FINALLY doing New Rules for Lifting

We've had the books for eons. We have like 4 of the books - the original, for women, for life and now the newest, "New Rules for Lifting Weights, Supercharged".

I think it took me not going to bodypump any more for my husband to take the leap too. He didn't like going to BP alone and I had stopped going because I found the higher reps to be causing over-use injuries. I was working with a personal trainer and a class that did total conditioning.

I know I never, ever would have done the weights without a buddy. I am not a lone wolf at the gym. I need company to push myself. My husband said that he does for some exercise and not for others. Weight training, he likes a partner too and fortunately for us, we like each other's company.

The way this workout "works" is that it does whole body exercises - functional exercises. Not lifting weights in isolation. So, when we work a muscle group, we aren't just working that one muscle group. We are working several muscle groups. You start with basic training and do that set of workouts 4-6 times, then you move on to basic training 2 and so on. My husband and I just finished Workout A for the third time. And so far so good.

I like that I work hard, but for a very short amount of time. In bodypump classes, I would do squats for 3.5 minutes. Now I take a heavier weight and I do 15 of them, do something else, then do 15 more and I should do it to the level that completing the 15th rep is either impossible or close to impossible. Then next time if the 15th rep was possible, you use a heavier weight to make it near impossible again (or impossible to complete the 15th rep).

I work hard and to my maximum, but I'm not doing that same movement over and over until exhaustion. I just hit exhaustion faster! I like that. It's much easier for me to talk myself into doing 15 squats that squats for 3.5 minutes for sure.

It is also becoming clear that after my sessions with the personal trainer are up, I won't be renewing them. I can get more out of doing what I'm doing than with hiring someone to design something for me. Or better put, I can now do what I need to do without the push of a personal trainer. Without a partner to do the work with me, I needed that push.

Another thing we are really enjoying is that we can do this on our schedule, not a class schedule, so no more running out the door to try to catch a class on time. No more fighting for space, etc.  It's allowed my 7 year old to tell us which gym he wants to go to versus us trying to plan a workout class at his favorite gym that might not be the best time for us.

Of course, right now we look like total noobs with our books and fiddling with equipment, but we don't care about that. We're doing what we should be doing and probably doing it smarter than the average joe anyway.

So far I've seen progress too. I started with being able to do 7 push-ups both sets last Monday. I did 8 push-ups both sets on Wednesday (but that was my 3rd workout for the day) and today, Sunday, I did 10 the first set and 12 the second set. For me, it's not the arms that give out on me, it's the core. I start to sag in the middle and once I cannot support the midsection, I'm done. THAT is the part of me that is weaker, not the shoulder muscles. But, it's already getting better!