I’ve been reading T-Nation and following peoples progress on here for years and after unabashedly using your hard work for my motivation for so long, I feel like I should give a little back.
I’m 5’4", about 127 pounds now. I’ve been working on losing weight and putting on muscle since about a year after I graduated high school, seven years ago (26 now). I was, at my heaviest, 160 pounds (which, on a 5’4" frame with no muscle was pretty chunky). I really got into lifting about four years ago. When I started I couldn’t deadlift my body weight. I had to put 25lbs on each end of the bar, and it was a dang hard workout. I couldn’t squat the bar correctly, couldn’t do a single pull-up or dip, and could bench around 95lbs (which I thought was really great, at the time).
This past April I competed in my first ever powerlifting competition here in Alaska (within the 132lb class). I squatted 188, benched 116 (failed on my 130, although I’d done it before), and deadlifted 258, all raw.
My goal is to compete, raw, in the next meet in November within the 123lb class and qualify for Nationals, which means, in the USAPL, a 640lb total. As I had a 568lb total at my first meet, and I have changed from a conventional deadlift to the sumo, which I apparently am WAY stronger at, I feel this is a really reasonable goal.
As far as my diet goes… This is a work in progress. I have found through trial and error that I do not do well on no carb diets, but I also don’t lose weight when I just let myself eat what I want. I maintain really well that way, but don’t lose a pound. For the past eight months or more I have been very consistent with my diet, and it seems to be working well (as I’ve put on a good amount of muscle and lost over 10 pounds). I’m not starving myself, as that really screws with my weight workouts.
For the past five months I’ve been following a 5-3-1 format (four workouts a week). I do about forty minutes of steady state cardio five times a week. I also just added in a direct arm day a few months ago. Until the start of this 5-3-1 program I had never really worked bench, and I didn’t really get serious about it until I decided to do a powerlifting competition. I also just recently switched from training front squats to working on my back squat, and switch my conventional deadlift to sumo for a while, so we’ll see how that all goes.
I have pictures in my profile for those of you who need evidence of the progress already made (and because I know everyone needs a face/body to go with the story).
Anyways, I hope you enjoy following along, and I’m looking forward to getting to know some of the amazing women on here that I’ve been following for a while.
