November check-in and chat
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Unplanned trip this evening after a cake filled afternoon tea! Sadly the cake wasn't as good fuel as you might imagine..
Squats - worked up to 52.5kg, which should have been my working weight but back felt decidedly tight so I left it there.
Press - 32.5kg which I managed 555 last time I only managed 333 *sigh* the nemesis strikes again!
Deadlift - jumped up to 50kg which still feels light, will try to put a vid up so someone knowledgeable can tell me if I'm putting it back down correctly (my suspicion is that the physio's concerns were because I was using an empty bar rather than that my form is quite so bad..).
Gym closes at 8pm on a Saturday so I left my pullup/chinup attempts and tried some new core stuff - glute bridges. my only comment is ow!
Frog kicks - quite surprised I could do these and did 3 sets of 10 on one of the benches.
Then the owners' mum introduced me to the ab roller. Well that was funny, the first attempt I went too far and landed on my face, so I was a bit over conservative after that but feeling it in my lower back on the way back up. Will treat with caution! Then some mucking around with a swiss ball but mostly chatting for the last 15 minutes!
Oh, and breaking news.. there was another girl there when I got there!! Of the blonde-ponytailed looked like a cardio bunny being the pupil on a bunch of machines (seemed obsessed with improving the appearance of her calves.. I suppressed the urge to tell her to squat!), but hey, another girl!
Will probably do some planks and stuff now at home..
ps Tree, I always skip rows now!0 -
And that ends my 3rd cycle of Wendler. I'm taking the week off, and will start my 4th cycle after Thanksgiving. I did a little forward projection and got REALLY excited. In March I will have been lifting a year, and if all goes well (knock on wood), I will be deadlifting 265, squatting 255, benching 145 and military pressing 110. AND I WILL BE A 40 YEAR OLD BADASS!
Kira you ARE a BADASS! That is so inspiring.
For myself, I can only hope to get back to it tomorrow or Monday morning. I hurt my IT band (I think) as I was upping my running mileage for an 8k Thanksgiving Trot but today it hasn't been bothering me. I took some time off and did some exercises my friend suggested as he just hurt his IT band recently as well. I miss lifting (and even running) when I can't do them now. I feel antsy :sad:0 -
I did a little forward projection and got REALLY excited. In March I will have been lifting a year, and if all goes well (knock on wood), I will be deadlifting 265, squatting 255, benching 145 and military pressing 110. AND I WILL BE A 40 YEAR OLD BADASS!
Kira, you're already a badass, 40 years old, or not!
Workout B for me tonight:
Squats 5x5 @ 70 lbs 1x5 @ 75 (my "just to see how it feels for next time" set)
OHP 5x5 @ 35, It amazes me how what was so hard last time, was much easier tonight. I love visible progression!
DL 1x5 @ 85lbs, 1x3 @ 90
My workout felt good tonight! The gym wasn't very busy and I was the only female anywhere near the weight section. I'm feeling more and more at home every time I go. :happy:
I'm glad to see some of you are healing. The rest of you, continue to rest!0 -
lwood - there are a few women that stalk the weight area in my gym and two of them are in their 80s! Twins actually. they mainly stick to weight machines but they are there every morning when I am. The ladies I see in the weight area mainly with trainers Or in pairs working. Only seen 1 or 2 women at the squat rack without the trainer.
Kira - I hate to repeat what everyone else said but really I don't because you ARE a bad *kitten*! killer lifting lady!!
Crusin- Nice on the progression with the OHP. That one is a killer.
I am off to my weekly yoga class and man are my shoulders and traps a little sore from the rows and bench yesterday. Phew. Not as bad as the first time but pushing the weight up on those I believe was a good idea.
Happy Sunday ladies.0 -
Kira- echoing other here that you are a supa bamf! To answer your question my meet is on 12/8. I'm pretty excited. My liftaversairy is on 12/18 and a week or so after my meet I'm going to re-test my 1RM then start on 531. It'll be exciting to see where I am! I will remain a 31 year old badass until January.
:laugh:
Vendy, my traps are almost always sore! I spend a lot of quality time with a rumble roller.
Lydia, I had a ton of oreos at work the other day, and they did not do my workout any favors either. I was expecting them too and I was very underwhelmed. Also I want to skip rows all the time, but I know they are good for me. Pouts.
cpiton -Thanks for the compliment. I'm pretty sure I gained at least 15lbs on my bench just by perfecting my form. (not including the ridiculous arch.) That should give me more in theory, but since I've only done it one day it hasn't yet.
Roxy- Good to hear you're not in too bad of shape
Hope all you injured people get better!0 -
Deadlift - jumped up to 50kg which still feels light, will try to put a vid up so someone knowledgeable can tell me if I'm putting it back down correctly
Lydia, please put up a video. I have to pull from the bottom of the rack and I'm curious to see how you do it. I feel like I do ok, but I'll be glad when I don't have to do it anymore. I've YouTubed some, but I'd like to see someone I "know" do it. 0 -
whoops forgot sorry - here you go!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvIB6Gw1VHk 0 -
Hi all, back on the SL wagon again (or as close as I get to it!) this week. I think I did a Session B (is that the OHP one?)
I did my PT's version of squats (this week I'm holding a 10kilo weight against my tummy and squatting to a milk crate) and I feel like I'm slowly gaining some control of the descent, which is great! I did 5x5 of these
Then I did OHP for 5x5 of 20.5kg. Geez, it's hard to increase these! Oh well, I'm still stronger than I used to be!
And finally I did 3 x 5 deadlifts at 55kg. I do a couple of extra sets as I miss out on increasing my squats. It's not the true SL progression, but that's just tough! I'm doing the deadlift style that the PT adjusted me too - slightly pointing out my toes and having my hands further apart than they were. So, I dropped the weight so I could focus on form and am increasing to my previous PR of 60 or 65kg. No rush!
That's it for me now. I'm going to check out Lydia's youtube link now 0 -
Well, Elaine tells me that my hips are high (and my hips don't lie!).
I'm trying to follow this setup (from the starting strength forum):
1. Take your stance, feet a little closer than you think it needs to be and with your toes out more than you like. Your shins should be about one inch from the bar, no more. This places the bar over the mid-foot – the whole foot, not the mid-instep.
2. Take your grip on the bar, leaving your hips up. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.
3. Drop your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.
4. Hard part: squeeze your chest up as hard as you can. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR. This establishes a "wave" of extension that goes all the way down to the lumbar, and sets the back angle from the top down. DO NOT LOWER YOUR HIPS – LIFT THE CHEST TO SET THE BACK ANGLE.
5. Squeeze the bar off the floor and drag it up your legs in contact with your skin/sweats until it locks out at the top. If you have done the above sequence precisely as described, the bar will come off the ground in a perfectly vertical path. All the slack will have come out of the arms and hamstrings in step 4, the bar will not jerk off the ground, and your back will be in good extension. You will perceive that your hips are too high, but if you have completed step 4 correctly, the scapulas, bar, and mid-foot will be in vertical alignment and the pull will be perfect. The pull will seem "shorter" this way.
wonder if my height means that I need to do something slightly different?0 -
I read something recently about most people being stronger by rounding their backs rather than arching as "correct" form would have us do. This is true for me, there was a whole lot of science in there about why which just boggled my mind but who knows...
Glute bridges, yep they are um effective, and oh the DOMS.
This strong curves program has me doing romanian dead lifts (or a version of) to get muscle memory for the hip pattern. Might be a useful accessory lift?
Tree bet the meet will be awesomely inspiring.
Just thinking how good it is that not pnly do we have an amazing set of bamfs in here as far as our lifting goes, it is great that we all have the confidence to walk in the weight room and do our own thing. Almost all of us are doing some slight modification of stronglifts and there are no apologies for mixing it up. We are all strong enough and confident enough to do our own thing and do what suits our bodeis 0 -
Roxy, I think the arching thing may give you a bit of extra pull at max/competition weights (and I think is inevitable) but if you do that every time you're going to wreck your back. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of strength for safety!0
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I agree to an extent I just wonder how much is that we do it this way because this is the way we do it. Is there actual evidence of this or does that come from people who have not spent time building up to a weight and have pulled their backs because they were attempting something they were not strong enough to do full stop. Not advocating it at all, just pondering0
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Back at it this morning after giving 2 extra days of no IT band pain just to make sure I was in the clear. Leg lifts have become my friend.
Workout A:
Squats 3x5 at 105lbs
Before I took a break I was at 135lbs I think so I'm ready to be back up there!
Bench: 3x5 at 60lbs. I felt good on these, I remembered that I struggled to have control and straight line movement at the higher weight I previously was at so I focused on that.
Rows: Meh. 3x5 @ 55lbs.
The problem with Thanksgiving being this week is I workout at a university gym so they'll be closed Wednesday even though I'll still be around and working (dang kids! [I'm only 2 years out of school haha])
So after Thanksgiving I may drop my running down to 2 days a week and up lifting to 4, I'll be off 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years and also out of town for at least a week so I want to get it all in before then!0 -
I agree to an extent I just wonder how much is that we do it this way because this is the way we do it. Is there actual evidence of this or does that come from people who have not spent time building up to a weight and have pulled their backs because they were attempting something they were not strong enough to do full stop. Not advocating it at all, just pondering
I didn't read it as advocating I think from my limited understanding of starting strength, that the spine is going to be strongest as a column (hence the valsalva maneuver supporting it by stiffening the whole trunk too). Once you introduce flexion, each individual vertebrae and the connective discs are not going to be able to share the load with their neighbours as they will be in a different plane (thinking of the gravitational force pulling down and the moment arms that that book goes into in infinite detail!).
I may be totally wrong, will have to ask my GP sister in a couple of weeks when I see her!0 -
Did my first roll of shame on bench press today. Was trying to do 70 pounds, and couldn't get the 4th rep on the 4th set up. Rolled the bar down and tipped my tiny weights off. Decided to try the 5th set to see if I could at least get a few reps, and someone came over to spot me and I did all 5! (Yay!) He did yell at me on the last one to get me to do it, which really did help, and I think having the spotter helped mentally.
Still progressing on squats, though it is getting hard. I'm up to 88 pounds, and am getting drooly at the thought of squatting in the triple digits soon. I'm pretty sure my personal best is 90 pounds, which I never could lift consistently.0 -
hehe yes just wanted to put that in so I don't get sued or something! Bodies is complicated, and we are learning all the time is my conclusion.
Debress, just shows you can do it! That is a pretty decent bench there0 -
well done deb! yes, having someone there gives you the reassurance to go for a rep you aren't certain of, and being encouraged to do it vociferously helps too (unless their hand is on the bar and they are saying 'it's all you'. Then you feel irritated!)0
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Lydia, as you know, I'm definitely not an expert, but if you're following the SS/Rippetoe instructions, I don't see how you could get your hips down any lower. Your back looks pretty neutral to me. (OT - did you notice I updated my profile pic to show off my pixie?)
OK, so I have questions and I'm not sure how to ask, so that they make sense. Here goes:
I'm at 95lbs on DL. Obviously, the weights are too small for me to pull from the floor, so I use the lowest hooks on the front of the power rack to hold the bar. My gym has the stupid octagonal weights, so between the hassle of stacking weights to the proper height and not always being able to put the weights down in the proper position, it's just easier to use the hooks. At what weight will I be able to have them at a proper height to pull from the floor? And, does it really matter? I just want to do them the "right" way.0 -
Roxy, I enjoy learning about different ways of thinking and doing things. It's one of the things I thought/wondered about when I was watching form videos on YouTube. Rippetoe is well respected, but what makes his way, the right way or only way? I've seen some people on the general forums recommend videos by that Candito kid, yet he has a video explaining why Rippetoe's method of hip drive on squats is wrong. It makes it hard to decided who to listen to. Obviously, Rippetoe has a little more experience behind his name, but should that make him the only "expert"?0
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check out the starting strength forum - they pretty much pulled that video to pieces, the kid had his 'facts' all mixed up as I recall.
Rip's is one way (not the only way) of training squats, but I like from the book how scientific he is (the lever arms etc) and it makes sense to me.
I do like your hair!
and you will be able to pull from the floor when you have the equivalent of one 'big' (20kg/44lb) plate per side. Although with octagonal plates, I don't envy you. My last gym at the almost-but-not-quite-round plates and they were ghastly. One tip is to put a couple of mats under them so that when you put the bar down it doesn't roll away from you. Or reset between each lift.0 -
and you will be able to pull from the floor when you have the equivalent of one 'big' (20kg/44lb) plate per side. Although with octagonal plates, I don't envy you. My last gym at the almost-but-not-quite-round plates and they were ghastly. One tip is to put a couple of mats under them so that when you put the bar down it doesn't roll away from you. Or reset between each lift.
I guess I'm a bit confused. Your DL video is of you lifting 50kgs, right? But, if the plates are 20kgs each, what about the weight of the bar? Do you not include that in your total?
Thanks for the compliment on my hair. I haven't had it this short since middle school and that was a looooong time ago. :happy:0 -
I love Rippetoe's videos…I rewatch them on occasion and follow his tips to be sure I'm not losing form. This video really taught me how to deadlift, it all made sense after watching!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX8jgCFXYTU
Yesterday's workout:
Squats 130x6 140x4 145x3
OHP 67.5x6 70x4 72.5x3 Was soooo close to 4! I'm just excited to be making progress.
Deadlifts 185x3 That was a tough weight (Kira, Tree…how on earth do you pull the numbers you do?!).
And of course I did my planks (just for you Lydia!). The only other exercise I add in is calf raises (on the stair edge) mostly cause that's one muscle that burns going up mountain passes and doing them on the stair edge really seems to help my stabilizer muscles in my ankles. Wouldn't want an ankle to turn on some eroded trail and wind up a statistic!
cruisin…love the hair too. I can't seem to get away from pony-tailable hair. I'm way too lazy to actually do something with my hair before work (and I work in scrubs, not like I need to look pretty!).
Edited for typos….0 -
Started SL a few weeks ago and just hit my first failure- on the OHP at 25kg (55lb). Was able to do 2 sets of 5, then one of 4, then 2 of 3. I'm excited to know I have hit my limit so when I am able to push past it, it'll feel all that much better. Who would have though failure would feel so sweet?0
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OK, so I have questions and I'm not sure how to ask, so that they make sense. Here goes:
I'm at 95lbs on DL. Obviously, the weights are too small for me to pull from the floor, so I use the lowest hooks on the front of the power rack to hold the bar. My gym has the stupid octagonal weights, so between the hassle of stacking weights to the proper height and not always being able to put the weights down in the proper position, it's just easier to use the hooks. At what weight will I be able to have them at a proper height to pull from the floor? And, does it really matter? I just want to do them the "right" way.
I just a mini step. Once I hit the 35lb plates (I took and break and I'm working back up) I was able to comfortably do it without the mini step to prop the bar up. I've used the hooks before too, it is a hassle.0 -
In for ALL of the adorable pixie haircuts! So cute.
I am going to try and get an A workout at our company's gym before Thanksgiving travel madness sets in. BUT I have to post my latest "duh" moment: helps to have long hair in a bun when doing back squats so that the hair does not get stuck underneath the bun.0 -
and you will be able to pull from the floor when you have the equivalent of one 'big' (20kg/44lb) plate per side. Although with octagonal plates, I don't envy you. My last gym at the almost-but-not-quite-round plates and they were ghastly. One tip is to put a couple of mats under them so that when you put the bar down it doesn't roll away from you. Or reset between each lift.
I guess I'm a bit confused. Your DL video is of you lifting 50kgs, right? But, if the plates are 20kgs each, what about the weight of the bar? Do you not include that in your total?
Thanks for the compliment on my hair. I haven't had it this short since middle school and that was a looooong time ago. :happy:
I deleted your double post
My gym has bumper plates, which are all the 'correct' diameter - even the 5kg silly bendy ones. So those were two 15kg plates, not two 20kg ones. I think it goes.. 5kg grey, 10kg green, 15kg yellow, 20kg blue, 25kg red. just looked it up and this is international standard. So I guess it makes for quick calculations looking at someone!0 -
Hey ladies I see you have all been busy since Friday wow.
I was stupid again this weekend and paying for it.....I told my husband no more going out for me...DOMS from Dancing...:grumble:
So taking the required breaks from squats and rows today (leg is feeling a bit better...but still popping)
So benching only today for me.
I am up to 105lbs
2x5
1x4
1x3
1x2 (this last set my husband made me do the last 3 with help) from him.
He said on Friday if I am still strugglinig on the last two sets that I go back down to 100lbs and do more reps.
Which I might do instead of getting fractionals right now. (May ask for them for Christmas)
I mean don't get me wrong I love SL but I do find the 5lb increase way too much now for the upper body workouts.
Squats/DL's I am good with...
On a side note I see (sorry can't scroll back to find poster) glute bridges were "ow"...interesting, as I have been thinking about adding those in.0 -
Thanks, Lydia! Sorry I didn't catch the double post. The internet at work is being wonky today!
Bumper plates explains it! I did wonder about it, since the plates were yellow. I wish my gym had them. I've actually never asked, but then I've never seen any around or being used. I guess I'll just have to be patient for a bit longer. 0 -
Yeah my old gym didn't have them, if I ever get to grips with power cleans they will be helpful.
And it was me with the glute bridges. Maybe I'm thin skinned but the bar across the hips was not my favourite sensation ever!0 -
Started Wendler 5/3/1 today. I've been doing SL since April (break in the middle due to injury) and I'm ready for a change. I think this program might be just the thing to get my shoulder/neck/motivation built up again.
Did the military press today (OHP) using 55lbs as my max weight to be safe. The assistance work is challenging. I did DB OHPs 5x10 (didn't get all the reps in-boo) and negative chin-ups.
I'm flipping weak on neg chin-ups. Weak.
I was starting to get really discouraged when I realized that sucking this bad at something now is only going to make it that much sweeter when I finally succeed. Plus it's showing me how bad my left side is. Info I need to have if I'm going to get stronger.
So, all in all, a good day.
Lydia: Even though I know what you meant, my weird mind pictured you doing bridges with a flute. :laugh: I do glute bridges nearly every workout. I fold up a towel to put between my body and the bar. It helps some.
~Cheryl
(Edited because my tablet keeps "correcting" me.)0
