Volume

The first part of this cycle has been a lot about increasing my volume. And today, we found out that it's working pretty well!! The first week of my cycle, the volume on my bench equaled 5,040 lbs. (or something really close to that). Today, the volume on my bench was 7,630 lbs. And judging from the smile on Brian's face, that's a pretty great thing!!!!!!! :-D

Wide Grip Bench - 95 lbs., 8. 115 lbs., 8 sets of 8.
Dumbbell Bench Press - 50 lbs., 9 & 8.
Dumbbell Flies - 25 lbs., 3 sets of 12.
Dumbbell Military Press - 25 lbs., 10. 30 lbs., 10. 35 lbs., 8.
Triceps Rollbacks - 20 lbs., 8, & 2 sets of 10.

<3 Stretching <3

Tomorrow is Brian's birthday!!!!! Happy Birthday Brian. :-D

Lovely Lats

Today was awesome :-D We did the same Rows and Scarecrows that we did on Friday. I actually think I did a little better....I think I held myself upright a little more than I did Friday. Brian had to help as he upped the weight on Rows, but, I didn't do too badly. Brian and I have also been working on a lot of core exercises and he's been figuring a lot of new exercises out for me. :-) He takes very good care of me.

Rows - 40 lbs., 12. 50 lbs., 12. 60 lbs., 8 & 10.
Scarecrows - 20 lbs., 4 sets of 12.
Pullups supersetted with Purple-band Triceps Pressdowns - 5 sets of 6/20.

Behind Schedule

I went to bed very early last night. And as I laid in bed, I realized I forgot to blog. :-( So, better late than never, right?

Being that I was so sick last week, Brian and I didn't get our Friday workout in together, which took away one of my days using chains. Because of the way my cycle is set up, I'll only get two days of floor presses with chains. But, hopefully it'll be enough.

Yesterday was another great day! (Is anyone surprised?) Brian figured out how to strap me so that I can do cable rows on the actual cable that you're supposed to do them!! Where you prop your feet in front of you and push off while you pull the weight. He's so super smart. :-D He put a wooden board so that it would come out closer to my feet and then he strapped my feet right up against the board. Then he strapped me real tight to the seat, and it worked!!!!!!!! I was able to do rows and scarecrows like that!!!! It was really cool. Scarecrows were a little scarier than rows, and I'm still trying to ponder why. But, it worked out real great and I really felt it in my back. Was awesome!

Close Grips with rolled mat - 95 lbs. 1 set of 8. 135 lbs., 5 sets of 6.
Floor Presses - 95 lbs., 1 set. With Chains - 95 lbs., 6 sets of 8.
Scarecrows! - 10 lbs., 10. 20 lbs., 2 sets of 10.
Rows! - 40 lbs., 10. 60 lbs., 8 & 10.

<3 Stretching <3

Was a great day.

Chicken Soup for the Handicapped Soul

Scariest Exercise + Favorite, Most Trustworthy Person = Favorite kind of day.

I feel like I should write a book. But, I don't know how I'd ever describe half of the stuff that I want to put in the book. I think it's indescribable. Especially at training. Brian figured out today a better way for me to do my rows....a better way to find me some counterweight/counterbalance, so it's not so difficult for me to pull back. And then we did these lower back exercises again. They are ones that I would classify as me strongly disliking them. I choose to do them because I know what our ultimate goal is in doing them and I'm hoping I like the outcome. But, I don't like them. They scare me and make me feel vulnerable and they're super, super hard. And, they kinda remind me of being at physical therapy when I was little, which wasn't a blast by any stretch of the imagination. But, Brian makes me laugh and makes a couple good-natured remarks to get me going. And when I get real uncomfortable he just starts talking and letting me know he's there and I'm not going to fall without him catching me. And he recognizes to me that it's really hard and he knows it is and that really helps me out a lot. It makes it much less of an expectation. When I start out and I can't do them right because my back is too weak (which is the purpose of doing them, to get it stronger) he can tell I get frustrated (or I tell him) and he tells me it's okay that it's weak and we'll just keep working at it. He tells me he knows it's hard but he's proud of me for working through it. And he encourages me to keep going. And when I get scared cuz I lose my balance, he catches me. And I know he's there and I'm not alone. And then, when we were all done today, he gave me a hug. And I knew it was okay to be me and he wasn't disappointed that it doesn't look like it should and I was comfortable in my own skin again. ....that's the best way I can describe it, but unless you go through it and need all of that, I don't think any words do it justice. This is what I tell him all the time: He knows it sucks, and because he knows that, it makes it suck a whole lot less. :)

Cambered Bar Bench - 105 lbs. 2 sets of 8. 110 lbs., 4 sets of 8.
Cambered Bar Rows - 85 lbs., 4 sets of 8. 2 sets I was blocked up a lot higher than usual. Brian usually props the end of the bench up so that the exercise hits my lats more. We started talking and I said it's still real hard for me to do rows because even though I'm strapped, there's no counter weight because my legs are just dead. So he added extra blocks and it actually helped a great deal.
Dumbbell Single Arm Rows - 35 lbs., 4 sets of 10. Same on this, he left me up higher than usual. It felt a lot better on my arms, and it hit my lats real well.
Biceps Curls - 12 lbs., 1 set of 12. 15 lbs., 2 sets of 12.
Rotating Reaches - for my lower back. I don't know how many we do. I'm too concentrated on the exercise to pay attention to anything else. We do one side and then the other.

<3 Stretching <3

Recovery & Begin Again

I was pretty sick all last week, and it got real bad toward the end. So, Sunday was extremely short to try to just get some blood flowing through my muscles and try to help me recover a little bit. And today we started fresh with hittin' it hard. :)

Sunday:
Cable Rows
Cable Scarecrows
Lateral Pulldowns

Monday:
Wide Grip Bench - 105 lbs. 5 sets of 8 with pauses.
Dumbbell Bench - 40 lbs., 10. 45 lbs., 2 sets of 10.
Dumbbell Flies - 25 lbs., 3 sets of 10.
Dumbbell Military Press - 25 lbs., 3 sets of 10.
Triceps Floor Extensions - 20 lbs., 3 sets of 10.

<3 Stretching <3

Short Day

Well, I haven't been feeling real great, so Brian cut me a bit short today. It was still a good workout though :)

Cambered Bar Bench - 95 lbs., 1 set of 8. 105 lbs., 4 sets of 8
Cambered Bar Rows - 85 lbs., 4 sets of 8.
Single Arm Dumbbell Rows - 35 lbs., 4 sets of 10.

<3 Stretching <3

Out of Habit

Wow, I completely forgot to blog yesterday! It's easy to get out of the habit of things! So, I'm going on memory...I might be a bit off with the number of reps, but, it's pretty close. :)

Wide Grip Bench - 85 lbs. 2 sets of 8. 90 lbs., 5 sets of 8.
Dumbbell Bench - 35 lbs., set of 8. 40 lbs., 2 sets of 8.
Flies - 20 lbs., set of 10. 25 lbs., 2 sets of 10.
Military Press - 20 lbs., set of 10. 25 lbs., 2 sets of 10.
Triceps Floor Extensions - 15 lbs., set of 10. 20 lbs., 2 sets of 10.

A lot of volume for a few weeks. Then we'll get a little heavier (so I'm told). Wide grip bench is supposed to help me build strength 'out of the hole' (immediately off my chest). I'm pretty weak in that area. It was a good workout :)

And of course, <3 Stretching <3

Happy Heart

Today was amazing. Not much lifting, but, another excellent day of Brian figuring out exactly what I need to make me stronger, and being right there to catch me if I fell.

I was doing some bench pin presses and he was talking a lot about me needing to figure out how to drive myself into the bench from as low as I can. So, we started talking about all the different times I have trouble stabilizing myself and what they all have in common and what we need to strengthen for me to be able to stabilize myself better on the bench and in lots of other situations. Brian doesn't need very long to come up with a lot of things, and he's always dead on for what I'm talking about targeting. He stepped back and looked at me and told me he needed to think, then he walked over to the dumbbells, sat down and tried something and walked back over to me. And while I was doing that one, he came up with a few more. :-D He's really smart. The exercises are going to help so much. And Brian is so patient. When it doesn't turn out the right way the first time I try it again. And when I get frustrated he knows exactly how to explain it so that it makes sense that it might not work out for a while and it doesn't mean it's not going to happen eventually. They were all very scary exercises but he stood with me the whole time and he really did catch me a couple times when I started to fall over. He's found so many things that I never knew I could do or would have tried without him. It's really exciting for me. It makes me have lots of joyful tears. He's been a miracle for me and I'm very blessed that God sent him into my life. He's a constant reminder that God has me right in the palm of His hand and is watching over me every step of the way.

I really needed that today. I went to a new gym yesterday to try out swimming. I really hate going to new places. And I wasn't comfortable in my own skin until I went back to The Workout Center to train today. Then, training became as described above and it really made my heart happy. Brian has such a way of conveying to me that I don't need to be ashamed that stuff is different for me. It's "okay" and it's "all going to work out." And it always does.

Tomorrow I'm 10 weeks out of my first able-bodied competition. Brian's taking me. :-D I'm pretty excited about it.

I can't get this link to highlight like I normally do, but go to youtube and paste this in to listen to the song I wanted to include: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXsiWoyjw60

So Many Subjects! So Little Space!!!!

WOW! I had about 10 titles I could have used for this blog. :)

Well, the first thing I want to mention is that Brian has been training me for a year now :-D That makes my heart happy. No more switching trainers!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is super excellent stuff for me.

Okay, next order of business: For anyone who might not know (although, I'm not sure how): I ranked 10th in the world in Malaysia :-D That also made my heart pretty happy. We had a great trip. I get along with my team real well. And I made some new friends from other countries, which is awesome! Super nice people.

I cried for all of opening ceremony. It was amazing to be there. 52 countries, almost 300 athletes. And then I cried again when Jake got his Gold Medal for Juniors and we got to hear the National Anthem played. It was awesome!!!!!!! There's nothing like hearing your National Anthem played there when it could have gone to so many other countries. We were all pretty proud of Jake! Most of my other teammates did really great as well! Leroy got 2nd and Tyler 5th in Juniors. Mary got 4th and Ahmed got 10th. It was an awesome showing for the U.S.

Right now Brian's trying to ease me back into working out. Everything is very light right now. That's why I didn't start blogging right away. Just about a half hour workout for right now. He's getting a plan together in his head for next cycle, or the next few cycles. Then hopefully we'll start hitting it again soon :-)

So, That's the catch up for you all. Thanks for all your support you've given me. Worlds was all I thought it would be plus more. It was an amazing experience and I'm very much looking forward to my journey continuing.