Magnetic Pull

You would THINK that since I have been lying around RESTING (resting my proverbial ass off - and that is ALOT of resting!!!!) this past week + that I would have found some time to post in this here blog of mine. That is what one would think, anyway.... I have had too much frustration cursing within to want to touch upon anything that has to do with training, since I have had to abstain. Why, you ask? Couple a bronchial infection with a misaligned rib. Not a pleasant combination. The deep down hacking and coughing severely aggravated what may have been a minor irritation and transformed that into a major annoyance.

My dearly beloved chiropractor has been practicing his trade upon me every day. Progress is ever so slowly being made. And thanks to all of the therapeutic stretching and other tedious, painful but miracuously helpful things I have been subjecting myself to, dear Chiro has been having a much easier time getting things in me to relax and move about. :) :) :)



As a last resort remedy and mostly to appease a client of mine whi is a devout magnetic therapy enthusiast, I slapped a big old magnetic upon my leg one day. Diane suggested I try it, and so to make it that I would not lie to her when I told her I had tried it, I used a megnet that she had kindly given me for my back when I was having back pain ( it didn't work well for the back).

The voodoo Gods have are setting me free! I am, to say the least, flabbergasted, astounded, awed, amazed, thankful, happy.... I can now squat with body weight only all the way butt-to-floor without pain and strain for the first time in over a year! No, I am not ready to squat again, but I will be, I WILL be.... Doubt if ye must, as I once did, but I believe in the benefits of magnetic therapy!



Let me throw in a visual as I have been lax in providing photos lately. This was two weeks ago sissy squating. Do I look tankesque or what?


I am down to a mere 185 today, had been all the way up to 187 + for a few days last week.

Whose going to win the Superbowl??? The STEELERS!!!!!!!!

1/24/2009

Bronchial Infection - that's what I've got...and of course, it's really got me good...or bad, as it may be... :(

so, that is why the steam wasn't there on Tuesday, and it certainly wasn't there Thursday night, though the strength was. I will give a good piece of advice - don't deadlift with a respiratory illness. I was feeling like my lungs were ablaze and were about to burst. You know what your lungs feel like when you run some distance in sub-freezing weather? That's what it felt like.

I couldn't help but deadlift though...we hadn't done them is so very long - the bar was calling to me. Strengthwise I felt good, mentally on the ball....unfortunately the bronchial thing hindered my breathing...oh well, can't have everything....only did two sets. 320 x 10 and 370x 6. Can't wait to do some more when the PowerGoddess is healthy again. However, I am sure that I am feeling the wrath of those and the rest of the workout today because I am feeling B-A-D BAD!!!!

Bad as in NOT GOOD....



The rest of the workout was great - cable rows, stiff arm pull downs, dumbell shrugs, cable curls, down the rack hammer curls...felt big and bloated and sore! All good!

1/21/09

Okeedokee - I believe I have had enough "recovery" training... I will be honest, to more fit the mold of the winning "female bodybuilder", I should be training more now with the higher reps, honing and refining and shaping the muscles. I've already built them.....but H-e- double hockey sticks I need to train heavy.



Had a typically GOOD training day for legs Sunday. Nautilus leg press pausing the reps, breaking the high rep disdain/cardio revoltion with 3 sets of step-up on a bench with 25lb. dumbells. Talk about panting...I'm still panting from those. Sissy squats and leg curls. For calves we went silly and did seated calf exchange, sucha s we do the barbell exchange - 20/18/16/etc. down to 2 then rep out. Wildly effective it was.

Back to benching Tuesday night ...aaaaahhhhh :) I think my strength was bigger than my steam was last night, because I easily did 230 for 10, almost thought I was going to get my first dozen with 230...but my steam petered out first...250 for 6 and 280 for 3...405 for a 15 second static, and it was a damned good static if I do say so myself. Hips and legs stayed very stable, triceps were feeling big and strong....loved it loved it loved it.


I did speed work for legs with Brad again tonight. I hereby refer to Brad as Gymbag - a name we deemed him a few years ago, dumb story, and I just have a hard time referring to him as anything other than Gymbag. I finally got that box squat thing down on the last set - go down then back....We did 6 sets of 3 with the green bands, 4 sets of 5 good mornings, I think 6 sets of 6 stiff legged deadlifts, and 4 or 5 sets of calves on the smith machine.

185

For the past 2 weeks I have been training higher reps - mostly 10 - 15, sometimes 20....what a remarkable difference in recovery. I even trained 2 days in a row, which is not something I can normally do without "overreaching".

Not too very long ago, I sat down to coffee with someone and he told me that I really am "not a bodybuilder", because all of the bodybuilders he knows train 5 and 6 days a week. That statement is absurd. What, I don't "sacrifice" myself enough??? I guess what I do and how I do it doesn't work??? Let me check the mirror again. Perhaps someone installed fun-house mirrors in my house to make me look more muscular and shapely than I really am. Sure, if I trained lighter and less intensley I could definitely train more, but ergo the old quality vs quantity comparison. I dont like training less intensley - I have to use all of what I bring, and leave the gym with no reserves in the tank. I go to challenge myself, not save myself so I have enough energy for tomorrow's workout.


Last night I trained with my friends Brad and Bruce. They do their training powerlifter style - ME and speed days, chains bands and boards etc. I jumped in for speed training for legs. We used bands for box squats, good mornings, (always love good mornings!),siff legged deads, hyperextensions with bands, and speed leg extensions. I thoroughly enjoyed this new and bizarre ( for me) way of training. I can definitely see how it could help my squat (if I could squat - woe poor pitiful me). My squat has never been one of good technique, no hip thrust at all - now here comes the however.... :( However, my leg is so very traumatized this morning. It did not seem to bother me during the training, not until we got to leg extensions. However again, this morning my left IT band is hammering out the beat to some heavy death-core song. Sigh....


I got all amped and fuzzied up doing a powerlifting type workout - every time I think I can get over it, powerlifting, here it comes again.



On a positive note I have finally surpassed the 185 lb. mark.







May 09 2009 - 4th Annual APA Delaware Power Classic at the Training Center in New Castle DE. My baby!

Oil and Vinegar

OK - busted - I'm slacking on my resolution already - the one about the oil and vinegar. It's just that the oil is so... oily! And the vinegar, well, if you haven't ever had any vinegar to drink you at least know what it smells like! I still have time to get my shots in before the day is over. Yippeee...

What the f*** did we do to ourselves this morning GW????

I started out this morning with an incredibly sore back, biceps, and forearms. One week off really makes a big difference - I didnt do anything out of the ordinary on Friday's back/bicep day, maybe I did squeeze the contractions alot more than usual, so I have concluded that is what wrecked me. I have been going up to 315 on barbell rows for the past 3 or so times I have done them. TI trained alone Friday so I did things that GW hates - dumbell pullovers, I did corkscrews, and db shrugs, and hammer curls and cable curls.

Lately I have been carefully pondering the last few months of growth season, and what details I need to tend to before diet season begins.
Even though my legs are actually over the 26 1/2" mark now, 26 3/4" on the right and 26 1/2" on the left (Cowboy Rob the gap is closing,but I still have to step - drag!), my legs just don't have a "freaky' shape to make you look at them and say "WOW - big!" and my torso is still so overpowering. I still need to get those gams up to a size where they are just so big you just cant overlook that they are big....did that make sense? So I determined that the nexth 4 months are going to have to be no holds barred, balls to the wall, brutal and ugly training for legs.
I still can't squat. We have no hack squat in our gym, which I can actually do due to the angle of most of them. Sooooo i made an ugly decision - good ol' fashioned behind the leg barbell hacks. GW got his groove on these things immediately. Not me! Clunkeroooo!!!! I think I have determined that I have to almost get into a sumo stance on this. GW was making fun of me because I cant get the full range of motion in the pull with these - I have an obstacle at the top...LOL
This big ol' precipice of a butt stops the bar. Anyhooo- keeping the grip on the bar is going to take some practice, especially since we chose the bar with no knurling left on it to do these. We didn't go too heavy as we were practicing getting the hang of the proper technique, but holy moly did we feel these. I know we are supposed to be hitting quads with these, but i have NEVER wasted my hamstrings so fully in all of my lifting days. I may need to push off more from the toes rather than the heels to target the quads more...?
Wow. Then we did Nautilus Duo-squat machine. We kept the reps higher with a (little) lighter weight today, reps at 10. The hacks fried us quickly and we couldnt do as much weight as we normally do here. Seated leg curls and cable lunges...even now several hours have passed and it hurts to think about walking. Gosh I love this feeling!

It is 2009, and I frequently come to the blog just simply bored and tired of scribing about sets, reps, weight, etc. Oh, i won't neglect that part, as that is what this journal was created for, but I do think that I may be adding a little more from the inner cranium of Kate Baird, just for flavor from time to time. So look to be either more enlightened, disgusted, entertained, bored, puzzled, or simply have just a tad more to read on these pages in the coming postings....

By the way, I have been hanging around 180 for the past few weeks. Time to jack it up again....groooann...I wish I could do it without eating, as eating has just become an annoyance for me. Soooo, I best be off to dig into the ginger snap cookies and a glass of milk now...right after I shoot down a bit o' oil and vinegar, of course.

2009

It WILL be a better year.
Faith - without it nothing pursuable is rewarding.

2009 - I resolve:

to ingest more olive oil and vinegar

to follow my heart but listen to instinct, because instinct is the precursor to reason

That's it. Those two resolutions will guide me enough to a better existence.

Thanks to those who follow my blog - it keeps me going sometimes just knowing I have to check in from time to time.
I could list my competitive plans for the year, but somehow whenever I schedule things, the plans go askew. I will forever be a "winger". I do, however, plan on stepping onstage in Pittsburgh at the Masters Nationals in July. I'm going in as ME this time, that much is a given.

GW and I took almost a week off, and were back in the gym Tuesday for chest, delts, triceps.
Amazing how the sorest spot on me is my lower lats.... not a bad session, actually got some good burning in all of those muscles, but it was not a session out of the ordinary either. The week off was mandatory according not only to my physical self, but to my mental self. I'm not even sure that one week off was enough, but it helped.