Alisa, congrats on your new lifestyle change! You are asking for advice and have come to the right place. These ladies who are responding have been there done that as related to the weight training game and are capable of giving good advice based on experience (usually the best).
The first thing I noticed is you haven’t stated exactly what your goals are. No one can help you as effectively without knowing your goals. As you can imagine achieving different goals requires different actions. Anyway, define what you want to accomplish and these ladies can fine tune what you need to focus on.Also, many women would love to “start” where you are starting from in relation to body comp. So be thankful and get after whatever changes you would like to see. Good luck and keep working.
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
Good Mornings 6x5@70
DB Press 3x5@50
Squat 3x5@135, 1x5@145
Hanging leg raises
The deadlift thing worries me. Tried practicing with just the bar, and it’s still not quite right. If I get all the way down with my knees to my chest and my chest up, I have no idea where to push from. If the bar is really light, I can just squat it up, but otherwise I can’t figure it out.
I can bend over at the waist, only bend my knees a little bit, and pick anything up that way. I think all my “deadlifts” up till now were actually Romanian deadlifts, come to think of it. I can’t do ANYTHING if my butt’s down below my knees.
I think my lower back may be the weak link, so I’m doing good mornings for a while. They hurt in new and interesting places, which is a good sign.[/quote]
It’s probably your glutes not firing properly when you get deep. The deeper you go into the squatting position the more your glutes get involved as well as the hamstrings. Glute bridges befor deads for awhile just to get the feeling of the glutes working during the deads may help. Think of trying to push your heels through the floor. Keep the arch in your lower back at all times! If you keep your arch in your lower back this will help you keep your chest up and will go a long ways toward injury prevention.
Women doing deads is awesome! No better way to strengthen to posterior chain! Keep at it but safely. Eric Cressey has some great articles on deads as do several others on this site. Just search “deadlifts” in articles. You’ll get it eventually I’m sure. Don’t give up on the DEADS!!
Thank you. I’ll keep at it, and I’ll try the rack pulls.
As for goals – I’m mostly interested in increasing maximum weights. I’d like to squat 155 or more by June, press 60 with dumbbells, bench press 100. I really wanted to deadlift 225 but it may take longer than I anticipated.
I also like running, which kind of conflicts, since I can’t do the same kind of weekly mileage if I’m lifting. (I used to do something like 8 miles a day. I’ve probably lost some endurance over the past months.) I’m toying with the idea of running a charity 5k on the 25th. But mainly, right now, I think I’d rather gain some strength. It’s been nice to see early results, and I want to do more.
I also saw some stuff on that Stronglifts site about hip mobility exercises, and I think I might need that; the guy was kicking his leg straight up in the air, and I’m not flexible enough to do that. (Blech… I don’t think I’ve done a stretch in four years.) Good idea?
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I also saw some stuff on that site about hip mobility exercises, and I think I might need that; the guy was kicking his leg straight up in the air, and I’m not flexible enough to do that. (Blech… I don’t think I’ve done a stretch in four years.) Good idea?[/quote]
Look into Cressey and Robertson’s Magnificent Mobility. It has helped me a lot as a semi-broken down 45 year old. Good stuff! Mobilty exercises seem to be a better choice than static stretching and there is a lot of research supporting this. Warm-ups before lifting are critical in my opinion.
Also your goals (increased strength?) seem very reasonable. Once you get your form down and the groove worked out for the deads your weight will go up fairly quickly. 225 is a lot of weight for a newbie but entirely possible. Just make sure you are using correct form before you start pushing the weights up.
You will increase muscle mass and get leaner if you watch that diet. The good news is with all the carbs you reported eating earlier didn’t make you fat so you can probably get by with eating some. Just use the advice given as far as what carbs. Stay away from the refined stuff (whole grain) and watch the timing. Dr. John Berardi has an excellent program and includes some stuff for vegatarians as well.
Sorry. Timing for carb intake is generally confined to post-workout. Although morning carbs may be fine for some. Insulin resistance kind of determines that. Eric Serrano and Berardi talk alot about this. This is a rather general explanation but for simplicity’s sake the carbs you ingest post workout help facilitate the uptake of the other nutrients (protein)into the muscles for the recovery / repair process.
Surge Recovery is one of the most effective products I’ve tried and I have tried many!! This is a very simplistic explanation and you would be well served to look into the Precision Nutrition program by Berardi.
I’m not trying to sell you anything (I have no stake in any of these info suggestions whatsoever) but there is no substitute for their in-depth instruction and explanations. I’m not sure what types of protein your diet would allow but they (Berardi and Serrano) would.
Also, some great recipes! The diet of weight trainers seems to be the overwhelming weak link to success or failure. The work you do in the gym is only one part of the body composition puzzle and probably the easiest!
Thanks. I’ll look into the book for details. (I work out first thing in the morning, so “morning” and “post-workout” are the same for me. And that’s basically when I do eat carbs, except for fruit.)
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
Pic from other side…
Also, I just started front squats today, at 95 lbs so I can work on form, and they bite my neck something awful. Big red welt. I feel like there’s got to be some solution, but I don’t know what.
Try changing your grip to a crossed wrist grip with the thumbs under the bar (between your collar bone and the bar). There’s really no right way to grip the bar so experiment with things and try to find something that works. Front squats are great! Figure it out and use them. You can do this…
[quote]J L Erwin wrote:
AlisaV wrote:
Pic from other side…
Also, I just started front squats today, at 95 lbs so I can work on form, and they bite my neck something awful. Big red welt. I feel like there’s got to be some solution, but I don’t know what.
Try changing your grip to a crossed wrist grip with the thumbs under the bar (between your collar bone and the bar). There’s really no right way to grip the bar so experiment with things and try to find something that works. Front squats are great! Figure it out and use them. You can do this…
[/quote]
Just to chime in on the front squat grip, the crossed arm position can make it hard to keep your elbows up resulting in a tendency to lean forward. Personally, the clean grip is tough on my wrists. I use what Court suggested…straps. Clean grip is what the cool kids use so if that works I would go with that
If the pressure of the bar on your collarbone is a problem, then wearing a sweatshirt for a little added padding can help.
[quote]giterdone wrote:
J L Erwin wrote:
AlisaV wrote:
Pic from other side…
Also, I just started front squats today, at 95 lbs so I can work on form, and they bite my neck something awful. Big red welt. I feel like there’s got to be some solution, but I don’t know what.
Try changing your grip to a crossed wrist grip with the thumbs under the bar (between your collar bone and the bar). There’s really no right way to grip the bar so experiment with things and try to find something that works. Front squats are great! Figure it out and use them. You can do this…
Just to chime in on the front squat grip, the crossed arm position can make it hard to keep your elbows up resulting in a tendency to lean forward. Personally, the clean grip is tough on my wrists. I use what Court suggested…straps. Clean grip is what the cool kids use so if that works I would go with that
If the pressure of the bar on your collarbone is a problem, then wearing a sweatshirt for a little added padding can help.[/quote]
The other issue I find with the arms crossed is that I don’t have a wide enough base for the bar to rest on and when the weight goes up, it tends to move around a ton…
good mornings 3x5@85
rack pulls 1x5@135, 1x5@185, 1x5@200 (PR!)
DB bench 3x5 @70 (PR!)
DB fly 3x5@50
dips 3x5
lat raises 6x5@15
40 hanging leg raises
squat 1x5@135, 3x5@155 (PR! but I didn’t have a mirror view so I’m not quite sure if I went deep enough.)
good mornings 3x5@85
rack pulls 1x5@135, 1x5@185, 1x5@200 (PR!)
DB bench 3x5 @70 (PR!)
DB fly 3x5@50
dips 3x5
lat raises 6x5@15
40 hanging leg raises
squat 1x5@135, 3x5@155 (PR! but I didn’t have a mirror view so I’m not quite sure if I went deep enough.)[/quote]
Don’t depend on a mirror to determine whether you have reached depth. You should have someone watch you. Someone that understands what depth is, or tape yourself. The other alternative is stretching a band across the rack with weights attached that make a noise when your butt hits.
I squatted in front of a mirror for years and thought I was deep based on how it looked in the mirror. It wasn’t at all. In addition, it’s tougher to squat looking ahead trying to see what’s going on with your form. Your eyes and or face should be up a bit. Your body follows your eyes and face out of the hole. Just look at some of the recent squat pictures on my thread or Diana’s pictures on her nationals thread.
Once you know where depth is, you’ll be able to feel it rather than needing to see it.
I’m starting to wonder if the whole weight loss thing was a little arbitrary. I’ve never been 125 in my life (except when I was a kid and shorter, of course) and I have no way of knowing whether that’s a good number for me. I’ll keep watching my diet, but I think if the lifts go up and I look good in the mirror I’ll be happy.
My mom was 120 and 5’9’’ at my age, which was kind of my point of comparison; but then again she forgot meals so often she would faint on the New York subway, which doesn’t appeal to me.
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
I’m starting to wonder if the whole weight loss thing was a little arbitrary. I’ve never been 125 in my life (except when I was a kid and shorter, of course) and I have no way of knowing whether that’s a good number for me. I’ll keep watching my diet, but I think if the lifts go up and I look good in the mirror I’ll be happy.
My mom was 120 and 5’9’’ at my age, which was kind of my point of comparison; but then again she forgot meals so often she would faint on the New York subway, which doesn’t appeal to me.
\end vanity.[/quote]
As you’ve already figured out, picking an ideal weight number doesn’t make much sense. Body composition (muscle vs. fat) has a dramatic impact on what the scale says.
Bigger lifts are a good measure of progress but don’t necessarily directly translate to what you see in the mirror. Frankly, there are lots of strong people that don’t look good.
The mirror is a good guide but it can be deceiving. You see yourself everyday, and changes are so gradual, that some may feel no progress is being made. Some folks need to take measurements so they can compare before and after numbers. Also, pics taken at regular intervals can be useful to assess progress.
Squat 1x5@135, 3x5@155
DB bench 1x5@50, 3x5@70
DB fly 3x5@15
lat raises 6x5@15
dips 3x5
Bulgarian split squat 3x5 each leg @12.5
good mornings 3x5@85
rack pulls 1x5@135, 3x5@200
God, chalk feels good!
I think I can get to pulling 210 by the end of the week; I was almost there today.
Front squat 1x15@45, 3x5@115
DB bench 3x5@60
barbell bench 3x5@85
DB fly 6x5@17.5 (each hand)
lat raises 6x5@17.5 (each)
dips 3x5
40 hanging leg raises
40 v-sits
40 bicycles w/10 lb medicine ball
curls 3x5@35
hamstring curls 1x5@50, 1x5@70, 1x5@90, 6x5@100
(first time doing these)
leg press 1x10@135, 3x10@225 (I assume the bar weighs for these? at any rate, 2 45’s and 4 45’s)
