Hope you had a nice weekend!!! I went shopping at the outlets in Kittery, Maine, and saw Silver Linings Playbook – definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while!
It’s a very snowy Monday night here in Boston – I headed to the gym after work before to do my New Rules of Lifting for Women (NROLFW) workout before the flakes started to fall. One of my goals this year is to do more weight training to build muscle for running and for overall health. After seeing NROLFW on another blog, I ordered the book for a whopping $11 and got started.
The program is divided into 7 phases, all of which may take up to 6-7 months to complete. You start with shorter, easier workouts, then work your way up to longer, more intense workouts. There is also a diet plan to go along with the program, but I’ve already decided against it (any program that says artificial sweeteners are OK can’t be trusted in my humble opinion). I’m not sure how this will affect my results, but ill continue to try to eat clean and green with primarily plant-based meals.
Today’s workout:
- Dead lifts
- Shoulder press
- Wide bar lat pull down
- Lunges
- Swiss ball crunches
Although I consider myself an athlete because I can run 26.2 miles, I’ll admit that when it comes to weight training, I have no idea what I’m doing. Here is where the awkward gym moment I alluded to in the title comes up.
While doing my set of dead lifts, I knew I was doing something wrong because I felt it nowhere in my legs and everywhere in my lower back. Well, I was right – one of the trainers at the YMCA was apparently so horrified by my form that he came over and asked if he could show me the right way to do a dead lift. Although it was slightly embarrassing to have someone correct me, I’m glad he did. Here’s what I learned (with Chuie helping me demonstrate 
):
INCORRECT
See how my legs are straight and my knees are locked? My back is rounded and I’m bending at the hips so Chuie is far from my body. Yeah, that’s not the way you’re supposed to do it.
correcto!
See the difference? Here my knees are bent, I’m driving my hips and my bum backward, and Chuie is very close to me. Doing it this way, I REALLY felt it in my hamstrings!
Overall, I like the NROLFW program so far. It’s good for me because it’s set up to start slow and gradual so you don’t injure yourself or burn yourself out. All the workouts are scheduled for 3x per week, which is totally doable, and eventually I think I can start adding in some running, too. Thumbs up to NROLFW so far!
Have you ever had an embarrassing gym moment?
