Fitness Safari

Hi everyone! I'm back. It's been way too long. I didn't realize how much I missed writing to you all here. Life, as it seems to do, has been throwing me curve after curve and finding the time to THINK let alone write just doesn't happen often. My old laptop was basically dead and I hate blogging from my phone, so I just pushed off keeping up with this old girl here. Good news! I recently bought a shiny new laptop and have no more excuses. If I can sit on my ass on the couch, I have time to share some thoughts here. So, what have you all been up to? I've been super busy at work, keeping up with my teenager, and spending time with the hubs. He had a setback earlier this year when his cancer returned, so his surgery and recovery really took over our lives for most of this year.  I'm not bringing that up for sympathy. Everyone has shit in their lives they're dealing with - and he's a fighter. He's doing ok now. I'm bringing this up because, while...

Woot! Woot! Let's hear it for broken records!!! First...as I mentioned in my last post, I would be introducing a new twist to my regimen. Call it an experiment of sorts, but I'm trying PSMF - Protein Sparing Modified Fasting. I would not recommend this approach to anyone as it requires very low calories and high protein...but I'm only trying it EOD every other day (rest days only) for a couple of weeks. If you're that interested in it, you can Google it yourself. I ended up doing two days in a row due to a misplaced rib head in my upper back probably due to my heavy standing military presses on Sunday... A quick trip to my chiropractor yesterday and I was better than ever and ready to hit the gym today. All told, I was down from 115.5 to 113.6 in just a couple of days, however, I do expect that number to creep up after a day of eating maintenance +20% (today)...Anyway, the gym! I found a lone bottle fo 5-hour energy and decided WTH and chugged it down on my way. A quick...

Great workout tonight. Deadlift 175 x 5 (PR), 165 x 5, 155 x 5, 145 x 5. It was humid in the gym and I was having a helluva time holding the bar. Anyone have any gym-legal suggestions? Leg Extensions 160 X 7, 150 x 5, 140 x 6 (I think this machine is off, I can't possibly do that much weight...will try the other one at the gym next week and compare, but some guy was hogging it up tonight...) Weighted Chins Bodyweight +20 lbs x 4 (PR), 17.5 x 4, 15 x 4, BW x 4- complete chins - near dead hang to chin above the bar. I even have a 12-year old and a bunch of strangers who witnessed it. lol. I'll do another video next week when I try to hit 6. By the time I was done, I was DONE. My legs were trembling while I was doing chins...my abs were screaming when I was doing my chins...hell, they're still kind of irritated at me and I'm sitting on my butt in front of my computer right now. WOW. Feels so good. I really think now that I'm eating more protein and making better carb c...

Yesterday at the gym I was ready to deadlift. My back had been bothering me for weeks since I landed flat on it snowboarding, but I was finally feeling pretty normal. I've been deadlifting about 110lbs, 5x and the past couple of times and it was pretty hard. I would then then decrease the weight for a couple more sets. I am keeping a pretty meticulous training journal of my weights and reps and sets, etc., and thought I could start a little heavier... This time I started at 125 and did 5 with very little effort. Damn. So I blew my initial strength on too low of a weight. So I waited a few minutes and did one more set at that same weight. Still too easy. Hmmmm...Could I be getting that much stronger this quickly? So I waited a few more minutes, threw on two more 5 lb plates and did 5 at 135 lbs. Still too easy. I did one more drop set of 8 and then decided to just stop and start much heavier next week. After about 5-10 minutes of rest, I did weighted close-grip chinups (my fave). I ...