STS - Mesocycle 1, Legs

Today I did Disc 3- Legs Mesocycle 1 but my official rotation will start Monday. I did not do the 1rm and started with 12 pound dumbells but had to drop to 8 for some sets of lunges and will go heavier for squats and deadlifts the next time.

I liked the pace and didn't think this one was too bad on equipment- you need dumbells, band, high step, paper plates and stability ball. You do one set of a move and move on but whens its all done, you ultimately are doing many sets of squats, lunges and deadlifts but just different variations them. For instance move # 8 is Wall squat with no weights and you elevate 1 leg. Then move # 12 is another wall squat except you use heavy weights and actually squat down to pick them up and put them down.

At first I did not think I would like the sequencing but midway, I realized I that spreading the squats, lunges etc across the workout allowed me to recover and go heavy each time instead of dropping down in weight. I found myself getting fatigued towards the end of each set and probably would not have finished if she group the squats, lunges etc together.

Advanced exercisers will be happily challenged as some of moves are tough and really require attention to form like move # 15 , sequential lunge into front kick. I do not think this would be a good workout for beginner even if they only did half.

She had a subtitle announce the next move which was helpful so if I saw another lunge coming up, I knew I had to drop down in weight. A countdown timer during the rest periods was my favorite feature as it showed how many seconds until she started the next move. I could usually figure out whether I had time to change weights or not without pausing and I never had to rewind to get back on track. And for those who love the leg burns, move #3 had the firewalkers with lots of reps so that even the guys were groaning. The bonus legs were pretty good too, she uses a chair and you do lots of side leg lifts followed by a move where you lift a bent leg to the side while balancing a plate on your thigh to keep it from falling. Awesome!!

Breakdown of all the moves:

-quick warmup & stretches

No weights 1st 3 moves

--move 1 walking lunges & plie squats, you do low walking lunges across the room and then turn into a plie squat jumps you do quite a bit of these and I was tired at the end

--move 2 1 leg touch down squats, 15 each leg

--move 3 Firewalkers with band, lots of reps

Rest of the moves except for first set of wall squats use dumbells

--move 4 1 leg elevated 8 count squat, 6 reps, these burned

--move 5 Deadlifts wide stance 15 reps

--move 6 1 leg slideback lunges 16 reps, uses paper plate on back leg- these were hard as you pickup and put your weights down, I had to drop the weights halfway through to keep my form

--move 7 Side slide lunges with paper plate 16 reps

--move 8 Wall squat with leg raise 10 reps (but you stop to raise each leg for 4 counts so these are slow reps), she uses stability ball but you could do these without one

--move 9 squats & calf raises 16 reps squats followed by calf raises- 10 slow, 10 fast, 10 slow & then 10 fast

--move 10 Front lunge 15 reps each leg

--move 11 Deadlift on platform 15 reps

--move 12 Wall squats double leg 8 reps, tough- you actually go low enough to pickup and put down weights, I actually just held my weights as I was afraid to lose my form

--move 13 Lateral step ups on lowered high step, kind of like uneven squats off the side of step, 15 reps each side

--move 14 Drop side lunges with adduction, you hold one weight and step into a side lunge onto a step then then step off and adduct your leg.

--move 15 sequential lunge into kick 15 reps each leg, this was a new one for me- move into a front lunge and then as you raise backup up you kick forward.

--move 16 narrow stance squat 15 reps.

--move 17 calf raises same 40 rep count as earlier

--move 18 deadlifts wide stance

End of main workout- now starts the bonus legs section with just Cathe & the girls.

--move 19 standing side leg lifts reps 24, use a chair for balance

--move 20 standing bent side leg lift, reps 24 and balancing a paper plate on your thigh. This was awesome as I had to really keep my leg high to keep the plate from dropping and I felt it in my thigh and glutes.

--move 21 front and rear fan kicks, hold onto a chair and sweep your leg forward and backward over a stability ball for 16 reps each.

--move 22 Calf raises

--move 23 Tibialis Press seated using stability ball.

She does not spend a lot of time on form and there is little downtime. I like the idea of repeating each workout for a 6 month rotation to really work it the second time around. I liked the music better than p90x and feel it complements it well. Its not annoying or intrusive with a good beat at times, especially with many of the moves like the walking lunges where I was just focusing on form and not looking at the screen. For many of the moves, I was fatigued at the end and somehow with the sequencing, I was able to finish the workout.

I like the set and quality and think this is going to be a challenging, enjoyable rotation for me. I squeezed in 20 minutes of a 2 mile cardio run afterwards because I have a feeling I will be too sore tomorrow to anything but easy cardio and stretching