I was actually wondering if any of you ladies have had problems with holding the weights in your hands for things like step-ups?

Right now I'm doing the step-ups with a 27.5 pound weight in each hand, but my hands and forearms start to get sore before I finish the set. I thought I could try doing them with a bar, but lame as it sounds, I can't lift the 55 pound bar over my head to put it on my shoulders.. :P Any tips or tricks?

2 thoughts:

1. Does your gym have the smaller, preloaded barbells? In my gym they range in weight from 20-110lb. I usually use those for lunges, step ups, and Bulgarians.

2. Are you sure you are doing the step-ups correctly and not cheating? Cheating is *really* easy--hard to avoid, actually-with step ups. When I'm being really careful not to cheat, I find I can lift less weight on step ups than I can with lunges and Bulgarians.

My gym definitely has the smaller barbells, which is what I was referring to... I went for the 55 pound because that was the equivalent of what I was holding in my hands....

What would be cheating? I don't think I am.... I only use the leg on the step to push myself up.... To the top and then back down only putting weight on the non working leg when I get back to the start position.... I also already have the step at the max height too.... I'll have to maybe pay more attention next time to make sure I'm not doing anything weird....

wahhhhhhhh my muscles are crying today! Its a welcomed soreness because I haven't felt like this in awhile. I opted for cardio this morning to hopefully speed up the muscle repair process with some nutrient rich blood.

I'll need to study the exercises in Stage 3B tonight. Eep!

so DietVet, it turns out I was cheating!!!

I asked my brothers to look over my form and turns out I was unconsciously pushing off with my non-working leg, making it a heck of a lot easier... I adjusted my form so that my non working leg is really close to the step, eliminating most of its usefulness if my body tries to cheat! haha

Thanks for your help!

Glad to hear that you caught it! I find step ups almost impossible not to cheat on. I can lunge, squat, bulgarian, etc to my heart's content, but the step-ups are particularly tricky for me.

Btw, when you do work up to lunging or stepping with a weight you can't hoist over your head, move over to the squat rack. The whole squat rack is designed to enable you to put more weight on your shoulders than you can press over your head. I do my lunges over there, as well as my squats and deadlifts.

(Well, that's what I would be doing if I weren't dealing with complications from my knee surgery...)

Hello everyone, I was wondering how does everyone do their workouts? Do you stick to Mon, Wed & Fri? Or do you do a workout every other day? I have been doing MON, Wed & Fri but I am considering just every other day. What's the census on this?

smad11- Thanks for the encouragement. I remember when I completed stage 1 last year how I was able to really do the prone jack knife. That felt so awesome. Ha ha right now I HAVE to use the wall and i'm a wobbly mess. It takes me so long to do 8 cause I keep falling off. Thats what happens when you quit lifting weight for months and months. You get weak again!

Workout 3 (stage 1 workout A2) is today. I'm finally not sore today. (First day since monday that I woke up and wasnr difficult to get outta bed). So time to kick those muscles a**es again! Ha ha its kinda funny to think of muscles having an a**!

I have upped my calories since re-reading the book. Not up to maintenence, but I have been eating more in the range of 1800-2000, instead of my initial calorie goal of 1200-1500. I felt such a rush to want to get the first 10 lbs off since then are a more recent addition and all my cloths arent going to fit again until I do. But trying to rush off the inital pounds only resulted in me gaining 3 more lbs over the month prior to starting over with the weightloss.

Anyways its very helpful to know that I can start get stronger and feel stronger right away, even if the lbs shedding may be awhile. More important to make it last than do it fast. (I have to keep reminding myself of this when I want to crash diet off some of this fat!)

Next week I wont be lifting at all. 2 reasons, #1 a camping trip for 5 days, #2 a half marathon I am running a week from tomorrow. So I'll pick back up with workout 4 on a week from monday. Which means than the major soreness will be back I am sure ;p

Yep, step-ups are easy to cheat on. I've taken to lifting up my toes on my non-working leg; this really helps to minimize cheating.

stlrsgrl43: Every other day sounds like too much to me. I do NROL4W 3 days a week (Sun, Tues, Fri), and by the time I'm done with that Tuesday workout, I need that extra day of recovery. And if I'm not sleeping enough or eating enough, I take my lifting sessions down to twice a week.

But your body may vary, etc.

Hello fellow lifters-
I have quite a bit of questions after doing one day of lifting. I went through all the posts and didn't see any of these so I hope it's ok to ask. I would love feedback from you guys and hopefully some of these questions will help others!

Did you guys follow the recommended calories they suggest eating? I'm used to eating 1200 calories doing cardio and lifting 3 times a week. I want to reduce my cardio (3 miles m-thur with hitt the last 5 min, 1 fast mile fri-sat and biking with resistance at 25, hitt at the last 5 min of each), m-w-f lift (chalene extreme, just hit my 1 year lifting anniversary, plus a strengthening and/or cardio video everyday (turbo fire/jam). I workout everyday, I do cardio everyday.

Now I'm starting this routine and want to change it up so that I get results. I plan on doing 1 fast mile before my lifts, one 3 mile day a week, and hitt the other days.

They recommend 2200 on lift days and 1960 on non lift. I'm 5'3.5" and 130-132.

Does anyone have experience going from the 1200 calories up to almost double? Did you guys gain a lot of fat? Do you think this will happen to me?

I'm really scared to do it, but I want results and I'm more motivated by building more muscle than anything else.

If you're not following what they recommend could you please tell me how much you've cut your calories while lifting?

Is anyone doing this program eating less than what they recommend and losing weight and are you building muscle? OR is that counter productive?

Also did anyone lift prior to this program? I've just completed a year of chalene extreme and I wanted to know if anyone who started the program already lifting could share their lifting stats. I'd like to know if I'm starting out too heavy or if I should be pushing it a little more. For example, the seated row (I'm only 1 lift into the stage 1) I'm doing 60 lbs and I think I'll be able to go higher next lift. I'm also doing 30 lb on the step lifts. It is hard and I don't know if Ill even go higher anytime soon.

Do you guys increase weights every time you lift?

I'm able to do the full set of push ups on my toes, do I increase these every time? I'm confused as to what I should do with these.

The problem is that I would like to lose 5-8lbs of fat and obviously build muscle but I'm scared this will keep me from losing. Has anyone tried losing weight on this program and been successful?

Sorry for all of the questions! I'm scared but motivated. Congrats to everyone on here for sticking to the program you all inspire me!

Thank you!!!

My goals are a little bit different from yours at the moment: I'm looking to maintain, but hopefully build a little bit of muscle. I am eating the amount of calories the book recommends (about 1900/2200)--actually, more these days, as I've upped my basic daily activity level a lot (now more like 2100/2400). My weight has held steady (except for dropping slightly before I upped my calories), and I've seen a little bit of loss in terms of inches.

Back when I was losing, I was cycling my calories and hitting an average of about 1600 calories a day. For many months before I began NROL4W, I was maintaining and just eating intuitively, so I don't really know how many calories I was taking in at that point.

You are losing weight on 1200 calories right now, yes? 'Cause if not, that's something you may want to delve into a bit deeper. If you're uncomfortable, you could try upping your calories gradually.

You certainly can eat less, and you will find people here who do. Because you are close to goal, I will put in my two cents: you will build more muscle and get better results if you are eating at maintenance levels than if you eat at a deficit, especially as large a deficit as you're eating now. You're not likely to build anything on 1200 calories a day.

Have you considered making this a maintenance break and really focusing on body recomposition? I know we all want to get to goal as fast as possible, but you might give it some consideration.

I was lifting prior to this, though not really as heavy as in NROL4W. I started in July 2010 with machines at the gym, transitioned over to free weight and body weight work around Jan '11, then did P90X (and other similar stuff) from March to August '11. After that, I only did an occasional strength workout for maintenance, and in Nov/Dec I hardly worked out at all. So I came to NROL4W a bit deconditioned, FWIW.

Anyway, here are my stats for stage 1:
Starting --> ending
squats 45 --> 85
deadlift 55 --> 120
Step-ups 12-pound dumbbells in each hand --> 20(e)
Dumbbell shoulder press 15(e) --> 25(e)
Lat pulldowns 40 --> 60
Lunges 10(e) --> 25(e)

It's impossible to compare seated cable rows, as the machines are always different; my numbers would sound artificially impressive if I listed them.

Now that I'm farther along in stage 4, btw, my numbers have continued to improve: 80 pounds for lat pulls (95 pounds for underhand grip lat pulls, woo woo! ), 25(e) for step-ups, etc.

Almost every time, and certainly whenever I can.

Check out the book. They list harder variations of the pushup. Use those as a way of progressing. Or you can do decline pushups, putting your feet higher each workout to progress. I do decline pushups in my NROL4W workouts.

Anyway, good luck to you, & congrats on your amazing progress so far!

Sumire-
Thank you for taking the tie to answer my long list of questions I'm happy to have had them answered by someone with experience!!! You're too sweet.

I was losing weight on 1200 but I started to get into a rut and started to binge because I wasn't eating enough for the amount of working out I was doing. I've recently only taken control and for the last 2 months haven't stuck to 1200 a day, It's been more like 1200, 1400, 1600, 2000 (if i binged) so really up and down.


I am actually content with upping my intake to achieve results. I was eating between 1000-1200 for almost a year sometimes 800 if I went to bed a little earlier or if I thought it was too late to eat dinner. I lifted this entire time doing Chalene Extreme and I did gain muscle, well it's very obvious is photos that I now have more muscle than I did, however, I'm not sure if I could have had better results if I had eaten more. Again, I did an entire Year eating at a deficit and gained muscle in my arms, and core, my abs are tight. I feel like I could look better though in my legs and core so that's why I'm hoping that eating more and doing this program will help.



I have thought about this and really want to build as much muscle as possible and do this the right way even though I haven't eaten this much in a year and a half. Once I reach the end of the 6 months, could I eat at a deficit (1300-1500) to cut fat? I plan on continuing to lift after and while I'm trying to lost more fat, but instead of restarting the program I think I'm going to do NR for ABs and continue HITT and one long distance run a week.


Did you see better results, increase in muscle, and definition with NROL4W? Did your body composition change much or did you just experience a change in strength? The comments I've read from those who were already lifting prior were a little disappointing. Some made it seem a like this wasn't a very big challenge if you weren't a beginner. It also seems like the ones who have seen a lot of change are those who are beginners. So I'm confused if this is even for me or if I should start a more challenging program. I really want to do this and want results. After doing just 1 day in stage one, I'm not terribly sore and while I did find it challenging I wasn't as beat or sore as I thought I would be after reading some of the comments on here.


Thank you for the honest answer!

Thank you for your stats, VERY IMPRESSIVE as is your weight loss journey! This gives me a better understanding of what to expect. So far my stats:

Squats - 75 total. Did anyone else experience pain on the back of there neck where the bar rests? Mine has been so sore like I bruised it. I'm not sure why either.


Push ups - 2 sets of 15 on my toes. Hard, but I think I should increase them or make them harder.

Seated Row - 60, going to go higher as these weren't as difficult for me as I thought.

Step ups - 30 lbs in each hand. This was difficult in terms of balance. I'm used to doing something very similar to this with 35lbs however the dumbbells at the gym are harder to grip and hurt my hands, unlike the ones at my house. ANyone else experience this? I feel like if the weights were easier to grip I wouldn't have as many issues. It's also harder to keep my balance as I do it. I focus on doing it right rather than going fast.
I also was wondering if you guys are stepping up onto a high platform. My step up at the gym is a little higher than the weight bench and I find it hard to keep my balance and don't know if I can increase the height. I tried with a higher step to begin and it was not happening.
DO you guys increase height each time and increase your weight or weight only? Should I decrease the weight to start off and try to step higher instead and then gradually increase the weight?

Jack Knife - 2x8, going to add 1-2 more sets I think


So you're able to increase every time? I feel like this is going to be harder for me. 5-10lbs on a squat seems heavy to me. Are you increasing by 5 or more pounds with each workout?


I have a question about the diet part. Are you guys keeping your Carbs low or at a certain number of grams? I hit my Protein with no problem everyday but I'm incredibly confused about the rest. They recommend I eat 1960 a day when I don't lift (I still HITT or do some sort of cardio, but not like before) and the days I do lift I'm supposed to eat 2200.

So far for today (I've already logged everything for each meal)
I'm at 147 g of protein, 116g of carb, 68g of fat, for a total of 1660 calories so far, and leaves me with 300 to go. Now my percentages are 35% P, 28% C, 37% F. I'm confused as how to fill out the rest. Should I decrease Fat and fill the rest in with Carbs? Do you guys think that 116g of carbs is incredibly high? How many grams of carbs are you guys eating?

Thank you so much, that's very nice to hear and encouraging!

Just by the by, new lifters are going to have more dramatic results than experienced lifters with any program. That's just the way it is. That said, NROLW is a really intense, full body strength training program. Anyone who does it and works hard will gain strength and build muscle--but you have to do it properly. This means looking after your diet and lifting *heavy*. If you don't feel challenged, you're not working hard enough and you need to increase your weights.

FWIW, I looked at the Chalene Extreme website and that looks much more like cardio with weights than strength training. NROLW will be an entirely different experience--and you will want to lift heavy.

Have fun!

Round 2 of body weight matrix today...best time 2:56. Very happy with the improvement, but it is seriously no joke!

Started 2nd half of phase I. Doesn't sound like much, but I'm trying. The first half went a lot quicker than I thought. I have ordered gloves.

Hearing the progress of everyone else is really encouraging.