blacKandi Fitness

So I finished mesocycle #1 of the Shock Training System (STS) created by Cathe and I must say that I feel nice!!!  My thoughts about Meso #1 are in the middle of the road.  I felt that at my fitness level and STS being compared to the Power90x and Chalean Extreme that Meso #1 would have killed me.  It didn’t.

The first two weeks were straight up easy.  Even with all of the pushups mesocycle #1 was to easy because I am now at an advanced fitness level.  I wouldn’t say that meso #1 is for beginners because it’s certainly not, but I would give it an “intermediate” level type of workout.  If you’re used to squatting, lunging, overhead lifting all with weight and push upping then you will breeze through meso #1.

Following the 1RM theory using 60% of your 1RM during the first two weeks and then upping it to 65% of your 1RM during the last two weeks was a good experience for me.  Cathe had me going up to my 70% of my 1RM on the first set of the drop sets she has in the workout and then down to 65% and then to 60% (three sets altogether) was really nice.  My muscles loved those drop sets to death.

I also enjoyed the superset exercises a lot.  Those were challenging as well within the last two weeks of the mesocycle.  Bootcamp pushups are my favorite type of pushups by far and it was the first time I’ve ever done them at all.  Nice!  The paper plate work was very interesting.  I like doing paper plate work on the Ab Circuit DVDs.  I felt that tha paper plate work in mesocyle #1 was not needed, but I can see why Cathe added it…they are interesting and different.

One of the things I read in STS reviews is about the copy and pasted exercises or you will know right away if you did an exercise a second time because you’ll remember if Cathe said a specific thing or made a funny comment or whatever.  This didn’t bother me at all and I felt that I was doing a different workout each time I went to do my workouts.  Odd, but I didn’t get bored once.  Not once!  Also, the warmups are off beat, but really, who cares?  To get your body warm you can just do several sets of jumping jacks and do some light stretching and you’re ready to go.  I didn’t find Cathe and company being “off beat” an issue.  That was such a minor editing error.

What else???  I can’t believe I stuck with a structured program like this.  I’m thinking that because I spent so much on the program itself that it would be a waste if I didn’t do the program the right way.  I did everything the right way and because I did it that way, my body – IN A MONTH – is crazy tight!  Tight I tell ya!  Tizzzzzzzzzight!!!  Ha!  I am very happy with the results mesocycle #1 has given to me.  Love!  I didn’t really expect any muscle growth since mesocycle #1 is all about endurance, but I did.  Definition and mass are sneaking up on me mighty fast and I’m loving it.

My diet is superb…I do one cheat meal per week if I don’t go over my tasting limits.  Tasting means a small spoon of something crazy and I usually do that four times during any given week.  If I do five of those then I don’t have a cheat meal too.

I am so ready to start Mesocycle #2 and it’s all about hypertrophy so I am very EXCITED about that…mo’ muscle mass here I come!!!

Lastly,  don’t get scared when you look at my pics.  Yes, I want to look this way.  I want lean body parts, lots of muscle mass, width and strength.  I want the look of a hard and fit body.  If I had to explain how I want to look I’d say I’d want to look like a sculpture, perfect.  This goal gives me lots to work for.

The June pic in my last post is what I looked like before I started Mesocycle #1 and this is what I look like as of November 27, 2009…

As usual, I got stuck taking these pics in the mirror and when I do that I can’t use flash so excuse the picture issues.  I hope you all can see the difference in me anyway.

I didn’t take my measurments at the start of mesocycle 1, but I’ll be sure to do it before I start mesocycle 2 next week.  I am currently eating at my calorie maintenance which means I do not want to lose nor gain any weight throughout this program.  Cheers!