nice day with a lot of progress Cal 
Cal, your upper body strength is definitely moving forward. Nice! Instead of bench, I tried neutral grip DB bench during my last training, and it was marginally nicer on my shoulder. Might changing up the grip help?
hey Cal! i’m waay late to the party here but damn, woman, you leaned out big time! congrats on sticking to that eating program you were doing to get there. nice workout there. jealous of your decline push-ups. i used to do them all the time until that wrist cyst-problem thing of mine started up.
[quote]
This is frustrating, considering I’ve benched 70kg and have done 60kg for reps. But I’m going to shelve bench for now. I don’t gain anything from hurting myself more.[/quote]
^^^^^smart girl…
Hey Talenaah! Have you tried doing push ups using dumbells? (As handles, that is). I do this when my wrist is bothering me (I have mild carpal tunnel in the right one from using a mouse a lot). I don’t know if it would help with the cyst but it might be worth a try.
Ok so I’m way behind.
That ride looks hella fun!
and you back/shoulders look very nice!!!
and Kayaking is an awesome workout, and very fun.
Back home (in CT) I have a kayak. it’s blue.
Military Press
(Warm up: 10 x bar)
12 x 27.5kg (+2)
Time to move up!
Chins x 4
(No change - went for a fifth but didn’t have it in me.)
Decline Push-ups (shoulder-width hand spacing) x 15 (+1)
Feet on a step plus 5 risers. These were hard.
Chins x 3 (no change)
26kg Dumbell Rows: 10 (both arms this time… +2 on the right)
Didn’t do any bench press - I’ve shelved that for now, so forgot to do my third set of chins that normally follows it. Oops!
45kg Pulldowns x 12 (+1)
Time to move up again.
Weighted hyperextensions (16kg) x 10 (+2kg)
These are getting really hard now.
Pleased with my progress on the MP and Pulldowns. I think I may have to lose weight to get more chins, though!
[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
I think I may have to lose weight to get more chins, though![/quote]
you could always chop off a leg 
Wow Cal! your upper body strength really is coming along! Excellent job on the MP.
judging by how lean you are in your avi, lose anymore weight and you’ll just about disappear 
Naked chinups might shave off enough ounces to get #5. Shoes and clothes weigh something.
Masch - unfortunately I’m a lot leaner above the waist than I am below it. But as I’m going to be having a lot more spare time in the foreseeable future, I can work on that.
Kimba - also not a bad idea! Might also try adding (small) weights - sometimes it’s easier to add weight than reps. I’ll see how it goes.
Yeah I can’t see where you’d have a drop of fat to lose.
Also a couple of paint buckets filled with rocks could make you a fine farmer’s walk set up.
Yesterday was my last day at work, so as of today, I’m officially a lady of leisure. I have enough money to keep me going a while, so long as I keep my spending under control, and I’ve signed up to do a gym instructor course. It’s a two week intensive course (one week on, one off, one on again) - I did one similar in 1990 but I figure I could use the refresher, plus I’m not sure the old one is valid any more. I’ll follow this with the advanced course which will give me a high enough certification to work in any gym.
So, on to today:
Military Press
(Warm up: 10 x bar)
7 x 30kg (+2.5kg)
I moved up a weight - it made a lot of difference. I stopped when I started using too much lower back. That’s not a good thing if you have lower back pain, as I do. Anyway, it’s a start.
Chins x 5 (+1 = fuck yeah!)
The last rep was a struggle, but it was a struggle I won. In your face, chin-up bar!
Decline Push-ups (shoulder-width hand spacing) x 16 (+1)
Feet on a step plus 5 risers. These don’t get any easier.
Chins x 3 (no change)
26kg Dumbell Rows: 10 (no change)
These seemed pretty damned hard - had to keep regripping them. I put it down to my effort on the first set of chin.
Chins x 1 (and a half)
I’m really missing that pressing movement in between the rows and the last set of chins. My last set really suffered from doing three pulling exercises in a row.
50kg Pulldowns x 8 (+5kg)
Moved up a weight. Felt pretty hard but was not displeased.
Now, normally I’d go to the weighted hypers next, but I’d brought my kettlebell with me (the small 12kg one) as I’ve been neglecting it since I got back from holiday. I did the following:
20 swings
20 alternating snatches from floor (alternating arms, so 10 per arm)
Windmills (one per side, with a hold)
20 one arm swings (10 right, then swap, then 10 left)
10 kb presses (right arm)
10 KB presses (left arm)
Windmills (one per side, with a hold)
30 second rest between each set.
My legs were pretty smoked after this. I’ve plans to run tomorrow - that should be interesting.
Weighted hyperextensions (16kg) x 10 (no change)
Felt hard - probably because of all the KB stuff.
Lots of stretching.
Weight: 148lbs (10st 8lbs / 67/4kg) Down a pound from last week, which is a miracle consdering Flo is due and I’ve been mainlining ice cream because of the heat. I will have to make an effort to move around more, now I’m going to be at home for a bit, as I was getting in three walks a day at work on top of my workout.
fuck yeah chins! way cool PR Cal. That looks like a long gym session. Hope your legs are good for the run.
Cal 1, Chinup Bar 0. Definitely full of win here.
MPs are looking hot too.
I’m already looking forward to hearing about the certification course. Always wondered what that’s about.
I was supposed to run this morning but things didn’t go as planned. As predicted, my DOMs were impressive (mostly around the glute/ham tie-in and medialis) but it wasn’t just that.
My flat gets the afternoon sun and we’re currently having a hot spell in London (up in the 80s, fahrenheit - 26-31 celsius). That means that, by nighttime, it feels somewhat like a sauna, and it usually takes a few days of cooler weather before it gets back to a more bearable temperature. To make matters worse, the people from next door’s downstairs flat were having one of their “let’s sit outdoors into the small ours, drink, laugh and talk loudly” sessions. Usually I just shut the window and put on my thunderstorm CD to blot out the noise. Which is what I did, but of course that meant the cooler night air couldn’t get in. So I spent the night shuffling from one side of the bed to the other, trying to find a marginally less hot patch to sleep on, and feeling generally gross. To add to it, Flo kicked in with a vengeance and the cramps were bad enough to send my colon into overdrive, so I spent most of the morning running to the bathroom.
Running, therefore, was out if I wanted to avoid a Paula Radcliffe-type incident.
I did force myself out for a walk later (if only to get blood into those legs) - trying to make sure I don’t just hole up in my room and play games all day like I did when I was last out of work. I saw a pair of Egyptian geese on the duck pond with five fluffy babies, and a couple of six spot burnet moths on a plant (I’d never seen these before - I had to Google to find out what they are - but they’re very pretty) so it was pleasant. I like to take an interest in wildlife - there’s a surprising variety of it even in London.
You have just made me appreciate my central AC even more. It was 92 F here today.
Congrats on adding to your chins! Glad you beat it! I sometimes mutter under my breath, take that you bitch to the equipment. Thankfully no one overhears I will send you some rainy cold weather to help out (we are NOT having summer here in Seattle). I’m keeping a good thought for you while you deal with being home a lot.
Up early for a six mile run. DOMs sucked, but after a half mile or so I was able to run without grimacing. My accessory navicular grumbled, as per usual, and the left ITB made itself known a couple of times. Nothing serious, but I’ll pay some attention to it via stretching/foam rolling.
I’ve been looking for a longer than 10K race (I still have three more 10Ks this year - the next one is in three weeks) for a challenge. I’ve found an off-road half-marathon in London late August but am wondering if I could train for that in time. It is more than twice what I normally run, after all. Will have to give that some thought.
I’m glad running is something you can get out and enjoy!
I hope the PT course will be something that can take you other places…I just got my materials to study for the group training instructor.
googled egyptian geese- strange but pretty.