No, it’s the right side. Keep working at it if you’ve got dimples in your ass.
Nice to see you posting. Remember that age has nothing to do with anything, except experience.
Good on you for making progress and lowering your BF. You are at a place now where you can start focusing on your performance rather then appearance. Take an athletic mindset with you to the gym each time and strive to to better, whether it’s strong, faster or increased density, with each session. The changes in body composition will just become a nice side effect of your increased work capacity.
Have fun!
CBear: "Oh yes. we’ll be drinking. btw, i saw your warmup sets listed… methinks u forgot the working sets… "
ROFL! (rolling on the floor-not the foam-laughing!) And I was foolishly allowing myself 4 minutes of feeling good for leaving the house, putting myself first, feeling comfortable as hell in the boys’ room and adding a few pounds more to everything I did, tending to form, and not injuring myself or try to be my own hero. F me! And thank you for it, CBear. This is what I came for…sigh (happiness) (Breakfast in bed?) This is all so much better than no attention at all! Let me know when it stops looking like a warm-up. I’ll let you know how it goes later when I squat some nerf bars and press those water bottles.
Diana:“No, it’s the right side. Keep working at it if you’ve got dimples in your ass.”
You mean that will CHANGE???!!! Yay! Athletic mindset - check!
I’m printing out this stuff and taping it all over my 6’ by 4’ bathroom mirror! Then I’ll figure out how not to post like a newbie…
great advice dianab. the athletic mindset approach can do amazing things when you stop focusing on fat loss or specific aesthetic desires. it has definitely helped me over the last 2 months. keep working hard, consistency and determination will get you far, freckle face! and speaking of age and experience…
lil miss bear, that better be a glass of red SFTU, i don’t care much for white. and when i was a lil spring chicken like yourself, i wasn’t sick either. and i ate what i wanted and still looked good. i oughta tan your (nice round tight) hide, but you’d probably enjoy it too much. so go back about your business on the couch, i wasn’t calling you out for fucks sake.
Today’s work -
Squat bar(45) x 12 65 x 12 85 x 12 (A bit unwieldly and wobbly but didn’t use padded assist machine.)
Push-ups off low bench 5 x 3
Seated Row (machine) 22.5 x 12 31.5 x 12
Bent Over Row DB 25’s 8 x 1 20’s 10 x 1
Step-ups DB 20’s 10 x 3
Prone jackknife on ball BW x 12 x 2
Sumo squats DB 35 x 15 40 x 12 50 x 10 55 x 10 Felt like I could go one more …what’s up with that?
Pull ups 100# assist lift 22% BW 5 x 1
Bent knee leg raises 8 x 4
Single Leg Squats DB 15’s x 10 ea leg
10 minutes treadmill HIIT … and done. Really enjoyed moving around people and them moving around me in the weight area. Tried to be conscious of form for every single movement. Squats sucked. Felt so different than DB’s! Will work on pull-ups every time I train. Kimba, was that you in my neighbor’s log? Read so much good stuff here hard to attribute correctly. If it sounds brilliant, I didn’t say it, agreed? Comments about lopsided strength from other members - I am really lopsided in strength. Funny haha.
Slept better last night than I have in a long time. Hope for the same tonight.
Good for you for putting weight on the bar and squatting it. Wobbly in what way? Leaning forward? unsteady foot placement? Difficulty getting down or up? Knee cave?
My strength imbalance is mostly in my weak left glute. I’ve been slacking on single leg work for that side, and I need to get back to it.
i suggest unilateral leg work (you too, kimba, if you’ve been slacking). not only do some of those exercises help ‘fire’ the glutes, they will help the imbalances and are great for strengthening period.
single leg DL/bulgarian split squats/glute-bridge thing/the dreaded pistols…
and i do not recommend trying for any mucho weight when you start. the movements seem to really help me stretch as well. bw is great when you start. get the movements down correctly then use them as assistance exercises with some DBs.
Kimba, wobbly in that I feel the bar dip just a little side to side sometimes while I set, or press and return but intermittently so. Weak back or legs? I have done single leg work. Maybe not heavy enough? I don’t know how visible it is but it’s such a significantly different feeling from my stable planted feeling of lower weight DB’s at home. The Big Girl BB is a big step. I want to master it!
Thanks, T! I will step up my single leg DL’s. Do split squats now as part of my glute-leg complex along with bridges but I’m leavin’ the pistols to someone else for now - WOW! Maybe as you are suggesting I need to keep the weight constant, work on form and comfort. AND Keep doing the leg/glute attacks from other angles!
Monday’s work was my alternate leg/glute complex (I’m so F’ing bad I don’t say circuit so stand back before I drop a part of speech on you ya’ can’t handle.)
I love the heck out of this workout! Would love it less if I did it in public or in the Y…it’s home stuff so thrusts are 30 #'s, I pull both 30#DB’s and the rest are BW or 12 #'s in each hand. Can’t really visualize putting this out there. Come on, who wants to see a 51-y.o. doing hip thrusts? There is a breaking point at which what I care about is less equal to the greater good? Or not?
Glute Bridge
Half Squat
Pull from blocks
Hip Thrusts x 2(Please tell me how you do these in your gym.)
BSS
Back Extensions
Pendulum Hip Extensions
Hip Twists/Rotations
SL Hip thrusts
BSS
Thrust
Thrust again heavier
GM’s
GM’s Reverse Squat
Band Hip Abduction
Next morning (today) did light HIIT 20 minutes before work. The rest is rest. RESpecT the rest. (Lame break!)
Talenaah - what you guys lift…sheesh! If hamstrings tighten up too fast should I stay at same weight and work to stretch a week or so? As you suggest, buld stability, comfort with strength, motion, movement?
RDL’s BB Warm up 40/12 60/12 Working 70/10 80/6
Shoulder Press DB 12’s/12 15’s/8 20’s/5 15’s/9
Lat Pulldown 55/12 60/8 70/4
Walking Lunges DB 15’s/18 steps x2 20’s/16 steps x2
Hanging Bent Knee Raises BW/8 x 4 x2 8#DB/ 8
Upright Rows DB 15’s/12 20’s/5 15’s/12
Assisted Pull ups Warm up 110 # assistance/8 100# assistance/5 90# assistance/Fail 100#/4 100#/5
45 mins HIIT + 15 mins walk
Snow day! Not that there was any snow to speak of, but took advantage of morning gym time and it was mostly empty since people had to be home with their kids. Tomorrow is another day off. It’s funny, my workouts at the gym don’t seem as hard as at home but I can’t move up much. Hard to explain, but maybe I’m self-conscious of all the people around me and I don’t put myself into it like at home - distracted? Try not to be. Keep ear buds in but I don’t come home feeling like I kicked my ass, but I’m moving more weight than at home. Ever know you worked out hard numbers-wise but you aren’t whipped? Am feeling tighter, though, like hammies. May need to send for foam …
One thing that I really like about lifting is how easily the success of a training can be quantified. If you are moving more weight for more reps, you are progressing. Your perception of your own energy level or how hard your ass is kicked is not as relevant.
You can look at this another way: that going to the gym has energized your workouts and that you are more sluggish and weaker at home.
I’m liking that perspective, Kimba. And all the different things everyone lifts and does at the gym is such an interesting distraction maybe I pay less attention to me (it’s a really good thing to get out of my head!)
Today’s Birthday (yay!)Work:
Squat (rack) BB bar/12 65/8 85/5 bar/12
Squat (machine) 95/10 105/4 Yay! Got over 100! Heading for body weight …
Push-ups (off low bench) bench/10 bench/8 x 3
Seated Row 50/12 70/10 Last time reported the weight in kg. Should have been these numbers.
Single-leg partial squat DB 30/12
Curtsey squat DB 15’s/15
Bent over row DB 20/12 25/8 30/4
Step Ups (2’? higher step) DB 12’s/8 ea 15’s/8 (1’ lower step) 20’s/10
Prone Jackknife Ball BW/12 x 2
Sumo Squats DB 40/12 50/12 60/12
30 mins HIIT + 15 mins low intensity interval
Just read the part where you don’t feel like you work as hard at the gym.
honestly, most everyone there (esp bc u havent mentioned a lifting partner) do. not. give. a. shit. about. you.
just like you don’t give a shit about them, unless it’s to learn/laugh.
someone will always watch you to try to learn, someone will also always laugh. who cares, in either situation? you’re not doing this for them.
part of what i love so much about lifting is that for a few moments, there is NOTHING besides that war between me, the iron, and gravity. everything else stops, everything else is quiet, because that roar and fire of finishing that rep/set is the loudest thing in the universe.
CBear-I spend my days motivating, helping others. Nice to be on the receiving end. 'Preciate the perspective, reminder, insight. I know going harder is good; increase each time either in reps or weights. But being older gains and injury come slower and more easily, respectively, I suspect. Read in another post elsewhere concerns about being 45ish and not wanting to get sidelined due to injury because time is a factor. No kidding. Read article about physiologically of aging-how age affects nitrogen/muscle blah blah blah. Much as I want to be different and special have to remind myself I’m only slightly above average and limitations apply - dammit!.
But thanks for the kick in the ass. I’m doing it for me. Believe me, no one else is paying any attention and I know it. I am completely invisible at my age. Post on SAMA and the guys probably think I’m a pervy old bag. Doesn’t matter. Doing it for me. Pinky promise. WTF do I do about my calluses? All the bars and weights feel like kitchen cheese graters and I leave my gloves at home (yeah, got 'em) to be more bad ass and because I read about grip strength related to health and age (damn frickin dirty word). Why no gloves other than that? Next time out these blisters are popping. They affect my strength/grip now. Don’t mind pain in muscles. Don’t want pain in hands. (Wah!) What?
Kimba, was that you in my neighbor’s log? Read so much good stuff here hard to attribute correctly. If it sounds brilliant, I didn’t say it, agreed? Comments about lopsided strength from other members - I am really lopsided in strength. Funny haha.