Noodle arms reporting for duty!

[Calli]

So... I'm a newbie, obviously. I'm female, British, 39 and a half, a gamer, absolutely a nerd, and I mess about with yarn and hooks for fun. I'm married with two kids, one of whom is 14, and on the autistic spectrum, the other who is 10, and in a wheelchair, with several disabilities. And there you have the main problem. We have no real method of getting her upstairs to bed other than to carry her, and up to this point, my hubby has been doing all the lifting while I do my best impression of the FSM on the couch, noodly appendages and all, and I'm sick of it. I'm her mother, I should be able to carry my own daughter up a simple flight of stairs, surely?

 

And so, I prodded the internet. On a whim, I actually searched "Nerd Workouts", and you appeared, just like Doctor Who in a crisis. Do you wear a bow tie, by any chance? Bow ties are cool. I digress... I'm looking forward to getting started, and obviously, my first goal is to be able to easily and safely carry my daughter upstairs. I am overweight, but I look on any weight loss as a nice side effect of reaching that goal. After I get there, we'll see...

[lawrencep93]

Welcome Calli,

 

You have your motivation. I think you should set specific goals.

 

Strength training and a great diet will help you a tonne. Also as you lose weight but maintain strength you can actually lift more because you have less of your own body weight to worry about which can be helpful when lifting others.

 

Look at doing some compound strength training, like squats, deadlifts, bench press and so on, plenty of info here. Focus on low reps and heavy weight.

 

You will be surprised with how much strength you can gain in just a few weeks.

[LittleMissSunshine]

Hello, from another noodly-armed nerd! Upper body and core strength is my current mission, I look forward to seeing how yours progresses too.

[Calli]

Well, specific goal is to be able to lift 26kg of 10 year old up a normal flight of stairs without breaking either her or me at the moment. Thinking on it, after that, the goal would be to get her and 15kg of wheelchair up the 1 in 3 gradient to the supermarket on foot and still be alive enough to do the grocery shopping. You know... life specific goals. I genuinely don't care what the scales say. They lie WAY too much for me to rely on the number. I'd far rather go by how my clothes fit and how I feel in myself. I'm already a paleo convert, truth be told, but applying that to my life 100% is tricky with two kids on special diets, limited time to cook and an unshakeable belief that family mealtimes are a vital part of my son's socialisation skills. We're working on it as a family, though, so I have no doubt we'll get there. 

 

And yay!! Another noodly-arms! *wiggles upper limbs in octopus-like fashion*