Ahhhhh....Hawaii....I.need.to.go.to.Hawaii. Wecome back, Pat!

Why does it seem like a good idea to pick a vacation with MORE snow each year? Probably because we plan our ski trip in August or September and snow sounds wonderful then!

Tonight's WOD was full power snatches and 24 inch box jumps. The snatches felt just wonderful with severe tendinitis. I may have to start consistently modifying everything for a while

Lydia: It's not so much the looking that I'm worried about. It's more whether any of them have enough elastic left to survive a large wave without revealing my boobs. (Which, thanks to the diet, are certainly not up to "filling out" a suit.)

We leave Friday. Aside from the 10 bazillion things I have to do between now and then, I'm so ready to go. It helps that yesterday's ski trip was a complete bust: 40 mph winds, rain/snow, and 50 cold elementary school kids. Today it's supposed to be in the teens, then back to nearly 50 degrees tomorrow. Classic late winter for these parts.

Full body, high intensity workout is on tap for me tonight: 20 sets total, 5-6 rep per set with heavy weights). Tomorrow is a carb-up day in advance of Thursday's max weight workout. That's it. I can do this.

//b. strong!

Ok, Kim, here is a question: Why would you worry about revealing your PURRFECT boobies? Really. When I was in the Dominican, I went shamelessly topless (remember, I grew up in Europe so I am totally fine with it. And my boobs are LESS than perfect! True, I was not in the most populated part of the beach (but that's because I don't like to be among people if I can avoid it). But my end of the beach had some even older (I am guessing British) ladies who went topless as well so I think we all felt comfortable.

And stop talking about Hawaii, both you and Pat! I would go in a heartbeat again. Pat, thumbs up on losing weight while on vacation. Unfortunately, I am not like you and Lydia (who eats bacon and pancakes on vacation and loses 3 lbs). I gained weight and I was there just a week! I did not bother weighing myself when I returned because my weight went horribly up anyway so I figured no need to torment myself (I am such an ostrich sometimes). True, I did not exactly look at the food sideways although I tried to stick to the healthy options. But my pitfall is the dessert buffet - too many choices!
Anyway, I am working on it.

I wanted to go to a spinning class this a.m. but instead, I woke up at 1 a.m. to the sound of some heavy machinery travelling up my street and apparently stopping right in front of my house. Then the vibrations started. I found out there were 2 huge trucks, right in front of my house, both with blinking lights on, engines running, and nobody inside (as far as I could tell). SOme equipment was already in the street (I don't even know what it was). It looked like from the movie about Ebola with Dustin Hoffman and Rene What'sHerName - I expected some biohazard-suited men with machine guns to knock on my door and drag me out of there, leaving my poor dogs behind. This went on till 3 a.m. when I finally had enough and I put on a parka, shoes and a hat and went to ask WTF is going on. Turns out the water main in my street broke and they had to fix it. Since we are back to -20 C, the entire street was coated in frozen waves. They told me they would be there for another 3-4 hours at least. Somehow, I managed to fall back asleep (around 4 a.m. because the jackhammering ceased) but I knew it did not make sense to even try to get up at 5:30. I was still a zombie at my regular get-up time of 6:30.
I hope that's enough in terms of calamities in one and that I can go to Zumba in the evening. My abs are very sore from a Sunday workout.

P.S. Happy belated Valentine's to you all. I had two squares of dark chocolate with hazelnuts - but not because it was Valentine's, because I felt like having it.

P.S. for Pat: We had a good laugh last week (actually, a week before that) when we got an expected truckload of snow and our IT sent an email that our Austin office is closed due to snow. We looked up some photos from Austin online and we all laughed seeing it was 1 inch of snow at the most.

I did my new UB program with the trainer today. After 7 activation, mobility and stretch exercises, I did: facepull; DB press; tricep extensions; lat pulldowns; bicep curls and cable shrugs. I've read somewhere on the 3fc site that tricep extensions are out of favor. Anyone have an opinion on that? They seemed to work my triceps.

Alena, I don't miss the sound of that heavy machinery related to snow at all. And, of course, an inch of snow in Austin is normally on top of ice and there is almost no removal equipment nor any sanding or salting. Quite a different world.

Maybe we need a meet up in Hawaii and exercise on the beach, topless, of course!

Rhonda

Hi Rhonda,

On tricep exercises, I think I'm the one who wrote (in my letter to the new gym member) that kickbacks are a waste of time. I vaguely recall a follow-up exchange laying out why. I won't replicate it again, but it has to do with the limited range of the motion in which you are actually putting tension on the muscles that you are trying to target. Plus the fact that most people tend to do them incorrectly: see http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Erro...l#anchor973147. Even if done correctly, though, kickbacks are simply an inefficient way to work tris. Yes, you can get a good "pump" with high rep kickbacks, but pump /= hypertrophy (growth).

However, and this is a big however, kickbacks aren't the same as extensions. See http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/ArmWt.html for a list of tri extension variations.

Another comment on the upper body routine: pulldowns are great for lats and upper back, but don't hit the mid-back all that effectively. You don't have any mid-back exercises in the list. Maybe add some low cable rows or bent-over barbell rows?

If you needed to excise an exercise to fit in rows, I'd eliminate one of the two isolation tri exercises -- facepulls work tris, as do the tri extensions. Or, shrugs. If you're also deadlifting, you're probably hitting your traps pretty hard anyway. And, maybe this is just me, but it's easy to get overdeveloped traps (relative to the other muscles in the back and shoulder). IMO, this not only looks funny, but makes my bra straps slip down all the time.

And, here we are, back to Tomato's suggestion of toplessness.

FYI, TMI, and WTFC (who the flip cares): The scale read 139.6 this morning. I *know* it will be up 1.8 pounds tomorrow because of today's carb-up. (Not 1.6 pounds, not 2.0 pounds, but 1.8 pounds. My body is predictable in its unpredictability.) With back-to-normal eating on Friday and Saturday, these 1.8 pounds will be gone by Sunday.

Haven't had my body fat tested, and I probably won't have time before I go, but I can say with reasonable confidence that I'm at my pre-vacation goal. I believe I will treat myself to a dancing carrot:



And there it is. Now, back to your regularly scheduled day.

//b strong,
Kim

Congratulations Kim!


Topless beaches...only after I've had an augmentation done. After spending that much money and time out of the gym healing I'd use almost any excuse.

Hi all.

I might whine a bit. I went on travel, got sick, got better, relapsed, went to a kids birthday party, felt iffy afterwards. I haven't exercised much, just light stuff. I have no energy though. It is crazy. My husband got sick as well. My throat has been scratchy for days.

Nelie,
My favourite remedy for sore throat is sage tea. Buy dried sage, pour boiling water over it and let it steep like tea. It is very bitter but who cares. Excellent for gargling (better than salty warm water, IMHO) and if you flavour it with lemon and agave extract or honey, you can drink it as tea. I love it.

Kim__Bent over tricep extension is what the trainer has me doing, according to the site you sent. Thanks a lot for that information. I'll ask about the mid-back, and won't he think I'm smart?!

And, congratulations on reaching your goal

Sage tea works!

Rhonda

Well, Lydia, I'm not going topless without some major reduction - maybe we can find a surgeon who'll do a transplant?

It's -10F here this am, and Hawaii sounds awfully good. One of my friends, originally from Texas, posted this on FB (taken between Austin and San Antonio)

Texas Road Sign

I've been doing boring cardio this week, and that's my exercise for the rest of the month. Surprisingly out of shape, sigh.

Kim,

I appreciate you posting the links to the tricep exercises. It seems that in the videos, the dude is doing the bent over tricep extensions (as well as the other forms of tricep extensions with one arm only, but I assume they are supposed to be done with both arms simultaneously.

I am going to load Jackie Warner's DVD tonight and check how the trainer (not her, one of her staff) is doing the tricep kickbacks. I bet they are not correct. I know for sure Jackie doesn't say anything about where the elbow should be. This is good to know.

Pat, that sign just about captures it!

Alena, my trainer told me to do the tricep extensions one arm at a time, for what that is worth.

I did the HIIT on the elliptical today, as well as a series of core and ab exercises. I got quite tired actually.

I go work catering for a week and when I come back the thread has gone topless! Woo hoo!

I'm not sure how I would look topless at this point - my shoulders are killing me from this week's workouts, so I would probably roll them down and hunch over like Quasimoto.


Kim - enjoy Hawaii!

to everyone else!