Overview of Week 1

Well, week 1 is over with…it was tough! Here’s a breakdown of how the week went.
Day 1- I did a post for this day, since it was so monumental. Please see it for details.
Day 2- The open wrist bicep curls superset with hammer curls were tough. The Bulgarian splits squats brought me to tears…seriously! It was hard to finish a set being completely exhausted and know that I had to do it again.
Day 3- I got to use my bands for the cable press and fly…loved that! The bicep curls are still killing me!!
Day 4- Today I used my exercise ball. Can’t say I ever hated it as much as I did today. All I know is that supine ball unilateral hamstring curls are freakin murder!! I cried again today. This time doing push ups. And, no it wasn’t when my arms completely gave out and I slammed into the floor…it was because I was so frustrated with myself that I could barely even do them.

All in all it was a great week. Funny to say that when I was pretty much torturing myself. I learned this week that I may not have muscles yet but I’m strong on the inside. I am determined. I pushed myself harder than I thought I could. I felt pain and exhaustion that I have never felt from exercise. I hurt and I cried but I didn’t give up.

Nutrition.....Week 2

- Excerpt of Angie's nutritional diaries in italics my suggestions in bold -

Monday
5:00 AM oatmeal - still the instant kind, but I did buy the other stuff I just wanted to use my last few packs(add a protein shake - 1scoop of powder plus 8oz blended will do)
8:45 AM apple & cheese stick(add handful of almonds)
11:45 AM 1 1/2 cups of sugar snap peas 4 ozs lean ground beef 1/2 cup black beans 2 tbsp salsa(Good)
2:45 PM orange & cheese stick(add handful of almonds)
4:45 PM power bar & handful of almonds(subtract power bar - add either protein shake or 845am meal)
throughout day drank about 20oz of green tea & about 80oz of H20

7:30 AM 20oz H20
8:00 AM chocolate PB shake (recipe you sent me)(Good)
9:30-10:30 worked out 20oz H20
10:30 8oz Gatorade(homemade protein bar)
20oz H20
12:00 4oz lean ground beef 1/2 cup black beans 2 tbsp salsa
20oz H20
20 oz H20 (3pm - protein shake/protein bar/apple-almonds etc.... SOMETHING)
5:00 4oz sirloin steak 2 cups grilled veggies (zucchini, portabello & shitake mushrooms, green peppers, tomatoes and red potatoes) (push this meal later like 6 or 7pm)
20oz H20 (almonds plus fruit for snack)

So far so good Angie. You did a good job on Monday eating 5 times but you were pretty low on calories. Stay away from packaged protein bars i.e. power bars they are full of junk for the most part. I sent you some recipes of homemade bars, start getting into the habit of making these in batches and storing them to be used throughout the week. If you absolutely need to have packaged protein bars around I will give you some recommendations.

Tuesday you did great with what you ate but you just didn't eat enough times throughout the day. 3 meals instead of 5 meals. I put my recommendations in bold letters above.

Keep working hard at your nutrition. You will get the cookbook soon and that will help you with variety. But it is important to have 5-6 "go to" meals you can always be ready to eat in a moments notice.

Alex

Week 2

Angie, Great first week. I know you ran into some bumps in the road but that is to be expected. You did a great job communicating your workouts to me and you were a model client with getting your workouts back to me.

Keep working hard and don't give up! You can conquer these plateaus you have encountered with certain exercises. Push ups are hard, Bulgarian Split Squats are hard, Super setting is hard! But that is the point:) You will see before you know it you will be doing these same exercises without even thinking about it. Then you will be moving more weights than you could have ever imagined! I look forward to helping you get there......

This week will be better, much better. I am confident you will feel stronger about your weight lifting by the end of it......

Good Luck

Alex

After two workouts.....

Spoke with Angie for the first time since she performed her two routines. I was very please to hear that she could walk today:) Even though her routines do not have much weight right now they still are putting her in angles her body is not accustom to. And this is our goal right now, activate as many angles through proper form. So when it is time adding the weight will not be a problem.

One concern was Angie's report of dizziness. I never like to hear that, especially if it is unsupervised exercise. After speaking with her, I figured it had to do with her Pre-workout nutrition. So I sent her a detailed article describing how to eat prior to a workout. This will help with the dizziness if it was related to nutrition. We will find out....

Today I started to send Angie recipes. Homemade protein bars and homemade protein shakes, YUMMY! I also had her pick up some protein powder to start using this in her everyday diet to help get her protein amounts up.

4-21-09 Notes on first workout

Finished my first workout...holy heck! I was reminded how little muscle I have :) Alex had me doing squats, lunges, more lunges, more squats, presses, skull krushers, rows and curls. Whew!

I had to workout in the evening today and personally I don't think it worked well for me (I normally workout in the AM). I thought I had eaten enough to make it thru …big mistake. Half way thru I had to eat a cheese stick because I was getting dizzy.

Although my legs felt very weak and I literally had to hold on when walking down the stairs, the hardest part of the workout was the upper body work. For most of the exercises I could not do the prescribed reps and I'm talking complete failure...could not even move my arms.

I'm a little disappointed with the way I was feeling for my first workout. I didn't feel as strong as I thought I would have. I know it was because I had not properly fueled my body though. Now I know that working out in the AM is definitely what I need to do and I will do whatever I have to do to stick to that schedule. I have a funny feeling that this won't be the only lesson I learn on this journey......

The transformation begins....

Your first workout

Angie, here we go.......your first workout.

These are full body routines for the most part. I want you to take notes and give me as much feedback on these exercises. Anything you can give back to me will help me in the future designing your program.

Make sure you can view the video links. Double click the name of the exercise to view the video. I use two sites, one will not ask for a username/password but the other will. When you are asked for a username/password enter this:

Username: Provided in email

Password: Provided in email (it is the precision nutrition site)

I also attached a very basic full body stretch routine. Feel free to do any other stretches you like that I may have not put on this document.

Drink lots of water throughout the day and stretch often.

Fax or e-mail your completed workout to me upon completion. I look forward to seeing your report.

Good Luck

Sample of Angie's exercise below. Sets/wts/reps are sent to her via email.

DB Squats

DB Forward Lunges

DB Reverse Lunges

DB R/L Split Squats

DB lying on Ball Press

Seated on Ball French Press

Lying on Ball DB Skull Krushers

1 arm DB Rows to Hip R/L

Open wrist DB curls

Hammer DB curls