This week I finally decided to try and use the 1mm rhinestones I bought ages ago. I haven't tried a design with them until now as I didn't have a rhinestone picker upper tool but I used my angled tweezers and it worked fine. The design was inspired by Khloe Kardashian's recent nails design that she had done.
I've been wanting to see how many times I can do pull ups with 25% of my body weight attached to me so over the weekend I tried it out. I managed almost 5 pull ups, not in the most perfect form, but I was pretty proud of myself so I thought I'd just share it.
I'm back again on week 7 of my 12 week get fitter, lose some weight, challenge myself program and since my last update I've come up with a few more goals. I don't know if I'll reach some of these by the end of the 12 weeks but I will certainly try my best to progress.
When I last left you, I had managed to complete 20 chin ups and set a goal to master at least 1 muscle up. I'm still working on that and get a little closer every week. However, the new challenges I've set for myself are:
1) muscle up
2) plyometric pull ups (lower bar to top bar)
3) dumbell press my own body weight (currently weigh 41kg and aiming to lose 1kg and bench 40kg)
4) squat my own boday weight (currently weigh 41kg and aiming to lose 1kg and squat 40kg)
Where am I right now?
Well, I've managed some narrow to wide grip plyometric pull ups and managed my first lower to upper bar plyometric pull ups the other day but only a hand full and they scared me. I think it's just the fear of not being able to catch the top bar and falling off my step box. You can check out my narrow to wide grip plyos in the video below.
As for dumbell presses, I'm benching 16kg x 2 dumbells (6 reps). With dumbells at my gym going up in increments of 2kg, I'm just 2 dumbell weights away from benching my own body weight.
And finally, I've managed to squat 30kgs (8 reps). I have been experiencing knee problems for years and people always say you shouldn't squat with your knees past your toes, but I've been doing squats with my trainer the Polliquin way, all the way down, knees past the toes and my knees have never felt better. I'm not going to go into detail about why it's better because frankly, I'm not 100% clear on the explanation but if you want to find out more, you can google Charles Polliquin.
My training:
I am at the gym 5 to 6 days a week. I'm doing 3 days of bartendaz class, 1 day of leg training with weights including 30 to 40 min of muscle up practice, 1 day of upper body training with weights and 1 day of hula hoop.
So, I am doing 5 days of intensive training with 1 day of rest and 1 day of something fun and low intensity. I know it sounds like a lot but my muscles do get a rest 2 days a week and on Tuesday, my first day of bartendaz in the week, I feel rested and usually stronger than the last week.
As I mentioned before, I have a personal trainer who has been helping me with my knee rehab. We've been doing only legs for months but now, he's added upper body to my program in order to help me get stronger for my muscle ups.
My current upper body workout involves:
1) Weighted pull ups - 1 count up, 3 counts down and dead hang for 1 second (4-6 reps with 8.5kg this week)
2) Dumbell press (6 reps with 16kg x 2 this week). We've been doing these because the dip bars at the gym are very wide and although I can do weighted dips, the width of the bar puts a lot of strain on my shoulders as I have a very narrow frame.
3) Zottoman bicep curls (6 reps with 4 kg dumbells)
4) Tricep extensions (6 reps with 4 kg dumbells)
5) Seated cable row
Thoughts for the week:
I haven't dropped another kilo since my last update but to be honest I've been having a lot of difficulty in the last two weeks sticking to the low carb diet. I was hungry all the time last week and filling up on carbs, only to realize this week it's probably because I'm so bored of chicken breast...which I never really liked to begin with but eat all the time in my salad for lunch because its cheap and my husband likes it. And...because of this dislike for chicken breast, I haven't been putting enough in my lunch and therefore end up feeling super hungry because I'm not getting enough protein to fill my stomach. So, this week, I'm back on track with my salad topped up with smoked mackerel and mixed seafood. It's a bit pricey but not as pricey as running off to Pret for a couple sandwiches that don't even keep me full for long. I guess that would be my one tip for anyone trying not to overeat. When you're hungry, don't snack on cookies, biscuits or any other kind of carbs. Have more protein as it stays in your stomach longer and keeps you feeling full for longer.
In addition to that, I think I've developed some kind of mild elbow tendonitis. I may get it checked out, but so far, 2 days of rest a week, tennis ball massages, some NSAID and ice have been working and as far as I know, this seems to be very common with people who train in bartendaz or crossfit.
Anyway, that's the update for now. Check out my narrow to wide grip plyometric pull ups below.
