Sacha, I work out at Dynamic Health and Fitness, it's the new one in New West. They have another place called Lady Dyna fit that is womens only. I never joined Fitness World because I went in once to look around and the first thing the guy said to me was "You know, the first thing I would do with you is put you on a crash diet"

I didn't take that very well :P But if I could go there just for the purpose of having someone train me a few times, that wouldn't be so bad. We have trainers at our gym as well but at 60 a session I don't know if I should indulge at this time.

My first session was good :) I didn't use the olympic bars though, they had other smaller ones preset up which gave me a chance to pick up a few and test the weight and get an idea. I did some lighter ones to practice my form (10 lbs only+bar). It wasn't so bad, and I'm truly surprised at how much my butt got kicked by the whole thing. My thighs have a nice gentle soreness today which is a good sign, and I know next time I can push it a little farther. I think I will try a weightless olympic bar next time as it will be more of a challenge. I thought the work out would be too short and not be intense enough but it was just fine. The push ups killed me as I'm not used to them (never have been able to really do them).

And I only got the 'What are you doing here?' look from one meat head :P haha But I was just finishing up as he was heading in. He was just walking around holding a weight behind his head with one arm so I don't know what he was doing. It looked like a tricep extension without the extending motion.

I made it though! Now to get through Wednesday and doing deadlifts for the first time, haha.

[QUOTE=jamsk8r;3429894...plenty of normal humans there, me included. :)[/QUOTE]

Cheryl, your a deadlifting beast! Who ya kiddin' here? You and Mel are super human. :p

Stephanie: Great job yesterday! So glad you went in and tested it out. Boy, and your instincts about Mr. Crash Diet were dead on. Not only is that insulting to anyone, it's just the wrong thing to do. Crash and Diet should never be combined in the same sentence. It's all about fueling your workouts in a sensible way. What a dork.

Thanks Lydia :)

Today is deadlift day, so I will have to set up the olympic bar! And I work so I'll be going later in the day, hope I can get in there with all the guys that will probably be there.

I've been practicing form as I'm worried about hurting myself by doing the deadlift improperlly, and watching videos online and studying their form.

Just remember to keep the arch in your lower back, tighten your abs and lift with your legs.

We are doing deadlifts today as part of our workout (Rx is 185 lbs, I'm going to try for 150 and see what that gets me)

Nice! I'm not sure what I can lift at this time but it will be a fun challenge. I know for this stage I have 8 work outs scheduled with deadlifts so I'm excited to see how I improve.

I've been reading a lot on proper form, I think I'll do a couple test runs and watch myself and see how I feel before I start doing my actual reps.

I'm concerned that my muscles are still sore from my work out on Monday, so I'm going to look at ways to reduce that. I have been drinking a gluten free protein shake with 16g of protein after my weight lifting. It's made from brown rice.

How sore are your muscles? Slightly sore? really sore? I'd say warm yourself up fairly good then do your workout.

After your workout, stretch, stretch, stretch. That'll help with the soreness.

Foam Rolling those sore muscles also helps a lot. I often do this before my lower body workout or before a run. Hurts like a dickens but feels blissful when finished. Basically the body responds to microtears in the muscle with inflammation. The actual fibers of the muscle become knotted up and their extensibility is compromised. Well worth your time to just roll things out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8caF1Keg2XU

I deadlifted 55 pounds, I think it was a little much for my first time. I really struggled to finish and I found it hard to keep form with that weight. I'm actually looking forward to the squats after that!

I asked a trainer where the collars for the barbells were, he asked me what I was doing and I told him I was doing deadlifts. I don't think he wanted me to do them, and he looked concerned and said it was really tough. I said I knew but I had to start somewhere and that I had been practicing my form. He watched me do a few, asked how I felt and I said I was fine but it was a hard move. He let me go on my way. I guess it's hard not to be prejudiced as a trainer when you see a fairly chubby out of shape woman trying to do something you train big muscley guys to do.

The soreness is not bad, just the good sore feeling in my quads. I usually get it from squats or when I do a new exercise using them. I walk on the treadmill at a steady pace for 15 minutes so I work up a light sweat and my body gets nice and warmed up. Afterwards I do some stretches and I'll take some tylenol, have a protein shake, and drink lots of water before bed. I've never seen that roller foam thing before! I don't know if my gym has one so I'll see if I can do something simliar at home. I think my fiance's tired of rubbing my legs after work outs, haha.

Today my shoulders are sore from the lat pull downs. I read that most people do the exercise wrong, focusing on their arms and not their shoulder muscles. I focused on them and I felt like I was doing it so much better. I know it's only been a short while, but I swear I see a difference in my shoulders.

I couldn't finish the lunges though, not after the deadlifts. I almost cried at that point and decided to give it a rest. I've never been good at lunges, they've always been tough and after a hard work out I couldn't push myself through. I got out one, but not both.

I'm not going to up any weights for awhile, and I'm going to work more on form and actually completing everything going forward. I have 8 workouts of workout A and B to improve so I'm not in a rush.

Yes, 55 lbs may have been a bit too much, you might want to try with just the bar next time.

Also with lat pulldowns, that is actually mostly a back exercise (although arms/shoulders come into play). What you might've read is about squeezing your shoulder blades together? That is basically what you try to do is to utilize your back muscles to squeeze your shoulder blades together.

And remember to stretch, stretch, stretch. Some soreness is what you want, you just don't want "I feel like dying" soreness :)

Thanks Nelie :)

I did read about pinching your shoulders back, I've been using that machine for awhile now too and doing it all wrong. I was putting all the work into my arms. When I read that it was meant as a back exercise and the work should not be all on the arms it felt so much better.

I was able to do 40lbs with lat pull downs and my back feels a lot stronger.

Today I'm back at squats so this should be fun :) My initial nervousness is gone and I'm feeling more 'gung ho' about all this. I like this a lot more than the running I was learning to do, I had gotten up from 2 minutes to 6 minutes straight of running before I started this.

I'm really glad I have you guys, I want to thank you for all the support and the confidence you have instilled in me :)

It sounds like you are doing really well and gaining confidence every day :) I was just going to chine in about the lat pull downs being a BACK exercise, but nelie already covered that. make sure you pull the bar down all the way to your chest, stick out your chest, and retract your shoulder blades.

Don't let anyone try to tell you you don't belong there!

Mel

Woohoo! Great job! What Mel said...you belong there as much as anyone, so don't let anybody get to you. Just FYI, Crossfit is way cheaper than $60 a session, since you have a trainer for every workout, no lie, every single workout. It's so worth having a good trainer if you can afford to take an On-Ramp class.

http://www.crossfit.ca/index.php/Schedules/

That's the cost of the crossfit that I found near me, I don't know if I could get another person to go in with me because they do give a lower rate for 1 on 2 or 1 on 3 training. Plus it's pretty far from me.

One on one training works out to 75 a session.

I guess at this point I'll have to stick to my cheaper monthly gym fees.

On a side note, I notice my shoulders are starting to look different and a friend took a picture of me and I realized I could see my bicep starting to emerge! The little things truly are amazing :)

Stephanie - if you ever did want to try Crossfit, I'd personally never recommend 1 on 1(or 2 or 3) training, I'd recommend the classes. Class sizes are generally small for most Crossfits and the larger classes tend to have multiple instructors. Even some of our smaller classes have multiple instructors. Its not unusual to have 1 instructor per 3 students, largest our classes happen to be is around 10 people. It tends to be more fun with more people though.

Anyway, looks like that Crossfit charges $160/month for classes which is less than I pay.

Is Crossfit Wildlife not closer to you? It's at Kingsway and Rumble
http://www.crossfitwildlife.com/

It's not too far of a walk from Edmonds skytrain.

And yeah, I would've thrown a dumbbell at the face of that Fitness World loser. What a ... #$@@!!