Everybody is getting in some major lifts!! Nice job ladies.
My hubby sprang a surprise camping trip on me, so the gym will be replaced with Hiking and kayaking. FUN!! Planned out all of my food or the weekend. Now to see it I can stick to it. Luckily it maintenance days, so if nothing else, hitting the calories at least is easy.
Have a Great weekend!

Squat day got done but my body was not enjoying. Came home and had 3 coffees and a magnesium supplement Perhaps tomorrow will be rest day rather than combat day. Don't actually recall my last rest day so must not have had one yet this week. On the plus side, scales are finally showing a loss. I'm sure it's temporary, but hell, today I will take it

DawnEmbers wrote: »

Scale is not my friend right now. Finally have one at least but not sure how long until things settle after the moving and such. Considering my calories in July though, it should be under 130 but was 134 this morning. I also found that having cardboard under it doesn't work well. I just don't want it to stain the floor as it sort of did in the last apartment when I was using my own scale (before moving in with the previous roommates). Now I have a harder mat underneath but blech to the number. I'm not against weighing around 130 but 125 is the top of the healthy range for my height and I was hoping to get under that before bulking. Want to start bulking at the very end of August, so hope the number adjusts better soon as my calories haven't been maintenance except for some of the travel days and the day in oregon getting together with previous coworkers.

Yup, card underneath is going to affect it. Why don't you just put it in a cupboard and bring it out to a flat piece of flooring when you need it?

Also, what is your BF%? I'd urge caution at bulking if you're at the top end of where you want to end up.

Well my OHP day was shite. Left shoulder was hopeless and refused to cooperate. Got in some *kitten* lifts all the same - then ran for 10 mins. Then came home and hammered the crap out of said shoulder with a body combat. Probably didn't help my shoulder but made me feel better

My husband used to use Map my ride but switched to strava. He wears a HRM and it calculates his joules and calories. Without the HRM the Map my apps are still only an estimate.
Why is your doctor recommending those types of books? Is she concerned by your weight?

We had a killer weekend. So much so that I had a lazy day today. Five mile Hike Saturday. Two mile open water kayaking and swimming Sunday. I"m beyond done. I did well following my meal prep. Not even hungry today. In fact, I never seem hungry anymore.

Back to the barbell tomorrow.

Did bodycombat before work today. I am so tired at my desk now. Anyone care to prescribe me a week on a desert island, pleeeeeaaaaassseee!?

Sorry for the bummer day Jo.
Wish I could Kimi. Everybody deserves a week in paradise.
Stephie, nicely done.

Got back to the barbell today. Felt pretty darn good
S2 WO B1
Side plank rows 1x14, 1x 15.5
SL RDL 3x25dbs
DB BP 3x25dbs
Front Squat 3x65
SA Cable Row 3x30

Still doing the push-up challenge. I can now do all 22 on floor with very little pausing.

On a side note:
I was asked recently, "What is holding you back from reaching your goals?" Most people write time, kids, work etc. I wrote Asthma. I've been a real knucklehead about it. My asthma is athletic onset, heart rate goes too high, my lungs kind of seize up and I can't breathe. I used my inhaler all through school for sports and activities, but not as an adult. Recently, I've been doing more intense cardio including long hikes, kayaking, swimming, etc. I nearly keeled over in a contact kickboxing class, and the asthma is seriously holding me back (it doesn't bother me with heavy lifting, I just take slightly longer breaks.) So I decided to stop being a knucklehead and called my doctor to get a new inhaler.

Quick drive by post from my phone. Glad to see everyone training and hitting such great numbers!

Saturday did Strong, stage 8, workout B, combo 2 (OHP), then headed over to the island. Sunday ran a nice 5.75 miles around the island with some amazing views along the way. Got back yesterday and did Strong, stage 8, workout C, combo 1 (deadlifts). This morning out for a foggy but cool 3.3 miles.

Today is my son's 5th birthday so we are off to the aquarium and out to dinner. Date night tomorrow and then two birthday parties this weekend, so keeping at my deficit is a huge challenge. I am hoping for maintenance.

In other news, the owners of the house my brother wanted came back to him and accepted his offer after rejecting it a week ago. So we are again hopeful he will get this house! It's 1.1 miles from me!

Cowgirl, nobody should have to love in pain. I hope you can feel better, but I know when it comes to problems with the back... Feel better honey.

Rest day today. I gave blood, that's my excuse. I did get my push ups in today. Not perfect but I starting to aim for depth now.

Aigre, have fun. Sounds like a busy weekend.

Dawn, folks in my ETP group are all about the instapot pressure cooker. There are a crap ton of recipes online. Hopefully, the oven can get fixed. Now that nonsense about "what body part." I really wish people in the fitness industry would stop perpetuating that crap.

Bbc-so good to near from you! Sorry about your back hope you're healing. I sympathize! My compressed disc gives me grief from time to time too

Sam-I took yesterday off too

Jo-I'm like you, don't use my quads as much in my squats. I'm going to try hack squats and see how that goes? I've read they're great for quads.'happy birthday to your son!

Kim-I'd join you on that island!

Mel-shark week -my sympathies! Mine came 15 days early this time!, Grrr. Hope it's the start of menopause, I'd be happy to get through that!

Dawn-muscle gain will make the scale go up, just a reminder you're doing fine!

Aigre-jealous of the island! Happy birthday to Ds!

I got in good upper body lifts today. saw a guy I haven't seen in a month or so, who said he almost didn't recognize me! Complimented me on my weight loss (I don't think I lost any? I think I'm up?) but he was very encouraging which was wonderful!! My dd(16) has been telling me I look good lately too. I'll take it as I'm not very motivated to lose any weight right now!

Take care all!! I will try to checkin again soon and do better with personals!

BBC, you're the only girl at your gym? That has to be a little freaky. I love that my weight room now has a higher percentage of women. The girls have been slowly taken over in the five years I've been doing this. It's awesome to see.

Having my permanent crown cemented today. Hopefully it'll go well. My mouth has been sensitive and achy since the dentist did the prep work. Taking far too many advil these days. I'm playing the day by ear and seeing how it goes. I'm supposed to have a "high", carbs and cals over maintenance, but if my mouth is sore, that much eating just isn't going to happen. This week I had a really hard time eating everything. In two weeks, the same amount of food will leave me hungry. I'm weird like that.

Here's some interesting reading and podcast if anybody is interested. IT can give you ideas for setting cals and macros for fat loss.
http://www.eattoperform.com/2016/03/05/setting-calories-for-fat-loss/

Barbell - One of my roommates goes to a female only gym and it would be interesting but I've never been to one. I've just used commercial gyms with one that had a lot of people most of the time but more men lifted than women and now, even in LA the current gym has more people than the one of the same company in Oregon but don't see as many women. Late night, like last night, it was just guys lifting. Though I've seen more use the smith machine than the power cage.

Julie - yep, gain was the plan. Just wanted to get the scale down so that I could do a slow gain and not get up above 140 or much above it depending on how it one. The idea before all of the moving, driving and funeral stuff got in the way was to get to 125 or just below then mid-meet prep increase my calories so that before the meet I'd still be able to stay in 132 weight class (since prep was planned at about 8-9 weeks) but start gaining a smidgen of muscle and at least getting to the heavy lifts on higher calories. Meet after a week of low calories while recovering from a cold wasn't ideal, so wanted to take a different route with the next one.

Now I won't be doing the meet but winter is prime bulking time. Or I could just try out maintenance for a while since I haven't really done that. I need to do something other than deficit and for more than a week. Would help on a few levels, but mostly on the mental side as my body isn't near having a flat stomach or anything like that though it has come a long way.

It's still kind of weird now, since no on here knew me before June. So, now I get the disbelief if they find out I once weighed over 200. Anyways, I did lift last night though I forgot to write down ahead of time what weights I was supposed to use. Need to get better about that.

squat - 2x10 @ 45, 1x8 @ 95, 1x5 @ 135, 4x5 @ 155 and 3 of the last sets were with belt
walkout - 215 for 20 count
pause squats 1x4 @ 100 and 1x5 @ 95
sumo deadlifts - 1x6 @ 135, 3x5 @ 155 last 2 sets were with the belt

Even though I can do without the lifting belt, it's good to practice it since I use it on the heavy sets. 155 feels awfully heavy though. Sometimes it's hard to believe I was getting up to 200 on squat before. The move proved more of a challenge in consistency than I had anticipated.

Jo - lbs, I don't know the kg conversions and all of the plates at the gym I attend are set up in lbs.

Barbell - Thanks. I wouldn't be doing a fast, high calorie bulk, if I did one. It would be a small extra bit of calories and slow. I just need more than a week off from the deficit and the idea of gains has its appeal. Getting the squat above 200 is challenging in a deficit. I am considering maintenance instead, so we'll see.


Did upper body before work. Since some days I work until 11 pm and other days I work in the morning, my lifting times vary too. There are people there most of the time, though haven't had troubles using the power cage yet. Getting to the gym and leaving are the struggles more with traffic and such. That and wanting to do some food challenges on youtube but harder to balance when on the lower calories of this pesky deficit. ;-)


bench press - 2x10 @ 45, 1x8 @ 65, 4x5 @ 85
overhead press - 2x8 @ 45, 3x5 @ 65
tricep pushdown - 3x10 @ 35
pallor press - 3x10 @ 20


First time showering at the gym but decided it was better than driving home then driving to work. Took a while to get near where I work, followed by trying to find a parking spot (oh hollywood).

Sunday is fun day. Going to Warped Tour with my sister. We have an interview to conduct (not sure who it is with exactly) and then a bunch of bands to watch. It should be fun.

Welcome Leslie. For women is awesome!! Your weights are where I started five years ago. You'll be surprised how fast you gain strength. If your gym does any "free training session", see if you can get one to check form on big lifts. May help you feel more confident. I was straight up with mine. They use those sessions to sell the services. I told him I just needed form check. He was happy to do it. If you squat with a 40-50 weight barbell, then you can totally rock the bar in the rack, it's 45 lbs by itself.

I neglected to log my workout yesterday.
Strong: S2 WO A2
Plank Pull down up to 19lbs.
Inverted rows 3x12
Reverse Lunges 3x12@20dbs (Three sets of 12 using the 20lbs dumbbells.)
No weight increase, but definite form and energy increase.
RDL (Romanian Deadlift/Stiff leg deadlift) weighted barbell 70lbs
Pushup (military) 3x12 AND 22 more for the #22kill pushup challenge
I can now do all 22 on the floor with only brief pauses to catch my breath in plank position.

We also got in two rounds of mini golf, and an hour+ worth of mall walking.

Nice numbers as always Dawn. You'll be shocked at the strength gains while eating at maintenance or slightly higher. YOu go girl!

BBC, I've got the weight and now I'm praying for a recomp. It's shocking to me how much weight and fat I've gained in one year of stress and falling off the fitness wagon. I feel like I'm starting from scratch.

It's interesting to note that when I've worked with female trainers, the go low weight high rep, and the male trainers are all low rep heavy weight. I still get occasional looks from the dudes in the weight room, but I live in a very heavily populated area and we have a large number of bad-*kitten* chicks moving serious weight. There are one girl and her sister in particular who are powerlifters and they appear so unassuming. THey out lift a lot of the guys by straight weight, not even body-weight comparative.