Yeah, you are going to have to pay for shipping. Do you have a Dick's near you? You could look at the GoFit ones there.

Lydia - I shop almost exclusively on Amazon Prime these days. If I couldn't get them I might just not have them. I'm anti shipping costs.

Nelie- sorry about the sinus trouble. Mine have been bothering me, too.

Rhonda - bad reason to have drive today, and bad for your knees. Badness abounds. Sorry honey.

Lydia - my bootcamp is going fine from an exercise standpoint. I've been consistent, worked hard, felt the appropriate muscle soreness at the right times, but no move on my weight. Unless you count the .2/-.3/+.3/-.2 I've been swinging for two solid weeks. Annoying me.

Cheryl!!

Nelie: Maybe Mr. Lydia and I will go to Dicks on Sunday to do some shopping. It could be fun to play with some toys.

Shannon: I have the same fluctuations going on here. And seriously, each and every morning I'm entering this data into my iPhone to refer back to...weight/bodyfat % and it's a very very slow downward trend but up and down five to six times before it stays down. I guess I'm just really good at maintaining but to actually lose...I have to remember that all three things have to be spot on or I cant expect to see that hypertrophy or definition. Oh summer...I just am not ready for you this year.

Funerals: this is the 3rd one I've been to in 14 months. This one was a friend from my DH's high school class, married to a woman in my class. It was classy though. He was, among many other things, a volunteer fire fighter and fire fighters came from local stations and from 50 miles away to participate. The funeral procession was led by fire trucks with lights flashing. Not quite as raucous as a New Orleans funeral, but still classy.

Weight fluctuations!? Well, I am still stuck but seeing the nutritionist. She told me to eat 1800, not 1500, calories, and, of course, MORE vegetables. But, I can comfortably wear pants that I wore when I weighed 10 pounds less.

Tejas: Lucky you! More calories. Like that. There. Here's an extra vegetable for you. I need to get more vegs in my diet too. I've got them in the house...even go through the trouble to clean them, cut them and put them in baggies...where I dread the idea of eating them. Bah. I'm a fruit bat. I'll eat berries and melons all day long. Veggies, leave me less than enthused.

So......I did something fuuuun today.....anyone wanna guess.....?

K. I hate those games too. I went to a CrossFit this morning. : We did a brief metcon with kettlebell deadlifts and dumbbell squat thrusters. Fun.

DH came along for support but decided to join me anyway. He would like the use of his thighs back again.

Poor thing, he said the longest walk of his life was when he had to walk across the gym to get his keys at the end of the workout. My legs felt like they had been worked but I was okay...I think I'm going in to my other gym to get a little more lifting in and some intervals.

Really, nice vibe to the place. It was very impressive how they immediately recognized us, brought us into the fold, and coached us through our first workout right on the spot and then followed up with us and answered questions afterward. This is how you run a business. Nice Job.

I'm going to sign up for the three hour lifting class for next Saturday. I'm so glad I did this.

OK, I give up. WHAT did you do, Lydia?

By the way, I bought KBs from Perform Better, not Mike Boyle. (I like the slightly naughty interpretation to "perform better" )

Quote:
I went to a CrossFit this morning.

That's what Lydia and Mr. Lydia did! Can he walk yet? Thrusters a tough...especially on newbies

Lydia, you are right- that is how to run a business. Most that I have been in have been that way. It's REALLY too bad we don't live really close. I think we'd make excellent business partners!

My knee is still unhappy from 10 X 200 meter sprints that I did between sets of overhead squats a week and a half ago. It hasn't been helped by double unders three days in a row and some other runs and squats. I FINALLY can do more than 5 double unders in a row! I'm afraid I may be broken by the time the crossfit games roll around

Has any one seen Cheryl running by?

Mel, I read the cross-fit note from Lydia. But, she said "fun." I thought maybe she meant that she went out for ice cream.

Rhonda: Of course it was fun. And yes, just for the record, there was ice cream involved too. We caught the tail end of a wine tasting so we stopped to pick up cones for the boys.

Mel: It is a bummer we are not in the same city. But hey, ya never know. I'm sure you told us but when are you competing? Congrats on your double unders. It's like magic when those movements finally come together.

Today was a rest day. It's been a full week in the gym so I was due. The family wanted to take a trail ride on the bikes today. Great fun. The trails were still muddy from the last rain and we ended back home with mud across the faces and down our backs. I was planning to take DH out for dinner...now we all have to shower.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone!

Question for you all- what do you recommend to strengthen the upper back/lats? I can't seem to ever "feel" it in in the lats when I do lat pull-downs, etc, even when I've focused very carefully on form.

Indiblue: I find the lats difficult to feel also, except after the exercises. I do lat pulldown at 75 pounds, 3 sets of 12-15 reps. I also find that if I use a wider grip, the pull down is harder.

So, I saw the physical therapist today and she was very positive. She massaged the patellar area for quite a while and showed me how to do it. She checked all the angles and said I had really good flexion. She gave me a few stretches to do, asked me to show her my squats. My trainer developed his own rehab program for me and she checked it, giving her approval. I'm optimistic that time and care will take care of this. It's a minor setback.

I'm going to have some real dietary challenges this week because I'm going to Toronto for a visit. But, I'll get in some exercising, going to spinning and meeting some women friends in the local park for some workouts.

Rhonda: Enjoy your trip to Toronto. Is this the first time you have gone back since you moved? Best of luck with your eating challenges during the visit!

Today I did the three hour "Getting Started" class at Crossfit. It was a lot of material to cover and by the time we got to the last half hour of the class I had faded both physically and mentally. I found that the more narrow stance on the push press and push jerk really triggered my matchstick knees. I'm hoping that with some guidance this won't be a problem in the actual workous. We'll see. I'm going to give this a try for at least three months and then evaluate further. My plan is to do at least three days a week with two days of yoga and then one day of just going into my other gym to practice lifts and do extra cardio.

This is certainly going to be a challenge and I have a lot of room for growth. (trying to put a positive spin on my inadequacies) But I can do one of two things....I can continue to workout on my own in a regular gym with incorrect movements and compensations or I can learn how to do this correctly and save myself some real physical pain and mental frustration. Better to do it the right way for a while. Oh boy....here we go.

Okay. I do have one other thing to add to this about my experience. Let me just say how freakin' refreshing it was to meet two women (they were running the workshop) who know how to lift and truly enjoy what they do. OMG. No seriously. I loved how one of them repeatedly kept saying that we had to be aggressive with these lifts. There needs to be intensity! Loved that. So true. Its always been a fine line for me at the gyms that I worked out in how to manage that. It's so nice to find a place where I can do this and not worry if I'm going to bother/frighten or freak someone out. Not like I'm this total crazed woman or anything but to be able to do this comes from a place somewhere deep inside and if you don't tap into it, your just going through the motions.

That said, I totally s@cked at so much today. I'm not sure if the flexibility in my yoga classes this year hurt or helped. I liked hanging out at the bottom of my squat and it took me the first whole hour of the class to unlearn that. At the end of the the second hour I was beginning to think that maybe I should throw my bar in and head for the nearest yoga studio. But, I'm not going to kid myself. Both have their challenges and I'm here to learn. But yes, it was a very refreshing experience to be somewhere without mirrors, without the isolation of my iPod, or the rows and rows of gleaming chrome machines I rarely ever used or feeling like I was on display. Nice.

Now I have lots of reading to do....

Thanks, Lydia, for your very interesting post. Please keep telling us about it.

Lydia - sounds like you had a great experience! I'm so glad.

Back from Toronto. I think I'll just skip stepping on the scales, and head for the gym in the morning!!

I enjoyed your post, Lydia. I could use some flexibility after being squished in the plane for hours. It's my 3rd trip back in 1 1/2 years: once for a funeral, once for a wedding, and this time for a birthday party and other events. I have to stay home for a while now!