2014 Year of Legs | garagegym107

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Jan

Strong Legs

It seems like all I write about lately is the legs. Well mostly anyway. I’ve neglected to push my legs at the same level I’ve pushed my upper body, so now I’m playing catch up. I’ve used every excuse under the sun for the past four years as my excuse for not being more goal oriented on these strong legs.

As most of my readers know I’ve lost a lot of weight, with the losses, I’ve gained some unflattering skin issues on these strong legs. THAT has been my number one excuse for not being overly concerned with them. The whole “I’ll never wear shorts again” excuse.

Well as you can tell I’m sucking it up and getting busy changing these strong legs into even stronger legs. The lower body contains the largest muscles in the whole body. The more I work them, the more dense with muscle both the legs and glutes will become. I will burn more calories as well, like a big old furnace. I can’t wait.

I don’t expect them to be perfect because that would certainly be unrealistic. I’m all too familiar with unrealistic expectations, they set you up for failure. All I will say is that I have before pictures and I’m making videos along the way of this journey. I will stay the course and you guys will get sick of the updates. Until then I’ll keep sharing what I’m doing and you guys can cheer me on.

Jan

Whew Those Glutes

By garagegym107 5 Comments

Categories: 2014 Year of Legs
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, #garagegym, Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, Bright Spots, Clean Eating, Community, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, Inspiration, Motivation, Training, Weight Lifting, weight loss, Weightloss, Working out, Workout

My focus this year is legs and glutes. Much more focus than last year. Not just heavy lifting but attention to detail with hamstrings and hip flexors as well. I like reading a lot. Anything to do with muscle activation and building I’ll read it. One thing I used to assume was that if I squat enough I didn’t need to work glutes separately. After two years of little change in my butt and the back of my legs it’s past time to step-up my backside. I began doing 3 sets of 25 body weight Glute Bridges every day since Friday. Wow. Talk about muscle awareness. I find it interesting how muscle can somehow become inactive, perhaps disengaged because other muscles start overcompensating.

My glutes are tender today, that’s a good thing. That tells me the work I’m doing is needed and it is working.

As most of my readers know I’ve started doing random videos of my workouts. I’ve learned a lot about my form and things I need to correct. In example I did 65# front rack position barbell walking lunges. Watching the video below I realized I turn my toes in terribly during these sets, I don’t normally turn my toes in doing walking lunges. Correcting it should be as simple as reducing the weight and doing higher reps.

Today’s Workout:

3 Sets x 25 reps Glute Raises Body Weight

3 Sets x 20 reps 65# Hip Thrust

3 Sets x 8 reps 65# Walking Lunges

5 Sets x 10 35# Back Extensions

5 Sets x 10 reps Reverse Hypers

Lunges, Back Ext, Reverse Hypers

Jan

YOTL Progress Update

By garagegym107 1 Comment

Categories: 2014 Year of Legs
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, #garagegym, Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, Clean Eating, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Motivation, Training, Weight Lifting, Working out, Workout

Just a quick update on the progress for this week. I have two more videos to edit and get added. One is a thruster workout and the other is a hip thrust workout.

I had no idea when I set out to start these videos exactly what they’d teach me. As a coach, I watch and correct other athletes. It’s easy to see things that need to be corrected. As an athlete, it’s impossible to see yourself and correct things when you workout alone. I can’t stare at myself in a mirror mid snatch, thruster, or hip thrust and see where I’m doing something wrong.

In example, I did snatch pulls from the hang yesterday. I was rudely awakened by my horrible form on my snatch pull. That explains my not so great snatch form. A lot of bells and whistles go off when I watch these videos. It’s a great tool. Even if you don’t ever show a video publicly, seeing with your own eyes where your weaknesses are can be a real game changer.

I want to give a shout out to 43fitness for her long distance support and encouragement. She is a wonderful conspirator in this whole fitness journey, I learn from her more often than she knows.

Jan

Torn Between Two Loves

By garagegym107 232 Comments

Here lately I’ve been struggling. No not with food, that’s dialed in quite nicely actually. I’m torn. Torn between my love of bodybuilding and my love of barbell building. When I do one with serious focus, I feel like I’m cheating on the other. It sounds so silly but really it’s not.

Every morning I get up at 4am. Spend about 15 minutes getting ready to head out to the gym. If I do not have an iron clad plan of what I’m going to do in a given workout, I will falter. Monday and Friday are hard-core bodybuilding lifting days because I have much more time. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, I teach at 5:30am class so that only gives me about 30 solid working minutes after I’ve warmed up. Saturday or Sunday when I’m afforded the time, I’ll sneak in another good workout and it rotates between barbell and body building. Here lately, I’ve decided to use those 3 shorter training times for barbell work. Man I love it.

I’m reminded every time I pick up the bar that I’m strong, but the bar can be stronger. I’m also reminded that my training over these past few years has really changed my functional fitness and ability level. At almost 51 years old I can do things I wouldn’t have dreamed of doing in my 30’s.

I read an article the other day that really struck home for me. It talked about the fact there are no studies showing eating healthy and exercising will prolong your years. Then it went on to talk about the quality of your life with strength training versus quality of life with out it. I already knew this, but it was quite gratifying to read it in black and white. I don’t care how long I have left, I just want that time to be spent as fit as I can possibly be.

So more motivation to lift! And more motivation to stop trying to choose between the two disciplines. I fully believe they compliment each other. The video below in particular reminds me of my functional ability. My form isn’t perfect, but my technique is improving with practice. If you have any doubts about whether weight training is for you, at minimum look into it. It will make you sore some days, those days will simply remind you that you are growing in your fitness. I look forward to being the little old lady in the corner lifting. Absolutely.

Jan

Inspired By Others

By garagegym107 15 Comments

Yesterday while reading Lifting My Spirits FB page I was greatly inspired by her recent workout video posts. She has allowed folks access into her workouts via video and I just thought that was the greatest thing. When you are doing this fitness thing for good, as in like brushing your teeth, there are always times you can use a little motivation. I’m nowhere near as good as she is with this whole video thing, but today, I thought I’d try it. I have a lot to learn about camera placement etc., and practice will remedy that. And again a shout out to Lifting My Spirits for being such a great mentor and example for all of us.

When I looked at this video I thought to myself “man you’re getting old” and then the lifter in me said “but you’re still going and will continue to do so”.

Before you get all stirred up about my form, please keep in mind this was a short workout that began at 4:45am. I didn’t have a lot of time to warm up and it shows. There are also flaws in my technique and there is nothing better than a video to show you exactly what you need to work on to improve technique. So there it is. For the sake of time, I’ve edited out the rest periods for the most part.

A shout out to my friend Roxanne Perkins for helping tutor me on the art of video editing.

Location: CrossFit Madison

Music by Lenny Kravitz

Grunts and groans by yours truly! 🙂

Squat Cleans 2 reps every minute on the minute 85#

Jan

Workout #2 YOTL 2014

By garagegym107 5 Comments

After being out of town and dealing with a spousal unit with food poisoning I managed to make it to the gym on my lunch hour. It was a quick, lighter weight workout. Not bad for a quickie during lunch. No complaints here, only accountability. I also want to make clear the only workouts being posted under this title are leg workouts. I suppose I should start a separate thread for all other workouts. 🙂

Walking Lunges Wide Step

3 sets x 15 reps

Back Squat

45# x 10 reps

65# x 5 reps

85# x 5 reps

45# x 10 reps

Seated Leg Press

110# x 10 reps x 4 sets

Seated Leg Ext.

60# x 15 reps x 5 sets

Walking Lunges Wide Step

2 sets x 15 reps

Dec

L3 Workout 1

By garagegym107 3 Comments

I’ve decided the very best way to be accountable is to post my workouts here so my blogging buddies can hold me accountable and so they can offer support when I don’t quite have it right. This morning was a good lesson. I am prone to getting nauseated on leg days. I always have been, especially when I make the mistake of thinking I can do a workout on coffee. Lesson learned.

Workout

Lying Leg Press

90# x 15 reps

180# x 15 reps

230# x 15 reps

360# x 15 reps

Barbell Hip Bridge

95# x 15 reps

105# x 15 reps

105# x 13 reps

Courtesy Patrick Striet YouTube

Single leg Bulgarian Squats (body weight)

3 sets x 15 reps each leg

Side Shuffle With Versa Band (above knees)

4 sets x 15 steps Blue Band

Dec

2014 Year Of The Legs

By garagegym107 3 Comments

As the new year approaches, I feel a sense of relief. 2013 has been a very challenging year for me personally. I look forward to a sense of renewal. As I close the book for this year I look forward to the renewed sense of determination for all things positive in my little corner of the world.

My motto for Garagegym107 is “It’s not what you do for a living; it’s what you are doing to live.” I try hard to remind myself of that motto every single day. I can work myself in to the ground for a paycheck, but what truly adds life to my years, is sharing my love of fitness. A smile, kind word, or a “suck it up Buttercup”. Anything to help another person move forward to a better place.

Over the last couple of days and for the next couple of days, I will be working on my own personal fitness goals for the new year.

I remember 3 years ago sitting at this exact place, listening to all the gimmick commercials, the newest diet fads, the quick fix for years of sedentary abuse to the body. I also remember being overjoyed because for the first time in my adult life, I didn’t need to clear the cupboards, etc., to start the latest diet. Now I simply focus on my own personal degrees of “tightness” for clean eating.

My number one goal for 2014? Legs, long, lean, luscious, legs. I’ve told myself for a decade there is no hope for my legs. Phhhffftt, that’s just the Bull$hit story I keep telling myself. Why? Because it has allowed me to excuse myself for neglecting the hard work it takes to have the L3 legs I want. Enough of the excuses. I have the pics, I have the measures, I have the determination. Now let the focused effort begin. For the next six months I’ll be focusing my attention on legs twice a week. Solid hard work and focus. Below is a photo of my legs at 21 years old. Lots of roller skating and genetics have given way to rather large thighs. Now it’s time to build them in to the legs I want and to prove genetics doesn’t doom anyone to a specific look.

And that handsome little man is now 31 years old.

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Archive for the '2014 Year of Legs' Category

Strong Legs

Whew Those Glutes

YOTL Progress Update

Torn Between Two Loves

Inspired By Others

Workout #2 YOTL 2014

L3 Workout 1

2014 Year Of The Legs

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