Give Me Strength - Session One Recap

Wow...can't believe fifteen weeks has flown past since I started the strength work at PISE...are we seriously almost into May?  When we first started the classes it was cold, dark and rainy out but at our last session we were working out outside in the gorgeous spring weather.  Me likey!  Anyways, we're at the end of our first session so I thought a recap of my foibles into the world of weights and strength work was in order.

Thumbs Up or Down?
Two huge thumbs up!  I loved doing more strength work...absolutely crazy loved it, and am now really intrigued by strength training and really want to incorporate it into my exercise routine on a regular basis.  To recap, the first ten weeks were mostly focussed on building our strength and the last five weeks have been using that strength foundation and doing circuits that combine both cardio and strength, sorta cross-fittish almost.

Goals
At the beginning of the session we were given logs to keep track of our progress on the weights and Josh had asked us for our secret whisper goals that we wanted to achieve.  My goals...

1.  Do One Pullup, Assisted or Otherwise
Check!  I have yet to do an unassisted pullup but I'm working hard towards it now that I have bands at home.  I've been able to do two sets of eight on the green bands and can eke out five pullups on the orange bands...woohoo!  I need to work my way through purple and red bands until I might be ready to try an unassisted pullup.

2.  Squat 50% More Than At the Start
Check check!  Goal achieved...well sorta.  Ha!  We actually didn't do any squats in the class...Josh had us doing a pretty good variety of exercises but the two that we did through the three programs i this session were bench presses and deadlifts with the trap bar, so I'm going to use those two exercises instead:

Bench Press (start):  45 pounds
Bench Press (end):   80 pounds
Result:                     78% increase, 67% of bodyweight

Deadlift (start):         85 pounds
Deadlift (end):         141 pounds
Result:                      66% increase, 118% of bodyweight

Not gonna lie...when I first started the bench press, we were just using the bar and honestly, I found that a little hard and I was pretty sore after the first session...those poor little chest muscles didn't know what hit 'em! 

The Mirror Vs The Scale Vs Clothes
Sooooo...not sure if any of you remember but I took pictures of myself at the start so I could visually see what difference, if any, there would be between the start and end of these sessions.  Now at the beginning I was adamant that I wasn't going to weigh myself and now after the fact I kinda wish I had just so I had a starting point.  As far as the scale goes, I think I weigh slightly more than I did before...the last time I weighed myself was around November-ish (honestly, I rarely weigh myself anymore...truly a victory in itself) and I've actually gained around two or three pounds since that weight.  However, my clothes are fitting better than they did in January and I can see a difference in the mirror and in the pictures...I can see more muscle definition in the back and a little leaner overall, especially around the midsection and upper body.  Another regret that I have is that I wish I'd actually taken measurements, but I didn't want to get hung up on numbers and wanted to go by the pictures and the fit of my clothes.  Sigh, live and learn.

Future Plans
So what's next?  As I've mentioned before, we're doing another session through until the end of July and I've signed up for three sessions per week, as I wanted to do the Friday strength maintenance sessions as well.  I'm super happy about that as that means a solid six months of strength/power sessions!  D is coming back off her April hiatus, so that also means I'll be back at bootcamp too...it was nice to have the break from bootcamp and the early mornings, but I feel like my cardio has suffered a bit over the last month and I'm excited to get back to the hills and sprints.  I think what I might do is try to hit all my PISE sessions, go for Friday bootcamps and then go to either Monday or Wednesday bootcamps depending on the location.  And of course still hit the road on the weekends with Hubs for a nice leisurely run.  The other thing I've done is picked up "New Rules of Lifting Supercharged" so I can continue on with the strength stuff on my own if we don't continue on with the PISE sessions after July.  Methinks I'll be a busy girl this summer!