New Rules of Lifting

New Rules of Lifting for Women – Week 1 Recap

by ann on August 19, 2011

Hey all! Happy Friday!
I’ve been working through Week 1 (Workout A/Workout B/Workout A) and it has been tough! I took a women’s strength training class in high school, but must have lost all knowledge I previously had – because I felt like I was starting brand new in the weight room.

I forced politely asked my husband Jay to join me in the weight room for the 1st workout. It went…. ok. I had the book with me the entire time, and I referenced every single picture and description. I felt so stupid being in that big (scary) weight room with all the beefy men. But I kept my head down and focused on what I was doing. They weren’t noticing me – I wouldn’t notice them.

Time-wise, it only took about 40 minutes to work through the exercises. And the 2nd time in Workout A, it only took about 25 minutes.

Day 1 - Workout A + Spinning

If I can be honest with you, #NROLFW’ers, (because that is, after all, the point) – I still can’t drop the cardio. 2 of my 3 Week 1 workouts were followed by 60 minutes of spinning. And the 3rd Week 1 workout was in an hour – but I managed to run 1/2 mile as a warm-up and about 1 1/2 miles for “cool down”. I am struggling with the idea of showing up to the gym and only doing the weights. To me, it doesn’t feel like a true “workout” without cardio, lots of sweat, and tons of calories burned. That is likely to be one of the biggest challenges for me to overcome – my own preconceived ideas and notions of “workouts” as I work through this weight-lifting program.

I also have struggled with the exercises (lifts) themselves. What is the proper form for a “squat”?

Lead with my butt?

Lead with my knees?

I also got caught up in the “Prone Jacknife” – the move where you put your hands on the floor, your feet on the balance ball, and roll the ball towards your stomach and crunch your knees. I felt SO incredibly embarrassed trying to get on that ball. I kept falling off. I seriously considered skipping the exercise together. I sat on the floor, and laughed at myself for a few minutes while trying to attempt it. I finally managed to “modify” it – by using 1 knee during the 1st Workout A, and using 1 foot during the 2nd Workout A.

It’s all about the baby steps, right?

Starting move of "Prone-Jacknife"

Working on "core" strength.

The biggest take-away from Week 1 has been the soreness. Despite feeling good while doing the exercises – dare I say, feeling strong, the days 1 and 2 afterwards have been incredibly sore! Sitting down, walking down the stairs, aching in my hips, and reaching up to do my hair. All of my major muscle groups (abs, back, arms and legs) were stiff.

Thumbs up for a great workout!

Thumbs down for soreness!

Stretching during the day 1 and 2 after a workout provided great relief! It helped me feel a little less stiff – even just standing up at my desk at work and rotating my hips or flexing my calves. And after a few days, the soreness went away. I can’t visibly see any changes in how I look yet, and the scale is still holding steady. I have some areas for improvement with my eating and tracking, which I’ll discuss next week.

My Week 2 will be a little off since I leave this morning for the Ragnar Relay. I’m looking forward to running in the next 2 days, but I’m honestly excited to keep working through the New Rules of Lifting for Women! As a reminder, there are awesome resources set up in the Prior Fat Girl Community (NROLFW), and I’ll be over posting on the forums there, too.

Have a wonderful weekend, and talk to you next week!

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New Rules Of Lifting for Women – “Before”

by ann on August 17, 2011

Hello! Checking in with the New Rules of Lifting for Women group – how has your week 1 been going? My week 1 has been difficult, exciting, and very sore! I’ll be giving a full Week 1 update within the next day or two.

Meanwhile, I wanted to post some “before” stats.

Besides the weight and reps of “Week 1/Workout A and B”, I will also be tracking weight, body measurements and physical changes (through pictures).

Starting Weight - 241.4

My starting body measurements are as follows:
Neck – 15″
R. Bicep – 17″
L. Bicep – 16 1/2″
Bust – 42″
Waist – 38″
Hips – 47 1/2″
R. Thigh – 24 1/2″
L. Thigh – 25 1/2″
R. Calf – 18 1/2″
L. Calf – 19″

I did my own measurements and took the measurements at the widest part of the muscle. My waist measurement was taken at my “natural” waist below my chest.

And lastly, my “before” pictures:

Front.

Back

Face

Alright, NROLFW’ers – I’ll check in with a Week 1 recap soon! Happy lifting!

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Introducing Ann

by ann on August 11, 2011

Hi, my name is Ann and I’m a runner.

I never thought I would hear those words together in a sentence, but I’ve proven myself wrong after having run 12 5ks in 12 months last year, and another 12 races (5k,10k, half-marathon and Ragnar Relay) already run or scheduled for this year. My journey is documented over at my blog: Twelve In Twelve.

I have two main loves in my life: cardio and carbs. But cardio and carbs together does not a weight-loss make. Although I’ve lost 50 pounds since October 2010, I’ve been at a steady weight plateau for the past 5 months, and I blame cardio and carbs. I love the quick burn and the instant satisfaction of looking at my HRM (Heart Rate Monitor) after a great cardio session, and I hate that I’ve been “stuck” at the same weight for months.

For me and my journey, there are lots of “areas for opportunity” (that’s what us Human Resources people say instead of “problems”) – including tracking my caloric intake, making consistent healthy choices, and adding variety to my workouts.

Enter: New Rules Of Lifting For Women.


I am really excited to be working through this program with you – the Prior Fat Girl readers – for a lot of reasons. In no particular order:

  1. Support. We can help each other and support each other through this program.
  2. Consistency. I’ve already planned 3 of my workouts every week – down to the specific exercise, and number of reps. It’s a relief to know exactly what I’ll be doing on what days.
  3. Accountability. If I’m doing it, and you’re doing it, then we are all doing it together. Knowing that there are others (especially over in the Prior Fat Girl Community), helps me feel committed to this program.
  4. Health Benefits. Building muscle? Yes. Increasing strength? Absolutely. Having a totally hot bod? You betcha. I love all of these benefits!
  5. To be better. To be a stronger cyclist, a faster runner, and and overall healthier person. And if I lose some weight along the way, that’s great, too!

I don’t think New Rules of Lifting for Women is the “magical answer” to my weight-loss plateau. But I think it will help provide something new, something different, something challenging that I haven’t ever tried before.

Join me together in this journey of New Rules of Lifting for Women! I’ll be checking in every week and posting progress pictures, experiences and feedback along the way. And at the end of the program, my goal is to be able to say, “Hi, my name is Ann, and not only am I a runner, I’m also a weight-lifter.”

Ann

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New Rules of Lifting for Women – Kickoff!

by Jen, a priorfatgirl on August 7, 2011

To quote the New Rules of Lifting for Women:

Whether you’re a fitness buff, a semi-regular exerciser or an absolute beginner, the choices you make now will define the opportunities that come up later. Nobody can choose to be perfect, but all of us can choose to be better.

So what’s your choice?

My choice is to be better — so I’m jumping in and starting the New Rules of Lifting for Women. Many of you said you wanted to do it with me. Did you buy the book? Have you read the beginning section?

As a heads up, I am not following the eating portion of the book, only the lifting section. There are a lot of really good points the authors make in the eating plan however I am a firm believer eating cannot be one-size-fits all. Because of that, I encourage you each to find an eating plan that works for you – if that means starting with the outline that is in the book, go for it and work to make it your own. If you incorporate something else, great!

Schedules & Logs

The one struggle I had with reading the New Rules for Lifting book was that I got extremely confused with how the author described the workouts. Between workouts, stages, 1′s and 2′s, and A’s and B’s, I went around and around. It took me a long time to work through figuring things out and when I finally did, the logs in the book did not seem to match what made sense of the entire workout.

Because of that, I ended putting together my own schedule and log. I suggest using the book first, if it makes sense to you, because the author is the expert. That said, you are more than welcome to take a peak at the schedule & log I used. The schedule and logs should be used only in combination with the book therefore I’ve password protected the documents. To view/download the documents, click the below link:

 

Download the schedule and/or log here.

NOTE: the schedule & logs originally shared have been removed due to a misunderstanding in the way the program works. Click HERE for more information.

Extra support

I initially thought I would have everyone collaborate in a shared document but decided to just let everyone keep track of their own journey. Let me be candid, I don’t have time to be your drill sargent. I cannot follow-up with everyone to make sure you are doing your workouts. This is about you being accountable to yourself. That said, I do think it will be very important for us to keep in touch with each other because a lot of the exercises may be tricky to understand, we may have questions or need advice on alternatives/variations to the exercises. Here are the two ways we can help each other

PriorFatGirl Forum:
I’ve added a category in the PriorFatGirl Forum for us to bounce ideas off each other. Also, it will be good to share tricks and things we’ve found helpful as well as to discuss some of the rules in the beginning of the book.

Twitter:
For those on Twitter, use hashtag #NROLFW. We can use it to quickly record we’ve completed a workout.

Following Ann’s Progress

You hear my story all the time so I figured why not have someone else share their experience with the program? Ann from Twelve in Twelve has agreed to guest post with us weekly and share her thoughts, experiences, frustrations and successes with the program.

Ann is in the middle of her journey – she has lost about 50lbs already but still has a ways to go on her journey. Ann started her journey by teaching herself to run and while running is still a major part of her journey, she has been on a self-proclaimed plateau for months.

Doing the New Rules of Lifting for Women is Ann‘s way of fighting back, her way of trying to fight through the plateau. I am excited for Ann to share her journey because to be honest, I think she is a lot like many of you in that she has never ventured to the weights section of the gym.

Ann will be sharing a little introduction to herself in the next few days and then will weekly share her thoughts on the New Rules of Lifting for Women. To read about her journey, hover over “Popular Subjects” on the menu and select “New Rules of Lifting for Women.”

Let’s go!

Ready? Let’s go, let’s do this, let’s make some muscle! I’m going to take my measurements tomorrow so at the end of the ten weeks, I can see my progress outside of the scale.

Any questions? Am I missing anything? Forget to address something? Check out the forum first and see if your answer is over there!

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