Keladris lifts the thing

[Keladris]

Lugging instruments through long treks from one town to the next, swinging from trees with poise and elven grace, scrambling up a cliff to look down at the land below: being a bard is strong work! And Keladris was going to get strong.
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I'm sticking with my one goal at a time approach to the challenges. It just makes things simpler and I feel good when I succeed. I am of course still doing all I can do to maintain my progress so far (I need to make sure I keep getting outside throughout this challenge, but my flexibility is improving nicely, I'm really pleased how well I am maintaining my more colourful diet and dancing is as joyful as ever). 

So my one goal for these 5 weeks is to strength train twice a week! I've not managed to do that since respawning, tending to skip the second one each week. I'm more or less at my weight goal now, and so my next big goals are to get my push up to the floor and do my first pull up. So I need to focus on those goals to make them reality.

How to make it happen? Well, a certain @Starpuckand I are budding up to keep each other accountable. My strength training days will be with Thursday and Sunday or Friday and Sunday (depending on whether I need a rest day after dance on Weds). 

Workout 1 will be slightly different from workout 2. I've built this program from the NF beginner bodyweight program, although I'm a little more advanced than the basic one now! 

Here's my week 0 base for workout 1:



I use resistance bands for the weights. Will do different variations of the squats and lunges depending on how I'm feeling.

And workout 2:



The idea is this workout involves 'heavier' reps but less of them. The lower incline on the push ups is reallyyy taxing, I can't do more than 5 at the moment. My assisted  pull ups use a chair, but I might buy a new loop to help me out. 

I'm also going to do some dead hangs during the week to really help with those pull ups.

 

Going to be channeling Brienne-bae to find my strength for this challenge!





  

 

[Alanna]

Here for the push and pull progress! 

 

 

On 5/11/2021 at 3:20 AM, Keladris said:

The lower incline on the push ups is reallyyy taxing, I can't do more than 5 at the moment.

 

5 reps is actually really nicely in the "strength" rep range, although for regular workouts you probably want to get to the point that you can leave 1-2 reps in the tank. After your current programme, a phase with lower reps could be helpful for getting you your first full push ups and pull ups  

[Elastigirl]

Nice challenge! How's it going so far?

[starpuck]

Hey hey hey!  Here now, phew.

I got lost in the weekend.

 

I am going to try and sport the new tank this weekend while visiting the nephews.  I will get pics!

 

[Keladris]

I've done a terrible job of tracking, I managed to not save my excel file for week 1! I've been plagued with migraines, which meant only 1 strength training for first week, but I made it up with an extra one this week. So I say it counts!

Anyway, here's my wee spreadsheets for this week:

 

Friday 21st

 

Sunday 23rd

 

I'm definitely noticing that 2 workouts are better than one!

I'm feeling kinda vain, body has changed so much since my respawn in Jan! So here's some shameless selfies 

Spoiler

I'm starting to see the road to the gunshow... Which feels strange since I still can't do my push ups on the ground. But I WILL get there!

[Keladris]

On 5/14/2021 at 2:32 PM, Alanna said:

Here for the push and pull progress! 

 

 

 

5 reps is actually really nicely in the "strength" rep range, although for regular workouts you probably want to get to the point that you can leave 1-2 reps in the tank. After your current programme, a phase with lower reps could be helpful for getting you your first full push ups and pull ups  

 

Ooh why is it good to leave some in the tank? I'm pretty much making this up as I go so any and all advice helpful!

[Alanna]

15 hours ago, Keladris said:

 

Ooh why is it good to leave some in the tank? I'm pretty much making this up as I go so any and all advice helpful!

 

Working to failure every time is difficult to recover from physically and risks injuries and/or ingraining bad habits due to form breakdown as you get fatigued, especially if you're a beginner. It's also mentally taxing for many people. I should also note that some strength trainers use the number of reps that they have left with good form as their benchmark - i.e., stopping well before their reps become very slow and grinding.

 

If you're interested in looking up this concept, it's also called RPE. For strength training, max effort = RPE 10, 1 rep left = RPE 9, 2 reps left = RPE 8, and so on, although the low RPEs don't really get used much since it's tough to say exactly how many reps you have left when the weight/exercise is easy. With experience, though, you can learn to judge ~RPE 7-10 fairly well. 

[Keladris]

Interesting! Thanks for this. I do generally try to stop before my form goes, although that seems to coincide with a feeling that I can't do anymore haha.

 

I've been watching loads of "Ultimate Beastmaster" which is an amazing obstacle course competition with very strong, fit people. It's inspiring but I'm also a bit down that my push ups are taking so long to come! But I know I will get there, and my aching arms and shoulders today tell me I've been working hard enough!

[Keladris]

Decided to see if I could actually in any way get close to a push up (or a negative push up at least) today, and was pleasantly surprised! 

 

Not sure how to lift my hips up at the same time as my chest. I guess I just gotta keep working on those inclines and it will come. This is WAY more than I could do at the beginning of the year (used to just slightly bend my elbows and fall on the floor!)

[starpuck]

Aaaahhh yeaaah, the road to the gun show is in progress.  They are clearing the path to lay down the concrete, woot woot.

 

Some great advice already offered.    I for sure, most of the time, do not work to failure.   I also find my body feels better if I work to slowly increase and not eek out every last rep, lol.

 

Great work going on in here Twin!  Keep it up!

 

[Alanna]

On 5/24/2021 at 6:36 PM, Keladris said:

Interesting! Thanks for this. I do generally try to stop before my form goes, although that seems to coincide with a feeling that I can't do anymore haha.

 

I've been watching loads of "Ultimate Beastmaster" which is an amazing obstacle course competition with very strong, fit people. It's inspiring but I'm also a bit down that my push ups are taking so long to come! But I know I will get there, and my aching arms and shoulders today tell me I've been working hard enough!

 

On 5/25/2021 at 5:15 AM, Keladris said:

Decided to see if I could actually in any way get close to a push up (or a negative push up at least) today, and was pleasantly surprised! 

 

Not sure how to lift my hips up at the same time as my chest. I guess I just gotta keep working on those inclines and it will come. This is WAY more than I could do at the beginning of the year (used to just slightly bend my elbows and fall on the floor!)

 

Congrats on the push-up progress! It looks like you are having fun with them  . Building upper body strength can take a lot of time, especially for women. Keep in mind that if you've been working in the ~10 rep range, a full push-up is a big change in intensity, too. 

 

I think strength off the ground will primarily rely on your pecs, but I'm not 100% sure (that hypothesis is based on my bench press knowledge!). When you do your inclines, are you resting on the ground in between reps or did you just do so here due to the strength issue? When you do your incline push-ups, pausing at the bottom (fully supporting your weight) might help you build more strength and control in that part of the movement. Also, again based on bench press weak spots, struggling ~half-way down might be a shoulder/deltoid weakness. 

[Keladris]

On 5/26/2021 at 1:45 PM, Alanna said:

I think strength off the ground will primarily rely on your pecs, but I'm not 100% sure (that hypothesis is based on my bench press knowledge!). When you do your inclines, are you resting on the ground in between reps or did you just do so here due to the strength issue? When you do your incline push-ups, pausing at the bottom (fully supporting your weight) might help you build more strength and control in that part of the movement. Also, again based on bench press weak spots, struggling ~half-way down might be a shoulder/deltoid weakness. 

Shoudler weakness would make a lot of sense. I struggle to control my shoulder blades at the best of times, they're just not the stable. Funny enough, my ballet is helping with this, since you constantly have to be pushing down wards from the shoulder blades when going up on your toes or doing pirouettes, otherwise you don't engage your core properly and fall.

When I'm doing the inclines, it's on a bar, and I go until my chest touches the bar, then straight back up. I can do 12 of those. For the lower variation on the chairs, I only manage 5, but they're a lot slower because I find them hard (although probably slower makes them harder haha), so I'm probably pausing at the bottom to gather myself before pushing up.

[Keladris]

Week 3 workouts

 

 

Did more reps on everything! Wooh. The only exception being I skipped the split squat on the second workout, because my legs were still sore from the first and wanted to preserve them for ballet today.

 

60lbs is starting to feel a bit too light now! Arm strength must be increasing. I'm not actually sure if it is a full 60 or 80lbs, because I'm using resistance bands so could be I'm not extending them all the way.  Either way, adding the second workout is clearly making a difference to my progress.

 

In other news, I hit my weight goal this week! Lots 10kg over 20 weeks! So now I'm going to switch to maintenance mode for the next 6 months or so. I'm wondering if the increased calories will help me build more strength. We'll see! Couldn't have got here without Nerd Fitness, and I'm looking forward to where I'm going next.

 

 

[Alanna]

On 5/28/2021 at 3:54 AM, Keladris said:

Shoudler weakness would make a lot of sense. I struggle to control my shoulder blades at the best of times, they're just not the stable. Funny enough, my ballet is helping with this, since you constantly have to be pushing down wards from the shoulder blades when going up on your toes or doing pirouettes, otherwise you don't engage your core properly and fall.

When I'm doing the inclines, it's on a bar, and I go until my chest touches the bar, then straight back up. I can do 12 of those. For the lower variation on the chairs, I only manage 5, but they're a lot slower because I find them hard (although probably slower makes them harder haha), so I'm probably pausing at the bottom to gather myself before pushing up.

 

It is amazing how much shoulder blade stability helps with things like push-ups!

 

I also think the front part of the shoulder (deltoids) is used more as you decrease the incline (the extreme case, with the most deltoid activation, would be a handstand push-up or an over head press). I noticed that you don't have any vertical pushes in your workout routine (unless the band press is one?) - if you struggle with reducing your incline, working in a vertical push such as OHP or pike push-ups as an accessory or alternating it with your push-ups might help with the transition :). 

 

Congrats on reaching your weight loss goal!

[Keladris]

Shortly after I last posted I sprained my neck! And after that healed I got a cough/cold that took me out. But onwards and upwards with the next challenge...