Hi ladies just wanted to pop in for a quick hello! I just picked this book up last night and I'm SO EXCITED to get started.. I love lifting <3

I was super stoked to start Stage 5 today! Back to the dumbbell snatches. And 4 reps--yay, heavy weight time! And a new low time on the body weight matrix: 2:24. So fun.

Honestly, I find the B workout in stage 3/5 to be boring, so I'll have to suck it up and get through those. But the A workout is my favorite in the program so far.

Looking forward to stage 6, too. Once I got to my first chin-up, I kind of wandered away from training them, because I'm usually so beat from these workouts. I'd like to get back to having that as my focus.

blackbutterfly: Welcome!

OK, discovered by accident today: I can do a pistol squat!

I was talking with a fit friend of mine this evening & mentioned pistol squats. He said, "What's a pistol squat?" I said, "Well, I can't really do one, but it kind of goes like--" *to my amazement, I bust out a pistol squat* "Well, ok, like that."

I'm going to give NROL4W the credit for this one, because I tried back in January to do one & couldn't. I'm getting better leg strength than I expected on this program, and the balance moves (which I normally find a little annoying, honestly-- you can't pull as much weight when you're also trying to balance!) apparently have their place, too.

I think the 3B/5B workouts that I just complained about may be a little bit more fun now that I get to work on pistol squats as my single-leg squat move.

I'm on my 6th week. I love it for the most part, but the 15 rep weeks are just brutal.

I'm finally finishing stage one! Just have the amrap sets to do Wed and Fri and I'm supposed to take a week off before stage 2. I think I'll still hit the gym and do cardio though. Dont want to get out of my routine! I can definitely tell that im a lot stronger than I was at the beginning... Or maybe ever! I'm able to do a set of 8 regular pushups which I have never been able to do! Havent noticed any changes on the scale at all yet... Probably because I haven't cleaned up my eating habits properly.... So hard for me... Ahh well just have to keep trying.

Hey Ladies! I started this and did stage 1 workout A and then was unable to get to workout B the next week and now I am all off track. So, my question is, I feel like I should just start over with workout A.

Any thoughts on this? I love all the workouts, I just need to make more time for my workouts even though the first workouts took me probably 20 minutes. Thanks!

Hello ladies!

I started this program back in February and loved it, but I'm doing it at home and was concerned about my form. I couldn't do a proper squat and since that's such a basic and important move I stopped and focused on working on that. Now I'm good to go and ready to jump in with both feet. Thing is, step-ups and I simply do not get along. They make my right knee make terrible crunchy noises and I'm just not keen to take them on again knowing that. Add to it, I don't have a proper surface to step up on. Any suggestions for step-up substitutes? They're really the only thing holding me back.

Hey Thistleberry,

Maybe a one-legged squat, or one-legged deadlift? The step is similar to a lunge in the muscle group that it works... so maybe a static lunge might work, if you're doing more of a walking lunch in workout A?

Good Luck!

Hey Lackie,

I'm not sure if I understood you right... you should be switching from workout A to workout B as you go along... so Monday workout A, Wednesday workout B etc. If you missed and entire week it really is up to you whether you want to start again, or just keep going from where you left off. If you've only done one workout so far, you could keep going and it probably won't matter...

Good luck!

Yes, I'd start over. It's just one workout to repeat.

Maybe this will help? : http://www.jpfitness.com/showthread....+up+substitute

High five!

I am so frustrated this morning! The past 3 lifting workouts every dumbbell I pick up feels so heavy! I feel like I've lost some of my strength or something! What is going on? For the past 2 weeks i've only been lifting 2x's per week because I was in the middle of a big house project...is this why? I hope I get back to feeling normal because it sucks to feel like you are back sliding!!!!

Sometimes it just happens, though 3 times in a row does seem a bit much. I usually find when I'm lifting only 2x/wk I'm usually stronger and fresher at each workout, because I've had more recovery time.

Are you getting enough sleep? Are you stressed? How's the eating? At a large deficit, of course, you could find it difficult to keep the weights up. Does your house project involve you actually doing work on your house? You could be using up some of your energy / food fuel for that.

Hope it gets sorted soon. I know those workouts are a bummer.

So I did workout 7 today which was stage 1 workout A4, this means I have completed half of the A workouts in stage 1! I am definitely already seeing strength gains. I know that since you go down in reps it makes sense you can lift more weight, but I think it is more that that. I really love this program and look forward to sticking through it this time (I did the first stage last spring then got a second job and dropped the ball completely).

I was supposed to lift today's lifts on monday, and didn't make it to the gym till thursday! I would like to catch up and wonder what people think of lifting everyother day until I am back on schedule? So I'd lift sat, Then mon-wed-fri-sun, then tues-thurs-sat. Or would that perhaps be overdoing it? Otherwise I'll just lift saturday and call it a 2 lift week and resume m/w/f next week and those after.

Woohoo!

There's no rush to finish the program, right? I find that the occasional 2-lift week does me good, actually.

sumire- Definitely feeling stressed and not getting enough sleep. I had a bachelorette part last weekend and I think it really took a toll on me all week. It is so hard to recovery from a night of next to no sleep and drinking! Glad I don't do it very often any more. I'm hoping I'll feel better tomorrow morning. It's my last workout of Stage 3. I REALLY want to finish Stage 4 before I leave for vacation. I only have 3 weeks though. It will definitely be pushing it, but I think I can make it happen.

I also don't think I've been getting a proper amount of protein. Too much carbs lately. Trying to get all of that back on track too!

I'm definitely not giving up!!! How are you doing???