Fran, what's the new BFL challenge like, for lifting exercises? Is it still the 12-10-8-6-12-12 sets, 2 exercises per muscle/group/bodypart (whatever, lol)? Just curious what changes, if any, have been made to the challenge.

Rabbit, thanks for the support and ideas. Electrical, esp DC, is not my specialty...okay, I'm just this side of clueless if it's more complicated than "unhook this wire harness, hook it to the new one", lol.

No workout for me today. Took a rest day. Feel much better tonight!

Cheryl, no sweat about the electricity. I find that this stuff is usually much less complicated than people in the know make you think. It has something to do with ego. I've been amazed these past years about how much I actually was able to do just by starting to do it. And BTW, the electricity problem might also maybe just be a blown fuse. Did you check the fuse box?

Have a great weekend all,
Rabbit

Hi Cheryl, Yeah, it's still 12-10-8-6-12, and a final 12 on the final exercise of each body part. Still with increasing weights until the final sets of 12 reps. I don't know if the cardio has changed, but I did the HIIT workout Friday nite, which was quite an experience and triggered my coughing-type asthma for the rest of the evening. I think I could keep doing it though. I think the weights would take me longer to do this way. They still want you to wait 1 min b/w sets. Here's the link to the online site so you can see what looks familiar.

Fran, yeah that looks the same. I still use those sets sometimes, because they are challenging and fun, especially when I'm stuck home for lifting and don't have enough weight to lift heavy...those sets will wear me out with a lighter weight, which is nice! It's a pain to change the weight every set, though, which I have to do at home since I only have DB bars and plates right now. Not so bad at the gym, though,with all the right equipment. Did you decide if you're doing a challenge or not?

Rabbit, thanks! I haven't gotten into it yet. I'm out of money for parts right now, so I've decided to focus on projects I can actually finish, then I will look at the van when I have the funds for buying parts, if needed.

No workout again. Meant to work out tonight, but ended up going to a movie after my sister's bday dinner. Ugh, the dinner was about a million cals, so I hope it won't be too hard to work off whatever gain I'll get out of it!

Morning, chickies.

All my chatter about cross-country skiing in cold temps gave me the x-country ski itch. So, yesterday I rented some skiis (my old skiis delaminated and bit the dust about 3 moves ago) and went toodling around the local arboretum and golf course. Some observations:

- cross-country skiing really is like riding a bicycle. I haven't skied for years, but I felt "at home" on the skinny skiis. Was pleased to find that within a few minutes, my muscles had "remembered" how to ski-skate, do skate turns, snowplow without doing a face plant, etc.
- that being said, I made my share of stitz-marks, and I'm sure I didn't set any records for speed or distance.
- golf courses made for good, if somewhat boring, ungroomed skiing. Arboretums suffer from the problem of too many plants!
- I'm sore this morning. Cross-country skiing, particularly skating techniques, are murder on the quads and glutes.

I need more coffee, and I can hear The Boy rustling around upstairs. (No school because of MLK day.) Off I go.

Be strong,
Kim

Happy Monday

I'm going to work today although the bank is closed, so that I can go siing on Thursday without the crowds.

Kim- I was astounded how much like riding a bicycle skiing was. I hadn't skied in YEARS when my daughter dragged me out last year and I fell in love all over again. I think I sold my ski equipment in 1980. Last year I bought all new equipment- very different! and am hooked again.

Long run on Saturday but no lifting. Cardio done this morning and will have a long lift at lunch time

Fran- Are you doing the challenge? It's not really all brown rice, chicken and broccoli! I think you'll find the change really rewarding, both mentally and physically.

Cross country skiing sounds fun although here we'd have to go somewhere to do it. Snow fall doesn't really come until February/March. So maybe there would be a week if that to try it out. You couldn't pay me enough money to do downhill skiing though...

Today we have little flurries and the weather has warmed up some. I was thinking of all those people at the inauguration tomorrow freezing their butts off. It shouldn't be too bad though.

I'm sore today, did kettlebells yesterday (kettlebelle workout). My husband was funny, he asked me "exactly what is kettlebelle, bell with an e workout" So I told him. He liked how the program sounds, I told him he could do it, he said he wouldn't want to grow any boobs from it...

Nelie, thought about you over the weekend when I saw an infomercial for KBell, with an "e", workout advertised. Can't imagine what s&h would be on that pkg tho! It looked like they only gave you a 1 or 2 lb belle with the set, I guess you'd be on your own for the rest.

OK, you guys are really talking me in to this challenge! Thinking of Sunday - so to anyone else who needs 5 days to think about it.....you've been invited to join in!

Fran, huh?! Infomercial? Are you talking about kettlenetics? That is the only thing I could find online. It looks like they use useless small kettlebells.

Kettlebelle with an e is an ebook by a UK girl.

Hi folks I am back.

Its been quite awhile and I don't know what happened but I got busy and distracted and now I am needing to kick my butt back in gear. I cracked open The New Rules book (I have the one for guys but its the same info right?) and started the intro workouts. I can't lift jack. But thats how it goes I suppose I can only get better this way. For cardio I am doing the Jillian Michaels workouts which I am liking right now and then the 100 push up challenge. A year ago I could do a pullup now I can't even look at the pullup bar without getting sore. I'll have to remember how I worked up to that.

Anyhow big wave to everyone. I am going to go read and catch up.

I'll join you on Sunday, Sportmom. I was all set to start this week, but I got a tooth abcess <ouch>. So I'm all set to have TWO root canals on Friday. I should be okay to start on Sunday. I think my hunny and I will start to eat "clean" until then.

I've been lurking here for a bit. Nice to formally "meet" all of you. I'm 40 with a mouthy 16 year old and a very out of shape husband. I'm fortunate to live in Florida where the weather is a balmy 65 degrees today. I've tried each and every diet out there - some more than once. I'm determined to do the whole Body For Life thing for 12 weeks, no matter what. The diet seems fine - it's the workouts that seem tough; and I'm a big girl...

Kick butt workout today. I really feel like my program is revived. Although it did take a little time to figure out the cable press weights for the last 2 sets of bench press and I ended up doing 2 extra sets. (I mentioned in another thread I tried to peak press without a spotter and got stuck so I am moving to machines for the highest 2 sets)

I ran out of time at the end and cut my cooldown short. tsk tsk.

Mel - I tried to talk myself into doing the dumbell press instead of the cable and I decided it still was more weight than I wanted over my head without a spotter. I think next series I'll do dumbell press as a series and when I work up to it it will work better.

Lifted lots of boxes this weekend as I cleared out my sewing (i.e. quilting)/crafts room, which also happens to be where we have 3 bookcases (2 talls and a short) worth of books. I'd be done but I ran out of boxes. DH will move the furniture, with the help of some other guys, and then begin carpeting in there. As long as he finishes and gets the furniture back in, I can put it all back together while he's away next month. The boxes are currently stored in our home office, which now resembles one of the rooms in the movies where the crazy reclusive guy has pathways through piles of newspapers and magazines. Soon the workshop will look that way too, but with furniture instead of boxes.

I did get to the gym first thing Sat morning for cardio; and will go again tonight between getting off work and going to a 7pm meeting. DH has a yoga class, so we'll be having dinner about 8 or 8:30... groan. On the other hand, I won't be tempted to overeat as I hate going to bed on a full stomach.

Welcome back hikerchick I think New Rules of Lifting and New Rules of Lifting for Women share a lot of similarities but they aren't the exact same workout. It'll be a good balanced workout though.

Welcome Michelle

Michelle - great!! We have a good match to start. Close in ages (44 here), height, and starting weights as well. This will be a real good experiment to see what BFL can do for our types. I googled to see if BFL works for the larger size crowd (more than 70 to lose) but didn't come up with anything, likely just because there aren't a ton of large people out there reading/doing BFL. I did find some success stories on the website and one 41 yo who dropped from an 18 to an 8 in a single challenge, so I'm guessing it's possible. Make sure to take starting photos so that we can share between us our progress at the end. I was looking at the calendar today, and yeah, Elisa's right. 12 weeks is a LONG time. It takes us to the mid of April (tax week) and then if i do my comparison self-plan after, it takes me to the end of July. Jeeps! Elisa, it's not too late, join in!

I told dh I was debating it and said it was hard (sitting at a friendly's where we took the kids after a swim meet) bc I could do a 12 wk challenge but if I start going to a friendly's again afterward, i'll just gain it all right back. So i take the joy of life out of my kids' world too? Yeah, pack my own lunch at friendly's. No thanks! ANyway, I said, just the same, I think I'm staring sunday. He gave me the typical - "why not start tomorrow." And I said, "cuz BFL starts on Sundays!" For once, a legit reason as to why I was not starting right away - lol!!

If anyone cares to chime in, from a trainer perspective, what does the pyramiding of weights do for you on the lifting portion? I guess it's supposed to really tax the muscle, is that it?