Understanding the STS program

Thanks Cathe for helping me understand what I'm getting into. I have never gone wrong getting one of your series but I was scared of this one even though I preordered.
It sounds like your helping me learn how to "train" along with getting a workout. I'm going to print out your description and review it when I get aprehensive again.
Right now I have a new job as a flight attendant for a regional airline and I'm struggling to keep my workouts in and adjust to the demands of flying. I come back from trips feeling beat up. I need to learn when to workout and when to rest. When am I needing to recover from flying and when to push myself. At 54 with an 11 year old son I need all the good health and energy I can muster up.
I don't think I would have been hired if I hadn't been in good shape from doing your workouts 5/6 days a week for the past 3 years.
I don't mean thin either. I'm a size 12 but I can evacuate a plane if needed.:)
Off to read your notes, rest, drink water and then do Butts and Guts.
Looking forward to February's rotation. You and the crew "keep me in line. Somebody's gotta".
Colleen in Minneapolis and yes. It was cold yesterday but I had an overnight in Palm Beach.:) :) :)
 
So yes, I have a question.

I like to weight train more than this, at the moment and there are others out there who are real weight lifting junkies.

So would you approve doing the whole weekly routine of 3 workouts twice per week or do you seriously advise against it? If you are against, could you explain why? Would it in fact be detrimental?

Thanks for your time,

Clare :)
 
Cathe, I was not going to pre-order STS for various reasons. However, given your excellent explanation of the program, I have gone ahead and placed my order.

Sarah :)
 
I have another question related to this:

I really don't do any upper body endurance lifting. I have arms like twigs when I don't lift so endurance work does nothing for my upper body, so can I just start from mesocycle 2 and progress through 3 and repeat? Do I have to start with the first cycle? What do you theorize might happen if I skipped the first cycle?

Thanks for all your help,

Clare
 
You would still want to start with Mesocycle #1. There is no such thing as a workout that is 100% muscle endurance or 100% hypertrophy or 100% strength.

Mesocycle #1 is designed as a muscle endurance workout, but it still will have some hypertrophy and strength benefits. In a case like yours where you don’t normally work out your upper body you will need to start with Mesocycle #1 even more so than a person who has worked their upper body for years. We’re not talking 3lb weights in Mesocycle #1 and many may find the workouts in this cycle among the hardest they have ever done. But regardless of your workout past you will want to do all three cycles.

Even if your goal is only “hypertrophy” you will still get better results by doing all three cycles instead of just doing only the hypertrophy cycle 3 times in a row. With periodization your muscles never have time to adapt and thus your results will be greater than the results you can obtain in a non-periodization program.
 
When I said I don't do endurance lifting, I meant "because I only do upper body lifting for strength with heavy weights."

If I didn't do any weight lifting for the upper body at all, my question would not really make much sense.

Sorry to confuse you and thanks for the response anyway,

Clare
 
Sorry I misunderstood you, but the answer is still the same. Even a competitive powerlifter should do several cycles each year of muscle endurance. If you take two identical twins and have one train for 1 year just lifting heavy weights in only the hypertrophy and strength range (70% to 90%) and the other twin do complete periodization cycles including muscle endurance (60% to 90%) …my money will be on the twin that included muscle endurance cycles and active recovery weeks for the best results. If you don’t want to hit plateaus you need to vary the intensity of your workout program over time and you need to provide training cycles that work all of your various types of muscle fibers (fast and slow twitch).

As I read your post it sounds like your goal is to increase the muscle mass of your arms. Just like the powerlifter you too will get better results from doing all three cycles of STS as opposed to only doing the hypertrophy and strength cycles of STS.
 
Now you understand me perfectly! Thanks for coming back and reviewing your answer to me and I understand what you are saying. Thanks for the advice, I will take it and do all 3 cycles, in order, obediently!!!! (BTW: I have already pre-ordered, but you have made me feel more comfortable with my order and secure that it will be a great program for me. So, thank you.)

Cheers!

Clare :7
 
Theoretically, yes you could train six days per week as long as you staged your workouts so that each muscle group had at least 48 hours rest. A lot of bodybuilders and athletes do train this way. The problem with training with this method is your body may not get enough recovery time for your muscles to repair. If you’re under the age of 24 you’re more likely to be successful with this type of maximum training than a person who is in their 40’s since your body will recover faster between workouts. Rest is just as important as the actual workout.

Quite often less is more when it comes to weightlifting. Training twice as much per week doesn’t mean you will get twice the results. You may in fact get fewer results than the person who trains with STS the way it is recommended at three times per week. You are also more likely to have an injury and more likely to quit working out when you adopt such a grueling and time consuming training schedule. I also would not recommend anyone do mesocycle #3 six times per week as this cycle focuses on strength and you will need longer recovery times.

Usually when you train each muscle group twice per week you will have a heavy day and a light day. This type of training is more conducive for what is known as non-linear- periodization. Though we may make an STS in the future that follows this principle, the first release of STS is based on what is known as linear-periodization.
 
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