What is progress? I like to think of it as any movement in the right direction. But given that direction is determined by each individual, then I guess progress is whatever you want it to be.
For me, progress in the gym or with my health isn't determined by one factor, but many. This helps me when things do not go overall as I hoped they would. Take, for example, the last 5 months. If my only goal had been scale weight, I would have been sorely disappointed. Where I am, scale weight IS relevant. I am carrying extra weight from having a baby (or, should I tell the truth, from letting my self totally go while I was pregnant with said baby) and to lose that weight would require a drop in the scale. BUT....that scale weight isn't everything.
Now that the scale weight is finally in a downward trend, I feel like I can write about this. Before I talked about this, but for me, the scale weight was the elephant in the living room I didn't want to address. I have written about the nutrition issues in the last two blogs and my love of working out in earlier entries, so I am not going to rehash them all here in detail. But, although I was making progress in other areas, the scale weight became a focus for me (even if that focus was avoiding the scale like the plague). I am finally seeing progress in that area - down 10.8 pounds as of today. Which further reinforces that nutrition really is the majority of the equation.
Back to the scale weight not being everything.... I have also started seeing a change in the measurement tape, which also makes me happy.This also means that I have been able to wear a few of my old shirts, which adds some variety back into my wardrobe. I'm still working on the pants, but I can see that we will get there soon, so I have hope. I can see the outline of my hard earned muscle. I really love this. I know the muscle is there. Not only do I work hard for it, but I can also feel it. Oh, how I have missed that feeling!
The big thing for me is my strength. It has exploded recently and I am getting back to my pre-pregnancy strength...and more, in some cases. One thing that has frustrated me is my inability to really increase weight on my bench press. Not too long after getting back into the gym, I was up to 125 on my press, but I just couldn't get past there for some reason. I desperately just wanted to get to where I could put the 45s on the bar (yes, it's an ego thing!), but week after week, I found myself burning out at 125 and not being able to get even 1 rep out at 135. I especially found this odd since I have been increasing my flat bench dumbbell press over time - finally beating my pre-pregnancy weight (I pressed 60 lb dumbbells for 2 assisted the day before I found out I was pregnant - two weekends ago I pressed 60 for 4 unassisted and 2 more assisted). Last weekend I finally pressed 135 on barbell press - for 4 unassisted and 2 assisted. That put a big smile on my face for sure! JP just rolled his eyes as I did my own private version of a happy dance. Lol.
Another happy moment...when I pulled 125 on 1-arm Hammer Strength lat pulldowns last week! I had bruises on my wrists for two days from my straps, but it was so worth it! I pulled both arms for 6 reps each. I was doing pyramid sets, so I also pulled 115 with each arm for 10 in the set before and after. Then I pulled a full 135 on 1-arm wide grip Hammer Strength seated rows. I loved having those three plates on each side. I felt like a big girl! Ha! That one was a little more challenging because the seat sits so far off of the ground that I couldn't tighten my strap without a spot, so I had to grab one of the trainers to spot me, but I pulled that for each arm with one. Pre-pregnancy I got up to 115 on the seated row, so this is a significant improvement. However, my back is one of my strongest areas, so I have seen the greatest improvement in strength in all of my back exercises overall.
An area that I am still stuck is EZ Bar bicep curls. I have been trying to move up to 70 pounds for what feels like forever. As a result, I haven't done curls with any bar for the last two weeks. Four weeks ago I curled 65 on the barbell, so I was hoping I could hit 70 the next week. Not so much. I finally decided that I was focusing on it too hard, so I have stuck to using the EZ bar and straight bar on cable curls. I did finally get back up to curling 35 lb dumbbells this week, which satisfied me. This was my prepregnancy weight, so I am happy to be back there. Maybe I'll go back to the EZ Bar rack this week, and who knows? This might be my week.
Finally, endurance was something I wanted to see improvement in. I am slowly seeing improvement in my endurance on power exercises, as well as high intensity interval training, which I do 1-2 times per week right now. I also pick a day to do endurance exercises in between work sets lifting. Yesterday I did box jumps in between squat sets and reverse step ups in a circuit with good mornings and dead lifts to really work my glutes/hamstrings. I don't want to even talk about how much I can sweat (something that didn't happen before I had a baby), but there is no doubt I'm working hard! :) As I lose weight, adding plyometrics will get easier, and my endurance will increase. I am nowhere near where I was prepregnancy in this area, but I can see a lot of improvement. This is probably the area I have the most resistance to, and have force myself to focus on, since it is the area that I truly lost the most by letting myself go throughout my pregnancy. Now that doing a round of intervals or plyometrics doesn't automatically make me feel like I am going to pass out, I have to admit that I am actually starting to enjoy it again (not a lot, but a little is progress).
I guess the overarching theme for me this week is that I am finally seeing progress in all areas. So I am content. And tired. Lol.
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