Not so sure about the interview.... from what I hear, they are at the final phase and they picked two candidates for the final round and we have completely different backgrounds... so hard to tell which way they will go.

I managed to eek out 2 sets each of Workout A last night. I couldn't stop yawning---even the warm-up on the elliptical was hard for me. So I decided to drop all my weights... FSPP (Bar only), 2x20 dbs on the rest... I managed one set of 120 planks... that wiped me out... I could only manage 70 on the 2nd set... and "9" on the horizontal woodchop. I did all my pushups on the floor, but I can't get my chest low enough. Hubby says he'll watch me next time so he can critique my form.

Busy weekend... hoping to squeeze in a B workout Saturday morning before it gets crazy

You are my planking superhero!

Started stage 4 yesterday. I was so glad to get past stage 3. Definitely not my favorite. I was able to complete 3 sets and go up in weight on most exercises. And boy! I am feeling it today! So sore. Glad i have til Monday to recover. Not doing anything over the weekend except playing in the water.

Stage 4 is turning out to be WAY more challenging than I thought. Having done stage 2 without a lot of trouble, I thought Stage 4 would be just more of the same, but even though I'm making progress on some moves, I feel stalled on others.

Like FSPP is still a ***** for me with just the 45 lb. bar. So today I did my 1st set as FSPP, but then split the moves and did 2nd & 3rd sets with 65 lb. back squats & 45 lb. DB shoulder presses, and I was still struggling through those shoulder presses (I ended stage 1 with 40 lb. shoulder presses).

I feel like my progress on lunges is really slow too. I was ready to use 17.5 lb. DB's for the static ones today, but my left quad has been tight since last Thursday's Workout B, so I even took extra rest and waited until today (instead of Saturday) to do A2, but those static lunges with the left leg in front were too tough with the sore quad, so I went back to 15's.

I'm also still struggling for balance on 1-point rows. My balance was better last week, so I went from 15 to 17.5 lb. DB's, but trying 20's today made me wobbly again. I don't think I got through more than 3 reps without putting my foot down & re-focusing.

And I'm convinced planks are going to be the death of me. I had been holding 90-100 seconds at the end of stage 3, and today I only did 2 sets, and broke both of them up into 60+60's. I don't know if it's physical or just a big mental head game, but I'm kicking myself now for not even trying a 3rd set of them this morning. I tried not looking at my watch and just counting slowly in my head too, but then when I felt shaky & looked down, it was usually before 30 seconds were even up. How do you fight through these? I feel like I'm copping out by splitting them, so Friday I think I'm just going to go for as long as I can and see what happens.

I was psyched to improve on pushups though. I moved from the 6th peg on the Smith (mid-thigh height) to the 5th (just above my knees), and 8, 4, and 6 reps there (on the 5th) and finished the 2nd & 3rd sets on the 6th. So Friday I'll try for all 3 full sets on the 5th, then maybe move to the 4th for AMRAP.

How are you ladies doing? What moves are making good progress for you? What are you struggling with?

Me... I imagined someone was holding a gun to my head once. Because you know how they say "I couldn't have finished if someone held a gun to my head!" :laugh: Hey it worked! I focus really hard, let it burn and keep breathing. I know from experience that it's not really gonna make me sore the next day no matter how hard I push (just for abs, not true for everything else!) so I can usually complete the sets properly.

This. Is. Awesome. I love this idea, and I'm totally going to try it next time. Thank you!

I've been splitting up my B workouts (well the last one and I did half of it today and will finish this stage tomorrow). Mentally, I struggle. It probably takes me as much time to psych myself up as it does to actually lift the weights.

Final Stage 4 numbers:
FSPP: 65 to 70 lbs.
Step Up: 50 lbs on 4 risers to 70 lbs. on 5 risers.
DB 1 pt. row: 8 reps 50 lbs. to 10 reps at 60 lbs.
Static Lunges: 50 lbs. to 60 lbs.
Pushups: 10 with leg up to 20 with leg up
Plank: 2 min. to 2 min.
Wood Chops: 30 lbs. to 42.5 lbs.
Deadlifts: 145 lbs. to 170 lbs. (yeah I'm counting the 3 good ones I did today)
Bulgarian Split Squats: 60 lbs. to 70 lbs.
Underhand Lat pulldowns: 115 lbs. to 125 lbs.
Reverse Lunge from Box: 40 lbs. to 45 lbs. (could not complete them today so I'm going with my last number). Did bicep curls and upright rows instead)
Cuban Snatch: 20 lbs. to 25lbs
Swiss Ball Crunch: 35 lbs. overhead to 35 lbs. overhead. Had to do them with 15 lbs. today.
Reverse Crunch: 10 reps to 16 reps
Hanna Flexion: 20 on each side to 30 on each side.
Prone Cobras: 2 min. to 2 min.
And finally beat my Chin Up PR and am up to 6! The last one was ugly, but I did it!

I messed up my back today doing deadlifts. I felt great, added some more weight, completed all of my sets and put on 170 just to see if I could do it. Completed 3 reps and on the 4th one, I don't know what happened. Either hinged my back when I was lowering or the weights shifted or I don't know. In a lot of pain right now and am glad I did most of workout B yesterday, but will probably lay off the heavy weights for awhile. Walking up the stairs is excruciating right now. ;(

Tawnya, your numbers are fantastic!!! I hope your back feels better soon.

I pushed today for increases, on all but the reverse lunges from the step. For some reason those kill me, and I end up huffing and puffing by the end of the 2nd leg. So I only did 2 sets of those & cuban snatches today. 3 sets on everything else though.

And I tried doing side-swiss-ball crunches today instead of Hannas, and LOVED them! It was awkward getting into position, but they felt so good.

Karen v. Stage 4, WO A3. Karen wins, by a LOT!

FSPP - finished all 3 sets of 8 with the 45 lb. bar for the first time ever!
Step-up - increased weight and step height.
1-pt. Row - increased weight and balance (only had to put my right foot down once!)
Static lunges - increased weight
Pushups - finished all 3 sets on Smith 5th peg, with first 3 reps on the 3rd set on the 4th peg!
Woodchops - increased from 30 to 35 lb.
Plank* -- held all 3 sets for 120 seconds!!! :happy: :happy: :happy:

*On the planks, my form wasn't perfect, and I had to lift my *kitten* in the air a little bit a few times on each one, but I held myself up like my life depended on it, using Polly's trick about imagining someone holding a gun to my head, and it worked. I also imagined the ground was a fire pit too, just for good measure, but I did it, and almost cried I felt so proud afterwards!!! :blushing:

Plank* -- held all 3 sets for 120 seconds!!! :happy: :happy: :happy:

*On the planks, my form wasn't perfect, and I had to lift my *kitten* in the air a little bit a few times on each one, but I held myself up like my life depended on it, using Polly's trick about imagining someone holding a gun to my head, and it worked. I also imagined the ground was a fire pit too, just for good measure, but I did it, and almost cried I felt so proud afterwards!!! :blushing:

Way to go!!! That is impressive.... I like your Jedi mind trick :laugh:

I did B2 on Wednesday (minus HIIT) with 3 sets. BTW, my last post was wrong... I did B1 with 2 sets. Still nursing my shoulder and lower back which are both super sore today. I had a deep tissue massage again last night. It's incredible how tight my left shoulder is. It is still tight (but not as much as before), so I'm hoping one more session in two weeks will do the trick. So I am hating FSPP and deadlifts right now. Push-ups are difficult with my shoulder, but I still do them on the floor --- one trainer told me to do them on the floor... drop all the way so body is on the ground, then push myself up.... "one day, you will come up all at once".:laugh:

I just started Stage 4 this past Thursday. I didn't think I was sore from Workout A - but I couldn't remember what weights to use. I use a weight bench for the step up so I didn't go up in weights there. But I am a little tight in the hamstrings. So I must have done something?

I did Workout 1B Saturday and pulled a muscle I think while doing the snatch. I felt pain right away - and lowered my weights and finished off the workout. It hurt badly all day and night yesterday - I took 3 ibuprofen so I could sleep. And today I barely feel it - so maybe it wasn't a true pulled muscle. I'm supposed to do weights again tomorrow - so we will see.

Sherry

moochachip - welcome back to NROLFW.

Sherry - I hope it's just a pulled muscle too.

Workout B3 for me today. My hands got so sore from wide-grip deadlifts (on the floor), and then pull-downs, even though the pull-down handle is smooth. I went up on some weights though, but I seem stuck @ 30 lb. (total) for the box reverse lunges. I tried 35 lb., and could only finish 6 reps, but I'll try again for B4. I'm afraid to try 15 lb. dumbbells on the cuban snatches too, but I don't know why.

I am LOVING swiss-ball side crunches instead of Hannas though. :happy:

Did last workout of Stage 4 today...
here is my progress.

Front squat / push press: 55lb >>>>71.5lb
Step-up: BW >>>>> 2x30.8 (I don't always use weights for step-ups, depends how my knees are that day)
Dumbbell one-point row: 2x17.6 >>>>>> 2x30.8
Static lunge: BW >>>> BW (These hurt my knees)
Push-up: 8 with a break to 8 without a break
Plank: finally managed to do two 120 second planks
Cable horizontal wood chop: 17.6lb >>>>> 88lb

Quite pleased with the increases, especially on FSPP as I only increased by 3.5lb during stage 2!!

Edited because I hit save by mistake before!!

Did last workout of Stage 4 today...
here is my progress.

Front squat / push press: 55lb >>>>71.5lb
Step-up: BW >>>>> 2x30.8 (I don't always use weights for step-ups, depends how my knees are that day)
Dumbbell one-point row: 2x17.6 >>>>>> 2x30.8
Static lunge: BW >>>> BW (These hurt my knees)
Push-up: 8 with a break to 8 without a break
Plank: finally managed to do two 120 second planks
Cable horizontal wood chop: 17.6lb >>>>> 88lb

Quite pleased with the increases, especially on FSPP as I only increased by 3.5lb during stage 2!!

Edited because I hit save by mistake before!!

Impressive numbers!!! 71.5 FSPP... :noway: Excellent job!

Thank you ladies - I will say with the wood chop machines vary ALOT! Those numbers were all off the same machine but as I have been away from home for a while I have been going to different gyms - even within one gym the amount I could work with varied considerably between the two different machines they had, not entirely sure why, or how this can be.

cpa - glad you made it back to the gym, hope that shoulder stops bothering you so much soon.

Step-ups....high step with lower weight? Or lower step with higher weight? What's your preference?

Right now I'm doing a high step with lower weights....and HATE them! Just wondering if I should tough it out, or change it up?

Lori - I was thinking about this today too. In stage 2, I went with a moderate step (3rd peg from the top on a step-up machine. It let me get up to 30 lb. DBs (60 total), but then for stage 4, I increased it 1 notch (to the 2nd peg from the top), and dropped back to 20 lb. DB's and worked my way back up. I was going to try 30 lb. DB's on the 2nd peg today, but both sets were being used, so I grabbed the 27.5 lb. DB's and tried the highest peg, and MAN, it was a lot harder. So then for progress reference, I put my legs right up to the platform to jot down the different heights. I'm 5'5" and the 3rd peg (where I did all of stage 2) is mid-shin height on me. 2nd peg is about 3" below my knee (where I did most of stage 4), and the 1st peg is *just* touching the bottom of my kneecap.

I think if you're hating them on a high step with lower weights, lower the step and increase the weights. I liked raising the step & lowering the weights because I find the 30 lb. DB's to be slightly more awkward, esp. b/c the step-up machine/platform isn't really near the DB rack in my gym, so I have to carry them over there & back too.