Compliments Are Nice

It's always nice when someone compliments your form, or the numbers your able to pick up. It's even nicer when someone tells you that you are a natural weight lifter. Well, at least to me it is. Which is exactly what happened when we trained yesterday.

I was doing my dead lifts and a guy I had seen up there a few times came up to give me some pointers. Well, really one pointer but still. It was something that I knew I should be doing, and that my husband had told me to do as well, but I just couldn't really get the hang of it. When you are dead lifting you should be squeezing the weight up. The issue I was having is that I didn't really know when you were suppose to thrust your hips forward and pull your shoulders back. That's exactly what this guy told me.

After he told me that I thanked him and he went back off to what he was doing. He watched me pull the weight, though, and when I had it up gave me a thumbs up and that's when he said I had good form and that I'm a natural. So, two awesome compliments in one. My husband went over to talk to him after he finished his last pull and was told the same thing. The guy complimented my squat form and all. So, that's always a good day.

Other then that I did have a good day of training. We have, however, discovered that when we did our rows we were doing the wrong version of them. We did the body builder version which has you standing with your back at a slight angle. Apparently, the version that we are suppose to be doing would have you standing with your back parallel to the floor. So, my numbers on that may change when we do them tomorrow, or maybe stay the same. We'll just have to see how it goes. Anyway, here are my numbers for what we did yesterday.

Front Squats: 115x2x8
Overhead Press: 75x2x8
Dead Lift: 220x5x1
Lat Pull Downs: 85x5x3

So, everything went up, and that's always a good day. The lat pull downs made a rather large jump because of the way the machine is set up. There was no way to make a smaller jump then that, but it was easy. I probably could have done more then 85, but it's probably best that I just stayed there. I don't know what the next jump will be, I forgot to check.

Anyway, thank you for reading again!

A Change of Plan

Before you even think it: No, I'm not giving up strength training. However, after a chance meeting my husband made, and a call to an Olympic trainer here there has been a change in our training regiment. He told the trainer my numbers and how quickly I had gained them, and of course the response was that I have to lose weight. I know that. The other part of the response was that we need to get me into meets.

The Olympic lifts look amazingly fun to me, I don't really know why. So having an Olympic trainer say something like that, and by this I mean someone that teaches those lifts, has put the spark back into my training. I was getting a little down trodden about it, though I can't really explain why. I'm sure that some of you who have read my blogs, however, know.

Anyway, the training we are doing now is pure strength training. It includes front and back squats, overhead press, dead lifts, Pull ups (or lat pull downs for me until I strengthen those muscles, weighted sit ups, rows, and benches. Most of these sets are done differently then before. Instead of 3 sets of 5 reps we are doing 8 sets of 2 reps. So I'll list what all my numbers are here. Some of them will be higher then others. One of them I missed because I should of been a little lighter. My lat pull downs are the same as my previous post, but that's because I had done them just a couple of days before and we decided it was best to rest those muscles for now.

Front Squat: 105x2x8
Overhead Press: 70x2x8
Lat Pull Down: 70x5x3
Deadlift: 210x5x1
Squats: 185x2x8
Bench: 105x2x8*
Rows: 75x5x3
Weighted Sit Up: 30x5x3

*The bench press is the one I missed. I should have been a little lower then 105, but I only missed it by one rep. It was exceedingly frustrating because it was the last rep that I missed. So I'll be doing that number again and I should get it with no trouble.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm going to try to drop a little weight while I job hunt, and get my numbers back up there. When I have a job I'll be trying to get some training with that coach. So, wish me luck. Hopefully, in a relatively short amount of time, I'll be going to meets and competing.

Thank you for reading again!

Still Re-finding My Weight

As the title suggests, when I went to train on Tuesday it was another day to find my weight, though for different pulls. It went well overall. Yes, I lost on my bench and power clean, but not as badly as I had feared. Definitely not as badly as I had on the squats or dead lifts. I also added in lat pull downs, which'll help strengthen muscles used in a few of the other pulls.

Anyway, I left the squats at 185 lbs, but I think I was still high on a couple of them. I may drop back to 180 lbs to be on the safe side. We'll see. I've not fully decided on that yet. My bench was 80 lbs on five reps for three sets. My Cleans were 75 lbs on three reps for five sets. When I did my lat pull downs it was 70 lbsx5x3. So, things aren't as bad as they could be.

The good thing about this is that I really should be able to regain what I lost quickly enough, especially if I make sure that I'm getting enough of the protein I need. Lots of fish will be the key for me, I think. It's lean, delicious, has a lot of protein, and I don't ever seem to get sick of eating it. So, yeah. That'll be what my lunches are.

That's about it, though. Thank you for reading.

Back in the Game

So the husband and I had a bit of an unintended break. I ended up not lifting for about 3 weeks. I had a pain in one of my legs that would have made squatting impossible, but I did not mean to be out for as long as I was. Still, I'm back in the game and going to be working on my lifts once again.

I did lose quite a bit of the weight that I would normally be pushing, but I should regain my numbers quickly. I just need to get back into the swing of things. As it stands my squats are around 185 lbs. A couple of them were high, though, so I'll have to do it again before I can move up to 190. My overhead press would actually be 60, but I got so close to making it with 65lbs that I'll just do it again and I should get it next time. And my deadlift is 200lbs. I'm not that far off, but they are much lower then I would like them to be.

I'll be finding my weight again for my bench and powercleans tomorrow. I'm sure the powercleans will be laughable...and the bench. My arms are my weakest area after all. I have to double check but I think I'll be including lat pull downs as well to help make the other lifts stronger. I'll get back to you all on that when I make the next blog post.

Thanks for reading. <3

P.S. Maybe the break will prove to be a good thing for my morale in the long run. I was getting fairly frustrated with the apparent stagnation of my lifts. This may help to pull me out of that, though. Sometimes you do have to reset the lifts, after all, to get past a bump in the road.

Camelot Unchained: A World of Possibilities

There is a unique opportunity to be one of the founders of what promises to be a fantastic MMO, at least for those of us that want something in a similar vein to DAoC. What is the MMO, you ask? Well, it's under a temporary title of Camelot Unchained and is currently trying to get funding on Kickstarter. The link, as you can see, is at the bottom of the page.

It is going to be a Tri-realm, RvR based game. It should make PvP much more interesting then it is in games like World of Warcraft where you are confined to only two factions and primarily in instanced battlegrounds. RvR has a larger effect on the world around it, and many of the statements made by Mark Jacobs and the other wonderful people over at City State Entertainment lead us to believe that we are going to be able to have a much larger impact on the world then even in other RvR based games before.

You can find more information over at their CU website, and on the kickstarter page. We need as many people to pledge as possible so that we can get this awesome game made. There are also links on their website to the unofficial forums they have set up at Reddit and MMORPG, so that you can see what some of the backers are saying, or even help to support some things that backers are trying to see implemented should you decide to become a backer as well.

There may not be an official game play video yet, but there is a lot of very interesting information. What the developers are striving to do is truly innovative. That's something MMOs have been lacking. There have been some minor innovations that have made things interesting, but nothing that is really game changing. We have an opportunity to help make these innovations in this genre of gaming a reality.

Also, if you are a role player, or if you wish to help support us, please post on either of my threads to help get us a dedicated rp server. As I've stated before, I know I'm starting early. It's better to start early and make sure the developers know what we want, then wait until it's to late to make our wishes know. Backers have to show that this is something they want. The links are below.

My thread on the CU Reddit forums.

My thread on the CU MMORPG forums.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13861848/camelot-unchained

'Next Gen' X-box Always On?

The title is just what is suggests. There are hints that the so called 'next gen' x-box is going to require constant internet connection. This means that even games you play alone will not be playable if you do not have a reliable connection to the internet. That is -not- something that gamers want.

If any of you have played Diablo 3, then you know that you are required to have an internet connection for it. You are also required to log into your account with battle.net. Both of those things annoyed me when I first logged in, and I have not played it much because of that. When I play games like Diablo, which have always had solo aspects to it, I don't want to be online. I don't play them so that I can talk to my battle tag friends in WoW. I generally play them because I want some downtime to just completely and totally zone out to the game.

The Diablo 3 fans took another blow when Blizzard announced that it would be on the PS3 and that it would be playable offline. I've personally resolved not to play until they give an offline version to PC gamers. I'm certainly not going to purchase a separate copy, and console, just so I don't have to be online to enjoy the game.

I go over all of that to show that this is not something that gamers want. By forcing you to have a constant internet connection you are alienating players who cannot always be online. You are alienating people that may be able to purchase an x-box via tax returns, but are not able to afford the month to month payments of internet connections.

The arguments that Adam Orth, the creative director over at Microsoft for their Game Studios, made over Twitter were unprofessional, and completely missed the point. One of his arguments was to state that he wouldn't purchase a vacuum cleaner because power goes out sometimes. I'm sorry, that can immediately be torn down. A vacuum cleaner doesn't require constant power in order to run.

I think that we are going to see the death of the X-box if they don't fire him, and back off their stance of having a constant internet connection.

Thanks to Gamers book for their article and screenshots of some of the Twitter comments.

The Frustration Continues

Don't worry about the name of this blog. It's not really all that frustrating. I'm annoyed that I didn't get my deads again, but I will next time. Unfortunately, one of my calluses came off after my 3rd pull and I had to stop. I didn't have any medical tape on me to wrap it with, and the pressure on it was just to much. I have tape now, though, so I have no doubt that I'll get it next time.

I made my squats at 215lbs, though. I have a bit of a funny story with that however. I went to low on one of them, and wasn't able to stand back up. I ended up having to bail on the weights so it made a lot of noise when they fell off the bar. The guy in the rack next to me helped when he realized that was going on, and two of the employees at the YMCA came down to make sure I was okay. I thought it was pretty funny, though.

The employees suggested that I use the clips, but since I was working alone that wasn't an option. Both I and the guy that helped me explained that since I was working along I -had- to have the option to drop the weight if I needed to. Otherwise I would have been trapped under that bar until I could get someones attention.

I ended up doing that set again and finishing it, though. I haven't decided if I will go up next time or not since I did have that mishap. We shall see Saturday. I also missed my overhead press, so I'm going to drop some of the weight from that. I am not excited about it, but sometimes there is no choice. As long as I am, in general, making forward progression then I'm happy.

Today, unfortunately, we will not be going to train. There are a couple of reasons for this and they both stem from various parts being in a bit more pain then they should be. We're going to take the extra day to rest and recover. It shouldn't be an issue for us to get in there Saturday, though.