twinmom823: Stress can be one of the most important factors! Hope your super efforts are soon rewarded by losses - both on the scale and in inches!! Hugs..

redlipstickly: I know what you mean by feeling like a superhero!! When I finish my workouts, I am like "YEAH" until the NO-Loss on the scale makes me sad. :P
Barbell complex was really super fun and tiring, after the regular lifting. Quite challenging, so I will stick with it.

sunshine -Howz it going? I know you are having a rough/busy week.. Hope it gets better soon!

I did Stage 2 B2 yesterday. I cut out rest times between supersets and between D1-D3. So I was able to get it done faster. I also added circuits to the end as part of HIIT.

I run on non lifting days, so I think I will follow up the regular lifting with 15 mins of circuits or barbell complx workouts in stg 2.

My gym does not have a squat rack - So I will stick to dumbbells and I like branching out on diff exercises in diff stages in NROLFW. So I think I will stick with this program. Lets see!

Deficit DL and bulgarian split squats were very challenging. They left my butt really sore today - so I guess something is working :P
Still no loss on the scale. But I am losing inches steadily. I don't want to cut down more on the food side, so may b I will try restricting my carbs a bit.

Everyone, have good workouts!! and a wonderful weekend

Just finished stage 1.

deadlifts - 3 sets of 8 - 115, 120, 120
barbell shoulder press - 3 sets of 8 - 65, 65, 65
widelat grip pull downs 3 sets of 8 - 110, 110, 110
lunge - 3 set of 8 @ body weight due to recurring injury
swiss ball crunch 3 sets of 15 holding 30lb plate

Squat 3 sets of 8 @ 60lb (thought I would be higher weight but still trying to tweek form.)
pushups 3 sets of 8 (regular pushups)
barbell row 3 sets of 8 75lb, 75lb, 80lb
step up 3 sets of 15 holding 30lbs
prone jack knife 3 sets of 15

Been enjoying reading everyones progress. Stealing some ideas here and there. Next I have the AMRAP workouts then on to stage 2.
@Maya I will be looking forward to seeing how you make out with strong lifts.
@twinmom - wow, your workouts are killer
@msnmov - losing inches steadily is fantastic. I will take that over the scale anyday.
@red - will be looking into tabata for stage 2. thanks for the tip

Pudding1980: My gym has removable weights that can be added to the stack of weights on the cable machines so that you can go up in smaller increments. Does your gym have anything like that?

Hmmm, not sure. I will definitely look tomorrow. I also need to see if there's a cable I can use for one of the moves in Stage 2, as I start that on Monday.

I did my AMRAPS this week. It went okay but not as well as I had hoped. I will be honest and say I didn't care as much as I do about putting in the effort for the heavier lifts. I just want to keep on going and not "waste time" with the AMRAPS.

PS I started HRT over the last 2 weeks feel totally bloated, and even got a period this week for the first time in like 5 years! Gonna see how it goes though not ready to throw in the towel yet.

Maya: welcome to the bikinigeddon survival team. we're happy to have you
Sunshine: I think it's great that in spite of your hectic week you managed to lift twice and do two hiits! That's more than I see a lot of people do when they're not having a good week.
Pudding: I didn't do the AMRAPS either. I knew I was stronger. I didn't need some special workouts to prove it. I'm so excited for you to start stage two. I can't wait to hear what you think
Alasin: congrats on finishing stage one! You put up some really great numbers

^^^YES
@red - You are so gonna rock your goal!

Leg Day yesterday~ My glutes are on fire!
10 min fat burner program level 11 on stairs
TRX Single Leg Lunge/TRX Single Leg Squat (Back to back is killer!)
Plea Leg Sled 180# added to machine/Hamstring Prone Curl 55# (was still sore from deadlifts last week!)
Lunges with barbell 50#/Inline Pulley Squats 150#

then ended with 5 min cooldown on tredmill

I talked with my boss/trainer and she gave me the suggestion to up my calories from 1400-1600 to 1600-1800, go 40/40/20 on carbs/protein/fat and stay there for 2 weeks, then drop down to 1250 calories to see if the scale will move at all! It's just to jump start my body...I don't know, I'm willing to try it. It's TOM right now so I'm a bloated hormonal mess lol!

Gonna get in bicep/tricep workout today with my co-worker Hope everyone has a killer weekend!

Hi girls and happy Monday!
@redlipstickly.. that workout 3A1 seems like I thought, way too long. no way I can go through that.

This weekend was kinda hard because 1) knee still troubling me, only when doing squats! ANNOYING, I love squats!! and then I feel like the rest of the workouts are useless coz I can't do anything with my legs... and 2) I went to JCPenney to get a swimsuit for next week Disney trip...OMG... those mirrors are sooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad, I swear I felt like a FAT COW, worst day of my life. I saw every single bit of fat in my body I hadn't seen in YEARS. OMG!!! from then on, my mood has been the worst. I feel I've worked SO HARD since January and no change, or worst yet, I looked WORST...

After a lot of self talk and my cousin and friends assuring me that is the mirrors fault, and I do look better and they do notice the difference. I'm back on my hopes of summer bikinnigeddon... but I promised if by Friday I still look that bad, I might get... a.... one piece

Oh and Saturday I couldn't workout, car/family scheduling problems, so I was already upset. But Sunday I went in, head up high and boom, knee pain when squatting, so I did a mix of my Strong Lifts 5x5 and NROL4W workout A and I BROKE MY DEADLIFT PR. First of all, I don't know if you guys noticed but I HATE deadlifts, I could never see the point, I was stuck at 65lbs. After much reading I realized I was doing it all wrong, with the preloaded bars instead of with Olympic bar, so my ROM was messed up. So I went for it with the Olympic bar and I deadlifted 95lbs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that's a 30lbs difference! best feeling ever. It felt just hard enough to do my 5reps (only 1 set)

@catdevrandom... i'm also planning on buying new lifting shoes, and high knees socks, I want to have better form as i'm switching programs and SL5x5 seems to increase weights rather quickly. let me know how do you feel lifting with your new shoes

I did the AMRAP workouts for both workout A and workout B because I felt it was too short a session with just one of them. I also don't really enjoy high rep workouts so I wanted to get it out of the way. I was shaking pretty badly though coming out of the gym so I think I got a good workout in!!
I also tried the front squats from stage 2 just to give myself an idea of what is coming. I used just the bar and I was surprised that I was able to squat with it but I found the hand position awkward. From the book I thought that the bar would just roll onto my fingers but it didn't and I had to kind of jerk it out of the palm of my hand. Did anyone else find this? Also, when I was pushing the bar up for the shoulder press it was rubbing off my throat so I will have to sort that out. Don't want a rash from the bar on my neck!

Red, you are not selling me on stage 3! I haven't really looked ahead at the workouts but it sounds painful.
Maya, congrats on your deadlift. That is amazing to go up by so much. :drinker: :drinker:

Oh don't worry, I am not backing out! let me know how you get on, knowing that it is hard and boring will just mean that I am prepared for it!

3A2 is done! I decided randomly to see if Pandora had a workout station. They did. It was the most amazing playlist and made my workout so much fun. I gave this workout all I had and feel really good now. Got the body weight matrix down to under 2 minutes and felt like wonder woman. Tomorrow I'm taking progress pics. I might even post them here because I think I'm smaller in the middle but I trust you guys honesty opinion

Hi Ladies!

Sorry for being MIA - we had guests over and had some serious over eating over the last couple days and cleaning up the mess the kids made!

I did get all my planned workouts in and felt good. I am 2 workouts away from ending stage 2. This stage went by really fast!!
Since I got my ankle hurt - I did not take a break after Stage 1. Rolled onto stage 2 instead. After this stage I will take 1 week complete off from lifting.

Stage 2 has been making me stronger, and FSPP and split squats are still tough. Although I increased weights and moved from DB to oly bar for the split squats.

This is TOM week, so I am not measuring - I dont want to get demotivated. I guess I will measure after this week finishing last A and last B workout and my week off

Maya - you are having awesome results!! Congrats!
Red - Apart from being too long, how do you like stage 3?
I do run on non lifting days, so I am not sure whether I should be cutting down on running or cutting my workout shorter leaving the HIIT at the end.
Lets see. I saw some changes in my arms and back this time, and like the definition my arms are getting. I always have had flabby jiggly arms and it is firming up now!! But for the scale everything else is improving

Will post my workout stats afterwards!

After many days off due to life I have completed the first AMRAP workout. Thanks to all of you for the encouragement on completing stage 1. I just got caught up on reading how people are doing with the next stages. Yikes. If you guys can do it in I shall also press on.

AMRAP squats - 52 @ 40lbs
AMRAP push ups - 30 modified
AMRAP barbell row - 65 @ 35lbs
AMRAP step ups - 40 per leg @ 20lbs
AMRAP prone jack knife 31
AMRAP seat row 40 on level 6 of total gym

@ sunshinelively You are getting some high numbers on those weights. I am curious if the weight lifting shoes are making a big difference on form for things like squats. I still feel like I don't have it quite right. Maybe I should try the board trick.

thanks alasin - love your user name btw - slowly improving.

i had been wearing running shoes, since i would go running after. plus it was my only pair of gym shoes. but i noticed they were spongy and hard to balance on so i got some cross trainers which have almost no padding. your foot is much more stable for things like squats and deadlifts. i would definitely recommend!

Everyone is doing great. Its so inspiring to read this thread and hear how you are all getting on.

Red: I always bring my music to the gym but the speaker on my phone is broken so the sound is really bad and I can't hear it over the crappy music that the stupid boys are playing! :explode:

Sunshine: those shoes sound good. I would like to get something like that but unfortunately funds are low at the minute. I considered doing it in my socks but to be honest I don't really feel like my shoes are impacting on my lifting. Maybe if I tried without them though I would change my mind!

Alasin: those stats are great. Well done!

Maya: Enjoy disney. Im not jealous, not even a little bit...

I did stage 2 workout A1 today. Omg, those static lunges nearly killed me! Just looking at workout 2 and im not really sure what the difference is between the static lunge and the bulgarian split squat. Am I missing something obvious?

@doumc... i think the difference is in the form the foot is resting on the bench behind, but i also dont think there was much if difference between the two, both were equally hard.

and it's my first time going to disney, i wasnt particulary excited but my baby cousin loves it, and just going through the website and the rides and the shows, and her excitement, im super excited now hehe. not so much for the 4hrs driving by myself tho, i guess thats why i'm taking it easy now, need to be rested. now that i know how to post pics, i can share some of my trip maybe

Wow, Maya!! AWESOME job!!!! Congratulations! It's very inspiring!!!

I love to come here to see what you girls are thinking about the next stages and seeing all the amazing progress!

About the lifting shoes, whoever is considering it, seriously, just do it! It feels so different, so much easier to balance!

You're all moving forward and I'm still in stage 1, boohoo! Today is my B8 workout, but I decided a few things. First of all, I'm not convinced by my squat and deadlift forms AT ALL. I'm gonna work on those a bit more until I feel convinced that I'm doing them right. Second, my right leg is definitely stronger than the left, and larger too by some 2cm (I thought it was 2cm of fat, but it is not...). I want to do some single leg exercises doing 2 sets on the right leg and 3 sets on the right, but not lunges and step ups as they hurt my knees. I'm thinking two more weeks, including the AMRAP workouts, then rest week, and only then I'll move on to Stage 2.

I bought the Starting Strength book, not for the program but for all the information on the form. I'm trying to learn a bit more about it and realized that I might not have been doing it good so far, probably largely because of using running shoes for the lifts. Last time I did the deadlift I followed the advice in one video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt7A23YnpA) and my weights immediately went up 10kg. Crazy difference! I finally felt my hamstrings working and not the lower back so much.

And about the squats, I think maybe I should do the lower bar version to load more the hamstrings and glutes and not so much the quads, which might be causing my knee pain. So now that my boyfriend is joining me, I'm gonna ask him to film me so that I can figure out my form at last.

About food, I decided to cut a bit again so I'm back to calorie counting. The two weeks off were great, I was eating about 1900-2000, with some days going up to 2200 (I logged in retrospect just to have an idea of how much I was eating, and not everyday). I noticed that the weight went up about 0.7-1kg and the pants were starting to get slightly tight. It was very interesting to see, though, that the change is also slow on the other way around. Somehow I had that image in my head that I would wake up fat instantly after eating 2200 calories a day, and it is really not like that. There's plenty of time to catch the trend early enough and just cut back a bit, and that's it I'm feeling very good about this "discovery". Got me in a much more relaxed state of mind. But anyway, I decided to go back to 1600kcal a day until I reach around 55kg (121lbs, give or take), and then I'll go back up to maintenance. This is in preparation to my going home for Summer break in August (Oh, the tropical beach!!!! YAY!), and once I'm back from vacations, I'll be ready for my first bulking

Cheers to all, keep rocking as always!