[katy trail]

i'm going to start this challenge. anyone and everyone is welcome to join. all activity, strength, speed levels welcome. the more the better.

just update how you are doing, compared to how you should be doing. like if x exercise is easy/difficult.

i'll start tonight. i need to do this. i need to just START. everyone feel free to join in.

[katy trail]

last night some ab work done. usually, i do crunches and holding in the up position of the crunch to get the burn faster.

each day i have to do SOMETHING. 1 hour or more, great. a little or a lot, have to do something each day. when i exercise consistently, i keep my portions healthy, make healthier choices, and do a better job of eating intuitively.

[takingcontrol]

I'd love to join, I'm trying to make exercise/fitness my main focus, and I know if I do that, the weight will follow in it's own good time. Yeah, I'd love to lose a load a week, but, since I've started the fitness it's plateaued depressingly, even though I'm still a few pounds off making an overweight BMI never mind healthy yet.

I'll do a series of exercises tomorrow and see how many reps I manage, and post the results here, and hopefully see the numbers increase as we go.

I'm also on the last day of week two of couch to 5km tomorrow, so seeing the improvements with that will show how my cardio is coming along.

Like you, I have to do SOMETHING everyday. Now it's getting much hotter here in Thailand, and exercising is becoming tough, but, no excuses, something everyday.

[LLBoldAsLove87]

Attempted to run 2.5 miles outside yesterday... phew, a lot harder than running 3 on the treadmill! I really need to get to work if I'm going to meet my goal of running 5 miles by graduation (mid May).

Raised my 4x10 squats 5lbs up to 105, still trying to figure out how much weight I can do for that many reps/sets without hurting myself.

I've decided I need to find a LOWER ab exercise that I like (I hate leg lifts for some reason, got anything else?), doing crunches are probably worthless because my upper abs are fine.

[astrophe]

I'm in. I have a cold though, so I won't actually start til I'm over being sick. But I could put down my measurements and explain what I want to do. Let me work on that and I'll check back in with that.

I subscribed to the thread though!

A.

[katy trail]

for lower abs- cathe friedrich does a great ab workout called core max. you can find clips of all her w/o dvd's on her website or utube. here's a clip of the ab workout i'm talking about. i think the pulse ups work the lower abs. we could all use more of those! http://shop.cathe.com/Hardcore_Serie..._DVD_p/642.htm

[Eliana]

I'm trying to do pullups unassisted. I'm not quite there. I did 10 with a 45 lb assist today though...and then 7 and then four and half! LOL! I was worn out by the end of today's workout, which is a good thing.

I'm also attempting press ups and pec flys with 25 lb dumb bells. I wish my gym had dumbbells you could increase in smaller increments, but they increase by 5 pounds. There's a big difference between the 20 lb and the 25 lb weights. But I managed most sets with about 12 reps, so they're good.

LLBold, I'm impressed with your 110 pound squats. If the bar really does weigh 45 pounds all by itself (and not more!) then I'm up to 95 pounds. I know I could do more, but I'm afraid. I don't have a spotter and that's one move that I know one slip could really ruin a life.

[takingcontrol]

OK, so I'm having a truly unmotivated and knackered day today. I just can't face a cardio workout. But, I will NOT do nothing, so I'm going to test my strength with a few different exercises working different parts of my body, and then report back here and check my changes every couple of weeks. I think seeing fitness changes will give me so much more motivation than the evil scales ever do!

I plan to do sit ups, half press ups (yet to manage full press ups) 'wall squats' not sure if that's the right term! Arm exercises using my resistance band and leg lifts using exercise ball.

If anyone else has any ideas of good exercises to do to monitor our strength, please let me know

[katy trail]

elaina, you could wear wrist weights, they tend to be 1 or 2 lbs each. or weighted gloves.

mon-crunches before bed
tue-bridges before bed
wed-headache almost all day. really planned to get some real w/o in today, still going to do something tonight. not sure yet, nothing involving running or jumping. i never get headaches unless i'm just tired, but still not very often from that. made a thread about foods with iron, so trying to work on eating those. ate lots of iron today-oatmeal, spinach, chickpeas, lentil/brown rice mix, whole wheat pita pocket. and remembered to take my vitamin.

for mon and tue there's no excuse i had plenty of time. i was just...not using my time wisely. today, i took close to a 4 hour nap, lol. so no surprise i hadn't w/o during the day.

[katy trail]

had lots of energy and felt good last night. random w/o- air punching in squat position, jumping, speed skaters, bridges, crunches, push ups....just whatever i could think of. about 15 min.

actually that's the second time in a week i've done push ups. i rarely ever do them. i think i prefer doing them holding onto the edge of the bed. always do them on the bed, because sometimes the floor just feels so uncomfortable. i always do ab work, leg lifts and other stuff on the bed. more comfortable. so it easily becomes a habit every night do x. i'm already in bed why not do some crunches, bridges etc.

feeling much better today. getting some cleaning done, and really trying to pack in the iron (in food). my yummy breakfast and lunch: mix of chick peas,lentils,brown rice,spinach with curry,ginger and other seasonings. a few spoonfuls of that with a poached egg and salsa. it was really good

[katy trail]

taking control, are you working on a specific areas? or are you just looking for a full body workout?

[Eliana]

Thanks to this thread I gathered up the courage to put some more weight on the squat bar. I went from 85 pounds on the bar up to 120 by the third set and learned that next session I really can put 130 on thing. I've just been scared.

I worked the legs today, including the adductor and abductor muscles in the thigh. I don't hit those often so it feels good putting it in the routine. I hate the traditional machines for this exercise, but I discovered a machine that uses a cable and I strapped my foot into it. I like it much better except that it takes longer because you isolate each leg.

[katy trail]

yay!

i have the same fear lol. plus it's much more uncomfortable using the bar than dumb bells.

ok had to look up abductor and adductor, i think those are the inner and outer thigh. i know what machine you mean. you can also do those exercises w/ ankle weights at home, although i'm sure it's more challenging on the machine.

last week when i had DOMS all weekend, my whole thigh was sore. which never happens. maybe you'll get them too this time. it's an area you don't work often. if so, kudos! i look forward to them. i know, i'm crazy.

[Eliana]

You think squats with dumb bells are more comfortable? Maybe it's our weights. There are little diamond shaped ridge like things on the bars and they dig into the hands which gets worse as the weight increases. The most I can stand is 25 pounds in each hand, so that's only 50 pounds total compared to the aforementioned 120 I did today. I do like using dumbbells on the Bosu ball though.

Yeah, I always get DOMS when I work a new group. I decided I needed some work, particularly on the inner thigh, when last week I galloped down the basketball court sideways and pulled something immediately. It's been sore for a week and a half! I keep hearing YOU in my head, actually, reminding me about sideways movements. You've been in several threads with that wise advice.

[GettinFit]

I'm in too. My goal is to start walking more miles each week. I'd like to try and get in at least 15 miles a week. I also am going to work more on my abs so I plan to do some ab work 3 times a week.