Operation Look Like A Goddess

[LWilson212]

Leslie that is awesome that you were able to do those drills! That sounds so fun and you should be very proud of yourself.

[ledove]

Originally Posted by Bytsi

Isn't that fun!?!?!? Congrats! Can I get your autograph?

I often get told (by the moms whose kids do karate) how much they admire me and they go on about how tough I am... Which is kinda funny, cuz I'm NOT that tough. I'm mostly stubborn (and stupid? ), but I'm out there doing it. I try to get them to join in (if a 40-year-old formerly fat couch potato can do this, then anyone can!), but they just sit there with their snacks and watch the kids do it...

It's kinda sad.

Good for you.

Hehe, that's me, too. I'm even more stubborn/stupid when they try to tell me that I can't do something. Oh, yeah? Watch me.

Originally Posted by LWilson212

Leslie that is awesome that you were able to do those drills! That sounds so fun and you should be very proud of yourself.

Thanks, Leah. I'm glad that I didn't wimp out on them and could at least make a good try at them.

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This morning I H U R T. Everything is sore. My hammies, my butt, my arms--owie! Some twinges in my back, too, which means I had bad form on some of those partner lifts. Meh. Must work on for next time. I'm moving so slow today and trying to slowing stretch out the kinks.

...
...
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I think I like those drills almost as much as tire flips
(I am so messed up in the head )

[Nanette]

Just wanted to let you know reading your log has inspired me to get back into martial arts. I went this evening to check into a local school here.

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

[ledove]

Originally Posted by Nanette

Just wanted to let you know reading your log has inspired me to get back into martial arts. I went this evening to check into a local school here.

Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Wohoo, lots of ninjas! I love it

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So, BJJ tonight: warmup included those body/buddy lifts. This time I got the lightest guy in the class, though he's still 145 lbs. (No guessing this time: he actually says his weight a lot. I don't know why...) I made sure to focus on deadlift technique--hamstrings and glutes. On the carry part, the last bit, my glutes were almost cramping from all the tension. But I can't very well quit and say it's because my butt hurts

I've been slow in warmups all week; I've been out of gas by the time we run a few laps. Quite pathetic. Except for the body lifts, Tim was picking on me about being last in all the warmups. Grr. Later during drills he said I was too grumpy. And he's right: work's been yucky this week so I've been upset from that, then I'm tense and distracted so my jiu-jitsu stinks, so I get upset and cranky from that, and then I go back to work... Bleh. So, goal for rest of the week and next: be happy. Loosen up. Don't be last.

Also need to really start tracking. (I made it for 2? 3? days last time I tried.) I think I'm undereating. I keep waking up between 4 and 6 a.m. to my stomach growling. (That's probably the first clue that, yes, I'm not eating enough.) And I'm getting hungry between meals & snacks. I usually nibble on something if I have it or get some green tea. But at meals & snacks I still feel as if I can't eat anymore! Maybe I'll take a page from Olive Garden last week and just tack a big salad on to everything I eat...

M'kay, is late and am tired...

[Bytsi]

I definitely think you're under-eating if you are running out of steam in warm-ups, getting cranky and waking up hungry!

Smaller meals, lots of more frequent meals, snacks... you know the drill!

[ledove]

Oh, I eat frequent meals. Everyone at work can tell what time it is by when I head for the breakroom.

Took my mom out to dinner last night and ate lotsa carbs. This morning, had oatmeal and eggs. Had a great day at BJJ. (And then Olive Garden fest afterward w/ salad and pasta.)

The more I think about it, I've been severely limiting carbs (oatmeal, rice, pasta, bread, and their friends, but been eating veggies or fruit with every meal) for the past two weeks. I should know better. I started Atkins a few years ago; did great the first week, but the second week I was cranky and lethargic. I've taken those quizzes to tell you if you should go low, med, or high carb, and I always come out "low" on those, but it doesn't work in reality. Silly me, having to learn the same lesson over and over.

Okay, so more oatmeal and orzo. And tracking. Track, girl, track.

[ledove]

Sometimes I wish there were a "delete" key for posts. Because now I feel dumb. If there's one thing that NROLFW has really taught me, it's that I'm not as much a genetic freak as I like to think. So today I had some downtime at work and starting reading about low-carb diets and found out that low energy & irritability as two common occurrences somewhere in weeks 2-4. Which means that I'm completely normal and was experiencing something completely normal. Doh.

But with BJJ 4 days in a row, that really wasn't a smart idea. There's no room for low energy or irritability at BJJ. However, TKD starts tonight. I'll start lifting before TKD (I goofed for today and forgot to check out the gym last week. *le sigh*). I think I'll read up more on low carb interspersed with higher carb days (higher for BJJ days) to see how those work and how I might be feeling on them before I jump to any more silly conclusions.

Oh well. Here we go again =P

[Bytsi]

No need to delete - when you learn something, it helps everyone else learn too - maybe someone else was going through the same thing and now they understand too!

Enjoy class - I am trying to wake up enough for karate (2 hours sleep then up with sick child doesn't make me worth much today). But if I skip class, no results of belt test, so... must summon energy.

Keep posting about your food and workouts - it really is helpful!

[ledove]

Originally Posted by Bytsi

No need to delete - when you learn something, it helps everyone else learn too - maybe someone else was going through the same thing and now they understand too!

Enjoy class - I am trying to wake up enough for karate (2 hours sleep then up with sick child doesn't make me worth much today). But if I skip class, no results of belt test, so... must summon energy.

Keep posting about your food and workouts - it really is helpful!

I'm glad that I understand it better now. And I really wasn't all that low--probably 100-150g of carbs most days. Apparently it doesn't take much for me to feel the effects of no carbs. Most low-carb info I found said 60g for people who work out a lot should be plenty. I see more reading and experimenting in my future...

[ledove]

Oo, I'd forgotten how insidious stance work can be. We drilled front and back stance last night at TKD (we instructors joined in the misery, er, fun), and tonight my quads hurt! And of course kept trying to tighten up during the BJJ warmup. Meh. Bad quads. Quit it.

I think part of the issue might be that my quads are trying to make up for lazy glutes and hamstrings. Need to do more wake-up stuff for them before class. Other than that, though, class went well.

After class, the guys went over to their improvised "perfect pullup" contraption (reminds me of those gymnastic rings, except with PVC pipe) and started knocking out pullups. When they were mostly done, Tim told me to jump in there. I grabbed 'em and did two complete pullups before I even realized what I'd done. Couldn't finish the third and then Tim had me start jumping up, catching myself for a second at the top and slowing lowering, and then jumping again. It hit me as I was leaving class later that I did two pullups! Wohoo! Only 8 more to go to Goal 1.

[kfisherx]

WoooooHooooo!!!! You mistressed the pullup! I can do 2 in a row now too but that is all. Nice work.

I regularly eat under 200g of carbs a day and most of those are in fruits and vegetables. My typical day is 140 or so. I cannot do an Atkins type diet though. That kills me.

[ledove]

Originally Posted by kfisherx

WoooooHooooo!!!! You mistressed the pullup! I can do 2 in a row now too but that is all. Nice work.

I regularly eat under 200g of carbs a day and most of those are in fruits and vegetables. My typical day is 140 or so. I cannot do an Atkins type diet though. That kills me.

The trick will be doing them again

I'm still trying to figure out my ideal carb amount. Except for the crabbiness (and usually I don't even notice it; someone else has to point it out; I think I'm normal), I actually feel really good when I'm low carb. And I feel as if my body looks better. It just has no energy... I'm still looking in to how I can take what I know and am learning and apply it to my specific schedule, life, and body.

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Stage 3, A1

Yay, a NROLFW workout!

Front Squat: (2x15-lb DB, 2x20-lb DB) 1x6x45 lb, 1x6x55 lb, 1x6x60 lbs

Had to sub these because Oly lifts & any derivatives aren't allowed at the university gym. These felt great--my first time lifting with an Oly bar, too! I think I can go higher, but there was a guy waiting for the squat rack.

DB Single-leg RDL: 1x6x25/15-lb DBs, 2x20/15-lb DBs
Bent-over Row: 1x6x25-lb DBs, 1x6x20-lb DBs, no 3rd

Meh, bad form on both. Too much back in the RDL, and that made my back tight in the row.

DB Single-Arm OHS: 3x6x20/10-lb DBs
DB Standing Press: 3x20-lb DBs

All the incline benches were taken by guys posing, er, doing bicep curls.

Plank: 3x60s
Woodchop with DB: 1x6x15, 1x6x10, no 3rd

There's only one cable machine of any kind in the gym, and some guy had it. So I tried to do this with a dumbbell. It felt weird, so I only did 2 sets. I gotta look up how to do those again.

Bodyweight Matrix:
time 1: 2:53
time 2: 3:05

This was my first night using the university gym. It's free for me because I work in the nearby research park, and it's also just down the hall from TKD, so I can hit the gym and go straight to TKD. I wasn't too impressed, though. There's pretty much only 1 of each bench/rack/machine: one power rack, one squat rack, one Smith machine (thank goodness), one cable machine, etc. It's rather hard to get anything done. Olympic lifts and their derivatives are not allowed: one, because there's a bunch of non-intelligent people in there who would find creative ways to injure themselves, and two, because these same people drop the weights, which bounce and hit the mirrors and break them.

I watched one guy do shrugs for nearly an hour. Another was doing what almost looked like maximal loads on the bench press; one lift, walk around for ten minutes, one lift. Lots of bad form. Lots of lifting while watching the mirror intently. Lots of heavy loads over a few inches range of motion. Lots of dropped weights (mostly <20-lb DBs *cough*). Did see one guy (the one who was waiting for the squat rack after me) doing squats, deads, and lunges with good form.

I got lots of weird looks, especially during the single-leg RDL and the single-arm OHS. They were either thinking "WTH is that?" or "Who beat her up?" I didn't realize until I left that I have a ton of bruises from my knees down.

I'll keep going for a while, I think, and will see if I can make it all work. If not, there's a gym I can join, but I'd rather hold out until the Gold's opens later this year...

TKD
TKD was kick-intensive. Owie. Legs weren't so happy. I tried to show a round kick at one point, and on the return my hamstring nearly cramped up. Oh, yeah, that's fun. (I thought about switching lifting to before BJJ. Ain't no way I'll make it through class. )

[Nanette]

I agree, no lifting before BJJ. I did check out a local martial arts school, but looks like I am going to have to wait until July when I get some bills paid off to free up enough money for the monthly tuition. How many nights do you do TKD?? This school is a mixture of TKD and BJJ with a little of this and that as well. Every class is very aerobic and includes a lot of push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks between drills. They let me jump in the class and it felt SO good!!!

[ledove]

Originally Posted by Nanette

I agree, no lifting before BJJ. I did check out a local martial arts school, but looks like I am going to have to wait until July when I get some bills paid off to free up enough money for the monthly tuition. How many nights do you do TKD?? This school is a mixture of TKD and BJJ with a little of this and that as well. Every class is very aerobic and includes a lot of push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks between drills. They let me jump in the class and it felt SO good!!!

Right now, I have TKD 2 nights a week, Mon & Wed. (I also go on Fridays, but only to supervise free practice. That's my OFF day.) I have BJJ 3 times a week: Tue, Thu, and Sat. (During the academic year, everything is different; I'll do BJJ 5x (M, W, T, H, and S) and TKD 2x (T/H).)

That's awesome that the school mixes TKD and BJJ, so you'll get upright and ground fighting. UFC, here she comes!

And OMG, I forgot how much Stage 3A can kick my butt Owie, I sore!

[ledove]

My hamstrings were so sore all day yesterday! Thankfully they loosened some by BJJ.

We had a new girl at class last night. (The other two girls have both dropped out.) She was actually one of the guys' ride, since he doesn't have a car, and he convinced her to come in and try it. (I think he used me as part of the convincing, too. When they came in, he said, "I brought you a friend!".) She used to play soccer, and she has a brother who she used to wrestle with, so she's rough-and-tumble. Yay!

I paired up with her for the night and tried to show her all the stuff the guys have taught me, especially all the "I wish I knew that when I started" stuff. She wasn't excited at the prospect of lots of bruises, but otherwise seemed to be having fun. (She curses in Spanish and Portuguese when she's not happy, and I understand enough to fall over laughing.)

Oo, and one of the other TKD black belts was asking me about BJJ classes on Wednesday, so hopefully he'll start showing up soon, too

Tomorrow after practice, I have to go help my brother set up a stand at a natural body-building show in town. Don't know yet if I'll go to the main show tomorrow night, but we'll see...