00trayn Member

You could do a reverse crunch. That's when you sit on the floor and bring your knees up to your chest while balancing on your tailbone and hands. The image below shows how to do it.

Congrats! That's the one exercise for me that really made me happy that I could do. Now I've graduated to doing pushups with my feet on the squishy part of a Bosu ball... those are HARD! I get to do them today, oof. Today is my last week of Phase 1! I have workout 8A today and 8B on Wednesday and then I'm going to Jersey…

Just finished workout 7B at the gym. It's crazy how far I've come in only a month. I went up to 105 lbs on the deadlifts and I put the barbell down between each rep, that helped a TON. I'm finally doing them properly instead of rushing because my grip was failing. I also did lunges with 2 30 lb kettlebells. I've lost 60…

Great job! I suspect I'll be in the same boat as you. I started off pretty light and increased pretty quickly to what really challenges me to failure now. I went from 50 lb squats to 125 lbs. I'll get to the AMRAPs in a week and a half. I have 3 workouts to go in the next week.

It's got a ton of information and there is an entire section with explanations of each type of exercise and pictures so you know how to do everything. It also breaks down the workouts into specific schedules so you know exactly what you're doing each workout. It has good nutrition info in it too.

I'm in the same boat too. I used to aim for 130s, now I know the 140s are much more realistic. You can determine what is a reasonable amount to lose assuming your muscle mass stays the same. Using myself as an example, take your body fat % and multiple it by your weight. 156.1 lbs x 29.7% = 46.4 lbs of Fat and 109.7 lbs of…

If you want to think about it in terms of sets, like the workouts have, then there are 8 "sets" of exercises A and B. So 1A would be the first set of A, 1B would be the first set of B (but that's your second workout overall). Then you move onto your second set, 2A and 2B would be your third and fourth workout. Think of it…

I'm also 15 lbs over the highest weight for a healthy range for 5'3" person (141 lbs). I'd like to be in the 140s and look fit and fabulous. I can't imagine trying to get down to 120 without looking like a flimsy stick. It's a personal choice whether to weight often or not. I personally don't care if the scale is bouncing…

The exact same thing happened to me the first 2 weeks. I upped my calories and the scale jumped from 155-156 to more like 157-158. But now that it's been 4 weeks, it's come down again and I'm at 156 this morning. But I also look smaller from my strength training so I'm going with it! Adding in extra calories is almost…

I completely agree, it's a hard mindset to change from after 2+ years of losing or trying to lose weight. I'm at the point though where I'm 5'2.5", 156 lbs and my body fat is still near 30%. The numbers show that I could lose 6 lbs while maintaining the same amount of muscle mass and be at 25%. If I want 22%, I can lose 11…

Maybe trapezoidal pushups or chair dips? The pushups are where you have your hands facing forward and directly under your shoulder blades so your elbows bend into your chest. The chair dips are when you put your arms on a chair and your feet out in front of you and dip up and down.

I live in Reston, work in Sterling and spend my weekends with my boyfriend near Old Town in Alexandria. I love it here :) I'm from Jersey originally.

I just did Workout 7A last night, down to 8 reps! I'm feeling sore for the first time in 2 weeks. I really made a point last night to focus on form and not speeding through the exercises. Squats - 125 lbs, my knees were about 90 degrees with the floor and I went slower than usually so I really feel it... and I'm feeling it…

I don't feel sore after every workout now, but I'm definitely pushing my limit on what weights I can do. I'm usually close to failure by the last rep, so that's a good sign I'm using appropriate weights. I think after 8 of the same workout, your muscles are somewhat used to it. I suspect switching to Phase 2 is gonna hurt…

I'm a short girl who's already lost a lot, but I have about 10 lbs to go and I'm working on building muscle so the scale won't get as low if I was just losing weight. Height: 5'2.5" SW: 215-ish CW: 156 GW: 140-145 It was amazing the different that 60 lbs makes on a short person! I have before and after photos on my profile.

I was scared at first too. I was eating 1200-1300 and doing entirely too much cardio. Then I went up to 1500. And still wasn't really losing. Now I'm at 1800 and doing strength training 3 times a week and cardio twice a week, building muscle and I haven't gained weight! The scale was stuck around 158 for the last few…

Haha, it definitely is! Especially since I'm only 5'2" and I'm around 155 right now but look more petite than that (hello muscle! haha). People don't think I can lug around the weights that I do. The two guys that were talking to me were a trainer-type person and his client. It was nice to have a body builder complimenting…

So I have proof that the guys in the weights section of the gym are actually quite impressed by us NROLFW chicks. Two guys came up to me in the grocery store after the gym and called me The Workout Queen and told me they were impressed by how much I bust my butt and that I'm the only girl doing it! They couldn't believe I…

Thanks!! I just signed up for another 5K in DC May 6th to see if I can beat 34:51. I really love this program, and the people doing it with me clearly rock :) I'm going down to sets of 8 now that I'm onto Workouts 7 and 8, so I really want to work on my form and getting lower into the squats and deadlifts. I did hit 100…

That is INCREDIBLY shady! I did personal training at my gym for a year, but they were very upfront about the stipulations of the contract. They let me choose 3, 6 or 12 months (it was cheaper per session for the longer commitments), and I knew what would happen if I canceled (same as you, pay 50% of remaining). The fact…

I found there were two sources of my stomach aches and stiches while running. When I first started, I correlated stomach pains to what I was eating beforehand. Bananas were the main culprit, but in general, I can't eat too close to running. I give it at least an hour, if not more. Second is definitely breathing. When I…

I have mine pointing to the ceiling to start, and then I just essentially move the ball up and down towards and away from the ceiling as I do each crunch.

I've always done sets of 15 from the start, and I hold the item over my head with arms full extended to the ceiling. Good form is the arms should be moving up and down to the ceiling when you crunch, not forward or backward. I started with a 10 lb medicine ball and I've moved up to holding a 15 lb dumbbell or kettlebell.…

I finally have proof that strength training has benefits wayyyy beyond awesome muscles. I ran a 5K yesterday after doing NROLFW for the past month. Which means I've only ran outside twice between this race (this season at least) and I run in the gym about once a week. So I wasn't even expecting I'd break 40 minutes. Well,…

I just ordered a 1lb bag of it from Amazon for $12. Not a bad deal considering the 6.5 oz jar on Amazon was $7. I think I've seen it in Whole Foods but it was at least $5, maybe $6. I went for the chocolate. I've been having issues eating an entire jar of Better N Peanut Butter chocolate in a few days, so this should help!…

Apparently even with the log sheets to track what weights I used for each exercise, I still managed to confuse myself. Last night I did workout 5B and for the lateral pulldowns, I thought I was at 85 lbs. So I set it to 95 since I'm down to reps of 10 now. And I nearly got pulled off the seat! I barely finished the set and…

If I had to go, I probably would have tried to do the workouts in the hotel gym. Also, a lot of gyms will allow you to get a 7 day free trial pass. When I went to Long Beach, CA last year there was a gym right next door to the hotel that I could have gotten a free pass at (I overheard some military guys talking about it at…

I had a minor business trip scare the past 24 hours, I nearly got sent to San Diego with 12 hours notice for a week, which meant a week off from NROLFW! But luckily I don't have to go, so tonight is workout 5B. I like doing 3 sets per exercise, it makes the workout a bit longer. I was finishing in 20 minutes before and I…

I've finally passed the halfway point of Phase 1! I did workout 5A yesterday and it was nice doing 3 sets of everything. I was thrown out of my groove a little in the beginning when I had to wait for the foam padding thingy for the squat bar. But I've managed to really increase my numbers since the start. Squats went from…

I use my HRM when I run and it's a decent guideline for me. Usually when I'm maxed out and feel the need to take a walking break, my heart rate is above 180. However, I've been able to run a steady pace with my heart rate in the 180s, so it depends on the day, my breathing, the weather, etc. I also tend to have a higher HR…