Thanks for thinking of me Ilene!
Abs went well yesterday. I'm getting much better at watching my lower back and therefore can do more reps. I'm not sore tho' , must think on that.
We're running into a bit of a rough spot just right now. Oldest DS is a financial disaster of indiscretion, traffic tickets and car insurance and the princess has gone back to college and youngest DS in driver's training ($$$!) I may have to eat oatmeal and egg whites for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, I don't worry when I'm exercising.
Today is legs day! I'll check back in and let you all know how it went, if I can drag my sorry gluts back up the stairs :)

Cindy – 16 hours to get to MI? Where in upstate NY are you coming from and where in MI are you going? It takes me 8 or 8 ½ hours to get from Lansing, MI to northern NY (St. Lawrence County), driving through Canada. Anyway, good luck with the weekend “challenge”!

Meg – My favorite shoulder exercise is dumbbell shrugs (that is shoulders, right?) Glad the DS made it out of Charlie’s strike zone. My aunt is down there, right near Daytona Beach, but she’s lived there forever so I’m sure she knows what to do. I’m relieved, though, that my grandpa hasn’t made it back down there yet.

Mette – WTG with the squats! I kind of have/had a similar problem, in that I work out at home and I don’t have a rack of any sort. When I first started doing squats, I tried to lift the bar back over my head when I was done – nearly scraped my head off trying to do it. Now, I make sure I have a sibling over to take it off me, but I still lift it over my head to get it in position.

SusanB – I can imagine some of the sites you might have landed at, looking for pics of an extremely fit woman :lol: I’ve started eating tuna, too, in salad or making “tuna cake” (like crabcake, I guess) – which actually tastes pretty good with a dollop of lite sour cream. I hope you can find some ways to eat it that you like. Good luck with leg-day!

Jack – I think you already are a great salesman for your gym – if I were in the area, I’d join in a heartbeat.

Ilene – TGIF right back at ya! Let’s hear it for long weekends!

Anyway, my legs are still sore from leg day on Wednesday, but not really my hamstrings at all :( I had planned on doing windsprints on Wednesday as well, but then realized that after exhausting my legs with weights, I wouldn't get much more out them. I went for another 2 mile jog instead (though I probably could have walked as fast as I was jogging). So, windsprints on Saturday (I'm hoping my legs will have recovered by then :crossed: )

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!

Hello folks!

Mette -- I did find one video clip of a squat complete with unracking and reracking -- click on the video link, and kindly to ignore the spotters and the weight on the bar.. :dizzy:

http://www.drsquat.com/index.cfm?action=about

Mel -- thank you for the kind words of welcome. I'm in awe of all of you guys!

Meg - so glad to hear that your son is out of the path of the hurricane. In years to come I hope this becomes a favorite adventure story for him. All the best stories that start with "Oh, yes, there I was..." happen at the time as "Oh no, there it is!"

Seated mil press is my current fave shoulder exercise, if that's any fun for you. Mostly because I used to hate them and not be able to do them with any real weight, so pressing the standard bar is a real ego booster. :strong:

Today my upper back feels great after a week of pain. Something in my left rhomboid was damaged some time ago, and it flares up every now and again. My chiropracter did some stim on it, and I was faithful with the ice yesterday, and it worked. No more trying to bind in yoga class when my back is already stressed, though!

Just stationary biking today (or as I like to think of it, 45 minutes of uninterrupted reading), though it's supposed to be a weights day. I'm going to give that rhomboid a little more rest time.

Hope everyone has a great and powerful day!

Linda C.

JCH -- What are windsprints?

Meg -- I forgot to mention it this morning that I really like the cable workout that L2L posted somewhere, for my shoulder workouts... It's quite nice... Speaking of L2L, where is she, I know an uncle of her's died so I guess that's where she is... I just thought of another good shoulder one! I don't know the name but you use the shoulder rack and unrack the bar and bring it to the back of the shoulders, then kind of skim the back of your head to the front, right to the front of the eyes, then to the back, then up again... Does that make sense??? I remember doing that the first time and OWOWOW the next day!

I make tuna patties that are very yummy:
1 can tuna drained
2 Tbsp Italian bread crumps
2 Tbsp egg white or 1 egg
S&P
make 2 patties
put in pan, cook, flip, eat...YUM !! :hun:... Simple and quick...
I guess you could add onions in the mix or grated parm cheese, I've done that and it was very good...

Cindy -- Have a nice relaxing trip! I have a g/f form out of town coming over this w/end also... I do hope she does call she is known to not call :shrug: ...

I've decided that tonite I will go to the gym for arms and for a little run while the family is having the Friday Night Za... That way I won't have any at all... When I do have some it just sets me off on the wrong foot for the whole weekend!

I hope everyone has a good weekend, AND .....

Let's be careful out there!!

TTFN...:wave:

Ilene? Where in Ontario are you? It's been glorious weather here (north of London) for several days. So beautiful. I love September!
Thanks for the tuna recipe!

Susan -- I'm in Cornwall... It's been awesome here too since SCHOOL started :lol: Oh well!!

Hi LWL,
Today was a totally crazy day of racing between our 2 gyms. I'm usually much smarter when I plan my day out, but for some reason I had to go back and forth several times. Luckily, they are only about 20 minutes apart. I'm the only female trainer that works during the day, so anyone who specifically asks for a woman trainer at either gym gets me. I'm not that it matters, but I do get requested alot by older (like my age :^: ) women, and obese women, and all rehab clients. I think the gym should pay my mileage, but they don't agree :(

I did manage to do a good back a bi workout between trips, and I know my bi's are going to be sore, not sure about back. I ended my bi workout with a dropset where another trainer kept taking 5 pounds plates off a loaded bar, and I just kept curling. Ugh! Amazing how heavy an empty bar can be after you've done about 50 curls! Then some quick cardio, and onto grocery cardio.

Meg- My favorite shoulder exercises are whatever I've finished and don't still have to do! Shoulders are my only "I hate this" day. Lately I've been doing a lot of cable work: cross cable laterals, sword draws, overhead rope pulls for rear delts. I always do plain old dumbbell presses, but I've been doing them sitting on a balance ball or standing on the bosu ball, or doing a clean and press instead of just the press. Just thinking about it hurts. Glad David is out of harm's way.

L2L- if your lurking, my thoughts are with you.

Linda- Ouch. Twingy backs are no fun. Take care, those kind of injuries seems to jump out and bite you again when you least expect it. Good job on sleuthing down Dr. Squat.

Cindy- Have a great trip and good luck on everyone sticking the challenge eating. LOL! I've already failed this weekend and it's only Friday afternoon! Flying does seem a better choice.

SusanB- :lol: You must have found some interesting web-sites! Try www.leanladies.com It's a portal to a lot of fitness competitor and female bodybuilder's individual sites. (I don't think there's any porn there, but ya never know!)

Hi Ilene, Tiki, GG, SB, Robin who probably swamped with students returning....and everyone else!

Mel

Good morning gang and I hope everyone’s set for a three-day weekend (except poor Mel who probably has to work :( ). DS rolled in from Florida about 5:30 yesterday morning after 21 straight hours of driving :dizzy: . He said it was solid Florida license plates all the way up through West Virginia! I think he was surprised when I just about tackled him and wouldn’t let go, but I had been so worried about the hurricane and him driving and all … So I fed him and put him to bed and we’ll spend the weekend watching the hurricane on TV. It sounds like rain is going to be an huge problem — where can all that water go?? I hated DS having his apartment on the third floor when I was carrying furniture up to it a week ago — now it seems like a great idea! :lol:

Shoulders yesterday turned out to be a rushed affair, so I ended up with the same old stuff, done fast: DB presses (just seated though I want to try them Mel’s way), side lateral machine, shoulder Ts, cable upright rows, rear delt machine, front raises, shrugs. Today is Back Day and time shouldn’t be a problem, thankfully. Then cardio. Tomorrow I’m trying Pilates for the first time, thanks to Karen’s glowing descriptions, and expect it to be challenging since core strength is something that I’m sadly lacking.

Cindy, it sounds like a terrific first week for C6 :cp: -- hope you have a fun weekend. I sure hope that your :dizzy: friends who were going to fly to Florida reconsidered — or more likely, couldn’t since most of the airports shut down yesterday.

Hey Susan — how are those legs today?? Good and sore, we hope! :D Don’t worry about having to eat oatmeal and egg whites for several weeks — some of us having been doing it for several years now with no major harm (except for a certain :crazy: ) (right, Ilene? :lol: )

Linda — so glad you came out of lurkdom and joined in! I had the same experience with the bar and the military press — at first I could only use the 35# bar and it was such a cool day when I graduated to the 45# bar.

We’re sure missing Robin and Dip around here — did Indiana fall into the lake and no one tell us or something? :?:

Just wanted to pop in and wave :wave: Shaved a little off my mile yesterday at 13:11 Yesterday was UBWO and today is yoga. Have to remember to go gently on my arms. I have some serious sore triceps this morning. Oh and a little POed, I have officially gained my 3 lbs. from the first 3 weeks of weightlifting. Someone please reassure me the scale goes the other way if I stick with it.

Meg- Glad the boy is safe. Always our babies aren't they, even when they stand a foot taller than us. :p

Have a nurturing and wonderful holiday weekend everyone!
Chris

Good morning, Miss Chris -- we were posting at the same time! :D What you're seeing on the scales is water weight from sore muscles retaining water!! It's NOT fat so isn't anything to worry about. ;) My scales will always go up a pound or two just from a good leg workout the day before. Don't let the scales play those stupid mind games with you -- you know that this is the best way to lose fat.

So yes, my dear, the scales will definitely go the other way if you stick with it. And congrats on the new speed record. :)

Oh, and my baby boy literally IS a foot taller than I am -- it makes it hard to try to maintain parental authority when he pats me on the head! :lol:

JCH – your version of getting rid of the bar after squats sounds more fun: I would prefer some siblings with me in the gym too! ;)
Or maybe like the video clip Linda C linked to – on how to do squats by Dr Squat: *lots* of hot guys spotting! :D
Quote from the page: “His greatest accomplishment in sport came at age 45 when, at a body weight of 255 pounds, he lifted 1014 pounds in the squat (1987), more weight than any man in history had ever lifted successfully in competition.”
Wow! 1014lbs????? I’m not even lifting 1/10 of that!! :lol:

Have nice weekends everybody!

Well, my legs were not sore. Chintzy work-out soooo .... I did get fuddled starting my nights. Saturday I slept lousy so I got up and hurriedly walked 3.5 miles before jumping in the car for a far too sedentary evening of dining and drinking coffee.
Today, I decided the legs had to be done better. I started in the house, doing single leg calf raises here on the top step whilst conversing with DH who was on the computer. However, a local radio station was playing the top 104 Rock songs of all time. We could only get it in the car. So I did walking lunges and those side leg raises in the driveway. I did my squats with a cement block :) And the boys introduced me to Spirit lifts (my Dodge Spirit that is). Out of boredom (Pink Floyd, yuck) I did dips off the bumper!
My legs hurt now! #1 was Stairway to Heaven.

G'day everyone!!..

Susan -- Great workout you had there, boy did you improvise! What an imagination!

Meg -- It is a VERY strange thing when your kids start getting taller than you... I'm just discovering that!

Chris -- Yes be reasured that if you do everything right, it will all fall into place...

Today I had a great workout... I went to the gym did back and chest I usually never do that combo, but the dang gym is closed tomorrow !! :mad: ... Afterwards I went running outside, THE best run I've had outside since I've been trying out this outside thing... I think everyone just may be right after all, it is much more fun outside... I jogged for a straight 45-50 minutes and slowed down only 3 times for 1-3 minutes... I have no idea what the distance is I just may go for a bike ride later to measure it...

Hope everyone is having a grrreat weekend...TTFN...

Hi All!

Just back from the gym after a long layoff, but the rhomboid was a lot better. Only twinged when I tried preacher curls -- the way I round my back on that bench has officially been deemed a Bad Thing. My husband came along to spot and rub my back out (I love that man!) It feels so good to be sitting here pleasantly tired, muscles fatigued, but nothing aching.

Someone came by as I was doing mil press and told my husband: "She's doing really good, I was watching her do bench." If I had had any energy to spare from raising the bar I'dve said, "Hey! Verbal person here! You can talk to me." Ah well.

Mette - you will work up to that 10% :) Now there's a goal..

Chris - for sure, the scale does go the other way. Take heart!

Mel - Thanks, and indeed I'm being very careful with the back; a much wider grip on the bar for squats seems to help a lot (now to work on keeping the weight even.)

Meg - Thanks for the kind welcome!

Best wishes to everyone for a great holiday tomorrow. Any special events planned? We're not doing anything special, just getting to the gym early because it is closing at 1 for the holiday. It feels very odd to be the sort of person who rearranges her schedule around when the gym is open.

Linda C.

Hi Linda :wave: Lucky you your gym is at least opened, ours got the bright idea to close!! But I am going for a long bike ride in the morning with my g/f Luanne ... So I'm looking forward to that, I love biking with her and we haven't done it yet this summer...