Chillicat's journal

[Chillicat]

I want to work on them and start lifting non-embarrassing weights

OK, I gotta ask, what is it with "non-embarrassing" weights... are your regular weights pink, not black, or something :grin:

Haha, I guess it's the oly bar equivalent of pink weights - not even close to body weight yet, and seeing BarBelle doing her 100+ weights and others doing way over bodyweight, well, it's inspiring me to push harder to get there myself.

[Chillicat]

Good work chilli..gotta love the deads they rock!!!!

I wouldn't give up on the high pulls though...if you do them with a sumo stance it's actually your hips doing all the work, no arms or back, so keep trying.

Maybe I'll slip them in every other week or something. But for now I want to give major focus to squats, bench and deads so that I can grow up big and strong with the big 3 lifts :nod:

[bar-belle]

But for now I want to give major focus to squats, bench and deads so that I can grow up big and strong with the big 3 lifts :nod:

Sounds like a 8) plan CC..

Squats went well, still on same weights (45kg working up to 60kg), but this time managed a few of the 57.5kg and 60kg at full ROM instead of 80-90% as in the last couple of weeks. Managed 4 full ones at 57.5kg and 3 at 60kg so I'm pleased with how those are coming along.

Impressed...yes :nod: I have really struggled with le squat..getting depth and increasing the weights...so :notworthy: to you CC

Deadlifts - continuring my teeny increments, worked from 35kg to 45kg today.

Keep at it CC ..good things take time...and you perserverance will pay off!

[Chillicat]

Thanks BB!

Yeah, I found the slow and steady approach really worked well with building up squats and I'm now able to squat the weight I was Smith squatting earlier in the year. Reckon the same approach will be good for me with deadlifts so that I increase gradually but with improvements each week. In that way I'm hoping that I'll keep my form in check, and not make big increases until I'm satisfied with the form at each weight.

[Chillicat]

Light day today. Some nice squats. My 55kg max light day weight is looking much better now than a few weeks ago, so pleased with that.

SLDLs were still quite hard at 57.5kg but not as hard as in the last couple of weeks, so will give 60kg a bash next week.

Still finding overhead presses hard - 22.5kg 3x5 and 25kg 2x3. Won't be increasing those weights anytime soon.

EZbar curls, same as before 7.5kg 2x15. Might try 10kg next week and see how I go. Guns are looking enormous this afternoon :pfft:

Tried some dips too, but really don't feel comfortable doing dips at Thorndon. Not sure why it is, but drizzt has mentioned preferring J'ville dip station as well. Might swap things around so that I do dips on my weekend training day at J'ville.

[Chillicat]

Change of scenery today. Went up to Auckland first thing, but was back in time to do a 4pm session at J'ville (having well and truly put in a full day by then - well, timewise if not workwise!).

Man cave was chocka at that time - busiest I've ever seen it, so I won't be going at that time again. Fortunately I was able to get on the squat rack though, so all good.

Medium day today. Squats felt difficult, but bench press and close grip bench were both really good, much better form than normal, and keen to increase my close grip press next week.

Off to Chch tomorrow to see my wee niece, and that happily coincides with the Chch Grand Prix show, so as long as there are still tickets available I'll be off to that on Saturday. Really looking forward to seeing some amazing bodies, and particularly looking forward to seeing how Neralee is looking - I was so impressed with her at the Welly show last year, despite my complete cluelessness of what is meant to look good, so it'll be cool to see her on stage again on Sat.

[VampireChick]

Ooh fun! Must get myself to a show this year :nod:

[startinfromscratch]

good consistent journal miss cat.

keep the deads up, imo deads are one ex that once you find your 'zen', they just rocket off.

just dont get into the mindset of 'right form, wrong form', truth is form on deads is so individual, with different leverages, strengths and weaknesses. just experiment, and dont be afraid to push it hard! :-)

[Chillicat]

Ooh fun! Must get myself to a show this year :nod:

I'm planning on going to see the Welly NZFBB one this year but won't manage the NABBA one since it's on the same weekend as my hubby's birthday, and birthday weekends are a no go for individual interests except in exceptional circumstances!

good consistent journal miss cat.

keep the deads up, imo deads are one ex that once you find your 'zen', they just rocket off.

just dont get into the mindset of 'right form, wrong form', truth is form on deads is so individual, with different leverages, strengths and weaknesses. just experiment, and dont be afraid to push it hard! :-)

Thanks! Rose gave me some good instruction on form for deads, but now that I've been doing it on my own for a few weeks I've probably slipped a bit...but I just crack on and do my best!

[VampireChick]

Have you bought your season pass yet?

[Chillicat]

Have you bought your season pass yet?

Certainly have - got it in the first round when they were super cheap a few months ago. That reminds me, need to sort out a photo for it. Can't wait!! Mind you, with us saving money and annual leave for our trip to UK/Morocco at the end of the year we probably won't be going up a load of times, but certainly enough times to make the pass worthwhile (which I think is only about 5 days anyway!).

You got yours?

[VampireChick]

For sure! Also bought myself a new jacket. Some new bindings are also on the list (I have a shoelace keeping one of them together!)

Hopefully will be a good season. Thinking about heading to Wanaka this year...not sure. It really hit the bank account hard last year.

[Chillicat]

Oooh new kit - always exciting! I got new gloves at the end of the season (50% off!) as I reckon the ones I was using had about one day left in them, and also got some new goggles for xmas (also 50% off for hubby!) which are essential - the ones I was using weren't helmet compatible, and I was always having trouble with fogging. Nothing else new for this year though.

Yeah, a south island trip can give the bank balance a hammering. We made our snowboarding road trip our main holiday of last year, and it was just as expensive as taking an overseas trip by the time all the day passes are bought!

[becbec]

How long are you in chch for CC?

[VampireChick]

Yeah true that, I think it definitely cost us at least $1200 each for the week. We've agreed on a week up at Mt Ruapehu which will do

[Chillicat]

How long are you in chch for CC?

Came down yesterday, and heading back on Sunday. I come down quite a bit since my family (parents and sister and brother) all live here - but I really wanted to see my lovely wee niece go to her gym class, so thught a quick long weekend trip would be nice - and with the grand prix being on this weekend it seemed like a good weekend to choose!

[Chillicat]

Heavy day today. Missed my normal Sunday training due to travel, so had to brave the Monday lunchtime crowd. Got all thrown out of whack when both benches were in use when I was ready to use them, but fortunately they came available after I did some calf raises, so all good.

No increases to speak of, squats and bench still the same, but think form has improved slightly again. Went up 2.5kg on the deads, so slowly but surely I'm heading towards bodyweight - should get there in about 6 weeks all going well.

[Chillicat]

Pump class today. Fun but hard, since about 6 weeks have gone by since the last class. I suspect if I start going more regularly I'll get used to the endurance side of things and soon get better though, and notice the benefits of increased strength from my normal workouts. Going once every 6 weeks or so isn't really enough, so I've decided to do one class a week if possible.

So my slightly altered programme will be:

Sunday - heavy

Tuesday - light

Wednesday - pump class (light day #2)

Friday - medium

Will also be good to have a third lunchtime session per week, as I've found the workday a bit odd only going to the gym 2 lunchtimes per week. Prefer to keep the heavy day on a Sunday, for various reasons, including that Monday lunchtimes are just a bit busy and Sunday late mornings seem to work well for me for the most part.

[Chillicat]

Ouch ouch ouch - the pump approach to weights hurts like hell the next day when you haven't done it for a while! I'm sore from squats, bicep curls and skullcrushers. Lucky for me it's a day off today. But I've got medium day tomorrow, so hope the DOMS are gone by then!

[Chillicat]

Made it through my medium weight day today, despite my killer pump DOMS.

Workouts seem to be taking longer and longer though, which is annoying, since I already take an hour and a half lunch breaks on workout days to cover walking to and from gym, workout, and a spot of food afterwards. Must be slacking off too much inbetween sets :pfft:

[teamfatboy]

Well done on working out despite the DOMS :clap: been there, ain't no fun

Short breaks is the go, one of the regular male BB'ers at Bodyworks uses his stopwatch religiously to keep breaks regular.

[Chillicat]

Good workout today, but I'm slightly uncertain about the weights I did. After doing squats (which I found quite difficult) and halfway through doing deads I realised that the bar on the squat rack was the same one I used the other week for bench which has 22 stamped on it. So I'm guessing (as I did before) that the bar was 22kg rather than 20kg.

If that is the case instead of doing a PB set of 62.5kg which was my intention, I instead did a set at 62kg then another at 64.5kg - no wonder I found it difficult and unable to get to parallel on either given my previous PB was 60kg.

Followed squats with deads, again with the dodgy bar (which I'm going to look out for in future, as not only is its weight questionable, but it's got a broken bit on it which I have no idea how to describe, but which is slightly annoying). So I think i did 37kg, 42kg, 47kg, 47kg and 49.5kg. Intention was to do 50kg, so once I realised I was using the annoying bar I just did another 47kg then went up to 49.5kg.

Followed with bench press, and another small PB. 30kg, 35kg, 40kg, 42.5kg (4 full ones), and 45kg (2 pretty much full ones - ok, that means not full, but pretty close for first try at this weight and no one around to spot).

Then did some incline DB press at 9kg 2x20

Calf raises 64kg 30/30/35

Then some leg scissor things because they're quite fun and I had a few minutes to spare while hubby finished his weekly assault on the cardio machines.

All in all a really good workout. I love my Sunday workouts!

[teamfatboy]

Nice work CC - sounds like you're totally dominating the gear down in the man-cave :grin: KUTGW

Bit of a pain with the different bars, tho.... sounds kinda like the fact that gravity's different at my PT's place... I'm sure 80kg there is actually a lot heavier than 80kg at Bodyworks, and maybe it's cos some of the gear is different.

But hey, at least you know you're already able to shoulder the bar and squat 8 or 9/10ths with the heavier weight, should make a clean set at 62.5kg well within your reach.

If it's any consolation, not one of the people I saw squatting last week was coming close to parallel... most of them seemed to think that 45-degrees was enough, not 90 :naughty:

[Chillicat]

I try to keep myself honest with my squats, and generally note down how many of a set of 5 were actually full ones, and estimate a percentage of quality for the rest. That way I know the next week what I have to beat to continue to improve. There's no sense me kidding myself!

The other guy in the man cave (who I beat to the good rack by about 20 seconds) complemented me on my squat weights, so that gave me a little boost!

[Chillicat]

Light day today, so nothing much to report. But I do make light day my 'go hard on SLDLs day' since everything else is fairly light. Finally managed 60kg on those today - yay! Would like to say that's bodyweight, but I'm a few kilos porkier than at the end of last year, so another couple of single plates to go before I can call it body weight :pfft:

Good going on the EZ bar bicep curls too - 1 set of 15 at 10kg (no idea what the bar weighs, so just counting the plates). Aim for biceps is 2x15 but for my second set I dropped back to 7.5kg and died at 12 reps.

Tried a few dips again, as I forgot to do them at J'ville on Sunday. Don't know what it is about the dip station at Thorndon, but I just can't seem to do nice dips there. Might just give up on the dips and do another tricep accessory exercise on light days instead.