I finished Stage 1 last night. My numbers from start to finish aren't the most wonderful thing out there but there is definitely improvement and I am happy about that! Stage 2 begins tomorrow! I'm pretty excited to be switching things up a bit and I'm glad there are still a few exercises from Stage 1 that I am already comfortable with.

(Beeps, shield your eyes)... I'm doing cardio tonight. I have a killer hill workout on the treadmill that I want to get done. I have one more week of doing "fun" cardio before I jump into half marathon training. I know, I know, it's not recommended but it was a goal for me this year and there are a few other races I want to do as well. The training program I was following had me running about 5-6 days a week. I'm going to cut it down to Tu/Th, with a weekend long run and a rest or bike day on a weekend day (just to get rid of any soreness). I'm reeeeeeaaaallllyyyyy hoping this wont be counterproductive. Any other runners that are doing NROL too? Any advice?

Thanks for sharing what you've done emgel. We might have spoken about it in the past. My brain is mush this week and now that I'm a week out from cranking up my running it's been on my brain. So far I've managed with 1-2 days of running and a day of biking so I think I will be fine

GET YOUR WEEK 2 OF FEBRUARY 'STREAK' CHALLENGE IN (tomorrow is the deadline):

5 days this week.
I'm going to blame the blizzard for the other two days :drinker: :drinker: :drinker:

Newb here with questions. I just finished week one and start week two tomorrow. To determine the weight I'm lifting I have a question...how much does the bar weigh?

Yes, an oly bar is 45 pounds. The barbells that have the weights permanently fixed include the bar weight. You should ask at your gym if you are not sure.

The blizzard did close my gym for 3 days BUT if you guys don't care I'm counting all of the shoveling and hauling things around as exercise for those days. I was dripping sweat from all of it (gross, I know). This week should be a nice 7/7.

McBell - sounds like you had a great week!

lb2ll - absolutely...gettin' sweaty and actually accomplishing something is SWEET!

emgel - I am sure you will figure it out. great job with the workouts!

Wow, lots going on here!!!

Welcome to all the newcomers!!

Sue - so glad to hear that your hubby is doing better. and congrats on the FSPP!!

Beeps - I will be sure to property chastise you should you ever consider cardio again :bigsmile:

Can't remember who questioned posting lifting status in the Stage 1 thread, but please don't consider it bragging. I would definitely consider it encouraging, especially to those who don't think they can lift as much as everyone else. It just proves how much we can do if we keep trying.

I definitely am one that needs to work on pushups! I've always been able to do them on the floor, but since I quit doing them so much as part of my lifting routine, I've gone from doing 4 sets of 15 to now only able to do about 3 sets of 10. Been working on them though as well as my pull ups.

Finally back into the swing of StrongLifts. Here's where I am so far this week

Squat - 100 lbs
Deadlift - 115 lbs
Bench - 65 lbs
OHP - 65 lbs
Row - 80 lbs

As for the Streak Challenge - 14/14 so far.

beeps - I love cardio. But I'm worried it's maybe not the best thing for me for weight loss. I'm going to hang in there a few more weeks and see what the scale continues to say.

randinek - When you start a new lifting program especially, you know the whole muscle retaining water thing, so probably that's masking weight loss if you are losing inches.

rachie - I didn't have much in the way of increased weight either. But I'm okay with that. I think the things where I saw the biggest increases were likely just me lifting too light the first time. I figure stage 1 is just a building good form stage, I got plenty more months of this to get stronger.

LB2LL - I'm running as well, about 4-5 days a week, and between 15 - 17 miles a week. Not quite half marathon territory, but probably a lot more than the author of the book prescribes. The lifting seems to really be helping my running. It's possible the running is kind of hurting my lifting (or slowing the progress I could otherwise be making) but I'm okay with that. Progress is progress. I also only do 1 speed type day a week, on a day I don't lift. Try to make all my other runs moderate to easy in effort, seems to help with recovery and being strong enough to give it my all when I'm lifting. Also running seems to really help with the muscle soreness on recovery days.

lcuconley - I have the same problem, in order to get enough protein...seems fat follows.

Sort of behind, apologize to folks who I missed, but happy to read your posts and see what you are all up to. Starting stage 2 tonight, sooo excited to do something different. Also not sure I have this eating thing worked out. Aiming for 1600 calories, but have actually been eating closer to 1740 average looks like. With all the running/lifting I do, still seems like that'd be enough for a loss, but been at a standstill for last month and a half. I know weight loss is not linear though, so going to give it a few more weeks of weigh-ins before I panic. Because honest no idea if I'm eating too much or too little, seems so arbitrary.

Was finally able to get back in the gym yesterday!! Came out feeling like a boss.

Kind of funny story....my husband always comes to the gym with me. There was another couple working out. The wife came up to me and said, "Glad I'm not the only one who would rather workout on Valentines than stand in line for 2 hours for a pasta dinner!" I thought it was quite funny.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Stage 2 starts today! I'm excited about it