Weekly post and icons

[cereta]

I know it's been a while, but: what did you do this week?

Also, I don't know about anyone else, but I would love an icon for posts about lifting heavy things. So I'm putting out a call. Ideas? Icons you want to share?

Comments

[cereta]

I've started working with a trainer again, so there was lifting this week. We're mostly concentrating on upper body and core right now, although I am very, very proud that I can do a near-perfect squat with no balance aid, and have slowly started adding weight to it. I'm up to eight squats with 10 lb dumbbells in each hand.

The core stuff we're doing is brutal, mostly involving lots and lots of planks with variations. For example, the newest one is a push-up plank where I bring one leg forward (toe on floor in line with my other knee), hold for 3-5 seconds, then put it back and do the other leg, and repeat as many times as I can. I'm up to three reps, although the thing that inevitably causes me to fail is my hands or feet slipping or my arms giving out. I'm doing lots of stuff like that, push-up and elbow planks where I lift a leg, or switching from one to the other. If I may boast a little, my trainer says I'm way ahead of the three basketball players he's training in the plank area.

What's shocking to me with all that is that I have very little soreness the next day (or the day after; I'm told 48 hours later is max soreness). I don't know if that's good or not ;).

[supermouse]

I did some shovelglove - exercises with a sledgehammer-wrapped-in-a-jumper, used while imagining various pre-industrial tasks for fourteen minutes or less a day (I usually manage about two). The imaginative aspect of it makes it non-boring to me. You buy heavier sledgehammers as you get stronger. Mine is quite light.

[yvi]

I did a really good, exhausting work-out on Sunday, with lunges and front squat/push presses and step-ups and a few other things. I felt nicely sore the next two days. Unfortunately, on the day I wanted to continue, Tuesday, I had a car accident. I sprained my wrists and have some back pain from the impact and hence, haven't done anything since then. But I'll continue tomorrow.

[daedala]

I'm just finishing my fourth week of New Rules of Lifting for Women! We haven't missed or put off any workouts, and I've been doing well with everything except the stupid lunges. Tomorrow, I have the first workout of week 5 and a massage scheduled for after.

[rydra_wong]

This week, I have mostly been being grumpy because I strained my back. So, nothing except climbing (traversing only).

But I can make icons ... *cranks up GIMP*

[tellitslant]

Back to the gym after so very long away today! In terms of lifting I mostly did some arm and chest machines, because after running on the elliptical for an hour I don't really want to a) think or b) work my legs much further. But oh it felt good! :D

[resolute]

Wednesday was a lifting day, so today will be as well -- we're heading to the Y in an hour or so. I am ALMOST back to where I was before I bunged up my left rotator cuff. (My diagnosis, not a physician's. But six months of rest followed by gentle stretches and lifting seem to have done the rehab.) I go back and forth between doing fewer squats with more weight, or more with no weight. Both seem useful. And I have decided to really dedicate myself to shoulder work.

[xenacryst]

Wednesday was my day at the gym, and I did a mile on the elliptical. My leg and ankle is doing sooo much better, and I did tai chi for a while with 5 pound weights in each hand. Then a variety of things on various arms and shoulders machines, a bit on abdomen, and finishing up with a leg machine thingy that I'm using until I'm strong enough to do squats again. Then I spent 10 minutes in the sauna.

[lyorn]

I have started on the "New Rules of Lifting for Women" program and am currently at Stage 1, workout 3B. Weight progression is going nicely, and in general it's a lot of fun. All those planks are paying off, I find the prone jackknives and the crunches very easy. The barbell is still scary.

Best thing is that I found that my still-hurting shoulder is completely indifferent to overhead movements or large movements in general (e.g. lifing instead of curls). Very little pain!

[xochiquetzl]

I lifted heavy things! :)

I do a split routine in the mornings: chest, triceps, and shoulders on Monday and Thursday, back and biceps on Tuesday and Friday, and lower body on Wednesday and Saturday.

I need heavier dumbbells, and the place I used to buy them at closed. Woe!

[sophiap]

What with work, I only made it to the gym twice this week. I'm doing the follow-up to New Rules of Lifting for Women* and enjoying it very much. I've found that the length of time I can hold a plank varies from workout to workout. I think the fact that I did yardwork today may have cut into my hold time.

* The rather misleadingly titled "New Rules of Lifting for Abs." It's heavy on the core stuff, and the authors have a generous definition of 'core' (they include lats). Good stuff so far, and it builds well on NRoL4W. I'll try to post a review in the next several days.