That's GREAT!

Monday, 6/21. 53 minutes. I was really exhausted trying to do this tonight. I'm not sure why... maybe because of taking a day off yesterday.

Warm up - 4 minutes
1 arm row - 15~13 lbs, 10~15lbs, 4~20 lbs
shoulder press - 15~11 lbs, 7~12 lbs, 5~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~11lbs, 10~13lbs, 5~15 lbs
curls - 14~13 lbs, 6~14 lbs, 5~15 lbs
extensions - 15~8 lbs, 5~10 lbs, 5~10 lbs
wall pushups - 25 medium
2 mi WAP, light stretchy band~light, HR up to 131.

Tuesday, 6/22

DD and I went swimming, but I couldn't do laps because I kept getting cramps in my right foot. Left foot was fine, so it must be related to the pain I get in it when I overdo. I think lifting the extra weight yesterday, combined with the 2 mi wap was just too much for it all at once. (Although you'd think with that the extra 100 lbs I was carrying around that my feet would be really strong. :lol: )

1 mi WAP, light stretchy band~light, HR up to 123, 17 minutes
Swimming for fun, 50 minutes

Wednesday, 6/23.
morning:
22 minutes, moderate paced walk, outside. HR up to 112
evening:
Warm up - 4 minutes
1 arm row - 15~13 lbs, 12~15lbs, 6~20 lbs
shoulder press - 15~11 lbs, 8~12 lbs, 6~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~11lbs, 10~14lbs, 8~15 lbs
curls - 15~13 lbs, 6~14 lbs, 5~15 lbs
extensions - 15~8 lbs, 5~10 lbs, 5~10 lbs
wall pushups - 15 medium-hard
2 mi WAP, light stretchy band~light, HR up to 137.

Still hitting the wall. My form is not perfect for the higher weights on the last 2 or so. I'll stick with that level until it gets better.

Thursday, 6/24, 60 minutes.

2 mi WAP, twice, light stretchy band~light, HR up to 131.

Sunday, 6/27

Swimming, 30 minutes

Wednesday, 6/30, 42 minutes

Warm up - 3 minutes
1 arm row - 15~13 lbs, 12~15lbs, 6~20 lbs
shoulder press - 15~11 lbs, 5~12 lbs, 4~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~11lbs, 12~13lbs, 10~15 lbs
curls - 15~13 lbs, 6~15 lbs
extensions - 15~8 lbs, 6~10 lbs
wall pushups - 15 medium-hard
75% of 2 mi WAP, skipped the stretchy band section, HR up to 137.

Really busy and missed doing my workouts over the last few days. I paid the price with my lifting tonight. Just wasn't able to do more... there are just not enough hours in the day!

I'm trying to get to the point where I do upper body separate from the WAP, but I can't get there unless I do one or the other every day during the week. I was out the last 2 nights so missed keeping up. Maybe I'll just keep doing them at the same time until real life settles down a bit.

Friday, 7/2, 20 minutes

Warm up - 3 minutes
1 arm row - 15~15 lbs, 10~16lbs, 5~17 lbs, 7~20 lbs
shoulder press - 12~12 lbs, 6~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~12lbs, 10~15lbs, 5~17 lbs
curls - 10~15 lbs, 2~17 lbs
extensions - 15~8 lbs, 7~10 lbs
wall pushups - 15 medium-hard

Still struggling a bit with juggling the dumbells. Probably jumped too quick to the 15 lb on the curls, because then having to use a 2 lb dumbell to go higher, didn't work well. I could tell the muscles were worked, so I'll see how it goes next time.

Also forgot that I had already jumped to the 20 lbs on the 1 arm row when I increased to 17. :rolleyes: So I went ahead and just added the 20 lb set. Tells me I'm still not up to the point where I'm hitting the wall. :D

One question I have is how long should I rest between sets, and then between exercises? Also does the order of the exercises matter? I feel like I ought to be able to do 15 lb curls with no problem and am wondering if it's because I have them following the kickbacks or the shoulder press?

I can definitely tell I'm stronger. When I went to pick up the 8 lb weights today for the extensions, they felt very light. :lol: I'm lovin' it! I also got compliments from one of my nephews when I showed him my muscles last weekend. :D

I need to pull out the books and see what other lifting exercises would be good to add for upper body and/or core strength. I know I need to do something with lower body, too, but I'm not sure what I can add without any machines. I do get a bit of strength training with the WAP, but it's probably not enough.

Depending on the intensity, I like to rest 1-3 minutes between sets, unless I'm doing drops or supersets.

Why not post up a question on rest and exercise order in the exercise forum and get some more feedback on this one? Because yes, sometimes the order DOES matter. I think it would be a good thread.

Saturday, 7/3, 33 minutes

Thanks Built! I added a new thread in the exercise forum.

I know you aren't supposed to do this 2 days in a row, but I was feeling good and wanted another workout in this week.

Warm up - 4 minutes
1 arm row - 15~15 lbs, 10~17lbs, 10~20 lbs
shoulder press - 15~12 lbs, 9~13 lbs, 7~15 lbs
kickbacks - 15~13lbs, 10~14lbs, 6~15 lbs
curls - 15~13 lbs, 7~15 lbs
extensions - 15~10 lbs, 7~15 lbs [Note: one dumbell in both hands]
wall pushups - 15 medium-hard
side raises - 15~3 lbs, 10~5 lbs, 6~10 lbs

I decided to drop back down in weight on a couple of these. I wanted to make sure I was using good form and then would be able to build up correctly. I also waited a little longer between sets, maybe 60-90 seconds or so. Now it took me 33 minutes just for this little workout, so I'm not sure I like the extra time. But if I need to, I need to....

I switched over to using just one dumbell in both hands for the triceps extensions. (I had been doing it with one dumbell in each hand.)

I added side raises...I wasn't sure what weight to start with, but I think this worked out well. I was feeling it. :D

Sunday, 7/4

Swimming, 75 minutes

Monday, 7/5

Swimming, 60 minutes

Tuesday, 7/6

I'm revamping my workout plans. I need to focus on core and lower body since I'm still pretty big in that area. My arms and shoulders are looking ok...well, except for the batwings. :lol:

I'm still going to do the 2 mile WAP for cardio. And even though it has some resistance work in it, I'm just not going to count it as part of my strength training.

I picked up a good book, "smart girls do dumbbells" by Judith Sherman-Wolin and will use that as my guide. I may also add some things from BFL. I'm going to start slow for some of these. I'll work up to 3 sets at 12, 9 and 6 reps before adding more weight. I think limiting to 3 sets will work for me since I don't want to spend too much time. I know BFL has you do more sets, but I'm trying to balance everything I need to do.

Front squats, 1 set, 5 reps, no dumbbells. My weight is still enough resistance to start with. I hurt myself once going past parallel doing these, so will go slowly on increasing reps and weight.

Plie squats, 1 set, 10 reps, 5 lb dumbbells. Have to watch the knees on this one...

Reverse lunges, 1 set, 5 reps, no dumbbells. My knees aren't that great, so I think this would be better than regular lunges. With this one you balance with a chair, so I think that would help prevent me from going too far. Again, I'll go slowly on increasing reps and weights.

Deadlifts, 1 set, 5 reps, starting with 5 lb dumbbells.

Standing leg curls, 2 sets, 12 reps, ankle weights. These look the same as kickbacks to me (which I've already been doing as part of the WAP), so should be fairly easy to add. I only have one set of ankle weights, can't remember if they are 1 or 2 pounds per ankle. This book doesn't say weights are required, but I don't see the advantage of doing them without weights. Kickbacks have always been easy for me...maybe it's because of carrying all this excess weight all these years. I'll have to see if I can get higher ankle weights for these.

Side leg lifts, 3 sets, 10 reps, ankle weights. Will have to get higher ankle weights eventually.

Standing bent-over rows, 1 set, 10 reps, 5 lb weights. Not really sure what weights to use, so will start small.

One-arm rows, 3 sets of 12, 9 and 6 reps, continuing on with the weight level I've been using.

Seated forward flyes, 1 set, 10 reps, 3 lb dumbbells. Will start slow since I haven't been doing these before.

Dumbbell side bend, this is for obliques, 3 sets of 12, 9 and 6 reps, starting at 5 lbs.

---Still need to find out if ab work will help. I've had 2 surgeries (C-section, gallbladder out) where the ab was cut. The scars are about 6 inches long, straight up and down, dead center, one above the waist and one below. Also can't lay on the floor to exercise due to BPPV. Will seated crunches really help or will I be wasting my time?

shoulder press, as I have been doing. I may change this to a seated shoulder press to reduce stress on the knees as the weight goes higher.

Upright rows, 3 sets of 12, 9, 6, starting with 3 lb weights. Haven't done this one before, so am not sure what weight to start with...

Bent-over kickbacks, as I have been doing.

Seated one-arm curls, switching to seated curls to reduce stress on the knees with the heigher weights.

2 arm overhead extensions, switching to 2 arm to ensure stability with the higher weights.

Side latteral raises, 3 sets of 12, 9, 6 starting with 3 lbs.

I still need to research the order in which to do these. I want to first do the exercises that are hard for me and are compound before doing the ones aimed at the single muscles.

this looks pretty good Dianne:) With the squats you can always use a ball ( http://www.e-weightloss-fitness.com...ll_squats.shtml ) too to ease pressure on your knees and starting without weights is a good idea to get the form right:)

Doing great !

Hi Dianne,
If I were you I'd start with the lower body and move to upper body if you are doing them all in one session. You have a pretty lengthy, ambitious looking routine worked out, but maybe it will go faster than I think it will. When I train circuit style (one muscle group after another, one exercise per muscle group) I don't take much of a break, just a minute or 2 between sets. If you are doing all the same muscle at one time you will need to rest a minute or so between each exercise. If this gets to be too long you might want to break it up into an upper/lower split. The splits I have done are lower (quads, hammies, calves, abs) and upper (chest, back, shoulders, bis, tris).

Here's my advice to an older lifter from an older lifter ;) - be very careful with the deadlifts. I have hurt my lower back doing them and never do them anymore. Make sure your weight is light. I know others like this exercise, but it really screwed up my back, maybe since I am older.

Lunges are VERY hard on knees. I don't do them any longer since they would make me be in pain so much. Squats will hurt at first, but they are great for the knees since they help build up the muscles that support it. I never go past parallel either! Your quads are strong muscles and you should be able to use some weights with squats. But do work on form first if you have never done them. Use a chair to balance if you need to.

Upper body - I always do my exercises seated if possible. This helps concentrate on the muscle worked and not on balance. On the other hand, doing them standing will involve your core to stablize you.

Hey, I have a long vertical scar from C sections too. You could do a seated reverse crunch (pull your knees up). Maybe some work on an exercise ball to help stengthen your core would work for you too.

Good luck and happy lifting :D
Mary