Just ordered all equipment today and should be here within the next two weeks (I hate shopping so I live online lol).. in the meantime, keeping my diet in check for the last 2 weeks (in deficit) and studying this book and you guys religiously lol

I ordered: 7' Olympic barbell (with 110lbs worth of weights to start), bench (declines, inclines etc..), Rack, swiss ball, bowflex select tech dumbbells (up to 52.5lbs)... and a multilevel step.. think I covered it for now? The most expensive item was the dumbbells lol

Can't wait to get my stuff and get set up!

Just finished CLX and found that I really like lifting. Trying to see if this is the direction I want to go. Don't have a gym membership and wasn't sure if it's something I can do at home...after reading this it looks like I'll have to invest into more equipment that I can afford right now :-((((((((

Here are a couple spreadsheets that might help with logging as well as calorie requirements.

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8OgAuIMlsG-TDRKd192c1A1Mkk

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B8OgAuIMlsG-bUNJVGJJaXhvVFE

Very helpful! Thank you!

I just started last week. I have a question, in the first week we aren't supposed to be adding any weight yet, correct? We increase the second week.

Jill

Just make sure you choose a weight that is challenging for the number of reps. If you find you can do all the reps without much effort, add weight on your next set. If it feels right, keep the same weight for all sets. But definitely always aim to increase your weight each time you do a particular workout. If it is going to be a week before you do workout A again then I guess you won't be adding until the second week.

Laurochka - Although I do the cable row, the book suggests a Bent-over Row as a home gym substitute, with barbells or dumbells.

Feel free to add. I don't make the best eating choices but have been logging fairly well. On stage 1 workout B6 tomorrow. The starting nov 1 group has also been quite active lately and talks mostly about the workouts good luck.

Hey Veggiemama! Cute name . I used to run but had a couple of injuries last year and couldn't continue. I'm hoping to get back into it in these next couple of weeks with the weather warming up and would love some feedback on this as well.

I'm finishing my 4th week in Stage 1 and all I can tell ya now, there's no way I could run and lift on the same days. I just wouldn't have the power for the lifts. I kinda found that out the hard way when my husband and I had a little...erm, 'cardio' session before hittin' the gym one day :blushing: and I had a REALLY hard time pushing out the same numbers as the previous session. That said, I think easing back into a 15-20 run on non-lift days could be really beneficial.

As far as calories, I'm trying to sort of stagger them. My lift days I'm ravenous, so I take advantage of the higher goal. On non-lift days, I try to eat until satisfied but try not to eat all the way up to goal. (However, I fully admit that my diet lacks consistency and it's an area I'm really trying to improve). If you are doing cardio on non-lift days, make sure you take that into account and feed your needs.

Oh, and I believe the goal in the book is total calories, not net. That's why they give you a different goal for workout and non-workout days. Hope that helps! And hope some others can weigh in

I am starting this today with my cute tiny free county gym. There is no Swiss ball but have one at home so will run home to do that. Any suggestions would be great this is frankly scary to me. I have read the book and printed out the form for stage one work out A and B.

I posted this in the Stage 1, Part 7 thread by accident...sorry!

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Wow ladies, you're all so inspiring! I am starting stage 1 on Monday and have a question about the squat in Workout A: am I okay to sub dumbells resting on my shoulders for the barbell at first?

Also, regarding the step up, is it better to increase the weight of my dumbells or the height of the step, as I move on? Or did you increase both a bit at the same time?

Finally, for the prone jackknife: if I have already been doing these for a bit and therefore find the sets and reps pretty easy, should I modify it to a straight-leg jackknife? Two sets of 8 or 10 wouldn't be challenging for me right now.

Thanks!

I got the book yesterday, busy reading through, hoping to get started on Monday Morning