[quote]Court wrote:
So I’ve been a relatively quiet lurker for a while, but now that I officially have my next goal, I’ve decided to post my log to get there. No, despite the thread name, I do not want to weigh 225… but that’s what I want to squat by September 30th. Prior to January, I had never ventured over to the “boys” side of the gym - however now, I love being one of the few girls over there and I love lifting. So much so that since I ran my half-marathon in May, I’ve had zero desire to do cardio (except some HIIT) and now lift 4-5 times a week.
So a bit of background… I was always ‘in shape’ growing up due to sports. Played tons of volleyball, soccer and ran track. University came and I met alcohol and relationship weight and by last July was 175lbs and a size 12 (this picture is from Dec 06, just a little smaller than July 07). When my size 12 work pants were getting tight, it hit me - I hated being like that. I wasn’t as confident as I used to be, and I certainly hated having to position my face ‘just so’ in order to try to minimize the double chin look, so I cleaned up my diet and played soccer all summer and (very irregularly) jogged. I’d lost 20lbs and was ‘almost’ a size 8 as of December.
That’s when my best friend got me back into the gym and running and I decided I was going to begin my quest of running a marathon by doing a half in a nearby town in May. I had my last “hoorah” in Cuba with my family over Christmas, then buckled down. I enlisted the help of my friend Todd to build some weight lifting programs as well as nutrition breakdowns for me and went to it. Getting there I went through some pretty high highs and some pretty low lows. I realized just how ‘tough’ I am and how much I can push myself through. There was a point about 3 weeks before my race when I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do it.
I strained both of my hamstrings in one workout and on the following week’s long run, it felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to my knee. I reached out to Bartl as I knew he was going through some of the same things in his Physique Clinic as he prepped for his Tri. He had some great advice and I went into my half KNOWING I could do it, even though I didn’t run at all in the 7 days leading up to it. On May 11th I finished my half marathon (almost in tears and with an unbelievable amount of pain in my knee) in just over 2 hours.
Since December I’ve lost only 5lbs, but have replaced a lot of fat with muscle, as I’m now sitting comfortably at a size 6 (which I haven’t been in close to 6 years). I’ve never been one to care about scale weight and track my measurements more closely (although I’d love to sit below 150). After my half, I tried a few different things, but started to get bored. I felt like I had nothing to work towards and I’m a very goal oriented person. After talking with Bartl and Todd, it was decided that I will be squatting two plates by September. And will have video to share :D.
With this log, I’ll track my progress, my workouts, as well as some ranting, raving and random thoughts to keep it interesting. Feel free to add in any advice or encouragement, or if I’m being down and a lazy ass, tell me to suck it up and hit the gym to train.
I’ll post tonights training likely tomorrow from work.
Edit: As I was browsing for that pic, I cringed. That person is gone like it’s nobody’s business. Can’t believe I actually posted it. Ah![/quote]
Granted I just read that you wanted to get up to a 225 lbs squat.
Here is your solution:
startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki
I honestly can tell you that there isn’t a program on earth that will improve a novices squat numbers better than starting strenght. Look it over, its made for you 
