on the step ups - how high is the step you are using? If it is fairly low, another way to add difficulty is to increase the height rather than the weight.
Last night at a bbq, I had a hot dog with trimmings, two glasses of wine, a lemon tart, a brownie, and a bit of pasta salad. Only one tart and one brownie, even though there were left overs and I was sitting by them all night. I wanted to have another one at 9:45ish, and thought that if I could just make it 30 more minutes w/o one, then I'd be gone and wouldn't have had one and I'd be happy about that. And that's what I did!
on the step ups - how high is the step you are using? If it is fairly low, another way to add difficulty is to increase the height rather than the weight.
It was on the Reebok step on the highest setting (10"). I tried to do them slowly with good form. On the second set, I noticed that the last few were losing form...
Day 5, July 11, 2008:
BECAUSE I HAVE GRADUATED FROM THE WOMEN'S WEIGHT ROOM. THEY DO NOT HAVE HEAVY ENOUGH WEIGHTS FOR ME.
YESSSSSSSS!!! Congratulations
I ditto the suggestion to try a higher step. Try a weights bench, or something between the 10" step and a weights bench - you'll probably have to go with lighter weights, but the greater range of motion (ROM) will make a huge difference. It'll help you improve on your lunges & squats (and vice versa). I hate step-ups for how they feel but love them for what they do. <3
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Ok! Higher step! Will do!
I was talking to my b.f. and he said he used to use two risers on the reebok step. I said "you can stack risers on the reebok step?" and he said "it's not very stable..."
i'll raise the step or try a weight bench and let you know how it goes. i'll start with 40lbs.
anyone ever tried the step up on a bosu ball? i have, but only with lighter weights...
Don't be surprised if you can't hold the same amount of weight on the higher step. I was up to 27.5 pounds in each hand on my 12" step, then went to a weights bench and had to drop down to NO weight! It was humbling.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I've tried everything from the aerobic step to the regular stairs to the bench, and the bench seems to work the best for me. I was able to finally make only my working leg do the work.
July 15, 2008:
Had a great food day yesterday! I love that I had plain yogurt with strawberries and a handful of cashews when I got home last night. that's so not like me, but i liked eating that and i look forward to it again!
Talked to my friend about lifting straps, etc., and she suggested using modified exercises till my arms catch up. she also said i can use a barbell instead of dumbbells. since i asked the guy in the gym how to use the olympic barbell, i feel confident with doing that. I still feel like i'm trying to figure out this routine.
dumbbells are too big for me. my legs get caught in between the weights, where the bar is... can't hold them out far enough! so i'm still figuring it out, but asking lots of questions to lots of people and things are going fine. still excited about working out and keeping all my "appointments" at the gym.
Hi,
I love your journal...very informative. I just started the plan today and my journal. I'll have to watch out with the step ups. I have bad balance.
Faye
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"Faith is to believe what you do not yet see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe. ": Saint Augustine
need help with holding the dumbbells for now, with lifting straps or hooks. will try to get them
Resist!
There are people who do swear by straps (and gloves) but if you're not lifting 300 pounds, I highly recommend avoiding them. If you can't hang on to the weights you're lifting, that means your grip strength needs improvement. Work on that even if the weight you're lifting isn't as challenging as it could be. Lifting weights is a coordination of effort - overall strength includes your ability to grip & hold the weight you're lifting.
To put it another way - when you were learning to ride a bike, your legs were strong enough to pedal hard but your balance was poor. So even though your leg strength would have let you pedal your bike harder than you were, you worked on your balance & coordination until you could ride without training wheels. THEN you worked on riding faster or farther (or both).
Same thing with weights - even if you could hold 40 pound weights, if your grip is giving out, work on holding lighter weights until your grip improves. You will be SO glad you did when you get to doing 150+ pound deadlifts. Plus you'll get really sexy forearms.
Re: mel: bench for stepups: i'm going to try them tomorrow. will let you know how it goes.
Re: Luvs2lift40: informative journal: so glad you find it informative! it's just me not know ANYTHING and making notes, so i'm glad it helps. tell me what your journal page is when you start it!
Re: Dirty girl, I mean, martini: lifting straps: I checked them out, they suck, general opinion seems to be against them (well, two ladies against, one dude for) i will use the barbell or lift less or modify the exercise so it's harder w/o holding more weight. i agree that if you move up in weight but can't hold it, you won't be able to do the really heavy weights. besides, if your whole body isn't ready, then you're not ready.
Re: foot and knee: went to the physio today, he told me i've got plantar fasciitis in my left foot. oh joy. my brother has had that for years and says the only thing for it is to wear shoes with heels ALL THE TIME. this sucks, esp since in canada, we don't wear shoes in the house... my b.f. suggested i get proper slippers and put my orthotics in them when i get home. he's pretty funny. why not just wear shoes in the house? cuz it ruins the carpet. plus in the winter, there's like, snow and rain n stuff. but no limitations on activities, so that's good.
That sucks! I had to look up plantar fasciitis on Wikipedia because I had no idea what it was. What a bummer! Funny you’ve got something that requires you to always wear something with a raised heel and my podiatrist told me to stop wearing anything with heels. Feet, ugh. Crap like this makes me feel old.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I saw that raised heel thing on wikipedia. I was talking to a chiropractor last night at a networking event. He said that the heel keeps the fascia stretched out, which for fasciitis is good. But, it can lead to heel spurs which is worse than fasciitis.
So, the raised heel thing, it doesn't mean high heels, it means shoes with a heel as opposed to bare feet or sandals w/o a back. Your trainers would have raised heels. High heels have very raised heels.
Squats:
1x15x12
1x45x12
1x55x12
was tired! did this with an olympic bar bell, but bar was only 15lbs.
Pushups:
first set:
7 on step
5 on bar
second set
8 on step
4 on bar
so, 2x12
was tired, but glad I was able to do more on the step the second time around. for workout A2, I could only do 3 on the step.
Seated row:
1x9x12
1x10x12
was perfect weight, was tired, could have done one more.
Stepup:
2x20x12
on bench. perfect exercise. was tired, not too much, not too little. fantastic!
Prone jackknife
2x12
tired. was on shins instead of knees. ended further on toes. perfect tiredness level.
You'll be doing floor push-ups in no time. Nice job on the workout btw; you're already so strong. We can compare biceps in October, LOL.
I thought of this earlier today - I don't know how familiar you are with squat technique but I found this series really helpful. YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.
I haven't watched all of them in full, but I thought Rx #1, #2, and #4 were particularly helpful. Kinda dry, but helpful.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Re: pushups on the floor: it's great to see myself progress. keeping track of it, of course, helps, but when I can do that perfect form pushup on the floor, without extending my neck down to make my nose touch so i don't have to go as far down, i'll be quite excited!!! on the step, i'm going down till my chest almost touches the step and keeping my head up more. i can tell that it's harder, but more effective (and more comfortable).
thanks for the links. I shall peruse through them!
was tired today, still did the workout, not as great as stage 1, a3, but who cares. i did it.
I don't know if anyone is immune to having good/bad days with workouts. They just happen, even if you've been eating well and managing stress well. Obviously, the good part is that you did it anyway and, hopefully, gave it your all.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Yes, I've had a lot of bad workout days even outside of NROL and the next workout is always better. Chris says that it's good to work out when you're feeling tired because you feel better afterwards. I can't say I felt that much better, but I was glad for having done it.
Hey DM, ever thought of changing your quote to "I'm strong and I have a pussy."
Deadlifts:
1x6x30
1x6x50
1x12x60
1x12x70
forearms tired at the end, legs burned, but wasn't losing form. will do some forearm exercises to help them catch up.
dumbbell press
1x12x10
1x12x12
go to 12lbs to start next time.
wide lat pull down
1x12x6
1x12x6
was tired
lunge
1x12x30 dumbbell
1x12x40 dumbbell
not tired, but sticking to proper form and getting used to holding the weights
crunches
1x15+5lbs
1x20+5lbs
weight behind head, not tired. hold weight further out, put feet on bench, make exercise harder somehow. to look up.
My upper body gets tired much faster than my lower body. I find that with the upper body exercises, I'm not able to hold the form. With the lower body exercises, I can hold the form but my leg muscles start to burn. two different feelings. My upper body feels shakier than my lower body.
Ok, it's safe to say that I'm losing inches on my waist and chest big time. I've only got a little muffin top. I had a larger one before, could get it to smoosh over my belt - it was HOT.
But now that I'm getting into better shape and fit into my pants better and am 3 weeks into the program, the realities of my former life are coming back to haunt me. No, i'm not eating junk food like I used to, but last night and the night before I had two glasses of wine plus sorbet. Tonight I'll play Ultimate and have a beer, tomorrow I'm going to a bbq dinner and will most likely have a beer (although I don't *have* to) and Saturday I'm going to a wedding where I'll have 3 drinks.
The thing is, once I get started with drinking wine, I crave it. And when you open a big bottle of wine, there's like 6 glasses in it and you can't let it go to waste... So I'm back to my previous conundrum. I need to drink less, want to drink less, it's just not working out this week.
And need new snacks. I made a cous cous salad this week and it's so great for eating for lunch or dinner or a snack. But I need new snacks - getting tired of the hummous and veggies or cottage cheese and berries.
Food! It's always food. It takes time to figure out - how I wish I was better educated when I was young. My parents didn't cook hardly at all, my mom wasn't really interested when she did cook, it wasn't that good, and I fended for myself most of the days (well, from 9 years old to now! i.e. latchkey kid.). I got M&Ms when I wanted them, ate junk food all the time, never gained weight. If I do that now, I feel gross and I don't want to feel gross. I had pizza on the weekend and it made my tummy feel funny for two days.
My upper body gets tired much faster than my lower body. I find that with the upper body exercises, I'm not able to hold the form. With the lower body exercises, I can hold the form but my leg muscles start to burn. two different feelings. My upper body feels shakier than my lower body.
Probably from all the cycling & ultimate you do! that lower body has to be in shape for those; upper body, not so much.
My snacks are usually consist of any of the following and always pair a protein & a fruit/veg together (like lunchmeat & carrots):
- baby carrots
- natural turkey lunchmeat
- celery & fat free cream cheese
- cherry tomatoes & cucumber
- protein balls (haven't done these in a while but they're great - the recipe is in the NROL4W book for protein bars, and I would break the recipe into 15 balls instead of 5 bars)
- string cheese
- fruit & cottage cheese
Maybe that gives you some ideas...
Man I remember in college you'd have gummy bears & Coke for dinner. (and I'd tell you that it was unhealthy, and go have my cheesy lasagna for dinner )
We've come a long way, baby.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
Protein in things is somewhat mysterious to me: how do I know if it has protein? I guess with a lot of products, I can look on the label! Go figure!
I think I need more veggies in my snacks, not so much fruit. Although with so much sweet fruit, I rarely crave chocolate. So at least, in that way, it's good.
Oh hey, Sharon told me last night that for the first month or two of a training program, you don't actually build more muscle, but your body starts to make your muscles work better together. You see a big increase in the weight you can lift, but you're not gaining muscle. Once the body is done adapting, then you build muscle. So... that might explain why you feel more graceful than you used to, DM.
Thanks for the link and ideas - I will read...
You're the one who brought me the gummy bears from Germany. Oh Haribo, Haribo, how could I have survived without Haribo? They have real fruit juice you know.
But then I stepped it up big time when we worked in Sacto: gold fish and coke, booyah! Gold fish are cheaper, too, and more readily available. Eat that, take a nap in front of days of our lives, wake up when the news theme song played at 4:30, oh yeah. Man, Sacramento sucked for me. I look back and I'm glad I'm not there.
Sharon’s likely talking about neuromuscular adaptation. Your body is developing the pathways that help you perform the repetitive movement – practice makes perfect. That’s what training is for – you’re training your body to perform the movement by developing the neuromuscular pathways in conjunction with strength or muscle endurance (or a little of both).
I’m not sure she’s right about not building muscle when you first start working out – as far as I know, it is taking place. You tear your muscle fibers when you work out and they either rebuild thicker or separate & make more (depending on the type of fiber). That’s what recovery is for – to allow that process to happen. She may be thinking that when you first start working out, you have a layer of fat that makes it hard to tell if your muscles are getting larger. After months of solid workouts, you likely have lower body fat and your muscles have had enough time to noticeably grow & develop. So the muscles you’ve grown are more visible than when you started.
Then again, I’m no physiology expert.
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"If 'toning' is the goal, strength is the method." ~ Mark Rippetoe
I had to look up plantar fasciitis on Wikipedia because I had no idea what it was. What a bummer! Funny you’ve got something that requires you to always wear something with a raised heel and my podiatrist told me to stop wearing anything with heels. Feet, ugh. Crap like this makes me feel old.
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