Sexy Leg Workout

Hello lovelies!
I've been bogged down with starting work again after a month long vacation and was smacked with an awful flu that's been dragging on for almost 3 weeks. I haven't been able to workout at all because either I start coughing really violently or the throbbing humming engine that is my head at the moment threatens to explode.

So anyway, today I'm feeling a little more perky and I'm dying to get moving again. I miss the post-workout sweaty smelly me. So to start off light, I'm going to try this workout that I found on Pinterest. Join me!

Catch you later!

Hugz,
Farrah

Workout: 27 June 2013

Quick post to share with you my workout for the day.

Complexes (15kg, 3 sets, 2 mins rest between sets):

bentover rows x 8

hang clean x 8

front squat x 8

push press x 8

back squat x 8

good morning x 8

Strength Exercises (5 sets each, 2 mins rest between sets):

overhead squat, 10kg x 10

deadlift, 30kg x 10

Core Exercises (3 sets, 1 min rest between sets):

Good morning 10kg x 15

Crunches x 30

Completed in 45 minutes. Catch you guys later! *hugs*

She Lifts More Than You, Bro!

My workouts all centre around using a barbell and weights. I'll share about the kind of workouts I'm doing in a later post.

The question I get asked a lot by my friends is whether I'm scared of getting all Arnold Schwarzenegger (I had to Google that to make sure I spelled it right!). They think weightlifting ladies end up looking like this:

The model in the picture is Isabel Turell, by the way. As far as body-building models go, I think her body looks pretty good. Plenty of other disastrous looking ones on Google but I don't want to post their photos up here. Why ruin my perfectly good, supposed-to-be-motivational posts with people who have taken it too far? Anyway, I can only dream to look like Isabel. I mean, come on. Do you know how much time they put in at the gym working out to get those muscles? I'm a full time working mom with two kids under 5. And no helper at home. Just how much time do you think I get to work out everyday? So yeah, there's no way in hell I'm ending up looking like that. Not with 45 minutes tops a day I have to exercise.

Here's a video I found on YouTube showing normal, fit-looking girls lifting weights. And some of the weight they're lifting is heavier than they are!

If I can get anywhere near as fit looking as these girls, I'd be over the moon.

The Number on the Scale Doesn't Matter

Ok, this post is to remind myself of why I stashed away the weighing scale and I haven't stepped on it in about 3 months. I don't know why I thought that digging it out today was going to help me any, but I did and boy, it REALLY didn't help. Why? The numbers hadn't moved. If anything, they were slightly higher than what I'd weighed three months ago.

I'm like, WTF? I'm definitely slimmer, I'm showing more definition. My clothes fit better. I've actually gone down a jeans size. Cheekbones that I haven't seen in a couple of years are playing peekaboo with me in the mirror now. So what gives?

MUSCLE IS DENSER THAN FAT.

So I'm leaning out and putting on more weight in muscle than I'm losing in fat. Which is totally fine! Simply because muscle burns a whole lot more than fat, so overall my metabolism is going up. Apparently, fat percentages are a whole lot more important than the actual number reflected in the scale. Matt, over at ShareItFitness, does a good job of explaining it, so go visit his post.

To convince me further, I googled a bunch of pictures and it made me feel a ton better. 

http://fitchef.tv/why-being-skinny-doesnt-mean-your-fit/

So yeah, the weighing scale is getting banished into the dark dank dusty storage room again. Maybe I'll try again in 2 months time just for the heck of it!

Check-In: 27 August 2012

Weight: 68kg

Workout:
4 sets of 5 reps each (90 sec rest) using 2.5kg weights on each side of barbell
Bent over barbell row
Hang clean
Front squat + push press
Jump squats (with barbell on back)
Good mornings

Will be taking measurements of thighs, and waist to add in future checkins :)

Workout: Romanian Deadlifts

I picked this video to feature a pretty much toned girl who doesn't look like a scary bodybuilder to show some people who are scared to do weights of any kind, fearing that they will end up looking like they're on steroids :P

This is not easy to do! Everytime I do this, my hamstrings scream because I'm pushing to be more flexible and stronger. And be very careful not to let the lower back do the lifting, it's actually all about the hips, butt and hamstrings. The strain should be felt from your butt down to the heels, and not your back, arms or shoulders at all.

Workout: Deadlifts

I've had a couple of people asking me what I'm talking about when I describe my workouts. So here's the first video in a series of posts to show you what exercises I'm doing. This is good revision for me too as I get to recap what I should and shouldn't be doing with each exercise. First up is the deadlift!

Day 17: Checking In + Workout

Hey all, I realise that it's been about a week since my last post. In case you got worried that I got sidetracked and gave up again, never fear! I haven't!

I did get sidetracked a bit due to my birthday (I'm now no longer 20-something, boo hoo!!!) so I did go off track a little bit in terms of one or two missed workouts and taking pictures. I have, however, been checking what I eat, so at least in terms of the calorie count in food consumption, I don't think I did too badly. I will admit to pigging out slightly at my birthday BBQ, but not as much as I usually would have at such events!

So anyway, right after my birthday, I've been right on track with a workout everyday and back to recording every morsel that passes my lips (I've still got to share the app that I use on my phone to do this!). The past few workouts since have just been the 'Crazy Complexes'.

Checking in today, because the workout today is slightly different from what I've been doing so far.

**********

Workout:

5 sets, no rest in between of:

15 x prison squats

10 x pushups (I'm still currently doing the girly version, on my knees. Hoping to scale up to full pushups soon!)

5 x inverted rows (eventually, I'm working to get this up to full pullups)

YTWLI - 10 reps of each

3 sets of 10x barbell bent-over row (2.5kg weight on each end of the barbell)

**********

Since I started working out, I can feel that I'm getting stronger overall. I'm doing my squats more effortlessly, because my body is starting to build up the muscle plus my technique and muscle memory is getting better. Shoulder presses are also easier. I remember 2 weeks ago struggling to get past 5 reps and now I'm doing 10 reps easily. My back muscles do need more work as I'm still struggling to get through the inverted rows, so I'm going to be incorporating more back exercises into my workouts soon.

Alright all, thanks for checking in with me! Have a great day!

xoxo

Day 8 - Workout

Just a quick check-in on this Monday morning. No workout over the weekend, but I still kept track of my calories. Weekends being what they are, bringing kids out to entertain them, I end up eating a lot outside so I either tried to eat healthier options or I downsized my portion by sharing with Evie.

Today's workout was the "Crazy Complexes" again, but I doubled the weight to 10kg. Last workout was too easy, I feel that whenever I do a weights workout I need to feel the muscle strain. To me, a good workout is when at the end of it my muscles feel like jelly. If I'm going to be crude about it, the end of a good workout should feel like I just had really good sex  :P

Isn't it weird that me, who hates exercising with a passion should equate a good workout with good sex? I'm a cranky, angry monster before I have to work out, but at the end of a really good workout, I feel really good and feel a very real sense of accomplishment. It's starting to grow on me. I'm starting to see how people can get addicted to working out.

So anyway, on top of the Crazy Complexes with increased weights, I also did 15 reps each of a YTWLI. If you don't know what that is, here's the video showing the moves.

I added this because I noticed that I'm having some issues with shoulder presses and push presses, so this exercise is going to help me strengthen up my upper back and shoulders. An added benefit is that this also will help me with my posture as I tend to slouch over a lot.

Have great day and thanks for reading!

Love,
Farrah

Day 5 - Workout and Breakfast!

I did my HIIT run again today. Still the same 7 minutes but I'm seeing an increase in fitness as I covered a longer distance :) 

And here's a pic of breakfast post-run! Kiwi, HL milk, psyllium husk, DHA fish oil, Vitamin C and multivitamin. 

My shoes also decided to give out on me today during my run! 

Old me would have said "Meh it's a sign to go home!" New me ripped off the flapping rubber sole and kept on running. Oh well, these shoes are about 4 years old anyway. About time I picked up a new pair! 

Day 4 - Workout

My hubby calls this the "Crazy Complex" workout:

6 x deadlifts
6 x romanian dead lifts
6 x bent rows
6 x power clean
6 x front squat
6 x push press
6 x back squat
6 x good morning
90s rest

Repeat, reducing the number of reps by 1 each until the last set consists of 1 rep per exercise. eg 2nd round of exercise, do 5 reps each, 3rd round 4 reps each.

Today, I did this with a barbell and 2.5kg on each side. Very light, but this is to get me used to the exercise. Next round I'm going to try 10kg weight in total to push it.

Day 3 - Workout and Thoughts

Let's get the details of today's workout out of the way before I go into my rambling...

Workout - HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) Run
30s flat out run
30s slow jog
Repeat for 7 cycles

Simple looking workout on paper (screen!) right? I can tell you I was drenched in sweat and seeing stars at the end of that 7 minutes. I'm not one for loooong workout sessions so I'm trying to get my workouts packed into short but high intensity sessions to maximise the time that I've got.

So anyway, that's the workout and now on to my yammering.

After my workout, I had a good hot shower and I started thinking about what's different about this time around and why I think it's going to help me get to my goals.

1. I'm putting it all out there. My ugly cellulite pics are up for the whole world to see. I can't hide the ugliness of my body and pretend that everything's ok. I went around severely deluded into thinking that "I'm not that fat, I'm normal!" until I saw a shot of myself from behind that someone had taken. I couldn't really believe it, and then I got hubby to take shots of me from behind and the photos just shell-shocked me. I really couldn't believe that the elephant in the photos was me. So yeah, sometimes the image of yourself in your head is a lot better looking than what people actually see and that was the case for me. Putting my pics up there means that I get to adjust my head-image with my actual-image until they are in sync and I can truly be sure that I'm as hot-looking to other people as I think I am.
2. I've got a plan in place to obsessively keep track of my food. I've downloaded a pretty user-friendly and naggy app to keep track of the food I eat and the calories. My biggest downfall is food. My friends and family know I love to eat. And when I eat, I really really eat. So, I'm not going to stay away from food in general. I'm not going to limit the type of food I eat. I'm still going to eat what I feel like eating, but to make sure that nutrition and calorie goals are met each day. Consciously knowing that I have to meet these goals should make me subconsciously plan on eating more healthily.
3. My reward system no longer involves food. Previously, I'd stayed away from all the foods that I enjoyed and rewarded myself with them whenever I hit a weight loss goal. That was insanely STUPID. Because then whenever I got access to them, I binged and nullified all the good that I'd done. So since I altered my strategy and approach to food, I have also decided not to look at food as a reward. Every weight loss goal met will be rewarded with a purchase in another obsession of mine: MAKEUP!!

Ok, I think that's enough rambling from me for today :) Thanks for reading!

Day 1 - Workout

Today's workout:

8 sets each of:

20 sec of burpees followed by 10 sec rest

20 sec body weight squats followed by 10 sec rest

20 sec bicycling in the air followed by 10 sec rest

I could feel the burn! Towards the end, the 20 sec of exercise feels longer and longer while the rest period seems shorter and shorter! I didn't aim for crazy reps within the time given. Since it's thr first day, I concentrated on keeping good form and completing the sets with enough reps to make sure I couldn't talk comfortably. 


Took me all of 12 minutes!