Weightlifting update

(Hopefully by the time you read this, I’m on my way to Cebu!)

It’s been about a month, since I started doing the workouts on The New Rules of Lifting for Women, I have two more workouts left on the Stage One then it’s a “do as many as you can with your original weight” set and I move on to Stage Two.  So far, I have used dumbbells for everything since there are no barbells in my gym, and it’s going ok, except for a few setbacks. 

I haven’t seen any changes in my body yet, but I also know that it takes a while for muscle changes to show (specially when you’re overweight, and I am still carrying those stupid extra 20lbs around…)

Biggest improvement…  It should come at no surprise that I HATE doing lunges.  I mean, no one actually likes them, right?  So are we all in agreement that lunges suck?  Though my quads are strong (I don’t have thunder thighs for any reason – there’s a lot of muscle under that jiggle!), my hips are weak and pretty much every other muscle involved in doing lunges.  But I went from being able to use my bodyweight only for the first workout, to holding 20lbs on each hand. 

Along with that, the “step ups” are another thing that was a big improvement, from holding 15lb dumbbells to holding 30lbs on each hand.  (And I could probably do more if I had a barbell, but sadly I have a weak grip, and 30lbs is the most I can hold.)

The one bad thing about those two?  They cause my hip to flare up…  I used to think it was just running, and now I found out, nope, not just running makes it hurt…  But hopefully keeping it up will make the hip stronger in the long run.

Least improvement…  I have pretty weak shoulders, thanks to many volleyball injuries (I’ve had shoulder bursitis and shoulder impingements at different times – my overhand serve is badass and sometimes I get lots of aces in a row, but my shoulder suffers from it).  So it’s no surprise that the shoulder press is the one with the least improvement…  I started with 10lbs weighs that I bumped to 15lbs on my second workout and I’m still only using 15lb weights…  Don’t get me wrong, I have tried to use the 20lbs – at first I couldn’t even lift it individually over my shoulder (I can carry very heavy things, but lifting things over my shoulder is a whole different story).  Now I can get into position, but then my shoulder just stays there, paralyzed.  In other words…  Very weak shoulders with still not much improvement.  (Emily is a great example of how weightlifting does not bulk you up – she’s teeny tiny – and she can do shoulder presses with 25lbs in each hand, though it’s lower now that she’s pregnant.)

Most frustrating…  Definitely the squats.  Why?  After some creative maneuvering, I am now able to put a 30lb dumbbell on each shoulder (I have to move the dumbbells to the upper rack, put my foot up there, and put my elbow against my thigh so that I can lift those weights over my shoulder.  Fun times).  So I’m squatting with a total of 60lbs, but I’m not challenging myself as much as I do with the other workouts…  With this, I’m limited to only what I can lift over my shoulders and to my weak grip.  Had I had a squat rack and barbells, I could be using a lot more weight!

I’m not looking forward to Stage Two, which includes lots of planks and interval workouts…  But I’ve been pretty good at keeping this up 3 times a week (I think only once I ended up with only 2 workouts, and that was after 4 hours diving at the pool).

Has anyone else started on this book and making progress?  (I know Tyly was doing it too!)