Diane's (sbhikes) PB fitness log page 9

[sbhikes]

i asked my personal trainer today about your back injury and what he would do to work around it. he said to rest the area till it feels a bit better. then go into what he calls supermans which are pretty much reverse hyperextensions on a stability ball to get the feel of it again. and when it is better, do some body weight squats. i found a book today called the anatomy of strength training which is very exciting. i looked it up on line and there is even a women's one. i am deciding whether to get the women's one as it doesnt do arms or chest or to get the one that is unisex.

Why would you avoid arms and chest? I love working my arms. I am making actual progress on my arms and I feel so awesome having muscles in my arms.

I am trying to figure out what I can do with my back. It really doesn't feel hardly any better at all after a whole week. I have a daily standing meeting (5 to 15 minutes or so, although yesterday it was more like 30 minutes) and after that meeting my back is like back to square 1 again. Walking and squatting makes it feel better.

I'm thinking I might need to just do light weight, high volume squatting and bench press that continues my linear progression. Add some stability ball reverse hyperextensions and maybe low weight seated dumbbell presses. Low weight because damn, I just can't lift dumbbells as heavy as barbells.

It's weird, but I think the high volume squats become like a cardio thing that is helping me lose some chub. Maybe this is a good thing.

A hot bath actually sounds like it would feel delightful. And yay, I recently cleaned my tub so maybe that's what I will do tonight.

Hey seaweed, I cancelled my appointment for a tattoo and made a different appointment for a different tattoo with a different artist. As long as I'm screwed as far as squats anyway, I will have a good excuse not to put a barbell on my back for a while because I'm going to get it on my back.

[seaweed]

i love the net as i had a google and found this very funny review on the women's book LOL i will be getting the men's one!
Women’s Strength Training Anatomy – a review. | her name was cassandra i love doing my arms now too but i tend to do them now by default, not isolation. way back, i always just did legs and butt and abs, like that book. i had this huge fear of getting big muscley arms which is really quite silly. i measured my arms the other day and my biceps are no bigger than they ever were but they are hell cut, i have tricep definition and no batwings and i can climb up and down things when i need to using my arms now.

i actual think doing dumbbells instead of barbells can be a good thing to break it up. you get better ROM with a dumbbell and both sides of the body have to work on their own and there is more stabilising muscles being worked. good example. dumbbell bench press. i can do 30 kg on the barbell but that is 10 reps. i can do more on the fall over and die sorta weight lower reps. you may have noticed when you get tired with a barbell you dont go as low. if i do dumbbells, i will do 11kgs in each hand. i get a much lower press and i have to keep myself balanced on the bench more so you use your core the whole time. then when you are done, you tuck the dumbbells into your core and sit up with them. so more core. i still feel rinsed but not at the everything is going black and spinning stage.

pretty exciting about the tattoo. when are you going? which part of your back are you getting it done on? and what have you decided on?

[sbhikes]

My appointment is for Monday night. I hope he calls me to look at the art soon. I would like to cover over my current small shoulder tattoo but if that's not possible I'll just put it on the other shoulder and figure out something else to cover my current one. It'll be a bird and flowers.

When I do arms, I can do a couple of reps and it feels really easy then suddenly, no warning, the next rep is impossible.

When I was younger it was considered cool for women to have that little muscle on the sides of your arms show. Only they never told you bench press was how to get it. Stupid ladies fitness/beauty magazines.

[InSearchOfAbs]

Hey Diane,

Just wanted to say, when dumbbell squats (i did goblet squats with them) got
too heavy to actually LIFT the dumbbell, Lumberjack Squats came in handy and
they feel really good too.

Jen - Lumberjack Squat - Women - YouTube


Hope your back feels better,

Julie

[seaweed]

When I do arms, I can do a couple of reps and it feels really easy then suddenly, no warning, the next rep is impossible.

i have found different parts of the body do that. some just start hurting and feeling tired but you can keep going and some is like a switch. it just wont move anymore. there is no real logic to which bits do what but overall i would say the lower body is better as i guess i move it all so much more. things like arms and lats are worse.

good luck with the tattoo and post some pics when it is done.

[sbhikes]

So yesterday I did some more 25-rep squats. 45, 65, 85lbs. Those are a killer.

I benched 77.5 for 4 sets of 2 and 1 set of 1. Highest weight so far but I will need to repeat it.

I decided to see what deadlifting might do to me. Empty bar felt okay. 65lbs felt really good. 95 felt good. Thought I would try 135 so that the bar would be at the official height. Ah ah, now I think I know what I did wrong:
a) It seems harder to lift at this higher bar height than when it is low.
b) It is very hard to put the heavier weights down and puts stress on my back. I need to learn how to do this properly.
c) After I put the weight down, it's no longer in the right starting position. It's too far forward. I need to fully reset even if that means letting go of the bar and standing up again.
d) I think I still tend to forget the whole chest up thing now and then.

One good thing from this week: a whole work week of no wine or chocolate and 25-rep squats almost every day has left me feeling quite a bit thinner. My pants are starting to feel a lot looser. Maybe I should get a sandbag and just do sandbag squats at home and forget the gym. Million rep squats are almost like sprints and weight lifting all in one.

[sbhikes]

I got a pretty good look at my back today. Holy shit! Is that MY back? I have a lot of muscle on my back. It looks actually quite amazing to me. Nothing that would show up on a camera, but I can see it for sure and so can my boyfriend. This weight lifting thing is making a huge difference. I'm basically the same size and shape, just it's all turning into muscle.

[sbhikes]

Here's my workout today. This daylight savings time change is waaayyyy too early in the year to get up and go to the gym in the early morning. So I went at lunch.

Squats:
45x25
70x25
90x25 Thought I'd given myself an aneurism after these.

DB Press:
20lbs each side, 10, 9, 10 reps. Clock was missing in the gym so it was hard to make sure I took enough rest. Back felt pretty good.

BB Press:
35lbs x 10, 10, 10 Thought I would try some barbell presses with the fixed barbells and see how my back felt. Not horrible.

RDL:
85 x 8, 8, 8

Some unweighted back extensions and reverse hyperextensions.

I'm getting a tattoo on my shoulder tonight so I don't know if I will be able to squat a barbell on Thursday. We'll see. I think my back is feeling a lot better. I didn't hike this weekend and I think the rest did me some good.

[sbhikes]

It looks just like Squeaky, my bird. Squeaky died while I was hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. The tattoist did a nice job. It was Ken at 805 Ink in Santa Barbara. I brought in some pictures off the internet of her species. She's a plumhead parakeet, and sadly the males are spectacular while the females are kind of boring. But it looks so real. You can't even see the old tattoo anymore. The old one was also Squeaky, three little Squeakies in the shape of a bouquet of flowers.

This is really too new so I can't wait to see when it's healed and settled.


No barbell squats for a week at least.

[seaweed]

that is really beautiful. it looks good. they did an awesome job of covering the old tattoo.