STS - Mesocycle 1, Chest, Biceps & Shoulders

Cathe Friedrich
Year Released: 2009

Categories: Total Body Workouts


I thought about doing STS for a long time, but honestly stayed away from it because I dreaded Meso 1 just thinking about it. One thing I really dislike about Cathe's typical lifting style is the endless reps, pulses, low ends, etc, of the same move. It's just not my preference to lift in that manner; I prefer heavy weight work with less reps. I was pleasantly surprised by this workout in that Cathe does only 15 reps of each exercise. Although you're supposed to do the 1 rep max test and lift a certain percentage of that for this meso, I did not complete that because it took so darn long and then the %'s didn't really equate to weights I actually had, and I have a lot! I liked the fact you didn't do a lot of sets of the same exercise, but I couldn't keep up with her speed/pace for the push ups; there were a ton of them. For those of you who have done P90X, it was similar in that there were a lot of spaced out push up variations but the difference here was the entire cast did them at the same speed and the same number of reps. There was a lot of variety in this workout, which I liked, but also meant a lot of QUICK equipment changes and lots of equipment needed: dumbbells, barbell with various plates, a band, a step with risers or a bench, and a ball. There were 24 exercises in total, all focused on chest, shoulders and biceps. The exercises alternated body parts so you ended up doing 8 exercises for each area by the time the workout was over. I am happy to report that I am feeling it today! There is definitely room for this intermediate to grow; lots of push up variations, also similar to P90X. The stretch was super quick, but Cathe recommends doing the extended stretch on the DVD which I did, and felt a bit yoga-like in nature. Overall, I really liked this workout although I needed to pause for equipment changes!

Instructor Comments:
Cathe seemed a bit more relaxed in this series, comfortable and at ease. As usual, lots of helpful form pointers and great information was provided.

mmis29

09/17/2013