Official De-Lurk

Training
21

Tonight was arms. Arm workouts, in general, are quite possibly one of the most humbling workouts for me. I have never trained arms directly until about 3 months ago, when I added a day specifically dedicated to the bi’s and tri’s. And I’m making good progress, considering curling 15lbs in each hand used to be really difficult for me.

However, as an example of humility, today at the gym during my curls a young man who was working out with his mother (he looked about 12, but had to be at least 15 to be in the gym) walked up while I was about to grab my 22.5 lbs dumbells and grabbed the 25s and started doing curls.

right beside me… at which point, not to be outdone by some boy who looks younger than my little brother, I gritted my teeth and grabbed the other set of 25ers for another set (I only got 7 on each arm, but by god, I was not lifting less than that boy). … and then the next round, that boy grabbed the 27.5s… and I quietly admitted defeat, deflated my ego, and grabbed the 22.5s to do a proper set with good form and an acceptable number of rep’s… damn it…

Today’s workout
This morning:
35 minutes of cardio and ~15 minutes of stretching (I was late to the gym, so had to cut it 5 minutes short)
This evening:
six sets of standing dumbell bicep curls (each arm, alternating): 20x10, 25x10, 22.5x10, 25x7, 22.5x10, 20x10
six sets of tricep press downs: 40lbs x 10
three sets of incline bicep curls: 15x10, 20x8, 17.5x10
three sets of overhead cable tricep extensions: 50x13, 60x12, 70x12

Tomorrow is a rest day, which means just cardio and stretching in the morning and no weights in the evening (which on the first week of this program is almost sad, but by the third week I will be weeping with joy for the evening without weights).

And then on to squats on Wednesday and board presses on Thursday. :slight_smile: Just saying that makes the day off more acceptable. :smiley:

I’m looking at, hopefully, falling under 124lbs for the first time since junior high by the end of next week. Just have to stay consistent with my food… and avoid my main weaknesses, like hot wings… mmm… and girl scout cookies… dang it. Owlie, why do you have to have a picture of food as your profile pic?!

Don’t you know some of us are hungry?! :slight_smile: Apparently, I need to go eat more (not wings or cookies, but cod and spinach salad). My husband claims I get grumpy when I’m hungry… I don’t know what he’s talking about.

22

“Grumpy”? You’ll have to do better than that. I am a huge raging bitch when hungry.

And the kicker is, after 20 years of marriage, my husband still hasn’t figured out that he has only about five minutes to ensure that I’m fed after I say “I’m hungry” before complete madness sets in.

Getting to your new weight-class weight with the muscle mass and definition you’ve acquired is a huge accomplishment. Be proud and show it off.

23

Haha it is just there to remind you to eat some eggs! It was probably the most harmless food I could have put up there, but it is getting a little stale. EWW stale eggs.

24

lol. My husband has learned to notice the warning signs and attempts to preempt any raging by catching me when I’m just “grumpy”. In the middle of me being grumpy and stubborn about something absolutely unimportant he tactfully inserts questions, like, “Honey, when’s the last time you ate?”, “Would you like some of my lunch?”, “Are you hungry?”, and “Would you like to go get wings?”…

Which normally escalates said bad behavior on my part for about five minutes, until the thought settles into my thick skull that, yes, I probably need food. And then I attempt to be quiet and contain the grump until eating ensues. :slight_smile:

And as far as the weight class… I’m astounded that I can weigh 123 and still have fat to lose. No, I’m not saying I’m fat, definitely not. I’m just looking at my body and thinking that maybe I can keep shooting for the next weight class under that for the coming year. This November I am still going for the 123 class.

There’s no way I’m aiming to lose 10 pounds between now and then to come in within the 114lb class while still trying to get stronger. But the next meet after that is in April 2011. And I could definitely lose 10 lbs of fat by then while not hurting my training. Of course, if I put on more muscle I may never realistically be a healthy 114.

I’m not really attached to my scale or my weight. I want to be as fit as possible and fall into whatever weight class that puts me. I’m definitely not willing to lose muscle in order to weigh less.

Owlie: I’m good now. Had my steak and eggs this morning, so I no longer feel as jealous of your profile pic… :slight_smile:

25

God, no. Not the 114 class. It’s a bunch of pansies.

26

and that comes from your 110lbs strong woman self Snap? Do you compete in higher weight class or did the jokey/sarcasm not bleed through my pc screen again?

27

[quote]nlmain wrote:
and that comes from your 110lbs strong woman self Snap? Do you compete in higher weight class or did the jokey/sarcasm not bleed through my pc screen again?[/quote]

maybe snapper doesn’t want the competition?

28

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
God, no. Not the 114 class. It’s a bunch of pansies.[/quote]
Well, I’ll fit right in then? :wink:

29

Ahh, my sense of humor is often too dry for some.

Yes, I compete in the 114-lb. weight class. Master’s for some protective status from the youngsters (people who have abs and a winning smile like Ms. Alaska here). I have considered the 105s since I usually weigh in around 109-110. May just drop there when it’s time to come back, but I think my coach prefers that I stay put for now.

30

Today’s workout was cut short (no auxiliary stuff) due to ridiculous hours at work this week. I promised myself when I took this job that I would always get in my core movements for each day of the week, but sometimes I just don’t have time for the auxiliary exercises. :frowning: Today was one of those days.

Squat day
Warm-ups: 1 set of 5 rep’s each @ bar, 75, 85, 90, 100, 110
Work sets:
120x5
130x5
140x5
150x5
155x10 (only have to do 5 per my program, but it was easy. It was still easy on the legs at 10, but the torso was tired of holding the weight.) :slight_smile:

I couldn’t really dig in and just move the weight because I’m still trying to adjust my form (just switched over in May to back squats, from front squats (which I’ve been doing for years because they’re easier on my knee). I really only trained back squat for ~1 year before switching to narrow squats (front squats and overhead squats) after a knee injury, so this is basically a new exercise for me (and I’m seeing really fast gains, just like a beginner should). I added 10lbs to my squats for this month’s program, and it looks like I’ll be able to add 10 again for the coming month. :slight_smile: Which will put my max around 215. I’ve squatted up to a 1 rep max of 315, but it was about an inch above parallel and before my knee injury. I think I’ll be back to that weight, and at a legal depth for the USAPL, within a year. Very excited! :slight_smile:

And now that I’ve made dinner and packed lunches… I’ll be passing out hard until the alarm goes off at 4:30 again. At which point I will attempt not to throw it into the nearest wall (which I’ve done before… but that was years ago.). :wink:

31

welll hello!
Loving the ink.
…and the abs of course.
I’ll be following.
:slight_smile:

32

That is some strong squatting. Nice job getting in there and working it! Busy work weeks can suck the life right out of a girl.

33

I cut out of work early today (left only a little after 6) and got in my full workout. Although I’m tired and need much more sleep than I’m getting, I feel much better for having busted my butt in the gym.

Today’s workout was Board Presses. The theory being that, of all 3 powerlifting exercises, I’ve done bench press the least, so working it twice a week gives me more volume and will let me dial in my form and get those neuro-muscular gains that come from a new exercise. I do board presses on the fourth day because it lets me work my bench form, get used to holding more weight in my hands, but doesn’t wear out my shoulders. I tried benching twice a week, and the shoulders don’t like that very much… not at all actually.

Warmups (just normal bench, no board):
65x5, 70x5, 80x5, 95x5, 95x5

Work sets (one board - well, one foam yoga block, actually, as the gym will not allow boards… or chalk):frowning:
100x5
110x5
120x5
125x5
135x9

Auxiliary work:
Wide grip pull-ups, body weight x6, x6, x5, x5
Super Wide pull-downs (on cable machine), 105x7 and 90x10
One set of fly’s with 15 pounders, just to stretch the chest open after benching.

And then… wings. that’s right, wings. Had an amazing workout and wanted to go out with the hubby, so we went to our favorite spot and split two pounds of delicious chicken wings. yummmm… which should fortify me for the going away party for one of my co-workers tomorrow evening, which will include large amounts of booze and lots of bad food (which I will attempt to resist entirely). :slight_smile:

34

Nice pushing. And even more incredibly, nice pull-ups! WG is hard stuff!

I’d say wings are well deserved - and you can never go wrong with booze and food. Have fun!

35

Not allowing chalk I can understand (although I’d personally ignore such a rule). But not allowing you to press to a board? There’s absolutely no rationale there. You have an impressive bench, BTW, if you’re doing nine reps at more than bodyweight to only one board!

36

6 wide grip pullups x sets is super awesome. Someday I will do more than one at a time.

37

Today was a bust on the workout. Did my normal cardio in the morning, but this evening my husband ate some bad oysters at my co-workers going away party and got violent food poisoning. (I’m gonna go cunt punt their sorry asses.) So, no arms this evening. And my mother-in-law is flying in to town tonight at ~10 and then out again in the morning at ~6 - and after dropping her off at the airport I’m going in to work to try to get in a full day before coming home to do deadlifts. Yay! Lifting weights rocks, because there’s always something in your day to look forward to. :slight_smile:

And as soon as the deadline at work passes, I’m promising myself a full night of sleep for weeks. :slight_smile: (we’ll see how that goes…)

38

Could it be the company’s way of getting rid of a few more extra pay checks? I smell a fishy consiracy here…

39

ohhh… bad pun… lol
And unfortunately I can’t even blame it on the company. It was the restaurant we were at. :slight_smile: But luckily he’s completely better this morning, so our deadlift workout today is a go.

40

Deadlifts today. And what do I do but ping something in my groin/hip in the first two warm-ups. I know better. I’ve found that my sumo stance needs to be a little narrower than the plates allow or I hurt my hips. But then I get all stretched out and think, “man, you’d be even stronger if you had a shorter pull…”.

And then retardation ensues… and I go super wide and pull a groin muscle. At which point the brain kicks in and I remember, that’s why I don’t do that… duh. Then I continue my workout with an appropriate stance… Making what was a small pull worse? probably.

Getting in my F’ing workout after a hard day? definitely. I suppose that’s the problem with using weight lifting as your outlet… It’s harder to let go in an intelligent/timely fashion when you’re injured.

Deadlifts
warm-ups: 5 rep’s each at 135 for 3 sets, 140, 155
Work sets:
180x3
190x3
205x3
220x3
230x7

About the time my hips cooled down in the start of auxiliary work I realized that the “aggravated” hip was actually an injured hip (it got upgraded as it cooled off and as I regained intelligence). So I did some stiff leg dead’s, some abs, and then called it good and left the weights before I did something truly intelligent.

And now my hip hurts, but I feel mentally better for getting in my workout… It’s a sickness, I tell you… a sickness. After feeling the muscle now that it’s cooled down, I am convinced to take the week easy and be extra light in my cardio in the mornings. i.e. let the dang thing heal. grumbles