I think I need to make one of my weekly goals to get on here every day! Y'all are killing it. I love reading how much everyone is lifting! I don't have time to comment individually, but keep up the good work.
35lbs incline press is awesome! Stay away from the Smith Machine. dna, sorry about the family drama.
JL, I am with you on the diet. It's been a bad week.

I finished Strong Curves yesterday. All of my lifts went up. Barbell Hip Thrusts went from 155lbs X 3 sets X 5 reps to 225lbs X 3 sets X 5 reps. I'll be taking some pics to see if there's any positive physique changes. I know I've grown an inch in my hips and I feel like my booty looks better.
I start Erin Stern's Elite Body program tomorrow. It's a 4-day split that includes arms/shoulders/abs, plyo/legs, shoulders/chest, back. I'm really looking forward to shorter workouts with a little more isolation.

Lift on lovelies!

Nice job icanm and snb.
I did a half workout today while my kiddos were swimming. Not my usual gym so I did mostly upper body exercises. No squat rack or oly bars. So I used the smith machine. I was wearing stretch jeans and could not do much lower body.

So I went and bought a new iPhone. Same carrier same number just to have an easy transition. But I can't access the iCloud or my voicemail. So this phone is almost as useless as my old one. And the cord is different. And I used 50% of the battery in twelve hours, while I was sleeping. I didn't buy a cover because they were out of green, sooooo I will probably break it tomorrow.

How does this split workout work? Lifting 4 days a week sounds nice!

I hate Halloween candy :P Hate having it in the house. Bah!

My lower back is sore. I was rushed after lifting on Friday and completely forgot to stretch and now, three days later, I am still sore. I'll have to be careful doing my lifting today.

After lots of indecision about whether to start with Supercharged or NROL4W, I went to the gym this afternoon and did the first workout from NROL4W. To recap my long and boring thread on the subject, I'm starting strength training again after a long lay off and, more importantly, after a year of serious illness. The first half of this year I was almost completely housebound and unable to do more than necessities of life. I'm a lot better now but my stamina is really low so I am going in to this with the expectation that it's going to be quite a long road to recovering a good level of fitness.

As expected, today felt incredibly hard and even though I moved very slowly and took longer than the recommended 60s rest if I felt I needed it, I was completely exhausted and purple in the face by the time I finished! Even the warm-up felt quite hard, if I'm honest.

I also really struggled to find anything like the right weight to lift even on the second set -- I went way too light on the squats and the step-ups. My push ups were just an embarrassment (not helped by the fact that as I struggled to manage 8 feeble reps on an incline there was some dude doing about 400 pushups with his feet on a swiss ball next to me! Talk about an unfortunate comparison!). The most amusing thing was the swiss ball jack-knife thingy. It took me ages to work out how to get ON to the swiss ball, and when I finished the 8 reps I promptly rolled halfway round the gym trying to get off again!

I fear I may be quite sore tomorrow, but luckily I have my Hatha yoga class in the afternoon which should help sort out some of the kinks.

Ali-sorry it wasn't a better weekend, but you're right back to it, atta girl!

Cal-love you're description of the pjk! I felt exactly the same way the first few times I did it! Lol! It's a great exercise though. Awkward is my middle name at the gym. Today I had a challenging time climbing up on the incline sit up bench while juggling a 25lb plate! I'm sure I made quite a spectacle of myself. And you should see the the BWM too! At least I entertain my fellow gym members!
good for you getting back to it! Hopefully your body will respond well and you'll progress nicely. Great job!

Bb-ah yes, I've had that season. thankfully my girls are 11 and 14 now so they can keep up or usually just choose to skip it. Dh went with me on Saturdays ride, but didn't keep up. I was surprised, I didn't feel like I was going that fast, but to hear him tell it I was a racer! Lol! I'll check out that link, thanks for sharing it!

Pudding-stretching really helps you, huh? I don't take time for that either...but did cool down for 5 minutes on the treadmill today.

Ican-the garbage disposal? Gah! I agree w/ bb, just pay attention to how you feel on your lifting days. If you're tired and not doing well you can always cut back.

Pmag-in jeans! WTG!! Bummer on the phone-hope they can fix the troubles! I order my cases online-I'm super cheap!

Got in stage 5a2 today. Even the BWM. It took and hour and 45 minutes!! And I felt like I rushed a lot of it...how in the world is that supposed to be workable? Who has almost 2 hours to workout? Gah! The BWM is just as delightful as I remembered it! I could barely step off the treadmill after cooling down for 5 minutes afterwards, jello thighs! I also think my right side has zero balance! I can't do the upper hand squat thing as well with the right hand up, and always fall on the right leg DLs. Sigh. Hopefully a few more workouts will help? 4 sets of 4 is interesting.

Jo, I want to steal your arms! OMG, that is my muscle porn for the day. So beautiful!

Hola, everybody! I read through all 20 new messages on here and all I could remember to reply about was Jo's arms. So sorry if I missed something important.

Today was 5A4, which means...GOODBYE, BWM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did the first run at 1:50. Thought my heart was going to shoot out my chest. Second was slightly longer at 2:15. I am so ready to get into Stage 6 just for a couple of different moves!

Wow nice work everyone.
I am still lacking voicemail on my phone. It is large enough I bought a silicone purse for it.
However my life seems just fine.

This thread moves fast though. I can remember the BWM though and I did it I about five minutes. Yup even with lots of practice. So everyone is faster than me.

I did swim this am very slowly but without drowning.

I also wishi had beeps arms. Or Jo's arms or dnas arms
Or anyone else's chest. Mine is weak but my lats are growing.

Pudding have you foam rolled your back,
I can't keep all the posts straight but hope you all had a good weekend. I have squats and reads tomorrow.

BB and Julie - I want to accelerate my fat loss so I do about 20-25 minutes of intense cardio on non-lifting days, but not always There are days, when I feel extra energetic, so instead of jumping around pulling pranks on my co-workers, I save the energy to burn some extra cals :P

BTW, I did a poke test -- made my team mates (who don't workout) poke me on my biceps, quads, calf, and back and then made them poke themselves.... haha their expression was amazing!

Beeps and Jo great pics.
PM We can go looking for motivation together. I always get like this when I'm too long out of the gym. It's Tuesday and I still haven't made it back. Thursday will make two weeks. The longer I'm out the harder it is to get back. It's 9 am and I just want to crawl back in bed. You amazing ladies are blazing trails and do the most, WAY TO GO!

Cowgirl, I think after Supercharged I may move on to a program like the one you are doing. Except I only have 3 days in the gym so I'd have to find one that accommodates that.

cala, I totally pictured you rolling around the gym on the Swiss ball. I actually laughed out loud, everyone in my office asked me what was so funny. Thanks for the laugh.

Wow jo, your arms are AMAZING!

Oh gosh, I'm finding everything funny today. I'm looking at you pmag and your "no drowning" comment.

I'm happy to report that after only 1 week of being back on my diet, I've not only lost back the 1 lb I gained on the 2 weeks diet break, I've lost an additional 0.8lbs. Yay for the break! I hope this trend will continue for the next 7 weeks until the next diet break.

On a sadder note, my knees have started to hurt me. From experience I know it's either squats, lunges or hip thrusts causing this. I've stopped hip thrusts and lunges. For the squats I'm going to watch my form like a hawk, and stay at the same weight for the next 2 weeks. Then when I move on to the next phase, I will give back squats a break.

This week I'm working on getting my protein in. I think that could be the reason I'm not seeing the results I ought to be seeing. Also, I really need to find a way to burn more calories.

So the plan is:
1. 3 days lifting
2. 20 mins of some type of cardio
3. MORE fibre
4. 6 cups of water
5. 28% protein

Well I think all you ladies look amazing and we are too hard on ourselves. Have you looked around at ppl lately? We are doing great. The simple fact we are trying says a lot.

I'm not sure why, perhaps its the lower reps but I liked Stage 5 last night. I didn't do the BWM but I did a 40 minute workout of that killer bun & thighs again which has jumping lunges in it so I didn't feel the need to repeat that. I like the lower reps. I also tried switching the db for a plate in that single arm over head squat & it helped. I kept the db up top but where I was struggling with a 20lb db because of the size, I had no problems with the 25lb plate that was more narrow. I was able to do the move without the bulkiness of the db in the way. I don't know if this changes the exercise, but it made it easier.
I gave it a shot on doing a chin up standing on the bench yesterday, I didn't hang so my arm wasn't bent but I was surpised to find that I was able to do a few chin ups & even more surprised that I could do a pull up. And I know I wasn't hanging but I didn't jump either I just pulled myself up so I feel that it should count for something

jamaican great job, losing that lb plus some.

Julie, I am loving our cooler weather too, but I don't think it will last too long. It suppose to get warm on the weekend again. 80's & 90's do not feel like fall.

Elsie, you cracked me up lol I think most of us feel that way.

Love, wtg finishing the BWM you're almost at stage 6, are you taking the week off or going right to it?

Jo & Sam we all have our slacking times, lord knows I do. You'll get back at it when you have time & motivation and we'll be here cheering you on.

I hope you ladies are having a great day, keep lifting heavy thing (*)

Cala, I felt the same way about deadlifts & squats. Once you figure out what you're doing its all good, just figure out you're limits & don't go over it. Take it slow until you are comfortable, the confidence will follow.

Great pictures ladies - you go girls!!

Jamaica...aw, sorry about your knees...but good idea about watching squat form. I am doing Stronglifts and for a fortnight, I am doing the exercises with an empty Oly bar only...until I am master the form...

ION, coming off the Zumba class high...aaahhhh....heart rate went to 182!
Tomorrow, I lift (I hope cardio today does not interfere much with my lifting)!