Life is moving

Things are progressing

We found a house we LOVE about 40 minutes west of here. Just waiting to get some more info from the seller and then we'll most likely put an offer on it.

I am going to get my Yellowhat stuff set up sometime this week and get a plan in place to start intern-ing (?) at some of the early morning classes. I need to get my cert renewed, so that means taking some courses and renewing my CPR cert. I am also going to take an olympic lifting course just for fun.

The next 2 months are gonna be crazy in the best possible way.

Short term plan - work both jobs. Teach 530 am class. Train any clients/lift until 9, then go to my other job. Long term plan - quit other job, I don't wanna be in retail working weekends forever. It'll be alot at first but things should even out eventually. Hopefully this will still be me

Good news is, deload is complete and I'm lifting heavy again. Next week is gonna be 200 for 5 reps on the deadlift. I remember when 200 for 1 rep was but a dream...

Decision

For the last 2 years or so it's been no surprise that I have wanted to move back to Georgia, or just leave this area for something else. There has been little to no opportunity for my husband to get a job in another location. He had some leads in Texas but those jobs weren't what he wanted to do.

So we had a sit down the other day and he told me how much he really likes his job here. He feels like if he left for something else he'd never be able to get back to the point he is at right now. It seems the best choice is indeed to stay here.

I also had something rather interesting come up. Last week the manager at my gym, out of nowhere, asked me if I was interested in being a trainer. !?!? I didn't really know what to say, and at the time my husband hadn't interviewed for the TX position yet. But now that we are staying around here I told her I wanted to learn more about it. I am going to talk to the head trainer to get the details.

It seems several forces compel us to stay here. So we're gonna save up some money (because closing costs are ridiculous here) and purchase a house sometime in the next few months.

New opportunities in a new home, can't wait!

Deadlift Redemption

10 months ago I experienced an injury.  I was in the gym deadlifting when at the end of my last set I felt a twinge in the left side of my lower back. A few hours later I was in intense pain and had to go home and lie down. Little did I know I'd have to rebuild my entire range of motion in my lower back. Things like sitting down to tie my shoes were impossible. Over the next 2 months I started stretching and getting back into light lifting. My back began to feel better. But still I avoided deadlifting until summer of this year. I began working with a coach to help me. We fixed my form and progressed weight slowly as I began to feel more comfortable with it again. Things went well for the most part, my persistently angry left hamstring made things challenging at times but we've been working on alot of hamstring and glute strengthening. I have learned much.

After 3 months of deadlifting I was at the week of my 30th birthday which could only mean one thing - PR week!

Here I am on Friday staring down these deadlifts again. On my 29th birthday I got a 205lb deadlift. One year later, after having to rebuild myself back from negative nothing, what could I get? I know I could get more than 205 because I have been doing sets of 4-5 reps at 195. So I warmed up, belted up, and put 205 on the bar. Easy. Up to 215. Still easy. So now up to 225 which was kind of my soft goal, seeing as how I squatted that on Wednesday. I wanna be able to at least deadlift the same amount if not more. Daniel got the camera out for some video. 225 happened... so now the question was, go for 235? Let's do it. Wiggle into position, grip the bar... deep breath, squeeze glutes and lats... and this was one slow, ugly mofo of a lift but it happened. But of course, Daniel didnt' get it on video cause his hand was in the way or something. And you know video makes everything official so I had to do it again :)  I set up and got it a few inches off the ground, it wasn't happening again. So it appears right now 235 is my 1RM. And I'm fine with that. This is my worst lift and I am basically starting over with it, so this is good for right now. I know where I'm at and I can start working my way up to 250+ from here.

It feels good to be deadlifting again. It's still hard as hell. It freaking wears me out every time. And I know it's never gonna get any easier... but I'll get better