyone!

Heather- Your comment about getting back to running gave me a lot of hope and inspiration. I am keeping my fingers crossed about my injury.

MJ your post about tennis 24/7(yesterday) was funny! I was smiling from ear to ear. I enjoy playing tennis, but I am still such a newbie! I really should take formal lessons. How long have you been playing?

Jenn, glad you found us over here!:):):)

I did STS disc6 legs today, and I used the rowing machine. I think both aggravated my ankle/shin more!!! How could I be getting worse when I am hardly putting any weight on it and have been resting it? I was super gentle with the weights today. I did do squats, lunges, deadlifts etc..but at the time it wasn't hurting or bothering me at all, but now it seems more sensitive.
:(
Anyway, like I said above, I am keeping my fingers crossed and I hope that it is just a weird form of tendonitis or a shin splint.

Tomorrow I am off from STS, I am going to swim. I'll let you know how that goes! Then it's back to disc 5 for thursday.

:D
 
Hey Everyone

I just did Disc 3 (legs) and it was great! Now I may not be walking right tomorrow but it is such a fun workout. I have to compare what weights I used the first round but I think that I am way up. When I first started I could only do the plate slides with no weight! I did cardio and weight abs after and a good stretch. I have to say all the calf work did agrevate my achilles a little but I am going to really stretch it out. Yesterday I tried massaging my calf after my run and that really helped.
Janis maybe try really stretching and massaging. How much longer until you can see a doctor or a physio?
Tomorrow I need to do disc 2 and something short and cardio....maybe 4DS kickbox.
Have a good day everyone...MJ you are a tennis junkie! Jenn I hope things are going well and Janis swimming is probably the best thing you can do right now!
Maybe we should come up with a name for our thread so that we can find it easier? and be able to set it up daily?
Heather
 
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Hi Ladies!

Heather - I had the same feeling when I did disc 3, "wow this is a lot of fun, how could I have forgotten about the leg blast drills." And same here, re: lifting heavier, I too couldn't do the sliding plate moves with weights the first time around, my balance/coordination/range of motion has improved a lot! and I am using 14#er's. I was contemplating 20's but with my ankle I thought better of it.

Gosh - I so hope stretching and massaging is all I need to do. I do tend to be a little tight in my right calf. I also have a varicose vein popping up right where it feels tight. Hmmm....could varicose veins contribute somehow??? I don't see the podiatrist until Monday. I have been waiting too long...but it's partly my fault, I was waiting too long for a recommendation, then it took me a couple of days to find someone who deals with sports injuries, and then with the school sports physicals and the holiday their schedule was pretty booked. <I'm blathering now.>

MJ how was disc 4? are you thinking about tennis when your working your shoulders!? Hey I bet those reverse biceps curls feel great!? Really gets into your forearm.

Jenn - how was your disc 5 workout? I am doing it tomorrow.

Well a little more personal blathering - the pool turned out to be a wholly positive experience. It's only 15yds, but I think I can come up with a rotation to build from. The only dumb ass thing I did today was I pushed off the wall, hard, with my bad foot. But overall I got a good 40 minute cardio workout, and I really enjoyed being in the water.

ETA: Great idea, Heather, about changing name so the thread can be found easier. I lack creativity, so whatever you decide is fine with me! lol.

:D
 
HI ladies,

Janis I did disc 5 at 5:30am. It was a good workout, but I tried to go heavier on some tricep moves and my formed seemed to be lacking. :(

Heather I am a new runner, and also a slow runner. I like to put my ipod on and go. I can push through about 30 minutes or 2 miles. I guess I will get better in time.

MJ, DH and I were watching tennis until he went to bed. Then I put Top Chef on. :D
 

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