So I'm liberating myself from the number on the scale. It's not given me any positive reinforcement for the last week, despite dropping inches and knowing I'm close to being a size 12 again. I've instead decided to focus on other aspects of fitness and created some new goals as follows:
One minute plank. Hit it yesterday, been working on my plank time for weeks. I think I was a little loud when I went "**** yeah." Getting confused looks from many other gym patrons. That place needs more excitement anyway...
Do a real "man" push up. I don't want to do girly push ups forever. I'm working on them, extending the amount I can do. I feel this goal is just weeks away if not sooner.
I've decided to why not go for the ultimate goal, a pull up. I'm not sure why I created this goal, it just sounds ridiculously challenging, so I want to do it. I have no idea how to even prepare to get there, but I figure once I can do push ups and drop some more weight, I can start working on it.
Dead lift, it sounds scary, it looks scary. I'm definitely not doing one without the support of a personal trainer or someone who knows how to do it. So this challenge may be a ways off, but it's on my list.
And jog a 5K without stopping. The one 5k I did i stopped a lot. I don't think I finished much ahead of my friend with a broken foot. I'm slow, I've never been fast, but I'd be proud if I could do one in under 36 minutes. I know a 12 minute mile isn't fast, but it's also not walking. Baby steps.... I currently do 30 minutes on an elliptical on level 8, I can usually do the first mile in under 10 minutes. However the entire 30 minutes I do high intensity intervals.
SO what are some of your fitness goals? What are you doing to achieve them?
Woot on the plank and on waking up your sleepy gym!
I had/have many of these same goals.
I can do push-ups now from the toes. Six in a row is my best. I'm sure you're very close to it.
Just do a deadlift. Do it with a Youtube video and a bar without weights, if you don't currently have a trainer. Or ask one of the testosterone boys (or girls!) in the gym. In my experience, most of them are very willing to help, as long as you don't try to take up all their gym time. Even with less-than-ideal form, your likelihood of injury is pretty remote. I could do these from Day 1, and I'm sure you can too.
Pull-ups have been my goal for some time now. I assume your gym is equipped with the basic weight lifting stuff? Lat pull-downs train the same muscles that you will use for a pull-up. I can only do 100 pounds on the lat pull-down machine, so I'm pretty far away from being able to do an actual pull-up. Many gyms also have an assisted pull-up machine. You should ask about that. I have used one, but my regular gym doesn't have one.
At some gyms they have a different bar you can put on the lat pull machine, instead of the long bent one it's a short one with handgrips, would be perfect for training for those pullups.
There are different kinds of pullups too, there is the strict pullup and a "kipping pullup" which involves you using your legs and body for momentum to help out your arms, I can't do a strict pullup right now, but I can do a kipping pullup (albeit with a little more flailing involved than you might see in videos), but only one and just barely.
Thats pretty awesome still though. I tried the chin lift machine as thats the closest i can find to a modified pull up. The weight was 140, so I only supported about 55 #s of my own weight. I was able to do 3 sets of 8....barely. so a long way off, but the challenge has already been accepted!
Screw the Scale!
