Josie_lifting_cats Member

I had a 2 prong originally, but I find GREAT satisfaction in my lever. Quick and easy to get on and off, I love an angry flip of the lever after a really good (or really bad) set. It's totally part of my setup at this point. Now if I try to use a prong I just can't get into my groove.

Yes, deadlifts will do soooo much more than just glute improvement. Hamstring, spinal erectors, lats.... lots of great things. With a light weight you may not notice it as much, but you also may find that you really like them and feel totally awesome if you tried lifting with more weight. :-)

<Not big and bulky. 310 pounds. Lifting heavy does not make you bulky.

I've been doing Stronglifts for about 4 months now. Just signed up for a meet in May. No coach, just a husband with a bit more faith in me than I have sometimes. :-) Feel free to add me as a friend!

As a lifter, I care little about how they look, and more about what they lift and if they can help me with that. I'm not a tiny girl, yet I have a friend who is and is insanely jealous about the amount of weight I can lift. A personal trainer is to teach you fitness and healthy exercise, and you may be surprised at what…

Went yesterday - it was a big day! 45's on my squats. Completed 5x5 @135, with one fail because I was being an idiot, not because I couldn't lift it.... and I redid it. I will probably repeat, though - I'm finding as the weight gets harder I prefer to repeat rather than take the risk and fail if it felt tough. Bench. Ugh.…

I failed yesterday (in a stupid attempt to try to squat my full weight on rep 3 set 5 with a different stance) and went forward. Thank goodness for the pins, but definitely going to practice failing now. I don't often lift alone (usually my husband is there), but I don't want to do that again. I did get back up and redo…

Based on deadlift, I'm pretty much right on for nearly everything, so that's somewhat reassuring. But if I base it on squats, I'm like 30% under on everything. :-(

Selfishly, I'm kind of glad to hear others aren't going anywhere on OHP either! I totally rocked those 2.5's. But I agree, after a few weeks, I don't really care. The turning point for me was seeing a woman that was literally stick thin in Target and thinking "I wish I was thin like that", and then I thought "But I can…

My husband just bought it, but was disappointed to find that the accessory and ab workouts weren't included. But he's been using the warmup sets and those have been nice.

I have a cheap pair of Champion shoes from Target that I lift in. I found the least support and cushion to work well. For running I have some super nice Zoot triathalon shoes, but they are super cushy and shock absorbent, and we found that I was having a hard time placing and keeping weight on my heels during squats.

Interesting.... I think it was the Nia Shanks (or maybe NROLW?) that suggested higher rep counts, so maybe that is where I will start. Last week I started repeating the same weight two days in a row, which seems to work somewhat. My husband asked a trainer who was present on Monday, and he assured me that women tend to…

Right???? I felt the same way!

I just started 2.5 weeks ago. Squat - 90lb Bench - 70 (attempted 75 this week and failed miserably. Still ticked off about it) Deadlift - 110

I get it. I love sugar. And I will definitely start to crave sugar if I have a treat every night. When I realize that I am just craving sugar because it is sugar, I'll decide to take a few days off. Usually by day 4 I'm back to "normal" again. For example, I love wine - and if I have a glass each night for a few nights in…

BEST. AB RESPONSE. EVER. Thank you for all of the pictures!

This is what mine should be. Although it's close. Wine. Chocolate. Or both. And it's amazing what great motivation that can be some days.....

Whaaaa........?????? Cauliflower is angels singing in harmony!

I hope you have some idea as to how lucky you are! Very few people have a group supporting them as you do. My best friend even is bad - she'll order anything and everything "to share" if we go to lunch together. Luckily, I just know that if we go to lunch, that's going to happen and I will work it into my day, or simply…

There are days where I'd much rather be fat and ignored than noticed. Seriously. I do not love the being noticed and complimented part. Apparently I am a freak of a woman.

Gosh, I just read all the replies and I feel like I might be the only one that really "gets" the OP. And I guess that could be untrue, but here is my scenario - Get up at 6 AM, drop kids off at daycare. Drive to office or to work in the field. If I'm lucky, I get lunch. Sometimes it's a Luna bar. Work until 3:30. Or 8.…

True story - Me: "I spent $90 on jeans today!" Husband: "You what? I spend $20 a pair. Why would anyone spend that kind of money on jeans?" *walking out of closet with new jeans on* Husband stares: "okay, maybe I see your point" Buy one pair. I still love those jeans. I pick up others at consignments stores or buy…

Working. Always working. I am working, actually, but I just checked in. It's the curse of being self-employed and (apparently) successful at it. I could work 24 hours a day and still not get everything done. I need to photoshop some photos, update market reports, prepare paperwork, run ads.... and probably eventually do…

I did this along with a few of her others, and I found this one to give me the least results. BUT I still will mix it in there to keep from getting bored.... I just had better results and luck with Ripped and 30 DS.

Check pharm inserts - depo especially has a pretty significant rate of weight gain in patients during clinical trials - more so than any other birth control. So yes, a hormonal change can change your appetite, the way you process food, etc. And if you don't believe this, I can honestly tell you that my increase appetite…

I'm surprised you're so anti-hormonal birth control but okay with Paragard.... which they don't even know WHY it works. They have suspicions, but they don't know why copper repels sperm.... so what else could be happening that they don't know about? In reality, they know very little about the endocrine (hormonal) system,…

My two favorite things. Taco Bell and sushi. I like you. You are a good person.

Oh, I love the Taco Bell! I know I'm insanely lucky. I remember with my son around halfway through realizing I had lost 5 pounds since my last visit, and frantically eating JUNK to avoid getting yelled at. They finally had me keep a food journal and just realized that I'm apparently backwards..... The sad part was after…

Disagree. I lose weight like crazy every time I'm pregnant. I actually am contemplating being a surrogate to help work on the 15 extra pounds I don't want.

Any hormonal birth control is systemic. I used Nuvaring and loved it, too - now using Mirena, and good there as well. Never heard a correlation between Nuvaring and depression. Also, I agree with the other poster's response - you likely didn't gain weight forever unless you ate a TON. It may have simply been water weight,…