Fitness For Thought

Lift baby lift!

Tonight’s workout: Chest/Quads/Tri’s

Bent Leg Deadlifts (disclaimer, I THINK the bar was 25 lbs, but I’m not exactly sure, so…)- 12 @ bar + 40lbs, 10 @ bar + 50 lbs, 10 @ bar + 70 lbs

DB Bench Press- 12 w/ 25’s, 10 w/ 30’s, 10 w/ 30’s 

Bosu Ball Split Squats (per leg) 12 w/ 12.5’s, 10 w/ 15’s, 10 w/ 15’s

DB Incline Chest Press- 12 w/ 20’s, 10 w/ 25’s, 8 w/ 25’s (these were reallyyy tough for me for some reason)

Step Ups (per leg)- 12 w/ 15’s, 10 w/ 20’s, 8 w/ 25’s

Bosu Ball Push Ups- 3 sets of 12 (bodyweight)

Sumo Squats- 12 w/ 24kg kb, 10 w/ 28kg kb, 10 w/ 28 kg kb

Dips- 3 sets of 12 (bodyweight)

Cable Chest Flys- 12 w/ 12.5 lbs (each side), 10 w/ 15 lbs (each side), 10 w/ 15 lbs (each side)

Tricep Rope Extensions- 12 @ 22.5 lbs, 10 @ 25 lbs, 10 @ 27.5 lbs

Stretching!

Definitely happy to have upped my weights and/or reps a bit with several of my exercises! I hope to keep stepping it up and making progress. Certain exercises have been really tough for me to up my weights- for example, chest press w/ db’s.. 10 using 30’s is still REALLY tough for me, so I’ll keep working at those and getting stronger in general :)

Today’s workout!

20 minutes of cardio- mixed walking, walking on an incline, and 6 sets of hill sprints (only at 5.5 mph, but with a 9.5 or 10 incline for 30-45 seconds)

Strength & Stretch group exercise class— kind of like a faster-paced yoga, with tons of core, stretching, and really hard positions.

I was easily the LEAST flexible person in the entire class. I’m thinking about taking it every saturday from now on, doing some cardio beforehand :)

Any tips for wrist strength??

I feel like my wrists hurt sometimes- especially after UXF if we do lots of plank position-exercises/push ups/etc. 

Does anyone have any tips on how I can strengthen my wrists? I’ve heard wrist curls may help but I thought those were more for forearms.

Thank you all in advance :) 

Currently watching “American Ninja Warrior”

such a funny/awesome show! These people are so strong and athletic- so envious!!

shadeoflights replied to your post: shadeoflights replied to your post: What is the… then add more reps and sets, with lighter weight. have 3-4 exercises with 3 sets for each body part you are working

 i may just stick with what I’m doing or maybe add another set in or maybe do one more exercise for certain muscle groups. i do that sometimes however with UXF twice a week, I don’t want my muscles to be too worn out or sore..Abnd I don’t really want to drop the weights since I want to get stronger, not just be able to do a ton of reps. thanks though!

Tonight’s workout!

Wasn’t feeling well before my workout so I thought it was going to be crap, but it turned out pretty well! I modified my usual lower body workout thinking I wasn’t going to be able to do much, but then added stuff in:

Sumo squats w/ kb

Single leg deadlifts w/ kb

Kneeling kick backs w/ machine

Hip Extensions w/ machine

Quad Extensions w/ machine

Calf Raises w/ db’s 

Stretching! 

My body may not be where I want it to be…

but I can’t deny that I am probably 100% stronger than I was a year ago. 3 months ago, I couldn’t even do 1 pull up, now I’m up to 5-6 consecutive ones! I mean seriously, that’s awesome! And I don’t mean that in a cocky way— it’s just amazing what kind of strength progress one can make when they lift and work hard!

Keep pushing yourself and putting the effort in and you WILL see results!

Trying something a bit different

and incorporating some more resistance training with cables/bands for my upper body workouts. I want to continue to increase strength but not pack on much more muscle (yes, yes, i know- it’s very hard to get huge muscles, blah blah blah, but I personally think my arms and shoulders are getting a bit bulky right now)… so I an attempt to continue to gain strength and lean out, I am going to try this for a bit. We’ll see how it goes. If I don’t feel like I’m getting any results, I’ll go back to more heavy weights.

I’m sticking with the weights for lower body though :)

http://jasonferruggia.com/top-20-bodyweight-exercises-for-building-muscle-strength/

“6) Handstand Pushup

These will build up your shoulders like nothing else and will usually cause less pain than a barbell military press. An impressive number to shoot for is ten full range reps. To get started on these you need to first master the handstand. It’s been said by high level gymnastic coaches that the ability to handstands is one of the most important things you can develop to improve your overall athleticism. Once you have mastered them with your feet against the wall and can hold them for sixty seconds without a problem you can work on free handstands. Just be sure to have spotters around or a mat to roll on to when you’re first starting out.

*must learn how to do a handstand!!!

A jammed knuckle and some rug burn later..I kicked MAJOR ass at tonight’s SGT :)

I actually left feeling pretty damn proud of myself. We had to do it inside in the studio because of the rain so the course was closer together but involved crawling under hurdles (for once my shortness helped me- get through it quickly!), burpees, rope slams, farmers walks, suicides, walking-like push ups, etc.

Aka it was awesome! This was week 5 so only 3 more weeks to go.. I’m definitely going to miss it when it’s over. It really makes me push myself. Even though I might do boxing in the winter and I’m sure that’ll be freaking awesome, I’ll miss this type of competition. Hope the weather is night for the next 3 Fridays so we can do it outside again :)

Nothing like a little failure to bring you back down to reality: Small Group Training tonight…

was super hard. The GM of the gym joined us for her first week and I was honestly not expecting her to do as well as she did. I have to admit- she’s stronger than me— not as fast, but stronger- at least in her upper body. 

We did:  10- squat w/ shoulder presses (light bar + 20lbs), a set of suicides, jumping into these circles, rope slams for 20 seconds (all about speed though), standing obliques while holding a 12 lb. medicine ball above our heads— 12 per side, 20 jumps w/ this ridiculously heavy jump rope, sledge hammer slams on the tire—10 per side, then had to run to the big tires, and flip them 6 times, then run through the cones. 

Holy shitttt- it was tough. Keep in mind- we’re being timed so it’s all about trying to get the best time— well to ME at least! Honestly- that’s my only motivation— to try and beat everyone else. 

I ended up doing WORSE the 2nd round— which really lit a fire to my ass because I was so angry.. especially since I didn’t FEEL slower than the first time.. My arms definitely felt shot each time when I got to the sledge hammer slams since they were right after the jump rope.. so my slams were probably pretty damn slow. 

Overall, from all the rounds, I got the best time 2 mins. 59 seconds during the 3rd round, but I only beat Annette (the GM) by about a second.. She really improved her time from the 1st to 3rd round— by like 30 seconds— I was impressed. 

Anyways, I feel like I pushed myself hard, but I still wasn’t able to improve my time more than 16 seconds.. it just felt really hard… it also reminded me that I’m not as strong as I want to be. I really need to improve on my actual strength. Jared said I should do slower singular exercises instead of my usual more circuit-like strength training. I’m going to do some research, probably ask him a few more questions, and try it. I want to increase my strength, and I want to be able to do a god damn pull up by myself!

Tonight was simply motivation to keep kicking my ass in the gym!