Bringing 5/3/1 to Powerful Women

Training
181

[quote]Mascherano wrote:
N, you’re totally right - and I’m still waiting to see what kind of freak show I might create with these pills. I’m assuming if I just stop taking them hormones will return back to normal and all changes will go away, including my GIANT breastses. [/quote]

A customer of mine had someone walk in their store in a tiff because the pill had actually worked and added fat to her breasts, thighs and hips. She was upset because she felt she looked pregnant. That’s what you get for playing with the hormones. On another hand maybe whe was not eating well and the pill really underlined that. I don’t know the full story.

182

The trade-off for my lifting heavy and thereby changing my body composition was shrinkage from B’s to A’s. It was totally worth it. Although I admit to owning a few pair of the VS pushup bras, but not the extreme one you tried on. Just for a different look sometimes.

183

To answer as many replied as possible at once:

  1. The stripper trainer guy at my work has actually made me feel more professional than I did before. I realized that a lot of people become a trainer because they look good, and think it’ll be an easy job where they get to help people. I’ve always thought that it was a hard job that takes years of learning to master, and am dedicated to doing as right by my clients as I’m capable of. I should be proud of that and not let this guy distract me from my original intentions.

  2. I’ve done a lot of online reading about the boobie pills, and it seems like they work best in women over 30. Not sure why. I just stumbled upon this online thread of women trying the breast actives out, and the ones that seemed to go up more than a size were over 30. Everyone else noticed half an inch to a full cupsize increase. The ones that were working out didn’t seem to gain as much overal weight.

  3. The “absurdly helpful” VS bra just looked downright terrible on me, even with a fitted shirt over it. I would have taken a picture, but it was embarrassing.

And now on to a little painful lesson on leg anatomy.

Today I maxed out on front squat in order to have a starting point for 531. I managed 145, and failed at 150.

Afterwards I tried for two sets of 10 bulgarian split squats, but as always, experienced this “rubber band snapping thing” in my right quad. At the end of the second set with 25lb dbs (I could have done more, but the higher I go in weight, the more the snapping hurts), I gave up and switched to a set of 10 per leg of reverse DB lunges with 30lbs. I really could have done more.

I then did 2 sets of 6 per leg walking lunges with 70lb BB, followed by two more sets with an 80lb DB. More weight is definitely needed for next time.

Then came the ultimate sad part. On the single leg press, I was only able to accomplish 50lbs for a set of 10 (did 3 sets). Also, my right quad was snapping again, at which point I became extremely pissed off.

I finished up with 3 sets of 10 hanging leg raises, and promptly marched upstairs to find our resident sports massage therapist.

He nearly crapped himself while poking around painfully at my knee cap, vastus lateralus, IT band, hip flexors, and glutes. To make a long story short, my vastus lateralis on my right leg has had the snapping problem for over 10 years, and it has some scar tissue in it. Also, since my yoga session last night, my left IT band has been NUMB. According to him, this is probably due to some scar tissue being released during the session and the resulting inflammation from that. He’s more concerned about my right vastus lateralis. Apparently some of the damage done to it (probably from when I was a gymnast at the age of 8 and was capable of doing the splits 12 inches beyong parallel), is irreversable.

What causes the snapping is the fact that the vastus lateralis is extremely tight and pulling away from the other muscles. However, when I’m at the bottom of the a deep, loaded movement, it’s pulled back into it’s normal range of motion. The terrible burning I get in the top of my leg at the end of the set is the result of the inflammation caused by it stretching into a normal range of motion and breaking up a few scars.

I set up a massage session with him for tomorrow, and am planning on finding an ART therapist as well to see if more can be done about the scar tissue than he thinks. He did some work on me today, which made me want to throw-up, kill him, and laugh all at the same time. Now my legs just feel weird.

184

I have had SUPERB results from ART. Try to find someone good. If you do, he/she may be able to do wonders for you.

185

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
I have had SUPERB results from ART. Try to find someone good. If you do, he/she may be able to do wonders for you.[/quote]

That’s what I’ve heard from you and quite a few other people. I went to the massage therapist today and wasn’t entirely satisfied because he spent more time on my calves than on the areas I’m worried about (he only hit those right at the end, and only for about 5 minutes). He did hit a few trigger points on my gluteus medius though, which I felt all the way down in my foot. I’ll be interested to see how the lifting goes tomorrow.

Time to find an ART practitioner!

186

Today:

Bench: 4x110, 3x115, 2x120, 4x115, 3x120, 1x125< Missed the last rep on here. Felt like my form was off on some of them, including the one I missed, in that I wasn’t pushing back into the correct line of motion.

Upright Bench: 3x8x75

Krock row: 15x30, 15x40

Chin-up: 3x6

Weighted situp (was holding DB on chest and sitting up without anything anchoring my feet): 3x15x30lbs

My diet was off the last couple of days because I was working 13hr days and not making it to the grocery store. I hate that so much. Also, chin-ups are much harder at the end of a workout.

187

Today was wonderful, except for the part where I became overzealous while maxing out on the sumo deadlift. 185 felt easy so I figured, “Hey, this seems easier than deadlifting, I bet I can go way over what I normally do” and upped it by 20lbs to 205 for the next attempt, instead of slowing down and just slapping on 10. I probably would have gotten 195 just fine.

The problem, of course, is that after you reach failure you can’t lift as much as you would have been able to before. So I’m going to be modest and say my starting max for 531 on the sumo deadlift is 190 (of course, I’ll be taking 90% of that for starters the first month).

In other news:

Rack Pull:

185x6 225x6 245x6 255x6

Romanian DL:

135x10 115x10 115x10 (was feeling pretty wiped at this point)

Bent-over row:

65x5 75x5 85x5 95x5

Plus two sets of incline reverse crunches.

Also, by the last set of rack pulls I felt like I could lift more, but my grip was giving out every other rep at 255 (had to take a sec to reset between them). I want to improve my grip, so I’m going to continue rack-pulling without straps. However, I’m wondering if doing four sets without straps and then throwing in a higher set with straps would be advantageous in terms of providing more stimulation for my nervous system and muscles. Keep in mind that all of my other pulling is done without straps, gloves, etc, and I don’t plan on switching any other lift to straps.

What do you think?

188

go for the straps.

no reason to let ur grip dictate how much weight/reps u can use on an upper back exercise.

imho.

189

And now, the crappiest video ever taken of a sumo deadlift. I used my phone to film this. That will never happen again.

If, by some slim chance, you can see anything happening here, let me know what you think.

190

And again…

191

From what I can see, form looks great! Nice arch. And I’m with Deja . . . use the straps.

192

I’m no expert, but that looked damn good. How much was that?

193

[quote]Mascherano wrote:
I’m no expert, but that looked damn good. How much was that?[/quote]

Thanks. That was 135 for warm up.

194

[quote]Oleena wrote:

[quote]Mascherano wrote:
I’m no expert, but that looked damn good. How much was that?[/quote]

Thanks. That was 135 for warm up.
[/quote]

Looked good. But, no offense meant, everybody has great form with light weight. Try it again at 175 or so. Usually, at a higher % of max this is where leg drive suffers and people, including me, tend to stiff-leg it.

195

[quote]giterdone wrote:

[quote]Oleena wrote:

[quote]Mascherano wrote:
I’m no expert, but that looked damn good. How much was that?[/quote]

Thanks. That was 135 for warm up.
[/quote]

Looked good. But, no offense meant, everybody has great form with light weight. Try it again at 175 or so. Usually, at a higher % of max this is where leg drive suffers and people, including me, tend to stiff-leg it.[/quote]

I’ll take a video next time of a higher weight, but I don’t think that happened because when I failed out I was halfway up with my legs still bent and it felt like a front squat. My body was struggling to hold the form, slowed down too much, I came to a hault in midair for a second, wore out, and set it back down.

196

I don’t necessarily agree with Giterdone. I’ve seen people pull low weight with lousy, lousy form. He’s right, tho, that it gets more challenging to maintain the awesome form as the weight goes up.

197

Looks good, let’s see 225 now!

198

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
I don’t necessarily agree with Giterdone. I’ve seen people pull low weight with lousy, lousy form. He’s right, tho, that it gets more challenging to maintain the awesome form as the weight goes up.[/quote]

I meant anyone that has a basic understanding. Lousy form is rampant. Although, I’m not a member of the “form police”. Doing everything super strict can limit gains. You just need to know where the line is between working hard and putting yourself at risk.

199

[quote]giterdone wrote:

[quote]kpsnap wrote:
I don’t necessarily agree with Giterdone. I’ve seen people pull low weight with lousy, lousy form. He’s right, tho, that it gets more challenging to maintain the awesome form as the weight goes up.[/quote]

I meant anyone that has a basic understanding. Lousy form is rampant. Although, I’m not a member of the “form police”. Doing everything super strict can limit gains. You just need to know where the line is between working hard and putting yourself at risk. [/quote]

Interesting. How can having super strict form limit gains? Don’t the top athletes in the lifting sports have super strict form?

200

Yes! And throwing that form is what leads to injuries I believe. All is takes is a wee bit of rounding of my back on a heavy DL pull and I can totally throw it [my back] out to the point where I can hardly get out of bed. I think form is king as the weight gets heavier.