The Official Fitness Challenge Thread!

[VenusGoddess]

You know...you'll never lose any of the weight that you don't want if you don't start somewhere! I don't know what part of the states you live in, but if you just go speed walking every day...you'll be amazed at the difference!

If you don't know where to start, that's ok. It doesn't matter where you start! It just matters that you do! Do something...don't focus on what you "can't" do or how much you've gained. Envision yourself having the body you really want.

Please, if you need any help with anything, let me know...post it, PM me, whatever. The hardest part is to START something. If you just do something tomorrow...I think that will help get your confidence up. And, you don't need to join a gym. You can purchase "The Core" workout (I think with EVERYTHING included, it's like $80). I'll look around here, and if I still have my Billy Blanks tapes, I'll send them to you. But, I haven't used them in so long, I'm not sure if I still have them...but if I do...they're yours.

 

[Becka]

Lina, don’t jump ship ….. please?

All I’m looking for personally from this is to get to the point where I’d rather enjoy a couple of workouts every week rather than continuing to think of working out as some big chore. I know after a couple days of exercising I do feel better about myself but even having said that, since last November when I thought about getting back into it again I have actually only worked out the once … two Mondays ago. I’m keep saying I’m going to work out and I don’t. The worst part for me is right now … actually getting started. I'm even dealing with daily shoulder pain in part from being so weak in the upper body - you'd think that a chance of freedom from shoulder pain would motivate me, but it doesn't. If I can just make it past this start point, I know it will get easier.

Hang in there Lina, it would so help me out to have you around, we can get through this. I think the fact that you've been visiting gyms is great in itself.

Have you thought about registering for a class? Something really light, like beginner yoga, pilates or anything you might like? I’ve paid for a class, so I’m hoping I will keep it up since it is penned in the calendar every week and I feel sort of committed since I paid already.

As I'm typing this post here I'm thinking about yoga class which is on tomorrow 8:30 am, and wondering myself if I have the strength to go.

 

[Little_Lisa]

Okay, i'm gonna try to go to the gym tomorrow. We may go out of town so I need to get my butt up early enough to workout.

I took pics tonight but i'm afraid I bared too much skin :icon_redf so for now i'll just post my height/weight/measurements.

Height: 5' 1"

Weight: 90 lbs

Arm: 8"

Chest: 32"

Natural Waist: 25"

Hip: 33"

Upper Thigh: 18"

Calf: 10.5"

My goal is to put on some weight by increasing muscle tone.

 

[Cirean]

Give it a try Lina but if you're not ready that's ok too!

 

[clairey]

OK girls, I don't have a camera at the moment so no pics, but I have taken the dreaded measurements :icon_eek: I really need this challenge!!

Height: 5' 6''

Weight: 140 lbs

Upper arm: 11"

Chest: 37"

Waist: 30"

Hips: 36.5"

Upper thigh: 22"

I am planning to go to Spinning & Abs classes tomorrow, so will post monday to let you know how I got on.

Good luck everyone, and remember starting small will make big differences!

:icon_smil

 

[suzukigrrl]

Wow! Great to see so many women participating! I'm trying to gain inches, so I don't think I'll be joining this challenge.

 

[Little_Lisa]

That's my goal, too. You should join!

Okay, I just got back from the gym. I walked at a 10% incline on the treadmill for just 10 minutes. I got bored. :icon_roll So then I did a round on all the weight machines. I really don't know how many sets of reps I should be doing so if anyone can advise me i'd appreciate it. I just did 1 or 2 sets of 10 reps depending on how I felt with the exercises. As far as weight goes, I just set it where I can tolerate the resistance. I didn't want to overdo it my first time and will be increasing as I progress but any advice on this would be great. I'm kinda clueless. I would really like to build my chicken legs up so I think I will edit my previous post and put my calf measurement so I can see my progress.

My shoulders are a little sore but overall I feel pretty good right now. I wish I had a snack because i'm hungry now. :icon_bigg

 

[VenusGoddess]

The way I've always gotten the "fastest" results with weight lifting is doing as many reps with the highest weight you can (for my quads, I start at 70 lbs.), then when you max on that one, you drop the weight and do another set until "exhaustion", drop the weight again and do one more set. By the time you hit the lightest weight, you should feel the burn...well, you'll feel it on the heavier weights, as well.

Most people make a big mistake and turn a weight work-out in to a cardio workout (you know...light weights, quick reps). There are two different types of muscle groups...one is a "rapid-fire" group and the other is the "strength" group. When you do light weights and lift and lower quickly, you are hitting the rapid fire muscles, and those don't give you much bulk. If you want to tone up more, you do high weights, low reps and movements are in 3 count exertion, 1 count hold, 3 count release.

Also, I highly recommend drinking cytovol after a heavy weight workout...you'll be amazed at how much less sore your body is.

 

[Little_Lisa]

Thank you soo very much! You are always a wealth of knowledge!

70 lbs?! Wow! I don't think I could handle that.

I will definitely check out the cytovol. I just got back from the health food store. I wish I would have seen this post before. Thanks again! :icon_chee

 

[jennycateyez]

lisa can i take all of my fat and give it to you? oh no i wouldnt do that then you will be to fat! i think your perfect :icon_chee

 

[Little_Lisa]

Don't be so hard on yourself, girlfriend. You're not fat! I think you're absolutely gorgeous and sexy!

Thanks for the compliment. I feel like a 12 year old sometimes and wish I had a more womanly figure. :icon_redf

 

[Becka]

Morning gals! Good to see everyone is getting out there. I went to yoga class yesterday, an hour and a half. I started clock watching at the one hour mark, so I can't wait til the next couple of times, when it gets easier. The yoga teacher is awesome, she's been teaching this class for years and whoa can that lady bend! Anywhoo, when I went yesterday the routine was totally different than when I was going regularly, so boy did it ever take a toll on me. Feel like I got hit by a truck today, aaarrrgh !!!! Felt a little knobbish at the beginning, the class is totally full and she says, oh Rebecca, haven't seen you in a long time ... um, I didn't really have any great explanation for that LOL

I still have to post pics, I'll try to get around to that today

 

[jennycateyez]

your freakin hot! and you have a hot body! you have nothing to worry about :icon_chee

 

[Charmosa]

I know I am late and I apologize for that.

Here are my stats with pictures taken today (btw, the units on the pics are centimetres not inches :icon_lol: ).

Arm:

Chest:

Waist:

Hips:

Thigh:

And a small pic of the whole body which I might take down later cause it's embarassing.

As you can see I have a pretty big muscle mass with fat on top. My goal is to lose that fat and tone the muscles. I would also like to lose some kilograms. My ideal weight would be 65 kg which is 143 lbs. I dont have any specific goals regarding the other statistics.

 

[Charmosa]

I made this 2 excel tables to keep track of everyone's progress and compare the results.

http://aspspider.net/Charmosa/fitnes.htm

I suggest ending this challenge on April 4th which would make it a 8 week challenge.

I used the stats you posted in this thread. If I made any mistakes, please let me know. You can change the tables yourself if you know how to do it, otherwise I can do it for you.

I considered the following stats:

height

weight

arm

chest

waist

hips

thigh

If you posted more, I included it at the end of each column. We can still decide if we want to take it into consideration or not.

Please ignore the results page for now as it doesnt show realistic numbers yet. It is only a template. DO NOT insert any numbers in the results page because they are automatically called from each person's sheet.

Only insert your measurements, all the rest will be calculated automatically.

Oh, and many of the ladies that signed in for the challenge havent posted their stats yet. Are you still taking this challenge or not?

The numeral system in Europe (dont know if it's in all european countries) is slightly different than the one in the US. The decimal point which indicates the start of a fractional part of a digit is written as a decimal comma in Europe (and vice versa).

Example:

10.5 in USA = 10,5 in Europe (ten and a half)

1,500 in USA = 1.500 in Europe (one thousand five hundred)

Just in case you didnt know and was confused by the numbers in the tables.

Any comments and suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[clairey]

I think it's a great idea, but the Excel tables won't load for me! I'm getting an error message in a foreign language, so not sure what's wrong....

As for me, I was useless over the wekeend and did no exercise whatsoever. My willpower is so bad! But am starting afresh today. :icon_smil

 

[Charmosa]

Hmm, I'll check what could be wrong.

But you can download it, right? It just wont open?

 

[eightthirty]

Ladies, I have had an out of sorts weekend. Everything I planned fell by the wayside. I'm also having MuT withdrawals. So, I know I haven't submitted my measurements yet (even though I already tried), but I will do that this evening. I'm also going to pick up my camera at some point in the day b/c I can't live without it any longer. ((I had an excellent e/s application last night and no f*in camera)).

Hopefully I'm not too late.

 

[Becka]

Aw Melissa, I hope you're ok? I haven't posted pics either, still trying to get around to it, hopefully tonight.

I am still feeling like I got hit by a truck due to sat's yoga. Yesterday was so bad I had to take advil at lunchtime and at suppertime just to make it thru the day. Still pretty sore today but I have my spin/yoga class tonight. joy oh joy i can hardly wait (huge sarcasm). i am goina need at least a 3 or 4 day break after this. Last week I tried to cut back on food, was eating like a bird, then got all tired and weak every evening. Clearly we will not be cutting back on food that was a stupid idea, I already eat pretty lean and light as it is.

Hows everyone else doing w/ the w/outs etc?

 

[clairey]

I get as far as the "Download Group 1" or "Download Group 2" place, but when I click on either of them, I get an error message. :icon_sad: Is that happening for anybody else?