Christal's Log Book

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerful Women
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Hi, I’m Christal and this is my first training log online. I’ve been reading the logs on here for a while and finally decided to start one myself. :slight_smile: A little about me: I’m 28, 160ish and 5’8. I’ve been training for about 4 years, but started incredibly weak. I was a skinny fat vegetarian and was anemic and severely protein deprived. Since meeting my husband, I started training, eating right and have built up a good base of strength. I recently competed in my first powerlifting competition and think that I have found my sport. :slight_smile: Here are some of my best lifts:

Bench Press (competition style w/ pause): 148lbs
Back Squat: 250 lbs
Deadlift: 353 lbs
BB OH Strict Press: 120 lbs
Chin-up: w/ 60 lbs added

My goal is to get the state record in the deadlift. It’s currently at 407 lbs. I think I actually have a shot at that in the next year or so. But the girl who has the record is also training hard, so the target will probably keep moving haha. Either way, it’s a good goal to shoot for. I have longer limbs and am taller, so bench and back squat take a little longer to grow, but for some reason, my deadlift seems to shoot up fairly quickly. I’ve gained 115 lbs on my deadlift in the last year. Before that, my husband and I did a lot of bodyweight training. We’ve just recently began to lift heavy again.

Today’s workout:
Back Squats 1x10@95, 1x5@135, 4x4@185
BB OH Press 6x5@ 45, 65, 75, 85, 95, 95
Paused DB Rows 6x10@ 60, 60, 60, 60, 60, 55
Bicep Strict Curls 5x5@ 40, 50, 60, 50, 55
2-1 Leg Curls 4x5 @ 60, 60, 70, 60
Hanging Leg Lifts 7, 6, 5, 5

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1425×2087 913 KB

Today’s workout:

RDLs 5x15@135 w/ 1 min rest between sets
Walking Lunges 3x length of the gym (about 20 steps)@BW, 20, 30
DB Incline Press 6x10@25s, 30s, 35s, 40s, 45s, 50s
Cable Rows 5@150, 10@140, 3x10@130

Light session today. I wanted to get more pressing in, but I’m planning to bench press tomorrow, so I left it there. This is the first time trying heavier rows. I usually stick with 100-120lbs, but decided to try to go heavier today. I think I’ve been sandbagging a little because my sets at 130 felt really solid. That’s probably where I should be on cable rows.

A little bit more about me: My husband and I live in Alaska and are personal trainers. We quit our office jobs in March and were planning to move to Washington to be closer to my husband’s extended family and because winters are rough up here, but my dad got sick with congestive heart failure (he’s doing much better now).

We didn’t want to leave while he was recovering so decided to get our personal training certifications. Since then, we’ve developed a lot of friendships through the gym and have a really good community now and don’t really want to leave. So that’s where were at right now. Also, here’s what I look like.

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Gosh you’re cute. Great transformation. Welcome to the addictive world of competitive powerlifting.

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kpsnap, thanks! :slight_smile: Yeah, I already can’t wait for my next meet. :slight_smile: There’s one in April that I’m prepping for right now. Do you compete?

12/18/14

Back Squats 8x5 @ 95,135,155, 185, 185, 185, 185, 135 lbs
Bench Press 3 @ 115, 3x5 @ 135, 4 @ 135, 5 @ 115 lbs
Chest Supported Rows (w/ handles for extra ROM) 5x10 @ 45, 55, 65, 65, 65
GHR Sit-up holds 4@15 seconds ish

I’m really working on trying to get my bench up. Right now, it’s my weakest lift. My goal is to get really comfortable with 135 for worksets. I’d like to eventually do 4x12 @ 135. I was supposed to get 4x5 @ 135 today, but failed on the last rep. It’s still a volume PR for me though. I’m starting back over again with sets of 3 and will build up again until I fail. I’m doing the same thing with my back squats. The goal is to get 4x10 @ 185. Once I can do that, I’ll move up to 205 for worksets. I’m just really trying to build up volume and strength. I will eventually probably have to switch to singles and doubles when I get closer to my meet, but in the meantime, this is my game plan.

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[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
kpsnap, thanks! :slight_smile: Yeah, I already can’t wait for my next meet. :slight_smile: There’s one in April that I’m prepping for right now. Do you compete?[/quote]
I do. Presently I seem to spend more time handling other lifters than actually competing myself.

Will be interested to follow your progress for your upcoming meet.

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Hey, welcome to online logging and lifting!

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Seachel, thanks! :slight_smile: I’m pretty much in the technological dark ages haha, but I’m giving this whole online log thing a shot. It seems like there’s a great community of lifters here and paper logs can eventually get lost or mangled. So it seemed like a good idea. Thanks for stopping by! :slight_smile:

12/18/14 Part 2

A client cancelled on me so I had a few minutes to kill.
GHR Sit-up hold for 20 sec
Single Leg Calf Isos 3x30 sec @ 110 lbs
Chin-ups 8, 8, 8

12/19/14

Plyo warmup - rebound jumps 4x10 @ 4" step, 4", 6", 4" & some jump roping thrown in there
High step ups w/ 24" box - 5x10 (per leg) @ BW, 30, 40, 50, 30 lbs
DB OH Press (Single Arm) - 5 @ 30, 5x5 @ 45 lbs
Chin-ups 5x3 @ +20 lbs
Rear delt flys 5x10 @ 10s, 12s, 12s, 15s, 12s
Bar hang 19 sec (rt), 15 sec (left)

Today’s workout felt good. 50 lbs is the heaviest I’ve ever gone with step ups, but they felt fine. I’m not in great cardiovascular shape though so I was a little out of breath after all of them. :stuck_out_tongue: Overhead press felt good. I really like doing one arm presses. You have to stabilize with your obliques and core more. Plus, you are less likely to arch your back and possibly tweak something as you might with 2 dumbbells. Also it’s just a pain in the ass to clean two 45 or 50 lb dumbbells each time you want to do a set. Chin ups felt good. They were a little slower than usual (maybe because I did chin ups and back work the day before). Either way, they still were fine. I was tempted to do bicep work after the chin ups, but decided against it because I didn’t want to push it. My bicep tendons can be temperamental. I’m usually pretty cautious with them because I used to get bicep tendinitis frequently when I would do a lot of chin up volume. It hasn’t happened in a while, but if they’re sore, I know when to stop.

I lift with my husband and his 20 year old brother and a few other friends of ours who join us at different times. We have a little lifting crew that meets the same time every morning. It’s been cool to see everyone improve so much. My brother-in-law is pretty introverted and was kinda a shut in for a while so I think this has been really good for him. It’s funny how something like weightlifting can give people purpose, drive, friendship, physical health and so many other things. Something as stupid as a barbell can be a very powerful tool in someone’s life. That’s neat to see. :slight_smile:

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[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
kpsnap, thanks! :slight_smile: Yeah, I already can’t wait for my next meet. :slight_smile: There’s one in April that I’m prepping for right now. Do you compete?[/quote]
I do. Presently I seem to spend more time handling other lifters than actually competing myself.

Will be interested to follow your progress for your upcoming meet.[/quote]

That’s great that you get to coach people. I’m sure that’s also very rewarding. I’m still learning how to lift like a powerlifter. My technique is probably pretty crappy from a purely competitive standpoint. I don’t have fancy shoes or belts and don’t really lift like a powerlifter. I may have to learn though. That’s probably why my bench is relatively lower than my other lifts. I don’t arch my back or anything and have small boobs so it’s a long drop down haha. I’m sure I’ll get there though. Thanks for your interest in my log book. :slight_smile:

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12/20/14

Back Squats 3x5 @ 95, 115, 145, 4x6 @185 lbs
DB Incline Press 1x10 @ 30, 5x6 @ 50 lbs
DB Rows 5x10 @ 60, 70, 70, 70, 70 lbs
Toes to bar 7, 5, 5, 4
GHR Sit-up w/ medicine ball tosses overhead 4x10 @ 4lb ball
Bicep Curls 3x7 @ 30s
Good girl/bad girl machine (aka hip adductor/abductor) 2x10 @ 100, 110 lbs

Yesterday’s session was good. Looking back at my old log books, I’ve definitely been sandbagging on squats. I’ve been doing them, but I haven’t given them the same sort of mental effort as some of my other lifts. In the time that my squat has gone up 50 lbs, my deadlift has gone up 150 lbs. My husband thinks it’s a mental thing. For some reason, I perceive squats to be heavy, but picking up weight has never been scary to me. I treated my squat session differently yesterday and blew through them really quickly. My husband made me realize that this is light weight. It’s less than 75% of my max and I should treat it as such. Anyway, tomorrow is another day. Ready to hit it hard again and begin a new week…

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12/22/14

Back Squats 3x5 @ 95, 115, 135, 155, 4x7 @ 185 lbs
Bench Press 4x5 @ 135 lbs
Cable Rows 10 @ 120, 5x10 @ 130 lbs
2-1 Leg Curls 3x5 @ 65 lbs
Decline abs w/ BB OH 5x5 @ BW, 30, 50, 50, 50
Rebound hops

Good session today. I was stubborn and wanted to try my sets of 5 w/ 135 for bench again. They were much smoother. I may try sets of 6 for the next bench session. Squats were “fun” today. Anything over 3 reps feels like cardio haha. This is why I could never be a bodybuilder. Or an endurance athlete for that matter. I like my sets short and heavy and over with.

Tomorrow’s workout should be fun. I’m training with a friend of mine who used to be a gymnast. She has a ridiculous strength to body weight ratio. In the past, we’ve done a chin-up/dip off where we kept increasing weight added by 5 lbs and worked up to the heaviest single we could do. I got to +48 lbs on a chin up and +33 lbs on a dip and my friend got to a +33 lb chin-up and a +43 lb dip. She’s only 115 lbs and is kind of a beast.

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Walking Lunges 5 x about 24 steps @ BW, 30, 40, 50, BW - These were painful! And I feel like a weeny because I wasn’t using a lot of weight. Lunges always tear me up something awful especially after a heavish back squat session the day before.
SL DB Deadlift (w/ planted leg and weight on opposite side) 5 x 5 @ 30, 40, 50, 40, 40
Chin ups w/ weight: BW, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, fail @ 50 - Yep, back was sore.
Dips w/ weight: BW, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 - PR!
Calf Raises 3 x 25, 30, 30 @ Heels together, heels neutral, heels apart = 255 reps
Decline Abs 2 x 15
Bicep Curls 3 x 7 @ 30s

Chin up/dip off with my friend, Lisa! I got a PR on my dip, which I’m happy about. Lisa got a PR on her chin up too. I love training with her. She’s so enthusiastic and always encourages everyone to push harder. I swear, having good training partners can make a huge difference. I also trained with my friend Bre, who has only been lifting for a few months. It’s great to see her progress. She can already deadlift 225. She used to be very, very thin. At 5’8" she was 120 lbs. She’s now filling out with muscle and is consistently 130. She looks so much healthier and she’s beginning to look like a fitness model because she is very long and lean naturally so any muscle we add to her really pops out and looks awesome. If only other women realized that lifting heavy makes you look sexy.

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[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
If only other women realized that lifting heavy makes you look sexy.
[/quote]
So true.

Enjoying your log. You are really strong. Numbers are impressive.

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[quote]kpsnap wrote:

[quote]Babypowerlifter wrote:
If only other women realized that lifting heavy makes you look sexy.
[/quote]
So true.

Enjoying your log. You are really strong. Numbers are impressive.[/quote]

Thanks! :smiley:

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12/24/14

Short session today:
Pistol Squats 2x5 @ BW, 10, 1x4 @ 20, 2x5 @ BW - These were challenging. First time doing sets of pistol squats for a workout. I actually fell on my ass off of a small box at one point haha.
Chest Supported Rows (w/ handles for extra ROM) 5x10 @ 45, 55, 65, 55, 55
SA DB OH Press 5x5 @ 30, 35, 40, 35, 30
Hollow Holds 2 x 30 sec

Nice easy session today. I wanted to save some strength for tomorrow’s Christmas session. :slight_smile: I want to get 22 reps over 4 sets @ 135 tomorrow for bench. I’m actually a little excited about it. Bench has always been my nemesis. I used to hate it with the burning fire of a thousand suns. I hated it because I was stuck at a max of 135 and I had to fight for every single freaking pound. Now, my husband and I seem to have found a method that works.

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Merry Christmas, everyone! :smiley:

12/25/14
Back Squats 2x5 @ 95, 135, 1x3 @ 160, 4x8 @ 185
Bench Press 5@95, 3@115, 4x6,6,5,5 @ 135
Cable Row dropset
Roman Chair leg lifts 5x5, 10, 15, 20, 12

Gonna vom… Got my back squat reps, but it definitely was not fun. After rep 5 on every set I felt like it was more about mental toughness than anything. Yay! Got my bench press reps too. I got off my groove a few times and they weren’t as smooth as they could be, but I accomplished my goal for today. :slight_smile:

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12/27/14

High Step ups (24" box) 3 x 10 @ BW, 30, 40 lbs
RDLs w/ 1 min rest between sets 5 x 15 @ 140 lbs
Incline Press 4 x 8, 8, 7, 7 @ 115 lbs, 1 x 5 @ 95 lbs
TRX Rows 5 x 6
GHR Sit up hold w/ SA pec fly 3 x 5 @ 5 lbs
Decline Abs 20
Toe to bar 5, 4

Yesterday I was sick and was puking my guts out. Must have been a 24 hour thing because I feel fine now. The RDLs still challenged my cardiovascular system. Incline press was good, but not as smooth as it should have been. I may drop back down to 5 reps a set just because I don’t want it getting too grindy.

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12/29/14

Back Squats 3 x 5 @ 95, 135, 135, 4 x 9 @ 185 lbs
Bench Press 4 x 6, 6, 5, 4 @ 135 lbs
Wide Grip Cable Rows 6 x 10 @ 90, 90, 100, 110, 100, 100 lbs
Decline Abs w/ weight overhead 5 x 5 @ BW, 30, 40, 40, 40 lbs
Bicep Curls 4 x 7 @ 30s
1 mile run @ 10:00

Good session today. My quads were definitely burning with those sets of 9. I really want to finish this up and get sets of 10 so I can move up in weight and down in reps. I think I used up all of my energy on squats and by the time I got to bench press, my focus wasn’t there. I’m going to restart this lifting cycle with sets of 3 on bench until it gets smoother. The eventual goal is to get sets of 12 at 135 before adding more weight to the bar. Slow and steady wins the race. I’m having to learn patience by sticking with the same weight until I’ve mastered it.

Also, I think my husband and I are going to start including jogging after our workouts for some extra conditioning. I could definitely use it. My cardiovascular health is not at all where it should be. My best mile time is 8:15, but I’d like to improve that.

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I moved my log because it seems that few people are logging in the powerful women’s forum. So I moved it over here if you are interested in reading it. Thanks! :slight_smile: