Cheryl: Nice to see that you are taking a few extra rests when you can. Strongman and WOD. Whoa. You know, I'll be honest, when I'm working that hard all I can do at home is eat and sleep. Glad you were able to take a little extra rest. Makes ME feel better.

Midwife: EXACTLY the same experience. I've got it figured out. When we walk into the place they don't know us from Eve. They don't have time to assess. Law of averages suggest that since we are female we want classes and cardio. Show the uneducated consumer lots of equipment on the floor and the assumption is that the place is able to meet ALL of your strength and fitness needs. (even if the consumer has no idea how to use the machines...even as someone who's been doing this for five years I still am perplexed by any new one I come across.)

My advice to anyone searching for a new gym, and Midwife obviously, you've had the similar experience. GO IN WITH A LIST. Ask questions about where certain things are, is it okay if I...do supersets, move things around to get more floor space..do you have TRX equipment if not can I bring my own in. Hey, where are the kettlebells. Nope? Need a trainer class to use yours. Great, can I bring my own in? What model of elliptical do you have? Don't know, lets walk over and find out. Hey, how about an AMT? Nope, that's a stepper. Not the same thing...I see you have benches, how many are flat and how high are they. Got a squat box? Bumber plates? Can I use chalk, where's the best place for me to do 20 to 30 consecutive walking lunges in this space...

All of these things get lost when they are busy telling you about the most recent movie they showed during the spin class. Boy, want to really tick me off? Take a good look at me, walk me right past the free weight areas and then insist upon spending ten minutes in the group exercise room describing the classes and all your awesome leotard clad instructors. Seriously? Seriously.

Yep. That would never happen in my place. Small group training is one thing. You can teach to this. But I don't want to encourage the follow the herd mentality that I feel occurs in group exercise classes. When you've got twenty or more people in front of you it's difficult if not impossible to give them the experience they deserve.


AAAACK. What the H*ll is wrong with me. I've got boxes to unpack.

Enjoy the day!

nothing wrong with you, Lydia.

Lydia, I had to laugh about a movie during a spin class. Really? Outrageous.

My workout today was:

Inverted row: 1st set of 8 reps, 2nd and 3rd sets, 12
12 modified pushups, 3 sets

on the dip and pullup assist machine:
12 reps, 3 sets for each of dips and pullups. Weight was at 140

Split squat, 12 reps, 3 sets (almost cried )
Body weight squats 15 reps, 3 sets

Then I did 20 minutes on the recumbent bike just to see if I could still move.I had done a 50 minute aquafit class in the morning also.

So, the three workouts I posted this week are basically what I'm doing with the trainer for the next month, changing the weights and the reps. Today I noticed that my traps are actually visible

Today was clean technique day. Practiced hook grip, power explosion, tomorrow will be rack practice. I've decided that my focus is really going to be technique rather than any kind of weight loss goal. 134lbs is just fine for 5'5, I'd rather have a more athletic figure than just thin. Oh, and I slept 8 hours straight last night. I thought I died and went to heaven. So proud of my little man.

I've been having trouble with food (again). I've been stressed so that doesn't help. I've also been sick so haven't been exercising so trouble with food, lack of exercise, thats like major trouble

Yesterday, went on a short walk with the dogs and then did a TRX workout. After doing the TRX, I was glad I didn't try to do CF yesterday because even though I'm the end of my sickness, I still felt pretty drained.

Today, plan to do some sort of workout but we'll see what that is. I still have some school work to finish up first.

Sacha- While I've been dealing with bicep/tricep/delt inflammation and crunchy knees, I've really lightenend up on lifts and focused on technique. Aside from the monstrous bruise on my collar bone because my technique was fabulous on one clean and I could have winged another 50 pounds up there, it has been a good experience. I went back to heavier weights yesterday with no loss of poundage on the bar because my technique really is better now. and YAY on the sleep!!!

nelie- Sorry to hear things aren't going so well. I eat or want to eat when I'm stressed too- sometimes that's why I workout so manically. When I'm done the workout, the stress is still there, but at least for 45 minutes to an hour, I haven't thought about it and the urge to binge is gone. Hope you feel better soon.

Yesterday I painted deck railings and benches for 7 hours and missed Xfit- just as well, it was a run/double under workout. I would have left cursing. Today's was actually fun

My eating hasn't been stellar this weekend, but not horrible either. That's what maintenance is.

Today was a good day. Workout was painful.

Did max weight sumo deadlifts. I was hoping to break 200 but did 173 for my last set.

The workout was then:

4 Rounds for total reps of:

1 min Row (Calories)
1 min Pullups - I did jumping pullups
1 min Clean and Jerk (135/93) - I did 53 lbs
1 min pushups - I did knee pushups

I swear that was a painful 16 minutes.

Afterwards, we did 100 abmat situps. For some reason the situps didn't bother my abs but I was tired from the workout (even after I took a 10-15 min break) that the situps were just tiring.

So, you probably all know this one, but I saw it today for the first time on a t-shirt:

"Pain is weakness leaving the body."

I told my DH about it and he said "Pain is stupidity rising to the surface." Guess who doesn't lift weights or do any exercise??

Today I did an aerobic class (don't laugh, I like them), 20 minutes on the recumbent bike, and 30 minutes with the trainer doing last week's barbell session adding 2-5 pounds on every exercise.

Nelie, 173 pounds? I couldn't even pick it up; I could leg press it though, easily. That won't pass as a sumo deadlift though, I know.

Rhonda

Hey ladies.

Had an excellent Sunday at home this week...made a long overdue run to the dump, and got caught up on much of the housework and mowing at home. That doesn't sound like fun, but just having that work done and a tidy house makes me feel so much better for having to be gone so much during the week, KWIM?

Today's wod was a killer, since we had to add weight each round, but I heavy deadlifts and push presses, so no complaints! I actually got the Rx on this one, and time wasn't bad, considering these were heavy weights for me. (27:33 my time, average was 20 mins)

Run 800 meters
21 Push Press 95/65
21 Deadlift 225/155
R600
15 PP 115/75
15 DL 275/185
R400
9 PP 135/95
9 DL 315/205

@Lydia: (had to go back and reread) the extra rest days did the trick. I did the wod Friday, took Saturday off again, felt good today. Not a big fan of wods that trash me on Mondays (some peoples' trainers... , but we'll likely have a focus day tomorrow, which is like a rest day.

yes

Tejas: Well, there's "Good Pain" = weakness leaving the body and there's "Bad Pain" = stupidity rising to the surface. I've done both so you are both correct. Bad pain usually occurs when we ignore that little something in our heads that trigger the "I probably am not up for THAT today" message or when we just don't know when to say "DONE." Poor form, pride, or lack of diversity in programming...oh the list could go on here but I'll stop. I do love the phrase though.

Cheryl and Nelie to you both. Really nice weights for your lifts. I"m a bit sore this am but it's the good kind. There are layers to this whole fitness thing and I've slipped down a bit in the past two months. Strength, got that. Endurance, yep still there. But ya know what the first thing to go is...at least in my experience Not quite sure what to call this but it's like the "activation" that your muscles do to prepare for the movement. If some of you don't know what this is it's okay...I didn't either until I deliberately incorporated activation exercises before my lifts. But just know it's another layer. What's different is that I have to THINK about the movement more. Also, throughout the course of the day I could just feel movement in my body differently after incorporating activation. Didn't realize I had "lost" that until it came back yesterday after my workout. Wierd. Layers. There are layers...

Oh and update to my gym experience. Thumbs up to the three other people I saw walking around with their own flat bands.


@Mel and Silver Can't be left out of the "Wave Club"

here too. out, so outdoor cardio - i.e. biking - is called for.

I am jealous of Cheryl's 9 @ 205 deadlifts I am somewhat sore today, I notice it most when I lift my hands up

Plan to go to CF tomorrow and then we are going away for the weekend (camping). We will probably bring the TRX with us.

yeah, that too! 205 pounds!!

I wrote that my trainer increased the weights by 2-5 pounds. I don't know what planet I was on. The increase was 10 pounds.

I did nothing today