STS New Years Challengers...Week of April 25th

kikster

kikster

Cathlete
Just getting us started for a new week, since no one really checking in yesterday ;) Hope every one had a great weekend. Today is disc 34 for me, last week of STS! :D

BBL for personals....



OH, and we'll miss you Sherry! But we understand that you gotta do what's best for your fam! Don't be a stranger, though. :p (As if we won't see you around anywhere else on the forum, lol... ;) ) Maybe we'll be starting up again at the same time next cycle...
 
Good Afternoon Kiki and all who follow.

Kiki:: WTG with being almost done with STS!!!! Hey don't go tossing Sherry out the door just yet! She might wanna hang around here still while she does her circuits! We aren't THAT bad that she'd wanna run right away, are we? :eek:;):D:p LOL

I have no idea when I last checked in and if I reported a work out or not so I'll just tell ya starting from saturday what I did and apologize now if I am repeating myself. ;)

Saturday:: Squeeze Stronger (in full) + 25 minutes of Step and Intervals cardio.

Sunday:: Kickmax in full holding 2# DB's during the combos.

Today:: Rest day...an extra special one too cause I was able to sleep until 6!!! :D

Hope everyone is recovering from their Easter food hangovers ok today. I for one am not. I am starving and cranky and I didn't even do that bad with my eating y'day! :confused:
 
Disc 34 done :D , gotta love that extended stretch in M3 ;)

Wendy: Ha ha! I definitely wasn't kickin her out! Lol. I was just going based off what she said. I'm just happy she said that she'd pop in from time to time ;)
Enjoy your rest day!
 
Hiya ladies!!! Hope you had a nice weekend! We have a mini-lake in our yard... kinda like a moat :p... but the tornadoes were north of us for which I am thankful. There were some severe storms to the south too, but we were in this safe space betweent the two. Sherry, how is your family in the STL area? So far, our basement has not flooded but so many of our friends are not so lucky. :( One of my friends was in the basement with her kids b/c of the sirens when the basement started to flood.. ay yi yi. It looks like we get a break tomorrow and maybe some sunshine... gosh we need it so we can dry out a bit.

Thank you for the feedback on the DVD recs. My friend doesn't have a step or bench, but I'm going to loan her MM and GS. I think those are great rec's. I think she may enjoy the STS cardio.. she's done insanity. If she decides to invest in Cathe DVDs, I will def. recommend STS. :)

Ok, for workouts, what did I do? Oh yeah (it really is one of those days **snicker**), I did Kettlebellway or whatever it is called volume 2 y'day and STS Disc 22 today. I didn't get any workouts in Friday or Saturday & can't remember what I did Thursday. Ok, don't laugh, I purchased Shaun T's Hip Hop Abs and Rockin' Body... just look fun to me.

Katie ~ WELCOME!!! I look forward to getting to know you. It is always nice to have new workout playmates. :)

Sherry ~ I do hope you stop by to visit us, and I completely understand your decision.

Tracy ~ I homeschool too... I mean my kids of course, lol. ;) I have a 10 y/o DD and a 6 y/o DS. We just finished our school year. I started pretty early last fall b/c our 3rd baby was due in Dec. I wanted as little homeschooling as possible in Dec. Anyway, they worked really hard and we are finished.

I have to be honest about the 1RM :D:eek:- I didn't do them. I did ChaLEAN Extreme and use the same advice she gives for selecting a weight. I'll have to do STS again and do the 1 RM.

Wendy ~ aka Ab Nazi :p. I have Squeeze Stronger and yes it is a killer workout. I do like it but never have used it regularly. I'm a vidiot... so many DVDs and so little time. ;)

LaDonna ~ I am with you on the years of experience. I have a few do-over situations, but I LOVE my life now.

Kiki ~ I did hear the whip crackin'. :p Wendy is gonna inspire us to have rock hard abs. :)
 
Hi Everyone!

Today, I did Disc 31 today. Tomorrow, I'm doing Circuit Blast. I can really feel that change to 90%. We survived Easter. We had a ham dinner with my folks. It was a nice day outside, so DH, the kids, and I played outside afterward.

Autumn - I'm so glad that you survived all the tornadoes OK. I live in NE Kansas, and we haven't had any severe weather here so far this spring. Knock on wood.

Sherry - How's everything with you?

Have a great day everyone!

LaDonna
 
day one complete

Well, I finished day one of STS. It was pretty good. But I am going to have to get used to figuring out what the correct weights are. Even though I did calculate my 1RM, some were too light and some too heavy. After that my wonderful DH and I walked for an hour. My girls are with their Grandma today for Easter vacation, so we are enjoying our time together. I also had my DH take a before pic of me. I am going to try to take a pic of me after every cycle. I have really got to figure out the correct weight thing though, because it is bugging me.

autumn: I remember when my oldest 2 were those ages and we were schooling. Those were really sweet times. Now they are on their own and working and doing university. I miss them!!

Fit mommy: I had Squeeze Stronger, and it was a tough workout. Maybe I should have kept it, but I sold it on ebay, because it wasn't something I was loving. I am glad you are liking it.

ricklik1 (sp?): where are you girl? How you doing on your STS? One down 35 more to go for me!
 
Good Morning!

Today is to be some sort of cardio, lol. But I'm on the fence about what :confused: . I have Low Max on my calendar in the WM but, not really in a steppin kinda mood. BUT, I really need to learn how to step before the RT, lol :eek: . So I've been forcing myself to do it once a wk up till now, and I need to up it to 2-3 x's because I'm such a clutz, and will look like a FOOL, I'm sure. Oh well.....

Autumn: I'm glad the tornadoes missed you. Our local area was hit pretty bad too (we were missed, thank God). I hope your friend enjoys the w/o you loan her.

LaDonna: Goin to 90% makes you realize just how strong you are, huh? I love it!

Tracy: As always you can take my advice w/a grain of salt (I'm such a "rule follower" it gets outta hand sometimes :rolleyes: ) but the 1RM are SO crucial to this program. It's what makes it different from any other rotation. The science behind STS is so precise that when followed correctly, cannot be beat. I took about a week, and just did my 1RM's as my workouts for that week until I got 'em all done (w/a day of rest/cardio in between). It took everything I had not to just dive right in, but I figured I was still getting a good workout, plus getting familiar w/how the program worked. I didn't do the entire disc just went through each exercise once to see how it was done, did the exercise, and then jotted down the #'s, and fast forward through the rest. I was able to go through a few dvd's per day this way, and once you get through the first few, you'll find that there aren't many left as different moves repeat just in different ways/reps/etc.

Wendy: I'm sure you made up for the abs by now ;)
 
Good Morning.

Back at STS this morning after a wonderful recovery week chocked full of cardio! Disc 19...DONE!:D No abs again today! :eek:

So half of my Easter w/e weight gain (bloat) is already gone as of this morning and my work pants are fitting nice and loose this morning! Woo hoo! :D

tralaiven:: When I did 1RM's prior to starting my 1st attempt at STS they were pretty much all too heavy. This time I didn't do them. I am having much better luck just shooting from the hip. Makes it tougher in ways because everything isn't laid out if front of you but if your 1RM's aren't on spot and adjustments are needed anyway then I guess there's really no difference in that regard. I am also finding that the 6 month rotation is VERY helpful because you get a 2nd chance at each work out to find that perfect weight. Just some of my thoughts-take em or leave em. :)

Kiki:: Nope, as you read above-day 3 of no abs!:eek: I just don't have time for it on weekdays when I'm doing an STS work out. I wish there were 3 days to my w/e! :p

LaDonna:: Sounds like you had a nice Easter Holiday with your family. :)

Autumn:: Oh how I need to get back to kettlebells. So many rotations so little time. :rolleyes: I used kb's as my exclusive form of weight training for several months after I first got them. I finally switched back to conventional training and have barely touched them since. They get dust and cobwebs one them. :eek: I may try to incorporate one kb work out per week into my next rotation after STS. Hope your friend's basement didn't flood too badly-especially when she was down there with her family! :eek:
 
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Hi ladies!

My first week as part of the check-in and I’m already slacking! :confused: AHH! Sorry about that. :eek: I had one of those crazy busy (but fun) weekends and yesterday at work was a mess. It was completely my fault – I left my laptop at home and couldn’t access my files from another computer at work. I think my brain was still hibernating from the weekend anyway. I’m back with it today though!

Let’s see…what did I do this weekend workout wise…Saturday was my rest day, Sunday I did Step Moves, and Monday I did Athletic Step + Abs Circuits, No Equipment Abs. This was my first time doing both Step Moves and Athletic Step, and I enjoyed them both VERY much. I definitely think Athletic Step is more intense, but Step Moves is more fun. This morning I did Meso 1, Disc 2. My weight selection was right on this time (I only had to adjust two exercises). Even though I’m not lifting real heavy weights, I could barely eek out the last few reps in some of the triceps moves, so I figure I’m exactly where I should be weight-wise.

Kiki: thanks soooo much for your advice about adjusting my 1RMs. I have to admit I was really upset after Disc 1 because I screwed up my weight selection so bad on some of the exercises (I think I was being a little dramatic…haha). Your post made me feel much better! Last week of STS – how exciting! Do you feel crazy strong lifting 90% of your 1RM? What cardio did you decide to do today?

Tracy: I’m here, I’m here! :) Just behind the times. Great job on your 1RMs and Disc 1!! I had the exact same problem you did with the weight selection, even though I also did my 1RMs. I had to adjust my weight selection for at least 8-10 of the exercises for Disc 1. After I finished Disc 1 I adjusted my 1RMs in the workout manager so hopefully next week I’ll be back on track. We’ll get this figured out!! Beside the weight selection, what did you think of disc 1? GREAT idea about taking a before picture and a picture after every cycle. I’m going to steal your idea and take pictures too!

Autumn: Thanks for the welcome!! I’m glad the severe storms and tornados missed you! We are having horrible storms here too. What is up with this crazy weather??? I’ve never done a kettleball workout. How does it compare to a normal strength workout?

Wendy: Awesome workouts the past couple days! I’ve never heard of Squeeze Stronger but it sounds intense! I was supposed to do abs this morning but I started my workout late (I didn’t have my equipment set up – oops) and ran out of time. My first thought was “Wendy is going to kill me for skipping abs” :eek::eek:

LaDonna: Way to go on disc 31! You are nearing the end of STS - are you excited? I’m glad you had a wonderful Easter!

Sherry: It is completely understandable that you need to put your family first. I hope you can stop by on occasion! :)
 
Katie:: Great work outs the past couple of days. I totally agree with your summation of both Athletic Step and Step Moves. I love them both. If you want to check her out...here is Tracey's website-she's the Squeeze Stronger instructor: http://www.squeezebytracy.com/ . ;) Regarding skipping abs, considering I haven't worked mine in 3 days I can't really say anything about how anyone else trains thiers right now!:eek: :p
 
today is a cardio day so I did 4DS KB this afternoon. Looking fwd to trying STS 1.2 tomorrow. Hopefully it will go a little better!!!

Busy day, gotta go but will check in tomorrow.
 
Morning.

I didn't fall asleep until after 12:30 this morning and was up at 5am so I could squeeze in a quick cardio and abs. I mustered up the energy to do HiiT: 30/30 and abs from Travel Fit but I am going to be pretty tired and dragging today. :(

tralaiven:: Enjoy your 2nd STS work out. The work outs start to run smoother as you get further into the program-no worries! :)
 
Hi all! :D

So yesterday, I decided on 4DS - LIS for my cardio, so technically I did go w/a step w/o, just a little shorter ;) . But I did stop myself from going straight into the stretch - though it was SO tempting - but instead went back to the chapter screen to also find the core segment from the weight portion of the workout (since it wasn't included in the premix). So I can say (at least once this week) that I worked abs!!! :eek::eek::eek:

Wendy: What in the world woman?! Do I need to snatch that whip from you!!! :cool: Just kidding, I know how it is (we all know to what extent I know :p ) trying to fit in abs on STS days. I just don't/can't/won't (haven't decided which one of those it is yet, :confused: lol) do it. So that only leaves me 2 possible days during the week to get them done (unless by some freak of nature I actually work out on the weekends, I don't even count them - that way I'm not disappointed in myself when I don't even move from the bed/couch/other soft object that my bootay is on!) I think I will allow you this one last pass ;) , then you I will be forced to subject you to the torture which you have dealt me :cool:

Tracy: Hope day 2 of STS is better than the 1st day! I'm sure it will be, it just keeps getting better for me! :D

Katie: I was just saying not too long ago, that I really need to do Athletic Step. I downloaded it a couple months ago and kept saying that I was gonna throw it in the rotation, but have yet to do so :eek: . It's amazing how many new w/o's I have that are either still in the plastic, or on the PC, lol. Someone really needs to stop me. (ummm....preferably after May 1 - PRE-SALE! :p ) Anyway, glad to see that your 1RM's are coming together nicely. I figure, as long as you got 'em together by M3 (when precise weight counts the most) you should be good. It's the only meso that she specifically says over and over "your weight should be exact" vs. when she tells you to "stop right now and change if its too light/heavy" as she does in M1&2. So if you're jotting down any changes you make during those meso's, you should really be spot on in M3. Which, by the way, YES that 90% makes me feel crazy strong. Especially when my DH comes down there, and says, "puh! I can lift that", and struggles! :eek: It gave Hubby a whole new respect for me :D

Well, that's all for now ladies. Today is Disc 36 - arm day- for me (I switched it w/leg day for Fri - need a shorter w/o on Fri) so only 2 workouts left :eek:

Oh and BTW, I forgot to mention that when I weighed myself Mon, I found that I lost 2 more lbs! Woot, woot! ;) :D
 
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Good morning!!

Whew, I am just tired today for some reason. I couldn’t wake up this morning! I originally planned to do a mish-mosh of HiiT 40/20 and SJP but that didn’t happen. Instead I did MMA Boxing. I’m not a huge fan of the MMA workouts, but my knees have been bothering me a bit this week and MMA Boxing gives them a little bit of a break.

So I just want to say again how AWESOME I think all you moms are! My two nephews were at my house last night for a few hours and wow it was a rough night. First, my 8 month old nephew falls off the couch (I swear I just turned my back for 5 seconds to get a bib out of his diaper bag) – luckily he wasn’t hurt at all. A little bit later, my 4.5 year old nephew fell of a bouncy ball he was playing with and hit his head on the coffee table. Within 2 minutes he had a huge bruised goose-egg on his forehead. At this point the 4.5 year old is bawling and the 8 month old is screaming because I had to put him down to comfort the 4.5 year old and I’m thinking I’m in hell. :p:p When my sister stopped by to pick up the boys she just said “no big deal – this is a typical night with munchkins.” AHHHH! How am I ever going to survive??? :confused:

Wendy: thanks for the link to the Squeeze Stronger Instructor’s website. I’m going to check that out this afternoon! I love my Cathe but I know I need to change it up every once in awhile. I’m sorry you didn’t get much sleep last night. I hate when sleep just refuses to visit! I’m VERY impressed you did Hiit 30/30 and abs on that little sleep - way to go!!

Tracy: Good luck today with STS 1.2! You’re going to do great!

Kiki: Congrats on the 2 pound weight loss! That’s fantastic!!!! I love 4DS-LIS! It is one of my favs because it is just so much fun! Those hip hop L step thingies in the warm-up always make me smile. I’m such a dork. :D You should definitely try Athletic Step! It is hard, but not brutal – I mean, I worked up a good sweat but I wasn’t gasping for air like I sometimes do with Imax 3, CCC, etc. A perfect steady state cardio step workout. I’m still giggling at your story about husband trying to lift the same as you. His man muscles just can’t compete with your “Cathe Muscles.” :eek:

Anyone else excited about the pre-sale???? I get thinking a
bout the new series and my heart starts racing and my blood pumping – like a mini workout. Maybe Cathe planned it that way. :rolleyes:

Have a great day!!
 
Well, I just finished STS 1.2 and it went a little better. I think I am going to have to NOT stress over the 1 RM and just do what will work, record it and increase as time goes on. For one thing, the 1RM have not been on target for me. I will just have to tweak things as time goes by.

One thing: I don't have a pull-up bar but I couldn't do them anyway. However, I need work on my push ups so I am just going to do those in place of pull-ups for now. Maybe if I do the rotation again, I will be strong enough to merit having a pull-up bar.

Anyway, then I did CoreMax #1. I think that later today I will do the B&G timesaver. I need/want 3 days of leg work.

ricklyk1: :D I am laughing at your experience with your nephews. I remember when my two youngest were babies and they got sick, then I got sick, then my two oldest got sick. There was vomiting going on all over this house. I remember very clearly thinking I was in hell :(:rolleyes:. It really was so bad that my husband stayed home from work, which he never did, (he wasn't sick) because we were all so pathetic.

kikster: congrats on your 2lbs....!!! good work!!!

fit mommy: I admire your commitment. I am so good for nothing when I am wiped out like that. Hope you're able to catch up on your shut-eye! Afternoon naps where you pass out are always sweet if you can get one//hope you can!!
 
tralaiven:: Wow look at you go today girl! You are all about the work outs today! And you even did abs! WOW! LOL ;) I definitely love those pass out naps too but can't do that today. I used to nap in my car at lunch if I was tired but I've given up my lunch breaks for a while b/c DH is working O/T so I need to leave a bit earlier to pick my DS up from aftercare. DH had always done it in the past cause he got out earlier...not anymore-for now anyway! Trust me I considered sleeping through and not working out this morning but I knew the extra little bit of rest was not going to make as much of an impact on me as the guilt from skipping the work out would have :eek: so I got up! :)

Katie:: I can't wait for the pre-sale! Going into NYC this weekend so I won't be one of the first at my keyboard but I intend to order as soon as I get back home! :D MMA Boxing is one of my faves but I am partial to kickboxing in general. Love punching with weighted gloves on. Makes a big difference in the cardio intensity of the work out and really ups the shoulder work and core power needed.

Kiki:: Um, ahem, look up at my post from this morning. I did my ab work girly!:p Did you really think that the AB NAZI would let FOUR days go by with out doing abs!?!? :eek::eek::eek: LOL I see you got your ab work in too! Good girl! :D There are plenty who don't w/o on weekends but it's my fave time because I have MORE time and don't have to do it before the crack of dawn either! :eek:
 
Hello!

I just want to get a quick post off to report in that I did Disc 39 today. Tomorrow is MMA Kickbox.

I'm having a really busy day with kids today.

Take care, everyone!

LaDonna
 
Wendy-I'm so glad to hear adding weighted gloves ups the intensity in MMA Boxing! I really enjoy that particular workout - it has a large fun factor - but it doesn't get my heart rate up as high as I would like. I tried using weighted gloves this morning but it threw off my rythm and instead of working at it i punked out. :confused: Now I'm definitely going to start practicing the boxing moves using weighted gloves! :)
 
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