don't stop when you're tired. Stop when you're done.
When I started this endeavour I wondered about the possible consequences of what taking a load of cardio out of my routine would do to me.
I've always watched the debates on the forums on MFP where the newbie female weight lifter/possible weight lifter is having the benefits of weight training explained to her whilst also having the concepts of muscle VS fat density and why "muscle doesn't weigh more than fat" and trying to explain why she won't get "bulky" there is always someone who throws their toys out of the pram and exits the conversation.
The effect is always somewhat diminished by the plethora of silly gifs and memes that follow the declaration that everyone in the world is stupid and that they are going to lock themselves away forever.
I enjoy watching these debates but I try not to get involved in them. I've identified myself as a "lifter" for over a year now, but today marks my 6th month "properly" weight training. Properly weight training. Whoa, loaded phrase huh. What I mean by this is being consistent and working my ass off lifting weights that always look far to heavy to bother lifting up in the first place.
This year I discovered the benefits of having a gym buddy. We train hard. Six months ago I believed that my arms were too weak to do a bench press. Now I'm sitting on a PB of 50kg. Maybe that's not so much compared to what you lift, maybe it's loads - that's not my point. My point is that until you put the effort in you never know what you're capable of.
I don't see the reason in leaving the gym until I'm covered in sweat, you all know this - I like to be "positively amphibious" before leaving the gym and this time, working with a partner I've made real gains.
I actually upped my caloric intake for a while, putting on in total 10Ibs mass. 10Ibs. You should have seen my face when I got on the scale after bulking. I would like to say that I took it in my stride and accepted some of that would be muscle. I would be lying.
I then panicked a little bit (and by panic I mean sobbing wildly that I'm "too fat to fit anything" and by little bit I mean "give me an Oscar people, it was a performance worth watching") when it didn't start coming back off with a caloric deficit but with Kenny's challenge (thanks Kenny!) the increased protein diet appears to be shaving that excess fat off nicely.
I have to confess, I had been plateued for over a year when I started weight training (weight loss plateaus SUCK). And then I gained 10Ibs. Not selling the weight training so well am I - but when the water weight had settled it was a mild (MILD....MILD?!)
8Ib gain but the most important discovery for me was in that balanced macros are more than essential in weight loss!! My 60% carb diet was just leading to increased fat stores. No matter how much I worked out it wasn't working. Play with your macros till you hit something that works!
Anyway, I've been dying to have "guns" to show off and finally some of the largest gains can be seen in my arms. According to my darling hubs I could pass for a 15 year old boy now. Thanks hun.
Anyway, thought I'd show some progress pictures - the first picture (top left) was taken on 15th January this year and the last picture (bottom right) was taken today....
Today I said "yes" to a 10k run :D
After finishing the 10k run (ok, when I say run I'm REALLY using that term loosely - what I mean by run is more "run for about 5 minutes and then disintegrate into a puffing heap of sweat dragging my feet behind me") and an uppers session at the gym I have to confess that my bum is totally dead.
It's the same muscle you need for handstands....I swear....if I could just find that muscle I'd train it but I've no idea where it is in my body ;) It's like a magic muscle - I only know it's there when I try to do handstands or do legs day followed by a run. Otherwise it just doesn't exist!
Anyway, that's me done for today. I'm going to take my bottle of frozen milk that I'm currently sat on (apparently it needed defrosting and my pain is helpful for that....) and nurse my bum muscles with another protein shake and some football. Hopefully it'll rain again. I like it when it rains in the football....
Before I go lets do all of the important announcements:
HUGE thanks to Lewis - I'm amazed that you'd sponsored us again and you're one of our largest benefactors. Your support means so much <3 £40 is a massive chunk of fundraising done and the whole team sends massive virtual hugs. We're also waiting for that video of you doing a handstand...(and Kel has assured us that this would be good entertainment ;) ).
Also, we're £2.50 into Google Ad-sense funds so keep checking out those links, it's all for a good cause!
We're also adding stock to our handmade gifts/jewelry so please keep checking out our shop here or on the Etsy site here!
We also have some great #Fitspo, funny memes, current health news and lovely quotes - not just a pretty blog peeps check em all out!:)