Body-for-Life | garagegym107

Posts Tagged ‘Body-for-Life

Oct

Ride I did

Categories: Morphing of a Fit Woman
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, Body-for-Life, Clean Eating, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Goal Setting, health, healthy-living, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Motivation, nutrition, Precision Nutrition, Training, Well-Being

I got up early this morning and started that head game smack talk again. Got dressed, filled a bottle, got all reflected up and set out on my bike at just after 5:00am. It’s amazing how peaceful things are before everyone gets up. Was I nervous, heck yes. But I did it anyway. I successfully rode in the dark, fully lit by street lamps, my light on the front of my bike and the red blinker on the back. I had no problem seeing the road and somewhere along the way I realized this early morning riding is so doable.

After watching my father-in-law, a very active man, lose his battle with cancer in 9 very short weeks and the follow-up deterioration of my mother-in-law, one thing is certain. We are all going to go sooner or later.

I’m not going to sit around and get old doing nothing. I’m going to continue to lift heavy things, swim, bike, run and just about anything else I really want to do. I may not do any of those things perfectly, but who really cares? Who are the exercise police that are going to say “you’re doing it all wrong”? Who are the food police that are going to come in my house and say “You aren’t supposed to eat that”? Really?

I’m feeling a little rebellious this morning. 🙂

My you all be blessed with the courage to do what really moves your soul.

Oct

The Flip of Change

By garagegym107 6 Comments

Categories: Off Topic Posts
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, #garagegym, Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, change, Clean Eating, Community, exercise, fat loss, fitness, food, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, healthy-living, Inspiration, Weight Lifting, Working out, Workout

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. The one constant in this life is change. It’s been months since I sat down and took the time to spill my guts to my forum readers. It’s taken me that long to get my balance after the huge flip of change I’ve gone through.

Since my last blog, my oldest son and daughter in law have gifted me with the most beautiful granddaughter, I’ve sold my partnership interest in the crossfit gym to my business partner, and lastly, my spousal unit has retired after 30 years on the job.

Let’s start with flip change one, the beautiful granddaughter…she’s healthy, she’s just what I needed to soften up my rough and tumble boy/man filled world. She came in to this world at 7 pounds and 12 oz on August 27th. I am overwhelmed with love for her.

Shortly after the birth of that little bundle of pink, came flip change number two.

Flip change two, I sold my partnership interest in the gym. This has to be the single most bittersweet personal change in the past 15 years. Leaving the athletes I helped to groom was like letting go of part of my soul. This decision was made in part by flip change number three. But let’s talk about the part of this which has impacted me the most. Going it alone. I have spent the past 13 years in the fitness community, either in a regular gym, or a crossfit box. All of which have contributed to the successful change in lifestyle I’ve made. After close to two full years of coaching 3 mornings per week, I suddenly found myself with more time to myself. I’ve never trained alone in my own garagegym107, instead I’ve always thought I had to get up and go somewhere to keep my discipline on track.

After all was said and done with the sale of the partnership, I found myself in need of solitude. I began working out in garagegym107 with earnest. Each morning, I get up and build my new routine. It’s not the same, it will never replace the camaraderie I felt when coaching, or how I felt just being in the box working out. It’s not the same but it’s doable and do I will. I could feel sorry for myself and have a pity party, but I won’t. I will do what I’ve always done, get stronger. Stay the course. Be grateful I have what I need. Be grateful.

And lastly, flip change number three, the retirement of the spousal unit. A million questions have crossed my mind since he made his decision. My number one concern was “Is he doing this too early?”. Only he could answer that. Shortly after announcing his submission to retire, he was approached by multiple companies offering positions. He has accepted the one he felt the most drawn to, the one that fits. I’m proud of him and for him. He could have been a crusty old bastard no one wanted around. So we celebrate his part-time position that will help him transition fully in to retirement without being rushed. Now he has more time to make lists, not honey do’s, but instead his do’s.

For me, I’m keeping my consistency, doing what I need to do to stay on track. I’ve added a little swim, bike, run to my training plan and things are progressing nicely. It feels good to be back in the land of the writers putting my junk out there for all to read. Coaching is my passion. And in time I’m sure I’ll be taking on more coaching opportunities, but for now, I’ll coach myself on down the changing roads of life.

Remember, it’s not the change that throws you off, it’s your response to change. Rise to the occasion every change you get!

Jul

Baby Steps and Monster Leaps

By garagegym107 18 Comments

A couple of weeks ago I posted an update on passing my Precision Nutrition Level 1 Coach’s certification. It took a bunch of baby steps to get on with it after procrastinating for a good while. I learned a lot of lessons along the way.

Just a few of them are:

1) You’re never too old to reach for amazing.

2) Procrastination is still my crutch, even after all these years.

3) You can never learn enough concerning a topic you are passionate about.

Fast forward a couple of weeks later. I’ve committed to the Level 2 Coaching program with Precision Nutrition. It’s a year of intense training toward becoming an even more effective coach. I’m humbled and honored to have this opportunity.

Baby steps and monster leaps to better coaching. I consider this Level 2 a monster leap for me.

Jul

Doing the TGU Turkish Get-Up

By garagegym107 4 Comments

Of late I’ve been adding the Turkish Get-Up (TGU) to my own workouts more than ever. About two months ago I witnessed my neighbor take a spill while working in her yard. She lives on a slope and when she fell, she was unable to catch herself, resulting in a broken right arm and broken left hand. She is my age. Since that day the TGU has been coming to mind over and over.

By adding it to my program I’ve also gone through a cycle of self-realization. One, progress comes more rapidly when I get completely uncomfortable. You know that whole “suck it up Buttercup” thing. Secondly, the brain and central nervous system play a huge role in Turkish Get-up.

I’m strong, that’s not a secret. But I lean to the rather uncoordinated side for sure. In example, some folks take to the snatch and overhead squat like they were born to do them both. Me? It took months and months of skill drills to improve on both of those movements. Same with the TGU.

The TGU shows the uncoordinated and off-center balance I have and the need for unilateral training better than anything else I’ve ever done.

I have also begun adding the TGU to clients training protocols as well. The pictures below are of one of my clients. She turns 65 years young on Friday. She is just as concerned with functional fitness and mobility as I am. She successfully completed 3 sets of TGU yesterday. We both learned a lot about where our focus needs to shift in her training. She gladly allowed me to take these photo’s to share with you. And BTW, at a few days shy of 65, she can dead-lift her own body weight.

Jan

The Big Picture

By garagegym107 8 Comments

Categories: Living Fit Daily
Tags: #bodyforlife, #fitatfifty, Body-for-Life, BodyBuilding, Bright Spots, Clean Eating, Community, exercise, fat loss, fitness, gaining self confidence, Garagegym107, Inspiration, Long term weight loss, Working out, Workout

Just a few days ago I was talking with a friend. She is in training to become a Life Coach and you can read about her Here. She is an amazing person and friend. Anyway, I was doing this little test to help her out with something she was working on. little did I know at the time I volunteered how big an impact it would have.

As we were going through the exercise I got dialed in to my usual fitness related mindset. I answered the questions and wrote down things that came to mind. As we continued on talking through the results I had an epiphany. My epiphany was that I often have tunnel vision. I’m not really good about taking a few steps back from this fitness goal or that fitness goal to see what I really want long term in life. It’s been a week since my friend and I had the conversation. The exercise we did has come to my mind at least once everyday since, but in most cases its been two or three times per day.

It’s very clear in my mind that my health and my fitness is important as I go through the next season or chapter or whatever the buzz word for it is. But up to that phone call, I hadn’t really stopped to think “what do you really want?”. After pondering what I want, I realized there are some things I must get in order to be prepared for the next big phase. I told my friend what I really wanted to do and one of those things requires reading a specific book I bought. She challenged me not with reading the book, but with simply “get the book out and txt me when you do”. It was perfect prompting.

Then she had me set a deadline for reading chapter one. Before I realized it I was through with chapter five. I’ve taken some baby steps to get started and before long, I will be knocking out what I need to knock out.

Not only did doing those little things help me with that very personal project goal, they fired me up to start logging my food again, which I haven’t done in a while. Food logging is a healthy thing for me. When I’m not logging, I’m eye-balling and I have some big ole eye-balls. Sometimes you have to know what you want before you know what to do.

I feel at peace right now more than I have in quite sometime. Peace with the big picture, not just my fitness and nutrition goals. I’m sure that before too long, the personal project goal will just right smack dab into my fitness/nutrition goals and try a hostile takeover, but I’m going to be ready for it.

The lesson brings home the old adage “you can’t see the forest through the trees”.

Hat Tip Photo Courtesy Ann Joiner

Jan

Moving Past That Place

By garagegym107 272 Comments

Twice this week I’ve had conversations with women who find themselves at a crossroads. It’s the crossroads to long-term change. It’s a frightening place to be.

To the left is everything you know, comfort, habit, status quo, the norm, the place you’ve known for what could be your whole life, failures, the past.

To the right is belief, discomfort, truth, health, happiness, knowledge, pressure, fear of the unknown, trials, failures (yes you have failures on both roads), wisdom, desire, change, gratitude.

I know this crossroads all too well. In the spring and summer of 2010 I stood at the very same crossroads. I had just won the Body-for-Life challenge which had been a goal for 9 years. Everyone thought I had it all figured out. What people around me didn’t know, was what was happening on the inside. Even my best friends had no idea.

I was terrified. Afraid I’d back slide back to the 328# person I used to be. I was terrified I would fail again. I was terrified that I was a fake. I was afraid I didn’t believe in myself as much as others believed in me. I was afraid of the future.

Looking back on that crossroads now it seems silly. But at that time the fear was very real, very much a part of my daily life.

In order to overcome that fear, I had to put some daily habits in place. Below are the most important ones listed in the order of importance for me.

No Negative Self-Talk. EVER
Write down 3 things I’m grateful for daily
Write down 3 positive affirmations about my body daily
Get the fear out of your head

These things may look trivial to some, but to a person who doesn’t believe in themselves, I believe these things are a game changer. Let me elaborate.

No Negative Self-Talk. EVER

Negative self-talk is the single most detrimental habit a person can develop. Negative self-talk comes up when you look in the mirror, when you are handling your personal finances, when you go to work, when you parent your children, in your marriage. It’s everywhere. SHUT. IT. DOWN. You are worthy of greatness, no-one, not even yourself should tell you otherwise.

Write down 3 things you’re grateful for

Gratitude helps you realize in the big scheme of things you’ve got it really good. Be grateful you’re healthy and not fighting for your life. Be grateful you have a roof over your head. If you are reading this, be grateful for the very device allowing you to see this, even if it’s a loaner. Be grateful for the simplest things in your life. Once you remove your “woe is me” tunnel vision, you get to fully see what you have to be grateful for.

Write down 3 positive affirmations about my body daily

I don’t mean the same things every day. Each day find 3 things you love about your body. They may or may not have a thing to do with your physical appearance. I love my eyes because they allow me to see things. I love my strong and powerful legs that allow me to move heavy things. I love my ears because they allow me to hear beautiful music.

Get the fear out of your head

If you are afraid of something talk about it with a trusted friend, a person who’s walked this path before you, or if nothing else, write your fear down in a journal. What I found over time was the fear was much, much greater in my head than it ever was out in the open. I’ve written letters to people and then burned them (very healing). I have sobbed on my friend’s shoulder when faced with the realization I wasn’t going to reach a goal I set. Getting your fear of failure out of you mind clears the space so that it can be filled to the brim with positive and grateful thinking.

All of the above may seem trivial, but if you are at the crossroads of significant weight loss, throw these habits in to play and see if you don’t find some peace from the constant fear of back-sliding.

Jan

Strong Legs

By garagegym107 12 Comments

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.

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