Thanks Love. And I agree with Sam, you also need time to rest! Don't overdo it.

I also agree with Barbell about those images in magazines. I am a big feminist and I get so angry at the way women are portrayed in the media. It is totally unnecessary to show off that much skin. I'd be far more impressed by a photo of a woman deadlifting huge weights or some other amazing feat of physical ability than one just showing her abs.

No lifting yet this week. Today for Paddy's day we celebrated by doing a 25km walk for charity. I am quite tired now! Hoping I won't be too sore to lift tomorrow.

Work yesterday made me think of this forum because the magazines were recently changed to some newer ones. On the cover of Women's Health, this time, the woman is wearing a white tank top instead of just a sports bra. However, Men's health is a shirtless Bieber and that strikes off any points gained for the health magazines.


Was going to workout at coworker's gym this morning but she had to cancel, so I'm going to do my last A workout for Stage 1 tonight after work.

mmm shake. I'm having a glorious dairy day. Trying to limit dairy to just a couple days a week max. Since coworker is coming over to take pictures for me, I am making a frozen pizza that had a bit too many calories for me to eat alone. So, yay for pizza, yogurt, quest bar and whatever else I manage. Maybe a chocolate too. mmmm Then tomorrow it will be no dairy. My goal for April will be to schedule everything better, including meals.

Hey girls! I'm reading along, but been busy with family in town visitng, fitting in makeshift workouts at home with 20lb DBs and s few smaller plates and a ball...not too shabby. Keeping my strength going hopefully until the new gym opens.

The all doing great! Strong! Kutgw!!

I started biking again yesterday! I'm going to start doing that on days that I don't lift to try and improve my cardio endurance. So happy that it is starting to show signs of spring outside again.

Today was A7 Phase and I was really happy to get down to 8 reps! Yay! That's my happy place I think. I've also decided for the rest of my B workouts I'm going to throw in some chest presses at the end of the workout because I really miss those actually. 3 more workouts for stage 1!

Have a good workout day everyone!

jo_marnes wrote: »

Hubby got made redundant yesterday Kinda stressful here right now.

Jo, what does that mean? I'm sorry that it's been stressful. *big hugs* Hopefully, things will get better!

So, I decided to skip yoga this morning and slept in. I'm so glad that I did!

Ah, sorry Jo I'll keep my fingers crossed that he is employed again soon.

Great day over here. I've lost 5.5 pounds in the last four weeks, which means I am a winner of the pot in Round 1 of the six month Dietbet I'm a part of. I do have fat to lose, even though I care more about inches than the scale, but needed to put my money where my mouth is to stay motivated. If I do well over the six months I will put my winnings towards new clothes

I also finished Hypertrophy 2 today and did pretty well. Made some good gains on upper body (especially three point rows and DB bench press) and my step ups today were great: 2x12 with a 55lb barbell. However, something is going on with my knees in that the last few times I've done squats (back or elevated split with a BB across my back), they aren't happy. I feel very unstable. No problems with the step ups, RDL or SLRDL though. I did do a bit of jogging and I hadn't all winter, so maybe it was that. I might take a break from squats on Hypertrophy 3 and see how they feel afterward. I have to go so low (I think) for weight in back squats, just to keep my form, that I hate doing them anyway

I am almost scared to look ahead at H3 and see what I'm in for!

@Dawn - outdoor biking is the best! I had to put my bike away again as it started to snow but I'm looking forward to the snow melting permanently here. I need to get my 'seat' back in shape so I can bike again in comfort. I have an indoor stationary that I use a bit but it isn't close to the same. At least it's something though. When I did C25K last year I re-did a few weeks as well, not a bad way to go if you aren't feeling up to increasing. Good luck!!

@Jo - Ugh! I'm so sorry. We're going through something similar right now. Job hunting is horrible and stressful.

I just took my measurements! I'm so thrilled. It's been about 6 weeks since I started working out again, I'm almost done with Stage 1 and I didn't realize I would see these results already!

I've lost 4 lbs only, but the biggest thing is I've lost 8 cm off of my hips! I can't believe it! I've been thinking I could see a change but I didn't think it would be that significant. I also lost 5 cm from my waist and 1 from each thigh.

NROL4W is amazing, that's all I can say. Plus I look forward to the gym, so, that's a huge bonus.

Busy times it seems.

Smallc - great on the measurements. It's so awesome as is those 4 lbs. Well done. Oh and, I do figure I will have to repeat weeks on C25K. Just the extra day on week 2 was just from not having the cues ready, it's actually still not difficult for me. We'll see how week 3 goes tomorrow as it's got 90 second jog then walk followed by set of 3 minute jog then walk. Though the generic cues i found to put music to is a bit off on the 3 minute walk. It says 3 minutes but the actual time lapse on the walk is 5 minutes.

I enjoyed today in that I didn't have work. Only getting one day off a week can be a little rough but making it so far, though I need to put out more applications for a second job. Just nice to have a day where I don't have to wear the same outfit or stand on my feet for 8 hours. I did laundry, bought food and got a little writing done.

Last regular workout for Stage 1. I've looked over Stage 2 and I'm already uncertain but I will still give it a try in April. Though after the AMRAP thing I have a few extra days, so I'm going to try out some of the bits from each day of stage 2 just to know where I need to be in the gym and what to do when I do them since it's only 8 days total for that one. For some reason, tonight was pretty weak. I struggled on some of the lifts, got them done but they felt heavy. Not the best end so I'm hoping the AMRAP goes better.

Day 16, B8

deadlift 3x8 @ 155 - so freakin' heavy. And I never notice my calluses until I do this lift.

db shoulder press 3x8 @ 20 - kept same weight and at least this one felt easy.
lat pulldown 3x8 # 70 - felt heavy even though I did it last time at this weight.

lunge 3x8 @ 22.5 - not so much heavy but right knee was not happy.
SB crunch 3x15 - meh

For fun:
front squat 3x8 @ 55 - struggled in warm up at first with just the bar, hit the safety on the left side and was just off, but it got better and managed to add a little weight.
OHP 3x8 @ 55 - this felt pretty good at least.
db shrug 3x10 @ 25 - these feel weird but i'm trying them still.
assisted pull-up machine - 2x8 & 1x7 @ 14 - struggled with these.


Not the best night but I made it through.

Thanks for the support everyone Fingers crossed a better opportunity is around the corner for him xx

Dawn - Nice work, keep it up. Yep, those darn calluses - I hear 'ya

Smallc10 - great progress! Well done you. Sorry to hear your family has the job hunting stress too - it sucks!

dna - anything over 10 reps sucks in my opinion. I have some work which is 12 or 15 reps at the moment and it's awful!! 20 would be the WORST.

Pudding - great results! Be proud! H3 will be tough but then you get to do S&P which is much more fun - enjoy!!

Me? My body is objecting at the moment. My glute is still bothering me, despite my +++ stretching my hip flexors are refusing to join the party and the overall effect is that of crappy lifts with crappy form. Ugh. Had a bad session Fri, gave myself yesterday off. Combat today. Working tomorrow and can never fit in going to the gym (Monday is scheduled rest day usually) so will wait until Tues. Hopefully that will give my body (and my head) enough time to get back in the game.

My PT watched me do DLs the other day (was a crappy session) and has offered to help me with my form next weekend when she is free, which is lovely of her. Apparently I round my back a little - I tried to change this Friday but my issue is all about my darn hips being so tight. I struggle to get low enough to start my lifts and so the issue is there before I even pick the bar up. Grrrrr. Why can't something be simple for once? Also - the lock out. She says I don't push my hips forward enough.... so I tried this but it felt weird. As if it wasn't great for my lower back. Which I thought the whole point was that it took the load off the back? Ugh. Fed up - DLs was the one lift I didn't think I had a problem with. Now apparently I'm just *kitten* at all of it.

And there is my negative headspace again..... I'm going to combat now.......

Thanks guys!

Dawn - I remember it getting hard when each day was a different workout. I fell of the bandwagon when it asked me to run for 25 minutes straight but that was due to a leg problem that I ended up having to have surgery to fix. I know you can do it!

Jo - I'll keep my fingers crossed for you guys! When I lost my last job I ended up getting a much better job right afterwards. Sometimes it is just fate!

Good job ladies!

Did the Bataan Memorial Death March today. This is my fourth year, and though very grueling, is very sobering and for a great cause! I am soooo sore. Walked about 16 miles in some punishing terrain I have been doing the 26 miles, but I thought to change it up!

Lift on ladies!!

smallc - Yeah, the weeks 5 and 6 are varied and then week 7 is 25 minutes jogging. Last time I tried I don't even know if I made it to week 2 let alone past it but that was at over 200 lbs and also trying zumba. Though in the later weeks I may need a new route. Near my apartment is around 3 miles but half of it involves inclines in certain spots. I might want to try a more even terrain at first.

Sounds like people are doing good. I'm all for sleeping in, dnamouse, but I get to do it on a regular basis because I work close shifts and have no family yet. I try to get up at a decent time to work on writing and other online obligations since I moderate a writing web site, but sometimes I just sleep.


Slow day at work. Think I did maybe 2-3 sets of photo orders in the whole 6 hours. We got out early enough at least and the AMRAP didn't take that long so even with accessory work I was home before midnight. Not a fan of the whole many reps for one set thing, to be honest. Oh well.

AMRAP A

squat 95 1x25 - could have done a little more but was tired of doing the same set at that point. After 20 it was like, why am I still doing this set...

seated row 50 1x25 - got tough near the end. I did this first instead of pushup cause I like it more.

push-up from rail 1x22 - almost quit at 20 but decided to push out a couple more.

skipped step up just cause, and i plan to skip a couple on day B as I don't care how many crunches i can do

prone jackknife smaller ball 1x20 - glad I could get more than 15 but around 15 and above is challenging still

For fun:
bench 3x8 @ 80 - almost didn't get all the reps
db bench 3x8 @‌ 25 - not bad
skipped bicep curl
wrist curl 3x10 @ 15

Today:

Squats: 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 65, 1x5 @ 95, 1x5 @ 115 and 5x5 @ 135. Finally got to do the big girl plates! And I finally felt challenged. I had to really push my breaths out during the last rep on the last two sets. I love it! I'll do this weight again on Wednesday.
Bench: 1x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 65 and 5x5 @ 80. Um, yeah, gonna stay here for at least another day too. While I wasn't in danger of failing, I was so scared that I would! Got them all back up though!
Row: 5x5 @ 80. Easy peasy.