Gorgeous and strong-looking back and shoulders. You’re looking very, very good. 
Those squats with bands sound like a blast!
Training lately has been going really well!
Friday - Accessory Work…boring but necessary. I will spare you the details.
Saturday - Circuit Interval training
3 sets of 15 reps with 1 minute rest
Kettlebell swings
Push-Ups
Jumping Jacks
Jumping Lunges
10 sets of plate pushes with 45, 70, and 90 plate weight with 90 seconds rest
Tonight - BENCH Workout:
dynamic warm-up
Warm-up Sets
bar x 8
65 x 5
80 x 3
95 x 2
105 x 1
Working Sets
4 sets x 3 reps @ 115
Band Resisted “Board” Presses (we worked the top of the lift and used half foam roller as our boards)
1 set x 3 @ 95
1 set x 2 115 - fail on second rep
These are a bitch and feel like a million pounds. By that fail, even though I was supposed to do another set, I was done benching so I moved on
One Arm Row
4 sets x 6 reps per arm (65, 65, 65 ,70)
interchanged with…
Cable Face Pulls
3 sets x 10 reps (80, 90, 90)
6 sets Plate Pushes with 70 (45 and 25 plates)
BTW, I do these by using one of the black square things you put under a step platform in step classes. I flip it over, put some plates on top, and push it across the length of the gym. It is kinda of a bitch since my gym is so cramped and crowded and the space is the main walkway. But my god does it kick your ass. When I do sprints I only use on plate and when I want a challenge I use 2 plates. I always just crumble on the floor at the end panting my ass off…usually can’t see straight for an hour.
Excellent.
YES! Great idea re: the plate pushes!! I love them, but they’re such a bitch - i use a towel. The step thing sounds like it will be a lot more fun - get more movement.
Band resisted board presses sound unimaginable hard, so good work on those! And nice rowing!!
googled plate pushed and added them to my list. I am trying that tonight!
Thanks Shauna, and awesome rowing!
Yeah, the plate pushes are great. If you do them on hardwood with the step thing under the plates you would probably want to load it up with 3 or 4 plates since it will slide really easily. The floor at my gym is like the rubbery material which creates a lot of friction so it is much harder and requires less weight to be intense!
DEADLIFT today:
dynamic warm-up for 20-30 minutes
warm-up sets:
135 x 5
165 x 3
195 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 1
working sets:
5 sets x 3 reps @ 85-90%
275 x 4 sets
285 x 1 set
deficit deadlifts:
3 sets x 3 reps
135
155
185
*these ended up being really easy, probably because I neglected to focus on tempo…whoops!
hip thrusts
3 sets x 8-10 reps
135 x 1 set
185 x 2 sets
torso twists with bar + 15 lbs
3 sets x 6 reps each side
Felt really good during this workout. Got to the end and wasn’t fatigued at all so I feel both that I am getting much stronger and I may not have pushed myself as hard as I could have. I have one more dead workout before the meet (June 26) so I really want to go all out. This meet looks like my focus will be my squat since the next meet is only a push/pull, so if I don’t go insane with my dead numbers I can at the next meet in August (?). The numbers I would like to see in these meets are a 240 squat (+10 from last meet), 148 bench (+5) and a 350-360 dead (+10-20). I feel like these numbers are possibly low, but I don’t want to psych myself out. My goal is to really try to bring up my squat since I struggle so much with it, but the dead is of course my best lift.
Accessory work or plyos tomorrow!
Went in for some quick accessory work…kept it short and sweet because its soooooo boring.
But BIG news…
I did 6 totally legit chin-ups…‘floor to chin over the bar’ chin-ups!
I haven’t been doing them because I have only ever done neutral grip and they have usually been with a little jump to help and have killed my shoulders. I finally decided at the end of my workout to try a true chin-up (first one ever) because I feel super strong and was thinking it was pathetic that I still couldn’t do some REAL chin-ups. So I tried and I was able to do them better and stronger than before:)
I’M GETTING STRONG(ER)!!!
Getting better at chin-ups = my new obsession
Awesome on the chins! That’s such a great feeling, isn’t it?
Exciting about your meet. A USAPL push pull?
so the first meet at the end of the month is all 3 and then the meet in August is a push/pull. It is right on Alki Beach in West Seattle which is a beautiful beach with a great view of the city, so just getting a bunch of powerlifters on a beach in the sun will be amazing enough! Overall, I’m not trying to qualify for anything, just want to push myself and challenge my previous numbers…we shall see:)
hey! i just sopped by and spotted our pictures! wowie!
nice lifts too! and the meets!! :)!
Yes to the chins!! Good work, especially since you haven’t been training them on the reg. And believe me, I know all about it - pullups are my freaking obsession!
The other day I was perusing ‘muscle sorority’ which i didn’t even know existed until a day ago and a saw this thread which linked this article
http://figureathlete.tmuscle.com/free_online_article/bodybuilding/ladies_you_can_conquer_the_pullup
I skimmed through it, but i’m sticking to my plan. anwyays, just thought you’d like to see it. you’re mad strong, so you don’t really need any advice. haha!
Great stuff going on!
Way to go on the chins! It feels awesome when you can rep dead-hang, full rom chin-/pull-ups!
Your numbers are ridiculously impressive, btw. Can’t wait to hear how your meet goes!
Good stuff on those chins! and the beach meet sounds like freakin fun!
Those chinups are awesome! Good for you.
Ha! I live on advice so thanks Masch…I take anything I can get and it was a good article!
Brute - thanks…I saw you on FA awhile back and wrote you to say you were strong and you should come to PW, but clearly you got the memo! Awesome numbers!
RBlue, nlmain and kimba - I tried chin-ups again and fought like a bitch to get my numbers up. I love it even when I suck.
Yesterday - “Cardio”
10 plate pushes w 60 - 120 sec rest
5 x 45 plate fast
3 x 70 moderate
2 x 90 slow like a snail…my quads were burning
Chin-Ups
3, 2.5, 2.5, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 (at 175 these are hard…I WILL get better)
Weighted Spider Push-Ups
4 x 10 with 25 plate on back
Bench tomorrow!
Gonna be quick with this post!
Bench:
I was still fatigued from my last workout, so I tried really hard to recover ASAP (epsom bath, icing and heating, eating, etc.)
Dynamic warm-up - lots of foam rolling
Warm-up sets
bar x 8
65 x 5
80 x 5
95 x 3
110 x 2
125 x 1 (threw on the belt for this one…figure I should get used to it)
Working sets
135 x 1 (gym PR!)
140 x 1 FAIL
140 x 1
This workout took forever and we had already been in the gym for over 2.5 hours at this point, so I hurried through this last bit
Decline Bench Pauses (2 sec down, 3 sec pause, UP)
95 x 3
115 x 3
135 x 3
These pauses were interchanged with sporadic Chin Ups 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 etc…not totally sure but I just did a bunch over a 30 min time frame…I feel like my form is pretty good until I get tired and my legs start to come up which happened a lot tonight since I was super fatigued…but I feel good that I am working on them, and like anything else, I will get better with practice!
Also, I get frustrated with the benches at my gym because they are super low and slippery so getting a good arch and KEEPING IT without slipping is a huge challenge. Overall was pretty happy but it would be nice to see higher numbers.
Squat Friday!
very big benching around here.
Also, I’m late to the party, but you have an impressive back.
Awesome work. I’m actually the most impressed with your face pull numbers.
Chalk your upper back and butt. It will help with the bench slippage.
kp - I actually chalk my back and the bench every time! The first couple warm-up sets are great because I get a little sheen of sweat going on and it works with the chalk to hold it, but when I am pulling 1s, I wait long enough between each that my body temp cools and the sliding commences:) Or I get sweaty like a beast and its slip and slide time…its not horrible but its definitely not like training with a legit bench that gives some friction.
Super tight this morning…need to really work at recovery today because I want to be fresh for tomorrow!
Nice benching! How does a belt help when you bench?