Location: Lyin' in a puddle of sweat on the floor.
Posts: 2,296
S/C/G: 235/201/175
Height: 5'7"
Thanks, all, for taking the time to look at my first ever "strongman" picture! Hopefully, next year at this time, I will be all buff and ready to actually enter a competition. Right now, some of those lifts just seem impossible for me, but I'm the optimistic type, so I'll just keep working and hope I can get strong enough by next year.
Good news from the gym today: I think I got the weekend "clean the gym" job. If I get it for sure, then I get to trade: about 2-3 hours on the weekend of cleaning/disinfecting/tidying up the gym, and I won't have to pay for training. Woot! That would be a help to me, financially, and I wouldn't have to worry about coming up with that extra money every month.
The CF Report:
Today's workout was another "girl" named WOD...
"Nancy"
Run 400 meters
15 Overhead Squats (95# men/65# women)
5 Rounds for Time
I figured this would take me 25 mins or longer, just looking at other peoples' times on the white board, but I surprised myself today: 20:48! I used 25# for the overhead squats, since 65# is my 1 rep max right now...no way I could do that for 75 reps!
On the clothes shopping, I'm still in the "I can't believe I'm not in the plus sizes!" euphoric stage, so I pretty much love clothes shopping for the first time since, well, ever. I'm sure that changes once you've been a smaller size for a long enough time, but for now, I'm just happy to not be shaped like a pumpkin anymore, KWIM?
Tea, wish I could help you, but I don't have a routine. My trainer makes stuff up, and I do what he says to do every day. You might look in the New Rules of Lifting for Women book, as that has some set routines that you follow for so many weeks, and all told, has about 6 months worth of workouts laid out.
Shannon, yesterday was my rest day, and it was the worst day of the week, because I didn't get to do a workout, to work out all the stiffness and sore muscles. I was a hurtin' unit when I first arrived at the gym this morning, and it took me about 40 minutes to really get warmed up and loosened up, but then I felt much better, and even better than that after the workout...the running really helps when my legs are tight/sore.
Gosh, nearly 3 pm here already and I feel like I'm just getting into my work, rather than just having 2 hours to go. Comes from having a 2.5 hour meeting at 10 am, and then getting my hair cut.
Dragged myself out at 5:30 and got to the gym for what PN lovingly calls "Day 1: Whole Body" which when you look at it, doesn't sound bad, but it is full of squats! And chin-ups and overhead lifts. arggghhh. I'm going to be sore tomorrow, esp as I'm using my PT exercises for warm-up, which, wouldn't you know, have lots of squats and hamstring exercises. Oh well, I'm still upright, and tomorrow is cardio so I can work some of the soreness out.
So here's what we do for Day 1:
1a - kettlebell (or DB) swing (squat down pick up the kb, come up swinging it overhead, repeat.
1b - lumberjack squat to a calf raise
1c - reverse push-up (i.e. lie under a bar and pull your chest up to it with a straight body. I have trouble with these, and usually add some regular push-ups as well)
2a - chin-ups (with assistance if necessary - it is!)
2b - vertical thrust - similar to the kettleball swing, but use two DBs to thrust overhead on the standing up part of the squat
2c - iron cross, same as 2b, but arms with DBs are held out to the side at shoulder height and brought in on the squat down portion.
You do 1a, 1b, 1c, as a set. Today was 4 sets of varying number of reps.
It is paying off, however, in that I bought smaller sized pants yesterday.
Real quick post. I have to come up with some house listings to view while in Fairfax on Thursday...
Just wanted to comment real quick on the fitting room experience. Birch Even after losing as much weight as I have I still look awful in the fitting room mirrors, those lights cast shadows that pick up every cellulite dimple that you could possibly possess.
There is one exception. Talbots has some decent fitting room lighting. At least the one close to me. The lighting is pink. Makes us all look more youthful. Anyone else notice this.
Shannon, I assume you have AC now? Hope so.
Okay. Food was crap today. Just quick eating on the run. Nothing bad but not nearly enough protein. I'll probably look all puffy in the morning.
I'm currently covered in paint. I did the trim on the back of the house as well as the back door. It looks so beautiful. I keep walking outdoors to look at it. You know, this is the advantage of living in a small ranch. You/I can actually do these kinds of things, feel the satisfaction of a job well done, AND not have to pay someone else to do it for me, wait for them toget around to it and not do it as well as I would in the end. yep bit of a control freak here.
Now I know why I buy so much at Talbots! Their economic woes are despite my help
Lydia, Have fun house hunting this week! How did the showings go?
I have been having a lot of problems with food since coming back from Ohio last week and eating my way across 1/3 of the country trying to stay awake to drive. One day horrible off track just makes it really hard to get back on. I Do fine until I get home after work. Time to change the routine again- I'm working on a continuing ed course for my certification, so maybe I'll need to go hide upstairs with my lap top instead of working downstairs. Go back to the old tricks.
My usual Tuesday legs/core class this a.m. It started up with 8 jack knives, then a short run to the mat to do 8 push ups. Next round: 7 jack knives, 7 push ups, ... etc. until we were down to 1 jack knife and 1 push up. So that was 46 push ups total but Lydia, you would puke. The form suffered. I was somewhat miffed that she didn't give us any warm up beforehand.
Lydia, enjoy the house hunted. Pleeeeeeaaaaaaaaase post links to some houses you are intered in. Pretty pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase!!!!
Pat, I envy you both the truckload of salmon as well as the smaller pants.
Location: Lyin' in a puddle of sweat on the floor.
Posts: 2,296
S/C/G: 235/201/175
Height: 5'7"
Alena, that would be a tough one! WTG!
Just a flyby with the CF report today:
More strongman today, but this time everybody in the gym did it, which was fun! The board said, "Lift and Carry Heavy Stuff", lol. We picked up things, carried them the length of the gym and back:
Farmer's Walk (2 barbell type things with handles in the middle, so you carry one in each hand), I did 2 75 pounders first, rested, then did 2 100 pounders. I did not ask how much they weighed until after I'd carried them, thankfully!
Keg (with water in it for weight): 115#, then 155# later
Atlas Stone: 100# (at least this made loading them on the platform seem "easy")
Sandbag: 100#
I think that's all I carried today. It was fun watching everybody get into it, even the folks that aren't into the strongman thing normally.
Okay, I'm off to do a yardwork job. Oh, and I found out today that I definitely got the cleaning job at the gym...I start in August!
Ah, Tuesdays are in some way worse than Mondays. Monday morning includes a 2+ hour directors' meeting at 10 am, but Tuesday nights include a City Council meeting at 6 or 7 pm, and going on til ??? In theory this is only 2x a month, but often it's 3 or 4. It's 3 this month, so I was there last week (til 10:30 - past my bedtime), I'll be there tonight, and again next Tuesday. Sigh.
Did a good sweaty cardio on the elliptical this morning, and tomorrow is a rest day (the best thing after a late Tuesday night )
Cheryl - Yay, for getting the job, and thus "free" training.
Okay, it's 5 pm, and tonight's meeting starts at 6. I'm off to hunt and gather for food and at least see the outdoors for a little bit.
Location: Lyin' in a puddle of sweat on the floor.
Posts: 2,296
S/C/G: 235/201/175
Height: 5'7"
Mel, glad you're still enjoying the CF!
Alena and Pat, thanks! I'm happy about being able to trade the cleaning job for my training...that will make the monthly finances a little easier, for sure.
The CF Report:
Today they were doing a metcon. Actually, I forgot to write it down, but it was something like:
Run 400 meters
30 Tire Jumps
20 Pull-ups
3 Rounds
I think that's what it was. I have been wanting to do the little man's 4th birthday workout, so I asked my trainer if could make it up today, and he agreed. So, here's what I did today, instead:
Run 2005 meters (about 1-1/4 miles)
then 4 Round of:
7 Deadlifts (155 for women)
18 Overhead (any way, 65 for women)
My time was 23:45, which I was quite happy with. I used 135 for the deadlifts, and 55 pounds for the overheads, and used a push press for all overhead reps. I felt like I ran well on the run, but I forgot to ask what my time was for just the run portion. Anyway, a slightly longer than normal run (for a CF workout, anyway), plus deadlifts and overhead, those are my favorite lifts, so I was in heaven, even though it was a good buttkicking workout.
Good exercise week so far -
Monday: dumbell swing/squat+press/hanging pullup circuit (6 sets of 10 in 22 mins, 15 pound dumbells for everything except the last two rounds of squat+press when I switched to 12 pounds), 10 mins of ab work + 40 minutes on the elliptical
Tuesday: 30 mins of kickboxing, 45 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes of misc warmup, stretching and wandering
Today: dumbell snatch/clean+press/burpee circuit (4 sets of 10 in 20 mins, 15 pounds for everything, 2 minutes better than this circuit with four sets last week), 10 mins of ab on the weider + cut my grass
Woo hoo!
Lydia - I do have AC now, finally. And didn't have to kill anyone to get it, though it was pretty close for a while.
Cheryl - congrats on the job!
to everyone else! Have a good evening!
Last edited by Shannon in ATL; 07-23-2009 at 04:51 PM.
Location: Lyin' in a puddle of sweat on the floor.
Posts: 2,296
S/C/G: 235/201/175
Height: 5'7"
Thanks, Shannon. A WTG your way...I was reading and thinking six rounds is good for that time frame with those exercises...you are working hard! Congrats on the 2 minute record, too!
Location: Lyin' in a puddle of sweat on the floor.
Posts: 2,296
S/C/G: 235/201/175
Height: 5'7"
Hey peeps,
The CF Report:
Focus/skills/recovery day today. The white board assignment was to spend 20 mins practicing both L-sits and hollow rocks, so I did that. Got my first L-sit ever, and got it up to 5-6 seconds, something like that.
I also tried to work on my handstand kick-up. Not much luck there. I just can't seem to get myself up on the wall. I'm thinking I should try to see if I can do a cartwheel out on the nice soft lawn. Maybe if I can still do that, it will get me over being afraid to go from standing to a handstand kick-up...I need more momentum to get my legs up there!
I practiced pull-ups, and that went well. I used the pink band some, too, and I think I'd be able to use that for the high rep workouts from now on, instead of the bigger blue band.
Last, one of the trainers was working on squat cleans, which I'd never done, so I joined her for that. It was tricky and a bit intimidating, trying to drop down into a deep squat to get under the bar, but I had a few good ones in there before I got too tired, and got 75# a bunch of times. The power clean seems so much easier than that full squat clean. I have been practicing front squats in my warm-up, though, about once a week, and I think that helped immensely today. I will keep that up, and maybe put the squat cleans in there, as well. Next mission on the olympic lifts list: full squat snatch, since I've never done that one, either (we always do power cleans and snatches in our workouts). The oly lifts are fun, but challenging for me, because of the speed required. Usually my feet want to go all over the place on the "jump and land" portion (like jumping from standing down into the squat), but today, they just did what they were supposed to do!
Cheryl, have you ever looked back and realized how far you've come? I think you're doing amazing thinigs!
Ha - I finally found a photo of the dang machine I've been trying to use to do lumberjack squats, rows and presses. It sort of works for the squats, does okay for the rows, but doesn't go high enough for the presses.
The bar is not stationary, but fixed under the seat and pivots, but as you can see it won't go too high. Still looking for a better solution.
But this morning was UBWO and I'm happy to report that I was able to up the weight on several exercises, and lower the amount of assistance for pull-ups. I still need a lot of assistance, but I'll take what I can get. Had trouble holding up my arms to curl my hair after my shower, so I proclaimed it a good workout.
Cardio day today, and I actually got up in time to hit the treadmill before work. It felt good to come in today with 3.5 miles in already!
Cheryl - handstands are hard... I've been working on one during my yoga for months and haven't made it. I think it was Mel who suggested I walk up the wall and that gets me a little closer. And, I can't do cartwheels either. High five on the squat cleans!
Pat - I can't even clearly vision how to use that machine!
That would be a help to me, financially, and I wouldn't have to worry about coming up with that extra money every month.
Gosh, nearly 3 pm here already and I feel like I'm just getting into my work, rather than just having 2 hours to go. Comes from having a 2.5 hour meeting at 10 am, and then getting my hair cut. 
Even after losing as much weight as I have I still look awful in the fitting room mirrors, those lights cast shadows that pick up every cellulite dimple that you could possibly possess.
Anyone else notice this. 
