Lindsay's Ramblings

This week on my training plan I got to test my 5 rep maxes on push presses, close grip bench, squats and deadlifts. I was excited because it has been a while since I've really "maxed out".  My focus most of last year was a little more on hypertrophy training, especially since the back/hip issue I had last come up last spring. I've slowly built my strength back up since then and was pretty happy with my 5 RMs: Barbell push press: 110 x 5 Close grip bench press: 110 x 5 Squat: 185 x 5   (Watch here ) Deadlifts: 200 x 5  (Watch here) I fueled my muscles after today's heavy leg workout with a bowl of.... Yup, you guessed it! Fruit Loops! Don't hate.  I allow myself one "treat" meal each week, but I also have 1 or 2 days during the week when I let myself have something I've been craving as a post workout treat. I absolutely LOVE cereal, so this week I had Fruit Loops after my 2 heavy lifting days. One of the best things I...

  Merry Christmas ! It was a month late, but better late than never!! :)

As some of you know, I did CrossFit for a little over a year-from the Fall of 2010 to Spring 2012. I absolutely loved it and caught the "CrossFit bug" right off the bat-I was obsessed! It was so new and exciting and made me feel like an athlete again. Eventually, however, I found myself focusing way too much on my "WOD" time and my performance, r ather than on the positive things like building my body, improving my skills, learning new things, and getting stronger. I would find myself saying things like, "I'll never be good at this, I'm so slow, I'll never be that strong, I suck !" I was getting caught up in comparisons, I was focusing on the negative, and I felt like I would never be good enough. It came to the point where I actually began to dread my workouts, which was something that had never happened to me before...and that's when I knew it was time for a change . While it was what I loved about it at first, the competitive asp...

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. -Romans 8:28 God is good. He is faithful. It is amazing how He takes the horrible things that happen in our lives and uses them for our good! I have seen this happen throughout my life and most recently with my mom's car accident. As horrible as this experience was, I am already seeing the good come from it! I now see the ra in bo w that comes after the storm. Just to update, my mom is doing great! Her therapy is going well, and she is getting stronger  and stronger every day! And most importantly, she is in positive spirits. She actually got to go home today, after more than 6 weeks in the hospital! Yay, so exciting! She still has a long road ahead but things are looking up. Every time we go in to see her she says,  "I'm a miracle." And she's right-she really is a miracle! She could have died or been paralyzed or...

I don't typically like doing things that every other blogger does, but I do like to throw in a "What I Ate Wednesday" every now and then....just because I know everyone likes to see what other fitness people eat.  Soooo here ya go! 8:15 - (BEST breakfast everrrr- only bad thing is stopping at just one bowl.)  1/2 cup oats, 1 scoop Syntha-6, 1 tbsp peanut butter, coffee with cream and Stevia/Sucralose blend sweetener 11:00- Tuna cheese melts: 1 egg white, 1 can of tuna, garlic and onion powder, and 1 tbsp oats mixed together into 2 patties and cooked on skillet. I topped them each with 1/2 slice of 2% Pepperjack cheese(my new obsession, by the way!), and I ate one on a slice of Ezekiel bread. Also had a handful of grape tomotoes. 2:00- Coffee w/cream and Stevia blend sweetener 3:15-  Post workout: vanilla whey protein powder mixed with almond milk and 1/3 scoop of orange gatorade powder 4:30- 2 fried eggs, turkey mixed w/ quinoa an...

I think this stuff is so amazing! I would love to be able to do these things some day. :)

I am almost finished with the second week of my new training program, and so far I am really liking it!  I especially love the first two days of the week, which are the strength and power days(which means heavy!!), but the second upper body day is actually quite easy for me...I feel like I could do so much more! But I am sticking to the program, so I have to restrain myself! I think I was probably pushing too hard for a while anyway, so this will actually force me to scale it back a little. You don't have to absolutely  kill yourself every single workout to get results! Today for me was just bodyweight rows, pushups, negative handstand pushups, front lever holds, bicep curls and ab wheel rollouts. It didn't take a lot out of me and only took me about 30 minutes. I left the gym with a small pump but was not utterly exhausted or drenched in sweat. Actually, I'm very rarely drenched in sweat after a workout(with the exception of when I do CrossFit)! More than anythi...

Besides a nice butt, there is nothing I love more than a nice pair of round shoulders on a woman. More than 6 pack abs, more than defined quads, and more than great biceps, I can tell by the shoulders how hard and how long someone has worked in the gym because getting those round delts are not easy! Hoping my delts will look like this one day! My shoulders aren't where I want them to be yet, but they are getting there! Today I thought I'd offer a few of MY tips on how to get fuller, rounder shoulders. Lift heavy. Adding muscle mass to any muscle group is about progressively overloading the muscle. This just means that as you get stronger, make sure you are continuing to increase your weights to challenge the muscles and force them into growth.  I would recommend training in the 5-8 rep range for the big, compound lifts like presses. Keep adding weight to the bar! Train shoulders twice a week . Since doing an upper/lower body split, I have...

"The point is, if you want a body that is "toned", you don't do it with plastic dumbbells and vibrating waist bands. You do it with iron. Real iron.   If you want a workout that can be squeez ed into lunchtime?  Hit the iron. Something that will strengthen your joints and improve bone mass? The iron.   Something with measurable gains that amount to more than thigh gaps and skinny jeans? The iron.   Something you can still be doing well into old age, when every marathon runner has had a double knee replacement already? The iron."   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/9787949/If-you-want-to-get-in-shape-ditch-the-lady-weights-and-hit-the-iron.html

Mom has improved significantly over the past week! :) Last night was her last night at the University of Louisville hospital. She was transferred down the street to Frazier Rehab for inpatient therapy. She was so excited about it and just couldn't wait to get out of that hospital last night! I know she will love the change of scenary and the fact that she will now be able to start moving around after being in that bed for almost a month. She is going to be a great patient because she is SO ready to get up and move! She can eat normal foods now and finally thin liquids-hopefully soon she can get her coffee that she's been talking about! I'm not sure how long she will be in rehab-probably a couple of weeks or so. I'm just so happy and relieved that Mom is back! She is going to be okay. I praise and thank God every single day. He is good!

Around April of last year, I began having pain in my hip flexors, glutes, and upper hamstring area. It eventually also led to pain in my lower back and SI joint. I don't know if it was all related or if each was a separate issue, but it did seem to happen all at the same time so it makes sense that it was related. All I know is that it was NOT fun. It was to the point where I had to lay off of heavy lifting for a little while(and stayed away from deadlifts completely for a few months), which I absolute HATED . The pain just continued, so I decided to go to a massage therapist to see if working on the trigger points in my hip flexors and glutes would help. The massage helped some, but I eventually ended up going to a chiropractor. He worked on my lower back and did active release therapy on my left hip flexor that was giving me the most pain. The chiropractor really helped me tremendously, because he actually explained to me what...

For the past few weeks, I haven't been following any set program or tracking my workouts in my log. I've been doing some lower volume, full body workouts since my mom has been in the hospital, and I don't have a lot of time to spend in the gym.  I'm excited though to get back on a program and back to trying to progress on my weights! Today I'm starting a 16 week program by Jason Ferruggia, called "Uncaged". It is pretty similar to the upper/lower split I've been following, with just a little less volume. It will be a nice change to have something to follow instead of coming up with my own workouts! I love that it has a mix of heavy lifts, gymnastics skills, and also a conditioning day with sled pushes. It is periodized so that the sets and reps change each week, and you eventually work up to your RM(5,4,3, and then 2 rep max). The first month will look like this: MONDAY 1) 1 Arm Dumbbell Snatch 2a) Push Press 2b) Parallel Gri...

Mom is still improving a little each day! Her feisty personality is coming out, and you can tell she is getting antsy to get out of that hospital bed! She is writing messages for us, since she still has the trach in and can't talk yet. She said she is so tired of not being able to talk! Sometimes we can decipher the messages she writes and other times it just looks like chicken scratch! But she gets a little better at it each day.  She keeps wanting something to drink and even asked for coffee the other day-she actually wrote out how many sugars and creams she wanted in it!  Poor thing-I feel so bad for her! Today she is having her hip surgery-hopefully the last one, and she is really worried and scared about it. I'm just still SO thankful that she is alive and is going to be okay. It's such a relief, and I can rest a little easier now. I cannot thank God enough for watching over her that day! I just don't know if my sister, b...

I hate running. Besides sprinting, which I don't really consider "running", I don't run. Ever. I've never seen a runner who has a body that I would want. Most people I see jogging on the side of the road are either overweight, skinny fat, or just plain skinny. There is nothing wrong with running(well, okay, I do think there are some things), and if it is what you LOVE , what excites you, what motivates you to get up and train every day-then run your heart out! If you find something you are passionate about, that makes you feel amazing, then there is definitely nothing that should stop you from that! What I don't like about running is that people who do it think it's the best way to be in shape, or the best and only way to lose weight, and I highly disagree. In my opinion, there are much more effective forms of cardio to get lean and stay in shape-things like jumping rope, sprinting, bodyweight circuits, and kettlebell swings, just to name a fe...

A few things I've learned this year: *Carbs are not the enemy. *Being injured sucks, but it's not the end of the world. Focus on what you CAN do, not what you can't! *I hate bodybuilding style workouts. *CrossFit is fun...but I don't miss it, and it's not the only way to be in shape. *Perfection is my enemy. *No matter how long you've been training, you can always get stronger and better! *Don't worry about what everyone else is doing, and just do you! *Feeling good is more important to me than feeling miserable just to be ripped. *Abs are overrated. ;) Goals I accomplished in 2012: *Strict muscle up on rings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VjS66VFs0Y&list=UUx4ga3se4FG07pq2AcKuwug&index=47 *Bar muscle ups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-RBJ9Un-LI&list=UUx4ga3se4FG07pq2AcKuwug&index=31 *10 second handstand hold *15 chinups: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73rBHsqhRw4&list=UUx4ga3se4FG07pq2AcKuwug&index=34 *13 ...

Make it a good one!