Mission: Strongest Girl in the Gym

Training Training Logs
61

[quote]emskee wrote:

[quote]RozS wrote:

It was a short workout that took a long time due to a phone-call from the principal :frowning: My daughter (7 years old and 40lbs, teeny tiny) has been getting bullied all year, and the bullying escalated to her getting thrown to the ground by a much larger kid earlier this week, so we’re trying to come up with solutions (I say expel the offenders, but it’s not my call, apparently).

[/quote]

A buddy of mine’s step son was getting bullied. School is “we’ll handle it, we know what to do.” Doesn’t stop so he calls the cops the next time, it is assault and battery after all. Boom, done.

Years later my kid is getting pushed around, school is “yeah this is tough, um, we know what to do.” Yup. Next time it happened I stopped by the police station. It is assault and battery after all. Cop says “thanks, we wish more parents would come to us, it is assault and battery after all. We need to get to know these kids now when when they are young and we can intervene, and if that doesn’t work, we need to get to know these kids because we’ll be dealing with them when they get older any way.” In short, police go to kids’ houses, boom, done.
[/quote]

Thanks for the insight and experience. I wish the ‘ostrich’ approach wasn’t so prevalent in schools…

I made my case to the school board last night, and heard back from the asst. superintendent as I was leaving the gym today. Apparently it’s a privacy issue for them to tell me what the consequences for my daughter’s attackers were, but he’s going to make sure that something has been done. I call bullshit. Someone attacks my kid, I want to know what happened to them, plain and simple. I’m going to be taking her to file a police report after all, because I’m tired of being jerked around.

62

3/18 DEADLIFTS!!!

I PR’d MY DEADLIFT BY 35LBS!!!

Previous PR (last week) was 176 for 4, today I pulled 210 for 3 singles. Singles because my grip is not quite up to snuff to hold that much weight for more than one pull.

I’ve been pulling ‘super sumo’ (toes barely inside the plates) and feeling really strong with it, but today I couldn’t get it off the floor for anything. So, I switched my stance to conventional and used a double overhand grip and 176 came up easy. Switched back to a mixed grip, still using a conventional stance, and 210 came up like it was nothing. My lifting partners said my shoulders dropped a little, but not a concerning amount.

Yay for ‘big’ PRs!!!

63

Good work!

64

[quote]RozS wrote:

Thanks for the insight and experience. I wish the ‘ostrich’ approach wasn’t so prevalent in schools…

I made my case to the school board last night, and heard back from the asst. superintendent as I was leaving the gym today. Apparently it’s a privacy issue for them to tell me what the consequences for my daughter’s attackers were, but he’s going to make sure that something has been done. I call bullshit. Someone attacks my kid, I want to know what happened to them, plain and simple. I’m going to be taking her to file a police report after all, because I’m tired of being jerked around.

[/quote]

I heard a story once of someone who could not get the school to keep the bullies at bay. “What can we do? It is a public school.” So the guy went and got a restraining order against the bullies which the school had to enforce.

Anyway, good luck. This kind of crap just galls me.

65

Restraining order and taking it to the State’s Attorney are next on the list if I don’t like what the superintendent’s office has to say.

66

It’s okay, I’m teaching our daughter how to box. :slight_smile:

67

3/24- Chest and arms

The kids are on spring break this week, so I took the week off work and am having to squeeze in my workouts whenever/however I can. So yesterday’s workout was done at home.

Bench press each set was to failure
45
65
85
105
125 (failed at the bottom, kids wouldn’t leave me alone, couldn’t focus)

Drop sets from 105 to 35. I put my feet up on the last set (35lbs) because my back was on fire due to my bench being way too tall.

Empty bar (15lbs) curls
I got to 30 and my darling husband told me to go for 100, so I did. Holy bicep pump, Batman. I never do curls, so I really didn’t think I’d be able to get all 100.

Stair pushups
5th step - 1st step x10 each. I’m just as bad about doing pushups as I am other arm work, so 10 is right about failure for me, and doing ‘real’ pushups (no knees/box/step/whatever) is impossible.

‘Boulders for shoulders’ routine
5 sets w/ 10lb plate

Empty bar skull crushers SS w/ floor press
5 sets of 15/15

68

Changing to a push/pull split instead of a lift-focused split.

3/26- Pull set A

Foam roll

Inverted Rows, 5 sets of 10

DEADLIFTS! (In kilos, you know why :wink: )
Still conventional. Sumo still feels bad, no idea why. It makes me sad.
45x10
65x10
85x5
(workout interrupted by gym drama. I’m beginning to hate lifting at work)
Too cold for second set at 85kg. Moved on.

Lat. Pull-Down (lbs)
66x10
88x10 (3 sets)

Shrugs (lbs)
35x12
40x12
50x12 (3 sets)

Curls (lbs)
20x50

69

Did legs yesterday, still trying to fix my squat, blah blah blah. Grump grump.

WUAP Nationals are 3 months from today and my squat is still absolutely horrid.

Monday starts 10 weeks of hellacious training to get everything ready for the meet.

70

I was supposed to meet with my new trainer (competitive powerlifter for 20+ years) today, BUT I’m snuggling a sick girl-child instead, so that was rescheduled for tomorrow. She’s growing up so fast, I’ll hold her while I can, the weights can wait.

/sappy mom post

71

[quote]The_Jed wrote:
It’s okay, I’m teaching our daughter how to box. :)[/quote]

I vote this. Punch the bullies in the mouth. Its more fun.

72

4/1 Heavy day with new, unofficial, trainer

My kids have been sick and, like kids do, have shared their germs with me, so I wasn’t really feeling up to par.

I wrote stuff down, but I’m trapped under one of the aforementioned sick children and my notebook isn’t within reach, so my synopsis will have to suffice :slight_smile:

Did a lot of doubles and triples with heavier weight before moving on to a 1RM attempt (133lbs, again), which I missed. Moved on to narrow grip (3 sets of 6). The last set (50kgs) was a grinder due to my right elbow going numb. No popping, no pain, just complete numbness so I couldn’t feel it moving at all. The only other time that’s happened is when I’ve done drop sets and get to the empty bar, but even then, my whole arm goes numb, not just the elbow.

73

Update city:

My daughter is back to school and the superintendent and I reached an agreement that, from what I hear, is being enforced well, and is helping her feel safer. The principal still refuses to call it a ‘bullying’ incident, but he still has to comply with the superintendent’s recommendations, so I guess I can live with that.

4/2 Back & Squats with unofficial trainer

My biggest fear going into my national meet in June is my squat. I’ve never been good at breaking parallel and, due to SHORT shins and extra long femurs, I have always done more of a ‘good morning’ than a squat (lots of buckling at the waist). After an hour of squatting just the bar, over and over again, with a box and without a box, all of those problems seem to be behind me. I still have to break some bad habits that will hold back the amount of weight I’m capable of handling (mostly in the un-racking/racking area), but I should be good to go on form.

After squats we moved on to low-pin DL (where we had to agree to disagree on form) and I pulled 185lbs for 5 sets of 3.

Finished the day with barbell shrugs, 3 sets of 15 at 95lbs.

4/4 Light bench/arm day on my own
Bench Press, 30kg, 8 sets of 3 focusing on speed and form

Pec Deck
80lbsx8
90lbsx8
100lbsx8 (holy heavy, Batman! But I did it!)

Plate raises
25lbsx8 (3 sets)

DB Rear delt raise
15lbsx8 (3 sets)

Lat. pull-down
99lbsx8 (3 sets)

Tricep press-downs
44lbsx8 (3 sets)

Barbell curls
30lbsx8 (3 sets)

I also tossed in some ab work on the 3rd, with a co-worker who LOVES ab day, only to have my boss walk in for a staff development meeting where we did more abs. To failure. It was brutal. I didn’t know it was possible for my abs to get this sore.

74

[quote]jbpick86 wrote:

[quote]The_Jed wrote:
It’s okay, I’m teaching our daughter how to box. :)[/quote]

I vote this. Punch the bullies in the mouth. Its more fun. [/quote]

Tends to settle the argument. :slight_smile:

75

4/7 Heavy bench work

Warmed up with a whole lotta doubles.

I failed on 60kg at the lockout, again. I don’t know what the deal with this weight is, but I can’t get my head around it to lock it out! Just a month ago I was getting it at the end of a workout like it was nothing. Ugh.

Moved on to board presses
60kg off 3 boards, 2 sets of 2
70kg off 4 boards, 2 grinding reps, but I got them
70kg off 5 boards, easy 4 reps

I’ve been dealing with a sinus infection for the past week or so, so my appetite and intake have been way low, which I know is affecting my strength. Time to get busy and ‘feed the machine’. I just need to remember that my body can’t lift without enough fuel and push through it.

76

In non-powerlifting related news, my motorcycle is FINALLY running. I was a bad motorcycle mom last fall and parked it with less than half of a tank of fuel, no fuel stabilizer and I didn’t pull the battery. So the battery has been on my crappy 3amp charger for over a week, and it had to be roll started, but I got to ride it! WoooooHooooo!!!

Now to fuel it up, dump in some SeaFoam and go for a long enough ride to finish charging the battery. I’m just going to pretend that the stator doesn’t need replaced and keep pulling and re-charging the battery after short rides. Yep, that’s what I’m gonna do.

Video:

77

I may have been too optimistic about my motorcycle. There’s a breakdown somewhere in the electric start system and I can’t seem to find it. I also can’t get it to kick start (but my husband can) or roll start (I’m too short). This might be the year I finally sell the stupid thing.

Squats and deadlifts today!

78

4/9 Squats and rack pulls.

Today was less than stellar. More empty bar squats to get better form, finally progressing to 95lbs. Still struggling with depth consistency.

Moved to low-pin rack pulls, worked up to 185 for 3 sets of 3 after giving my hands a firm talking-to about letting go of the bar (stupid weak grip). Tried 225, couldn’t get it to budge.

In between the last set at 185 and the 225 attempt, though, my best friend texted me to tell me her dad died, so that (very shocking) news may have affected my ability to focus and move weight.

My nutrition is still way off, but I’m working on getting it back. I’m down to 172lbs body weight, which is not where I want to be 2 months out from my national meet. I don’t know how to eat any more, though, I’m already gagging to get to 1600 cals. Ugh.

I need to take a day and re-evaluate and re-focus my goals. Good thing tomorrow is a rest day :slight_smile:

79

4/11 Light bench/arm day on my own
Body weight is not-so-slowly dropping, down to 170lbs this morning (a total of 7lbs gone in the past 10 days) and really feeling it in my (lack of) strength.

Bench Press
30kg, 8 sets of 3 focusing on speed and form

Pec Deck
90lbsx8
90lbsx8
80lbsx8

Plate raises
25lbsx8 (3 sets)

DB Rear delt raise
15lbsx8 (3 sets)

Lat. pull-down
99lbsx8
110x8 (2 sets)

Tricep press-downs
44lbsx8 (8 sets)

Dumbbell curls
15lbsx8
20lbsx8
20lbsx8

This workout was W.O.R.K. and I was completely exhausted by the end. Stupid nutrition and weight-loss.

80

[quote]RozS wrote:
I may have been too optimistic about my motorcycle. There’s a breakdown somewhere in the electric start system and I can’t seem to find it. I also can’t get it to kick start (but my husband can) or roll start (I’m too short). This might be the year I finally sell the stupid thing.

Squats and deadlifts today![/quote]

Bike SOUNDS great!!!

“Breakdown” as in it won’t engage the starter? Like loose wire, funked up relay, switch? I had a turn signal switch which didn’t work. Took it apart and there was a dead bee between the contacts. (?)

Anyway, that had to feel good. And glad all of YOU are all feeling better. Mucinex.