Thursday
We worked on figuring out our max lift on three moves. I got 92 on the clean. 95 is still my mental breaking point on that exercise it appears. I got 72 on the overhead squat and 88 on the bench press. The bench press total is wimpy but I’m proud of that one. I remember a few years ago when I was working out with the husband. I could barely do the 45 lb bar.
Sunday
I’ve decided to work on my back strength to try to get pull ups.  I did 4 rounds of:
- 10 lat pull downs at 50 lbs
- 10 push ups on my toes
- 10 push ups on my knees
- 25 squats
For the last round I did P90x style pull ups where you put a chair in front of you and put your toes on it to support part of your weight.
Monday
I did 2 rounds of:
- 10 pull ups
- 20 push ups on knees
- 30 sit ups
- 50 squats
Then I did another set of pull ups and squats.
Have you heard of the website DietBet? You join a group and put up some money. You have 28 days to lose 4% of your body weight. Whoever does it splits the pot at the end. I thought it would be fun to do this at work. I mentioned it yesterday and everyone was in. I work with mostly skinny little 20 somethings who want to lose that “last 5 lbs.” Whatever. Anyway, we mentioned to our boss. In the tradition of men everywhere when faced with a bet he replied, “Let’s up the stakes a bit.”
The company is going to match the pot that we collect from everyone putting $10 in. (I also work with mostly poor college students.) At the end whoever has lost the highest percentage of their body weight wins the match.
Now it is a war. The boss and I are highly competitive. At any event with games we are cutthroat with each other. We are nice to everyone else although I’m already planning on bringing in some yummy snacks in about 2 weeks for temptation. And, I dare someone to come in and try to be obnoxious sometime this month with a clinic full of dieting women. Yeah, try it.
Weigh in is on 5/21 which makes day 28 the day before I leave for Hawaii.
Tuesday
Warm up started with 3 rounds of:
- 300 m row
- 200 m run
Then we did some slow squats. It was 10 seconds down and then 10 seconds up with a hold halfway up. After that we had to do pushups on our partners. One person held a plank while the other had to do a pushup with their hands on the partner’s shoulders, then hips, then calves, then ankles, and back up the other side.
We practiced pistols which are one leg squats. We held hands for support and tried to go low. It was hard. We did 3 sets of 5 on each leg.
We had to do three hang snatches (bar from hips to overhead) every minute on the minute for 8 minutes at 70% of our 1 rep max. The computer figured my 70% was 49 lbs. I did that the first time and then heard, “Heather! That’s way too light!!!” My argument that the computer said so was ignored. He added another 15 lbs. It was still easy. I’ve been getting big strength gains lately.
The workout was as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:
- 3 back squats 135#
- 5 slam balls 20# – Throw the medicine ball down from overhead and squat to catch it on the bounce
- 7 kettle bell swings 55#
I decided to go for the Rx. That means that you do the weight that is listed and don’t modify any moves. It was too heavy. I couldn’t get full range of motion on the squats after the first few times. I never really got the kettle bells all the way overhead. I did it 4 times through and got up to 1 kettle bell swing on the next round.
This is how I feel.
Heather,
There is nothing better than a little competition followed by the possibility of winning some money to bring out the best in people! It seems like you are making some real improvement in terms of the increase of weight and reps during your workouts. Remember its 80% diet and 20% work out, so if you want to get there in time Id definitely suggest modifying the diet, adding in a protein shake throughout the day, and increasing the cardio! Combine that with the workout routine and you’ll start seeing some immediate and noticeable results which are sure to last to the end of day 28!
Good Luck
Ha! Funny picture. Sounds like you’re making real progress with your workouts. I love that you can compare your bench press from years ago — that’s impressive progress.
The DietBet in the office sounds like a fun way to approach weight loss!