Barbella Box & Hypertrophy 2

As I sit here on the couch I looking back on the week of new programming from First Attempt Lifting and how I'm enjoying it, and I'm thankful for April's Barbella box and looking forward to the week ahead and figure out how to save money for next years birthday trip and planning for that.

~Barbella Box~

So if you're not aware, there is a company called Barbella Box were you pay a monthly/annual fee (your choice) and they send you fitness goodies that are priced well over what you pay for the box.  
Sorry gents, this is for the ladies only.  So for the guys it's more like Gainz Box or for those that don't workout it's like Dollar Shave Club box.

The first month I ordered was Christmas, a gift to myself, and came with Vull Sport mesh leggings which I love and of course some items that I won't use.  Each box usually is designed around a specific athlete. 
April's box was designed around Olympic weightlifter Mattie Rogers which was part of the reason why I decided to get it, I'm an oly lifter, and since April was my birthday I had to treat myself then too.  This month's box came with:

Barbella box duffle bag
Nike Weightlifting t-shirt
Eleiko pulling straps
ROMWOD 1 month subscription(a mobility online program to help improve flexibility)
$25 Trifecta gift card (a meal prep company)
RP discount code (nutrition/meal plans)
RP Strength Woman E-book
RP socks
Xendurance Extreme Endurance 1 week pack
2Pood discount(clothing and workout accessories company)

Unfortunately there was a lot of drama going on around this month's box that was completely explained by the company, but the bitching was unbelievable!  A couple days before the boxes were suppose to ship out all people  Barbella emailed everyone that was suppose to be getting and April box to let us know that because of an unfortunate event, boxes would be shipped out late.  The warehouse where out Mattie bags were being held caught on fire!  They luckily they had a back up bag but it would obviously take a couple days to get the boxes filled out sent out.  So many people started complaining that how they would just be getting there boxes when it was time for May's box to process.  I have never heard so many people complain about getting a box late because a business had burned!  Where is the understanding for a company that provides all these goodies to us that some of it we basically get for free.  People were complaining about when they were shipped out.  Yes, Barbella delivers the boxes to a shipping warehouse but Barbella however does not control when they leave the shipping warehouse and depending on where you are located depends on how long it takes the box to get to you.

I for one am perfectly happy with my box no matter when it arrived but I knew it was coming and I couldn't be more excited about all the goodies that were in it.
Thank you Barbella for the awesome birthday present and the oly lifting goodies.  Because of you I'm finally able to Trifecta and in the process I acquired 5 more $25 gift cards from people who were not going to use theirs, so now I have a total of $150 and am waiting for one more in the mail.  Who wouldn't love that!  That's a lot of food I don't have to pay for.
ROMWOD was another part of the box I was looking forward to.  I have been wanting to try them for awhile, but honestly just didn't want to pay for it.  There's not a lot of room in my apartment to really do some of the stretches.  But Barbella Box gave us 1 month free and I've always wanted to work on my flexibility every night and this would be my way of holding myself accountable.  There is a video posted for each day of the week and it's my way to wind down at night right before going to bed.  Who wouldn't want to be fully relaxed before they fall asleep at night.  And I'm hoping it will help me with this crazy week of workouts.  So here is to my month of ROMWOD and one of my buddies at the gym said that I could use his subscription to ROMWOD after my month was over in exchange for watching his dog when he needs it.  I'll take it!
If your interested in the boxes or even individual items out of a months box visit
http://www.barbellabox.com/

Now what would be even better is for June or July to have a Savage Swim bikini or a discount for them in it!!!


Hypertrophy Month 2
So as you know I had a ton of goblet squats, heavy squats, RDLs (Romanian deadlifts), single leg glute bridges and a lot of hypertrophy on upper body as well but I won't get into that last hypertrophy cycle .  My coach and I had a little talk before the end of my programming last week and I told him I might go insane if he gave me more goblet squats to do, 10 weeks of those suckers.  His response was asking why it wasn't my goal to be one of those instagram girls with a big butt.  haha
So this month he definitely gave me what I asked for...a squat challenge for me.  Plenty of oly complexes, one of those complex days making it an EMOM (every minute on the minute) which I love, upper body hypertrophy, pause back squat, and front squats.
My quads and inner thighs have been sore since Tuesday but squats felt better than they did on Tuesday and I still have one more day left to do of them, for this week anyway.  My squat programming for this month goes a little like this...

Tues/Thurs/Sat:
Back Squat  w/ 2sec pause every other squat
3x10 @ 70%
Front Squat
3x8 @ 70% (directly after front squats)

And as much as some people would look at this and want to turn up there nose I look at it and smile at the challenge it will bring and knowing the results that it will bring.  I have this weird thing about what people see as torture in a workout and I smile at it because of the challenge.  I love challenging myself in that way, pushing my body further than what I think it could go.

This morning (Friday) is find a 3RM on snatches and cleans.  I was hoping to hit my 90% on each of my lifts but my body is just tired this week from the new programming.  I'll have to slow it down next week and really focus on my set up before each lift and make sure my back is staying tight through the entire lift and my pull is staying close.  But I could definitely tell how tired my back was this morning from all the work this week (3x fail of push press, push ups, bent over row, and abs).  I wasn't able to get to abs at the gym today so I will do them later.
If you are looking for programming, whether it be for Olympic lifting, CrossFit, shows, or even nutrition go to...
https://www.1stattemptlifting.com/


Getting Crafty
So I've been wanting to add some decorations-ish to my apartment for awhile just to help me get organized and to spice things up a bit.  I finally went and bought a cube organizer to go under my small bar of my kitchen counter to help get some things not so stacked up around there, like notebooks.  I had Walker all weekend so I decided it was a better idea to wait and put it together after he was gone, with the small screws and me using power tools and all.  Yes, I own a power tool.  A drill to be exact and a little drill bit kit.  There's no point in buying a drill if your not going to buy extra bits to go with it.  My buddy James that helped me hang my tv was surprised I even had a drill, drill bits, a level, measuring tape.  I mean, I might be a female but I'm not completely oblivious to power tools.  It almost makes me feel like I'm back in the day when all women did was take care of the kids, cook and clean when they have a surprised look on their face when they find out I own these things and can use them.  O and I can change my own oil too! haha
So anyway, back to my organizer.  I got a gray colored one and 3 fabric cubes to go inside.  Partly to stick the dog toys and sheets I have gotten in there so they're not just finding some place around my apartment to sit.  So here came the daunting task of putting this thing together all by myself and I was going to do that too.  I started taking everything out of the box and organizing it. 
Little secret...doing stuff like this scares me.  Doing it by myself anyway.  I hate messing things up and don't want to screw something up really bad.  I've always wanted to be crafty when it comes to building things because I want to build my own entertainment center to go underneath my TV.  Currently a said situation because right now my dvd, Xbox and movies are sitting on bartstools and in 5 different Lululemon bags.
So I got my drill and just followed the directions.  It took me about 30-40min to completely put it together with all the screws, pegs, and whole covers.

So my next project is going to be building a shelf in my bathroom for some artwork that I have with industrial piping.  I found it on pinterest, yes it's a pinterest project.  But it involves industrial piping and reclaimed wood.  It looked pretty neat to me and the only thing I would need after that is sheet metal and some magnets.  And boom.  So the goal is to get this done by the end of the month! This one I'm really excited to do.  Just have to find the wall studs and probably get some dry wall screws just in case. But I'm looking forward to this project and the day I start my entertainment center which probably won't be until fall.

What the bathroom project will look like but
I'll only have 1 shelf.

~God Bless

"Training strength and endurance mentally, physically, and spiritually."