Cathe Friedrich STS Total Body Workout Strength Training DVD - Use This Weightlifting DVD To Build, Sculpt and Tone Your Leg, Hips, Thighs, Butt, Glutes, Back, Chest, Arms, and Shoulders

I was looking for a slower variety of lifting using dumbells for full-body workouts. This works and it has premixes to choose how you want to plan for your workout. It's working for me. You don't have to have a barbell and it can be used with dumbells for some exercises. Not a lot of Triceps but I replace one Tricep exercise with a more challenging tricep with heavy weights. Sticking with this one!

I am a longtime Cathe fan and just recently bought this workout. I have only done it twice, but I think I am in love! It is an excellent and efficient total body workout that leaves you completely spent if you do it correctly (lift as heavy as you can, aiming for muscle failure by the end of each set, and keep up the pace).Some reviewers mentioned that triceps and biceps are largely ignored as opposed to other upper body muscles and I just don't agree. It is true that the back, chest, and shoulders get worked a bit more, but for me, the bicep curls and tricep dips sets (followed by a "burner" set of tricep pushups and regular pushups and a different burner set of resistance band bicep curls) were plenty!Other reviewers commented that they feel they have to do cardio such as HIIT after this workout to "get their cardio in." After reading the reviews I was prepared to follow suit, but it is a good thing I was wearing my heart rate monitor as I burned a whopping 620 calories during this workout (I am a 145 lb. 5'7" female) and was dripping with sweat at the end. The calorie burn for this workout (for me) is right up there with Cathe's hardcore cardio workouts, such as To the Max and X10. And my heart rate gets as high as 171/172 during the lower body moves, which is comparable to when I am running or doing Cathe or Jari Love HIIT or Insanity. Maybe those reviewers didn't heavy up on the weights enough or were hitting the pause button too much (?) There is a lot of switching of equipment, so you have to be prepared and on your toes to keep up. At any rate, it is all the cardio/calorie burn I need in a day AND I am building strong, sexy muscles at the same time! What can beat that?I originally thought I would do this workout 1 or 2x per week and cardio the other days (I work out 6x per week between 45 and 70 minutes per day). But based on the calorie burn combined with the strength training benefits of this workout, I think I will do it 3x per week and cardio the other 3 days. Love it!!

I'm a huge fan of Cathe and think this is solid strength training workout that targets most muscle groups pretty thoroughly. Others have broken down the concept of trisets and the exercises included in each one but by the end of the workout I was definitely spent physically. Although it is very equipment heavy it's easy to adjust; for example, dumbbells instead of a barbell or paper plates/hand towels instead of a sliding disc.The main focus is on your legs and they are completely fried through a series of weighted squats, lunges, dead lifts, and gliding lunges. I'm not sure if I'll be able to move tomorrow, in fact! It's similar to "High Reps" but with more of a focus on strength; I didn't find the leg section of "High Reps" to be all that bad but I'll be feeling this one.The reason I knocked off one star is because I didn't think that portions of the upper body received enough attention. There is one triset that focuses on the shoulders that was pretty effective and there are enough moves for the chest and back but both the biceps and triceps are basically ignored. Yes, you do a set of regular dumbbell curls and an exercise with a resistance band but that's it for biceps. For the triceps its dips off the step and a few triset push ups; they might as well have been ignored. I threw in another DVD to compensate for that but I wish this had been more balanced.Other than my couple of minor gripes any fan of weight training and Cathe in particular shouldn't pass this one up!

STS was new to me before this video. But I've have several Cathe's dvds and this one is similar to her Total Body Fit tower video. Except this video contains more lower leg workouts versus upper body. There are several variations of deadlifts and squats in this video. It definately keeps your heart rate up! But you may need to do more upper body weight lifting on your own to get more of it into your routine. I would not recommend for a beginner. But routine is ok for intermediate or even an advanced exerciser who may need to add heavier weights to make it harder.

This is my first workout DVD from Cathe and I love it! I was looking for a DVD that focuses on heavy weights as oppose to high reps low weight and this is it! It's hard to find DVDs that focus on lifting heavy for women so I really appreciate this video. It's challenging and makes you feel so strong afterwards; such an empowering DVD for the ladies. Plenty of pre-mixes to choose from. Lift as heavy as you feel comfortable and you will always feel challenged with this DVD. It is not necessary to have all of the equipment used o this DVD. Your floor is just fine for the bench press moves and the disk and step really are not necessary for the lunges in this DVD to keep it challenging. I only do this DVD 2x a week which I feel is plenty.

Let me preface by saying I am a huge Cathe fan and have many of her DVD's. I agree, however, with a previous reviewer that the weight suggestions are too heavy for a full body workout. I cannot get through this dvd in it's entirety, namely because my upper body is so exhausted, I have trouble lifting the barbell or dumbells for the leg work or vice versa. I especially notice that my forearms are giving out during the deadlifts because they are simply too fatigued. It still is an excellent workout, however I would break it up and do the upper and lower premixes seperately along with some cardio. That way you will be able to give the weight work 100%.

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