You will definitely love it.

I'm two weeks in. I had to miss my 6th workout (should have been Fri,) because I have a really bad cold/sore throat. I've been pouting all weekend, because I can't go to the gym.

Your bike is really pretty. Not sure if I'm allowed to say a bike is pretty, but I did! I love black, white, and chrome. Can't help it. :blushing:

I'm a noobie, too. Also, excited to start lifting. My first step was to read more about it. My husband bout a cage thingy (don't think that's the technical term) years ago and has bars/weights. I'm looking forward to the lifts but am hesitant about the burn.

Thanks, all done without formal exercise, though. I run after my young kids a bit, but have a desk job. Six months of sitting on my duff with tiny spurts of activity. I want to start something that will give me the most benefit with the least time commitment. I used to take Jazzercise classes and then had a gym membership, but that took at least 7 hours a week a lot of it not working out, but getting there. I want to keep it under 5 and maybe even under 3 since there is a 20 second commute to my living room or my back yard (keep reading).

OK, I found out it's called a power rack :laugh: . My husband wants to move it outdoors. I suppose some fresh air will do me good. Soak up some sun for vitamin D while I'm at it. Right now, it's in the front "formal" living room which has always been our work-out room. It has also become our home renovation materials storage room :frown: , so a bit cluttered at the moment.

Woo-hoo! I did my first SL5x5! Check back tomorrow to see if I am still this excited. I expect to be sore. Lots of water tonight because that's supposed to help, right?.

Grats!

I was so sore the first day I wanted to cry every time I peed, and I drink a lot of water! :laugh:
I was still excited to go back the next day and do squats all over again. I know it's hard to workout when you're really sore, but here is what generally works for me. 15 minutes of light cardio feeling warm, but not all panting sweating bullets like. Stretching (quads & hamstrings in this case.) I hold each stretch for ~20 seconds. I go through all my stretches twice then repeat. Then I start warming up for my actual squats. Air squats, light dumbell squats, then work weight squats. By the time I was fully warmed up it hurt, but much less. I was able to complete my workout even though I had trouble walking when I left the gym. Day 4 I hurt much much less than day 2 though. Good luck!

I find most things "they" say help with DOMS only help in the short term. Working out helps while you're working out, hot baths work while you're soaking, etc. I haven't tried a foam roller yet, but it is on my to do list when I have some extra cash.

Why is static stretching bad pre-workout? I've heard it's bad if you're "cold," but I figure after 15 minutes of elliptical I'm warm enough to not pull/tear anything. I'm always looking to learn more so please fill me in.

Static stretching has been shown to lead to slight reductions in performance, BUT if you include dynamic stretching as well those reductions are generally negated. If you have a really tight anything, you should static stretch that, then dynamic stretching to actually get warm.

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/warming-up-for-the-weight-room-part-1.html (I think he's got another article somewhere that goes more into detail on stretching but this is good for now).

Basically the goal of a warmup is to get WARM - for me, all I do is warmup with my warmup weights because I workout at night and I dont' have any flexibility issues. So basically, I get straight to it.