Ah had a good session today. its my last week of stage one then i am off on holiday!. Wonder if i will be able to break 28kg on seated row before the end.

Good morning all,

Not much going on here except realizing I *may* have just eaten half of my calories for the day all before 10am. Oops. I will have to do some exercise today. I wanted to do a long run, but it randomly snowed yesterday (I live in Charlotte, NC) and it's too cold (for me). Excuses? Probably... I'm contining on with Stage 6 tomorrow. OMG I got a random compliment at the gym the other day: I was trying to do a handstand pushup. I know: crazy. But I saw people doing them and just wanted to see if I could. Turns out: I can't. But I can do a handstand no problem. So the guy who teaches crossfit saw me and said he was impressed with my being able to do the handstand part. He said a lot of folks have trouble just getting to that point. So that made me feel better, although I was mortified he had seen me.

mcbellnz - sorry about your kitty. I hope the limp just goes away on its own. Try not to stress.

blues - you will get used to Stage 2. Dare I say you may even start to like it. Did you take a week off between stages? I swear by taking that break. When I stop and come back, I always feel stronger. I also skipped the AMRAPs.. Your body just may be tired and need to recuperate and repair your muscles. Make sure you're allowing for that time!

livingdead - congrats on seeing the stage 1 finishline. Have a great holiday!

thankyou4- a half a pound is SUCCESS. congrats! And um, yes dropping 1% body fat is amazing. Keep up the great work!

Thanks for everyone's concern about my kitty - she spent most of the day sleeping yesterday (as per usual) and trapped her inside last night (I finally relented and unlocked the kitty door at 5:15am.

Her limp is still there - not as bad, but the anti-inflam injection should wear off in the next day or so, so I will be keeping a close eye on her to see if she has to have another visit to "Dr Poke-bottom" (my name for the vet).

Hopefully all the positive thoughts from you guys will help her heal. She is in good condition otherwise, so hopefully she has just pulled a muscle clawing a tree or something.

samantha - sorry you did not get to buy your book...amazon?

mcbell - how's your kitty?

newme - those PJKs are hard to keep your balance! give 'em a whirl every time you go to the gym. I bet you can do it!

kms - don't you hate that!?!? You don't want to starve yourself for the rest of the day, but half the cals is hard to get by on for lunch and dinner!

beeps - I got a tape measure, so here are my stats:
age 46
height 66"
weight 162
waist 34
hips 40
thighs 25

I did workout 1A8 this am as well as my 100pushup workout 20, 25, 15, 15, 15 and yoga. If I missed yesterday on my streak and got 2 workouts in today, can I count it as good?? Just kidding. I missed yesterday because my body was telling me it needed a break and my kids had 5 basketball games, a soccer game and a soccer practice so I could not fit an easy yoga workout in...

Dog ate my shoes, so I was "popping tags" thrift shopping. I went to unique and for the price of a new pair of Chucks, I got two pair of sketchers, a pair of new balance, a winter jacket, four pair of jeans for hubby, two pair sneakers for my younger son, two pair jeans for my older son, two games, and about 10 books. Tah-dah. Holding off on getting a new program. I may do stronglifts for five weeks or repeat stage 1 of 4W and try to regain strength. (didn't realize Supercharged was only available in hardcover)

I am really liking Stage 6, although the workouts are SUPER short: 20-25 minutes. Today I rocked negative chinups! The "10 sets of 2 rep lat pull downs" are crazy, but I did them with 130 lbs today. Booyeah!

My scale was UP 3.5 lbs today. WHAT?! Seriously? I have to chalk this up to water retention. I will admit, I *might* have snuck a taste here or there and not logged, but not 3 lbs worth. Plus I excericsed. It could also be due to stress. I tend to emotional eat when I'm stressed. I've been doing that to a much lesser degree than I did in the past. Still keeping under TDEE though. I really hope it's not freakin stress because the crap I have going on is here to stay for another month or so. I just have to get through this VERY difficult time in my life without sabatoging all my weight loss. I tried to do that today by just sticking to my routine, but found myself snacking here and there. One day at a time, I guess...

lcu - I might try that 100 push-up challenge. Our stats are similar ('cept I'm shorter and started off 35 lbs heavier). I haven't measured recently though.

Sam - I am always thinking about "what next" and I kinda want to try a new program. Contemplating Starting Strength or the program Megan (remember her?) went to - something by Nia Shanks. On the other hand, I love this program and need to read up on the other routines offered.

ARGH! I was all set to take my day off of work yesterday at the gym and get in a GREAT Stage 4A workout...but noooo. Sunday night I stepped on some loose wood in my house and it went right in to my foot! Now I have an absurdly painful bruise on the bottom of my right foot which made working out yesterday and today (not to mention walking) quite difficult. I am hoping to be back in the gym tomorrow...this is mighty inconvenient.

The rest of you guys are killing it!

kmsairam - I didn't take a break (figured that would happen naturally with some sort of unfortunate work/travel interruption here before long). But I am considering a full no-cardio (or at least, no running) and no-lifting break here sometime in the near future, just hard for me to convince myself to take a break. Feels like slacking. Maybe in the future I will skip any AMRAP work-outs. Reading ahead not sure if I will do stage 6 or not this time around. Might go all the way through and do stage 6 at the end? I don't know. Also not sure what I will do after. Maybe the NROL supercharged? I like the idea of making my own workouts and mixing and matching, especially once I will have learned all these moves from going through this program.

newme1313 - by enough days of those you will be a PRO at the jacknife, I am not kidding. My dismount still left something to be desired, but I really had it down on getting on that thing and getting them done (though my abs were still complaining by the last rep :laugh: ). Went from feeling like a weird overweight seal playing with my ball and falling all over the place :blushing: to being able to get it done no problem, so you can too!

lcuconley - I did the AMRAP...but kind of wish I didn't. Most of my weights didn't increase by *that* much so this idea that I could "see" what progress I made was sort of moot. Instead it felt difficult just to go past the 15 reps of the first day, and just didn't enjoy dropping down that much on the few moves that I did actually increase my weight by quite a bit from the first day. Also felt weak again when I started stage 2. Maybe that's all perception but if I had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn't do them.

A couple more workouts into Stage 2 here. I don't have a cable pull machine (workout from home) so was trying to do the weird lay on your back version of the horizontal woodchop but didn't really like it. Found on youtube something called dumbbell cross/wood chop (picture the movement of chopping logs in half or something) and really like it as a substitution. Feel like it's really working my core. I graduated from knee push-ups to doing push-ups on the bench of which now I can do just exactly the two sets of 10, though I don't feel 100% confident in my form (thinking I'm not going low enough). So hoping to keep working at that and get better. And ALL of these new squat/lunge moves are REALLY working my legs. Go go leg muscles.

I did the AMRAP workouts, and I don't think you really lose anything by skipping them. They're more of a "Hey cool! Look how much better you are already!" kind of a workout.

For anyone contemplating Stage 6 - I really liked doing it and was glad that I did after finishing. I really only think it adds to your success in 7.

can any one please pass me a video for how to start lifting?

A couple more workouts into Stage 2 here. I don't have a cable pull machine (workout from home) so was trying to do the weird lay on your back version of the horizontal woodchop but didn't really like it. Found on youtube something called dumbbell cross/wood chop (picture the movement of chopping logs in half or something) and really like it as a substitution. Feel like it's really working my core.

Can you post the link? I'm also doing the weird lay on your back version of the horizontal woodchop and would love another option.

This is it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuiEZWIHWrA

Not entirely sure it works the "same" muscles as the actual horizontal woodchop, but it feels like an acceptable alternative anyways. I feel like the one on my back doesn't use my core at all, just my arm muscles. This one feels much better especially if I make an effort to do a full range of motion in twisting to either side as I "chop" with my dumbbell :laugh:

2 days

Dog ate my shoes, so I was "popping tags" thrift shopping. I went to unique and for the price of a new pair of Chucks, I got two pair of sketchers, a pair of new balance, a winter jacket, four pair of jeans for hubby, two pair sneakers for my younger son, two pair jeans for my older son, two games, and about 10 books. Tah-dah. Holding off on getting a new program. I may do stronglifts for five weeks or repeat stage 1 of 4W and try to regain strength. (didn't realize Supercharged was only available in hardcover)

Yikes, where the hell do you buy your Chucks? They can't be that $$$!? And where is unique?

$40 is non-sale price no that anybody would actually pay it lol. I liked Unique on my FB page. I go to the ones in Watchung and South plainfield butt there are others. My new sneakers are awesome.

I decided to restart stage one of 4W to regain strength before starting something new.

You bought all of that for $40?!?

Hey ladies

I was hoping someone could give me some advise. I would like to do some HIIT today. It is a non lifting day...What do you do for calories if you add another workout? On my lifting days I add 300 cals should I do the same if I do HIIT or maybe just 200?

I do have a HRM but I am not sure where I put the chest strap..would you add the calories burned?

It would be great if someone could give some advice.

Thank you

I eat back all of my exercise calories, so my recommendation on how much extra to eat depends on how long you are going to do HIIT.

The chest strap goes just under your boobs.

Thank you for your reply...I will eat them back...

And sorry English is not my mother tongue I didn't mean it that way I meant I can't find the strap

I'll have a look and see how much I burn during the session ....again thank you for your input