Training - The Deadlift

There's been a new development in my training world. I have been thinking about this for awhile but yesterday at the gym I just walked up to trainers Daniel and Scott and asked them how much a typical session runs. After my deadlift injury I feel like I want some coaching to be able to progress in the right way.

#165 felt ok, but I want to progress.

Tomorrow morning I have a mobility evaluation with Daniel. I was supposed to do a free one when I joined my gym but never did it. So that's step 1, I have a feeling my weak points will be tight hips and probably my core because I really don't train it like I should. But my hope is to train with Daniel once a week on Deadlifting/any accessory movements he feels would benefit my progress. For over a year I've gone with no professional training. I'm good with squats and bench, but if I want to hit bigger numbers on the DL I definitely need some help getting there because it's my suckiest lift by far. 

Now I'm kind of at the point where I'm entertaining the idea of competing someday. If I could pull a heavy DL at a competition that would be so cool!

Cool moment yesterday - at the end of my session I always do some HIIT/conditioning type stuff. It was dumbbell thrusters, burpees, and kettlebell swings with 10s rest. Then it was right into sprints up and down the turf, I did like 12. Scott was doing mobility training with someone and they were facing me the whole time. Later on the girl came up to me and she was like "Wow you were working really hard!" I was like Yeah, that's what I like to do! She said "I couldn't do any of that stuff" I said Sure you can. Apparently it's her first week and like many newcomers she feels challenged. I told her she will see improvement, I struggled with my weak points because I was training in ways I hadn't trained before. My gym is amazing because we don't scoff at new people - everyone started there and we all work hard so we high five and keep up the positive encouragement. I was a little caught off guard by the fact that this girl looked up to me when all she saw was me finishing up my workout. I gave her some words of encouragement and she left in high spirits, and that's what it's all about!

I also represented both my gym and my work at the open house last weekend

Yes, the open house - the thing that brought me to Soldierfit in the first place. Basically I got paid to hang out at my gym and talk about shoes/insoles/recovery products. I met some cool people and had fun in the process. I also got to watch the classes taking place and snapped a few photos.

 

A group sit up! Hold the rope over head and do sit ups in tempo with everyone else

There were also hurdles, ball slams, wall balls, box jumps, sled pushes, and more!

I'm very happy about my day off tomorrow. Now I can eat dinner and relax for a bit. Eating habits have been slightly better lately and I seem to notice a difference - my tummy is alot less bloated and huge :)

More coming later with hopefully an update on deadlift training!

Friday Pump

It's been a really good day.

Started off with this

4 sets of 5, 175# squats

Followed by this

4 sets of 5, #90 bench

Other things not pictured - shoulder presses with #35 dumbbells, RDL's, single arm presses, medicine ball push ups, dips, Turkish get ups, farmer's carries, burpees, box jumps, jump rope. I felt great today :p

Cool moment - this heavyset middle aged guy was working with a trainer and he busted out several sets of 180#-ish power cleans followed by wall ball sit ups (PUKE CITY) I was impressed... never judge a book by it's cover!

And you may have noticed these..

Yup. I need more shoes like I need a hole in my head... but my boss got these and they look so much cooler in person than they did online! It's like a cream color and the color/pattern is reversed on each shoe. I had to get these.

After the weights were lifted I got a massage, lunch, and spent my afternoon watching American Ninja Warrior. I love it, so many strong inspirational athletes (especially the women)

Now we're gaming after I cooked some spicy chicken and beans. It's been a good day.

Changed Perspective

The past 2 weeks have been kind of a bitch. As mentioned in my last post, the plan to move back to Georgia isn't looking good. We're trying to sell the house - as much as I love it, we know we're not staying in it forever anyway. So on the offchance that we do move back, we'd just find another house in the area. My husband and I have been talking. He brought up the point that job security is alot better here... and posed the question - what if we could find an area in Maryland that feels more like home to us? Maybe we just need to get out of Columbia and find a house we like? Now I have traveled around the state more than he has and it is nice once you get away from all the congestion. He said he wouldn't mind a longer commute because he loves to drive. So we're looking around at places up to an hour from here. I could drive 45 minutes to work and be ok, I did that in Augusta every day. My gym might still be down here unless I find a Crossfit or functional fitness gym closer by. But other than that... I think we could live someplace more remote and find a halfway decent house, and then still be within driving distance for movies/food/the mall/etc. I am trying to keep an open mind about it at least. And since we've had this conversation I feel much better about the prospect of staying here. We just needed to shift to a more positive outlook.

#100 Lat pulldowns felt great

I ran a couple miles this morning, and obliterated my back and shoulders in the gym yesterday. It feels good. With all this life stuff happening I didn't get much exercise last week so this was much needed. I realized though, I definitely have to be that person who brings a little towel to the gym. It's hot now and my gym doesn't have great AC. And for some reason none of the ceiling fans are over the weight area. They had the garage doors open yesterday and it was really humid. By the time I warmed up and deadlifted I was already drenched. The sweat is to the point where it's distracting me. Lol I'm so gross. I ate pretty bad over the weekend but so far this week I'm off to a good start. I have a soft goal of losing 5-10 lbs and I can accomplish that just by not eating so much crap and cooking meals at home more.

This weekend we have open house at my gym again and I'll be there representing my store. It should be alot of fun, but I'll also be totally jealous of everyone working out around me.

I'm also really excited because we booked a hotel in Outer Banks NC and it'll just be the two of us for a few days. His mom is gonna come down for a day maybe but that's it. I really need to get away and relax at the beach.

Life Setback

So... for the past 3 months we have been patiently waiting for my husband to get a job offer in Georgia so we could move back. They said it was going to happen. Recently we got some news that it might not be happening anytime soon. Some restructuring is going on so as of right now the prospect of it happening this year is "bleak"

I've spent the weekend kind of processing this. It's a let down for sure... neither of us like this place so we want to GTFO as soon as possible so we can settle in to a community where we want to stay long term. Now he did put himself out there to be transferred to Texas, which I am totally down with. I love Texas and feel it should meet our needs in terms of less clutter/people, more things to do outdoors, cheaper prices, and just... feeling more like home by being back in the south. We looked at some houses out there and we could literally own a mansion for the same amount that we RENT a mediocre 1970's house here. Not that we'd need a mansion, but still. And that's not to say things are shitty - we have good lives with alot going for us. I'm very thankful for that. It may be hard to understand for some, but we really want to settle into a place that we know we're gonna have long term. We moved alot in our 20's and my husband has worked his ass off during that time, so I think we deserve to settle in now. For 30+ we wanna drop anchor so we can focus on other stuff like me going back to school/starting a career and saving up for travel.

So we gotta figure out what to do about our house... sell/rent it out, and then we'd be buying again when we move. It's all a bit stressful.

I haven't run this weekend or been to the gym since Friday. Just mentally accepting that we're gonna be stuck here a bit longer. But I'm also trying to shift my mindset a bit. This year I haven't done much of anything because we thought we'd be moving. Well I'm tired of putting life on hold, so next month we're taking a vacation for our anniversary and I'm going to sign up for races again. This year won't be much, right now I am looking at a Spartan Sprint and a Savage Race at the very least. I think I need something to focus on and train for so I can rediscover my motivation to run, and I need to have the drive to do something to feel a little bit happier about the present situation.

So yeah. I am bummed about staying in Maryland for an indefinite amount of time, but I gotta make the most of it. We'll eventually get where we want to be, but in the meantime I can't let it get me down or stop me from living.

Strength Benchmarks

I found this article "9 Essential Strength Benchmarks for Women" and read it to see where I stack up.

Basically it has 9 exercises where you should either be able to do a certain % of your body weight as your 1RM, or a certain amount of reps, etc. So this is a way to see how you measure up against what women "should" strive to be able to do.

Bench - I can bench 130 without a doubt. I haven't done a BB bench in a minute cause I'd want a spotter. I could ask someone at my gym but I usually just use dumbbells. I have been working with 45's lately. Any time I lift heavy I do about 5 reps per set, obviously except when trying to find a 1RM. Last time I used a barbell I did 115 twice. I am going to try for 130 soon though.

Overhead Press - 105 1RM for me which I have not attempted yet but I'm pretty sure I can hit. I work with 85, have done 95 before. Right now my shoulder is pissy so it's not the ideal time to try, but once it's in a better state I am going to get 100+ overhead.

10 Full ROM Pushups - I can do 20-30 of these depending on the day.

1 Bodyweight Chin Up - Easy, I could hit 3-5 in a set

Deadlift - Here's where I suffer big time. 255 is a lofty goal for me right now. I have never been a strong deadlifter - genetically small butt and legs, tight hips and hamstrings, that whole deal. I am naturally more of an upper body powerhouse. So I hit 205 in September, then in December I injured my back while deadlifting. Now I am doing it but with less weight and really trying to focus on form. The heaviest I have gone lately is 155 for 5 reps. I have been wary of going much heavier without having someone watch me. Well today was sort of my lucky day! I was lifting and Will the instructor was there. We were chatting and started talking about deadlifts and my injury. He said he had some time and he could help me out. Well I did NOT have alot of time, I was running a bit late this morning and had a bunch of stuff left to do (I had already squatted and I don't really like to do both lifts on the same day) but I loaded up a 135# bar quickly and busted out 5 reps to see what his thoughts were. All he said was "It looks good" Well... good!!! That's a relief. I told him that this weight was fine but any time I go heavy I tend to pick up my hips too early which puts more of the weight onto the lower back. Will's advice for me was to only do 2-3 reps when I go heavy and just really focus on form. I will try that on Friday when I deadlift maybe with like 165-175 and see how it goes. It's good to hear from a trainer that my form looks ok - cause I have been working on it

Squat - Almost there. 212 is the goal, I know I can do 205. And that's raw, so I bet even with a belt/Oly lifters I could do it right now. Somehow I'm a decent squatter, I tend to be more quad dominant but in recent months I've developed my glutes/hamstrings much more.

Barbell Hip Thrust - I don't really do these often, I find them to be kinda awkward. I can do some weight but over 200? No idea.

2 minute Plank - Oh hell no. I don't plank too often but I bet if I tried I could do like 1 minute. It's just not something I train often.

20 inch Box Jump - Getting there. I didn't do these at all but now I do, and I think the box I use might be 12. Maybe in time, but for right now I am good with the 12 and just working on improvement.

All in all - not bad. My weak points are pretty much what I expected. I have been lifting seriously/consistently for almost 1.5 years so I feel pretty good about where I'm at, especially with no formal coaching of any kind. And after today I feel like I have the confidence to work up to heavy deads again, albeit very slowly and carefully. One day I would love to pull over 300

Miles and Burpees

Yesterday I got my butt to the gym for a killer back/shoulders workout. I deadlifted in here too just cause I don't like to DL and Squat on the same day. Pull ups, rows on the cable and TRX, heavy lat pulldowns, then some shoulder work like face pulls and landmine presses. My right shoulder is acting up again and my neck has been bothering me for like a week now. I thought I just slept on it wrong but it is still really tight and painful. I'm massaging it as best I can, and it's been a little while since I last got an actual massage. So I made an emergency appointment - it's not with Pam but something is better than nothing. The shoulder work seems to have helped ease the pain/weirdness in my right shoulder, but overall my back is tight and sore from all the work and my neck is still angry.

As I was finishing up yesterday Adam came in to do his burpee mile. It's a mile of long jumps and burpees, and he planned to do this all inside on the turf/walkway. He brought in a device that measures distance so he could calculate how many laps he would have to do. I had to go take a shower and get ready for work, but 15 minutes later when I came out he had gone 400 ft and was already totally drenched in sweat.

He was taking them slow, which is probably the best strategy. He figured this would take several hours. I had to leave so I couldn't watch for very long but T came in to cheer him on. I was like "I did 20 burpees?" cause they were just part of my HIIT stuff at the end of lifting. There's no way I could do a burpee mile, I would absolutely die.

Today I ran 3 miles and it felt ok. I'm slow as shit anymore. Thankfully I have a heart rate monitor so I know I am working my absolute hardest - it was in "threshold" between 160-175 but the pace was only like 10:30. That feels so slow to me, but oh well. I'm working hard, I FEEL like I'm working hard, and that's the important thing. My husband and I were talking about half/full marathons and he asked if I would ever do a full... I said it's probably going to be a bucket list thing for me, but I need to get to a place where I feel confident enough with my running and then train for all that mileage. Definitely not until after we move back to GA and I also need time for my body to adjust because I'll be doing Crossfit. Once I feel like I'm in a good place I may train for a full. It'll definitely be a destination race, maybe somewhere out west (that isn't too hilly) or a city with alot of character like New Orleans. We shall see :)

Ups and Downs

I haven't been active as much as I'd like this week. But the days I did have been awesome.

Monday - squats #155, bench #40's plus a host of other leg/upper body things. I also had this insane idea to start going "heavy" on my Turkish Get Ups. A #18 bell was used, up from the #10 I usually do. I plan on doing more of these and seeing what I can get up to without dying

Tuesday nothing... and Wednesday I ended up staying home with a bad migraine and pretty much slept half the day.

But today..

Went to class on my day off. It was one of my better days, I powered through and got several rounds of each station in before time was called. One of the stations today was weird, it was like a stability ball hamstring curl but it was also kind of a side twist. It ended up being nearly impossible to do but my squad was really impressed by the fact that I could do them at all. I liked how the song "Wobble" was playing while we did them, cause that was definitely what was happening! Family Time was a bit brutal today, bear crawls, running, then burpees straight into more bear crawls.

After we were done I was chatting with Adam because he seemed way too excited about the burpees. Come to find out he had just run a Spartan Beast, so of course we ended up talking forever. Then T came up to us and asked if I wanted to go running. Like.. now? After class? Hmmm... I'm sure I could manage a couple of miles, but I don't have the shoes or bra I run in. But Adam is wearing Nano's so I don't really have an excuse. "How fast do you run?" "8-10 min/mile" Hmmm ok. Ah screw it, I'll go running. They started their watches and we set off on T's predetermined route on the sidewalks and neighborhoods outside our gym. We chatted for a bit, well as best I could while running. During the last mile we encountered some hills and it was getting harder for me to keep up with them. I haven't run in nearly 2 weeks. But I made myself run the hills and did whatever it took to stay just behind them. Ended up being 2.7 miles and I heard Adam call out 9:40 for mile 2's pace. I didn't die - it was actually pretty fun. I'm always looking for ways to work harder, so perhaps this is one of them. I'm going to start bringing my running shoes to class just in case T is there and wants to run.

After our run we chatted more and T said "You're like the poster girl for Crossfit, you're so muscular!" Welllll I dunno about all that, but thanks :) Made me feel good anyway

Chipotle and lying down on the couch really hit the spot after all that..

Speaking of running, I'm starting to slip again so I resolve to run at least once a week if not more. Tomorrow I lift some more, then run 2 or 3 on Saturday.