Cathe Friedrich’s STS Total Body – a (quickie) review

Whoa.

I just had my first STS Total Body experience, courtesy of my fave Cathe Friedrich, and just had to capture my reaction and feedback as soon as I was done (well, after I refueled that is, holy starvation!).

All I have to say is this – if I thought I loved the STS series before? I’m even MORE obsessed with it now.

And here’s why:

No other weight workout I’ve ever done has left me feeling as spent as this workout – and I do mean that in the best possible way.

If it’s one of Cathe’s regular STS workouts that focuses on a couple of body parts per workout, you’re left with a burning chest, wobbly legs and shoulders that make blow-drying your hair later that morning a wee bit difficult.

So I had high expectations of Cathe’s attempt at a total body version of STS. She did not disappoint. Nor has she ever. But that’s besides the point. 😉

What I loved most about the full body version of STS was that it relied on trisets mainly which I LOVE. Trisets are basically three sets of exercises for one body part done back to back with minimal rest in between. You see a lot of those trisets in Meso 2 of STS, particularly for the leg workouts. So I was really pleased to see Cathe use this technique not just for the leg work in STS Total Body but for the ENTIRE workout.

She also likes to sneak in some “surprises” along the way which she did in this workout in the form of “burn sets.” For example, after a chest triset, she threw a “burn set” of pushups (tricep and regular) into the mix. Um, ow.

And finally, I loved that there was quite a bit of cardio involved in this workout. Since the weights were kept around 65-75% of your 1 rep max, weights weren’t ridiculously heavy like in the latter half of STS is. This meant, though, that there were higher reps than the STS mesocycles that focus more on hypertrophy or strength. Which meant less rest in between sets – which equals lots of huffing and puffing. I’d call STS Total Body a mix of Meso 1 which focuses on endurance and Meso 2 which focuses on hypertrophy. My kinda workout, that’s for sure!

Long story short – this is a phenomenal full body workout and I loved every sweaty second of the nearly 70 minute workout. Even the core section (that was for you, Heather – see? I like working my core now!) was awesome.

Rock on, Cathe. You impress the hell outta me.