lwow

To clarify, my intention in this is that is is psychological. And as SpecialSundae brought up it is definitely a two sided story. There is an amazing benefit to comparing yourself to people who are lifting more - seeing someone else pull a weight that is impossible to you right now has a great motivational effect. A personal philosophy of mine is that if you feel like you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. It applies to lifting as well. You are much more likely to get smarter,or stronger in this case, if you surround yourself with people who are further along the same journey. So there is a tremendous benefit. The other side of the story is that seeing people pull your PR for warmups can be somewhat depressing. I deal with that a lot and have to consciously remember that the weights that I am moving are good weights for me and that I am proud of them at this point in my progress.

AWESOME DAY! Strongman Sunday!!! Dynamic squats 2x8 @ 105 Work up to a heavy single.....PR 190#! Circus DB started warming up with 45#, it was ugly. Just not going up. I did some extra rolling out on my quad which is having some issues. Came back. Hit 45. Hit 50. Attempted 60. Fail, fail, maybe 7 or 8 more fails, all within inches of lockout. Coach told me to chill for a minute or 2, then try again. Nailed it for a PR of 60# with 70 (contest weight) in my sights. AMRAP for 60 seconds with #50, hit 9 reps. Plyomentrics and 4 200m sprints for conditioning. So in the last 2 weeks I have PR'd my bench, squat, dead lift, and circus dumb bell clean and press. I am feeling pretty good.

Good luck!

Welcome, good luck!

Awesome challenge! Having a monthly cleaner come in is a great goal. It is the only thing that keeps my house in line. "Crap, the cleaner is coming, we better clean". But it is the best thing to come home to your house all sparkling.

Welp, this is gonna be in my head all day: Welcome to the warriors! That meal template looks awesome!

Lifting is lifting, and comparing your lifts to others gets dangerous. I lift with a bunch of very strong dudes and it is really motivating to see them lift cars, and chunks of iron and stuff, but it is important to step back every once in a while and remember that what you are doing is impressive for where you are at. So dust bunnies maybe, but fierce ones. Also, awesome party decor, and great job balancing social life with a healthy life. I am working on that.

Thanks! I'll need it Thanks you It's not exactly nationals, but I can dream Thanks! I'll try to make sure there is some strongwoman awesomeness I'll try to get some vids up this challenge. At a minimum, I'll post my contest. Thanks!! Looking forward to Strongman Sunday in a few hours on a beautiful day! Yesterday I just had mobility and whatnot to finish out my de-load week, but my husband hit a new bench PR - 302.5 (odd number due to a slight confusion between what a 5 lb and a 2.5 lb plate looks like) I'm pretty impressed that he is less than 20 lbs from being able to bench me while I hold my bench PR, but I think I'll be able to keep ahead of him catching up to that

I got a white noise app on my phone that is a savior for sleeping in uncontrollable conditions while traveling. There are a bunch of free ones out there, or you can get one with like rain or crickets or whatever make you sleepy, should help with the intermittent noise of the air compressor. Good luck!

Awesome lifts! Way to close out the challenge

The Results gym in capitol hill is supposed to be great. I have never been, but I an ex-gym buddy of mine who moved back into the district started going there and he loves it.

You will get this quest! I've been following your thread and I wanted to share my pushup story with you that I had this week: I had never been able to do a real push up; for some reason even when I was doing sports people let me always get away with knee pushups - which are bullshit pushups. When I started working with my trainer, he did not allow pushups on knees, if you need to modify use an incline or a band. And I did. I did a lot of modified push ups and a lot of bench press and overhead press. I literally had dreams about doing pushups. In my dreams they felt easy and waking up was better than waking up from a dream where you can fly. It might sound weird, but that dream pushed me to pursue push ups. They were always a side quest, but whenever they showed up in my programming, I was eager to see my progress. On Monday of this week, my programing had 10x3 pushups, no assistance was written. So I didn't use it, even though I thought it must have been a mistake that he left it out. While I was doing my second set, I got that weird feeling someone was watching. My trainer and my husband were just standing there, big strong dudes looking down with arms crossed, "huh, I guess she can do pushups" said my trainer, my husband concured "yeah, those were good". It was the best feeling. All this did take me about 1.5 years, but that includes a major injury that had me not using upper body at all for about 4 months, also I weigh 205, so you might also have less bodyweight to be lifting. I was never actually focusing on getting better at pushups like you are doing either. I am confident you will get them soon. And it will be amazing.

I've been on NF for a long time. Since October 2010 - Prequel: I started at my most unhealthy of my life. An ex-college and high school athlete now with a desk job, comfortably with a great boyfriend, and surviving mostly on carbs and alcohol. Chapter 1: 2010- 2011-Cardio and calorie counting - a good start, I found NF where I became a Scount and then a Ranger, I ran a few half marathons and a bunch of 5ks, started doing BBWW circuit, lost a bunch of weight. Could not do a lunge.Chapter 2: 2011-2012 Went paleo and found crossfit got engaged and got down to my goal weight, but was a little insane. Ah, my Ranger days.Chapter 3: 2012-2014 Got married, started traveling for work, put a lot of weight back on while having spurts of healthy eating and/or working out. Got pretty good at yoga.Chapter 4: 2014-2016 Husband invited me to check out his gym where he had been doing "strongman" for about 6 months. I agreed to go the the gym, but wanted to train for olympic lifting instead. Realized I am waaay too ADD for oly - was lured by the ladies training strongman to switch. In May I made the switch and competed as a novice in late August, completing a lot of my workouts on the road while traveling for work. In October I broke a vertebrae while running with a 400# yoke. A setback to be sure, but it got me to start working with a personal trainer to come up with workouts I could do around the injury. In January I was cleared to go back to normal training, so I signed up for an April competition (novice again) and did most of my training at a gym in Toronto while I traveled for work. After the competition, I decided my next one would be open class. I started getting regular programming from my trainer, then a personalized and very strict nutrition plan. On April 2, I compete in my first Open Strongman Competition. I am in better shape than I have ever been (including when I was a division 1 NCAA athlete). I am eating better and training better than ever before. I am on the long, slow road to being mid-weight (under 181) but feel leaner now at 205 than I have been in the past at 180. It would be nice to win, but I am not super fond of that as a metric because it is dependent on who else shows up that day and not an indicator of my performance. I want to PR on every event. These last 4 weeks of training are going to be intense. Below is my contest info, updated from last month: Circus DB Press for reps ­ Clean and press every rep ­ 60 second time limit 70# (3†loadable handle) PR 60# . I really want to hit 70 before contest, doing a lot of bench press to get my shoulders more capable. I would like to get 4 lifts in contest. Max Barbell Deadlift ­30 second time limit Wessels rule; max 3 attempts ­ miss at anytime and you are out; 20lb jumps : minimum starting weight 200lbs Max deadlift 245 at a slight deficit. I am confident that I can make good progress here and would like to be able to hit 280-300 in contest. Farmer’s Hold – max time 155# Worked with 130 - can do long holds at that weight (around a minute), need more work picking 155. Sandbag carry medley ­ Carry sandbag 50 feet straight drop, pick up heavier sandbag carry 50 feet back ­ 60 second time limit ­ no shouldering, must carry bear hug style 100# 120# I did some work at contest weight and was fast. I should do well in this event. Stone over bar series ­ 44†bar for women­ 60 second time limit 150# 150# with tacky is no problem and the bar is lower than what I have been working with. Looking to hit 6 repsNutrition goals to come.

I completely didn't realize that this is the end of the challenge. A little underwhelming to end on a deload, but progress is definitely in the right direction. Continue my nutrition program - A+ doing awesomeTake progress pics, log workouts, track PRs, log food if I switch to a macro plan - A+ everything logged, pics takenMaintain consistency of training (4x week plus active recovery) - Heck yes A+ LUYL: Continue to try to get a meditation session a week. Add gratitude journal. - Eh, I did a few sessions and made it to a yoga class B....gratitude journal, what gratitude journalA few highlights: #5 PR on Bench to #115#15 PR on Deadlift to #245 (neither PR was a max lift)Success with contest weight stoneSuccess with contest weight sandbagsLost 5 pounds

Gym night with second deload workout, low body stuff. Had the worst night of sleep last night despite being extra tired. Just trying to get through the workday to go home and sleep. Woo Friday night!!

Those are some pretty significant PRs, right? Congrats!

This might be a frustrating answer, but since everyone works very differently, it is good to experiment. It is frustrating because it will take a while to figure out what is right for you and it takes some work to get there. If you think you might not be eating enough, the only way to find out is to give it a try - but to track what you are eating carefully, and also track your workouts including how you felt then compare the two. Also, if you are adding calories but worried about putting on fat, make sure you are upping your calories with clean foods. Adding 300 calories of lean protein and complex carbs is going to have a different effect than adding a snickers every day. I am currently in a cutting phase while I am also training for a competition, so I am eating about 1700-1800 calories on days that I don't work out comprised of mostly meat and veggies;and 2000-2400 calories on days that I do work out including some good carbs (rice, sprouted grain bread, berries, sweet potato), and a post workout protein shake. That is working for me to keep up with strength gains, but slowly losing fat (~1 lb per week).

For your questions about visible progress: I highly recommend progress pictures in addition to your weigh ins. It is hard for anyone to see the differences they are making by looking in the mirror because change is so gradual and you are conditioned to see what you expect to see to some extent. If you have pictures you can analyze the actual change that is happening. I also re-committed in January (also not a new year's resolution and started taking pictures on a weekly basis. The changes are not big in these first 2 months, but they are noticeable enough to motivate me to keep going to the gym and keep eating very cleanly, even though it is exceptionally inconvenient, because I know that if those weekly changes keep going I'll have some significant changes by summer. It's a marathon, not a sprint. It is easier to think that your changes are really life changes for a better lifestyle than just the means to an end of looking good.

Below is my food for today, the macros are: Carbs:215, Fat:37, Protein:141 calories:1700 If you took out the scoop of protein powder, you would still be pretty close to your protein goal (however I would not recommend the rest of the shake without the flavor masking of the protein). My takeaway is that if you aren't using protein powder and you are eating clean, you are eating a whole lot of food and not a lot of it is nice winter carby food. I want the pizza protein diet so bad. Albeus, can you get working on the deets for that? It is for cutting, right? Meal 1 2 whole eggs 1/3 cup Trader Joes Cage Free liquid egg whites 1 cup Brussels sprouts 2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds 1 grapefruit Meal 2 1 cup (container) greek yogurt 10 RAW asparagus spears 1.5 cups organic mixed berries Meal 3 4 oz. chicken thighs 2 cups broccoli 1 cup rice Meal 4 4 oz low-fat Kefir milk 1 carrot 1 cup Kale (frozen or fresh) 1 cup broccoli (frozen or fresh) 2 tablespoons chia seeds ¾ cup Trader Joes organic mixed berries 1 scoop Whey chocolate protein powder 1 cup organic canned pumpkin Meal 5 Chicken stir fry: each serving is- 4 oz chicken thighs + 1 cup rice as desired: (stir fried w chicken) snap peas, broccoli, onion, red/green peppers, garlic, scallions, mushrooms use liquid aminos, fish sauce and apple cider vinegar as sauce

Well, no I'm not sure. I feel like I have normal bras under control, but for sports bras the sizes do not have the cup independent from the band. So, sometimes I feel like I should get a medium because I have mediumish boobs, but then I remember that I do not have mediumish lats. So basically, I tend to wind up with sports bras that are not super supportive, but I can breathe. As for activity, I train strongman events, so static lifting as well as sprinting and all other manner of weird stuff.

The brand I am currently lusting after is Lole, but other ones I like are Athleta (yes, their lifetime warranty applies to putting their clothes through strongman activities), Lululemon, though I am open to whatever. I should also note that I've only got a b/small c cup, so that is part of my issue with the price. I don't feel like I really need the nth degree of boob technology to rein myself in. But...maybe I am missing something.

I am hoping to get some opinions on sports bras. I've been wearing them for about 20 years now so I have some experience. Since no one really sees them but me, I have never been inclined to spend much on them. Generally, I just get my sports bras from Target or Costco even. These seem to get the job done for me, but since my favorite athletic brands are charging 2-4 times what I am paying, I am starting to wonder if there is something better out there. Here is my question: Are the pricey sports bras worth it? If so what are they doing better?

Yoga is hard! I went yesterday to a hot yoga class (CorePower level 2) last night, it has been a while since I have gone and this is their most advanced class, but I was hurting. I learned that I have really poor isometric strength now. It is funny because since starting strongman training, every yoga class I go to is a fun discovery of new strength abilities. Last night was not. I kept having to put my arms down because i could not keep them held out to the sides anymore. Is there a trade off there? Can you only have isometric strength or explosive strength one at a time? I was proud that I sat out of the part of the class that was "bird of paradise" pose. It is a challenging pose that I can do, but it stretches out my hypermobile shoulders in a way that makes me lose strength for overhead movements. I just put my ego to the side and hung out in a much less challenging pose instead of showing off like I would prefer. Training tonight, so more food to eat today

Seriously with the food! The dark side is strong!

Nice benching!