The Iron Maiden

A Public Announcement

2011-12-19T10:41:00.000+13:00

After a couple of years of fighting with motivation, I've decided to just bite the bullet and stop lifting. I must say, I am LOVING it. I love not feeling worried about whether to go to the gym or not and stressed about not going and then if I do go not really enjoying it.

At the moment, for exercise I'm running for about 30-40 minutes 2 -3 times a week. The runs involve LOTS of hard hills so it's more interval training that steady state cardio. I am really enjoying myself. I feel really fit now and so light when I run.

I'm also enjoying how I look; I've dropped about 5kg (11lbs) since October and to be honest, I don't have the desire to look muscly anymore. Dare I say that I want to look "toned" :-/ More importantly than how I look I actually FEEL way better. I don't feel so tired, so achy. I can actually function properly during the day. I actually feel more positive (probably because I don't feel so shitty) so I am STOKED.

I am a little sad about losing my strength, but you can't win em all.

So for now, this blog will be put to rest. I anticipate I might start lifting again in winter, but to be honest I can't even be sure of that!

That Bench Press Video

2011-09-26T11:33:00.003+13:00

...the one I was supposed to post about two months ago, well... here it is! It's the video from this training session.

Training: Friday 16th September

2011-09-20T18:40:00.000+12:00

Oops, I forgot to post my training from last Friday. As with all Fridays I was over training and just wanted to get in and out of the gym so I just did the basics. Despite my poor training attitude, I think I did pretty good.

Push Press
20kg x 10
30kg x 8
42.5kg x 5
47.5kg x 3
52.5kg x 5

Deadlift
60kg x 10
80kg x 5
105kg x 5
120kg x 3
135kg x 4

Incline Crunches
3 x 10, no weight

I get confused with what to call these things. If you're on one of those benches like you do decline bench on, do you call them incline or decline crunches? I used to call them decline, but then I saw someone else calling them incline... I get confused. Someone help me!

Hanging Leg Raises
2 x10

Well, that's my first working cycle of this round of 5/3/1 so I'll be bumping up the weights next time. Next week (or this week now) is supposed to be a deload week. Sometimes I just take the week off weights which I probably shouldn't do but the weights are so light it's sometimes like doing nothing anyway. I think as long as I'm exercising it should be okay. When the weights get heavier it's probably more important to get in there and do the deload properly.

On Saturday morning, for the first time in a long time, I got up early and went for a run before work. It was great to get out and about actually. I was quite sore the next morning as I'm not conditioned to running continuously for 40 minutes like I used to be. Although I run a lot in soccer, it's more stop-start and sprints than a long jog. The aim is to get out at least 3 times a week for a run once Daylight Savings starts this weekend (yay!). I'm obviously going to build it up as I'm not a spring chicken anymore and my joints cried after just my Saturday run. If the weather is good I'll get up early on Thursday morning for a run before work since I start late that day.

Training:13th September

2011-09-13T23:56:00.001+12:00

Wow my upper back was sore and tight today. I think I went too hard out on my foam rolling yesterday as it actually felt bruised. It probably wasn't as tight as yesterday and luckily it didn't affect my training at all as I managed to bust out a PR! Yay!

Squats
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 8
70kg x 5
85kg x 5
97.5kg x 3
107.5kg x 6 reps PR!

I was aiming for 1 rep if I felt crap, 5 reps if I was feeling good but managed to get 6! Awww yeah!

Split Squats
50kg
2 x 10

Glute Ham Raises
BW x 10, 3 sets

Training: 12th September

2011-09-12T23:55:00.000+12:00

For some reason my upper back was super tight today and it was affecting the range of motion in my neck. I tried to foam roll it which gave temporary relief. Now, after training it is pretty sore and I'm having trouble getting up from a lying position. Hopefully it won't affect my ability to train tomorrow.

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
57.5kg x 5
67.5kg x 3
75kg x 3

Pullups
BW x 3, 10 sets

External Rotations
3 x 10

Hammer Strength Row
35kg aside
3 x 10

Tricep Dips (on bench)
3 x 20

Training: Friday 9th September

2011-09-09T23:36:00.000+12:00

Like most Fridays, I was feeling weary again, but determined to get into the gym to do my workout. I decided to stick with just the main lifts today so I was in and out quickly.

Push Press
20kg x 10
30kg x 6
40kg x 4
45kg x 3
50kg x 5

Deadlift
60kg x 10
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
112.5kg x 3
127.5kg x 4

Training:7th September

2011-09-07T23:14:00.001+12:00

Good workout today, I went in after soccer practice. Luckily soccer practice was just kind of mucking around and not hard out like it usually is. We played soccer volleyball where you header or kick the ball over the net. We love it!

Squats
20kg x 10
40kg x 10
60kg x 8
70kg x 5
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
102.5kg x 10 PR!

I am pretty pleased with myself and can't believe I got 10 reps with this weight. I was aiming for five!

Incline Crunches
4 x 15

Back Extensions
3 x 20

Thoracic Mobility Drills

Stretching

Training: 5 September

2011-09-05T12:06:00.000+12:00

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
55kg x 3 ***
62.5kg x 3 ***
70kg x 7 **

* = indicates number of paused reps till stationary

Pullups
BW x 3, 10 sets
30 seconds rest between sets

I decided to change up the way I do my pullups. Typically I've always done sets of 5 or 6 or more for about 3-5 sets but I find this quite fatiguing. This time I tried less reps per set but more sets and it was much better.

External Rotations
3 x 10

Hammer Strength Row
35kg aside
3 x 10

Hanging Leg Raises
2 x 10

Training: 2nd September

2011-09-02T23:53:00.000+12:00

Felt pretty low energy going into the gym, so planned to do a pretty simple workout with just the basic lifts if I needed to.

Push Press
20kg x 10
30kg x 5
37.5kg x 5
42.5kg x 5
47.5kg x 6

Deadlift
60kg x 10
80kg x 5
92.5kg x 5
105kg x 5
120kg x 7

Glute Ham Raises
3 x 10

Hanging Leg Raises
3 x 10

Training: 30th August

2011-08-30T21:50:00.002+12:00

I was pretty tired today, so I got in and just did a basic workout

Squats
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
75kg x 5
85kg x 5
97.5kg x 7

Decline Leg Raises
3 x 10

Walking Lunges
50 reps

Training: 29th August

2011-08-29T23:51:00.000+12:00

I have officially started on 5/3/1 again. Looking forward to the structured program and quick workouts!

Bench Press (all reps paused)
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
57.5kg x 5
67.5kg x 6

These felt a little heavier than I expected, but I guess working out once every two weeks will do that to ya!

Pendlay Row
50kg
3 x 8

Lat Pulldown (Neutral Grip)
50
4 x 8

Training: 19th August

2011-08-19T22:38:00.001+12:00

Yes, I still workout. Barely! I thought I'd have a moderate workout today since it's been almost 3 weeks since I last trained. Although I forced myself to go, it felt good to be back in the gym and the weights felt easier than I thought they would.

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 3, 5 sets RPE 6/10

Squats
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 5
80kg x 4
90kg x 3
100kg x 3, 5 sets RPE 7/10

Lat Pulldown (Neutral Grip)
60 x 6, 4 sets

Pendlay Row
50kg x 8, 3 sets

Face Pulls
13.75kg x 10, 3 sets

I am considering doing 5/3/1 again. I enjoyed the program and got great results from it. I need something to make me workout again. I think 3 days a week would be ideal for me; not too intense, but not too lazy either. That video I promised to you almost 3 weeks ago is still on my camera. I'll get it up here soon!

Training: 1st August

2011-08-01T23:00:00.000+12:00

First training session in almost two weeks. I've been feeling pretty weary these past couple of weeks; loading up on ibuprofen and going to bed a little earlier has helped a bit. I'm hoping to make it to the gym at least twice a week instead of one every two weeks :-/

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 3
75kg x 1
77.5kg x 1, 5 sets

I took a video of my 3rd set of 77.5kg. I'll try and get that up on the blog tomorrow. It's been a while since I took a video of my lifting.

Pullups
BW x 5, 3 sets

Pendlay Row (with Dumbells)
26kg aside 3 x 8

Hammer Strength Row
3 x 10 x 30kg aside

Training: 19th July

2011-07-19T23:18:00.001+12:00

I had a great training session today, mainly because I kind of got a bench press PR. I say kind of because I have actually benched more than 85kg before, but now I try to execute all my benching "competition style" with a pause on the chest until stationary (and sometimes a full 2 second count). My previous personal best of 91kg was touch and go.

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
72.5kg x 1
75kg x 1
77.5kg x 1
80kg x 1
82.5kg x 1

85kg x 1

70kg x 3, 5 sets

Squats
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 5
80kg x 5
90kg x 5
100kg x 5

My knee was feeling a little iffy on the warmup sets and I was wearing the wrong shoes so I decided to just leave my squats at the 100kg. I was pretty pleased with how it felt actually, I'd rate it about 8/10 difficulty.
tr
Pullups
BW x 6, 2 sets

Decline Leg Raises
3 x 10

Hammer Strength Row
2 x 10 x 30kg aside

Training: 12th July

2011-07-12T23:21:00.001+12:00

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
70kg x 5, 3 sets
Backoff Set: 60kg x 10

Squats
60kg x 10
70kg x 5
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
100kg x 3
110kg x 4 Reps PR
Backoff Set: 80kg x 15 Reps PR

Pullups
BW x 6, 3 sets

I actually had a pretty good workout today, which surprised me because I felt like rubbish all day! I didn't really feel like going super heavy tonight so I decided I'd keep the weight lower and do more reps with the weight. The 80kg x 15 almost killed me. I reckon I could have pushed for about 5 reps more, but I did want to walk out of the gym alive. I also reckon I could have gotten another rep with the 110kg but it would have been ugly as hell to watch. Best keep the reps pretty I say! Benching felt average tonight. Having said that, it has been a while since I benched 70kg for 5 for several sets.

No Training Today!

2011-07-05T20:03:00.001+12:00

No training tonight. I had my usual squat workout planned but I had to miss it. I got a nasty blister on my foot from Sunday's soccer game and it is now a bit infected and actually sore to put my full weight on my heel as the surrounding area is inflamed and tender. If it's better tomorrow I'll do my squat workout tomorrow.

Speaking of Sunday's game -- we lost 2-1. It was a very challenging game! The team we played we top of the table in our division. It was 1-1 until the last 10 minutes where they scored a goal and we were unable to catch up. Unfortunately the game was marred by the bad attitude of the opposing teams players AND their supporters. I'm not surprised they were like that as if their supporters have poor attitudes then badness just breeds. One fellow in particular was calling us cheats (hello! they won!) and other choice names. Not only that he was nasty to his own team if we had the advantage! What a prick! The linesman asked him to step back as he was in the way of him doing his job and the guy had the audacity to tell him he could stand where he liked and for the linesman to get stuffed. There are some quality people out there that's for sure. To top it off the referee was like tits on a bull. He looked like he was about 18 years old and because the other team was full of young girls he spent a lot of his time flirting with the other team. My team mate who isn't afraid to speak her mind actually told him off and told him to stop flirting with the girls and to concentrate on our game. The idiot also decided to ignore the linesman and let an offside goal count. Very frustrating for us!

The good thing about the game that was it was nice to run around, the goal we did score was a cracker (a pass from the side and a header into the goal) and the beer afterwards.

Training: 4th July

2011-07-04T18:40:00.000+12:00

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
72.5kg x 1
75kg x 3, 5 sets

Backoff Sets: 60kg x 5, 4 sets

Pullups
BW x 6, 5 sets

The backoff sets and pullups were performed as supersets

Decline Leg Raises
3 x 10

Face Pulls
3 x 10 x 13.75kg

I had a great workout today. Motivation was fairly high going into the gym, meaning I actually wanted to go today rather than forced myself to go. I was pretty pleased with my benching today. All sets were around an RPE of 8-9 out of 10, so they were pretty challenging. The decline leg raises are actually quite hard. I did them at the highest incline this time!

Training: 1st July

2011-07-01T23:57:00.000+12:00

Squats (warmup in conjunction with deadlifts)
20kg x 10
40kg x 8

Deadlifts
60kg x 10
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
110kg x 3
120kg x 3
130kg x 3 RPE 6/10
140kg x 3 RPE 7/10
150kg x 1 RPE 8/10
155kg x 1 RPE 9/10

Back Off Sets: 110kg x 3, 8 sets

Overhead Press (Strict)
20kg x 10
30kg x 5
32.5kg x 5, 8 sets

Giant Set, No Rest:
Decline Leg Raises
4 x 10

Dips (Bodyweight)
3 x 10

Face Pulls
3 x 10 x 13.75kg

I felt quite pleased with my workout today and motivation was high walking into the gym. I managed to better my deadlift from last week by 5kg. I did feel that the 155kg was quite challenging though. It is usually around this weight that I start to throw on the belt, but I didn't use one for this weight. I consulted Matt about this and he thinks I should avoid using the belt at all for now until I build up some good strength on the deadlift. I tend to agree but I love the belt because it makes recovery between the sets so much faster. I completed the backoff sets of deadlifts and overhead press as a superset with minimal rest between each set. The last giant set was awesome; it had me breathing hard. I haven't done Dips for ages and they felt pretty challenging, but I enjoyed them.

I had a productive evening when I got home from the gym. I usually bake on Friday nights and tonight I made Peppermint Slice and Berry Cream Muffins. I'll post the recipe for the Peppermint Slice tomorrow.

Training: 27th & 28th June

2011-06-28T23:52:00.000+12:00

Monday

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 1, 2 sets
75kg x 3, 3 sets
75kg x 2
72.5kg x 3

Pretty pleased with my bench today. I was aiming for all sets of three, but I got 3 good sets of 75kg in, which is good so I'm not too disappointed.

Pullups
Bodyweight x 6, 5 sets

Squats (light)
60kg x 5, 5 sets

Face Pulls
13.75kg x 12, 3 sets
72.5kg x 2, 3 sets

Tuesday

Squats
20kg x 10
60kg x 8
70kg x 5
80kg x 4
90kg x 3
100kg x 2
110kg x 1
115kg x 1 RPE 6/10
120kg x 1 RPE 7/10
125kg x 1 RPE 9/10

Again, I was aiming for 130kg but the 125kg was so difficult I thought I'd cut it there.

Ten minute time limit:
Squat (Backoff sets)
100kg x 2, 5 sets

Bench Press
60kg x 3, 5 sets

2-3 second pause on chest.

Superset:
Glute Ham Raises
5kg
3 x 15

DB Row (Prone Grip)
3 x 10 x 30kg

I was buggered after this workout. The GHRs and rows had me breathing hard.

Training: 24th June

2011-06-24T23:49:00.014+12:00

Squats (light)
60kg x 5, 2 sets
80kg x 5, 5 sets

Deadlifts
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
110kg x 3
120kg x 3 RPE 7/10
130kg x 3 RPE 7.5/10
140kg x 1 RPE 8/10
150kg x 1 RPE 9/10 -- back in business!

Strict Overhead Press (light)
20kg x 5
30kg x 5, 8 sets

I had a good workout today. I decided to add in some light squats to warm up for the deadlifts AND practice my squats. The deadlifts are slowly feeling better. I was happy to get 150kg x 1. It should feel easier than it did though - I'd feel more comfortable if it was on a RPE scale of 6 or 7/10. However, I *think* that I usually start putting on the belt around 150kg so perhaps it isn't feeling as bad as I think. This is the first time I've done overhead press in ages. I tried to do each rep with a bit of power.

Training: 21st June

2011-06-21T23:24:00.001+12:00

I had a great training session tonight. I was hoping to bring you news of a new PR, but alas, it did not happen

Squats (without belt)
20kg x 10
40kg x 10
60kg x 8
70kg x 5
80kg x 3
90kg x 2
100kg x 1 RPE 5/10
105kg x 1 RPE 5/10
110kg x 1 RPE 6/10
115kg x 1 RPE 8/10
120kg x 1 RPE 7.5/10
125kg x 1 RPE 8/10
130kg x 0

Not sure what happened at the bottom of the 130kg lift, but I suddenly lost my confidence and lost the tightness in my core so I just dumped the weight at the bottom. I am sure I can get this weight; hopefully next week!

Ten minute time limit:

Squats, Backoff sets
105kg x 2, 6 sets

Bench Press (light)
60kg x 3, 6 sets

Superset:

Glute Ham Raises
5kg at chest 3 x 12

Dumbell Row
30kg 3 x 10

Training: 20th June

2011-06-20T23:55:00.025+12:00

Back to the gym this week and I was pretty excited to get back there which is always good. I was going to squat today but I thought I'd better not as my legs felt fatigued from the soccer game yesterday. We won 1-0 which is great. The field was almost a mud pool with all the rain in the past week and we destroyed it further by playing a full game on it.

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
50kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
72.5kg x 3, 7 sets
72.5kg x 2, 1 set. This was supposed to be my 8th set of 3, but I failed on the last rep

Pullups
BW x 6, 5 sets

Weighted Decline Sit Ups
5kg x 10, 3 sets

Face Pulls
2 x 12 x 11.25kg

Despite failing on the last rep of my last set, benching actually felt pretty good today. I decided to stick with the 72.5kg weight instead of bumping up to 75kg since I missed training last week. I think even next week if I do step up to 75kg that I will do half the sets with 72.5kg and half with 75kg to ease myself into it.
Pullups are normally hard for me, but today they actually felt pretty easy. First time in a long time they have felt easy to me.

I'm looking forward to the gym tomorrow!

Training: An Update

2011-06-15T23:22:00.000+12:00

Well, I've missed both my weight training sessions so far this week. Monday was missed due to a self-induced sickness (guess). Tuesday I had to go to a continuing education seminar after work. The plan was to go to the gym afterward but it ended up going for a bit longer than I anticipated so when I got home it was pretty late.

Today, I made it to soccer practice (yay!). We had a good session and I got a great workout in with the fitness drills, skills drills and game. We practiced indoors tonight.

Hopefully the game this Sunday won't be cancelled. The weather is supposed to be horrid, but we haven't played for 3 weeks now due to wet grounds.

Training: 10th June

2011-06-11T11:17:00.004+12:00

What a pitiful session today. I got home from work, pretty tired and within a few minutes was falling asleep on the couch. When Matt announced it was time to go to the gym, I woke with a start. He pointed out that I was falling asleep but I was determined not to be a lazy loser and got ready to go to the gym. I should have stayed home. First of all, I couldn't stop yawning on the way to the gym, I was yawning every 20 seconds... the ride to the gym is about 7 minutes in the car; that's about 21 yawns! I trudged into the gym and I felt so lethargic loading all my weights. All I managed in the 40 minutes we were there was about 8 sets of deadlifts AND I missed my 145kg lift that I lifted last week. My aim was to get to 150kg.

GAH! I hate Fridays!

Training: 8th June

2011-06-08T23:57:00.003+12:00

Soccer practice today. I had to stay half an hour later at work as we were so busy, so I got there half an hour late. We started with passing drills, then trying to defend our ball with one of our team mates trying to kick it away from us, then shuttles and then a game. I was at practice for an hour. We practiced outside tonight and it was nice and crisp... I enjoyed it!

Training: 7th June

2011-06-07T22:52:00.000+12:00

I missed the gym yesterday. I did several hours of cleaning with no end in sight. I decided to just combine my workouts today...

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 5
50kg x 4
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
72.5kg x 3, 8 sets
1st rep paused 2 seconds on chest, subsequent reps either touch in go or around a second pause
difficulty 8/10

Squats
40kg x 10
60kg x 5
70kg x 4
80kg x 3
90kg x 2
100kg x 1
105kg x 1 RPE 7/10
110kg x 1 RPE 7/10
115kg x 1 RPE 8/10
120kg x 1 RPE 8/10
125kg x 1 RPE 9/10

Backoff sets
105kg x 2, 5 sets

That's a new raw PR! I was tempted to throw on the belt and see what I could get up to, but I decided to end it there.

Pullups
BW x 6, 5 sets

Hanging Leg Raises
3 x 12

Face Pulls
3 x 12

Wow! What a training session! It was awesome today. Last week I lifted 72.5kg for bench but only got 5 sets with the weight before I had to lower it to 70kg to get the 8 sets. This week I actually got it fairly easily. I actually found the 6th, 7th & 8th sets pretty good: challenging but not grindy. I am very happy with my squats; as I mentioned the 125kg is a new PR without using a belt. My previous best without a belt is 120kg. Gotta be happy with that!

Training: 3rd June

2011-06-03T23:17:00.000+12:00

Deadlifts
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
110kg x 3
120kg x 3
130kg x 3
140kg x 1 RPE 8/10
145kg x 1 RPE 8/10

Ten Minute Time Limit (Superset):

Deadlift
105kg x 3, 7 sets

Bench Press
60kg x 3, 7 sets
full 2 second pause on chest

Tricep Pressdown
3 x 15 x 16.25kg

The deadlifts are feeling better this week but my body is definitely not lifting to it's potential. It's no surprise though, I haven't deadlifted regularly for MONTHS; probably since around December last year actually. Again I enjoyed the lighter sets working quickly to get as many sets as I could in 10 minutes. I am progressively finding benching 60kg easier and easier. On some reps I'm actually letting the barbell sink into my chest and it just feels like nothing pushing it up. I like it!

Training: 1st June

2011-06-01T20:58:00.000+12:00

Soccer Practice tonight. Lasted about 90 minutes. We did about 60 minutes of skills and fitness including a little bit of plyometrics and then the last 30 minutes playing a game in groups. We practice indoor and it is much faster paced than playing outside; you work up a good sweat! We're playing away again this Sunday so I'll have to scab a ride off someone I think.... last time I bribed the driver with $5 and fresh homemade blackcurrent muffins :-)

Training: 31st May

2011-05-31T22:23:00.001+12:00

Squats
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 4
80kg x 3
90kg x 2
100kg x 1 RPE 7/10
105kg x 1 RPE 7/10
110kg x 1 RPE 8/10
115kg x 1 RPE 9/10

Superset, time limit 10 minutes:
Squats
100kg x 2, 6 sets

Bench Press (light)
60kg x 3, 6 sets
full 2 second pause on chest. I tried to make each concentric rep fairly explosive

Superset, no rest:
Glute Ham Raises 4 x 10
Face Pulls 4 x 12

Hanging Leg Raises
3 x 12

10 minutes on rower, 2121 meters rowed.

I enjoyed my workout today. I like putting time limits on exercises because it gives me incentive not to rest and to move as fast as possible. For the bench & squat superset, I pretty much did not rest in between sets. Some I "rested" about 20 seconds, but mostly it was just enough time walking to and fro each station. I always try and equal or better what I did the previous workout. Last week I lifted the same weights and got 7 sets for squats and 6 sets for bench; but with a 12 minute time limit. If I'm supersetting smaller exercises such as GHR and Facepulls I never rest in between each exercise. The only exercise I REALLY need to rest between is pullups. I find this exercise quite taxing for some reason! The rowing was a time filler while I waited for Matt to finish his workout. Again, I found myself being quite competitive with the time. At first I thought I'd do five minutes, then, I thought I'd get to 2000m. THEN, I decided I'd go hard out for the last minute or so for as many meters I could get in 10 minutes. Ha! Gives you an insight into my mindset when I train :-)

Training: 27th May

2011-05-27T22:33:00.000+12:00

Short session today.

Deadlifts
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
110kg x 3
120kg x 3
130kg x 2
140kg x 1
100kg x 3, 5 sets

Bench Press (light)
20kg x 10
60kg x 3, 6 sets
2-3 second pause on chest each rep

I was kind of unmotivated today.... pleased that deadlifts started to feel easy at the end of my sets.

Training: 24th May

2011-05-24T21:58:00.001+12:00

I had a great workout today!

Squat
20kg x 10
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 4
80kg x 3
90kg x 2
100kg x 1 difficulty 6/10
105kg x 1 difficulty 7/10
110kg x 1 difficulty 7.5/10

Superset, 12 minute time limit:
Squat
100kg x 2, 7 sets

Bench (light)
60kg x 3, 6 sets
(2 second pause on chest, each rep)

Superset:
GHR 4 x 10
Face Pulls 4 x 12

Tricep Pressdown
3 x 10

Training: 23rd May

2011-05-23T21:55:00.000+12:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 5, 50kg x 3, 60kg x 3
70kg x 3, 8 sets

Pullups
BW x 6, 5 sets

Walking Lunges
40 reps

Hanging Leg Raises
3 x 12

It was nice to be back in the gym again. I hadn't worked out for 3 weeks - just didn't feel like it. I had a good workout today and enjoyed it!

Gym Recovery: The Cocktail

2011-05-04T07:00:00.005+12:00

I have invented a new cocktail. I ironically called it "Gym Recovery" because I made it after the gym to go with my dinner of chicken.

Here is the recipe:

1.5 oz Malibu
0.5 oz Archers Peach Schnapps
Juice of one large lime
Soda water
Ice

Pour Malibu, Archers Peach Schnapps, juice of one lime and ice into a cocktail shaker. Shake well for at least 10 seconds. Pour into a lowball glass and top with soda water. Enjoy after the gym.

I'm not sure if someone else has made it before and if it has an official name, but until I know otherwise I will call this cocktail Gym Recovery. Please let me know if you know otherwise :-P

Awesome Squatting

2011-05-03T22:15:00.000+12:00

I am pretty pleased with myself right now. I've been following the strength program that I outlined a couple of months ago with slow, but good gains. Tonight, I squatted 120kg totally raw, meaning without a belt. This is pretty awesome for me as the belt usually gives me quite a bit more strength; the most I have done so far without a belt is 115kg.

Training: 25th March

2011-03-25T23:50:00.018+13:00

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 2
70kg x 1
75kg x 1
80kg x 1, difficulty 4.5/5
70kg x 2, 6 sets

Squats
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 1
100kg x 1
110kg x 1, difficulty 3/5
115kg x miss
100kg x 1, 6 sets

Pullups
Bodyweight x 6, 3 sets

Back Extensions
x 40
x 30

Face Pulls
2 x 15 x 13.75kg

Reverse Hypers
x 25

Comments: Benching was average today. My lower back feels shitty; sore on the right side. The backoff sets felt great actually: really quite easy and straight forward. I missed the 115kg weight, I was so sure I was going to get it, but I kinda lost the tightness in my stomach at the bottom and just dumped it on the rails. Thank goodness I put them up because I started squatting without them! I think I get to use the belt on Sunday so if I'm having a good day I should be able to get this weight and more. I did a lot of assistance work today, mainly to help my lower back. My backoff set time limit was increased to 12 minutes today, so due to managing the weights better and the extra two minutes, I managed to sneak in 2 extra sets for both squats and bench press.

Training: 22nd March

2011-03-22T22:16:00.000+13:00

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
75kg x 1
80kg x 1
82.5kg x 1, difficulty 4.5/5
70kg x 2, 6 sets (10 minute time limit)

Squat
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 1
100kg x 1
105kg x 1
110kg x 1, difficulty 3.5/5

Deadlifts
60kg x 8
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
120kg x 1
130kg x 1
140kg x 1, 6 sets
difficulty 4/5
sets 1-4, 60 seconds rest
sets 5-6, 120 seconds rest

Back Extensions
1 set of 30 reps

Comments: Pretty happy with this workout today. Squatting went pretty smoothly and I managed to increase my best weight by 5kg, up to 110kg. I was hoping to get 85kg for my bench, but I just wasn't in the groove. My movement pattern got screwed up in the heavier lifts. The backoff sets felt great and actually pretty easy. Deadlifts felt HARD. I think aiming for 60 seconds rest between sets was a little bit too short, as they felt much better when I doubled it to 120 seconds. I was supposed to do 10 reps, but Matt said to cut it to 6. I may be lowering the weight next week. I finished off with some back extensions as my lower back has been feeling kinda sore; it felt better afterward.

Training: 20th March

2011-03-20T23:59:00.009+13:00

Bench Press
20kg x 8
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 2
70kg x 1
75kg x 1
77.5kg x 1
80kg x 1, difficulty 4/5
70kg x 2, 4 sets
all sets paused on chest for 2 seconds

Squats
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 1
100kg x 1
105kg x 1 (belt) difficulty 3.5/5
90kg x 2, 4 sets

Hammer Strength Row
35kg aside
3 x 10

Comments: I was tired today, really tired. I'm a little worried that 100kg feels so hard on my squat. I used to be able to rep this without too much trouble. The new setup is feeling better but I'll have to practice it more so it feels natural.

Training: 18th March

2011-03-18T23:55:00.006+13:00

Squats
40kg x 8
60kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 1
100kg x 1 --> new stance from here
90kg x 1
95kg x 1
100kg x 1
90 x 1, 3 sets

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 5
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
75kg x 1
77.5kg x 1
80kg x 1 difficulty 3.5/5
70kg x 2, 3 sets
all reps paused on chest for 2 seconds

Pullups
Bodyweight x 5, 3 sets

Comments: Played around with new stance for squatting; it will take a bit of time for it to feel completely comfortable. Generally feeling a bit run down today so it wasn't a stellar training session. I didn't get to sleep until around 3:30am last night due to body aches so I wasn't feeling too great this morning. It gets frustrating because it's not something I can completely control unless I become dependent on ibuprofen and just take it regardless of whether I feel like shit or not. I am hoping for a better training session on Sunday.

Training: 15th March

2011-03-15T21:47:00.001+13:00

Bench Press
20kg x 10
40kg x 5
50kg x 3
60kg x 2
70kg x 1
72.5kg x 1
75kg x 1
77.5kg x 1
80kg x 1
82.5kg x 1
difficulty 3/5
all sets paused reps ( 2 seconds on chest)

Squats
40kg x 10
60kg x 5
70kg x 3
80kg x 2
90kg x 1
(approx 85% of last rep on Sunday)

Deadlift
60kg x 10
80kg x 5
100kg x 3
120kg x 1
130kg x 1, 10 sets
60 seconds rest between sets of 130kg
difficulty 3/5

Comments: Although I got up to the same weight as my last workout for benching, it did feel much easier and I made sure to pause the rep on my chest (last time I didn't). I was a ditz and forgot my backoff sets. I was so intent on finishing my benching so I could get to my deadlifts that I totally forgot about it. I think it was because I wasn't doing backoff sets for the squat like my last workout. I was pleased that deadlifts didn't feel so hard. I was expecting only to do my sets with the 120kg weight, but I thought I'd push myself a little. Matt tells me that a difficulty of 3/5 is right about at the low end of what I should be pushing for, so I probably should have been doing around 135-140kg. This is the first workout I have enjoyed in a long time, so I am really pleased. It's nice to be enjoying the gym again!

Training: 13th March

2011-03-13T13:34:00.002+13:00

Bench Press

20kg x 10

40kg x 5

50kg x 3

60kg x 2

70kg x 1

72.5kg x 1

75kg x 1

77.5kg x 1

80kg x 1

82.5kg x 1 difficulty 4/5

70kg x 2, 4 sets 2 second pause on chest, 1st rep. Second rep touch n go

Squats

40kg x 5

60kg x 5

70kg x 3

80kg x 2

90kg x 1

95kg x 1

100kg x 1

105kg x 1 difficulty 4/5

90kg x 2, 4 sets

Pullups

Bodyweight x 5, 3 sets

Hammer Strength Row

35kg aside

2 x 10

Comments: This workout had me puffing like a fat kid from start to finish. I actually didn't really wait in between sets of bench and squat at all. I just ambled over from the bench to the squat rack, changed weights, squatted, ambled over to the bench, changed weights, benched, made a note in my notebook...rinse and repeat. It was quite nice as I got through it pretty fast. One phenomenon I have noticed which I think is weird is that my benching never seems to feel hard. Squatting feels HARD. I feel like my quads are burning but benching feels easy and then it just seems suddenly I can't bench much anymore. For example, my 80kg x 1 set was pretty smooth. I put it up 2.5kg to 82.5kg and then suddenly I'm grinding a little through the midpoint. However, with squats my quads are burning from 90kg and I'm hating 95kg, 100kg and 105kg. Perhaps it is psychological? I don't know. Has anyone else noticed something similar with their training? Perhaps it might be the opposite for you! I hated pullups less today, they felt pretty easy; perhaps cos I'm less fat now. Yay for abs!

New Training Program

2011-03-12T23:12:00.005+13:00

Hi all, from now up until the meet first weekend of May I am switching to a different training program from what I have been doing. It is apparently Bulgarian influenced and it seems right up my alley as it involves mostly singles (Yayyy!!)

So here is the gist of the program. I have decided I will be training on Sunday, Tuesday and Friday. On Sunday and Friday I will work up to a heavy single on both the bench press and squat. After hitting that heavy single, I will drop the weight back about 10% and then continue on with doubles for that exercise. At this stage I've set myself a time limit of 10 minutes on the back off sets, so basically I will complete as many sets of doubles as I can (without making it a race of course) for 10 minutes. I will also be alternating between bench and squats from the get go.

On Tuesday I'll do lighter squats and the normal bench workout as above, but I'll also deadlift. The deadlift will be 10 singles with a challenging weight.

Sounds very simple to me which is good and I remember doing something similar in the past with my deadlift and did very well on it.

Soccer season has started again so I'm going to be going to practice on Wednesday night. I'm not sure if I am going to play this year (I probably will though) but I am definitely not going to be playing on Sunday while I am training for this meet. I don't want to risk injury; last year I screwed up my hamstring for about a month and it probably was about 2 months before it was completely right. I would be disappointed if I injured myself and wasn't able to do the meet. One thing at a time!

Training: 9th March

2011-03-09T21:44:00.000+13:00

Squats
warmup 40kg x 8, 60kg x 5, 70kg x 3, 80kg x 2, 90kg x 1
95kg x 3, 5 sets
90-120 seconds rest between sets
difficulty 3.5/5

Ankle Mobility
5 x 10 in between sets of squats

Glute Ham Raises
5kg
3 x 10

Cardio: 30 minutes on stationary bike
220 calories
12.81km

Comments: Squats felt pretty good today and I was able to cut down the rest time a little because I felt ready for the next set early. I've noticed it feels easier to engage my core during squats and I'm wondering if it has anything to do with losing fat off my stomach. It seems strange, but when my stomach is leaner it feels much easier to tense; perhaps it's psychological. I got 17 pages read on the bike tonight, yay!

Training: 8th March

2011-03-08T22:28:00.001+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 6, 50 x 4, 60 x 2, 70 x 1
75kg x 1, 10 sets
was actually trying for sets of 3, but missed the second rep of my first set, so I switched to singles instead
difficulty 3.5/5 (overall)

Pullups
Bodyweight x 5, 3 sets

Hammer Strength Row
35kg aside
2 x 10

Comments: Bench Press is finally starting to feel hard. I was a bit disappointed today that I couldn't do triples with the weight, but I was feeling kinda tired and flu-ish. Hopefully squats tomorrow will feel good. I think it was a good move to split up the squats and bench to consecutive days instead of doing them on the same day as I have more energy for each lift.

Arnold Classic Results: Thoughts & Criticisms

2011-03-07T12:24:00.002+13:00

I forgot the Arnold Classic was on this weekend until I read it mentioned somewhere unrelated on the web so I went to check out the results and pictures. I spotted a couple of physiques I really admired. None of them were in the top spot, but still in the top 10. I have noticed a trend in what I think looks good in a competitor; wide shoulders, abs and a tiny waist. That is supposedly the formula for a top figure competitor but yet none of these women seem to win the top spot. I think they're trying to go for a more muted look; someone that's not as lean but still has the shape. I actually like the lean look and that seems the whole point of a physique competition to me.

The first woman I thought look really great was Bethany Wagner. She's a fitness competitor. I really know nothing about her as I don't follow these competitions religiously but I have seen her a few times and thought she looked pretty awesome.

Bethany Wagner, Fitness

The second competitor is Courtney West. She is apparently a newcomer to the pro scene. I found that out when stalking her pictures on Fitness Rx mag. It seems she just qualified last year and this was her first pro show? I thought I had seen her before. If that's the case she did awesome for her first pro show as she came in 6th. I just think she has it all really: pretty face, nice shoulders, tiny waist and tight abs and nice legs.

Courtney West, Figure


Courtney West, Figure

As for bikini, well, it seems the criteria for is still "pose like a whore". I only counted a couple of women that posed with class (as classy as you can get for bikini). I'm sick of competitors that think sticking your ass out and spreading your legs = sexy. No honey, that's only sexy in porno movies and it only makes you look like a whore. I shouldn't click on the pictures because I really have nothing good to say about it. Bikini is a waste of space activity and they need to remove it from the physique competitions. I did find a funny photo while glancing through them though. Seems like it's not only the guys that check out women's asses. For the record, the woman on the left is one of the only competitors who did not pose by spreading her legs in the back pose. To be honest I think it makes the butt look better anyway posing like this.

O hai there

Do you follow these competitions and what were your thoughts on the results?

All photos from Fitness Rx Mag

LOL Beware

2011-03-04T23:34:00.000+13:00

I saw this on NZ Herald yesterday and it made me laugh

Training: 2nd March

2011-03-02T22:45:00.001+13:00

Squats
warmup 40kg x 8, 60kg x 5, 70kg x 3, 80kg x 2, 90kg x 1
92.5kg x 3, 5 sets
difficulty 3/5
120 seconds rest in between sets

Ankle Mobility Drills
3 x 15
in between sets of squats

Glute Ham Raises
3 x 10 x 5kg

Cardio: 30 minutes steady state on stationary bike
213 calories
12.45km

Comments: Finally! Squats are feeling better. I wonder if it has something to do with the ankle mobility drills I did. I forgot about them totally for some reason until I saw Matt putting his client through the drill and thought it would be good for me to do. In the past I used to do them all the time to warm up and in between sets. I must remember to keep them in. The glute ham raises felt great. I also got about 15 pages read of my book while on the bike! I will have another interesting review written up for you in a couple of weeks :-)

Training: 1st March

2011-03-01T23:52:00.002+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 6, 50 x 4, 60 x 3, 70 x 1
72.5kg x 3, 5 sets
missed the last rep on the 4th set
set 1 and 2 I paused the last rep on my chest until stationary
difficulty 4/5

Lat Pulldown
3 x 8

Dumbbell Row
30kg
3 x 8

Dumbbell shoulder press
10kgs
2 x 10

Comments: Benching was hard today! I had to forgo pausing the last rep on my chest after the first couple of sets because it was getting quite hard. I know I say this all the time but I was so tired today! I almost didn't make it to the gym but I forced myself to go. I also skipped my squats and decided I will do that tomorrow before cardio. Soccer training starts tomorrow but I think I will skip it until next week.

Do You Eat Mindlessly?

2011-02-28T10:14:00.000+13:00

Purchase Book

Over the past couple of weeks I've been reading the book Mindless Eating written by Brian Wansink. I'd always heard about the little things you could do to help you eat less or feel more satiated when you sat down for a meal but it wasn't until I read this book that it became quite clear in my mind how it worked.

I found the book very easy to read and the information was presented simply with plenty of examples of experiments. The information was also very interesting and at times amusing. Our world these days really is set up so that we buy more food and overeat and people seem to get tricked by the stupidest things!

Being "Mindful" of these strategies will give you a repertoire of tools to help you fight the automatic internal scripts that make us overeat and put on unneeded fat. I definitely recommend you read the book, as it gave me a clearer picture of how these little tools and tricks worked. Here is just a selection of interesting facts and some of the ways in which our modern life leads us to Mindlessly Eat.

Mindless Fact #1 The size of the container we eat out of matters.

In one experiment, unsuspecting movie goers were given one of two containers of popcorn: medium or large size. There was a catch though; the popcorn was not fresh, but stale (5 days old). Despite the popcorn being stale, the people that were given the large bucket still ate more than the people that were given the medium bucket. They even told the people that were given the large bucket that some people had been given the medium bucket and that they {the researchers} have found on average that a person given a large size container eats more than if they are given a medium size container. Most disagreed saying that wouldn't happen to them. However, the large container group ate 173 more calories of popcorn.

This rule applies to the size of packages of food we purchase; we consume more from bigger packages. Say for example you purchase a 300g box of cereal and a 1kg box of cereal. You will always pour more from the 1kg box than the 300g box unless you are actually measuring the amount of cereal (say 1/2 cup) or aiming to fill the bowl to the brim in both cases. It applies to other items too such as shampoo.

Mindless Fact #2 Visual Cues are important

If there is evidence of how much we have eaten, we eat less. In one experiment people were given chicken wings to eat. On one table the chicken bones were left on the table therefore giving the diners a visual representation of how much they had eaten. On the other table, the bones were cleared away at regular intervals. The diners on the table that had their bones cleared away ate 28 per cent more than the diners that did not have their bones cleared away. Further to the visual cues, another experiment showed that feeling full or not hungry is not as strong a signal to stop eating as visually seeing how much we have eaten. When a group of students were asked when they would stop eating a bowl of soup, the majority of them answered that they would stop when the bowl was empty or if it was half full. Only a fifth of them said they would stop when they were not hungry anymore. The experimenters rigged a bottomless soup bowl which kept refilling itself no matter how much the students ate. Half the students ate from the rigged bowls and half ate from normal bowls. The people eating from the rigged bowls ate around 15 ounces vs the normal bowls at 9 ounces.

Mindless Fact #3 The bigger the meal, the worse we are at estimating calories

People are quite good at estimating the weight of small objects compared to large objects. If you ask someone to estimate the weight of a book versus a whole shelf of books they were be fairly accurate at estimating the weight of the book. The same goes for small versus large meals. The more people eat the less accurate they are at estimating what they have eaten.

Mindless Fact #4 More variety = more calories eaten
People given a bag of M&Ms with ten colours eat much more than those given a bag with seven colours. People ate almost twice as many jelly beans if all the different colours are mixed up rather than neatly arranged in separate bowls according to colour.

Mindless Fact #5 Being intelligent and informed doesn't mean you won't be "tricked" into eating more.

A group of students at a top university were given a 90 minute education session with demonstrations on how larger serving bowls make you eat more. Six weeks after the lecture, they were invited to a Super Bowl party. Half the students were lead into room that had snacks served in two large gallon bowls and were given plates and asked to serve as much as they wanted. The other half were led into a room where the snacks were served in four half gallon bowls. Their plates that they served themselves were secretly weighed and the students that served themselves from the gallon bowls took 53 per cent more and also ate 59 per cent more! Even though they had sat through an extensive lecture on the very topic several weeks ago, they still fell for the mindless eating tricks!

Mindless Fact #6 Convenient Foods make you eat more

Both proximity and how ready-to-eat the food is makes a difference here. If a person is presented with two bowls of nuts, one where the nuts are still in their shell and one where they are shelled and ready to eat, that person will eat more nuts from the shelled bowl. If a candy bowl is within reach versus across the room a person will end up eating more. The trip across the room gives the person a chance to think about what they're doing and if they're really hungry for the snack.

Individual packaging indicates serving sizes to people and a "stopping point". People are more likely to adhere to a serving size if it is clearly marked or there is a "barrier" such as an individually wrapped packet. If you have two open packets of cookies and one has each cookie individually wrapped, whereas the other doesn't the average person would eat more from the unwrapped packet than the individually wrapped ones. Individually wrapped food might cost more but we do eat less of it.

Mindless Fact #7 The description of the food makes a difference

An experiment was carried out in a cafe where a selection of dishes were served one week with plain, factual names and the next week with embellished fancy names. The food with the embellished names sold more and not only that the customers rated the fancy named dish better than the same dish with a plain, factual name. This little trick can also work positively for you; the next time you invite guests around for dinner, try giving the dishes fancy names and suddenly the food will taste much better.

Mindless Fact #8 Low Fat labels give us an excuse to eat more

A group of people were either given normal granola or low fat granola to eat during movie. The granola was clearly labeled as ""low fat or "regular". The group given the low fat granola ate 49 per cent more which translated to about 84 calories!

The book is right. I found myself nodding and smiling throughout just thinking how much I had been tricked myself into over eating because of certain cues. An important part of the book is like the title suggests, we "mindlessly eat". We often don't listen to our own bodies: am I hungry? Am I still hungry now that I have eaten half my plate? Am I really craving that?

As an example of how the book affected me, for the first time today, I actually stopped eating my salad when I was full and absolutely didn't want any more. I actually probably could have stopped half way when I wasn't hungry, but in the past I normally just finish it off, regardless. The reason for this is partly because of the bodybuilding mindset that I have from my past. A typical bodybuilder is always making sure they get in enough calories. I used to weigh my food and if I didn't eat all my food it meant I wasn't getting in all my protein or calories for the day so I would force myself to eat it. I barely did any of the body"building" part of bodybuilding because I never found it hard to build muscle, but that meant that if I was dieting and wasn't able to finish off my meal, I was afraid I wasn't getting in enough protein. Now because I am neither concerned with getting to bodybuilding condition or maintaining/building muscle it should not be a concern to me if I cannot finish my meal.

In the past couple of weeks I have noticeably trimmed down. I do not attribute this to the book at all as I have overhauled my diet in a big way. I will attribute the knowledge from this book for maintaining a lower body fat percentage in the future.

Read the book. You will love it!

Tips to take away to help fight Mindless Eating

Use small plates and bowls when serving meals
Fill your plate but make the majority of your plate low calorie foods like vegetables
Don't eat out of packets; serve yourself what you are going to eat and put the packet away. Even better, serve snacks in pre-portioned baggies rather than on a plate. A packaged snack indicates one serving size and you are less likely to search for more food.
When you go to a party plant yourself far away from the snack table
If you're a serial snacker, out of sight is out of mind. Also, try and put the snack in an inconvenient place like a very high cupboard so it is difficult to get to.
If you purchase low fat food for whatever reason, follow the steps above to make sure you don't fall into the trap of eating more because it's low fat. Calories matter most.

Further Information and Links

The books website Mindless Eating dot org
Seven ways to Eat Mindfully
Amped Training book review
What Wikipedia says

Training: 25th February

2011-02-25T23:54:00.000+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 6, 50 x 3
60kg x 3, 6 sets
each rep paused on chest for a full 2 second count
60 seconds rest between sets
difficulty 2/5

I was setting up for my deadlifts when Matt almost fully dropped the bar on his head from a snatch. We had to go to an after hours doctor to have his head looked at! 8-/ I will try and get to the gym tomorrow to finish the rest of my workout! Regardless, my benching felt awesome and very strong.

Training: 23rd February

2011-02-23T23:26:00.001+13:00

No weights today. Today was a cardio session which I tried to tone down the intensity by using a machine. I hopped on the stationary bike and did 60 minutes of steady state cardio.

To pass the time, I took a book with me and read it while doing cardio. What an awesome idea that was! As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I have trouble reading books these days because I am so tired a lot of the time I fall asleep. I've never fallen asleep while doing cardio before so it was the perfect opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. I got 37 pages read! Woot! Go me :-) It even crossed my mind that I should purchase a stationary bike for our place so I can get cardio done at home. I've had that idea before but never ended up buying anything. Perhaps I will look into it and see if it's something affordable for me.

I've overhauled my diet a little bit over the past couple of weeks. I loathe counting calories to lose weight so I am experimenting with eating basic foods to see if it will work. I'm pretty sure it has. When I went to see the Rheumatologist on Monday I weighed in at 77.8kg fully clothed. It was awesome news for me because the last time I weighed myself I was over 80kg which shocked me. In addition, my clothes are fitting a bit better and I look a little leaner. Since I am aiming for that powerlifting competition in May, I am aiming to get down to around 71kg so I have about 6kg to go (guestimating my clothes weighed about 1kg). I don't know if I will get there but I will try.

Anyway, as I mentioned my diet is pretty basic. I'm sticking to eggs, lean meats, lots of fruit, vegetables and some dairy. I am staying away from processed foods and starchy foods; basically anything that comes in a packet unless it's dried fruit, nuts or spices and bread, cakes, cookies etc. I am still drinking beer on Sundays and I will have something on Saturdays if I feel like it. Last Saturday I had some garlic bread and two pieces of pizza.

One thing I am loving is the fruit. In recent years I haven't really eaten a lot of it. I mean, I will have fruit, maybe one or two pieces a day, but not every day. Now, because I'm not eating starchy foods it's one way of getting carbohydrates in and vitamins.

So far the diet has been pretty easy. I haven't really missed anything like when I've gone on a diet in the past. It is kinda weird actually; in the past when something has been out of bounds, I've craved it like crazy. and then on my cheat meals I would go overboard. Now it doesn't seem to be a problem. I'm wondering if it's because I'm getting a fair bit of sugar in the form of fruit? Perhaps it's just that I'm more focused? I don't know. I am liking it though!

Training: 22nd February

2011-02-22T22:56:00.002+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 8, 40 x 6, 50 x 4, 60 x 3
70kg x 3, 5 sets
90 seconds rest between sets, last rep paused on chest until stationary
difficult 3/5

Squats
warmup 60kg x 5, 70 x 3, 70 x 3, 80 x 2, 80 x 2
90kg x 3, 5 sets
120 seconds rest between sets
difficulty 3.5/5

Hammer Strength Front Lat Pulldown
20kg aside x 10
30kg aside x 6, 3 sets

Hammer Strength Row
30kg aside x 10, 3 sets

Comments

And the trend continues with my bench: it is feeling pretty strong. The squats are still really hard. I'm quite disappointed and starting to wonder if it's going to continue to be a struggle training for this meet. I'm finding my workouts are taking AGES. Even with my rest periods regulated it is still taking me ONE HOUR to get through the workout. I don't know why; perhaps my warm up sets are taking longer than I think. I should time it next time. I normally do glute ham raises today but Matt told me to cut them out.

Got the good drugs

2011-02-21T17:57:00.000+13:00

I had my visit with the Rheumatologist today. It's the first time I've seen one in perhaps 7 years? It was a long time coming. She took a thorough history and did a basic examination on me, looking at my joints and various tests.

My main concern over the past year has been the fatigue, body aches at night which cause me to have trouble going to sleep and my concentration. The concentration problem as been a huge concern for me. It takes me weeks to finish a book because most days I can only read about 5-10 pages at a time. On a good day I can get almost 50 pages read and that is awesome. I am constantly second guessing myself at work because I feel so foggy a lot of the time that I convince myself I have done the wrong thing. It's mainly things with entering things into the computer; not really the main part of my job. My memory used to be so sharp and now I have to make sure I write things down when I remember. The other thing I have noticed if I want to say something and I have trouble remembering a word, I actually have to picture the word in my head before I will be able to say it. It is incredibly frustrating. I don't think it is noticeable to the person I am talking to but it can be a huge effort for me to have a conversation, especially if I am asked something. There are rare occasions that I will have a good day and feel awesome. They are few and far between but when I do have them I remember the day very clearly. On those days I actually feel invincible. I feel bright, free of tiredness, excited, very clear headed. I feel like I could fly almost! The last time I had one of those days was last year in September. I actually still remember the one day about 17 years ago I woke up and felt amazing! I had a long sleep and woke up feeling full of beans, ready to just jump out of bed and tackle the day. I wish I could have those days more often than once every few years.

One thing I did remember to ask her was about diet and autoimmune diseases. I have read in a few places that nightshade vegetables (such as tomatoes, eggplant, potato) are bad for people that have inflammation based health problems such as arthritis and lupus. My rheumatologist said there is no truth to this claim so I am able to eat these vegetables freely which is wonderful news. Eggplant happens to be one of my favourite vegetables!

The outcome of the visit was that she thinks I'm in the group of people that have Lupus but do not have the full blown disease of organ involvement etc. but do have chronic low grade inflammation that causes the symptoms I am having. I certainly am thankful that I don't have the disease that bad and am able to work, go to the gym and function day to day. I have been prescribed hydroxychloroquine 400mg per day and ibuprofen as needed. I currently take ibuprofen most days to get to sleep. The bonus was I got them on prescription so I got a huge packet (180 x 200mg pills) for $3! The hydroxychloroquine is slow acting so will take about 3 months to kick in but I am hoping it will improve how I am feeling day to day. I am especially hopeful that my mind will clear up and I won't feel so much like a fumbling idiot.

Finally, I do think that lately these symptoms I am having are having a big effect on my motivation and training. As I am so fatigued most days I do have to force myself to go to the gym. The interesting thing is, unless I have having a particularly bad day, I am still able to perform in the gym. Like I said to my rheumatologist today, although I am less active than I used to be, I can actually do the activity but it takes a lot of willpower to get up and do it. Finding that willpower every time I need to go to the gym is exhausting in itself. Imagine having to fight yourself every time you needed to go to the gym. Ugh. I want the days back where I wanted to go.

Training: 18th February

2011-02-19T22:06:00.000+13:00

Bench Press (paused reps)
warm up 20kg x 8, 40kg x 6, 50kg x 5
60kg x 3, 6 sets
each rep paused on chest until stationary
difficulty 2/5

Deadlifts
warm up 60kg x 8, 80kg x 5, 100kg x 5, 110kg x 1, 120kg x 1
130kg x 3, 3 sets
difficulty 4/5

DB Bench Press
20kg
3 x 10

Weighted Decline Crunches
12kg
4 x 8

Comments:
Bench press was a breeze today, felt awesome! Deadlifts on the other hand, were HARD. I felt optimistic warming up as 120kg felt pretty light. Ten kilos extra and it was hell for 3 reps. I actually think most of the difficulty seemed to be from my grip; I normally don't have trouble with my grip as it is super strong. Today I felt the bar slipping and struggled with each rep. Having said that, I have noticed my hands have been feeling kinda weak lately. I have had trouble opening bottles and doors some days for the past month or so, so this is probably the source of the problem. Hopefully it will pass soon and my deadlifts will be back to normal as struggling on 130kg does not make me happy!

Sore

2011-02-17T22:24:00.002+13:00

My abs are sore, my butt is sore and my shoulders and chest are sore. It was the 200 crunches, 250 lunges and 100 push ups from yesterday! I hope I develop those long, lean muscles*

*just kidding

I actually did enjoy that workout though. I initially was trying for five sets, and because I didn't feel so tired by the time I reached five sets, I decided I'd go for ten!

I've been getting up early this week; between 6:30-7am. I know that's not early for most people, but it's early for me as I'm not in the habit of getting up early. I'm trying to train myself to be more awake in the morning because eventually I'd like to start training in the morning again. I really would like to try the high frequency training method, up to 5-6 times a week. I'm not sure how I will cope with it, but like everyone else that is into weight training, I have weight trained 5x a week in the past following a typical body part split and I am still alive to tell the tale. My lower body workouts in particular were harsh; back in the day I remember doing about 7 different exercises for my legs/lower body, as heavy as I could go for about 3-4 sets of 20 reps. I could barely walk up the gym stairs afterward (I used to semi-pull myself up the stairs using the railing) and still had to stumble home. The walk home was about 30 minutes from the gym. Luckily the walk was pretty much all uphill, because unless you're an idiot you can't really fall uphill. I'm sure that with some determination and will, 3-4 exercises with less reps five times a week is doable for me.

I'm feeling better today than I did this time last week so I am optimistic about getting to the gym tomorrow after work and having an excellent workout. I'm a bit apprehensive about my deadlifts though; have not attempted those in 2 weeks now and the last workout with them wasn't feeling too promising. I shall see tomorrow!

And because this is a random post, here's a random picture of Daisy from the other day. She's eating a snack here

Training: 16th February

2011-02-17T00:06:00.002+13:00

Conditioning & Cardio Workout

I had a great workout tonight. I decided to cut out the tyre flips as it really takes it out of me and because it is such a glute and lower back activity I think it's actually affecting my deadlifts on Friday (that is, when I DO make it to the gym on Friday :-/ ). I didn't realize I had it in me to do 100 reps of push ups, not all at once of course. I thought that was pretty awesome!

Five minutes jump rope to warm up

10 sets of the following, no rest

25 walking lunges

10 push ups

20 crunches

Total of 250 walking lunges, 100 push ups and 200 crunches! Wowza! My butt was burning after all those lunges. It took me about 15 or so minutes to complete the whole thing.

Four sets lasting 3-5 minutes of Sportsgirl's Home Made Step Routine with 3-5 minutes of walking in between each routine. The time of the routine depended on how long the song I was stepping to took. I just made up moves to what I thought looked/felt good to the music. Doing this reminded me of how much I enjoy Step Aerobics! It doesn't actually feel like I'm exercising on purpose when I do Step Aerobics, because I just love it. I wish my gym had classes now. I guess it's not the look they are going for though. Actually, tonight reminded me of the time my gym friends and I {when I was living in Australia} had a little class together where we each took turns to be an aerobics instructor . It was so much fun and such a good workout. We were actually thinking of making up our own class and then selling it to the gym! Haha!

The whole session took around 60 minutes tonight. I was toast afterward but didn't feel as burned out as previous sessions which is good. I need some steam left so I can get to the gym on Friday.

Training: 15th February

2011-02-15T22:53:00.001+13:00

Thank goodness. I've dropped down to sets of three instead of five. I haven't done 5 x 5 workouts in a very long time and I was finding it quite tiresome. Even so, when I did 5 x 5 in the past, it was with ascending weights so the last set was the hardest, not the first, second, third... etc. Perhaps I've gone too soft, who knows! Here is today's workout...

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 50kg x 5, 60kg x 3
67.5kg x 3, 5 sets
last rep, pause bar on chest until stationary
difficulty 3/5

Squats
warmup 40kg x 8, 60kg x 6, 70kg x 4, 80kg x 2
87.5kg x 3, 5 sets
difficulty 3/5

Inverted Rows
3 x 10

Pullups
Bodyweight 3 x 6

Glute Ham Raises
5kg
4 x 10

Face Pulls
16.25kg
3 x 10

Training: 9th February

2011-02-09T23:14:00.001+13:00

Conditioning & Cardio Workout

Tyre Flips
25 Flips, 5 sets
1. 1:16
2. 1:12
3. 1:10
4. 1:09*
5. 1:11

Getting faster!! The 1:09 is my best time yet!

Barbell Complexes
30kg, 3 sets
RDL x 8
Row x 8
Power Clean x 8
Push Press x 8
Squat x 8

#$&^#@%!! After the first set, I thought I was going to collapse! Managed to push through. After looking through my workout diary from last year, I think I used to do these with the bar only. I was wondering why I could only do 3 sets when I was doing up to 6 in my diary last year.

Stairmaster/Elliptical thingee
26 minutes including cooldown
509m climbed
242 calories burned

I thought this would be easier than what I've been doing the previous weeks but it was HARD. I still felt wasted afterwards.

Training: 8th February

2011-02-08T23:23:00.000+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 50 x 3, 60 x 1
65kg 5 x 5
Paused bar on chest for 1-2 seconds (until stationary) on last rep

Difficulty 4/5

Squats
warmup 20kg x 8, 40kg x 8, 60kg x 5, 70kg x 3, 80kg x 1
85kg x 5, 4 sets
85kg x 4, 1 set

Difficulty 4/5

Inverted Rows
x10
x10
x 9
x 8

Face Pulls
3 x 10 x 16.25kg

Glute Ham Raises
2 x 10

I hated this workout, especially the squats. They felt so hard! I feel weak :-( Gahhhh!!

Middle of the Night Post

2011-02-07T02:25:00.000+13:00

Just a post for me to have a moan. I just finished half watching a movie, it's late, I go to bed and toss and turn for half an hour; I can't sleep cos my joints are aching. I should have taken damn ibuprofen even though I wasn't feeling too bad previously. Now I'm up, I've swallowed 600mg of ibuprofen and I'm waiting for it to kick in before I go back to bed.

While I'm up I may as well post further.

As you may have gathered from the lack of training posts this week, I haven't actually trained this week. There are a combination of reasons: laziness, busyness, tiredness and no motivation. I'm hoping to get back into it next week, kicking off with a run around the block tomorrow. I haven't been running in a while actually, but I should do alright.

Situations Vacant

2011-02-03T21:34:00.001+13:00

After yesterday's post, I feel like I need something light-hearted to brighten this blog back up! I do feel better after my rant though. I promise I usually am a pretty positive person, but like anyone I am human I do have hissy fits now and again... HAHA!

Here's a cute picture that will make you smile. It seems Freddie is looking for a job!!

I CAN HAS JOB??

Motivation Diary: 2nd February

2011-02-02T23:05:00.001+13:00

I had a busy day yesterday and skipped the gym. I had plans to go tonight when Matt had his client, but just felt too sore, weak and tired to go. It's been a busy day and I think I'm carrying over some residual tiredness from the past couple of days. I've not been sleeping too well and have been regularly taking 600mg of ibuprofen just so I can get to sleep. My hands feel weak and I'm even having trouble opening bottles.

This is about to turn into a rant, so beware!

Out and about today, I went into a clothing store and while trying things on had a good look at my body in the mirror. Fuck, I'm fat. I know I just ate a big lunch and needed to take a dump and mostly probably holding water as I looked okay a couple of days ago but seriously, I felt like a fucking tub of lard. I seriously need to lose some fat. I look nothing like my picture on the sidebar now. I'm wondering if I need to get a new mirror at home. I think I look fine most of the time, but I end up getting dressed and getting a glimpse of myself in shop windows or mirrors out and about and think, what the fuck happened between the house and now? Perhaps I have one of those skinny mirrors at home? I'm really tempted to start a PSMF or some other radical diet as these are really the only types of diets that I can reliably lose weight on. I find "eating healthy" just does not really cut it for me a lot of the time. Looks like I'm going to have to tuck my fat rolls into my pants, suck my gut in and start counting calories again.

Recently, my diet has been either a protein smoothie for breakfast or scrambled eggs, avocado and spinach, leftovers for lunch (usually meat and vegetables) and a protein source and more vegetables for dinner. A snack will be some nuts or some dried fruit (usually 3-4 pieces). On Saturday I make pizza for dinner and have a few beers. It sucks having this much muscle and having the metabolism of a slug. Perhaps that is why I build muscle so easy? I'm eating what I think is normal, when my maintenance is very low and therefore at a surplus so I then build muscle. I'm getting impatient for the time where I can downsize some of this muscle that I have so I don't look like behemoth when I'm not lean. Beware to anyone that really wants to build muscle if you have a big frame already. You will end up looking big unless you are also naturally very lean.

While I'm bitching about everything, I'd also like to bitch about feeling tired all the time. I'm sick of the tiredness, the sore joints, the weakness at inconvenient times. I hate it when I say I'm tired and everyone else is like "me too", well fuck you. If you had any idea that I feel nauseous because I'm so tired from just standing up sometimes or I can't sleep because my body aches so bad then you would know what tiredness is. In an ideal world I would have two naps a day - one at 10-11am and then one at 3-4pm but at work I just struggle through.

What birthday wouldn't be complete without a big bitch session??!

LOL

Training: Saturday 29th January

2011-01-31T20:55:00.001+13:00

I felt quite motivated to work out today because I missed Friday's workout. Normally I would have skipped doing the workout but I think because I'm actually training for something now I feel it's a bit more important to go.

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 4, 50 x 5
60kg, 3 x 3 pause on chest until stationary, up to 2 second pause

These felt awesome. I'd give them a difficulty of about 1.5-2 out of 5.

Deadlift
warmup 60kg x 10, 80 x 5, 100 x 3
125kg, 3 x 3

These didn't feel as awesome. Just so heavy! I am currently hating deadlifts LOL

I skipped the rest of the workout (per Matt's instructions). He's told me to tone down my conditioning workout. Apparently I have no idea what a conditioning workout is, as it's not supposed to annihilate me. I think he's right; I was overtired on Wednesday night and Thursday and by Friday I was too exhausted to do anything but flop on the couch after work. On Wednesday, I was so tired I had really screwed up dreams. I had a dream that my bunny rabbit was a zombie and she was trying to kill me (can you say bizarre!!!!). I remember thinking in my dream that I didn't want to hurt her because she was my cute little bunny rabbit, but she kept coming back to life, brown teeth and all.

Has this happened to anyone else? Do you get strange dreams if you're really tired?

Unfortunately...

2011-01-28T23:52:00.000+13:00

.... I didn't make it to the gym today. I really wanted to go but I was so so tired that physically I couldn't. I actually hate training on Saturdays but I am hoping to force myself to go tomorrow. I have a four day weekend coming up as I have taken two days off work to incorporate my birthday next week! I have a few cool things planned.

Motivation Diary: 27th January

2011-01-27T23:28:00.001+13:00

I'm feeling pretty tired today. I woke up early to go for a walk before work but felt so tired, sore and nauseous from being so tired that I fell back asleep again which didn't leave any time to get out before work. I don't know if it was the hard workout or not but I had some pretty bizarre dreams last night!

Matt thinks I might be going a little bit too hard out on the conditioning workout if I am feeling this tired after it so I may end up toning them down a little bit if I continue to feel too drained from it.

I am determined to get up tomorrow to go walking as I won't be able to do it at night as I'm at the gym tomorrow night. I want to start running one day instead too. Perhaps I should schedule that for one of my days off: either Sunday or Monday.

My motivation is pretty high these days. I'm feeling really good about the training program. Twice a week is a breeze and doesn't feel like it's stepping on my life's toes if you get what I mean. I love the conditioning workout and I am also enjoying getting up and going for walks (when I actually do get up). I feel quite optimistic for the near future. I've also noticeably leaned up a little which makes me happy. It's nice to see some progress in that department. I'm not yet counting calories which I may need to end up doing so I can drop the last few kilos. I am just planning three meals a day and maybe one snack, trying to make it all balanced and healthy with lots of fruit and vegetables.

Until next time!

Training Update - 25th and 26th January

2011-01-26T23:10:00.000+13:00

Tuesday 25th January

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 50 x 3
62.5kg 5 x 5
on the last rep of each set, I paused the bar on my chest until stationary
difficulty 2.5/5

Squat
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 60 x 5, 70 x 3
82.5kg 5 x 5
difficulty 3.5/5
these are still feeling harder than the benching! Hope these come around soon.

Pullups
BW x 6, 6, 6

Pendlay Row
55kg 3 x 8

Glute Ham Raises
4 x 10
I probably need to start adding weight to these as they really are a breeze to do.

Wednesday 26th January

CONDITIONING WORKOUT, 1 hour

Tyre Flips
25 flips, 5 sets, 60 seconds rest between sets, times below
1st set 1:13
2nd set 1:16
3rd set 1:12
4th set 1:16
5th set 1:10

walking 5 minutes

Sled Drag
20kg
sprinting 25-30 seconds, 60 seconds rest between sets

I nearly puked while resting between sets. Some joker/s have stunk out the straps with their stinky B.O. I was already feeling nauseous from the hard out effort, I do not need to smell foul B.O too.

without rest straight into 5 minute jog, then slowed down to walk for 5 minutes

Log Clean and Press
40kg
5 reps, 5 sets with 60 seconds rest between sets

without rest straight into 5 minute jump rope

4 sets, without rest:
25 walking lunges
20 basic crunches
10 pushups

Walking 5 minutes cooldown.

Did not feel much better than last week! I mentally collapsed after the sets of lunges, crunches and pushups as in I imagined myself collapsing in a heap, but instead I got up and started walking to cool down. I spent about the next 30 minutes walking around like a zombie. Pretty pleased with myself though as this is a pretty hard workout.

Training - 21st January

2011-01-21T22:53:00.000+13:00

Nothing exciting today for my workout, just a repeat of last weeks weights because they felt challenging.

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 50 x 5
60kg, 3 x 3, pause on chest until bar totally stationary

felt better than last week, almost easy!

Deadlift
warmup 60kg x 10, 80 x 5, 100 x 3
120kg, 3 x 3

definitely felt better than last week!

DB Bench Press
20kgs, 3 x 10

Weighted Decline Crunches
14kg, 4 x 8

I'm actually pretty sore right now, that conditioning workout really did a number on me. I got up early yesterday to go for a brisk walk before work and also this morning; both about 40-45 minutes each. I will try and get up tomorrow also, if it's not raining!

Conditioning Workout - 19th January

2011-01-19T22:42:00.001+13:00

CONDITIONING WORKOUT, 1 hour

Tyre Flips
25 flips, 5 sets, 60 seconds rest between sets
average time about 90 seconds. Went hard out on my 4th and 5th set and cut off 10 and 20 seconds respectively! Awesome!

*rested about 3 minutes*

Sled Drag
20kg
sprinting 25-30 seconds, 60 seconds rest between sets

without rest straight into 5 minute jog, then slowed down to walk for 5 minutes

Log Clean and Press
40kg
5 reps, 5 sets with 60 seconds rest between sets

without rest straight into 5 minute jog then 3 1/2 minute walk

4 sets, without rest:
25 walking lunges
20 basic crunches
10 pushups

Walk 3-4 minutes cool down.

ROOTED! I tried to keep moving with fillers such as jogging and walking, only rest I had was between the tyre flips and the rest of the workout. Although it was difficult I enjoyed myself and felt less like a fat kid. As I get fitter I will either try and add more reps or sets or even less walking, I'll see.

Workout - 18th January

2011-01-18T23:47:00.000+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 50 x 3
60kg 5 x 5

Squat
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 60 x 5, 70 x 3
80kg 5 x 5

Pullups
BW x 6, 6, 6

Pendlay Row
60kg 2 x 6

Glute Ham Raises
4 x 10

Better workout this week. I decided to keep the weights the same since it felt quite hard last week. This week, a lot easier for sure but I am definitely going to have to get used to the fatigue of doing more than 10-15 total reps. I even managed to complete all the exercises and sets for my assistance exercises.

Diet today was pretty good
Breakfast was a protein shake with coconut milk, banana, vanilla extract and spinach. For lunch I had ratatouille with chicken breast. Dinner was steak with kale chips and beetroot and feta salad. Yum!

New Training Plan

2011-01-16T14:37:00.000+13:00

As I have planned to enter a powerlifting competition in May this year, I have to get my ass in gear and start preparing. It's been almost 6 weeks since I've been to the gym and lifted weights. I was doing pretty well with motivation early December, but ended up getting quite busy so I thought I would quit the gym until the New Year and focus on having a good rest before hard work began. I got Matt to draw me up a program to ease back into the gym and prepare me for the competition in May. I want to attempt to get into the 72kg weight class, which will actually be difficult quite honestly, but I'll give it a go. I want to trim down anyway as I am feeling a bit "big" at this weight.

This is the plan that Matt drew up for me, only two days a week in the gym

Day One
Bench Press 5x5
Squat 5x5
Back Work (chins/rows) 4-5 sets
Glute Ham Raises 4-5 sets

Day Two
Bench Press 3 x 3 (using 75% of weight from Day One)
Deadlift 3 x 3
Dumbell Bench 3-5 x 10
Ab work (heavy 6-8 reps)

I went to the gym on Tuesday and Friday this week and this is what I did:

Day One - Tuesday
Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 8, 50 x 3
60kg 5 x 5

Squat
warmup 40kg x 8, 60 x 5, 70 x 3
80kg 5 x 5

Pullups
BW x 8, 6, 6

Glute Ham Raises
3 x 10

Bench press felt about right, but I think I went too heavy on the squats. After a break in training, squats always take me ages to build up again for some reason. It is weird. Once I get going it's fine but the initial few weeks are HARD. I am in pain today, mainly in my quads.

Today I went for a 40 minute brisk walk around the block. Was good to get out and about.

Day Two - Friday
Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40 x 6, 50 x 3
60kg 3x3 at least one second pause on chest for each rep

Deadlift
warmup 60kg x 10, 80kg x 5, 100kg x 3
120kg 3 x 3

Matt told me to pick a weight that was easy. I thought I chose easy but it was f'n hard!!! Gah!

DB Bench Press
20kg x 10
22kg x 10
20kg x 10

this was harder than I thought. I'm sure I used to do 30-35kg dumbells for this!

Weighted decline crunches
14kg dumbell
3 x 8

Cardio: watched a guy and girl running on the treadmill
j/k... I actually got up early (yay me!) and went for a brisk walk. Took about 45mins

I think this time the strategy may be to have less time in the gym which suits me just fine for now. I may want to increase it nearer to the competition but we'll see. I know the last competition I did, I felt quite burned out going 4 times a week which really doesn't seem a lot, but I guess when the weights are getting challenging it might play with the mind a little.

Happy New Year: 2011 Edition

2011-01-13T23:08:00.000+13:00

A bit of a late start but a necessary one for me. Unlike a lot of people, I LOVE New Years resolutions. I love the chance to start a fresh and make new goals and the excitement and anticipation of achieving them. I am particularly excited this year because last year was kind of a flop. I had so many plans last year but just totally lost motivation. I have never felt so desolate with respect to training and exercise which is normally a big part of my life and who I am. I would gain motivation for a few weeks then I would struggle and even have to quit for a few weeks. I have a lot of potential but no oomph to achieve it.

I am determined to make this year awesome.

So okay, like New Years 2010 when I reviewed my 2009 goals, let me do that again. This is what I wrote for my New Years goals for 2010 (my comments in bold underneath).

1. Become more organized around the house. My house is a mess a lot of the time because I don't seem to have time to clean and tidy. I want to change this.

I have actually improved on this. Sometimes the house is a bit of a mess but I am better at getting to it sooner. I also have an awesome new washing machine and vacuum cleaner which makes cleaning and chores much more "enjoyable" if you can say that. I do get satisfaction from a good vacuum, especially since the vacuum is so good and sucks up everything in its path. Definitely well worth the money! Score 1

2. Keep sewing and make time to sew more.

I have slightly improved on this. I have DEFINITELY got better and more confident with sewing this year with what I have done. I haven't increased too much with frequency of sewing but I am pretty happy with myself. I will continue working on this one. Score 2!

3. Actually bench 100kg (raw)

Err... flop! I probably went to the gym about 1/3 to 1/2 less than I needed to actually go. Part of it was because I was playing soccer and I was finding it quite difficult to balance both soccer and meaningful strength training, but again as I mentioned before, a lot of it was motivation. Score is still 2

4. Break the Commonwealth Record for Women's Deadlift in the 75kg category (it's currently 190kg, so I'm only 5kg off). I am confident I can do this one.

Okay, embarrassing. Confident but I didn't do it *blush*

Well, all the weight classes for IPF powerlifting has changed now so I will never actually be able to reach this goal now. I guess it's just as well really. I would have been annoyed to achieve this goal only to have it wiped because they changed the weight classes. The positive is, I will probably be able to set a new record because all the records have been wiped *high five* Score is still 2 though.

5. Save $$$

This one is definitely ho hum. I didn't actually save much BUT I did have a kind of a spendy year last year. Earlier in the year the washing machine broke down so I went out and bought a new one. As I'm not one to buy piece of shit cheap stuff, it was an expensive buy. I like to buy quality goods that will work well and last me for years. Later in the year I bought a top notch vacuum cleaner which I'd been meaning to do since the previous year. Just recently I bought a couple of new console tables for the kitchen which was a fantastic investment because we have so much more space in the kitchen (and even a dedicated coffee station!). So the saving potential is definitely there, it was just spent on things that we did actually need. I do feel I am in a better position financially though and have my budget really well set out. I'm going to score a half on this so it is 2 1/2

I guess 2.5/5 isn't too bad after all really.

These are my goals for this year:

1. Compete in a local powerlifting competition and achieve these weights

Bench 90-95kg

Squat 140kg

Deadlift 195kg

2. Trim down a little and maintain it. I'm not obese at the moment but I am definitely feeling a bit pudgy at the size I am now. I would like to look like my picture on the left again! The good and bad thing about being big and tall is you can put on quite a bit of fat before you actually start to look a bit pudgy. I can still see a bit of abbage which is great, but I can pinch a lot of fat on my stomach and I hate it.

3. Convert to a mostly vegetarian diet. I don't want to give up meat forever, but I definitely want to cut down on my meat consumption. Ideally I'd like to eat meat to start with about one or two times a week and perhaps cut down to only on special occasions like eating out or family dinners, Christmas etc.

4 Actually save money this year.

So what do you guys think? Good goals? Realistic? Anyone hate resolutions?

Motivation Diary: 10th, 11th, 12th December

2010-12-12T12:20:00.001+13:00

Errr I know I said I was going to the gym on Friday, but I didn't actually make it. Turned out Matt didn't want to go and because he wasn't going, that kinda deflated me and then I didn't want to go. I knew he always went on Saturdays so I thought I would shift my workout to the next day. I was so tired on Saturday night after work that I couldn't have gone if I wanted to. I sat down on the couch and next thing you know I was drifting off because I was so tired. I had to go to bed for a nap actually and I slept for almost 2 hours. Now I find myself here at Sunday thinking... I could go to the gym, but I have so much shit to do that I don't really want to go. I do need to go into town so I think I will walk there and get in some activity at least. Sometimes I actually miss my clueless fitness days when I used to go for a run almost every day and do aerobics classes and do high rep weights of whatever I thought was good. It was typically the bro workout of back and biceps, chest and triceps, legs etc. Actually that doesn't sound too bad really does it?....... Oh okay, I just remembered I actually had an arm day and a shoulders day too. That is bad. But anyway, I do miss those days. Although I look better now (naked) I was much happier back then with my workouts. I actually LOVE aerobics classes too, they're so much fun and the time just flies by so quickly. It's always a great workout too and I'm always out of breath.

Food has been terrible the past few days. Pay day is next week and the few days before pay day is usually famine; I've eaten all the good stuff and I don't want to eat the boring stuff so I just end up eating crap or nothing at all. I remember back in the day when I got paid monthly... OMG that last week before pay day was miserable!

I went and got my hair cut on Friday. I went back to the hairdresser I went to in May and got a great cut. I went to someone else in between and although I was happy to have my hair tidied up I felt like she massacred my hair. I told her an inch off, and whaddyaknow, she cut off about 3-4 inches. Bitch. Why ask me how much I want cut off when you're just gonna cut off what you want anyway? She made me look like her basically, which I did NOT want. Laurie said it looked like a bad Jennifer Aniston from the 90's haircut at the back....ugh. I feel much more chic now. I don't tire about hearing how my hair is perfect and oh so healthy either LOL. I don't know if it has anything to do with my diet or how I treat my hair but I do eat healthy and never use a brush on my hair (only a wide tooth comb). I don't bother with fancy hair products anymore; I just buy stuff from the supermarket. It is refreshing to go to someone that actually KNOWS about hair rather than the idiots that just spout of mantra when they hear about how you take care of your hair. I always get them harping about how I shouldn't do this or do that before they even look at my hair. It always shuts them up when they see my hair is actually okay and not about to fall off my head like they think it will be.

Motivation Diary: 9th December

2010-12-09T23:21:00.000+13:00

Wow, woke up feeling tired all over this morning. My traps are so sore and my forearms are really fatigued and sore. The sore traps are from the farmers walks and forearms from the tyre flipping. Feeling quite motivated today and have already written in my training plan in my training diary for tomorrow. That's forward thinking for you! I haven't been to the gym on a Friday night for probably 2 months. Will be doing a deadlift workout tomorrow.

Training: 8th December

2010-12-08T22:13:00.000+13:00

I had a good training session today. I really enjoyed it! I did some exercises I hadn't done for ages.

I thought I'd better do a back exercise today since I did so much benching yesterday

Hammer Strength Row
3 x 8 x 40kg aside

Then I did a bit of a Strongman workout

Tyre Flips
20 flips/5 sets/120 seconds rest between sets

Jump Rope
20 minutes, various footwork

Farmers Walks
30kg aside running as fast as I could manage/5 sets/60 seconds rest

Kettlebell Swings
20kg/3 sets/60 seconds rest

I must do something like this next week. I was dreading doing interval training today so came up with this instead which I enjoyed a lot. The kettlebell swings were so hard because I was pooped!

Bench & Squat Workout: 7th December

2010-12-07T22:37:00.000+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 50kg x 5
62.5kg x 5
70kg x 3
77.5kg x 2
37.5kg x 10, 5 sets

Squats
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 60kg x 5, 70kg x 3, 80kg x 1
85kg x 5
97.5kg x 3
107.5kg x 2

Pullups
Bodyweight
x 6, 4 sets

Other:
Shoulder Dislocates 4 x 10
Foam rolling of upper back

I didn't actually eat much today. I just had a coffee at breakfast, salad and smoked fish for lunch, a little chocolate as a snack and a home made vegetable pizza for dinner.

Motivation Diary: 7th December

2010-12-07T22:31:00.000+13:00

Another week started. I didn't really want to go to the gym today but since Matt was going I kinda psyched myself up for it. I wrote down my numbers for 5/3/1 this week and noticed that they suddenly seemed a lot higher than the weights I've been previously lifted. I guess I'm finally getting up to challenging weights were I can only do 2 or 3 max of the heaviest set rather than almost 10 reps. I was pretty stoked with my squat today. I was looking at the numbers thinking, crap this is going to be hard. When I got to my last set I even made sure the safety bars on the rack were set to an appropriate height just in case I didn't get even one rep! I noticed I was being lazy with my set up so I made sure I set up real tight by making my back super tight and pulled back and down, filling my belly with air and tensing my midsection. The first rep felt almost easy! So I went for a second. Seeing as I was unsure I'd be able to get even one rep, I was really happy with two. I even put a smiley face in my training log (unlike the not so happy face in last weeks log). I'm definitely going to the gym tomorrow and I'm going to psych myself up to go on Friday too.

Motivation Diary: 5th December

2010-12-05T23:35:00.000+13:00

Well I didn't have a very good sleep last night. I tossed and turned for the first couple of hours and then woke up wide awake 4 hours later. I got up and then started to feel tired about 20 minutes later so went back to bed and slept for a couple more hours. I felt like shit when I finally got up - my joints all achy and generally just achy and tired all over.

Despite having a crap sleep I still went on my walk today (yay!). I decided to walk down to the city from my place which took 55 minutes since I had to go there anyway.

I talked to Matt today about doing a powerlifting competition next year. He thinks I'll still be able to train two days a week and still get good results leading up to the competition. This suits me just fine; it means I can still do my soccer next year and train for the competition. I have always done better with less training anyway, physically and mentally. I feel quite excited about it actually (yay!).

Motivation Diary: 4th December

2010-12-04T23:58:00.000+13:00

I'm going to have a good sleep tonight and then go for a long walk tomorrow! I've been so tired this week so hopefully I will be well rested for my walk.

I was supposed to bake tonight for the 12 Weeks of Christmas Cookies but took a nap instead. I will bake tomorrow! I have a couple of ideas but will show you tomorrow what I got up to.

Deadlift Workout: 1st December

2010-12-03T23:49:00.000+13:00

The little face says it all really. I was not happy with my deadlifts. The warmup sets and first couple of sets felt fine but the last one was SO HARD. I do get quite discouraged when I find the weights hard. I think what I like about 5/3/1 is now starting to come back to bite me in the butt. I shouldn't be trying to PR every week and yet I try and seek one out almost every week. That's one thing I learned a few years ago when I started to bring my strength up: trying to PR every week is counterproductive. Back to basics methinks!

Motivation Diary: 3rd December

2010-12-03T20:12:00.000+13:00

And the trend continues.... I felt like death walking this morning and stumbled into work in a fog. My brain wasn't working when I got in so I left all the hard stuff for me to read later on in the day. I took some paracetamol at work because I was in pain from being so tired (weird huh?). My drug of choice is normally ibuprofen but I didn't have any on hand and I was too lazy to walk to the store. Needless to say I'm happy I'm not working out tonight. It had crossed my mind that I should actually start planning to go to the gym on Fridays regularly because I'm getting annoyed that it's taking me two weeks to get through a week of the 5/3/1 program. With cutting out the overhead press I only have three main exercises to get through and therefore only *need* to go three times a week. I'm also very wary of pushing myself too much and falling back into a no-motivation pit, deeper than what I am now. For now I won't plan anything like I planned and just go with the original plan (confused yet?).

This week has also felt pretty weak for training. Bench press was a little mediocre on Tuesday and deadlifts on Wednesday felt SO heavy I felt like an amateur! I guess I feel like my strength is dwindling somewhat. More than likely it's just a bad week for me but I can't help but wonder! I did get a little discouraged and thought that maybe I would take off the rest of the time between now and New Years but I think I'll just keep plodding along. Perhaps next week will be better! Oh, in case you're interested, I had sushi for lunch today. I always have the raw salmon and avocado: my favourite. I'm about to make pizza for dinner tonight, probably with buffalo mozzarella, torn basil and tomato. Yum!

Motivation Diary: 2nd December

2010-12-02T23:55:00.002+13:00

No chance of that walk this morning; I didn't even hear my alarm go off (I turned it off and immediately went back to sleep). I had to get Matt to pull me out of bed this morning. SO TIRED.
Two more days of work to go this week!

I didn't post my training from yesterday so I will try and get to that tomorrow.

Motivation Diary: 1st December

2010-12-01T19:47:00.000+13:00

Had my night planned out for training already this morning. I was going to go at about 7pm and do deadlifts and glute ham raises. Feeling pretty optimistic about the gym tonight!
I had an idea last night that I might actually aim for a powerlifting competition next year - I think there is one in my city in May. Will give me a few months to gain more motivation and then I can start training.

Bench Press Workout - 30th November

2010-11-30T23:10:00.002+13:00

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 50kg x 3
57.5kg x 3
65kg x 3
75kg x 3

37.5kg x 10, 5 sets

Pullups
Bodyweight
x 10
x6
x6
x5
x3

Okay training session today. A bit disappointed at the reps on my last bench set but nevermind. Surprisingly I am kinda enjoying the 5 sets of 10 on the bench. I rest about 30-60 seconds so it doesn't take me long to complete at all. By the time I'm finished, my triceps are fried!

Food Diary
Breakfast - cottage cheese and fresh strawberries
Lunch - Wrap with hummus, carrot, capsicum, avocado and basil pesto
Snack - 25g of 70% dark chocolate
Dinner - Roast chicken, no sides!

Motivation Diary - 30th November

2010-11-30T17:10:00.001+13:00

Plans to go to the gym tonight. I feel kinda blase about it, not really looking forward to it nor dreading it. I suppose that's a good thing. I had a little "thing" with my body image yesterday, not really a freak out or anything but more of a "oh shit" moment. I went into a store and tried their biggest size on in a jacket and it didn't fit me. I go to the sales assistant, "is the biggest size your clothes go up to?" and she was like, "yup". The sleeves barely made it past my forearms and it was tight across my back. I was thinking, "great, I've outgrown normal fashion store sizes". I need to start shopping at Big and Tall or something. It seemed timely when I came home and read Pauline Nordin's latest blog about her body image. She had the problem I'm starting to feel: kinda big/massive and overweight for my frame. Most of her posts seem kinda extreme to me in the the way she thinks, but this post resonated with me.

The problem is, that I don't think I can downsize and keep my strength. I'm strong because I am big and I'm big because I am strong. I don't have the discipline anymore to get real lean so I look smaller. I need to decide what I want more really. I do envy petite girls that can train hard and gain muscle and still look great. Me, on the other hand... I'm the size of an average athletic guy. If I get any bigger I'll start to look like a transvestite! Nothing against transvestites, but it's not exactly the look I am going for if you know what I mean.

I guess I have some decision making to do.

Motivation Diary: Nov 25

2010-11-25T08:45:00.001+13:00

I had plans to get up for a walk before work today but when my alarm went off I was feeling like a train hit me, run over me, then backed up over me. Gah. This is what I hate about training; I just feel soooo tired. I was also annoyed at my alarm because I was dreaming of holding and snuggling cute baby bunnies (yes I am nuts and I dream of cute rabbits in my sleep HAHA!). Reminds me of the days I would dream of picking up a donut and just as I was about to bite into it my mother would wake me up for school. LOL!

No chance of me going to do any activity today after work because I have a long 11 hour shift at work today. It is unheard of for me to be able to get up early on Fridays or Saturdays because I am usually so tired from the week... *sigh* my plans for a walk in the morning before work are sucking!

Motivation Diary: Nov 24

2010-11-24T23:25:00.000+13:00

I woke up this morning and it was a lovely sunny day. I feel quite optimistic about the gym today and actually look forward to going. I also feel a sense of excitement for the future with regards to training. Woah, that's unlike me lately! When we do finally get to the gym I get a twinge of OMG I don't wanna be here, why did I come *sigh* then it passes and I get onto my workout. Squats are going to be hard today as my lower back is shagged and I'm feeling kinda tight. Those high rep squats yesterday were probably a bad idea and I should have done bench press instead today. Nevermind. I just manage to get the 3 rep minimum for my last set of weights! Cardio was difficult but I enjoyed it.

Squat Workout: 24th November

2010-11-24T23:21:00.002+13:00

Squats
warmup 20kg x 8, 40kg x 8, 60kg x 5, 70kg x 3
80kg x 3
90kg x 3
102.5kg x 3

Leg Press (single leg)
25kg
3 x 10

Cardio: 30 minutes on stationary bike
5 minute warmup
20 minutes of intervals 20:40
5 minute cool down
301 calories

Food today
Breakfast: Coffee and fruit
Lunch: Fruit salad and Tortilla wrap with hummus, roasted pepper, spinach, carrot, avocado, Peri peri chips from Nandos
Snack - Seaweed crackers, hummus, cashews & cheese
Dinner - Vegetable stir fry

One thing I've noticed since I've started eating more vegetables is that I am peeing out a lot of fluid. I don't seem to need as much water. Logical I suppose! I am definitely enjoying focusing my diet around fruit and vegetables though. I've also noticed my grocery bill isn't as high and I'm not struggling to stick to my food budget for the fortnight. Score!

Deadlift Workout: 23rd November

2010-11-23T22:29:00.002+13:00

So I'm finally on my last workout for my first "week" on this round of 5/3/1. Terrible. It's taken me 3 weeks to complete what I should have completed in one week! But no pressure, right?!

Deadlifts
warmup 60kg x 10, 80kg x 5
97.5kg x 5
112.5kg x 5
127.5kg x 7

Squats
60kg
3 x 10

Glute Ham Raises
3 x 15

Diet today
Breakfast - snacks of fruit & coffee with whipped cream
Lunch - big fruit salad and spinach salad with buffalo mozzarella, chickpeas, tomato & torn basil
Snack - Hummus, seaweed rice crackers, cheese
Dinner - Huge vegetable stirfry

I tried to make my own gingerbread latte today. Didn't turn out half bad really. I made irish cream coffee and topped it with whipped cream then sprinkled with cinnamon & ground ginger.

Motivation Diary: Nov 22 & 23

2010-11-23T22:25:00.001+13:00

I thought it would be pretty interesting to log my thoughts around training and working out, so I'm going to try and do it on a daily basis or maybe day to day but post it weekly. It will kinda be a "Dear Diary" format.

Monday 21st November

Its my day off work today. I'm definitely too busy to go to the gym and don't feel like "wasting" my time going. Yup, lying on the couch sounds better. Perhaps I'll get up early for a walk before work tomorrow.

Tuesday 22nd November

No chance of getting up early for a walk before work, I feel dead! I'll meet Matt at the gym after his client and do my workout. I get home and see he is still home, seems I made a mistake, his client moved tomorrow night instead. I'm secretly relieved that I don't have to go now and can sit on my ass or do something else. Then he says he's going to the gym so again I am secretly relieved because he is going I'll probably go. I can't make up my mind if I want to train or not! LOL

We go to the gym at 7:30pm. I'm planning on doing deadlifts, that's all I have planned to do when I walk in the gym. I scroll through my training diary and find the numbers I'm supposed to be doing today and also look a little further for how many reps I've deadlifted 127.5kg for before. I have to get 11 reps to get a new PR. I work through the sets and start thinking of the number 11 in my head. I get myself pretty psyched up and then suddenly doubt hits me now and again because my second set felt pretty hard. I try to shake the feeling off. I complete the set but only manage to get 7 reps which is 3 reps less than my current PR. I feel like I psyched myself up too much for the set because I felt kinda wobbly completing the set. I think to myself "what the heck did you expect! You can't expect to keep pulling out PRs when you barely make it to the gym once a week!" I don't feel too disappointed because it is the truth......

I complete the rest of my workout and do feel pretty good that I made it to the gym today.

Confessions: An Update

2010-11-17T08:11:00.001+13:00

I've been stewing and thinking a little since I posted my confessions post about wanting to quit lifting. I've come up with a plan for myself. I do still enjoy the 5-3-1 program for its genius and simplicity. As I've mentioned before I also like the fact that it sets a benchmark nearly every session because I know how many reps I need to get to get a new personal record.

What I have decided to do is this: make sure I go to the gym twice a week and if I'm feeling particularly lazy or demotivated at least once that week. I'm going to follow the 5-3-1 program for lifting but not doing the twice a week frequency plan that the book sets out; I'm planning to still squash it into one week UNLESS I only make it to the gym once that week. I'm going to be following the simple plan that he outlines; the one that instead of doing various different assistance exercises, you just do more of the main exercise with a very low weight for lots and lots of reps. I feel like I'm pressuring myself to get all these different assistance exercises done and I'm not enjoying it. I need to keep things simple for now until I gain motivation back. I figure if I feel like doing a certain exercise I will do it. Matt has recommended I keep some rowing and pullups in so my shoulders don't get wrecked so I will do this. I'm also thinking of cutting out the overhead pressing. I'm actually kinda hating it at the moment. I don't know why I suddenly gather hate for a certain exercise, I know it's weird but I do it. It wasn't too long ago that I hated deadlifting, now I enjoy deadlifting. Perhaps it's a woman thing? LOL.

To make my plan more clear, here it is outlined. The days I will probably lift are going to be Tuesday and Wednesday or Wednesday and Friday.

Tuesday or Friday

Squat 5-3-1 + 3-5 sets of 10 at a low weight

Bench 5-3-1 + 3-5 sets of 10 at a low weight

Wednesday

Deadlift 5-3-1

don't know if I will do the 3-5 sets of 10 at a low weight. Perhaps I will do some glute ham raises.

Cardio - interval training

If I only make it to the gym once that week then I will do the workout that I missed the next week, probably only going once again to make things less complicated.

The other thing I am planning to do since it is coming into summer here is to get up each morning and go for a 30-45 minute walk. I'm a hibernating bear most mornings but I am starting to wake up earlier and earlier due to the sun getting up earlier and being brighter. Definitely early enough that I can get up and get ready and go for my walk and then get home in time to get ready for work. In the past I have noticed that my mood for the day is much better if I get out and get some exercise in the morning. I'll just keep it light like a brisk walk so I don't start struggling at work during the day.

Well, thanks to all that posted when I cracked (LOL). What do you think of my new plan?

Bench Press Workout - 16th November

2010-11-16T21:48:00.000+13:00

Just a simple workout today

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 50kg x 3
55kg x 5
62.5kg x 5
70kg x 6
50% max weight
35kg x 10, 5 sets

Triceps were pretty fatigued after this!

Pendlay Row/Barbell Row with pause
60kg
4 x 8

I haven't done a diet post in a while so I thought I would do that. I have no formal diet at the moment. As much as I would almost love to diet to trim down some, I just get sick of calorie counting and sticking to a rigid regime. I do well for a week and then don't see the point; I guess it comes down to that motivation thing again. What I'm doing at the moment is just trying to eat lots of fruits and vegetables and lots of plant based food. I'm trying to cut down on my meat eating; fish, beef and chicken. Not exactly vegetarian, but trying to get the focus of my diet away from meat if you know what I mean. I feel like when I focus on eating meat all the time, I get full of that and don't get enough vegetables or fruit in therefore probably missing out on important vitamins and minerals. I don't know about you but sometimes I think eating that much meat can't be good for you and thus my current eating focus was born. I'm not really concerned about how much protein I'm getting; I'm sure it's pretty low compared what I used to take in. Hopefully now that I'm eating less meat I will save some money on the grocery bill! So anyway, onto the diet today....

Breakfast
1 serve of protein powder
2 boiled eggs

Lunch
Big fruit salad with banana, tangelo, apple, frozen raspberries and shredded coconut
Big vegetable salad with cucumber, tomato & avocado

Snacks
Gingerbread Latte made with non fat milk (no cream!)
Sour cream dip with celery sticks

Dinner
Curried lentil & spinach soup (it was so good today!)
Pan fried fish

In My Lunchbox: Episode Four

2010-11-15T07:33:00.002+13:00

I've been a little disorganised lately and a bit tired, so lunch has been made on a whim. For the past couple of days before work, I've just whipped up a simple fruit salad made with in season fruit. The tangelo comes from my mother's tree. She is always trying to push either grapefruit or tangelos on me when I visit...haha!

The salad is size large of course (my style) and served with a side of plain yogurt sweetened with a little Splenda. I usually dip the fruit into the yogurt as I eat it.

Ingredients

Banana

Apple

Tangelo

Frozen Raspberries

Strawberries

Bigger Fitter Faster

2010-11-12T23:25:00.004+13:00

I love this video, makes me feel like going to the gym :-)

Powerlifting: Interesting News

2010-11-11T23:53:00.001+13:00

I've been reading on a couple of forums over the past few days that the weight classes in powerlifting are changing. The new weight classes are as follows:

* New weight classes beginning 1st of January 2011 on international and regional level
Women: up to 43 kg (Sub-Junior/Junior); 47 kg; 52 kg; 57 kg; 63 kg; 72 kg; 84 kg; +84 kg

Men: up to 53 kg (Sub-Junior/Junior); 59 kg; 66 kg; 74 kg; 83 kg; 93 kg; 105 kg; 120 kg; +120 kg

This kinda sux really. I sit comfortably around the late 70kgs at the moment. Last year when I did a meet I semi-struggled to get under 75kg to get into the 75kg weight class. For me to get into the 72kg weight class I'm going to have to be close to physique competition lean which SUX. I really don't want to compete in the next weight class up either. The good news (for me) is that it sounds like all the current records are being frozen as of 31st December 2010 because of the weight class change. It's good in a pathetic way because it means that the goal I have been trying to reach is now going to be unattainable because I won't even be able to beat the record in the deadlift and get my name on the table for my deadlift in the 75kg category.

It also says this:

* World and International records can only achieved on World or Regional championships. To achieve World and International records on national championships it is not longer valid.

I don't see myself ever competing at an international level so this means my goal of being on a record table will never come to fruition.

Talk about feeding my laziness! LOL I guess I can sit back and relax now! Now all I have to worry about is my 100kg bench press!

Workout 10th November (I trained....yesss!!)

2010-11-10T23:03:00.000+13:00

I'm still following 5-3-1 for now

Squats
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 10, 60kg x 5
75kg x 5
85kg x 5
97.5kg x 6

Power Clean & Press
warmup 20kg x 5, 30kg x 5
42.5kg x 5
50kg x 5
57.5kg x 5

Pullups
Bodyweight
x 10
x 9
x 7
x 4

Cardio: Stationary bike
5 minute warmup
20 minutes intervals 20:40 seconds
5 minute cooldown
303 calories burned (felt like half my lung got burned too)

Confessions

2010-11-09T23:21:00.002+13:00

I want to quit lifting.

There, I said it.

I'm sick of it. I've lost motivation and I don't know how to get it back. I'm desperate to get it back. I've even toyed with the idea of doing bodybuilding again because I had so much motivation back then. Maybe I want the discipline I used to have but I don't want to put the work in. Am I lazy or do I just have different interests now? I don't know.

I do know that unlike most people I feel better physically when I don't work out. I can actually get up in the morning for work without it being a huge struggle. I enjoy that. Mentally though, I feel so much better when I do work out. I feel like I've accomplished something when I go to the gym and have a good weights session followed by a bit of heart pumping cardio.

One reason why I don't want to quit is because I've set myself some pretty big goals. I wouldn't mind quitting lifting after I've met these goals but I would feel like a failure if I didn't reach these goals before I quit.
I have aimed to bench press 100kg raw for nearly two years now. I've also set myself the goal of breaking the current Commonwealth record for the deadlift which at the moment is 190kg. None of these goals can be reached if I sit on my ass. They also cannot be reached if I go to the gym maybe once a week. They require some commitment. Probably more than "some" commitment, more like a lot of commitment.

I don't know what to do. I feel like I need a break for a month or two (at least) but I don't want to take one because if I do take a break my strength will dwindle and I don't want to spend a lot of time building my strength up. I feel like I'm stuck! I've thought about just sucking it up and making myself go to the gym but when it comes down to it I REALLY don't want to go.

These are my thoughts. Do you have any thoughts or words of encouragement or wisdom? Help!

Zucchini Pasta

2010-11-03T23:57:00.000+13:00

I tried this dish for the first time a few weeks ago. I'm not a huge fan of regular pasta; I'll eat it but I won't seek it out if you know what I mean. I do love vegetables though so this was a perfect stand in dish for me. I've used zucchini before in place of pasta when I've made low carb lasagne. This was definitely a tasty addition to the low carb "pasta" repertoire. Have this dish in place of your normal pasta and serve with your own special pasta sauce.

Zucchini Pasta

2-3 large zucchini

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Freshly ground sea salt and pepper

Freshly grated Parmesan

1. Using a vegetable peeler, cut the zucchini into lengthwise ribbons.

2. Cook the zucchini strips in two batches. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. When it is hot, add the zucchini ribbons and 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt. Cook, tossing and stirring the zucchini, for two to three minutes, until softened and beginning to turn translucent. Adjust salt and add freshly ground pepper to taste, and transfer to a serving dish. Repeat with the remaining olive oil and zucchini.

Baby Bunny

2010-10-31T03:48:00.000+13:00

Beware: The following video exhibits EXTREME Cuteness. Please consult your doctor before watching if you are prone to emotional reactions at fluffy baby animals.

My heart almost burst watching this. My favourite part was around 0:33 where all you can see is her little mouth eating and nose twitching...ahhhhh!! Also at the end where she finishes the flower and starts licking her lips then washing her little face. Awwwww *heart*

Training This Week - Squat, Bench, Clean and Press

2010-10-27T23:03:00.000+13:00

Tuesday 26th October

Squat
warmup 40kg x 10, 60kg x 5, 70kg x 3
82.5kg x 5
92.5kg x 3
105kg x 4

Bench Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 40kg x 8, 50kg x 5
60kg x 5
67.5kg x 3
75kg x 5

felt a bit wobbly on these today. I needed 7 reps for a PR

Pendlay Row
65kg
5x5
60 seconds rest between sets

Cardio: Stationary Bike. Intervals 30:90. Five minute warmup, twenty minutes of intervals, five minute cool down.

Wednesday 27th October

Clean and Press
warmup 20kg x 10, 30kg x 5, 40kg x 3
47.5kg x 5
55kg x 3
60kg x 4

needed 5 reps for a PR on these

Pullups, 30 reps
Bodyweight
x8
x8
x7
x7

Dips
Bodyweight
3 x 10

Incline Situps
5kg weight
3 x 15

Cardio: On Treadmill, Tempo Training 6 cycles. 15.5km/hr

Deadlift Workout - Friday 22nd October

2010-10-25T13:12:00.002+13:00

I forgot to post my training from last Friday. I got off work early because I had to take little Daisy to the vet for her last post surgery follow up. She hates it when I bring the box out to carry her to the vet. She stomps at me and runs away. The best way I've found is to just keep her in her cage and then get her into a corner and put the box over her; she absolutely hates it of course and will stomp and whine at me but what can ya do? Anyway, her check up went well; her scar is healed up really nice and she is back to her old self. The vet mentioned she may become a bit more placid as she won't have any female hormones hanging around. We'll see about that; I think being fiesty is in her nature.

Because I got off work early we went to the gym early too; it was nice to be done by the time I normally am getting home from work. It gave me a chance to make those Christmas Cookies. Here's what I got up to at the gym:

Deadlift
warmup 60kg x 10, 80kg x 5
100kg x 3
112.5kg x 3
127.5kg x 10

11 reps would have been a PR and I would have got it if I looked in my book and saw that I had done 10 reps with this weight before. Nevermind.

Glute Ham Raises
10kg held in front
4 x 8

Hanging Leg Raises
3 x 15

It's supposed to be a long weekend here this weekend but because I never get long weekends I just end up getting pissed off hearing about it. Why the hell do most of the public holidays fall on a Monday!!! I have to admit, I did feel a bit smug this year when two public holidays fell on weekend days (I know I'm mean). Welcome to my world people! (and all the other poor souls who lose most long weekends as a result of working Tues-Sat schedules).

Twelve Weeks Of Christmas Cookies: Week Four

2010-10-23T18:31:00.001+13:00

Vanilla is probably one of my favourite flavourings. I add it to almost all my baking, my protein shakes and smoothies; I love the stuff! I always try and buy good quality vanilla extract, either in the form of a vanilla bean paste (which is quite potent!) or good organic liquid extract. It's no surprise to me that I wanted to make a vanilla cookie. I used a vanilla bean paste with this recipe so I could actually see the little vanilla bean seeds in the cookies. The brandy frosting is pretty strong, but just a little drizzled on the cookie gives it a nice flavour boost. Brandy always reminds me of Christmas. Onward to the recipe!

Brandy Frosted Vanilla Cookies

Cookies

150g unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup caster sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

2 cups flour

Frosting

1 1/2 cups icing/confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 Tbsp brandy

water

In a clean bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Crack in the egg and add vanilla extract then beat until smooth. Sift in the flour and mix until well combined.With your hands (or a mixer if you have one) kneed the dough then place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Heat oven to 350F. Roll dough into about 1 1/4 inch balls and then flatten slightly. Repeat until dough is gone. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.

To make the frosting, add all ingredients in a clean bowl until mixed. Add water until you reach your desired consistency, I used about 1 Tbsp. Drizzle onto the cookies and decorate with sprinkles or cachous if desired.

This is what everyone else baked for Week Four: