I'm starting stage 1!

I'm starting stage one this week and was wondering if anyone else was starting out or recently started that would like to do a buddy system with me?

If anyone has tips for starting out they would be much appreciated

Replies

whizzlers

I will hun - I started week one this week. Tomorrow will be my third session. xx

rengb6

I'll join to if it isn't to late! I start next week. I've never lifted weights so this should be interesting. Are you guys upping your calories? I usually eat between 1200 and 1400 but the program is telling me to eat 1826 on non-workout days and 2055 on workout days. I'm not sure if I'm actually going to eat all of that.

bridgetn85

I'd love to buddy up - I started 3 weeks ago and just finished Stage 1A 4. I've upped my calories to 1500 and usually up to 1700 on days I work out.

LizLearnstoRun

I would love a buddy for this. I am starting today and am a bit scared honestly

mayaysf

I would love a buddy for this. I am starting today and am a bit scared honestly

Hi, I'd love to buddy up too. Feel free to add me. I had my first try yesterday, checking the gyms, weights, etc. it was hard, 1st gym epic failure, 2d gym a bit better. still have so many questions.
I'm super excited and super SCARED all at the same time.

LizLearnstoRun

Thank you so much!

mnsmov15

I started today! Did my day1 workout 1 !! Would love to buddy up and see how we progress

LizLearnstoRun

Finished my first day yesterday. The step ups kicked my *kitten*. I have no balance! I am worried I used to light a weight because im not super sore this morning. The BF did laugh at me wondering around the gym with a book but whatever. How did everyone's first day go i wonder?

bananahb33

I'd like to join!!

My first workout was Monday. I feel like everything is pretty straight forward. Did anyone else feel absolutely ridiculous doing the prone jackknife? :ohwell:

Also, I would be interested to know what weights everyone is starting out with. I'm not trying to start a competition, I'm just curious because I was and am really unsure where I should be. To start I did squats with the just the bar, which was not enough for me, but the balance element was tricky so I started low. I was at 35 for the seated row, which I fell like I could go up a little, and 25 for the Step Up which I definitely need to raise. I didn't feel anything yesterday but I'm a little sore today, I think mostly from the Push Ups.

Can't wait to hear how everyone else is doing.

mayaysf

@mnsmov15 - How do you feel about your first workout? Ready for B1?

@bettie haha that was me on Monday at the first gym I checked, walking around with a book, pen, and sheet of paper. People thought I was crazy probably. So at the 2nd gym I didn't bring the book in, I remembered what I had to try anyways. I also didn't feel sore at first, and I was thinking, maybe because I was basically trying out the equipment. Yesterday I started to feel sore but I did my Insanity Max Ply (aka, push ups) and OMG. This morning I'm sore, I'm walking like a robot, going down the stairs I was afraid I'd fall down. About the step ups, I got the same problem, NO BALANCE (despite practicing gymnastics for so long).

mnsmov15

@mayaysf: I did feel ok doing them yday. the prone jackknife was hard for me. But I am little sore today and feel like I am about to sit down

I was very hungry in the evening too last night, after a couple hours of the workout.

@bananahb33: Welcome! 3 of us have started this week, and you can chime in your experiences too!
Sure, I started the squats with just the bar too. Rows 55lb and I am sure I can go up in next workout. Step ups, I started slow with 2 10lb DB and I should be going up - felt I could handle more.
Push ups are always the hardest for me, I always do knee push ups and can never get beyond 8-10 without stopping. I did incline push ups yesterday on a step - and they were way harder!
The prone jackknife felt tough - as in I kept falling off the ball :P

It will be fun to find out where we all are and keep encouraging each other!

LizLearnstoRun

I manged 30 for the squat and only 10 for the step up. Not sure about the row weight was not labeled in a way i understood

mayaysf

@bananahb33 - I started the squats with an empty bar in a smith machine and OMG, it was hard. For the row machine I did it with 40lbs and again, it was hard, I don't know if I should go up or do another round with the same weight.
push ups, i'm not even sure, Insanity has me doing all kinds of crazy push ups, in the HIIT, so I might be able to do some decent amount.
step ups I didn't even try it, I'm not sure how high should the bench be? can I use the usual lifting bench people use? I'm so scared of injuring myself.
I also tried the wide grip lat pulldown with 40lbs, and again, it was hard. so I guess I will give it another try with that weight when the time comes...

jilliangetsit

I'm starting today! I'm going to follow this thread

I currently eat between 1200-1400 calories a day and up to 1700 on workout days. I think I'm going to avg between 1500-1700 starting out and make modifications to my intake as my energy levels become more obvious to me - My diary is open and I'd be happy to network with all of you guys ! Cheers to women! Viva la strong ladies!

Trundlegate

Hello can I join in with the party. I am on my 5th lot of A and B next week. I have had most of this week off as I hurt my back doing bent over pull up thingies or whatever they are called!!

I am really enjoying it and am desperate to get back to it. I am amazed that in just two weeks it has made me feel so emotionally good.

When we talk weights is there any chance we could mention whether it is lb or kg as I get very confused!!

I use kg

mnsmov15

@Trundlegate Please feel free to keep us all posted and you are welcome here! And generally we mention in lbs. I do at least.

Friends, today I did my B workout 1.
Deadlifts surpriced me as I tried 55lbs (2 - 5lb plates on the bar)
Shoulder Press 10lb dumbbell * 2 was very hard

Lat Pull down - 55lb
Lunges with 12lb dumbbell *2 made me wince and sweat
Ball crunches I found very easy, so did them with 10lb weight plate.

Keep your workouts posted here if you like to keep tab.

mnsmov15

Also wanted to mention - to all the new comers here - I found the spreadsheet and I am keeping my weights logged in there for increase reference and found lots of useful information from the facebook group - in case you did not know it already!

mayaysf

Hi everybody! I'm happy to see so many of us starting. Please keep coming back and telling us about your progress.

I usually write about pounds (lbs), no way I could lift that in kgs as a beginner hehe.

Honestly I did not understand the workouts at first, the layout in the book was CONFUSING to say the least. luckly I found the spreadsheets in werkit, or something like that, and OMG, that made the whole difference. On my first day I went to the gym with the book but I think from now on all I'll need is the printed sheet for the day and maybe take some pics of the exercises on my phone.

I also found the Strong Curves workout and free sample and I think I will just add the exercises that are different, to my workouts A and B.. I'm excited!

twinmom823

I just did workout A1!! Squat bar plus 25 on each side, seated row 70, full pushups, step ups with 15lb dumbbells and 15 reps of the jackknife. It went by so quick I felt like I did it wrong!!!

How is everyone?? A litlte background on me, I'm a personal trainer, this workout is different then how I nomally train, so I'm excited to see results

I'm a mom of twin boys who are 19 months and just train part time.

Looking forward to getting to know all of you, Please add me

mayaysf

and more ladies joining, this is exciting. congrats @twinmom and welcome, u did a great job! how long did it take u to finish the workout? i'm wondering uf i should do it in the mornings before going to work

today i was feeling a bit down (personal issues), so i decided instead of eating a bunch of junk (old me), i jumped right into weightlifting. unfortunately today i did everything body weight (at home) + the butt workout... my butt still on fire!!

twinmom823

and more ladies joining, this is exciting. congrats @twinmom and welcome, u did a great job! how long did it take u to finish the workout? i'm wondering uf i should do it in the mornings before going to work

today i was feeling a bit down (personal issues), so i decided instead of eating a bunch of junk (old me), i jumped right into weightlifting. unfortunately today i did everything body weight (at home) + the butt workout... my butt still on fire!!

@mayaysf it only took me 20 minutes!! I've heard the workouts get longer as we go on. Good for you for not eating junk! I struggle with emotional eating too

catdevrandom

Hey all! Another one starting here! Can I join you gals on this budding system? :-)

I did my first workout B today, still just figuring out the weights and where the equipment is in my gym and what not. My gym is one of those for "serious body builders", where the guys do the weights and the women do the classes. No space for sdtretching and just one swiss ball for the whole gym! But i'll figure it all out eventually :-)

Cheers!

mayaysf

Hey all! Another one starting here! Can I join you gals on this budding system? :-)

I did my first workout B today, still just figuring out the weights and where the equipment is in my gym and what not. My gym is one of those for "serious body builders", where the guys do the weights and the women do the classes. No space for sdtretching and just one swiss ball for the whole gym! But i'll figure it all out eventually :-)

Cheers!

Welcome @catdevrandom to our little group of beginners. today i did my second full hybrid insanity+strong curves+new rules of lifting, at home because i was in a hurry (all in all took me 40min). it was a killer and i loved it. im going tonight to sign up for my gym, and tuesday going in for the first B workout (hybrid). the gym i decided to join sounds a lot like yours, and my first experience was better than expected. also no swiss ball or area for stretching, so i'll do my warm up, stretches and non weight exercises at home and will drive quickly to do the weight exercises at the gym. I'll go early in the morning, 6am, so there's less pple and less traffic

twinmom823

Is anyone else freaking out about eating more calories??? I'm so used to 1200-1400 I'm gonna start with 1500 non workout days and 1700 workout days. I know my energy will be better, I just don't want to see the scale go up!

catdevrandom

Hello!

I'm 31 years old, 162cm tall (5'4"), currently weighting 58kg (128lbs). I did a bit of experimentation and settled with 1600 on non-lifting days. That is, I believe, slightly lower my TDEE, but I'll need a few more weeks of experimenting to be more certain of it.

Here's what happened to me in a quick timeline:
- Pants not fitting and a whole between the thighs in one of my jeans (!!!!). Panic!
- Logged back on MFP on March 10th after more than one year of not even looking at it, and started calorie counting and following a 1300 diet that a nutritionist gave me a while ago.
- In 2 weeks, I lost 1.6kg (3.5lbs), and amazing 8cm (3 inches) in my waist and 3cm (1.2 inch) in the hips! Obviously I was very bloated, but nevertheless it got proven that 1300 is a very low deficit for me. My weight now is fine, but I need to get rid of the extra fat in the hips and lower abdomen if I want my older jeans to fit again.

By the book calculations, my BMR would be 1204 and TDEE 1926 on non-lifting days. Another calculator I found online (a spreadsheet someone posted here: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/961054-spreadsheet-for-bodyfat-bmr-tdee-progress-tracker) gave me something like 1750 as TDEE.

I decided to be conservative and keep a little bit of deficit, just in case the calculators were overestimating my activity level (or I'm underestimating my eating!), so for now I settled for 1600 and I'm going to wait and see what happens.

So far I'm keeping the weight and I'm not feeling hungry or without energy, but I might go up to 1700 if it looks like I need it to gain some lean mass. Back when I was being followed by the nutritionist, I had no problems losing fat (thanks heaven!), but gaining muscle was really hard. I was ovo-lacto-vegetarian then. Now I am back to eating fish, so maybe this time around it will be easier...

Cheers!

mnsmov15

@catdevrandom - Welcome! We are twins mostly. I am 33, 5' 4" too and currently @ 131 - looking to lose some fat and may be get to 125

I started last week and looking forward to this weeks workouts!
1600 looks like a good place to start. You can eat a bit more on lifting days - I do - since I feel so hungry on the lifting days and next day until almost lunch time!

You can keep posting your workouts and what felt easy/tough and we can all keep each other motivated

If you have not already done so, please take a look at the spreadsheet from the posts on this thread which has the training log.

The heybales spreadsheet you mentioned is incredible and works well as long as you do the same routine for a period of time - like lifting 3X and walk/rest/HIIT 2X almost every week.

catdevrandom

Hey there! Haha yes! Pretty much the same! And also the timing of starting the program. Neat!

Yes, you're right! I forgot to mention that the 1600 cals are on non-lifting days. On the lifting days I eat some 250 more (the post-workout shake). Thankfully I already had that diet plan set up by my nutritionist: tweaking it to include the extra 300 cals was easy, just added some nuts to the snacks and a fruit for dessert and voilà!

Cheers!

Trundlegate

First lot of lifting after a week off due to a dodgy back
Did workout B (4th out of 8 completed)
Deadlift - 43kg + bar (94.6lb+bar)
Dumbell shoulder press (I hate this) 10kg dumbells (22lb)
Wide grip lat pulldown 35kg (77lb)
lunge 10kg dumbells (22lb)
Swiss ball crunch 15 reps

My stats for A before I hurt my back were
squat 41kg +bar (90lb +bar)
pushups std ones 12
barbell bunt over row 33kg (but failed) will go lower next time ( 73lb)
Step ups 12kg (26lb) dumbells
prone jackknife 12 reps

No idea if these are the right ball park for someone starting out.
Deadlifts and squats still seems easy- the rest are reaching my limit now.

mnsmov15

I did my A workout 2 today. (week 2, but just did 1A and 1B last week)

55lb on the squat (including the bar) - felt a little wobbly by end of set 2

Incline push ups - coming from only knee push ups - these were really hard.
70lb for seated rows

15lb X 2 dumbbells for Step ups.
Prone Jackknife was easier than last week. I was able to get to my toe pulled in and then be on the ball the whole time

merflan

I'm just restarting stage 1. Need some buddies!! i'm getting very frustrated with the scale. Its up and its down. Today it was up 3 pounds from last week, and its not that TOM. So annoying. But I'm 3 workouts in to stage 1 and so far loving it!! Please add.