women powerlifters....questions

StrongLifts 5x5 is a beginner strength training program that focuses on five compound lifts three times a week. This is Olympic barbell weightlifting. It can help you lean out.

I would try to organize or schedule your day and prioritize your health first (because if you are not there, you can't be there for others).

For exercise---> I like to think, "get it done and out of the way".

For meals---> One thing I like to do is prep meals in advance. I grill bulk chicken breasts and veggies then put them in containers for the week. One or two days we may have fish or other. I also have bulk cartons of egg-whites for quick omelets or crepes. I'm not a mommy but I'm sure you know ways (sauces?) you can entice the toddlers' tastebuds so that they will eat the same foods.

Powerlifting is specific sport. Look it up and see exactly what it is, go to a couple competitions if you have any in your area. I love powerlifting. I got into it slowly with about a year of general fitness, getting into shape, learning form and function, getting my heart strong. And then i found a trainer, who is also a competitor. P There are 3 main lifts Bench, Squat and deadlift, thats what its all about, those three lifts, a single rep as heavy as you can. Thats what we train for. Power lifters eat a lot, this isn't like the fitness girls on stage that watch every calorie they eat. We eat for power and strength, high protein, we don't skimp on calories. Lots of PL girls have thin beautiful bodies and watch their weight, but some are big heavy girls and carry extra fat to go with their extra muscle. I love powerlifting, i'm not concerned about my weight or appearance, i'm only concerned about my next PR. I train with a specific program, 4 days a week and that program changes up often based on the next competition date and what part of the training cycle i'm in

I'm a lifter but not a power lifter. I'm also a mom to a 4 yr old. I am doing a 16:8 fast schedule. So I do my lifting workouts in the morning after coffee, no breakfast. I eat after my workout. I'm not on any specific diet, omnivore here. That said, I hit my protein goal to minimize muscle loss since I'm on a deficit. We eat chicken breast or thighs for dinner. We make ground turkey tacos that the kid will eat. Often she eats something different, though (picky). Meal prep is helpful but eating the same meals gets dull for my husband. Crock pot cooking is great for making large batches of food & I freeze leftovers. I eat lots of vegetables -those Steamfresh bags are handy and often on sale. My carbs I try to keep under 200g/day. I buy and use dry and canned beans, canned tomatoes for soups and stews. I don't eat as much red meat because it's expensive. I grab canned tuna on sale whenever I see it. I do use whey protein shakes to get me up to 100g of Protein daily.
I clean my house as I go. I'm not too concerned with perfection. Clean the kitchen daily, do floors and bathrooms weekly or as needed. I refuse to be a slave to my house, lol. It looks fairly neat so I don't sweat it. I also am an artist and work from home.
I started lifting with Stronglifts 5x5 & now I'm doing PHUL.

You have a husband that's a powerlifter. You want to be a powerlifter. So you come asking strangers on a forum for advice? Better not tell him about this, he's likely to be offended that you didn't go to him.

I feel you-- I gained a ton of weight with my pregnancy (son is 3 now), and was overweight to begin with, so I wanted to (and did) lose about 50 lbs starting when he was 6 months old. It took me about a year to lose that (and have, more or less, consistently kept it off).

Biggest thing: lifting/working out IS going to help you gain more lean muscle and appear more "toned," and, to some extent, help burn excess fat. However, for fat/weight loss, and to reveal the muscle mass you're looking to achieve with powerlifting, you'll need to eat at a deficit, in a reasonable way that works for you. I did WeightWatchers for most of my weight loss, but really, any way of eating that keeps you accountable is a great way to start. Tons of calculators floating around to help you figure out what a safe, healthy deficit would be for you.

Food-wise: I'm a strong believer in my kid eats what I eat (single mom now, so I don't have a lot of time to prep special meals for him), but I know that's not for everyone. I agree that sauces/dips are like crack for kids. My kid dips fruit in ketchup, and that's freaking gross, but he's eating fresh fruit so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯... Chicken breast, tuna, fish, shrimp, lean cuts of beef, are all lean sources of protein, most of which can be found relatively inexpensive and can be presented with magical dip to make your kid(s) want to eat them. Worst-case scenario, I'm not too proud to throw my kid some dino nuggets or an uncrustable every once in a while. Balance.

I eat a lot of pulled chicken breast. I throw a 5lb bag of frozen chicken breasts in the crock pot with like a cup or so of Frank's buffalo sauce and a package of ranch seasoning, throw that crap on low for 6-8 hours, shred in the crockpot and serve it on EVERYTHING. Heated up in a low card wrap with some thin sliced cheese, with quinoa, over zucchini noodles, cold on salads, etc etc. For breakfast nearly every morning before work, I eat a light English muffin with a turkey sausage patty, thin slice of cheddar, and a beautiful runny over-easy egg.

I do supplement with protein shakes sometimes when it's hard to sit down and make a full meal, and I snack on protein bars (quest and victory bars) usually once a day at work. Protein is important, but I personally don't stress out too too much about eating extra protein just because I lift.

Lifting: I do a lot of powerlifting, mostly squats and deads. I find time almost exclusively because I work full-time at a gym and do it on my break. So I'm no help there. I do like incorporating a lot of compound movements like thrusters/wall balls, a lot of kettlebell swings and KB work in general, and tons of bodyweight moves. Two pieces of advice I'll leave you with on lifting: get comfortable with good form before you start loading on weight, and don't be intimidated. Start by finding your own groove, then just grow with it.

Holy long first post. Sorry. Hope it helps.

Hi Ladies, just wanted to say hi. Starting to train for my first ever competition in April! I have a coach (with 15 world records!) that is training me once a week, and I'm psyched. He has ripped apart my squat and deadlift so far, this week is bench. My current numbers (which are not PRs, I'm building back up to where I once was) are:
Squat: 175x5
DL: 235x6
Bench:95x5

None of my coach's tweaks to my form have been major, all my lifts would qualify and be good (actually my squat is too deep if you believe it and he's making me box squat so i DON't go so far!) but with DLs I was wasting energy setting up and with squats my core needs some strengthening.

Anyway just wanted to say hi and that I'll be popping in. I'm still in the phase of coming back where my numbers are climbing quickly so that's fun.

I'll weigh in on the programs, I think stronglifts is my favorite beginner program. Starting strength is also technically good, but it's too complicated for my taste- to me, between the two, it's a personality thing. With stronglifts, your workouts are more routine, with starting strength, you get more variety. They're both good and IMHO accomplish the same goal. I prefer to do the same workout over and over and keep trying to up my game, other people prefer a little more variety.

I should also say I've never followed either program explicitly, I've always written my own program (which I don't recommend unless you know what youre doing), but I have studied both programs. For a long time I did a modified SL5x5, I have read and tried SS, but I did eventually plateau on SL5x5 and had to modify to a 5x5Push/Pull/Legs with more accessory work for different reasons.....and now this coach is making me do abs. ABS. It's against my moral fiber to do ab workouts!

No matter what....do lunges and good mornings somewhere in your program. You will hate/love/hate them.

lindz4ever wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

@lindz4ever did you specifically mean powerlifting or did you actually mean regular weight lifting?

He used the term powerlift. I don't want to compete but he wants me to do the same kind of things like bench press and squatting dead lift so I guess more strength training

In that case, I will answer your questions.

I usually do some variation of 5/3/1, which includes the usual big lifts (deadlift, ohp, bench, squat. ) Right now I'm doing it on a 2 day plan with another 2 days of circuit training but usually I'm on 3-4 days.

I eat what I think of as normal food. Meat, veggies, fruit, pasta, milk, yogurt, cottage cheese, etc. I have an 8 yo and she eats the same foods as my husband and me. We've never made her separate meals. He and I work full time but he gets off work at 3 so he usually makes dinner and does the homework thing with our daughter before I get home at 5:30. Then I do the cleanup work. I've been living the good life with that setup but his schedule is changing soon and he won't get home until 7:30p. Boohoo