The Hazy Finish Line...

Oh here I go, the finish line is in sight
So I'm stuck into my text books morning, noon & night
Exams are starting on the 6th of June
And when they're all over I'll be over the moon
Anatomy, Myology, Physiology, tough by admission
Exercise to Music, Weight Training and Nutrition
At this stage we all have a pain in our arse
Meeting 3 times a week & our free time is sparse
Having said that when it's all over I'll sob
And from August onwards it'll be...
.."gizza job"?

Good luck to all out there sitting exams in the next few weeks :)

Reaching goals...

...it's always good to score ey? I've reached my training goals in 3 months :)


I told you back in February that one of my goals for the Summer was to be able to do 'real' push-ups, feet together, chest to ground with perfect technique....I am happy to report that I can now do 10 of these :)  Obviously I will build on this as there are so many advancements to the basic 'push-up' but am so happy to be able to belt out the 10 'real' basic ones!

...like so :)

My second goal was to be able to do a 'pull-up' (the best exercise for strength) as you're lifting your own body weight. As these are hard, very hard to do, and especially for us females who naturally don't have the upper body strength that our men do, I had to start training to do 'chin-ups'.  The difference between a 'pull-up' and a 'chin-up' is the positioning of the hands on the bar.  'Pull-ups' have a wide forward hand grip, requiring a lot of back strength, whereas the 'chin-up' has a closer grip with palms towards you so you get to use your biceps and back.

I had to start with eccentric 'pull-ups' which means instead of starting at the bottom of the move, I start at the top and lower myself down very slowly over a certain amount of seconds.  Obviously, the slower the better and you're easing your body weight down with your back and arms!  When I started, it was 8 seconds from top to bottom...now I'm at 30 seconds.  Yesterday, for the first time, I attempted and I did 2 'chin-ups'.  Not very impressive you may think, but until you've tried it, you won't appreciate how much strength is needed to achieve this.  I must confess, with all this back and upper body training, my shoulders and back are looking 'very well'. I'm building lovely definition in my Lats (large back muscles).  This is all thanks to the 'push-ups' and the eccentric 'chin-up' training :)

end phase of eccentric 'chin-up'..

'pull-up'..THIS is what I want to be able to do ;)

So here I am smiling at my achievements :)  Early stages but I have the (pardon the pun) back broken of both exercises.  All I need now is to 'change my grip'..(easier said than done) with the 'chin-ups' and increase my 'reps' of both exercises (1 movement through its positive & negative phase) and in time 'sets' (number of reps).

Set a goal, set a date and work to it. 

If you do, you'll get there.

Soooo, have you any goals?
Would love to hear from you..

Mind the cracks....

crrrrrracccccck :-/

....noooooo 'mini-melts' are not sweets, or maybe they are but that's not what I'm talking about.

This whole new venture of mine finally caught up with me last week.  The 3 days of college, the studying, a particularly difficult task I had to hand up, finding time for actual training and time for close and extended family, looming exams and 'worrying' if it will all be worth it....I cracked!

I was uncharacteristically quiet, often moody, prone to bouts of sobbing, snapping at people who didn't deserve it and just basically drained.

The final straw came for me in college on Saturday morning when I performed particularly poorly at a resistance training assessment and got very disappointing feedback.  I'm not ashamed to say that when I received my feedback and everyone had gone, I scurried to the toilets, locked myself in a cubicle and sobbed quietly (for about the third time that week).  After a little while I composed myself, put on my shades to cover my pink eyes and for the first time since starting my course, lunched alone.  I couldn't face any of my buddies...I couldn't face anyone, I needed to be alone to wallow.  On the plus side, my Exercise to Music assessment in the afternoon was spot-on and I got very good feedback from the Tutor and my buddies :)  Taking the rough with the smooth ey...

D took one look at me when I came home and knew there was something amiss.  When he asked and put his arms out, my chin wobbled like a childs and told him all as I sobbed into his chest for a few minutes.  I just needed to get the 'crap' of the whole week out and out for good.  Anyhow, if we are to succeed we need to turn every negative into a positive.  I now know where my weaknesses are and what I need to work and improve upon.

On the positive side once again, we had our Fitness Assessment last week and physically I'm in super shape.  The only time I was possibly fitter was when I was 26 years old, the year before I had Emma. 

For a female in my age bracket, my results were way above average and I bench-pressed (chest) my 1RM strength (max weight lifted once) of 45kg..chuffed :)

My vital statistics are 38", 30", 34" (38" but mostly back not boob :(..)  My BMI is 24 and my body fat is 25%.  I am above average for back strength (almost doubling the female average), above average for push-ups, abdominal strength, grip strength and sit 'n reach (flexibility).  Not bad for a 'mad aul wan' as Emma affectionately calls me!

'Mad aul wan' at work :))