we’ll see…whats the date again?
It’s Feb. 27-28.
food: 1592 kcal, p/f/c 151.7/75.9/45.2
will probably do just an upper body day tonight.
Edit: didn’t happen; work.
A friend thinks I should train like a bodybuilder if I want to look good – i.e. cardio every day, bodypart split.
Is it nuts that I, um, don’t wanna?
first of all, I’m at a point where I can make gains from squatting and deadlifting more than once a week, and I’ll take gains where I can get them.
Also, training for aesthetics opens a whole can of worms I don’t want to get into. It’s why I’m not wild about FA. If my measure of success were how I looked in the mirror, this whole thing would be so fucking depressing. Being able to say, “Well, I’m primarily about performance” means that I don’t give body image stuff center stage.
I don’t know – Is that wimping out or being sensible?
Besides, I’m pretty sure that people with good performance on the big lifts, if they’re fairly lean, look good enough for most purposes.
Sounds sensible to me!
I think training for strength comes with side affects of looking good anyway! 
if you keep the diet in check that is…but then again some people can get away with eating whatever…doesnt mean you should though…
I think what you are doing is just fine!
OMG, yes, I totally understand not wanting to train for aesthetics. I’ve been dilly-dallying with that idea too because I’m still unsure which direction to take my training. But honestly, considering all the insecurities I have as it is, I think body building will make things even worse.
And as MIM said, training for strength = looking mighty good!
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
A friend thinks I should train like a bodybuilder if I want to look good – i.e. cardio every day, bodypart split.
Is it nuts that I, um, don’t wanna?
first of all, I’m at a point where I can make gains from squatting and deadlifting more than once a week, and I’ll take gains where I can get them.
Also, training for aesthetics opens a whole can of worms I don’t want to get into. It’s why I’m not wild about FA. If my measure of success were how I looked in the mirror, this whole thing would be so fucking depressing. Being able to say, “Well, I’m primarily about performance” means that I don’t give body image stuff center stage.
I don’t know – Is that wimping out or being sensible?
Besides, I’m pretty sure that people with good performance on the big lifts, if they’re fairly lean, look good enough for most purposes.[/quote]
There is so much pressure on women your age (and my age too) to look a certain way. Its a fucked up way to think about yourself.
Anything you can do to combat this pressure, I support you 100% in it.
my .02 cents: you are NOT nuts. stick with performance training Alisa. you look great as it is. you can only improve the aesthetics while keeping up with the big lifts and tightening the diet (as you are now) you definitely want to measure you success by what you’ve achieved so far (your lifts and your body comp changes) you get the satisfaction of increasing your lifts on a weekly basis. sometimes body comp changes take soooooo long, that’s where the mental torment comes in, for me at least.
my head has been messed up for a long time over the aesthetics…blegh. i have seen faster body comp changes since i started consistently doing the big lifts than plugging away bb style. shit, if i could lay off the booze and tighten up the eats, who knows what could happen.
you are young, you can always fine tune IF you feel the need after you’ve achieved your performance goals. you already rock, girl.
I am being careful with diet. It’s right here in my log. Essentially I’ve been eating eggs, veggies, meat, and cheese (and oatmeal in the morning.) And I’m no longer cheating on weekends.
I just don’t know about jumping into the full-barreled madness.
With regard to training for performance or aesthetics:
That’s sensible to me that you are lifting for performance. Wimping out? No way.
IMO they are both really valid ways of training but I feel that training for performance is just more useful. I have my log on FA and I am no longer interested in the idea of competition. So many of them seem to go overboard and get fake boobs and stuff and that to me, defeats the purpose of training your muscles to look symmetrical etc. since you are artifically changing your proportions.
Plus, having to diet way down for x amount of time seems masochistic to me.
Training for strength provides concrete results. X amount of weight and x amount of reps whereas aesthetics are just so subjective.
‘Besides, I’m pretty sure that people with good performance on the big lifts, if they’re fairly lean, look good enough for most purposes.’
And there is no reason that you can’t also train for hypertrophy on certain areas for aesthetics while continuing to lift heavy for performance.
You look awesome right now anyhow.
squats: 10@45, 10@65, 5@85, 5@95, 5@115, 3/5@125, 3/1@135
–these were lower than usual, quite a bit below parallel, which explains the so-so weight.
bench: 10@45, 10@65, 5@85, 5@95, 2/1@105, 6@95.
– bench isn’t back to normal yet. Damn.
cleans: worked on learning form, clean pulls, and so on, at 65 lbs; this is the first time I could get anybody to check my form. Unfortunately, today was also the day I had stabbing shoulder pains, and so I didn’t want to be too ambitious with stuff that hurts.
incline serratus crunch: 3x10 @15’s. (This is a situp holding two dumbbells straight in front of you the whole time.)
hypers with plate behind head: 3x10@25.
The other girl who’ll be competing from my school was there today – normally I don’t see her since I work out at night and she goes in the daytime – and she is AWESOME. Squats over 200, at roughly my size and training age.
So of course I ask myself “What am I doing wrong?” I think, essentially, what I did wrong was impatience, and having to reset weights. If I had just gone up five pounds a week on the squat, for instance, without trying to hurry, it would only have taken me 31 weeks from my first day in the gym to a 200-pound squat. So from now on that’s what I’m going to do – small and steady increments.
sounds good Alisa!
[quote]AlisaV wrote:
A friend thinks I should train like a bodybuilder if I want to look good – i.e. cardio every day, bodypart split.
Is it nuts that I, um, don’t wanna?
first of all, I’m at a point where I can make gains from squatting and deadlifting more than once a week, and I’ll take gains where I can get them.
Also, training for aesthetics opens a whole can of worms I don’t want to get into. It’s why I’m not wild about FA. If my measure of success were how I looked in the mirror, this whole thing would be so fucking depressing. Being able to say, “Well, I’m primarily about performance” means that I don’t give body image stuff center stage.
I don’t know – Is that wimping out or being sensible?
Besides, I’m pretty sure that people with good performance on the big lifts, if they’re fairly lean, look good enough for most purposes.[/quote]
You are making the argument one that is either/or when it doesn’t need to be. If you are going to train to be a powerlifter then, just like most successful PLers, you need to make sure your accessory work and pre-hab/ re-hab (whatever you want to call it) addresses the potential imbalances that will come from emphasizing the 3 big lifts and the particular muscles they use. This will help avoid injury and make sure the aesthetic side is there.
There are some particular aesthetic impacts of powerlifting that can quite easily be compensated for. Example, squats for some don’t provide much in the way of quad growth and mostly result in bigger glutes and hams (do front squats). Bench can overdevelop the front delts (do side and rear laterals) and cause pec tightness and internal rotation (pec major and minor stretch). Deads are great for thickness but you might need to balance out with width movements. The better balance will help your PL lifts as well.
And, no bodybuilder that knows what they are doing does cardio everyday unless they are pre-contest. Who the hell would sign up to do that day in and day out?
Anyway, you can be strong and aesthetic. You just need to have a balanced program.
okay, that’s sensible. Always willing to learn and add new things.
1341 kcal, p/f/c 122.3/80.1/18.2
I have muscle like a bodybuilder, I guess - but I compete in powerlifting because it’s (almost) objective. I make the lift or I don’t, and it’s all on me, not a panel of judges.
You just have to see what the big lifters look like, cut down, to realize that you aren’t going to accidentally wake up with tons of unpretty muscle.
I’m tired and rambling.
Yeah, it’s the objectivity. I like having an objective task that’s not really about me.
I don’t know what you mean about “unpretty muscle” since I’ve never really worried about that. Pretty or unpretty, it’s hard to gain (at least for me) and anyhow I usually think it is pretty.
It’s just that it sort of took me by surprise and made me think, “Am I not working hard enough? Maybe if I did something differently I’d be as good as the people I admire.” And maybe there is more I should be doing (though I am so reluctant to do cardio every day.) I don’t do a lot of random physical activity (except by necessity since i walk everywhere) and sometimes I feel like I could, physically, do more in a workout. (Not heavier but more. I really do lift at the heaviest weight I can handle before failing. But sometimes I could do more reps or more exercises.)
Maybe I do 5/3/1 next, as a sort of compromise. That’s one major lift a day, with lots of accessory work, and that “as many reps as possible” business.
What does ‘training for performance’ mean? What are you performing?
Okay, probably some poorly defined terms and misconceptions on my part.
What I’m doing: a 5x5 program, squatting three times a week, accessories a bit haphazard.
What I’m not doing: a bodypart split and daily cardio.
Why I was doing what I’ve been doing: I was under the impression that this was the best way to improve my maxes on the big lifts.
Why I’m now second-guessing myself: it may be that I might make more progress training differently and look better nekked as well.
Now I’m all confused.
So what is your number 1 priority?
#1: lifting heavier stuff. That’s honestly what I care about.