Hey everyone haven’t forgotten about you guys. I was trying to adopt a new training style called DC training. Not new for its existence but new for me. However I don’t think I’m completely ready yet, so I’ll just put that on the back burner for now. Signed up for a competition in December. A god chunk of my family and my fiancé will be Cheering me on. So I’m excited. I don’t really feel the need to log any of past workouts for the last week and a half or so as I was just dabbling around and trying to construct a new workout plan, and change some things. I also moved recently and the two days I was moving I was utterly tired and had to take a three day breather, but I’ll be back on track either later today or tommorow.
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LOG # 7
Today was pretty good. Having my monthly lady problems but I noticed I got a lot more reps out than usual. I slept a lot longer today due to fatigue but made myself get up anyways. Having trouble fitting in more calories to help increase size. Finally invested in a weightlifting belt and I also decided to ascend at a lower point on my squats from the rack to ease the pain on the side of my back. I’ve been unpacking the weight using my tippy toes since I’m short but I realized that’s sort of what’s causing this discomfort anyways. So a lower start and then rise up to descending position has really helped along with my new weight belt. Have yet to get knee wraps but that’s the next thing I want.
Back squat: 5 reps @ 340, 5x6 @ 270
Deads: 2 reps @ 230, 3 sets of 2 @ 220, 3 sets of 2 @ 180
Leg extensions: 3 sets of 6 @ 110, 2 sets of 4 @ 130, 1 set of 7 @ 90
Hanging pull ups: 20 reps, 10 reps, 7 reps
Dumbell pull-ups from ground (forgot what these are properly called): straight set to failure. (Consisting of roughly 28 reps)
Dumbell overhead press supersetted with DB hammer curls: 35 reps. Wasnt really paying attention to the reps, was mainly focusing on total reps without reaching failure.
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LOG # 8
Did nothing but pump work today. I also didn’t have my usual pre workout so everything felt a bit heavier than usual.
Leg extensions: 7 reps @ 110, 8 reps @ 80, 8 reps @ 50, 10 reps @ 35
Lying leg curls: 5 reps @ 110, 6 reps @ 80, 8 reps @ 50, 10 reps @ 35
Glute blaster thingy: 3 reps each leg @ 100, 7 reps each leg @ 60, 7 reps each leg @ 50, 10 reps each leg @ 45
Hanging ab pull-ups: 30 reps
Machine pull downs: 30 reps, 3 sets
Machine chest press: 7 reps @ 80, 6 reps @ 110, 5 reps @ 60
Deads: (went light today and focused on repping out as many as I could.) 10 reps @ 125, 15 reps @ 100
Brisk walking on treadmill for 10 mins. No incline.
A lot of these exercises are things that help bring up my tender weak spots. Not to mention they also help ease my back pain, which is a plus. Next time I’ll cycle out the machine work for DB work because I like them more anyways.
LOG # 9
Today was just cardio. Did steady state swimming for 25ish mins. I can’t do butterfly, so I stuck with freestyle and breast stroke. And did some house chores which always make me break a sweat lol.
I don’t bulk whatsoever, and my body fat has always stayed in the 19-21%, however my midsection always looked bloated. Not sure if it’s because of the big meals I eat throughout the day, or bloating, or whatever else the cause may be. My fiancé says I should cut, but if I did I’d only be cutting for maybe 3 weeks. If that. A mere 10 pound loss makes me look like I’ve lost 20. And I’ve been carefully increasing my weight while keeping body fat in check. So I don’t feel the need to start a cutting phase at all.
Part 1:
Hey guys! don’t worry I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth. I was doing a test run on another site called IntenseMuscle, and they have some very awesome info, and I did a cycle of the Doggcrapp training, and man, I have brand spanking new gains ive never even seen before. I finally have a new weekend job, and its allowing for me to buy things to help further my progress. I can now buy supplements, good brand powders, etc. However I decided to return here because the atmosphere here is a lot nicer than that of IntenseMuscle. While the people there are nice and respectable, they also have am aura about them, that makes them seem unapproachable sometimes. So I decided to come back here because I always can talk to Mark, and all the other nice people who say encouraging things, plus I really like the weekly articles T-Nation has for us to read.
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Part 2:
I want to talk about the Doggcrapp training I pursued. It took me a while to fully understand what it was, and the people on the site didn’t exactly answer my questions, they just pointed me back to the links where all the info about the training was. Once I understood it, I planned a workout, and after a while I didn’t have the need to write down anything or plan anything the night before because I had a pattern down for the most part. I cycled through all the exercises for the body parts, and took somewhat of a small deload week. And by deload I simply weight off of the compound movements, but I amped up the intensity and volume on the muscles such as biceps, hams, calves, and triceps. When I first started I wasn’t an avid person for training nearly every set to failure and neither was my body, but after a while I found myself performing my training very well. My balance had been off because on the new workouts I tried I kept stumbling and rocking everywhere, so this gave me a chance to correct those imbalances. All in all I respect this style of training, but I wish to stick to my good old hybrid of powerlifting and bodybuilding.
Part 3:
Which brings me to the next subject of my personal life, and things that have changed while I was away for the last two months or so. As some of you may know I was training to compete in powerlifting competitions. I did register in one of these upcoming competitions in Cedar Park, Texas, however my mind has changed, and for good reasons. I realize the reason I wanted to compete was to simply win. To be the first place contestant. And that’s not what my training and fitness journey is about at all. I kept feeling sorry, and beating myself up all the time when I stepped foot in the gym because I wasn’t squatting 460, or deadlifting 350, or benching 400 like the top powerlifters on the powerlifting sites. But I had to step back and view the whole picture. No I wasn’t moving that much weight around, but look at how far ive come. Yea I’m not squatting 450, but I can squat 300 for 10 whole reps with good form, and proper breathing. No I cant bench 400, but I have been watching my bench press climb up to 160 and any progress is better than no progress at all. No I cant deadlift 350, but I just shattered my last PR of 200, and I’m now sitting at 250 for deads. I clouded my mind with the wrong thoughts, and had my eyes set on the wrong prize. And I also read a very inspiring T-Nation post a couple of days ago, and I felt like that post was speaking directly to me. So I have decided to drop the competing. I might compete, I might not. Just because I do not compete does not mean I am not a powerlifter, I do not need a piece of paper to justify that I am one, and I do not need to compete in an bodybuilding contest, to consider myself a bodybuilder. I’m glad I am doing this, because I want my mind, and my heart to be just as strong as my body, and do what is healthy for myself, and learn to listen to myself. I realize I have a tendancy to make things all about winning, and for once in my life, loving myself, and being a strong, healthy, well-oiled machine is worth so much more than recognition, a medal, or any trophy this world has to offer.
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Part 4:
So that about wraps all this up. Not to mention my fiancé proposed to me!!! I’m so happy!!! (Just a little tid bit of happy info for you guys 
) That’s where I’ve been for a while, but now I’m back here, and feel comfortable here to say the least, so ill be posting my logs here regularly again. You guys are great, and I’m glad there are other people out there who enjoy not only looking good, but performing good, and moving heavy things around just because they darn well can. 
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Congratulations! That’s awesome. Plus you figured stuff out about what you want to get out of training which is a bonus, and learned some new training methods. I agree, it’s hard to go into a competition if your mindset is that you must win when realistically, you won’t. Nothing wrong with wanting to win, why else compete after all, but if anything other than winning would be devastating it’s probably best not to.
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Yea I agree, that’s not to say I will not ever compete but I think once I reach an older age I will compete for the fun of it, not so much the competition part of it, and if I do rank high, to not let it consume me or go straight to my head.
300 squat is men’s number.
Do you plan on benching 400 as you wrote? Not even every men is built to do that.
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First of all I would like to see where there is some sort of book that directly defines 300 as a “man’s number”. Not to mention have you seen national powerlifting contests? The men there bench waaaaaay over 400. And if my body is capable of benching 400 then so be it. And if my limit is smaller than 400 then so be it. I actually plan on having what I call a Solid 3. Meaning my bench, squat, and deadlift are all at 300 pounds. I’m sorry I sound harsh, but no one should put their potential into a cage by defining it as something that belongs to a man or a woman when speaking on the subject of being in shape. Last time I checked training is training, and it doesn’t give a hoot if you have balls or a vagina. I understand not every man is meant to bench 400, but this isn’t every man’s training log is it?
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Not even sure what to say to that.
300 lbs is a number. Not men’s, not women’s. A number.
400 lbs is just a big bench, though.
Agreed. And to be honest 400 was just a number I grabbed from one of the top contending charts on the stats for this years powerlifting contests in Texas. I was using it as an example, but if my 1RM does one day become 400, even better.
It’s not a bad thing…
Strong like a man but triggered like a woman.
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@planetcybertron as far as I’m aware, 400 lbs would be close to or world beating for female raw benching. April Mathis has a 430 lbs in full meet and 451 lbs in what I think is bench only, both at 198+ lbs. The 198 lbs record is held by Ludmilla Gaiduchenko with 363 lbs in full meet. Not sure about equipped.
A 300 lbs squat is a different story. Definitely achievable, but just as definitely won’t win you much that matters. However, anywhere between 165 and 198 lbs bodyweight 300/200/400 would be respectable and would probably give you a shot at a placing at least locally; 400/220/440 would be damn good; and 400/300/500 would be pretty huge (in Australia I think Chleo Van Wyk is the only woman to have totalled more than 1200 lbs raw).
Just for example, at my gym there’s a 132 lbs woman who squats and pulls around 300 lbs or a bit over and benches a bit over 132 lbs; and a 165-181 lbs woman (also a decent physique competitor, came second in Australian WBFF recently) who squats over 350 lbs, pulls close to 440 lbs and benches around 175 lbs. Both have several years of training under their belts. The lighter one is also an excellent technician.
Based on what I’ve seen, any healthy female under 50 and over 120 lbs can expect to manage 280/155/300 or more within a couple of years of good, consistent strength training. A few more years and that moves to 350/175/400, although it can happen sooner. Beyond that is where genetics and desire comes in.
That’s just to give you a realistic idea of what you can expect.
The other, hugely significant part is meet lifting. It is completely and utterly different to gym lifting. You can train for powerlifting as much as you like and it will not prepare you for lifting in a meet. From the timing, to finding a spot to warm up, to keeping track of your flight and your place in it, to the judging, to the foreign equipment, to picking your attempts (which you also have a very short time to do) before even considering how to manage your nerves; nothing prepares you for that. Meet lifting is a skill in itself.
In many ways, meet lifting is what makes powerlifting powerlifting. Without it, it’s just strength training with specific lifts.
I can honestly say I dislike competing. It is stressful, uncomfortable and exhausting. It is also one of the few ways to put my mental and physical strength to the test.
Oh, and you can ignore jasmincar. Never seen a positive post from him/her, mostly negative and often sexist. Doesn’t seem to like strong women much.
Thanks for throwing those names out there i couldn’t remember them all, and remember which records are the most recent. Also is the order going squat/bench/pull? Lol i got confused. And while i also respect everything of what powerlifting is about, i might go to a few meets and let that be it, i can respect your opinion of not liking powerlifting, but i still consider you a powerlifter, and ive seen many of your videos and read your posts, and you move some impressive weights around yourself anyways. And i do realize the numbers i have up wont mean much on a judges piece of paper, but to me it will mean a ton of things. you know?
@MarkKO Its whatever once i wake up tomorrow ill have forgotten about the posts from him. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but this is my training log, and negative comments can be taken else where.
Oh, I love powerlifting. It’s the meets I don’t like. They’re OK after squats, but deadlifts I just want to go home.
Which is all that matters.
I wasn’t trying to be discouraging, just wanted to give you a realistic idea of what to expect.