I was waiting for the bonding pics.

I've been meaning to ask the group.... does anyone else get bruises on their arms from low bar squat?

I have a couple bruises on my upper outer arm and I just feel like they won't fully go away because I keep resting the bar there.

Oh, and I'm sorry about the undies and the beginning of the wedgie you see forming there. I was in a hurry to capture something before having to start my day. :P

Good to know, I want to lose my middle section too. That's what kids do to ya! but i've never been flat there anyways.. sigh! And my arms. Bad genetics. LOL!

@amylahminute: its so cute that your son is a big lump in your bed! Mine always wake up before the alarm.... 5:30ish AM is their time!

Wedgies happen.

I'm so going to put this on my tombstone.

Erm... So what's everybody been up to? Me? I've had a frustrating work week, mostly with other people's incompetencies, um...I mean their personalities. Of course, it's my fault for being so darn right all of the time.

I did workouts A, B and A again, with a big de-load on squats to make sure my form is solid (yesterday I squatted 85, down from 105). I'm liking this program,.

Ooh, I had a NSV today... using the gym's bodyfat testing machine, I'm down to 26.2% BF. The first DEXA I had in Nov 2012 said I was 31% so I feel I'm moving in the right direction. Yay?

On the confession front: I've been obsessively watching videos on YouTube of before and after liposuction patients. Now, I'm terrified of surgery as they all seem risky, doubly averse to elective surgery, but as I start to think about the local pockets of fat I don't like on me, I do fantasize about the "quick fix" in a really "yeah, I'm never doing this" sort of a way. The videos are fascinating and kind of macabre. :P some patients are awake and talking while they're being sucked.

That's all that's up with me. How's you guys?

@ cruisn' not sure if you ever saw this pic



bar placement defines your "lean"...I do low bar so I would probably have "bros" at a gym telling me the same thing...doesn't make them right.

Everyone squats differently...we are all built differently, hold the bar in a different place...

This is one of the reason's women tend to stay away from the free weights..

Don't listen to them...because to be frank (and other please correct me if I am wrong) if your form was so off you wouldn't have been progressing as well and you would have hurt yourself long before they stepped in.

I think we can all "feel" it when our form is off...for us...foot placement, bar placement, leans etc...

I look like that picture when I squat. I have found that when I do squats and when I do barbell rows, what works for me is sybo (stick your butt out), that gives me the right form, and it makes me look like that picture too. I am comfortable with that when rowing because when not lifting I do T-Tapp, and when you bend over that is the pose you take to flatten your back while you do leg bends/arm movements. If tried not to do that and stay straight, that wouldn't work at all.

On another note, just changed to TDEE - 15%, 1700 calories. The past 2 days I was starving so I ate that much anyway, my weigh day was Thursday and I was exactly 1 lb. down so I was thinking, perfect, maybe I just need to make sure I eat 1600 and don't have to go to - 15%. Then I woke up this morning, definitely drank plenty of water yesterday, I always do, and I was down another 1.8 lbs, but it has only been 1 day since my weigh day. We will see how TDEE - 15% works, next stop 10% if this doesn't do it. I do not want to lose muscle.

Amy - If you are interested in lipo, give CoolSculpting a look. I see a billboard for it on my way home. Supposed to be a non-evasive liposuction like procedure that freezes the fat cells instead of surgery. I think the idea is pretty interesting.

That is interesting, but how does your skin react? It takes time (in most cases) for skin to tighten once fat is gone. My skin has been doing ok but I know there will be more skin tightening as time goes on. I think I would be more interested in a procedure like that if it also made skin tighten, but then again I am getting closer and closer to my goal, so just going to keep at it. I think there is much more of a sense of achievement to be had when you are losing the weight by eating right and exercising. Best thing I ever did fat loss-wise was pick up those weights.

@amy - hi Amy, maybe give it some time to see how you look, skin will tighten more with time, and my fat pockets are going away more and more, I can actually look at myself in a bikini and not scream, although I am not ready to go out in public like that yet, getting there though. Also when you lose fat, it mobilizes first. For example, I looked at my stomach this morning and it looked more fatty, like cellulite or something, but a. I know that isn't how it usually looks and b. fat mobilizes before you lose it. It looks terrible when it does that because it loosens up and becomes much more noticeable, but then it goes away. That is actually how you can tell where the fat is coming off next if you are really paying attention.

Amy - Yeah, I am the same way...."wow, that looks neat. Not that I would really do it" but I still like to research and look at results photos. I keep thinking of a tummy tuck and breast lift, but meh.

Since I b*tched about this here a while back, I'll put the follow-up here:

I went to the gym today to have a session with a PT I've known for a long time (he trains a friend of mine and used to teach the kids taekwando) and I told him what the Russian boxer said to me in early June. He made a face. "That's N.," he said. "He's kind of a jerk."

A guy from across the weight room said, "N. is an a______e. Ignore anything he says!"

Then we started with squats. The PT watched me squat.

"If all of my clients came to me doing squats the way you do them, I'd be a very happy man," he said.

I feel a lot better today.

I scrolled back a bit and found the back story. Good NIGHT, what a jerk!!

It makes me a liiiiittle suspicious that he felt you needed a trainer and GUESS WHAT?! He happens to know this trainer over here! Out of the goodness of his heart, I'm sure. There's no possible way he's trying to solicit business for his friend. Nope. Just helping a girl out.

Pfffffffft.