Well done staying true to your plan pixie! Is the back still doing ok? (feel free to ignore if you’re superstitious like me…and don’t want to jinx things)
2busy: Poor guys 
You’re all more sensitive than you let on. cuddles for all the guys
lula: I fell off the diet wagon today. One of the people I worked with took a few of us out to lunch and there really wasn’t a lot of non-carb options. I ended up having a sandwich with as much protein in it as I could get. Oh wells, little blip on the radar. I’m still avoiding all chocolate at the office! The back is feeling good. No further pain or tightening up of the muscles at all. Guess it was one of those freak things.
Morning workout:
5 minutes on the elliptical
Agile 8
Simple 6
A1: rack pulls: 65x5, 95x5x5
A2: bw squats x5x5 (3 count down, 3 count up. Trying to keep these slow, controlled and really feel the muscles work.)
B1: db bench: 20x8, 25x6, 30x6x5 (These felt easy. Going to up the weight next time.)
B2: sl rdl: 10x5x5 (3 count down, 3 count up. Yet again, I’m trying to focus on the muscle - ACTIVATION!!)
C1: db ohp: 10x15x5
C2: glute bridges: 10x5x5 (3 count down, 3 count up. Anyone noticing a trend?)
C3: ab work of some variety - planks & russian twists
Sauna. I love this.
With the ‘assistance work’ I’m really trying to focus on activating the right muscle groups and not powering through the movement. I’ll slowly add more volume and let my body get used to it. An epic ass is coming.
Knees continue to feel good. I am wearing my light brace just for support during the workout. I don’t wear it for any rehab stuff that I do. This is just to prevent me from aggravating it again.
I’m discovering my love of the early morning workout. Less people, more efficient and I have more energy for the workout and for the rest of the day. It also has the added benefit that the workout is already covered so I have the rest of the day to do whatever else I need to. The hardest part is getting my ass out of bed and out the door. I think I can make this work with my schedule, though. Just requires a little more prep work the night before so I can grab all my food for the day, my clothes for work, and head for the gym.
Oh, weight was 145.8# this morning. Expected because of the higher amount of calories, salt, and carbs consumed yesterday. Not bad. I suspect tomorrow will be in the 146-147 range based on the way my body holds onto water. We’ll see 
Hmm, well, no post yesterday = bad Pixie. It was a very busy day filled with trying to get things done at work and not doing a lot in the gym. Silly girl. Went down to the little gym in my apartment and someone was using the elliptical. So I did a little warmup on the treadmill and decided I was going to do some other stuff. I tried doing bw squats without holding on to anything and it was a gong show. I was pushing my ass back too far so I ended up kind of folding over to try and keep my balance. I think I was doing this because I was a little shy about putting my knee into a bad position, but that’s exactly what that did 
Ended up with an achy knee after doing 2 sets of bw bss and a set of bw squats. I called it quits there. I was a little bummed after that so I called it a night.
Yesterday’s macros:
1640 calories
45% fat (82g)
47% protein (186g)
8% carbs (33g)
Yesterday’s Weight: 145.8# Pretty good considering I broke and had bread the day before
Workout today:
30 minutes on the bike. I could have pushed the intensity a bit more and survived.
Agile 8
bw squats (holding onto something): 10x2
Bench squats: 45x3x3, 65x3x3 *
BSS: BWx10x2
Paloff press: 15x5(3 second hold)x2
SL RDL: 10x10x2
SL squat: BWx10x2
glute bridges: yellow micro band x25x4
*I’m trying out bench/box squats to help me get my form smoothed out again. Went down nice and slow then tried to come up a bit faster. The bench was at about the height where I would hit parallel with my butt touching it so I wasn’t going to try anything explosive. Still testing the knee. These felt good. I was in control and my knee didn’t complain in the slightest. I’ll see what it tells me tomorrow but I think I found how I’m going to be squatting for the next little bit.
My workouts have been random of late as I’m in no mood to follow a rigid program. I’m more concerned about getting in my cardio and rehab work than working on strength right now. I have 5 months before my first competition. Lots of time to gear up for that.
Today’s macros:
1640 calories
45% fat (82g)
47% protein (186g)
8% carbs (33g)
Today’s Weight: 144# Wtf? Woo water consumption and JB’s 90/10 rule on diet, I guess
[quote]PixieThrower wrote:
Masch, you’ll be happy to know the echoes of being called a fatty kept me away from the dessert table ;)[/quote]
LOL!!! Oh noes!! You know what? Now I feel kinda bad!! Like I helped deprive you of delicious, goodness
ACK!! Please don’t let my food neurosis stop you from having a good time during the holidays! Just because I can’t have the good stuff, doesn’t mean everyone should suffer!! Sigh.
Anyways, I’m currently on a lean-out phase too, and its so hard to say no to all the yumminess that abounds. I went to an xmas party tonight and had to say no these some cute and scrumptious nutter butters that were dipped in chocolate and decorated as Santas with icing!! So depressing!
I did go to town on some bacon wrapped water chestnuts though…
Either way, just goes to show, you can have a little bit of bread and it won’t break the bank - so congrats on the downward scale numbers. woot woot!
Glad the back and the knees are still feeling good! Yay!
And I love your squats and bridges, 3 secs up/down is hard! I’m bad with timed stuff, I cheat it like nobodies business! Great work.
I do drink a fair amount of water, but I’ll try the lemon water too! I know some of the PWers would put lime in their water too. Might have to look back into that.
Keep up the good work, mama!
Awww, don’t feel bad! I made the decision to stick with a more rigid diet around Christmas. You just gave me a little more strength to resist the chocolate goodies
I have a solid food/scale neurosis of my own. It comes with being able to fluctuate 10+# in a year due to the shitty eating I allow myself in the summer. Instead of a nice 90/10 rule on eating it’s more of a 50/50 between good meals and cheat meals. That never works well
The reason I’m doing squats slow is because I really am a little scared that I’ll hurt it again. I need to re-learn the movement as I haven’t squatted regularly in a year and a half. That’s a lot of time to forget. I find it also forces the glutes to engage more
So, the manager at the company I contract out to decided to take a couple of us out for lunch as a thank you for working hard to help them reach one of their performance indicators. Yummy Dim Sum. Couldn’t say no to that! I avoided the rice but I’m sure I got my fair share of carbs from everything else. I’m currently drowning in water to counter-act the salt intake. Hence, I have no clue where my macros sit.
Weight: 144.2# Slight bounce up but overall trend is down. I’m happy with this.
Workout:
30 minutes on the elliptical
Standing Palloff press: 15x5(3 second hold)x3
Knee rehab
Back rehab
Stretching
Now for a relaxing epsom salt bath and icing my knees. I have to remember to keep up on the stretching or my knees start to ache a bit
Today was a fun workout I might make it a two-fer with some cardio tonight, we’ll see.
Edit: Forgot to throw my weight on here. 143.4# today. Booyah!
Workout:
5 minutes on the elliptical
Agile 8
Simple 6
A1: BW squats (holding onto the rack) x5x5
A2: Rack pulls: 45x5, 95x5, 115x5x3
A3: Band rows: purple x20x5
B1: Palloff presses: 15x5(3 second hold)x3
B2: SL RDLs: 15x6x3 (3 seconds down/3 seconds up)
B3: glute bridges: 15x5x3 (3 second hold at the top)
C1: Assisted chins: (-75)x5x4
C2: BSS: BWx5x4
Stretching and the steam room to finish it off. I love the way my legs are starting to feel again. They’re feeling more firm and I’m starting to see more definition. Yay!
Knees and back still feeling good. Stretching is good
I made the decision not to go to either of my parent’s house for Christmas this year, and while I feel a little guilty about that, I feel so much more relaxed. It’s always hard going to visit the family when I’m trying to cut. They look at me funny and start talking about eating disorders. I will admit I have a little bit of neurosis when it comes to the subject of food but I have people who act as safety mechanisms that slap me upside the head when I start becoming too strict and doing things for the WRONG reasons. I know what it’s like to be overweight and I have no intention of going back. They just see me getting smaller and they don’t realize I’m still packing on muscle as I drop weight. I love my family but they stress me out like no one else can
Have a merry and relaxing Christmas!
Have a Merry Christmas, Pix!
Super awesome early Christmas gift from my mom. It’s called the Ballistica and I can essentially use it to practice most of the events for the Highland Games. I just throw olympic plates on it to adjust the weight and off I go!
Woo Christmas workouts!
Weight today: 143.6#
Had a great workout this morning. It’s nice not having to worry about anybody else and just be able to do what I want.
Workout:
45 minutes on the elliptical
Knee rehab
Circuit x4:
A1-SL RDLs: 15x6
A2-Palloff press: 15x5 (3 second hold)
A3-Glute bridges: 15x10 (3 second hold)
Went to one of my friend’s for Christmas lunch and it was a gong show. Absolutely hilarious to see her with her family The meal was nowhere near on spec with my diet (especially the cupcake smothered in icing) but I’m okay with that. I’m allowed to relax every once in a while.
After that I decided to go get in a short practice session with the light weight for distance and my fancy new toy, the ballistica, that I converted into an 8# hammer. Throwing the light weight felt awkward. So much timing and foot positioning involved in making a good throw happen. I only threw it 7 times as I didn’t want to tire myself out and I’m still in the testing phase when it comes to my knee. I highly doubt any of them went over 40’ but by the 7th throw I was starting to feel the groove of the weight. Man, it’s amazing how quickly the technique disappears. I only did hammer winds as I didn’t have to walk out and retrieve the ballistica from the snow. Did 10 sets of 5 winds with it. This felt more natural and I felt the groove a lot sooner here. I wasn’t wearing my boots so my feet had a tendency to drift into a wider stance but I could feel my hips and legs counterbalancing the weight, so I was okay with that.
Best part about this: I can say that I practiced on Christmas Now I just have to pick up some olympic plates so I can modify the ballistica into all the other events
Okay, so I’m going to start up a program for the next two months to test out my knee a bit more and get it used to volume work again before I start my strength training for the Highland Games up. This isn’t meant to push my numbers higher, just get my body used to doing more work. I’m going to keep my diet rolling throughout this as well. Any feedback would is appreciated.
Monday:
Rehab
A1 - Rack Pulls
A2 - Band Rows
A3 - BW SQ
B1 - Triceratops
B2 - Curls
B3 - SL RDLs
C1 - Ab work
C2 - BSS
Tuesday:
Cardio
Rehab
Glute Bridges
Step Ups
Ab work
BSS
Wednesday:
Rehab
A1 - Bench
A2 - BW SQ
B1 - Assisted chins
B2 - kb swings
C1 - Ab work
C2 - BSS
Thursday:
Cardio
Rehab
SL RDLs
Ab work
BSS
Friday:
Rehab
Box SQ
A1 - OHP
A2 - SL RDLs
B1 - DB bench
B2 - DB OHP
C1 - Ab work
C2 - Hyper extension
C3 - BSS
Saturday & Sunday:
Cardio
Rehab
Rack pulls, Bench & OHP will use a heavier lifting scheme (5x5). Box squats will be volume (8-10 reps per set). Assisted chins will follow a ladder so I get used to volume.
Glute work (BW SQ, SL RDLs, Glute bridges, Hyper ext, step ups) = 5 reps to start per set and add volume as my body gets used to it.
All other work will be BB style. 40-50 reps however I want.
HAH! Ballistica looks freaking awesome! Medieval! Gotta see it in action once you get some plates for that monster.
And you’ll be glad to know that I totally went off the diet for 2 days. Phew! I was really needing a break.
As for the programming, yours looks good! I’m kinda bad at programming my own training altho I do LOVE doing it. So since I’m in no position to make any recs, maybe I can act as a soundingboard by firing a few questions?
Here goes:
-
you do a couple of the same moves on consecutive days - SL RDLs, BSS - is there a reason for this? I always heard that its good to give the muscles a rest in between working them.
-
Looks like you’re doing full body routines - I see the back ext, but you are interested in doing any other back work (lower, upper or erectors)?
-
when are your highland games? What dos training for that eentail? Aside from volume and seeing how the knee is doing (super important!), is there something that you need to prep for strength training to come? In other words, maybe think about how this training is going to prep you for your next training phase.
I think that’s it! Interested in hearing your thoughts!
Thanks for being interested Masch! Answers to your questions:
-
The reason I feel comfortable doing these on consecutive days is because they’re going to be very low volume, light weight activities. The SL RDLs are going to start out at a maximum of 25 reps with a whopping 15#. These are here mainly for me to focus on glute activation. I’ve been doing this for the past week without any negative side effects so far. The BSS are BW only and done in a slow, controlled movement for a max of 20 reps. They’re in my program to give my quads a little reminder they should be working too. The low rep, low weight scheme has worked for me before to get my body accustomed to the movement so I can add reps/weight later.
-
I wouldn’t be opposed to doing other back work. I do have the band rows on Monday, I find my erectors get worked with the kb swings and rack pulls but I didn’t really put any thought into working my back specifically. Do you have suggestions that you think I could work in?
-
My season starts on May long weekend, normally. In season and pre-season training are very different. The reason I’m only doing what I posted up for two months is so that I can completely feel things out and still have 3 months left for my pre-season strength training. Pre-season training is all about maximizing strength and explosive power. Ideally, I’d like to be able to get back into doing cleans and snatches to help with the explosive power. As for what needs to be strong, everything does. The stronger my abs are, the better. The more leg strength I have to help with that last second push, awesome. The more upper body strength I have to help push the stone that little bit further and give the caber a little more momentum to flip over, great.
Pre-season training is when I’d focus more on increasing the amount of weight I can move and how fast I can move it. Hence why I liked olympic lifting. It has both those elements. If my knee isn’t quite ready for that, I need to get the benefit from other lifts. I honestly need to focus a lot more on my upper body than my lower body. My upper body lags far behind my lower body in the strength and power department and it’s caused me a little bit of discomfort. A lot of torque is created in the movements we have to do.
In-season training entails of a lot more throwing practice and less time in the gym. The gym becomes maintenance work. It needs to be lower volume so I don’t burn myself out. Practice is normally 2-3 days a week for a minimum of an hour. It can stretch to two hours quite easily as we have 8 different events that we have to practice for. Practice coupled with the competition schedule wears me down. Add trips to the gym on top of that and I start to burn out after a couple months.
This two month session is prepping my body for the 3 month pre-season push. I want to be comfortable with the movements before I start adding serious weight. It also gives me that buffer zone to fully test out my knee. I am going to wear the light brace I have throughout season just for extra support. I’m just hoping to be able to walk the day after without pain.
Anything I didn’t fully answer? I really do appreciate you taking an interest
On a different note, I made this for a friend’s birthday. Cross-stitching can be awesome
The Highland Games sound awesome.
I hope your knee progresses well.
Weight: 146.2# It was a good Christmas dinner
Workout:
5 minutes on the elliptical
Agile 8
Knee rehab
Superset #1
A1-Rack pulls: 95x5, 115x5x4
A2-Band rows: purplex20
A3-BW SQ x5x5
Superset #2
Triceratops: 30x10x5
Curls: 15x10x5
SL RDLs: 15x6x5
Superset #3
Palloff press: 30x6x4 (hold 3 seconds)
BSS: BW x5x4 (3 seconds down/3 seconds up)
McGill crunches: 10x4
Stretching and steam room. My back was a little sore from throwing yesterday but that’s no big surprise. Take 4 months off anything and even a light session will wake up muscles that haven’t been used. Knees are still feeling good. I’ll be interested to see what two months of this program will do for me.
Now to go brave the Boxing Day crowds and buy some plates for my throwing toy and some good shoes for my poor feet when I turn into a cardio bunny!
Yesterday was a lazy day. 30 minutes of cardio followed by some stretching and I was done.
Yesterday’s weight: 145#
Yesterday’s Macros:
1545 calories
43% fat (74g)
49% protein (182g)
8% carbs (30g)
Today’s weight: 144.2# Good old water bloat
Okay, the reason I started this whole diet was to fit into more than one pair of dress pants. As of today, I can put two more pairs on but they’re still a little tight around the midsection. Could I get away with wearing them? Yeah. One thing I have noticed is that they’re not as loose as they used to be around my thighs and ass. Looks like I’ve put some size on those areas based on the workouts I’ve been doing
In other news, my triceps are killing me from the tricep pullovers (triceratops!) that I did on Monday. I never had them feel like this when I was doing cable pressdowns. Rippetoe knows his shit.
Bench day is always a fun time. I haven’t done in it a while and it felt heavy. I’m getting better at tightening up my entire body for the lift though
Warmup:
5 minutes on the elliptical
Agile 8
Simple 6
A1-Edit2 Board Bench: 45x5, 60x5, 70x5, 80x5, 85x3x2
A2-BW SQ x10x6
B1-Assisted chin-ups: (-80)x8x2, (-85)x8, (-90)x8 Going to try a ladder with this to get the volume in next time.
B2-kb swings: 25x10x4
C1-Palloff press: 15x6x3 Every machine is so different based on the pulley system used. I think this one was closer to a true 15# than any of the other machines I’ve used.
C2-BSS: BW x6x3
C3-McGill crunch: BW x10x3
Stretching and steam room and that’s all she wrote!
Oh no, thank you for answering my questions! Your plan makes total sense, Pixie. Awesome!
And great work on that bench! Bench is my nemesis. I applaud anyone who takes pleasure in it and does a good job of it. Lol!
Ha! Masch approved workouts!
Weight: 144.2# No drop but I’m sure my body is going through shock with the roller coaster ride I put it through.
Today’s Macros:
Calories: 1673
46% fat (86.5g)
46% protein (185.5g)
8% carbs (30.8g)
Just did 30 minutes of cardio with some stretching and knee rehab thrown in
On the knee rehab topic:
Today was my final visit with my PT. He’s happy with the progress that my knees have made. My left knee is still a little “squidgy” (total medical term, according to him) and the knee cap is sitting a little high for his liking so he gave me a little work to do for the knee cap and suggested I take glucosamine. Might help, might not but you never know if you don’t try, right? I just have to keep on doing the rehab I’ve been doing and stay aware of how my knee is moving. It feels a lot better than it did a couple months ago
Two months to build up the knee stability before I really start testing it with full, heavy lifting.
Side note: Using the lax ball on my back on my traps and scaps hurts like hell but I’m finding a lot of knots and taking care of them before they cause me headaches. Worth the pain.
How’s the low carb for ya? It’ll work. How is your energy?