Saundra

April 2024 Workout Rotation For April, I will be continuing building my strength; focus on lower and upper body workouts.  I have evening workouts planned that are cardio and/or mobility based. The evening workouts will be short. Sunday - Treadmill 5k Monday - Cathe Upper Body Tuesday - Cathe Lower Body Wednesday - Cathe Upper Body Thursday - Cathe Lower Body Friday - Jessica Smith Walking Saturday - Mobility

Cathe's STS Mesocycle 3 Strength is as its name implies about Strength. It is a 4 week program and it consist of two upper body workouts and one lower body workout per week for a total of 12 workouts. All 12 workouts come together in a DVD case that in my opinion isn't very durable. Inside the case are clear plastic holders and more than half of the plastic is cracked. However the DVD themselves are just fine. I do like the case better than some of the other workout system cases that come with multiple DVDs. The suggested rotation has you doing 3 workouts per week. The 12 workouts break down as follows. Disc 25, 28, 31, & 34 are Chest & Back workouts Disc 26, 29, 32, & 35 are Plyo Legs workouts Disc 27, 30, 33, & 36 are Shoulders, Biceps, & Triceps workouts With the exception of the Plyo Leg workouts, the exercises are the same for each week and only the rep count changes. In the Plyo workouts you are alternating plyometrics (lots of jumping) with...

STS Total Body is phase 4 in Cathe's Shock Training System which is a system about building strength, muscular endurance, and muscle definition. Where the other phases in the system work the various muscle groups across three (or four if you are counting abs) different workouts, STS Total Body aims to work the entire body in one workout. The main part of the workout clocks in at 66 minutes long. It features a warm up, a series of trisets, an abdominal section, and a stretch. The warm up uses a barbell to warm the muscles. I forgot about this. I don't like warming up this way - starting off with weight right away. Cathe does caution that the barbell should be light in weight. During the warm up you are doing dead lifts, barbell rows, squats, lunges, shoulder press, upright rows, and some bicep curls. The reps are maybe around 8 to 10. The main part of the workout features tri-sets done for two sets each. A tri-set is when you do three exercises back to back before you rest. Th...

Okay. Other than all the pushups, I liked the workouts in Mesocycle 1. I like the details that went into making the DVDs. I like how the exercise and the equipment needed appeared on the screen. I like how the break time was counted down in seconds. When I first bought this series, I was hesitant because I don't really like working out in parts or muscle groups. I prefer to do either total body strength work, upper body only or lower body only workouts. I don't like dividing my upper body work into different parts. The other reason I was hesitant to buy STS was because of the 3 1/2 month time commitment required to do the program as designed. I prefer to change my workout rotation monthly. That is where I am at now. I have completed STS Mesocycle 1 and now I want to do something different for February. I am still deciding what my February rotation will be. For STS Mesocycle 1 Muscle Endurance I am going to give it 3 1/2 out of 5 stars. I would have given it 4 stars but I ...

Mesocycle 1 - Week 4 Weights at 70% of 1 rep Max Disc 10 Chest, Shoulders and Biceps - 56 minutes. I think this is the last of the pushups. If I remember right, there aren't any pushups in Mesocycle 2. I am tired of pushups. There are way too many pushups. I counted 143 pushups. I did them all but the last 16. Shoulder work has still been tough for me. Bicep work, I felt I could go heavier. Except for pushups, I really like doing dropsets. Disc 10 included a set of "Standing Dumbbell Curl" dropsets and a set of "Standing Overhead Press Both Arms Dumbbells" dropset. Disc 11 Back and Triceps - 53 minutes. This is the disc in which I hurt my back the first time I did STS. So I was being extra mindful of my weights. Other than that, the only note I wrote was that I could have went heavier on the "Seated Overhead Extension Both Arms" exercise. Disc 12 Legs - 54 minutes. This is the first time that I did this workout. Last year when I hurt my bac...

Week 3 - 65% of 1 rep Max. Disc 7 Chest, Shoulders, & Biceps - 55 minutes. I am truly tired of the pushups. In this workout, there were 182 pushups. I did 162 pushups. I felt my bicep weight was too light but my shoulder weight to heavy or maybe just right. I finish all the shoulder reps but I was feeling it. Disc 8 Back & Triceps - 56 minutes. I have no notes for this workout. Like the other B & T workouts in this Mesocycle, it uses the band to work the back and the triceps. This workout included drop sets (one set) for each the back and triceps muscle groups. New exercise was the "Scapular Retractions" using the barbell. I liked this exercise. Disc 9 Legs - 55 minutes. I was short on time this morning so I elected not to do the plate and wall exercises. The opening lunge sequence was super tough for me so I only did one set. Also the bonus exercises in the workout (at least those that I did) were tough.

Week 2 - 65% or 1 rep max. Disc 4 Chest, Shoulders, and Biceps - 55 minutes . This workout started with Pushups Drop Sets. Now, I only do the intermediate version of the Pushups and still by the last set which only contain 6 pushups I was screaming for mercy - But - I did do all the reps in the Pushups Drop Sets which when all added together contain 50 pushups. The whole workout contain 165 pushups. I think this is why Mesocycle 1 - Upper Body workouts is my least favorite of the Mesocycles. Many of the exercises were the same exercises that appeared in Disc 1. So other than the pushups nothing really new to note. Disc 5 Back & Triceps. I don't know why it bothers me that the Back & Triceps workouts are longer than the Chest, Shoulders, & Biceps workouts. It could be just the logical assumption that a workout working two muscle groups would be some what shorter than a workout working 3 muscle groups. Anyway this workout clocks in at 58 minutes and featured anothe...

Okay. Yes. I have DOMS! My STS/Shock Cardio program has begun. I am using my 1rm results from last year's calculations. Redoing all of those 1rm test held little appeal to me. Even with that, I back of the target weight on many exercise to ease myself back into the program. And I still have DOMS. The reason for this is last year during week 4, I ended up hurting myself (lower back) and I don't want to be sideline by that type of injury again. So the week started on Sunday with STS Disc 1 Chest, Shoulders and Bic eps . I forgot how quickly this workout moves and how quickly 30 seconds (our rest time) goes by. I had equipment everywhere as I moved from exercise to exercise. What I truly dislike about Meso 1 Muscle Endurance are all the push ups. In Disc 1, we had 136 total push ups - more if you count the fact that some sets were 1.5. Looking at my workout card, I had a couple of areas where I wrote "Go Heavier". I have the word "tough" marked agai...

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