Shannon - way to go on the elliptical, even though you felt beat down! I love that machine. Tomorrow is my elliptical day at the fitness center. I like Wingo, too! I always think of Ringo. lol
I have a question for you all. Another thread here is talking about how people tend to gain weight using the 30 day shred. I am seriously trying to figure out why the scale didn't move last week and why I feel like I am retaining some water. In the last 8 days or so, I have done a few days of 30DS, but also I have been doing Biggest Loser Cardio Max, which reminds me somewhat of 30DS (works on strength as well as cardio). Plus, I started weight training with dumbbell sets. Is it really possible that I am building that much muscle to cause water retention & a no loss week? I watch my calories like a hawk (cycle between 1500 and 1800 cals) and eat a clean diet... no diet sodas or processed foods.. only lean meats/good carbs.. add in just a small amount of extra virgin olive oil each day to get about 20% of my diet in good fats. If the strength training is causing this.. how long before I actually start losing again? It's just hard to cope with not losing when I weigh so much right now.
Last edited by HotWings; 08-11-2009 at 02:17 PM.
Reason: spelling atrocity :)
Wingo - retaining enough water to show no loss last week is entirely possible... Every time I change up my routine I retain 3-6 pounds for anywhere from 1-4 weeks. I also tend to hang on to pound or so the day after strenght training every single time... Your body is hanging on to water to repair your muscles. It will even out over time, don't worry.
Location: Lyin' in a puddle of sweat on the floor.
Posts: 2,296
S/C/G: 235/201/175
Height: 5'7"
Hey peeps!
Well, I got my wish for a focus day!
Today's focus was:
Cleans (squat or power)
3-3-3-3-3 (so, 5 sets of 3 reps each)
I decided to work with power cleans, since I'd recently done the squat cleans, and felt I might be able to go a little heavier without the squat today. Normally, I'd do a few warm-up sets, then start counting working sets, but since I can't clean that much to begin with, and this was my first time doing heavy cleans for a focus day, I just did my usual CF warm-up, and went right for the work sets:
65-75-85-90-90
I stuck at ninety for a repeat set, since the first round of ninety pounds, I felt I could have been more aggressive and faster with it. I tried for a final set at 95#, but it went like this: fail, fail, fail! I could jump the bar up to my collarbone, but then I wasn't getting my elbows around/under the bar fast enough to catch it. I was ready to call it quits, but my trainer said I was doing it, since he knew I could, so he stood there STARING at me, and I got it once, just because he was standing there!
One of the other ladies at our gym was doing 145 lbs for this one, for five sets across! When I see stuff like that, I wonder if I can ever be strong enough to do the strongman thing. Still, I know I just have to go at my own pace, so it will be 75# cleans in the high rep workouts for a while, then I'll just slowly build it up from there. My back and hams have a lot of catching up to do, I know, so I will try to cut them some slack, and not expect too much, too soon! (you guys can remind me of that later, when I'm getting impatient!)
OMG Cheryl! YOUR numbers leave me quaking! I have a mental thing with cleans and just can't do anything except Fail-Fail-Fail over 85 pounds. And that 85 is pretty iffy.....somehow my arms just stop and guess what happens?
Tonight we did 3X3 sets of push press for max weight. I ended up doing 5 sets because I started too light.
then:
15 push ups
12 pull ups
9 push-press
As many rounds a possible for 20 minutes. I managed 8.....those push presses really slowed me down. By the last few rounds I was doing them in sets of 3. Of course that meant I had to do extra cleans as well
Ah, so I guess that adds 120 push ups and 96 pull ups to my total which I've completely forgotten!
Cardio done. FB workout done. Breakfast eaten. It was porage with cc, berries, a few walnuts, wheatgerm, skimmed milk. And some coffee. Did I overdo it there? Or will it fuel me into the rest of the day? Questions, questions but what's done is done.
Made blini last night (started in the afternoon). Russian yeast buckwheat pancakes. Had them with cured herring, bacon, yoghourt (no sour cream here) and salad. So yummy. I love cured herring. It's so good in the summer hols to have time to explore new food. We are moving on to kvass today (Russian mildly alcoholic drink made with buckwheat). Exploding bottles are in the future!
Pouring with rain here so a visit to the local agricultural show is probably off. Or we may have to go in wet weather gear. Such a shame for everyone who's worked so hard.
Hope your day is good, on programme and just generally excellent.
Birchie - just skip the vodka on your Russian cuisine fest!
I think I will stop reading Cheryl's posts - I mean I will just skip the parts about her workouts. they give me a serious Minderwehrtigkeit complex. Same with Mel's. And Shannon's, too!
Ok, last night I did P90X Shoulders and Arms and Ab Ripper. But I need heavier dumbells. I am thinking about the adjustable ones. My right arm is still recovering from the overexertion so I am doing lighter weight with my right arm. It feels idiotic but I am afraid to do more until it heals.
It was 8:50 pm, to my surprise, when I was done. Time flies when you are having fun. Went to bed way too late as I was too pumped up, therefore I guess this week is meant to exercise in the evenings.
You ladies really get after it! I love it! Everytime I come to this thread I get a picture in my head of myself.. fit and trim.. doing the things you are doing. You have no idea how inspirational and motivational that is to me
Shannon - thank you for that post! I am just going to keep keeping on - failure is not an option to me this time.. as far as weight and fitness, I want a different life!
I feel awesome and postitive today. Had a great cardio workout on the elliptical and it felt so good! Even though I feel like I am swimming in water already, I am going to drink an extra 20 ounces a day to see if I can help this water retention thing. Also, moving my weigh-in day to a day after cardio, instead of a day after weights.
Hi everyone! No workout for me this morning either - had my annual gyn exam early this morning, so no time for workout after my slight oversleeping. I find I often oversleep on mornings when we have DSS the night before, even when he doesn't get us up half a dozen times during the night. Oh well - when I went to brush my hair I realized how sore my arms still are from the filthy 50 of Monday afternoon, so this could just be an exercise in the evening week for me, as well! I'm on plan for strength training and some light cardio - I'm thinking about a 45 minute yoga video instead of my dumbbell circuit, haven't decided yet.
Cheryl - nice sets on the power cleans!
Mel - wow, so you did that round 8 times in 20 minutes? Nice.
Alena - don't let my workouts give you a complex... I'm impressed by all your P90X work, myself!
Birch - your breakfast sounds great to me.
Wingo - it does seem counterproductive, but I do find drinking more water helps me when I'm retaining water. If you give yourself more you don't have to hold on to as much I guess.
Morning! Yesterday ended up being a rest day due to my oversleeping and then having an evening meeting - which went on until 10:30, causing me to cancel this morning's 5:15 get up time. I'll go for a good walk this noon, as today is cardio day. Then I'll fit yesterday's workout into another day this week.
Alena - I feel the same when I read their workouts, but I keep thinking I'll get there - and remind myself that they're 10-15 (or more) years younger than me as well!
And speaking of noon, it's fast approaching, so I'll get back to this document I'm finishing, and go for my walk.
ROFL, Midwife!!! hahaha that was funny. Thanks for the laugh, I needed it.
Eh, I forgot to mention that Beetloush chewed up my little notebook where I was recording my push ups and pull ups. I haven't tallied up my last two sessions. Now I will have to piece the fragments together and see if I can extract any meaningful info from it. Probably not. Darn dog.
I'm having a Minderwehrtigkeit complex from Tomato using the word Minderwehrtigkeit.
Likewise, especially since I looked it up......
Had a decent walk at lunch. To the seamtress to see if my dress was hemmed - no - short stop at the thrift store across the street (talked to a friend, but no purchases), then on to Subway for a lovely salad - tomatoes that had flavor! - then back to work. It's intersting trying to walk around our town these days. They have been replacing old water mains for the past several summers. This year they had two residential parts of town where they were working, then the main running right down the middle of the main street sprang a leak -
and when they fixed that piece, the next one down developed a leak, so now they have the whole thing torn up and are replacing all the pipes. The business owners are not happy, but really they have no choice. Anyway, walking through construcdtion areas or around them is challenging!
I'm so glad I wasn't the only one who had to look that word up! I was feeling a little insecure when Midwife seemed to know what it meant!
Just finished my dumbbell circuit, some ab exercises and 15 mins of kickboxing. I cut one round off the circuit and kept it under 20 mins instead of pushing for the extra - arms still a little sore.
DH is exercising now and I'm going to clean up and go fix some dinner. Have a nice night everyone!
lol
Still, I know I just have to go at my own pace, so it will be 75# cleans in the high rep workouts for a while, then I'll just slowly build it up from there. My back and hams have a lot of catching up to do, I know, so I will try to cut them some slack, and not expect too much, too soon! (you guys can remind me of that later, when I'm getting impatient!)
