Strength Training - Intro and Update

I am currently on Week 6 of my strength program and absolutely loving it! Why? Some reasons why I have put down to:

• The temperature of Melbourne is getting pretty chilly and not being outside is slightly comforting. I have become more of a fair-weather athlete after a few years....
• I am seeing huge improvements in the following:
• Holding my core
• The weights I am lifting, carrying and how comfortable I am with the movements.
• Although the scales are not heading towards the right direction, I am feeling that I am getting more toned especially around the stomach area. 
• I am reporting to Chris (Excite) about my progress and I am being accountable.
• I am not in a group situation and being deflated about being too fat or slow. I am not surrounded by people who are constantly being competitive, will leave this to the guys at the gym. 

My program (without giving away too much IP) consists of warm up, pinnacle movements, then a superset, followed by core work.

Warm up is about rolling my muscles out, using a stick to introduce movement in my joints around my shoulders and back. I then use the foam roller to warm up my legs especially the quads and calves. 

The pinnacle set is where I do squats and dead lifts with weights and barbells. I started out with 35kg in my squats and now have moved onto 50kg. Deadlifts I have increased from 25kg to 35kg. I have very short legs and quad dominant so I am really enjoying the squats. I am getting better at my deadlifts (both single legs and standard) but I needed work on my technique due to my hyper-mobility through the shoulders. 

I do my strength training every Monday and Wednesday. The superset varies between the two days and how fast I am able to breeze through these sets depends on how busy the gym gets. 

After the superset, I end the session off with core work which consists of planking and crunches. On Wednesday, I often do a bit more pilates core work as this day ends quicker. 

I mentioned before that my weight (what I see on the scales) are creeping the other way, I am also seeing that some of my clothes are not fitting as well as before but have been told that this will go down as I lose more fat whilst I gain muscle. 

I should have taken photos of what my body looks like from Day 1 but didn’t have the chance to. Hopefully I will get a body scan soon and be able to compare data.

Calluses from 7 weeks of strength training.