Preparing for the Second STS Experience

thebrain

Cathlete
Hello,

O.K...I am home on spring break this week, which is also my recovery week after Meso 2. So I've had some extra time to ponder what I would like to do with STS after finishing up Meso 3 next month.

I think I would definetely like to do the 6-month plan next, or depending how I feel about Meso 3, just do the first two mesocycles twice through. We'll see.

Of course, I would like to get started on the Second Attempt as soon as possible after completing my recovery week after Meso 3. But this time, I would like to get more 1RM done and/or with proper form now that I have a better idea what all those exercises are. For this first time, I only did the "5 or 4-starred" exercises in the back of the STS manual.

I am wondering if anyone has devised a way do get those 1RM done in some sort of rotation
that would get most of the upper-body 1RM done in a short time (I am not going to do lower body 1RM). By short I'm thinking ideally 3-4 weeks...shorter if that's possible! I seem to remember people coming up with ways to do this pre-STS being released, but now that we all have experience doing it am wondering if anyone has some new ideas!

I've considered doing one upper body (PUB?) and one lower body (PLB/B&G) and one day of 1RM a week until they are all done, but that seems like it will take FOREVER to complete!

Aimee
 
Here's what I'm doing. I found doing them such a drag last time, that all I am doing it note down what weight I lifted for each exercise the first time through STS. (I would use the numbers from meso 3, and fill in the blanks for those exercises that aren't in meso 3. I go to the workoutmanager, I take, say bicep curl 25 lbs at 80%, with my calculator I figure out that 100 (to get the 1 RM you need the 100%) divided by 80 times 25 gives me my current 1RM (or at least a ball park area to start off of for the next round.) Click the save button and move to the next exercise. That way you can use what you have worked up to and the workout manager will recalculate for the meso1 and 2. I'm not a super exact person, as you can tell, and a tad lazy, but this method is going to be good enough for me to go for the next round, because I know it will be heavier than when I started and will be heaviear still by the time I finish again, so that's progress enough for me....:eek:
I'm not sure if that helps, but that's what I'm doing...
 
Hmmmm..interesting...I may have to ponder that some over break. Sounds like a less-time consuming method. I think if I did that and then only tested the ones that seemed really off the first time and do the ones I didn't do at all, then I'd be in business much sooner!

Thank you so much!
Aimee
 
I remember Cathe or SNM responding once that you don't have to redo your 1rms everytime you do a new round of STS. I think 1x a year is what they recommended.
 
Oh that's good to hear, about the re-test only one times per year. I was thinking many of my weights were dead on at 70% but some were too much once we moved to 75/80% in meso2, so I'm thinking I'm ok to stay at my current numbers for the next round.
 
By the end of Meso three you should be stronger, therefore you probably should increase your weights (for most exercises) when you do STS over again. Your one RM should have changed. By the end of Meso three you should have a very good idea of what your one rep max is without having to retest.
 
By the end of Meso three you should be stronger, therefore you probably should increase your weights (for most exercises) when you do STS over again. Your one RM should have changed. By the end of Meso three you should have a very good idea of what your one rep max is without having to retest.

I think you're probably right, but I think after Cathe finishes up Shock Cardio it would still be great if she did an STS prelude set of workouts that had you do all your 1RM tests over a two week period (or what ever made sense lengthwise).

I'm just thinking ahead to when it's been a while since I've done an STS rotation. I'm absolutely loving them right now, but after my 3 1/2 month and then the "perfomance based" STS rotation I have planned next, I know I'm going to start missing some of my other weight workouts. :eek:

I am sure these "prelude" workouts would work just fine as stand alone workouts too for use at any time also. :D
 
I'm curious, what's a perfomance based STS rotation?

Well I made up the name. It's my own plan (others may have already come up with this on their own), but I plan to do an "open" rotation. I will use my new RM values (estimated based on Meso 3 performance or maybe I'll redo testing... I haven't decided :rolleyes:).

If I find I can complete all my reps the first week I will move on to the next week. If not I will repeat the week and then go to the next week and so on. In other words my next rotation will be anywhere from 3-1/2 months (unlikely :p) to 6-1/2 months and will be based on my performance rather then a set schedule.

My rest weeks will be every 4 to 8 weeks, again dependent on performance.
 
Interesting thought! So, will you be picking random dvds for your exercises, say body max2, high step challenge and bootcamp, or will it be more of a gym style series or maybe 4ds kind of format? Will you just up the weights for the same workout the whole time or add new dvds each month or so?
 
oh Sorry I wasn't clear. I meant I would be doing STS workouts. I would start with week 1 and move onto week 2 if made all the reps at 60% RM for that week. If not I would repeat it once more before moving onto week 2. I would continue on just like that till I finished all the Meso cycles. Does that make sense now?
 
Well I made up the name. It's my own plan (others may have already come up with this on their own), but I plan to do an "open" rotation. I will use my new RM values (estimated based on Meso 3 performance or maybe I'll redo testing... I haven't decided :rolleyes:).

If I find I can complete all my reps the first week I will move on to the next week. If not I will repeat the week and then go to the next week and so on. In other words my next rotation will be anywhere from 3-1/2 months (unlikely :p) to 6-1/2 months and will be based on my performance rather then a set schedule.

My rest weeks will be every 4 to 8 weeks, again dependent on performance.

Hmmmm....that's an interesting concept and food for thought!

Jo :D
 

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