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Interesting holiday. I tried making a red/white/blue cake but failed on a number of accounts. Should have just frosted the red and blue cake cause they came out okay yet I still tried to combine and stack the cakes. It was messy looking but at least tasted good. Worked and I stayed busy though we weren't busy customer wise. Then I went to the gym. It was nice and quiet with just a few people working out. Just one more workout and I will be done with NROLFW.
Stage 7 - Workout 5
warm-up with front squats 3x5 @ 65 - Okay. I tried holding it sort of regular but my elbows don't get up as high as is recommended on the form, but I sort of managed and my wrists ached a bit from it.
barbell incline bench 2x8 @ 70 - hefty but managed, still find incline awkward
seated row 2x8 @ 80 - still feels heavy
static lunge 4x16 @ 22.5 - tried weight increase this time, did okay
push up 4x15 using a bench - still struggle, I find push ups hard to improve on overall
bar romanian deadlift 3x15 @ 70 - heavy, my arms struggled to keep holding it by the end
db bent over row 4x15 @ 22.5 - slight weight increase, tough on last reps
For fun:
flat dumbbell bench press 3x8 @ 25 - did okay, arms were tad shaky from previous lifts
bent over barbell row 3x8 @ 70 - figured since I still had the 70 I'd try it, prefer it over dumbbell row
That is all. Next up is am middle distance jog after some sleep.0 -
DawnEmbers wrote: »barbell incline bench 2x8 @ 70 - hefty but managed, still find incline awkward
push up 4x15 using a bench - still struggle, I find push ups hard to improve on overall
bar romanian deadlift 3x15 @ 70 - heavy, my arms struggled to keep holding it by the end
I am so jealous of your bench work... so hard for me to increase. Oddly, I find push ups a breeze in comparison. Maybe that's because I'm smaller than you my push ups are easier??
Re: RDLs - have you tried a mixed grip? I find that a lot easier on grip and stops me getting sore elbows too.
Me - squat day and combat today. Don't reckon I'll be moving very far tomorrow lol. Finally upped my squat since my glute injury. Still light really, but trying to break through my mental barrier. Hip (in)flexibility really not helping. Beginning to think it's just how I'm made - no amount of stretching (6 months worth!) has seemed to do anything. Grump.0 -
I am so jealous of your bench work... so hard for me to increase. Oddly, I find push ups a breeze in comparison. Maybe that's because I'm smaller than you my push ups are easier??
Re: RDLs - have you tried a mixed grip? I find that a lot easier on grip and stops me getting sore elbows too.
Me - squat day and combat today. Don't reckon I'll be moving very far tomorrow lol. Finally upped my squat since my glute injury. Still light really, but trying to break through my mental barrier. Hip (in)flexibility really not helping. Beginning to think it's just how I'm made - no amount of stretching (6 months worth!) has seemed to do anything. Grump.
Maybe on the push ups, I dunno. Though I can do some sets on the ground just not at 15 reps, which is an improvement from when I started at the gym and using the railing wasn't easy. I like bench but my flat bench is better than incline, though I've also done it a lot more. It's just awkward with my height, not being all the way down on the seat so I can get the bar racked and such without help. I've gotten up to 100 on the flat bench for 3 reps but hope to get to the big plates one day.
The RDLs just felt heavy from all of the arm workouts and increasing to the 70 fixed bar, plus the whole 30 seconds rest between everything only. It wasn't really a grip issue, just tired arms. I don't mix grip usually until after 135 on deadlifts. Nice that you can squat some and hope you're healing well from the injury.
This morning I jogged 2.5 miles near my apartment. Now I'm ready for a nap.
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DawnEmbers wrote: ». I've gotten up to 100 on the flat bench for 3 reps but hope to get to the big plates one day.
The RDLs just felt heavy from all of the arm workouts and increasing to the 70 fixed bar, plus the whole 30 seconds rest between everything only. It wasn't really a grip issue, just tired arms. I don't mix grip usually until after 135 on deadlifts. Nice that you can squat some and hope you're healing well from the injury.
This morning I jogged 2.5 miles near my apartment. Now I'm ready for a nap.
100 is epic!
I don't mix grip until 150lbs on regular DLs, but my elbows don't like the extended time holding the bar on Romanians, hence the mixed grip regardless of weight.
Nice work on the running
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100 was fun but tough cause I lift alone but I wanted to do it so tried when I did max testing. Only 3 reps but I was very happy. 135 is one I for sure don't mix grip but above varies. My grip is fine but depends on how aggravated my calluses are, so how much I've done before getting to that lift. I have gone to 165 before with double overhand but now the weight varies as haven't been training deadlift regular cause of the different stages. That will change soon though. RDL will be fine when it's not 15-20 reps and not for 4 sets of that on just 30 seconds of rest.
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Cardio Morning: 2 mile jog with walking warm up and cool down. It was cooler outside this morning so didn't have as much heat as last time though also went before 7:30 and that helped too. Lifting will be later tonight.0
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Just popping in. Life is chaotic-we moved my mom to assisted living on Friday. It's been insane preparing for that, accomplishing it, and now we need to clean up and sell her old place. Figuring out her finances is far more work and stress than it should be. My mom is difficult, to put it nicely. Trying to honor her and take care of her, but it's really challenging!
Celebrated our 17th anniversary on July 4. Nice weekend. Workouts are minimal with all the trips to mom's. Got a good lit ing session in last week which was so nice. I am missing it, which is a good thing. Hope I'll refine my mojo.
Jo-go girl! Lean, mean lifting machine!
Beeps-hope your feeling well and healing quickly.
DNA-enjoy your adult time.
Dawn-you're almost done! Woohoo!!!
Pudding, Jane, Sam...Kutgw!
I'll be back more once life settles a bit ...heehee, like that'll happen!! Plan to lift tomorrow at least
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Julie - Thanks. 17 years is awesome. Hope you get your mojo back and good luck with the life settling down thing.
Had today off from work but I spent most of it doing not much but sitting online reading forums. I did finish a very rough draft of a first chapter, at least, but it's a new novel which I'm not supposed to be working on. Oops. Oh well, some writing is better than none. I will try and do a little more tomorrow since I have an odd, short shift for work. On the plus side, I went to the gym tonight. I am done with NROLFW. I will do a more summary/progress type post tomorrow when it's not 1 am but it's not so much an increase in numbers for the main lifts since I started after having done stronglifts. However, there are other factors like comparing the lifts to the changes in my body weight, so it will be interesting.
Stage 7 - Workout 6
warm up with low bar squats 3x5 @ 115 - kept to the weight but managed fine, increase next time
barbell deadlift 2x6 @ 175 - very heavy and I had to pause at least once on each set to get re-set up
db squat with heel on plates 4x15 @ 25 - increased weight so just did 15 sets
db shoulder press 4x15 @ 17.5 - slight increase and difficult near the end
step up 4x16 @ 25 - increase and 8 per leg, left knee got a tad cranky during one set
underhand lat pull down 4x20 @ 60 - didn't increase weight so increased reps instead
Accessories:
leg press 3x8 @ 180 - kept same weight, still feels heavy
good morning 3x10 @ 60 - going to keep at this weight for a while
hip thrust 3x10 @ 70 - so heavy but the 60 was not available. Awkward as a guy was using something that was situated so he basically watched me during the sets. However, he was nice to offer to put the bar away for me cause I can't clean 70 at the end of the workouts.
All done!
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My workout made me cranky today. Crappy DL form. Had a PT (and 2 others) trying to help me.... ended up with too much info and the basic feeling of 'I'm crap at DLs'. Back to crap low weights... ugh.
On another note, someone I work with was there and working out with her friend. I was complaining about my DLs being rubbish and said "it's not working". She looked at me and said "whatever you're doing - it's working", and her friend said "oh yeah, it's working. I watch you and wonder if I'll ever do that" - so that made me happy. They are both strong girls that could totally out lift me if they wanted (and had the right program).
That - and a brief few hours with my boys - was the good bit of my day. The rest I am glad is over.0 -
NROLFW Overview
Okay, so since I started already lifting heavy from stronglifts, there were some lifts were my increase in ability was minimal or not really an increase in plates on the bar. However, instead of just putting up numbers on lifts, I'm going to compare a few different things from when I started stage 1 (february 14th) and where I'm at now, at the end of stage 7, having been in a deficit almost the whole time (smidgen of days I wasn't but those were good for me).
Body Weight: Feb 14 @ 174 v. July 7 @ 152
I lost 4 inches off my chest, 3 from my waist, 3 from hips and small increments in thighs, arms, etc. Down a pant size or so, which varies on the pants and almost into a size 14 dress from a 16 in february.
Squats - Not a lot of increase since I'd worked more on them in SL than this program but I did increase my max as I tried for body weight during this program and on SL I had just gotten to 150. So, made it up to 165. I also worked more on front squats and have started doing low bar as well (since I used high bar for SL).
Deadlift - I didn't increase at all. In fact, I'm lifting less than at the end of SL, where I got to 200 for 4 reps. However, when I first did 185, I weighed 182. Now doing 185 feels so different because I weigh 152. Plus, during many of the stages the traditional dl was not part of the program and I did find I like romanian deadlifts though not sure how I feel about the deadlift from a box still.
Other Lifts:
I do wish it involved more barbell bench press. I had to add the flat bench as an accessory because I couldn't imagine going a whole program without that lift. I do like the incline dumbbell press, which was part of a couple stages. I am iffy on incline bench but more from awkward in how I sit (or don't really sit all the way on the seat) in order to somewhat be able to un-rack the bar cause of my height.
Lat pull down was great, I hadn't done it in a long long time, so increased there but stalled at about 80. I will do them in future as part of accessories, though not underhand cause my elbow is not a fan. But I do attribute the nice look my shoulders are getting to this lift and a few others from NROLFW.
I probably won't be doing any one leg rows or rdls in the near future, but they did make me work on just doing the lifts and worry less about what others think while I'm at the gym. Also, probably won't be doing any crunches on a stability ball or the body weight matrix, lol. However, I might use the back extension as that's kind of fun. And I tried some accessories that are awkward and increased numbers on those, like hip thrusts.
Summary: I didn't know what to expect but I also didn't go into the program thinking just about strength gains. I did the program in part to be pushed out of my comfort zone beyond the main lifts I learned in SL and that certainly happened. During the time I also went through the couch to 5k program and jogged in my first 5k. I learned a lot and am still enjoying the whole process. I'm glad I gave this one a go and will have to post on Facebook to thank my stepsister for getting the book as a christmas gift for me. It has been fun, though strange at times, and I look forward to more heavy lifting in the future.
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I'm sort of back to SL but with some accessories while I hem and haw over options. I was actually going to do 3x5 instead but ended up doing 5x5 today. Happy to have flat bench back in program and I almost missed doing pendlay rows, lol.
Workout A
high bar squat 5x5 @ 135 - not bad, will move up from here next time I do high bar. I'm doing high bar, front and low bar.
bench press 5x5 @ 85 - okay but tad tough at times, still might try 90 next time.
p-row 5x5 @ 95 - tad tough but I stacked 3 plates this time so worked out a decent height at least.
Accessories:
lat pulldown 3x8 @ 60 - easy enough
db shoulder press 3x8 @ 17.5 - fine too
bicep curl 3x8 @ 30 - okay here
Not sure on the accessories quite yet and we'll see how doing arm/shoulders on freight day goes once I get to work. Had trainer at gym do body fat test, this time with the calipers, but it was after my workout as they were all busy before. It came out at about 29.5% ish with obvious skew potential. I am meeting with her on monday, non-lifting day, to check it then and discuss some things. She is into both lifting and running so it should be interesting.0 -
Long jog in park day. 40 minutes, so just over 3 miles. It cooled down recently, so the jog was much nicer even though I didn't get to the park till about 8 am. Also, reached a happy moment with the scale as my weight has fluctuated over a week between 151 and 153. Today it finally said 150 so I'm going to mark it as that's the goal I've been reaching towards. That puts me at the very top of "overweight" for my height instead of "obese." One goal down, more to go.0
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Congrats Dawn! You are smashing it!0
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Jo - Thanks.
Went to the gym after work. Day wasn't too bad though a little bit more people there tonight than usual. Still managed to get things done. Did 5x5 again this time but I think the next time or two I'm going to try 3x5.
Workout B
low bar squats 5x5 @ 115 - okay as I'm not used to doing 5 sets on it, will try 120 next time
over head press 5x5 @ 55 - went lightish cause hadn't done it much during the nrolfw
deadlift 1x5 @ 185 - blah. I did 1 set at 135 for warm up then tried the 185. It was so heavy. Need a game plan to work on these so I can maybe get 225 some day.
Accessories:
clean 3x8 @ 45 - still trying this to work on it but elbows don't get up much
front squat @ 70 1x6 and 2x5 - struggled as right wrist/hand ached during
bent over row 3x8 @ 60 - easy since I've done 80 before
db bench press 3x8 @ 27.5 - also not bad
Overall, an okay session. Kind of trying out on the accessories until completely set on programming. Now to get some sleep so I can jog 2.5 miles in the morning.0 -
I went to the gym yesterday....first time in three weeks. It. Was. HEAVEN!!!
My body craved every single second.
I am wickedly sore, today, but no matter! I am off to Europe tomorrow....so, won't see the gym for a month, anyway.
Will have limited wi-fi during my vacation. Stay STRONG everybody! Take care of what you put in your mouth. Stretch!!
And drink lots of water!
BOOM!0 -
Have fun Beeps!
Middle length jog today so went for about 2.5 miles near my apartment. Still cooler out so it's not bad to jog in but we'll probably have hotter weather again soon.0 -
Beeps-have a great time in Europe!! Enjoy it all!!
Jo-love the compliments! Don't sweat the dls...I don't even do them anymore because of my back. I hope weighted hips thrusts work similar muscles.
Dawn-you've done so well! I'm so impressed and inspired by your commitment! WTG!!
I got in some good lifting on Friday! Yay! Easing back into it. I am still lifting the same amounts and that's a relief. After a few weeks off, I was concerned. I'm kind of winging it for now, but hitting the main lifts with some weighted hip thrusts too . All good.
Life is still hectic, I'll be working on my mom's house all week - cleaning, painting, and we'll be recarpeting. Sigh. But, I'll be making gym time a priority this week and not let life hijack it again.
Hope you're all doing well!! 0 -
Good afternoon all!
I'm hiding in my office 'working'. One more week of school holidays and the husband is home because he was up a fair bit of the night sick and he's on the hunt to find me stuff to do (we shall not mention that I've run errands, bought him medicine from the chemist, done the washing, cleaned the kitchen, prepped dinner, planned Miss-almost-12's birthday party, been to the gym and vacuumed all before lunch... sorry, it's a sore point today ).
Dawn, you never cease to amaze me. You just keep on going = awesome!!
Beeps, have a great time and behave yourself
I took some time out last night to re-assess again. It's been a while since I sat down to look at where I'm at and how I feel.
I feel blah
Winter does not agree with me lol
I've been over-eating. Or should I say, I've been eating a Summer amount of food without the activity that goes along with it.
While I can lift over bodyweight now for deads and squats, I'm not comfortable with how I feel.
So I've decided to start my next experiment which is a slow cut. I've been maintaining and have done a slow 'bulk' over the last 6 months, and have definitely added strength and muscle, but there's the added extra floating around. It's not so much aesthetics as just feeling 'off'.
I'm really only talking 1-2kg, but the short peeps will know what I'm talking about. It actually makes a big difference.
Bonus is, if I can do it, I should have some seriously good definition to show off in my back & shoulders and just in time for Summer
So, the focus for now is on protein and serving sizes, lifting and working out what extra cardio I feel like doing in this terrible weather. I could run, but would have to stop in September-beginning November due to a slight magpie swooping problem (and I don't like running in the dark because there's a slight bat swooping problem LOL).
Totally hanging out for the warmer weather when I can use our pool every day again.
Okay, so now I'm actually going to do some work.
I need money lol0 -
Thanks Julie and DNA.
Morning Cardio - 2 mile jog.
It was warmer this morning though I left at least 15 minutes later than planned because I had to charge my iPod first. Went fine and back didn't bother me (ached a little yesterday from the stretches that I did with the PT) but knees were a little cranky. Now I'm considering a nap and food, not sure which will come first.
Yesterday I went to the gym but it was to meet with a personal trainer. We discussed goals, re-did body fat test with calipers since last week it had been right after lifting, and did some mobility checking. I have arthritis in my back and she thinks my body has been working around it instead of strengthening to the lower back. So, I'm looking up core and back strengthening things to add to lifting days and some to do at home on rest days. I guess deadlifts and squats aren't quite enough, though maybe if I didn't hunch at the computer that would help too, so I'm working on that as well.0 -
Dawn - how about rows? Where in your back is the arthritis?
Day off for me yesterday after squats Monday. I am seriously considering not squatting for a while - I am not progressing and it's p***ing me off. Might swap them out for leg press and try to build more strength that way first. Thoughts? I have literally been stuck at the same weight for about a year! My form/ depth goes out the window when I go any heavier and my legs don't really get much of a workout - it all seems to be a back strength/ hip mobility problem.
Shoulders today, quite enjoying the upper body stuff at the moment. That said, I need a spotter on bench day.... just can't get that last rep without fear of crushing my face in!0
