What's the limiting factor in improving the chest press? You don't have more weight. If that is the case, that should halt you from using a specific exercise. It should simply make you go buy more weight.
Am I reading you wrong?
Right now, the 20 lb dumbell in each hand is all I can do. I'm not ready for more yet, but will be soon. But the pushups are definitely harder.
I found a bench I like today. The bench is seperate from the part that holds the weight (plus I have a bench just not the rack part anyway). So, I'd be able to do squats from it. However my husband is evil and said I cant have the pull up thing AND the bench in here so now I've got to get a pull up thing for the doorway. At least that I can install myself and not have to wait for him to do for me.
I still don't get it....
So you are laying on your back. Where are you moving the weight? What muscles do you feel the exercise are working?
It's definitely my lats doing the exercise. Moving the weight from about a 10 degree angle from the floor to over my face, 90 degree angle from the floor.
A lat pulldown from the supine position would be impossible IMO unless you had a resistive force pulling the opposite direction from where you were pulling.
I didn't know what to call it and that was the closest exercise, so that's just what I called it. It's definitely not a pulldown, but that's just what it resembles but laying down instead.
I've never heard it put in that context before, 1/4 time.
Usually we refer to this as tempo.
Just me getting creative with naming things
. I'll do 201 then 301, then do the harder of the two for the third set. Thanks for breaking that down. I've seen numbers like that before and didn't know what they were for. I guessed it had to do with timing.
Great exercise for the core. My only advice is, be conservative with your weight selection. The exercise is a lot harder than is usually expected.
On T nation it said it's tougher than it looks, too. I was going to start with 8 lb in each hand, then go up from there if the 8 was too easy. If the 8 is too hard...
That's great. And no, I wouldn't advice you on carrying them alone! Too bad you don't live near me..... I'd help.
I could carry one weight at a time. It'd take me a few weeks to get them home one weight at a time, but it'd get done
. The weights are reasonably priced. Though, my husband cringed but when I reminded him of his gym membership that he doesnt use and how this would be cheaper than buying me a membership I wouldnt use, then he just sighed and kept quiet.
I was wondering on how much weight to buy to start out with. I've no idea how much I could squat. Thinking 5 lb x2, 10 lb x4, 20 lb x 4, and 45 x2 to start. That would give me a total of 220 lbs.
Do you think that's probably good for now? Heck, if I get home and find I can squat 220, I'll go back and buy more.
The SHELC should be good
. The hardest part I know will be maintaining my balance doing it.
Just remember, in general you must be in a caloric surplus to trigger muscle growth.
And when you are in a surplus, most of us are going to gain SOME fat along with the muscle. It's the nature of the beast.
I've thought about that before posting here begging for help
, and I've decided I'm okay with that for the sake of muscles.
And what do you weigh? 126 lb. 5' 6"
What about supplementing with a whey protein powder. Or things like eggs, fish and cottage cheese?
Eggs I try to do. Had an egg sandwich for lunch today. Fish and cottage cheese.... eek!
I've been looking into protien powders that I can put in random foods. I started a thread in health and nutrition. Pea protien powder is apparently quite tasteless, but it doesn't have the amounts of protien that whey does. Josh (hubby) brought home some strawberry protien powder and I was going to give that I try when I puree my next batch of strawberries for angel food cake. I've figured I need closer to 90-100 grams at least with 1600 cals. Probably more. Today though, 95 grams of protien. Right smack in the middle of my goal of 90-100.
Hopefully this is primarily from good stuff. Think extra virgin olive oil, fish, nuts, natural pb, fish oil caps, flax, safflower, etc, etc.
Olive oil, peanuts and soynuts, beans of all sorts, but no fish or fish oils or flax. I'm not sure what safflower is, so it's not coming from that either but my saturated fats are steadily under 10% of total cals, with very very rarely going over that. I know I still need to decrease the fat % a bit, but not sure where to cut it from. If I tried eating things I didn't care for, I know I wont stick to it. And I eat the whole egg, not just the whites. Suppose I could stop doing that, but not sure that it would make a ton of difference.
Mainly my intake consists of frosted mini wheats, peanut butter, whole grain bread, peanuts and soy nuts, cheese, eggs, chicken, spagetti (with tomato sauce or with basil/spinach and olive oil), strawberries, blueberries, carrots, spinach (lots of spinach). Those are probably my main foods that I eat nearly daily.
I'm cutting right now. Normally I'm pretty anal about tracking my BF% to make sure I'm maintaining as much muscle mass as possible while dieting.
This time around thoug.... not so much. I'm simply going off of how I feel and what I see in the mirror.
With all you've got going on... planning, organizing, eesh! You look great and you're wedding pics will be beautiful.
I wouldn't be ashamed of your last routine. It was fine. Think of this as an upgrade.
Definitely an upgrade!
My first day on the three day split is tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.
). I cant usually do more than 3x15, sometimes I dont even finish my set, and I usually feel it the following day! 
