May Fitness Group --ALL Welcome!!
Anyone else need a little structure with their fitness commitments? In the past months years (since Sept 2010), a few of us certainly made working out and exercise a new, healthy hobby. Makes a person feel proud to accomplish goals, right?!
This will go throughout May in hopes that a whole month is enough to start a new, healthy habit of working out regularly. Tell me what you want to accomplish this week. Studies show that if you write it down, and say you WILL do something, you're more likely to stick to your word. It doesn't hurt to know that you'll report how you did either. No judgments here. If you missed a workout, let's talk about it and get you back on track. That's what we're here for :)
Set your own goals and keep us posted. I plan to update my progress every time I do something active.
You are OUR inspiration. Talk to us. Tell us what you've done. Drop by and see how motivating it can be to read about the progress of others. If you're feeling behind, talk to us. We're here for you.
Informative "How-To's":
Dork -to-Diva: Great pictures of how to perform a routine
Think that squatting is bad for your knees? Or that squatting will make you bulky? These, and other squatting myths debunked in the Learning the Squat series 1, 2, 3, 4! And after you're convinced (because you will be), Lurn to Squat Good -- E-ZY!
5x5 weight-lifting program: Scroll down for calendar; click on links for informative videos
Hal Higgons Running Programs: Scroll down, select distance, select level (novice, intermediate, advanced, walk).
Couch-2-5K: Never ran a 5K before? Here's the baby steps that get great reviews. Scroll down for the calendar.
I haven't been keeping up with my workouts thus far, but this week, I will turn it around.
Squats 2x5x50, 1x5x80, 1x3x100, 1x2x140, 1x3x200, 1x2x190
Leg press 1x5x275, 1x5x300, 1x5x375, 1x5x400
bench press 2x5x50, 1x5x75, 1x2x100, 2x3x125, 1x3x100
deadlifts 2x5x150
rows 3x5x80
6 40lb rope pulls and 2 75lb sled pushes
hanging ab raises 3x5 and good mornings 3x5
glute bridges 2x5x50 and 2x8 asst. dips
Original Post by hollowness:
I feel like I have little to no upper body improvement at all, full body and lower I seem to move along fine (I even think I could go higher but I am pacing myself) : /
[Workout]
Strength/Weight Training with barbell:
1x6x10, 1x4x10 Bench Press
2x10x15 Deadlifts
2x8x15 Squats
2x10x15 Row
Oh boy, I am a nutter, I didn't know when you log the weight your lift that you add the barbell, then I wasn't sure if my barbell was 15lbs or 20lbs, so I looked on line found the barbell but it was 7 feet, I go and measure the barbell 7 feet, then bierorama said just measure it on a scale just over 43lbs (20 kg), I been using an Olympic barbell this whole time!
I don't feel so weak anymore! I been bench pressing/power clean/overhead pressing about 55lbs and squating/DL/Row about 60lbs. I was really starting to feel bad about myself and now I feel amazing :D I am such a noob sometimes!
Original Post by hollowness:
Original Post by hollowness:
I feel like I have little to no upper body improvement at all, full body and lower I seem to move along fine (I even think I could go higher but I am pacing myself) : /
[Workout]
Strength/Weight Training with barbell:
1x6x10, 1x4x10 Bench Press
2x10x15 Deadlifts
2x8x15 Squats
2x10x15 Row
Oh boy, I am a nutter, I didn't know when you log the weight your lift that you add the barbell, then I wasn't sure if my barbell was 15lbs or 20lbs, so I looked on line found the barbell but it was 7 feet, I go and measure the barbell 7 feet, then bierorama said just measure it on a scale just over 43lbs (20 kg), I been using an Olympic barbell this whole time!
I don't feel so weak anymore! I been bench pressing/power clean/overhead pressing about 55lbs and squating/DL/Row about 60lbs. I was really starting to feel bad about myself and now I feel amazing :D I am such a noob sometimes!
Very Nice Hollow!
Thanks ^_^
Fun Mother's Day yet didn't get to take the nap I wanted to. :( On a short break now before going to my next client appointment, and am sooo tempted to rest my head on my pillow. ;)
Warm up: jump rope 1 min. yes! Because in my sleepy stupor I put on the wrong pants (the ones without the string to hold it up), and as I was jumping the pants started to fall off! Ha ha ha!
NROL for Abs Workout B (phase 1); Wanted to try something different, and did Workout A previously. Workout b was ok, maybe I'm not using as heavy a weight as I should be.
TRX (3x10): pke with crunch, saw, pendulum and hamstring curls
Elliptical (hard one!); 25 min. Tried focusing on large range of motion for the legs, and felt pretty good by the end.
OGR - I love it when you work out/run with some younger guys and you keep up and often best them. You are my idol. That was an incredibly steep run, also. It's so cool that you see so much wild life. We live really close to a wetlands park and there's a lot of wooded areas around us. We had a really strong wind a couple weeks ago and it knocked down part of our fence, so we had a doe come in looking for food the other morning. It was a pretty nice breakfast show. She left because my husband put a chicken wire cage over our berry and veggie garden and she couldn't get to them.
Hollow - I would say that your error was a positive one - a great surprise - you've been lifting a lot of weight! Great job!
Everybody's been doing great workouts.
Dbacker - sorry you've been having a hard time with injuries.
Today's workout
Arc trainer - 10 minutes = 170 calories
Circuits - ttl about 35 minutes
x3
- Manmaker x5 (15 lb dbs)
- Low burpee hops x20
- Twisted push ups x10
- Competition sit ups x25
x3
- Side squat x10 (15 lb dbs)
- KB swing x10 (35 lb)
- weighted leg raise x10 (5 lb db)
- Mtn. Climbers x20
Oh dear.. I meant to join you guys beginning of May and I forgot to make my way to this board! There's no way I can remember mileage from the first half of this month, but from the 14th-31st, I was hoping I could join in? It'll be good motivation to get me to continue working out through finals/senior week!
So I think my goal will be between 40-50 miles between now and the end of the month. Wish me luck!
May 14: 4 miles (elliptical)
Well after several hours of gardening I managed to actually go to the gym this evening.
Did an upper body workout on the machines and did 5 sets between 14/15 reps.. Upped my weights on some of them. Lat pull down is now at 95lbs and I have increased the row pull by 10 lbs to 65lbs everything else remained the same. I did HIIT on the Nu-step Machine and after circuit training I did 20 min core strengthening from the South Beach Diet super charge book. and after that 10 min on the rowing HIIT. All in all it was good.
des: thx :)
Sunday: Rock climbing all day.
Monday: Pretty sore. Did a short workout before dark:
Bench press: 5 warmup sets, then 4x 6 work sets
pullups: 3x8
one armed hangs, on fat bar. 10 seconds, 7 s. , 5 s. each hand.
one armed pullups, negatives, low bar with feet on ground assisting.
hanging leg raises
hanging "knees to elbows". I saw these on a cross-fit site, and really like them. I did 3 sets of 5.
Early tomorrow morning, I'm going back up Mt. Elden. So, I didn't do any leg work this evening.
Today was planning on lifting, but family issue - change of plan last minute
Did walk/ jog the dog this morning and then when dinner was baking we went for another walk/ jog So at least I got something done.
Another day of rest for me today. Tomorrow I'll be back into it. I've got 3 workouts left to complete NROL HT1. Hope to complete these by Sunday.
L2ride-Welcome. I recently downloaded the mapmyrun app. to my Iphone. All you need do is start workout and it tracks your mileage and time. It will calculate caloric burn as well. The best part is it tracks all your runs and when yougo the the web-site it gives you all the totals. You can do the same ting from the website just not as convenient. The tracking is so accurate I can see which side of the road I'm running on.
crazy: Stage 7 looks... crazy hard. I mean, 15-20 reps! I'm going to dial down some of the weights since what I can lift at 8 reps is probably not what I can lift at 15 reps! The workouts do look quick, but I'm scared of the negative chin-ups.
80 deadlifts!!! URK.
hollow: LOL, ok you must've been thinking that the rest of us here were crazy strong! The bar's pretty heavy. :) I started out squatting with just the bar, no plates. (Actually I started with a 20lb preloaded barbell when I was trying to learn the form.) And I don't think I can overhead press 55lbs yet... so far I've been managing 10 reps of 40. My upper body is really wimpy compared to my lower body.
mommy: I've been wondering since you mentioned it -- there's a hard elliptical vs. and easy one? Any images or something?
l2ride: Yup, sure. There's no deadline or anything in joining. :)
dback: Hope the family issue wasn't anything too serious and your thigh isn't hurting anymore.
Finished NROLFW Stage 5 today.
- One-arm DB snatch - 4x4, 30
- One-leg RDL - 4x4, 30
- Barbell row - 1x4, 65; 3x4, 70
- One-arm OH squat - 4x4, 15/30
- Inclined DB press - 4x4, 25
- Reverse Swissball plank - 3 sets@1min
- Reverse woodchop - 1x4, 60; 2x4, 50
- 2 sets of BW matrix
Roman: I thought that Stage 7 was crazy hard, but honestly after doing my first Fat Loss III workout on Sunday, Stage 7 was a cakewalk by comparison. LOL Tonight I'm scheduled to do WOB in Fat Loss III for the first time, and this time I'll be doing front and back squats and a whole lot of step-ups. Fun...
But Stage 6 is the one that focuses on the chin-ups, if I remember correctly...not Stage 7. Stage 6 was the one with the quick workouts because it was three or four strength moves, period. And then Stage 7 was the one with the 15-20, and yes...definitely you have to dial way back on weights there, but trust me, it gets the job done. I did lose some fat during Stage 7, I recall.
Yesterday I worked late, but I still managed even with insane DOMS in my lower back, butt and inner thighs, to do Minna Lessig's Emergency Workout for 30 minutes (the aerobic portion, not the second 30 minutes with the Barbie weights). I had this funny idea that it might help to lessen the DOMS and the awful old-lady stiffness I was feeling, especially since tonight I'm slated to do another killer Fat Loss III workout. Every time I get up from my desk at work today, though, my inner thighs ache and I feel like I must be walking like a duck and surely people are staring at me...
l2ride: I remember you from the old monthly distance challenges. Happy to "see" you again.
This morning (Tues): Raced up Mt Elden with one other person. 27 yr old grad student, who does marathons under 3:40. We get along great, and he lives very near the trailhead. I did my best time this year (59:30 ascent). We stayed together for the first half. He pulled ahead and beat me by a minute. That is perfect incentive for me to keep getting better, to try to keep up with him. He's using these once a week ascents as cross training (he's a good biker and a triathlete).
My gym is also close to this trailhead, so I did some squats, cable hamstring pulls, and quad extensions before hitting the showers and jacuzzi.
Run (20 min): start at incline .5 and increased .5 every 2 minutes until 2.5 then back down to .5 (like doing ladders with incline) at 8:15 min pace. NROL strength 2 sworkout b: yay I increased weight in my shoulder press! Although after I amz sure my shoulders swill c Hate me.
Wood choppers (3x10)
CrazyP - I am really impressed that you did a total of 80 deadlifts. The complexes sound great. Yet another book I may have to buy.
Mamabear - You workouts look great!.
Roman - congrats on finishing stage 5.
I had a rather abbrieviated workout because hubby decided at the last minute that he could not take sonnyboy to swim team. It was a good thing that it was my light day - I zipped through it and added some light core work.
Workout - today was my light lifting day
front squats - 1x5x45, 1x3x65,1x1x85, 3x3x95
overhead press - 1x5x45, 1x2x65, 3x5x70
cleans - 1x2x45, 1x2x65, 3x3x70
straight leg raise - cap chr x20
v-sit with 6 lb ball overhead x20
russian twist with 6 lb ball x20 each side
Original Post by romancoat:
hollow: LOL, ok you must've been thinking that the rest of us here were crazy strong! The bar's pretty heavy. :) I started out squatting with just the bar, no plates. (Actually I started with a 20lb preloaded barbell when I was trying to learn the form.) And I don't think I can overhead press 55lbs yet... so far I've been managing 10 reps of 40. My upper body is really wimpy compared to my lower body.
Yes! I did, god like :P I was feeling pretty mortal compared :P
[Workout/Yard Work Day]
60mins - Mowing power/push set to the lowest cut setting (never did it before 2x harder than our usual setting, Dang!) We usually do one to two sections of the lawn day (one section takes me about 20-25 minutes, another 10-15 and another 20-25) but I had it in my head to do all of it today at once :P
ha ha, I just relooked at my post....how awful!!! Typo after typo! I didn't even realize it too....I was using my hubby's ipad and that keypad is super sensitive.....plus I had no clue how to use it! Can you tell technology and me don't get along? ;)
Just a random comment, but today I had a client who is in her 70s and has no control of the left side of her body (she has a brain impairment and it affects her movement). She'd constantly apologize for her lack of control, but I kept on reassuring her that it was ok--it really made me realize how much I've been blessed with a body that can do what I want it to do. Health really is more than just wearing a smaller dress size or having perfect abs--it's having the strength to perform daily activities without too much strain, and then using that strength to better the world you live in. My client today has no desire to "tone" or "lose weight"--all she wants to do is perform basic daily functions without assistance. totally made me reevaluate my fitness and health goals, and made me very thankful for the life God has blessed me with.
Back at it after 2 days off this morning. NROL HT1 Lower Body, 5x5's. Felt great after the rest. 2 more workouts then a rest week. Still need to find some way to do chin ups and a replacement for dips.
50 minutes lifting
50 minutes cardio
Have a great day all.
Wow, mommyhawaii, cool post.
Despi, thanks. Guess how many squats and stepups I did last night? Oh, and checking the book last night, Lou calls them "giant sets" rather than "complexes." IMO it's the same thing like in FBB in the final stage where she has you doing those barbell complexes with no rest, except that hers are all barbell and Lou/Alwyn has you doing barbell stuff and dumbbell stuff and even chinups and lat pull downs.
Last night: NROL, Fat Loss III WOB1
First giant set:
Front squats: 4 x 12 @ 45 lbs
Chinups: 4 x 5 negatives
Stepups: 4 x 10 @ 20 lbs on 3rd step of stairs (to the side of the staircase, not the front)
Dumbbell push presses: 4 x 10 @ 20 lbs
Second giant set:
Back squats: 2 x 20 @ 35 lbs
Chinups: 2 x 5 attempts
Stepups: 2 x 20 @ 16 lbs on 2nd step of stairs
Dumbbell shoulder presses: 2 x 20 @ 16 lbs
Swiss ball crunches: 1 x 20 @ deliberate tempo (2-1-2)
So, a total of 48 front squats and 40 back squats, 40 stepups on the 3rd step and 40 stepups on the 2nd step. It was very challenging but not as hard on me as Workout A. I still had moments where I felt like I was either going to vomit or have an asthma attack or both, and definitely after twenty Swiss ball crunches at that deliberate tempo I wasn't about to do a second set. Yeah, right!
Afterward I went straight to my blender and mixed some strawberries with some sugar-free yogurt and two scoops of protein powder, and after about ten minutes I no longer felt like I was going to die. 
No stretching or foam rolling...I had to get something in my gut, fast, before I keeled over. Tonight I'll try to do both after a cardio DVD.
