damn i’ve missed some great work here, woman! excellent. have a great trip!
Have a good trip!
I also feel the need to add that your ass doesn’t look all that big. If it is, you’ve got some sort of magic style ability that you must share.
Thanks for stopping by Mel and T
pc2: the ass powa comes from squats and lunges - I do both every week, plus incline teradmill and regular cardio. Seriously I tend to pack the extra inches down there. Genetics gave me the curves and working out keeps them in check.
SO… I’m back! The weather in Vancouver was just beautiful thursday through monday which is rare in spring. Problem was no one wants to spend their day inside a trade show with the sunshine beckoning. We did manage our team target and that’s always sweet. I got to hang out with the people I work with (only happens like twice a year) and shared a lot of wine and good laughs. I love working on my own but I miss some of the camaraderie when the team is well built. I met some fun people from major supps lines. Even had some autographs from a few pros.
Kimba: I did manage to hit the gym twice. The hotel had a “reasonably” set up gym in a solarium space which allowed the sunlight to spill all over. I managed some decent workouts with DB and tried a few of the machines just because we do not have those at my gym including a horizontal lying legpress with shoulder pads which felt awkward…
Now I’m back home in my bed and ready to hit the heavy squats hard, but first I’m going to catch up a little.
cheers
N
Glad to see you back! I always love working out in new places, especially so when there is lots of eating and rdranking going on. 
Tonight’s workout was a little different than usual. I was finishing a 115lbs bench press when A gave me the thumbs up saying that he knows some guys who can’t even lift that much. I smiled and replied that that was my warmup. He offered to spot me and I was about to give him my usual brush off and thought “what the hell”. I set up for the 135lbs and did 3 good reps. I did 5 reps in all but I could feel him helping with the others. He pointed out that I totally hold my breath when the lifting is really challenging. He is right. My breathing is erratic throughout and non existant when it gets really tough. I tried the 135lbs again concentrating on my breathing and I was able to push out more. I need to focus on breathing for every exercise in the next few weeks until it becomes second nature.
bench
95lbs
1x10
115lbs
1x6
135lbs
2x3
115lbs
1x6
95lbs
1x8
c&p: again breathing…
65lbs 1x8
75lbs 1x5
85lbs 1x3
65lbs 3x5 - concentrating on breathing. I feel like such a retard that I can’t do this right.
BB rows - A helped me understand the position better - felt the tension in my back more than my arms
65lbs
2x6
2x3
wide grip pulldown - breathing breathing breathing…
70lbs
3x8
tris cable pulldown
40lbs 3x8
15 minutes of 15mph.
It was fun to have a “buddy” for once but there’s something to be said about staying in the zone and keeping up the intensity…
cheers
N
With everything else to remember, breathing correctly never happens for me either. Except by accident. So how are you supposed to breathe for bench??
I really like having a spotter for bench. A spotter doesn’t help me much for squatting, though.
good to have you back and great benching!
on the breathing thing, you can hold your breath thru the whole thing, from lift-off to rack. the idea being to stay super tight in the upper body with shoulder locked down and in. or work your breath to exhale on the hard exertion with the idea being you can deliver more power that way.
some others will have a way better explanation but this is how I understand it.
Nice training! I’m the opposite. Breathing is essential for me. I literally “blow it out”, and I feel it helps my lift. Big belly, all that. You can hear it in my vids. Sounds so stupid! but I swear it helps.
Good job getting in a w/o on your trip! That is dedication.
I forget to breathe too; not sure why it happens, but my trainer has to say “breathe, Christina, breathe” …lol, its embarrasing…
A said exhaling with the effort and inhaling in the relaxing section. Hence bench I would inhale after lockout and exhale while pushing the bar of my chest - and really try to blow it out. Proper breathing ensures oxygen to the muscles and delays fatigue. A also mentionned I should be “louder” with my exhales to really add momentum.
Masch: I might need to view some of your vids for inspiration.
Kimba: Once that leg cave issue is corrected that spotter will help you feel confident and safe enough to go heavier. However one step at a time. First deal witrh issue. Then blow everyone’s mind out with incredible leg powa.
Soldog: Thanks for the explanation, makes sense to me. PW has become a great source of inspiration, and tnation to a certain degree also. I love benching, and have a strong upper body. During the trade show I was helping with set up, we had 8 booths I believe and some of these with fountains filled with PP, pre-workouts and the like. We were filling those fountains from 18.5 litres water jugs. You should have seen the look on the boss’s face when I hauled 2 of them to the end station. Farmers walk with water jugs is where it’s at! I’m thinking of getting some for around the house. At least I would look somewhat normal lugging those around the city.
spirited: I know, you’d think breathing would be basic and natural right? sheesh. As if I didn’t have enough things to remember already. lol.
I just checked and 18.5 litres of water = 40.7lbs in each hand. It felt way heavier. Maybe because of the movement of the water? Anyways, by T-Nation standards my farmers walks were rather wimpy in that case. oh well.
I’m with Soldog. When I’m maxing, I often hold my breath through the entire lift. Giant gasp of air once I get the squat/start (bench) command, and then hold it till I’m back up or lock it out. If I stall on the way up, then I start blowing out to help. I never breathe during deadlift until I lockout. Breathing eventually becomes intuitive. I never think about it anymore.
If you hauled the water jugs wearing French-girl high heels, I’d even be more impressed.
[quote]kimbakimba wrote:
If you hauled the water jugs wearing French-girl high heels, I’d even be more impressed. :)[/quote]
I did! lol. Didn’t even think of that. 'bout 3 1/2 inches high.
that’s badassness right there!
Tonight’s workout:
Tis Squat day I say - vids to come if Youtube doesn’t crap on me. I celebrated summer by wearing ma short shorts to the gym today - “Who wears short shorts? I wear short short!” God I love summer.
65lbs 1x8
95lbs 2x6
115lbs 1x3
135lbs 3x2
115lbs 1x2
95lbs 1x5
65lbs 1x12 (speed)
goodmornings
65lbs 1x12
95lbs 2x5
75lbs1x12
cable crunches (on my knees on a mat)
85lbs 1x12
95lbs 1x12
115lbs 1x8
neutral grip pullups 2, 1.75, 1.5, 1.25 - no bands (insert swears of choice)…
reverse hypers 3x12 - These have finally become a little easier on my back - time to add weight.
superset with
dips 3x5
neutral grip pullups 2,1,1,1 - again no bands. so frustrating.
But guess what? As I was struggling with my pullups the owner of my craptastic gym asked me why I wasn’t using the machine, “cause you could like do more reps and stuff”.
I replied I was doing more reps until someone stole my bands, and I didn’t want to use the machine because it supported me too much.
Mr. Weirdo; “were your bands like red?”
“Hell yes! have you seen them anywhere?”
“Umm I thought they belonged to one of my trainers who has recently quit. I was saving them thinking he was going to call me up for them.”
“Great! could I have them now?”
“I only have one here, the other one is in my bag at home but I’ll bring it over tommorrow.” Now why would he not keep the bands together? I didn’t bother with the questions -just happy to have them back. Still weird.
neutral grip pullup using 1 band: 3,3,2
crunches on swiss ball with 5kg medecine ball in extended arms 3x12
neutral grip pullups with bands 3,2,2
After seeing my squat vids I decided my legs could def grow a bit. MIM- I want your quads. So I’m skipping on the cardio - keeping my clean eats and hopefully between the good food and intense lifting I should stay lean-ish and see some quad growth.
[quote]soldog wrote:
that’s badassness right there![/quote]
That would make an awesome avatar pic - heels and water jugs (cause I don’t have the real ones- heyo!) lol.
eats:
1-oates, pp, cranberries
2- 2 hard boiled eggs, spinach, slice of cheese
3-PP
4-post workout: vanilla pp, organic unsweetened cherry juice, splach of organic non-fat milk, 2 tbsp of unflavoured, unsweetened yogourt shake and serve.
5-chicken breast, spinach and quinoa.
6-pre-bed: hazelnut butter