Too many names on here to remembe all I want to respond to. You all are a wonderful group of ladies, and gents for the few I have seen on here. I am so thrilled I found you. I just started Monday and today did #3 workout B.

I had not realized I did the barbell rows instead of the pendalay rows...I think that's how it is spelled. Did not realize there was a slight difference until I Youtubed it. But here are my results today

Squats 55x5
Bench press 55x5
Barbell rows 55x5 - Will do the pendlay next time.

I am looking forward to getting to know more about you all and participating as much as possible.
Happy lifting pushing and pulling to you all.

Too many names on here to remembe all I want to respond to. You all are a wonderful group of ladies, and gents for the few I have seen on here. I am so thrilled I found you. I just started Monday and today did #3 workout B.

I had not realized I did the barbell rows instead of the pendalay rows...I think that's how it is spelled. Did not realize there was a slight difference until I Youtubed it. But here are my results today

Squats 55x5
Bench press 55x5
Barbell rows 55x5 - Will do the pendlay next time.

I am looking forward to getting to know more about you all and participating as much as possible.
Happy lifting pushing and pulling to you all.

Great job!

What an awesome set of responses. I can't offer any more to what others have said, and I agree that most of us have at one point been feeling the same way. With so much static out in the world about what we "should" want to look like, I think we all forget that being happy with who we are is so much more rewarding than trying to live up to someone else's ideals.

Well, I decided on a rest day for today. I'm really feeling the higher weights wearing me out so it's time to adjust the schedule a bit to allow for recovery.

I had a sort of NSV the other day when my husband said that one of his friends told him to tell me "thank you" because his wife was inspired by my progress and has lost 20 lbs. I started doing all this for me, but I've heard from so many of my friends and family that I've inspired them to start working at losing weight and working out. I even have a friend meeting me at the gym tomorrow because she asked me to be her "personal trainer" and help her get back into shape. I'm just so honored that people have looked at what I've done and decided that they can do the same. I think everyone in this group is just as worthy of this NSV because I see so much awesomeness from everyone here that it pushes me to keep at it.

The good thing about working out in your basement is that it doesn't take much to get to the gym! Now I don't know if that was a good thing or not today because I was also able to decide to have a very light workout without thinking gosh you came all the way here you might as well go for it!

I decided after the squat and row warm ups that I was too sore to continue with the work weight so I just stopped. I did do the bench press, again at 90 so at least i did something. BUT! I was thinking about it and even though I didn't actually lift the work weight for squats and rows even the warm ups are way more than I used to lift so woo hooo! : )

lwoodroth, Great job on the DL!

So on a much happier note......I am very excited to try out a barbell complex after workout B tomorrow As some of you may have seen, I have posted a link to barbell complexes on BB.com a couple of times (Dani has also posted about complexes) and I have been super anxious to try them out!

After my struggle and rant this week I decided that now would be the perfect time to try something new!

I will let you know how I find it!

Hi everyone, do you girls lift with gloves if so what is a good brand that are not too thick. I'm up to 63 kilo deads and my hands were feeling it today.

Yes I do! Fed up of the callouses. However I'm not on big weights yet and mine ate the biggest (washable) ladies gloves the gym had. I suspect I will need to get technical at some point!

So I did my first ever barbell complex after workout B this morning.....YES YES YES!!!!! Absolutely loved it and holy *kitten* I had a sweat going! Here is the complex:

Overhead Squat
Back Squat
Good Morning
Front Squat
Row
Deadlift

Flow through each exercise one after another for 3 sets of 8. I used the oly bar for all EXCEPT overhead squat because quite frankly that *kitten* is hard and my form with the oly bar was AWFUL.....so I used a broomstick :laugh: You are also NEVER supposed to put the bar down until you're done the complex however I was unsure of how to get the bar from good morning to front squat so I did rack it briefly to switch positions. I did all 3x8 and rested for about 1 minute between sets and it took my just under 13 minutes.

I was looking for more lower body work and by golly I think this might be it :bigsmile:

Happy Saturday all!

Awesome! Who says lifting isn't cardiovascular? :laugh:

Also for OH squats, you're supposed to start out with a broom stick or somesuch because it's so different and you're squatting so much lower anyway (if you're doing it in true olympic form).

Vegas - That sounds like a great workout! I've been working with the broomstick for squats and will do some overhead as well. That squat is no joke!

So today I had an interesting gym experience. It was great having a friend join me. I also was distracted enough to forget how to do plate math. In my head I put 105 on the bar for bench, but was thinking WTF when I tried to get it off the rack. I managed it and did a set, but then bumped down to 100 for the final 4 sets. They were a bit of a struggle and I was telling my friend that some days you feel great and hit a number and then the next time you just can't seem to do it. Well, got that done and was loading up for rows and realized i WAS at 105 for the bench. I had first stacked 110 on the bar....:laugh: so my plate math was off a little, but it is nice to know that I can at least do 1 set at 110.

Then there was another younger lady working at the other bench next to us with a male friend. She was working with the bar and made a comment to him about wanting to do lower weights for higher reps because she wanted to tone versus build muscle. :huh: I was very happy I still had the bar racked before hearing that because I think I may have had it come crashing down on me when my concentration was broken. I normally don't hear things like that because I have my headphones in. I'm very happy to have learned that gaining strength can be done in as little as 5 reps without gaining too much muscle

Vegas you continue to impress me. After I dead lift I pretty much want to collapse on the floor and sleep. That complex does sound pretty fun though!

Gloves- I just used to use my cycling gloves, because the knurling hurt my hands- even for squats:laugh: . Over time I've made it a point to acclimate my hands, and now I do everything sans gloves or chalk. I'll probably have to use chalk at some point, but it gives me the feeling of nails on a chalkboard when I have it on my hands so I'm putting it off. :grumble: So far I don't have any really discernible callouses, but when it gets over 200 it does still hurt a bit. When I was a bartender I had a sweet diagonal callous on my palm from opening beer bottles, and I had no problems picking up guys.

Jstout- What an awesome eavesdrop.

I had an awesome workout last night. I did yoga before lifting. It's generally frowned upon to do stretching before lifting, because you need tension in your muscles to lift. Apparently I'm super tight, because all those hip openers made my squats spectacular.

Squats: 3x5 135
Bench: 3x5 107
Row: 3x5 90
Pushups: 1x15 (stupid planks and downward dogs messing with my numbers!:laugh: )

Also I'm so happy I listed to Tamkeo and stuck with fixing my row form because my back is sore as heck today- a clear indication of future sexiness

Just wanna say you ladies are the best! :flowerforyou:

I'm just lying on my heated rice sock, nursing this shoulder. I've been able to get back to 80# squats, just gonna keep doing squats until I'm 100%. I've been trying to stay active with spinning, step and Zumba. I also discovered the foam roller at the gym! :bigsmile: happy girl over here! Got dinner with the gfs tonight. I'm excited to see their reactions cause I look a lot different since last they saw me heehee..

Vegas, do you have a link for the barbell complex? Is it one of the ones you listed earlier, cause if so, I'll go back and find it. That sounds like lots of fun.

I'm sorry but I don't! I usually bookmark everything like that but yesterday when I was doing my googling for ones besides the BB.com ones (not sure how comfortable I am with some of those Olympic lifts) I didn't bookmark ANY of the pages :sad: And the one that I did today I didn't even print off because I couldn't print it off! BUT with all that being said, it's exactly as I wrote it out above! 3 sets of 8 of each exercise with a rest period in between....I took about 1 minute maybe 90 seconds, but basically until your heart rate comes down. And as I mentioned above, I did use a broomstick for the overhead squat because it's super tough! Give it a go :happy:

Awesome - thank you!

Jstout, you should have casually stretched out your arm and made a bicep, then said something like "Hoo boy, I sure wish I'd stop building these sexy muscles. I mean, really, who wants to see a healthy, strong body on a woman?"

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: It took all my control not to bust out laughing right there. Funny thing was after they left I made a comment about it to my friend and she said "Well, don't you have to have muscle to tone it in the first place?"

I did my third workout yesterday, I am really enjoying this. Increased all weights.
My squats are ok, better than the first time I tried. I watched a load of vids and read everything I could find. They are my fav by far, them and deadlifts. Even with my little weights, I feel strong when I do them.

I rest today and tomorrow, I lift agin Tuesday morning. I can't wait.

Vegas you are an example for us all! I still had doms in my shoulders from OHPs on Friday so dread to think how I'll feel tomorrow!