[Celestialmom]

Hi everyone,
I've been lurking here on the forums for about a week, and thought I'd introduce myself, say hi, and ask some advice all in one.

A little something about me: I am a 33yo homeschooling, work at home mom of four beautiful kids who just recently learned to love exercise and training. I have made halfhearted attempts through the last ten years or so at working out (usually just for a month or so after I had each baby!), but always HATED the gym, cardio, anything to do with sweat or exertion.

Almost two years ago, I woke up and realized that I was edging very quickly towards FAT--I was 5'5" and 156lbs, with not much muscle mass to balance that out. So I joined the gym and a kickboxing class and started having so much fun that I really got inspired to eat healthy and keep up the hard work. The instructor of the class was also a friend who was working towards her certification to become a personal trainer. When she saw how inspired I was becoming in her class, she asked me if I would be her guinea pig. She trained me twice a week for 6 weeks (of course I visited the gym in between sessions as well). I was hooked! I loved lifting weights (not barbie weights, but now I see not as high as I could go either), and I could stand the cardio sessions in between the lifting days.

To make a long story short, I lost over 20 lbs from the routines that my trainer made up for me as well as from drastically cutting calories (1000-1500 daily), but of course gained it back again when I went back to eating "normally". My normal wasn't all that healthy but was only about 2000 calories. So this January, I started the process over. I worked out hard, lifted harder, ate hardly anything, and got down to 25% bf and 136lbs. I am now about 138lbs and 27% bf--this is from over 30% the summer of 2006 when I started with my trainer.

Anyway, the same trainer friend was telling me about this new book (NROL4W), so I borrowed it, read it in a day, ordered my own copy, read it again, and started Stage one last Tuesday. I LOVE the exercise plan, and I feel like I have a much better handle on nutrition by taking in the info outlined in the book. It was a leap of faith for me to up my calories by so much (they have been from 1100-1500 this year), but I am managing fine at 1800-2000 with more on workout days.

So I'll outline what I did for the first workouts of Stage one, and I'm looking for some advice/feedback. I'm not sure on the correct notation here but you'll get my drift.

Workout 1A:
Squats: 2x15 @70lbs (or is that 115lbs if you include the bar itself?)
*Our gym doesn't have a squat rack like Lou describes in the book that "detaches" from the rack. I feel like it's probably like doing an "assisted" squat. So is it better to do it with this squat rack realizing that I'll be lifting heavier than I would if I had just a barbell and me, or should I use dumbbells without the rack?

T-Pushups w/10 lb hexagonal dumbells: 1x16, 1x14 (couldn't quite get the last 2 in that set, and the last few weren't great form, but the rest were)

Seated Row: 2x15 @60lb? (How much do those dang plates weigh on a cable machine anyway? I had the pin under the 12 plate)

Stepup onto bench: 2x15 w/20lb in each hand

Prone Jackknife on Ball: 2x15 (I didn't have as much problem on these as others seem to, so I checked my form using Natalia's video on another thread. I think it's ok, I had a friend check me. But the last 5 in each set was pretty difficult. I didn't realize I was only supposed to to do 8!)

YUP, I was really sore the next two days!

Workout 1B:

Deadlifts: 2x15 w/50lb on a smaller barbell--I'm not sure how much that weighs. I really concentrated on form b/c it seemed to be getting my back. Really sore back the next few days, but I think it's fine.

Shoulder Presses: 2x15@ 20lbs in each hand (so do I say 40lbs?)

Lateral Pulldown: 2x15 @ 30lbs (that seems light, but it was about all I could do...)

Lunges: 2x15 w/20lb dumbells

Swiss ball crunch: 2x15 w/25lb plate on chest (with this as well, I checked video before the workout to make sure I was doing them correctly, since I've been doing 25 at least at a time. I did need to fix some form issues.)

So my other questions (besides the squat question) are:
*Would it be better in any way to go to pushups with my feet on the bench or something instead of the t-pushups with weights?

*I was thinking I should switch to long arms extended with crunches as opposed to weights

*In this second workout of A and B, which BTW, start today, I assume I should only up the weights in the exercises that I feel like I had good form, and go for better form in the other exercises.

*Any other feedback would of course be appreciated!

TIA,
Celestialmom