Set Goals Then Kick 'Em in the Face

Very excited about my progress at the gym today!  Very, very excited!!!  I also know that I am going to be very hungry today.  Very, very hungry!!!  :)

I think this quote is funny and so true.  I have goals but I don't want to just meet those goals...I want to pass them and then strive for another.

Today I did a few sets of deadlifts and was able to do 4 at 185 pounds.  So fun!  Why don't more women attempt these?

My form started to slip a bit as I put those last 10 pounds on but I was still able to pull that bar up off of the ground and do what I needed to do.  It was a workout...mentally and physically and I was dripping sweat non-stop.  Today my towel was completely soaked...so disgusting but yet also a little bit awesome.  :)  I am now just pounds away from meeting the goal that I have...deadlifting my bodyweight.  I almost went to go get a few more plates to add on just to see if I could do 5 more pounds but I was content with 185 today.  Next time though...I will get to 190 and will most likely pass my goal...and kick it in the face.  Hopefully next week I will meet this challenge.

I have also been making it a point to follow my motto each morning I am at the gym..."lift big or go home".

One of my challenges that I have for myself is also to eventually get to do an 80 pound push press.  The barbell push press is one of my absolute favorite exercises!  The last few months I have really been hesitant about trying heavier weight.  I saw that I was slipping backwards and wasn't challenging myself and so something needed to be done if I really was going to follow my motto and see results.  Continuing to do the same thing is just teaching my body that this is routine.  In other word, this wasn't a challenge, I wouldn't see results because of that and my body could anticipate what I would be doing and so each attempt at this lower weight was really not doing much.  I was doing 10 reps of 50 pounds easily.  A few weeks later I noticed I was doing 40 pounds instead.

I think I was scared.  I was scared I would fall or drop the weight.  Scared I would injure myself.  Scared that I would fail.  Scared to be doing the majority of my exercises in that "man area".  Something clicked in me though and I knew that if I didn't try I never would get up to my goal.   I might fail, I might drop things and that is ok.  Being in that area of the gym is just the reality now also.  The weights are getting too heavy to move all over the gym and then move back and the women's area doesn't have weights that are heavy enough anymore.  The fact is that I am now needing to be working out with the heavier weights.  It seems like the guys hog this area of the gym but that is only because there are not enough women that feel confident to be lifting by them.  Reality is though...after watching a little bit today to see what the guys really were doing...I was lifting as much or more than about half of them.  In fact...a guy did a deadlift on the bar before me and only lifted 95 pounds.  I know this because I had to remove the weights that he had on since he didn't clean up after himself...it is very easy to add up two 25 pound plates.

Lately I have been doing mostly 50 pounds to start with but am ending my push presses with set of 5 with a 60 pound barbell.  The first time it was so hard and I could hardly do 1 or 2.  My arms felt like Jell-o and the words challenge and hard were great describers.  Today I did 2 sets of 5 at 60 pounds and it felt good.  It wasn't easy but today, as I lifted the bar above my head, I felt successful   My form was really good...except on one that was just horrible.  This successful feeling is how I know that I am close to getting ready to try to move it up a bit in weight.  I'll be honest...70 pounds...not sure how that will go the first time I try it.

As I get closer and closer and more comfortable with each weight there is a part of me that is just downright scared.  I have butterflies in my stomach because I know that this is something new, it is a bit on the exciting side and yet it is putting me another step outside of my comfort zone.  That's the whole point though...a challenge is meant to put us in a place outside of our normal "safe" area.  I am proving to myself that I can do this and I am meeting my goals, one at a time.

I also hope that I am showing other women in the gym that they can do more.  Do you know how much it bothers me when I see people focusing on how many calories they are burning rather than challenging themselves?  What really irks me are those that read or talk on the phone while "working out".  Sorry...that is not working out...hate to break it to you.

I taught an abs and butt class Thursday morning and to be honest I was bored with it.  I wanted heavy weights to go with what I was teaching and all that the room had was some on the smaller scale (everything was under 15 pounds and they were also very pretty, colorful weights...barf!).  I was the teacher though so I couldn't just leave and get something heavier...I had to teach with what there was.  I talked with the people in the class about what their potential is and watched as they performed each exercise.  No one in the room was a beginner, they all have been "working out" for at least a year.  One of the exercises we were doing is one that I have to share with anyone I meet...it is just a must...the barbell hip thrust.  We had these little weighted bars in the room and it was just pathetic.  BORING!  After we did a few things with that exercise I nicely informed them that they can go very heavy and they should try to challenge themselves outside of the class sometime...grab a bar, add some weights and just see what they could do.  I think I scared them because they didn't believe me when I told them a number of weights that they could probably lift just fine.  I think that this is the exercise...and a little push from the guy that introduced me to the exercise...that showed me that I really can do much more than what my mind thought was possible.

Now it is time to eat.  One of the best things about lifting weights is that I get to eat!  Real food, lots of it and knowing what that feeling of true hunger is.  My stomach will be growling all day long today because of my workout and I am happy to fuel it with what it needs and when it needs it.  Bring on the grub!