I've had some really good weeks in the gym, we're back to 3 x 12 reps, with some weights increased. I've had some days of low energy but I've generally been very satisfied and more than anything, happy to be back to good lifting without niggles or worries. Just some happy lifting. Even before Christmas has even started, that's my best Christmas gift this year!
Also, I'm now writing on my new blogging platform! Everything is now built on text files and folders. No unnecessary logins. The site is faster, and you will notice that the comment form looks different. There is still an option to subscribe to comment replies. If you follow me through RSS, you need to update the url to https://rebellingstrong.com/rss.xml.
This post is linked with the Weekly rundown link-up, hosted by Deborah and Kim. It’s where fitness bloggers get together to share their ups and downs with fitness and training, whether it’s about strength, running, cycling or something else. It’s great for accountability as well as inspiring and supporting each other. We also include some bits from everyday life if we want to. Let’s get into it!
It's the time of the year when walking outside is scarce because of the weather, and I'll have to accept that. There are things to do indoors to keep the cardio going. I'll do my best to get outdoors when I can, we don't have storms and misery ALL the time.
A few shorter walks happened last week.
This week has been crazy busy. Most of it is self-inflicted because of solving various tech problems and simply fiddling with tech, but also combined with work, gym, social events and... events with unwanted pets. This week I had good intentions with cardio, but weather and all the other things got in the way. Sadly I took very few photos.
Monday - gym day
Today I started to feel like I'm getting back to my former glory! With 3 x 12 reps I did reverse lunges, Romanian deadlifts, barbell rows, barbell chest press, inclined flyes, dumbbell rows (increased from 15 to 17,5 kgs), bent-over lateral raises and dumbbell shoulder press. It was a great, oomphy session! The chest press felt good throughout with a decent range of motion. The dumbbell row was the only one I struggled with at the end, but that's as it should be with the increased load. The highlights were the chest press and RDLs, I managed full sets of both with good range of motion (but can probably do better with the chest press) and the RDLs were increased in weight too, to 40 kgs.
Tuesday - storm Bram and tech support duties
What kind of name is that for a storm anyway! For us it was more like a really bad weather rather than what I expect from a named storm, but I've understood there were floodings and power cuts here and there. I had planned to get on the indoor bike, but then my mother needed urgent help to solve a problem with her phone, and time ran out.
And to something completely different - I've been "seeing things" like black shadows moving in the house, and I was starting to believe there's something seriously wrong with my eyes or brain. Then when I had seen those shadows several times, I asked my husband if he thought we might have mice in the house, and he immediatly replied "oh yes, definitely!". He had seen them too. What a relief! Sort of.
We managed to catch one but then later we saw a second one. Ugh.
Wednesday - gym day
Another good day in the gym, but today I didn't have all the oomph of the Monday session. I did squats (standard and Bulgarian), inclined dumbbell chest press, push-ups, pullovers, RDL to the knees, lateral raises and forward raises. I didn't have enough power for the chest press today, this happens sometimes and especially with the dumbbells, and especially inclined. The push-ups were hard afterwards and I only managed 10-11 reps (of 12) in each set. Everything else was quite solid.
It was like my energy was drained after the squats. Later I was told the back squats were actually increased to 50 kgs. I thought they seemed heavier than the last time, but since we increased quite recently from 40 to 45 kgs, I didn't expect another increase. But I didn't have any problems doing them, I just noticed they seemed a bit heavier. And I'm of course happy to get back to the heavier range again! The Bulgarians are another story... I'm back to being quite wobbly with them.
Mouse traps were purchased and set up. To be continued...
Thursday
Today the weather was much worse than during the named storm, with very strong winds and rain, and we even had a short power cut. My plan B was to try the new indoor bike but then I got stuck with... tech. The thing is, there's been a bad rumour out there about the future of Apple, so I've installed Linux on an old Dell laptop to learn how it works, what I can do with it and whether it's a viable alternative at least for most things I need to be able to do. It's been fun but I've spent way too much time testing and setting things up. Linux can be great but it's very DIY, and next week I definitely need to do better with movement outside of the gym.
Friday - gym day, and other interesting events
I spent most of the morning solving an annoying problem on the Linux laptop, and meanwhile, the weather turned fantastic. When I was ready it was too late to go walking, but I quickly went outside with the camera. It's less than two weeks to Christmas Eve, we're in northern Europe and look at these happy campers! They didn't even bloom in July.
I had a good time in the gym today. I had good energy, and I got increased weights on a few exercises. I did standard deadlifts, split squats (both increased from 35 to 40 kgs), flyes (increased to 8 kg dumbbells), Renegade rows (increased to 8 kg dumbbells), one-dumbbell pullovers (increased to 17,5 kgs), barbell rows, upright rows and shoulder shrugs.
I felt great with the deadlifts today, for the first time in ages. Lighter deadlifts have worked well but now I'm back to 40 kgs, my right hip didn't get overworked and my lower back didn't complain. Happy days! The split squats were good as always, they're one of my favourite exercises because they're not as challenging for the balance as lunges or Bulgarian split squats, so it's easier to focus on form and they still have the benefits of any single leg exercise.
Renegade rows... pff. The good thing today was that even with a heavier weight, my left elbow didn't hurt, for the first time since April. The bad thing was that I got exhausted way too soon with them. Strength-wise I'm fine with them! I need to get going with cardio training again. But generally, this was a good and very satisfying session.
I told my trainer about the mouse situation and he said "well there's only one solution... get a cat", and how that is unnegotiable when you live in the countryside. But I felt eh, hmm... NO, with the awful memories of Ester's last days (I still cry when I think about it).
In the evening we saw the remaining mouse (from what we know) run into my office, so we blocked the entrance and basically turned everything upside down in there but it still had managed to escape elsewhere. Later we found it in one of the traps. So was this the end of it?
Saturday
With the mouse vs office situation I was finally forced to tidy up which included getting rid of old stuff I don't need. My office has been a complete mess for ages and I haven't taken the time to do anything about it. Now I can find things, can move around in there and have some extra space. Fantastic! We also set up a second screen.
A quick look at the thermometer told me it was 14C (57F) outside. What?! A walk was in order! Until I realised it was VERY windy. What a waste with such a nice temperature! But the feels-like temperature was probably much lower. The weather forecast looked very nasty for the rest of the day and for Sunday too, with orange warnings for rain and strong winds. December certainly hasn't treated us well in terms of weather!
Later I found a THIRD mouse in one of the traps, and in the evening D saw a FOURTH one running around. If this continues, we all know what it means. Just in case, I've already planned where to put the litter box... lol.
Sunday
Today as forecasted we're "enjoying" heavy rain, wind gusts of up to 72 km/h, and basically no real daylight. I'll spend most of the day writing, coding (at this point AI-free), and I'll finally get on that Zwift bike!
I've paired it with my iPad, renewed my dormant Zwift subscription, and have no excuses.
Thoughts away from the barbells (and mouse chasing)
You may have noticed that I don't share my full programs in this post. This is something I've been thinking about on and off - that I feel icky about sharing the program online when it's something I've paid for. I was reminded of this again in a post by Grateful Kae recently and decided to do something about it.
I started sharing it for my own documentation and making it searchable for myself, and found the graphic useful for breaking up blocks of text when I didn't have a lot of photos, like in the winter. With my new simpler blogging app I can keep the full documentation on my local computer and still have it searchable but what about the other part, breaking up the text? Shouldn't I, a photographer, have enough photos? Perhaps I should just get my sh** together and take more daily life photos? My productivity in photography has been in an all-time low lately.
But also, perhaps the way I share my workouts in this post isn't any different from how I used to do it, just less detailed. The coaching I get is about so much more than the program, there's no one-size-fits-all program, and what about all the other people who talk about their marathon training and similar online? That's no different really and perhaps I'm just overthinking it.
How are you doing? How's the weather where you are? Should I get a new cat?
Comments
The website looks great, so I guess that means it's all up and running OK! You host it on your home computer? We tried to do that last year and couldn't get the internet access correct, and it was turning into a big headache, so I just found another cheap hosting provider. It would be nice to not pay for hosting though!
Cats are pretty great to cuddle up with in the winter. :) My cats have yet to capture any of the mice we've had in our house. But they would clue us in to their existence, so I guess that's a good thing!
We've talked about hosting on an own computer at home, but never got to try that. Lately we've been talking about it again though to use certain apps that only the two of us need to access. But our online hosting now is on a DIY server (a dedicated server?? not sure if that's what it is) on a cloud hosting service in France. My husband has set up and installed the necessary things and I just need to connect with SSH and/or sFTP and use Docker to set up my websites. It's working very well so far! The amount of tech stuff I've needed to learn through this project is insane but I'm so glad to be more confident with all these things.
What a bummer that your cats don't capture the mice! Our Ester was an excellent hunter. But I guess, knowing where they are is helpful as well.
Oh, I'm so happy to hear that you're back to happiness in the gym!
I am also on team "get a cat", but I do hope you've solved the mouse issue. I don't think I've ever seen a mouse in person, but in Florida, the smaller rodents don't stand too much of a chance with the snakes and big lizards around.
it does feel good to clean and declutter. It always helps me be more productive.
It really helps productivity and overall well-being to have a clean tidy space. We still have so much to declutter and organise. After 6,5 years in this house!
The mouse issue isn't solved, but it seemed to have slowed down. We have traps, poison, and today D bought some electric thing that sends out a signal of sorts that's supposed to repel rodents. We'll see how it goes. The good news is that I have a contact with kittens that will be ready for rehousing after Christmas. The bad news is he doesn't know if they're all "booked". Fingers crossed.
Happy lifting indeed! You're right, Susanne, being back to happy gym sessions really is the best early Christmas present you could ask for. The 3×12 phase with increased weights sounds great, it’s nice to hear how confident and solid everything feels again.
You have a lot going on! A new blogging platform, mice, storms...never a dull moment in your house!
Good point about sharing paid workouts, it’s similar for me with running. All my sessions are on Strava and technically anyone could copy them, but they’re so specific to my fitness and context that it’s a non-issue.
I couldn’t just copy your workouts either, those weights would flatten me. 😅
I agree, any proper fitness program should be personalised (not sure that is the case with all who call themselves personal trainers) and not one-size-fits-all. And Coco has a good point about whether people would take the time to copy a program when they can just generate one with AI. I'll continue with the format I've used to describe my sessions in this post. Can't overthink it too much if I also want to share my progress and try to inspire people.
And you're right, you can never get bored in this house!
Agree that the best gift is feeling strong and healthy. I’ll take that any days! We have to take advantage of the good weather days when we are gifted them for sure. I do like the format of your blog too and it’s always interesting to see what other people who enjoy strength work are dong
Yes, it's always interesting to read about other people's strength journeys! As I've said to others, I'll continue sharing my strength training but like I did it in this post, in a less detailed format. I will still share my progress and highlights!
Progress is progress, even with a few setbacks. My glutes need some work, but I’m hoping I’ll see progress much faster than if I were starting from ground zero. Fingers crossed my optimism holds true, LOL. Ugh on the mice! I’m a lover of little furry critters, though (several years of hamsters as a child and also with my kids), so I’d be an emotional mess having to deal with traps…
I agree, at least we're not starting from square one! I hear you about the mice and I think it's hard with the traps too even if I'm mostly used to animals of cat-size and up.
I can imagine those mixed feelings when the shadows turned out to be nice! I’m glad it’s not anything with your eyes, but what a challenge to scramble with for the week. I totally get what you’re saying about your programming - and how it’s so specific to your experience with your trainer. Congrats on navigating the mice and the workouts this week!
Yes, I was seriously starting to think I was sick and dying... sort of. Mice is something I can deal with even if it's gross.
We had a mouse a few weeks ago, in a wall where our thermostat is, so my husband was concerned it would chew those wires. We think it eventually left but I don’t think we caught it. There was a minute when Scooby was starting intently at our (unused) fireplace, so I think it ran through that somehow.
Interesting thoughts on sharing your strength training or not. I think it would take a lot of work for someone to copy your plan to implement it — I’m sure it would be much easier to ask AI for a plan. ;-)
It’s wonderful to be ending the year feeling healthy and stronger!
I think you're right about that it's easier to ask AI for a program! I hadn't thought of that aspect of it. In addition, it's not like I'm some big influencer with a huge audience so the risk someone would suffer from me sharing it is minimal.
I'll always continue sharing my strength training, but probably more in the form that I did it today, with sharing the progress and increased load etc. That's one of the main points with writing a blog like this! And as I said - runners share their weekly running also when it's part of a training plan and that's nothing strange.
Awww, I think a cat would be a fun addition to your home... says the woman who has mice run in when it gets cold outside and has no cat. LOL
As a trainer, I appreciate your concern about publicly sharing workouts that you paid for, but I'm not sure it wold bother me. Like you said, you pay for so much more than just a routine. Why don't you ask your trainer what he prefers?
I kind of agree about a cat, but life is so much simpler without pets. We'll see how it goes on the next few days. I'm definitely open to getting a cat if the mice continue popping out of the walls at this speed.
My trainer is very non-techy and off-line (which I find refreshing) so he probably wouldn't agree that anyone should write a blog! Generally his attitude has been that people should learn from what they do in the gym and use it outside the gym. For now I'll continue sharing my workouts like I did today - less detailed but still sharing my progress.
I do like the new format of your blog! I like it when you share the details of your lifting--but that's because I lift, and it's fun to watch your progress. But I sure understand why you don't want to share the details of a workout you pay for.
Your photos are beautiful as always. We've had mice in our house--one time we were watching TV and a mouse ran through the room. EEEK! Another time, when my boys were little, one of my sons threw his shoe out the door, telling me there was a mouse in it. I didn't believe him, but when I looked, sure enough, there was a dead mouse in there. {{shudder}}. I guess they can make themselves very small to fit through tiny holes ini the walls.
Gaah about having a mouse in your shoe! I think it's kinda gross knowing they're around but not knowing where they go. They've been nibbling on taco shells in an open packet. What if they like vegetables?!
I'll definitely continue sharing my progress with strength training, and commenting on the exercises too but probably more like I did it today, for now anyway. One of my reasons to continue writing this blog is to encourage people that it's possible to build strength and lift heavy at this age and without sharing some of what I do it would be pointless.
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