Laura's Fitness Upates

[John Rauch]

Sounds like you're doing a great job! My wife has had some chronic back issues for most of her life and recently started seeing a chiropractor and it seems to be helping considerably. If your shoulder doesn't get better on it's own, it might be worth making an appointment.

[Brian Frey ~ halfmoth]

Saw Riki's photo from post-RED viewing, Laura... Yer lookin' good!

[Laura]

Scale isn't budging, but body comp is changing. I'm okay with that.

I mentioned on the other thread that I'm reading The New Rules of Lifting for Women. It's kinda funny, because this writer knows that he's only an 'expert' because he's been writing about sports and nutrition for 15 years but has even had to refute his own earlier claims. But at least he's cool about it, and acknowledges his mistakes in an amusing way.

There are things he writes that aren't convincing me -- like, for instance, how the same time spent on endurance cardio can burn twice as many calories as the same time spent weight training. My workout is like a circuit; I don't rest between exercises, and I rest only minimally between sets. So of course my calorie burn is going to be higher than a workout where you rest twice as long as you expend energy. (On this workout, if it takes you 30 seconds to do one set of squats, then you rest for 60 seconds before starting the second set.)

There is one thing that has absolutely convinced me: I am CLEARLY not consuming enough protein, particularly on training days, and I'm not eating enough calories overall.

I'm not grasping the schedule of workouts. Will have to re-examine, possibly with pencil, paper, calendar, sextant and abacus, to sort out what I'm supposed to do on any given day.

-- Laura

[Alex Sollazzo]

Hes right about the cardio burning more, even light jogging will burn more than weight training. Weight training does give a tiny boost to your calories burnt while doing nothing though, something like 6 cals per pound (per day) of extra muscle you add, but its nearly nothing unless youre actually getting quite buff. The main benefit of weight training while losing weight is mostly cosmetic (muscles look better than fat :p) and to fill out extra skin with muscle rather than having it saggy.

[Laura]

There's all kinds of information about post-workout burn in the book, and the benefits of weight training with regard to fat loss. After all, that's the whole point of the book.

I'm gonna try this workout plan, see how it goes. It's confusing, but it's essentially an A/B split, three-day workout (so the first week is A-B-A, second week is B-A-B, etc). It's ALL compound, NO isolation. There are enough variations and opportunity for increased weight/intensity within each exercise category that I shouldn't get bored.

The recipes and recommendations for light, protein-packed meals sound really good too. I gotta go shopping.

-- Laura

[Alex Sollazzo]

Sounds alot like the starting strength workout Laura, I did that back when i started working out. Workout A was squat/bench/deadlift (optional dips), Workout B was squat/military press/bent over row (optional pullups), everything done with a barbell.

[Laura]

Yep, pretty much. The first six weeks involve these exercises (or variations on them) with barbell or dumbbells: A = squat, pushups, row, step-ups, prone jackknife; B = deadlift, shoulder press, lat pulldown, lunge, ball crunch. Phases 2-6 have increasingly more difficult and off-balance exercises; HIIT gets introduced in phase 2; and plyometrics get introduced in phase 3.

I could, at this point, probably skip the first couple of weeks of phase 1, since I've been doing most of these (except the jackknife, deadlift, and step-ups) already. But I'm going to start at week 1 with the same or increased weights that I used this past week.

The tricky part will be staying on schedule with the workouts. I've got three back-to-back deadlines through October.

-- Laura

[John Rauch]

Sounds like a great program, Laura. My wife loves cardio and class type stuff, but she's always gotten better results with weights. I think a lot of women are afraid of getting bulky by lifting weights, but they don't realize it just doesn't happen like that without a substantial amount of testosterone in your system.

[Laura]

Sounds like a great program, Laura. My wife loves cardio and class type stuff, but she's always gotten better results with weights. I think a lot of women are afraid of getting bulky by lifting weights, but they don't realize it just doesn't happen like that without a substantial amount of testosterone in your system.

Totally. I never understood the argument about not wanting to get bulky. From the very first day I ever tried weight training, I thought it would be so cool to be muscular.

-- Laura

[Laura]

After reading this article, I am absolutely certain that I'm doing everything wrong with my squats, and it's probably why I'm experiencing knee pain.

It also means that I've become one of those douchebags who brags about how much I can lift/squat/whatever even though I'm doing it wrong. If I'm going to brag, I'm gonna brag about EARNING my weights. (I also discovered that I haven't been using the squat rack correctly. That confirms my douchebaggery.)

So I'm going to re-evaluate my squats, start over with just bodyweight, do those hip stretches like I should have been doing all along, and REALLY concentrate on form and getting down to parallel. Just bought Mark Rippetoe's book and DVD, plus THE book on stretching, because I have so totally not been doing the right stretches.

Makes me annoyed that I'm going backward, but I have to train myself out of these bad habits. If I'd just taken the time to figure it out first, I wouldn't have to do this now.

-- Laura

[John Rauch]

Don't be so hard on yourself Laura. I've discovered on several lifts that there were better ways I could be doing them, but that doesn't mean everything I've done so far was a waste, only that it wasn't as beneficial as it could have been. I know a guy who bragged to me a couple weeks ago that he could squat 700 lbs. I just chuckled and said "ok". If you're working hard, you're doing better than most already. I've had a very similar experience on squats and bench press. I still can't squat all the way down since I'm terrible with flexibility, but I get as close to the floor as I can. With bench press, it's taken me months of proper benching just to get back to the amount I *thought* could lift earlier in the year.

[Laura]

Man, it's been a long time since I've been in here.

It's taken way too long, but I've finally hit the 30-lb mark gone -- and I'm now at my lowest weight in probably 12 years.

This week's loss was due entirely to diet, since the last time I got any exercise was Monday. Pretty proud of my eating habits even in the face of a harrowing deadline and a couple of all-nighters this week.

That being said...because I haven't been weightlifting for almost two weeks, I feel soft and meh. I'm gonna start Stage 4 of NROLFW this week and get some HIIT cardio in on the non-strength days. Wish the gym was open today! I'd totally go!

[John Rauch]

Way to go Laura! Don't feel bad about how long it took. As long as you're moving in the right direction, that's all that matters.

This week's loss was due entirely to diet, since the last time I got any exercise was Monday.

Not sure if you've ever heard the quote, "Abs are made in the kitchen" but it's 100% true. When losing weight, the most effective thing exercise does is decide what kind of weight is being lost. Keep it up; you're doing great!

[Zombie Dave McCaig]

Great work, Laura!

[PRambo]

That's AWESOME Laura!!! 30lbs is something to be proud of. Admire you for sticking to it. Keep it up!!!