Operation Look Like A Goddess

[MuscleMom23]

I have been measuring myself since highschool because I made my own clothes. You know, I bet sewing sites have something on them that show you how. It is basically the same. It is how you measure a body!

[DirtyMartini]

Just curious, how much creatine are you doing? I've been doing 5g per workout day & am considering going to 5g per day based on this

MUSCLE WITH ATTITUDE - Creatine For Women

Just wondering how much you're taking and whether you've noticed a difference in your workouts as a result.

[ledove]

Originally Posted by MuscleMom23

I have been measuring myself since highschool because I made my own clothes. You know, I bet sewing sites have something on them that show you how. It is basically the same. It is how you measure a body!

My mom sews, so she'd probably know, too. Guess I should ask...

Originally Posted by DirtyMartini

Just curious, how much creatine are you doing? I've been doing 5g per workout day & am considering going to 5g per day based on this

MUSCLE WITH ATTITUDE - Creatine For Women

Just wondering how much you're taking and whether you've noticed a difference in your workouts as a result.

About 5g/workout, too, in my pre-workout shake. I'm using two pre-workout products that have creatine as part of the mix, but not creatine by itself. (Other ingredients include arginine alpha-ketoglutarate (NO) & caffeine.) So while I am taking creatine, it isn't really for the purposes of taking creatine, if that makes any sense. I've been thinking about getting some, though, to take every day and post-workout. (I've read that article and others, and I know that if you're really taking it, you should do so after your workout.)

Some days I think I can tell a difference from my pre-workout shake, some days not. I think part of it has to do with not yet knowing my limits in a lot of the lifts, so I'm not sure if the "Wohoo, yeah!" is from having weights that are too light or not going through the whole range of motion or from a super-charged body from my pre-workout shake.

[ledove]

Last night at TKD included lots of kicking drills and then lots of stretching. We started stretching with partner stretching. I am, by far, the shortest person in my class but also one of the more flexible. Usually for partner stretching, you work with someone about your own height. Well, I got paired with a guy who's about a foot taller than me! (The tallest guy in the class, actually. The reasoning was that he isn't very flexible. So I would be able to push his legs high enough and he could push mine.)

So, I could push this guy's leg up high enough that he was getting a good stretch. But his legs are heavy! In the stretches we were doing, you push your partner's leg up; then the instructor says, "Push down," and your partner pushes back against your pushing up; then the instructor says, "Back up," and they stop pushing and you push their leg up higher. After the first "Push down" from this guy, I could hardly hold my arms up! On the second one, I couldn't move his leg up at all because my arms were toast. We were joking about this, and then he says that each of his legs probably weigh 60 lbs. (He is not a small & skinny guy.) Ack, no wonder! That's more than I've done in any push-press so far.

So, new reason for lifting more--so I can stretch people at TKD.

Today, my hips are tired and my arms are sore. (But the good news is that my feet still go over my head, even though I haven't really worked on flexibility for a while.)

[ledove]

So my "four days off" has dwindled to two, thanks to TKD. There was class on Thursday (still feeling it in my hips!). And then last night, the club ran a self-defense seminar. Two hours of teaching, one hour of Q&A, and then two hours of TKD members playtime Playtime was throws and groundwork. I love groundwork! I have no idea why; I think that makes me a bit of a freak; but it's fun.

I've been meaning to look in to doing some Brazilian jiu-jitsu, but then I get lazy and never look or I figure I'm already doing enough, excuses excuses excuses...

There's a really good BJJ/MMA school in town. My dad knows the guy who runs it. And the time of the beginners' class works perfectly in my schedule. So, Thursday night I'm heading over to add BJJ to my week.

[ledove]

I feel like I was run over by a truck...

One-arm DB snatch: 3x6x20lb DB

I like

DB single-leg RDL: 1x6x10lb DBs, 2x6x20lb DB
Bent-over Row: 3x6x40lb

Started the RDL with two DBs but kept falling over. Switched to one larger DB in the opposite hand as the leg. Much better balance.

DB single-arm OH squat: 3x6x5/10lb DBs
DB incline press: 1x6x10lb DBs, 1x6x15lb DBs, 1x6x20lb DBs

Doh. So brain-dead, I put the heavy weight overhead on the OH squat. No wonder my arms were gonna fall off. Incline press, since my arms were wiped after the inverted OH squat, I had a hard time finding the right weights. Everything felt heavy when I picked it off the floor, but once I got on the bench it wasn't so bad.

Planks: 3x90s
Reverse Wood Chop: 3x6x10lbs

BW matrix

24 squats - no big deal
12 lunges each leg - yeah, yeah
12 jump lunges each leg - quads gave it up about halfway through. Wowzers...

Paused for extra water and rest, then tried pushups to make up for the failed matrix. 13 and splat.

Stairs hurt. Poor quads. And poor lats! Alwyn must have something against my lats.

[MuscleMom23]

Originally Posted by ledove

I feel like I was run over by a truck...


One-arm DB snatch: 3x6x20lb DB

I like

DB single-leg RDL: 1x6x10lb DBs, 2x6x20lb DB

Bent-over Row: 3x6x40lb

Started the RDL with two DBs but kept falling over. Switched to one larger DB in the opposite hand as the leg. Much better balance.

DB single-arm OH squat: 3x6x5/10lb DBs

DB incline press: 1x6x10lb DBs, 1x6x15lb DBs, 1x6x20lb DBs

Doh. So brain-dead, I put the heavy weight overhead on the OH squat. No wonder my arms were gonna fall off. Incline press, since my arms were wiped after the inverted OH squat, I had a hard time finding the right weights. Everything felt heavy when I picked it off the floor, but once I got on the bench it wasn't so bad.

Planks: 3x90s
Reverse Wood Chop: 3x6x10lbs


BW matrix

24 squats - no big deal

12 lunges each leg - yeah, yeah

12 jump lunges each leg - quads gave it up about halfway through. Wowzers...

Paused for extra water and rest, then tried pushups to make up for the failed matrix. 13 and splat.

Stairs hurt. Poor quads. And poor lats! Alwyn must have something against my lats.

But ya did it!

[DirtyMartini]

Originally Posted by ledove

24 squats - no big deal
12 lunges each leg - yeah, yeah
12 jump lunges each leg - quads gave it up about halfway through. Wowzers...

Heh, yeah, when I started my first set & got through the squats & lunges, I thought, "hey this isn't so bad..."

[ledove]

Originally Posted by MuscleMom23

But ya did it!

Most of it, anyway. That one-arm snatch is amazingly fun!

Originally Posted by DirtyMartini

Heh, yeah, when I started my first set & got through the squats & lunges, I thought, "hey this isn't so bad..."

My legs just kind of stuck in position and said, "Nope, really, we're done." *snort* I should've added my time--took me nearly 4 minutes to get to that point. Heh, I know what I need to work on...

Okay, I just stood up after sitting down for 45 mins.

Ouch.

The truck just hit me again.

Oh, man, I like this workout

[ledove]

Last night TKD: I taught a musical form (actually the one I'm doing in my avatar), so I had to do it with them. Over and over and over... Whew! Very much exhausted. After I got home and to bed, I was asleep in moments.

Today:

RDL/BOR: 3x6x50lbs

Pistols: 3x6xbw
Wide-Grip Pulldown: 1x6x50lbs, 2x6x60lbs

That ol' ego crept back in to my workouts--since they said that "martial artists" may/should be able to do pistols, of course I had to do them that way... And yeah, getting down ain't easy! My ankles are not very flexible (all those sprains from soccer). And oh, problem on the tower was definitely the stickiness, not just me being a wimp. That's comforting.

Back Extension: 3x6
YTWL: 3x6x5lbs

Actually did the Swiss Ball Glute/Ham Raise instead of the back extension, since I don't have anything to do the extension on. Only now I need a way to add weight (?), since it's kinda easy... YTWL is very humbling--you never thought 5lbs could be so heavy...

Swiss Ball Crunch: 3x6x20lbs
Jackknives: 3x6
Flexion #3: 3x6
Prone Cobra: 3x90s

Intervals: didn't happen; too tired, mentally and physically. The workout itself wasn't so tough on the body, at least not in the heart-pounding way that 3A or Stage 2 A/B were. Starting with the YTWLs and then the core work, it's more concentration- & focus-type moves, which become more of a mental game. (Esp. the YTWLs: "I will not let a 5-lb DB beat me! ")

And, as long as the BJJ school is having class tomorrow night (they're moving locations this week), I'll be over there tomorrow and then off to TKD. Depending on how intense the classes are, I might have to cut down to 2 lifting sessions/week or move my second lifting night to Wednesday or Thursday morning. We'll see how it goes...

[ledove]

I did get my mom started on NROLFW this week. She doesn't have the time to read the book right now, but since my dad, my brother, and I all lift, she already believes in lifting and eating. Dad & brother are working on her eating; she just doesn't eat much, not that she's "on a diet". I get to do the lifting part, well, because I got here first. (Dad hasn't changed his lifting routine much in 20+ years and doesn't believe in going past a quarter squat. Brother does body-building splits, mirror-muscle exercises, and "ego lifts" (e.g., 600-lbs on calf raise machine). So I jumped in.)

Mom's been walking on the treadmill off & on for several years (mostly off). The heaviest she's ever lifted is 5lbs, and she's had no weight training. Anything she knows to do, she's picked up from my dad or brother. I'm showing her how to do the lifts and letting her use my book if she needs it. But, since she's never lifted and because she waits to lift until we've all gone to work (and because Dad will have my hide if she hurts herself), I'm starting her off at bodyweight when possible and having her do 3 days at each level of Stage 1. She's also rather inflexible and/or has no balance, so there's a lot of work to get greater ranges of motion. I can watch her/work with her more on Saturdays. She's also going to walk on the treadmill on her non-lifting days.

I'll never get pictures or measurements out of her. (We've tried before.) So I'll guess. She's 5 foot tall, maybe 125 lbs. (2" shorter than me and 7-10 lbs lighter. But I wear a smaller size in clothes.) She actually got really serious for a while about getting in shape about a year ago; she'd accidentally grabbed a pair of my pants and tried to put them on and was convinced she'd gained a whole lot of weight. Started walking again and really watched what she ate... and then she figured out that she'd worn my pants. Oh well

[ledove]

Hopefully, I got these resized right...







Meh.

And, when I loaded up the memory stick, guess who I found? The only picture of the elusive creature known as Mom:

[MuscleMom23]

oh the resizing is a bitch. I think I finally have mine down.

Oh and HI MOM!!

Wow there are major improvements with you! Is that one month?

[ledove]

That is one month... but the current ones are on the left; the old ones, with the silly flash, are on the right. I think it looks like I gained? I dunno. Some of that could be posture, but I was doing my best to stand up straight! Pfft. Maybe I was more tired after 3B1 than I thought Or maybe I just can't see straight. I dunno...

Someone at work told me today that I was walking like I was about to punch someone I'm gonna take it as a compliment... I think...

[Bytsi]

The flash makes it a little harder to see, but I definitely think your stomach is smaller/flatter than it was last month. I'm glad you clarified that the ones on the right are older!