lwow

Wait, the goal of working out in a public place isn't to confuse people by doing weird things? *bearcrawls with a weighted sled attached by vest away* As far as modesty, when I first started lifting, my coach snapped a pic of me doing zercher squats and put it on the gym FB page and tagged me. He was legitimately proud of my lift so that is why he was posting it, but the zercher pose had my shirt pulled down much further than I would normally do at the gym, and where the bar was pushed my chest up more than normal - basically a strongman wonderbra. Awesome lifting!

Zerchers are great!

Friday was a very sedentary day. I need to remember when I work from home to get up and move around a bit. My weight is up 206 today and had been 203 last week. I am hoping it is just water fluctuation because I am still eating very cleanly. I took 4 days off last week from eating to my strict plan, but still kept to under 2000 calories and over 100g protein. As of Saturday, I am back to the strict plan and will be continuing through early April. My contest is April 2 and I will be eating the best nachos in the world and drinking margaritas that evening. Just try to stop me. Saturday I did a bench press workout. Nothing very notable. Yesterday was STRONGMAN SUNDAY! Dynamic squats 2x8 @ 110 (60% of max) Moderate squats 3x3 @ 145 (80% of max) Sandbag carries -woooo 3x 50' out and back @170# This is my favorite event, but my trainer told me to get out the big green sandbag. I questioned that because that is what the guys have been training with. My contest is only 50' each way with 100 and 120 respectively. My trainer said that should be really light after I train with 170. I guess he has a point. It took me a while to figure out how to pick and run with a bag that big. Short arms are not my friend here. Once I figured it out, I could really get moving, but my core was feeling it. While I was working (outside) some guys were walking by the gym. I was resting for 3:00, they pointed to the bag and said, "you pick that up?" I said, "yep, and then run with it" He said, "can I try?". I showed him how to pick it up, and he gave it a few tries, eventually conceding..."that is really heavy" and leaving. Farmers holds Contest weight 155 Got the pick at this weight for the first time! And it is not that bad! I did 3 sets of 3 pick and hold, holding for 20 seconds each time. I bet I can get 1:00 in contest. My hands are going to hurt a lot. Weighted Sled bear crawls 5 lengths of 50' with a #60 sled. Rests x.5 time it takes to do the length - ugh cardio Hit Costco with the husband after the gym and stocked up. We are at a good rhythm of going there about every 2 weeks to stock up on meat, eggs, berries, asparagus, sprouts, grapefruit, and yogurt and then filling in the gaps between weeks, and getting some more interesting or perishable food at Trader Joes. Almost everything is organic/grass fed/free range, whatever and the prices are not so bad. Today is a rest day, thank god.

Last night: Hex bar deadlifts - low handles 5 @ 145 5 @ 165 3 @ 195 1 @ 215 Hex bar deadlifts - high handles 6x3 @ 195 Safety bar squats with a 2 count pause at the bottom - focus on upright torso 8x3 @ 115 Reverse Hypers 10x3 @ 100 My hip flexors woke me up last night with a deep ache, not much better now. Working from home, so I can roll out and try to get them better. Not sure what this is from. Also not feeling great stomach-wise today. I had a quest bar yesterday and I am thinking the sugar alcohols might not be reacting so well with my up until now, super clean diet. Going for pho date tonight with the husband and then back on the strict plan tomorrow. The big project I am on solo for work just had a check in meeting yesterday with a senior partner (top level) at my company and the client. I have been feeling a little unsure about my work, but they loved it. So I am feeling great about that. I realize that was weighing really heavily on me (no pun intended).

This is a good point that I am glossing over entirely. My issue is too much flexibility - which the yogis really like and it seems like "sucess" in yoga sometimes means bendiness, but I am not too fond of it when my shoulders are just as comfortable putting the OHP down behind my back as in front *shudder* Yoga is a great thing for lifters. It is definitely a balance of having the "right" amount of mobility. My husband is a great example, he has made huge gains on his squat just because he can move his ankles now. If you don't have enough mobility yoga can be really helpful, but you won't become the most bendy person in the class without losing some strength.

I would add to that - women's fitness highlights flexibility. I've spent a lot of time stretching and over stretching under the advisement of coaches, yoga instructors and PTs.

What does progressing mean to you for yoga? Is it mental, strength, flexibility, all three? You can't win at yoga (actually you can http://www.usayoga.org/).But basically, as long as you feel good, aren't getting hurt and are having fun, aren't you progressing? This is really simplified and maybe someone will weigh in on the science side of this, but strength and flexibility work against each other. If your joints are flexible, they cannot be as strong, if they are strong, they cannot be as flexible so balancing strength training and flexibility can be tricky.

I had some regrets when I found the same bag on Amazon with yellow handles and ants! But I did get mine at 1/2 price at Marshalls, so I'll call it a win. http://www.amazon.com/Picnic-Time-Anthology-Collection-Insulated/dp/B00SJS14X2/ref=sr_1_9?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1457017840&sr=1-9&keywords=picnic+time+bag I bring everything in it, then transfer just the cold stuff to the fridge. It is also handy because my office is right next to a trader joes where I do most of my grocery shopping, so I can hit that up after lunch and keep my groceries cool until I go home. Game changer!

Yeah, I was crossing my fingers that it would get here just in time for April 2 for my competition based on every other person who I have seen order through them. I went with the prongs, I like being able to adjust on the fly. I've been borrowing a belt that is exactly the same but broken in, so this isn't such a huge change. Mine is very stiff though, I briefly considered wearing it to work. I mean, I think I could make that work in a casual office environment. Ladies' fashion is crazy, and I work with mostly older dudes who wouldn't question it. I could just put it with a dress and pretend it is all the rage.

So monday through today I am off of my trainer's nutritional guidance. Monday and Tuesday, I kept on track. Yesterday was my worst day of eating since New Year's Eve. 3 hardboiled eggs black coffee 2 tbs pumpkin seeds grapefruit 2 slices sprouted grain bread 2 cups broccoli 1 cup brown rice noodles 4 oz grass fed ground beef 1 cup organic marinara sauce 1 cup fennel with avocado oil salt and pepper plain chai tea 1 cup greek yogurt 1/4 cup granola 1 scoop whey 2 tbs chia seeds 2 slices cinamon raisin sprouted grain bread peanut butter 2 slices of cheddar cheese 3 pieces of sliced turkey This is my cheat day now. This. There are even doughnuts here today and I can't get too excited about them. Who am I? My INZER belt came in!!! It took less than a week which is unexpected, but I am happy to get to train with it for a few weeks before competing. It is black. Tonight, we deadlift.

Awesome events! It is funny, the yoke medley would be my favorite and the log would be the one giving me some anxiety. That is going to be crazy to have 2 max lifts back to back, I hope you all get a good break between those events. Go get that Nats invite!!!

When I complain about DOMS my trainer makes me drag around a lot of weight on a sled at a walking pace for a long time, front walking, backwards walking, side walking, flyes. I assume this has something to do with what he refers to as "getting the blood flowing" or one of his "science" things, as it seems to help, but it could just be a way to get me to stop complaining and do something. Either way, it's worth a try.

It's mostly that it's pizza.

Nice! Deadlifts are awesome!

I said the same thing when I started. My whole plan was to do olympic lifting until I got strong enough and then I would give strongman a shot. I was certain that if I jumped right into strongman that I would get hurt. At that point BW squats were a challenge for me. I did olympic lifting for exactly 5 sessions. I trained at the same time as the group of strongman athletes. There was one woman who would yell at me every day (in a friendly manner) that I was on the wrong side of the gym, that I was built to move stuff (man, she was right, my static strength is eh, but I can run with a heavy thing quite well). I would watch them move around the atlas stones and run with yokes, and I decided I had to give it a try. The first day I tried it was just my luck, they were doing conan's wheel and atlas stones - a pretty epic mix. And suddenly oly lifting was over for me - there was only strongman. There is even photo evidence of this day - in sneakers with a huge heel. Look how much fun I am having, and so many bruises afterwords. I don't only train in pink tank tops, but when I do they are neon apparently. Long story short - strongman is scalable, no need to wait. Last night was not my best session, but no shock there as I was pretty wrecked from the weekend still. Did bench and a bunch of accessory upper body stuff. Rest day today, training with coach thursday maybe. Husband is away for conference - cooking alone for 1 sucks.

What does 6k calories a day look like, I cannot wrap my head around this? Sounds like mostly waffles?

Ha- no conspiracy I just really liked training at Fortis back when I was spending about 75% of my time up there for work. There were even a couple of strongman athletes and they were great and had some fun equipment. There also seemed to be an oly clique. I especially liked that the owner (I assume?) who worked with me to get my contract set up proactively offered to cut my membership price in half because I there were some weeks I wouldn't be there. I toured a goodlife, but they were really strict about early termination fees which I knew I would need to pay, and the most convenient one for me was the one at Eaton, which was always a mob so I nixed them.

You don't work out at Fortis Fitness do you? If you aren't I would highly recommend it.

Here is my new very professional looking lunchbox. I bet you didn't even realize it is a cooler. My whole thought process here: I'll need something for scale. Shoot, didn't pack a banana. Oh I could use my mug, but my mug is bigger than a normal mug, or my foot, oh, but my feet are huge too and will distort the size. Ah, I'll use my phone, that is a standard size - wait, I need the phone to take the picture. I can use the magic 8-ball on my desk (that is how I found out I had a slow leak of blue water). So you get a tissue box for scale. This was a journey people, a journey. Also a good time to mention that I have confirmed that my nutrition goals are going to be the same as the last 2 months - follow my trainer's plan. I was kind of hoping to move to a more flexible plan (more IIFYM) but I realized I am not ready for that yet and want to keep very good through contest. So lots of lunch packing in this beaut.

So much of what Polaris wrote is so so correct. I bold-ed the areas that I especially agree with so I am not just reiterating. My hyper-mobility is in my shoulders, and I have gotten so so much better. I found out I was hypermobile when I did crossfit and they told me to do the stretch below with my hands as close together as possible. So put my hands about an inch apart and did it. Jaws dropped and people wanted to see it like I was a circus side-show. It didn't really bother me until I started weightlifting (I do heavy lifting about 4x week). I have always enjoyed my flexibility and like that I can use it in yoga to get into some more complicated poses. However it was when I started doing overhead pressing with a barbell that I realized it was not so much a blessing as a curse. I realized that if I pushed a weight overhead, it would be very easy for my arms to fail backwards and pop out. Additionally, with the help of my trainer, we discovered that I had almost no stabilizing muscles and was physically unable to use any of my mid-back muscles. So over the last year and a half, we have been working on just that. I am lucky that I work with an amazing trainer who specializes in working with people with injuries, he is not a doctor and does some fairly unorthodox things according to modern western medicine, but through myself and some of his other clients I keep seeing broken people who are seeing him and going to doctors, and all of our doctors are convinced they are seeing miracles. I went to 2 PTs and both told me that I would basically never be able to lift and that I would likely have shoulder problems as I get older that I will just have to deal with. I can now overhead press 115# on a barbell and 60# with a dumbell. I still do yoga occasionally, but I tell the instructor about my issue and that I will sit out of shoulder stretches, or do an alternative.

Awesome that you are already tracking - especially with notes about how you were feeling! I cannot imagine a 600 calorie day. I love eating. Even for me though enough while eating clean is a pain though. I just bought a new cooler as a lunch box so I can bring my breakfast and 2 lunches to work. Like you are saying planning is a huge part of it. For what I am doing now, at the beginning of the week, I get my meal plan from my trainer - I do a big shopping trip and do a lot of food prep for the week on the weekend with my husband, then I do a few smaller grocery runs during the week, and make a shake and dinner each day. Eating like this is really a hobby for me right now, but every week it gets easier and takes less time. My diet is similar to paleo in that one goal is to eat food that is not very processed and it is pretty low in carbs, no sugar, no alcohol. Although I do get rice, sprouted grain bread, brown rice noodles, steel cut oats, fermented dairy and a little bit of cheese. Prepping for a comp while cutting is definitely hard mode but at least in amateur strongman it is not uncommon. Besides aesthetics (I want to look like I lift), I would like to get down to 185ish so I can compete as a midweight instead of a heavyweight in the future. It is slow and steady. I am averaging about .75 lbs per week lost.

Going to the doctor seems like a good first step. I also have some fatigue and cramps with PMS, I find that the best thing for it is to make it to the gym. I will not have the best workout, but if I put some effort in I will feel better afterwords.

I am so sore from Sunday. I'm going to the gym tonight and my trainer will be all like where are you sore? and will will be like In happy news, I rewarded myself for completing 2 months of crazy clean eating with a nice professional looking lunchbox, or cooler as the case may be. Either way, it is much better than re-used trader joes bags.

The "like" button wouldn't let me hit it any harder. So excited - more details on events please!

Finally read your intro post, that is a rough situation, but from what you are writing here, it sounds like you might have made some progress on your motivation challenge I am curious. What 4 minute song did you pick for an eternity of squats?