Weekly Feature: What did you do?

[cereta]

I thought it might be fun to have a weekly post where people could comment with what strength training they did this week. It could be a fun way get ideas, cheer each other one, and help our members keep track of their own work.

I'm keeping the title completely neutral, because I want this to be as broad as possible. You can go into detail, you can talk about something new you did or an increase of some kind, or you can just report time or days or whatever makes you happy.

Comment away!

Comments

[yvi]

I only started weight training three weeks ago and I did a lot more reading up and modified my strength routine this week. As of two days ago, I have added squats, lunges, rows and shoulder presses to what I did before (bench presses, wall push-ups, crunches, biceps curls, flies and reverse flies). My new program takes me about 50 minutes, which is a good amount of time, I think. The squats were a bit hard on my knees, though, and since I also do running I am going to leave them out today so they can recover.

So far. my weights looks like this ( provided my barbell actually weighs 11 kilograms...):
squat: 20 kilograms, able to do that 12 times, but I can't yet go down far so I will also practice without weights
bench press: 16 kilograms, able to do that 11 times
curl: 13 kilograms, able to do that 12 times
shoulder press: 13 kilograms, able to do that 12 times

I am actually not sure how much my dumbbell handle weighs. I think 2.5 kilograms, but it could also be 2 kilograms, and I add 1 kilogram per handle for all the exercises so far except or the rows which I can comfortably do with 2 kilograms added.

I'll probably up a few of those next training or the one after that. I am still trying out a lot of stuff, having my boyfriend watch whether I am doing them correctly etc.

I am pretty proud of myself right now :)

(Note: not a native speaker and damn, all that new vocabulary is a bit hard)

[rydra_wong]

Form is definitely vital to protect your knees during squats.

For me, the things I have to watch are a) making sure my knees are lined up pointing in exactly the same direction as my toes, and b) making sure they don't wobble inwards as I stand up.

Still getting the hang of that, which is why I'm spending a lot of time with just my broomstick *g*.

[yvi]

Thanks for the tips!

And yeah, I think I might train with the broomstick on the days that I am running or something, so that I can get that exercise down. I have rheumatoid arthritis (((not in an active flare, though, so I can do exercises just as everyone else, and am actually under doctor's orders to build up some muscles to protect my joints, before anyone here lectures me))), so I need to pay attention to my joints. No point in damaging them when my body can do that all by itself ;)

[daedala]

Even on the days you are running, you might consider dropping the weights on the squats a lot, or only doing bodyweight squats, until you have the form nailed. Protecting knees is important!

Stumptuous.com has a lot of good advice on why and how to squat.

[yvi]

Even on the days you are running, you might consider dropping the weights on the squats a lot, or only doing bodyweight squats, until you have the form nailed.

I suppose you mean 'not'? I guess I'll see how my knee feels in two days. I've never had problems with them before and I ran yesterday, so it might also be from that and they just need a day to recover. I can't really pinpoint whether it's joint or muscle pain, which leads me to believe it might be muscle soreness. I have arthritis, I know joint pain ;)

Thanks for the links. I think I already read half of them, but not the others. I find things a bit hard to find on Stumptuous.com.

[daedala]

Oh, um, yeah.

The Stumptuous site was redesigned a few years ago and I give up -- I use google with site:stumptuous.com if I want to find something. Even stuff I know is there is hard to find. Grr.