[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:
Congrats on the deadlift.[/quote]
Thanks 
They’re kind of like the deadlift equivalent of a one-legged squat. There are photos and a description in this article:
I do the knee to floor version.
Hiya Saan!
I am hoping to pick your brain.
I don’t like shrugs or dips due to a previous AC injury.
What do you do for your shoulders? Do you have a secret weapon?
Celeste
My main shoulder exercise is (standing) military presses; BB, one-arm and DB are my favorites, in that order. Sometimes I do the BB presses behind my head, sometimes in front. Usually I use 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps, occasionally I do 3 sets of 20. My shoulders started looking good for the first time to me around the time I started using the 3 sets of 20; not sure if this is coincidence or not yet. I like to lift as heavy as possible so the sets of 20 are obviously not a favorite.
I also really like overhead squats and overhead shrugs. Pushups seem to hit my shoulders pretty well too but I think this is an individual thing.
[quote]Saan wrote:
My main shoulder exercise is (standing) military presses; BB, one-arm and DB are my favorites, in that order. Sometimes I do the BB presses behind my head, sometimes in front. Usually I use 3-4 sets of 6-10 reps, occasionally I do 3 sets of 20. My shoulders started looking good for the first time to me around the time I started using the 3 sets of 20; not sure if this is coincidence or not yet. I like to lift as heavy as possible so the sets of 20 are obviously not a favorite.
I also really like overhead squats and overhead shrugs. Pushups seem to hit my shoulders pretty well too but I think this is an individual thing. [/quote]
Thanks Saan!
I am doing some military presses but I haven’t given the one-armed presses a try.
I will work some of those in. Push ups I do like. Maybe I need to pay them more attention!
Thanks Saan!
17 April
Dips: bw/10! 1.5kg/5 3/5 4/4 5/4 6.5/3 8/3 20lbs(DB between feet)/3 25lbs/2
Seated cable rows: 43kg/12 43/10 43/9
supersetted with
Seated DB power cleans: 15lbs/12 15/12 15/12
Overhead shrugs: 30kg/12 35/12 40/12
EZ bar reverse curls: 16.5kg/12 16.5/10 16.5/8
10 bodyweight dips was an old goal that I hadn’t tried for in a while (last time I did bodyweight dips it was after a bunch of pullups and pushups so I didn’t do so well). I got the set of 10 pretty easily, though the last rep was a little slow. Since I was at the gym in the middle of the afternoon I anticipated that nobody would be around to spot me in the bench press–indeed I was alone in the weight room. So I decided to try dips as a ME movement. I had 8kg worth of ankle weights with me and thought that would be enough but it wasn’t so I tried putting a DB between my feet. I did ok with the 20lbs DB but the 25lbs slipped out. I tried holding it between my knees and that wasn’t much better. So I could have probably done more weight, or at least gotten the third rep, if I wasn’t dealing with the awkward DB. I do have an additional 10kg ankle weights I can bring next time but I guess I really need a dip belt now.
I went a little “easy” on the shrugs and curls just to make sure my wrist is ok. There was a slight ache near the end of the curls but I think I’m pretty much healed and will be able to go heavier next time.
I’m two weeks away from my trip to the US so I’m going to try to up the frequency of my workouts (I’ve already started, actually). The first week I’m in the US I’ll be traveling a lot so I’ll probably take that week off but after that I am going to try to find gyms to go to–that’s a necessity because I’ll be there almost a month. I’ve never really been able to get good workouts in while traveling but this is something I need to figure out because I travel a lot.
[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:
Thanks Saan!
I am doing some military presses but I haven’t given the one-armed presses a try.
I will work some of those in. Push ups I do like. Maybe I need to pay them more attention!
Thanks Saan!
[/quote]
You’re welcome Celeste. Just remember I’ve only been doing this a year so I am no expert. Have fun with the one-arm presses–I think they’re fun anyway. Pushups with your feet on a bench will hit your shoulders even more.
[quote]cheeta wrote:
Congratulations on the DIPS!!! OH MY ! I wish I could just do 1 of those then I would be happy Oh and Shit girl Lookin HAWT! [/quote]
Thanks Thelma! I’m surprised you can’t do dips; I thought you were a bit stronger than me. Have you tried them recently?
19 April
Single-leg squats: 10 9 7 6
Parallel-grip pullups (throughout): 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 (=24)
Split squats front foot elevated: 35kg/10 35/11
Pull-throughs: 64kg/12 68/10 68/12
Hanging leg raises: 10 10 8 9
Front foot elevated split squats are fantastically difficult. I hate them. I’ve been using them as an assistance exercise longer than any other so I think I’ll switch them for step-ups soon.
I got a better range of motion with my leg raises than ever before, quite a bit above parallel. Maybe I’ll get my feet up to the bar sooner than I thought.
20 April
Fingertip pushups: 10 10 10 10
Parallel-grip pullups (throughout): 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 (=13)
One-arm military press: 30lbs/8 30/9 30/10 30/10
Face-pulls: 41kg/12 41/12 41/12
BB shrugs: 75kg/10 75/10 75/10
I moved the military press up in the exercise list because I’m usually too fatigued to do very well with it. I did much better last night. I might put it first next time and see what I can do with the 35lbs DB.
22 April
Ha ha ha.
I didn’t really want to log this workout but this is reality, not everything is always perfect. 
Overhead squat: 20kg/lots (just a warmup)
Sumo deadlifts: 60kg/10 70/5 80/4 (meant to do five but something was wrong–my lower back started hurting so I stopped) 85/1 (ouch! STOP!)
Yeah, so this was weird. I had gotten some bad news just a few hours before this workout and I was definitely distracted and having a hard time focusing on my training, which is very unusual for me. My form must have been quite wrong on the 80kg deadlift, lower back rounded or I don’t know what. I tried really hard to focus and get the form right for the 85kg but that one rep hurt and as much as I hated to, I knew I needed to stop. With the pain I felt I couldn’t imagine putting a barbell on my back to do reverse lunges, so I just walked out of the gym–it felt so odd to cut the session short like this. I’ve had issues with low back pain in the past but I thought I was past that now that I’m strong. My strength has helped though, as this kind of thing probably would have had me in pain for a week or more in the past but I only have the slightest echo of pain today.
When I got home I used ice on it and alternated that with a warm bath. I felt pretty stiff though. Yesterday I took a really long walk (about 3 hours) and that probably helped a lot. By yesterday evening I was feeling well enough to wear heels to an event (not the nicest thing to do to my body but I seem to not have any nice shoes that don’t have heels–this is something I should remedy). If I sit too long in one position I’m getting a little pain and stiffness today but it is not bad at all. I plan on going to the gym for my ME upper session tonight. I’ll probably change or skip a few exercises just to be safe.
My life is getting really busy/insane right now and I don’t expect that to let up until the end of May, at least. So I may not log all my workouts here for a while.
24 April
I had to spend most of the afternoon at my desk so my back was pretty stiff. So I started with about 20 minutes walking around the garden to loosen things up.
Dips: bw/6 3kg/5 5/5 8/4 10/3 13/3 15/3 18/2!
Parallel-grip pullups: 5 4 4 3 3 3 3 (=25)
Chinups: 2 (just for the heck of it, it’s been a while since I’ve done them)
I was pretty surprised I was able to do weighted dips with 18kg! There was a woman about my age in the gym working out with her daughter and they were impressed with my strength; the mother called me wonder woman and said I was her new inspiration. 
That was awesome.
I skipped all my assistance exercises to spare my back aggravation or re-injury. I’m going to try to get 4 more workouts in before I leave for the US but it seems that as is usual the past couple of months my plans are all messed up. At least I’m still gaining strength; I must be doing something right.
Hello from the US!
I’ve not done bad at all finding time/places to train on this trip, so hooray to figuring that out. My first week was supposed to be an “off” week but I did go to a gym twice on either end (Sunday/Sunday) for a full body workout–single-leg squats, pullups, dips, one-arm presses, overhead squats and rows. The next week I did bodyweight stuff and even once went to a playground to do pullups and inverted rows on the jungle gym along with single-leg squats, pushups and king deadlifts.
A couple of my friends here in Albuquerque just started going to a gym about a month ago and I’ve gotten to go along with them. Their gym is pretty ghetto and I love it–lots of weight plates and dumbbells, a pullup bar so close to the ceiling that even though the ceiling tile has been partially pushed out of the way, you still hit your head at the top, some pretty buff dudes lifting real weight (I never see this at my swanky gym in China) and hot firefighters who were impressed with my single-leg squats.
Here are my last two workouts:
16 May
Dips: bw/10 2.5lbs/8 5/8 7.5/5 12.5/4 15/3 20/3 25/3 27.5/2 (I was surprised I couldn’t do more than 27.5lbs but then I went over to the scale and discovered I weighed 144.3lbs, which is at least 10lbs more than the last time I did weighted dips, so I guess it works out)
Kneeling DB rows: 35lbs/12 40/9 40/10
supersetted with
Seated DB power cleans: 15lbs/12 15/12 15/10
Overhead Shrugs: 75lbs/12 85/12 85/12
DB reverse curls: 15lbs/12 20/6 15/10 (unfortunately they didn’t have an EZ bar light enough for me)
Farmer’s walks: 70lbs DBs as far as I could handle, 4x
Parallel-grip pullups: 4 3 3
19 May
bodyweight was 147lbs, which makes me especially happy with my pullups!
Single-leg squats: 6 7 6 6 (I’ve lost a lot of strength on these with the infrequent workouts+increased bodyweight)
Parallel-grip pullups: 5 5 4 4 3 4 4 (=29)
Drop squats: 30lbs/8 45/3 45/5 45/5 45/6
Pull-throughs: 140lbs/12 150/12 150/11
Leg raises: 10 10 10 10
Plate pinches: 2 10lbs plates in each hand, 25s 35s 35s
I got asked if I am an athlete and this time I think the question was serious and not flirting like it was last summer the other time I was asked. I told him I’m only a wannabe strength athlete. He was impressed I’d only been doing this a year.
21 May
Fingertip pushups: 10 10 5 4
Parallel-grip pullups: 5 4 2
One-arm military press: 30lbs/11 30/8 30/7
Face-pulls: 80lbs/12 80/12 80/12
BB shrugs: 145lbs/12 155/12 155/12
DB curls: 20lbs/12 20/8 20/7
I was totally weak and wimpy in the gym yesterday. My friend tried to give me the excuse of the high altitude but I didn’t feel so affected by it in my two previous workouts here in Abq. No worries, though, I’m sure I’ll start getting stronger again once I’m back in Beijing and can be more consistent with training and diet. Nutrition has certainly been sub-par recently–chips and salsa does not make a good pre-workout meal.
Since I’ve got some free time today and posted in a couple of other threads, I thought I’d update my log. I’ve been busy and stressed (I am trying to coordinate a move to the US from both China and Germany at once–the Olympics, among general life-in-China difficulties, make this really hard). But I’m still plugging away at the gym, though possibly not making as much progress as I could without all the stress.
I was starting to have less motivation for going to the gym at the beginning of the summer and so took a month to follow the 21-day Itch template ( http://www.T-Nation.com/readArticle.do?id=731656 ). This did help bring back my motivation and make going to the gym fun again. I kept viewing the cardio days as optional and really loosened up with my diet, so I gained a bit more fat along with muscle than I really wanted. I’m not overly concerned with that though. My bodyweight is currently 70kg and I look and feel great.
After that I decided to go back to WS4SB3, as I’ve had such good gains with that program and didn’t really feel like taking the time to hunt down another good strength-oriented program.
Some of my recent accomplishments that make me happy:
weighted dips bw+15kg (85kg) 2 reps
BB overhead shrugs: 3 sets of 12 reps at 50kg
BB reverse lunges: 3 sets of 10 reps at 45kg
The night before last my husband challenged me a bit and I got a controlled eccentric one-arm pushup (so I’m going to start working on this skill now, it can’t be far away) and almost got a fingertip pullup (I got my chin up to the bar but not over).
I’m not very happy with where my bench, squat and deadlift stand right now though. Bench is 52.5kg (115lbs) for 3 reps, back squat (atg) is 75kg (165lbs) for 2 reps and deadlift is still 100kg (220lbs) for 2 reps. I think my back squat (as well as my front squat) will be going up pretty easily, as I seem to be doing really well with split squat variations right now but I’m not so sure about bench and deadlifts. It’s been almost a month since my last heavy deadlift but that will be my ME movement on Friday so wish me strength. 
Welcome back Saan!
I’m jealous of your back and shoulders and it motivates me! The muscles are a nice “thickness” and I think it’s beautiful! (no homo) LOL
We are very close in weight for squats and bench, not as close for deads. The program I’m following started with deads and squats in the first stage. I love them!! I miss them : ( I get to do them again, and bench press in 8 weeks.
So I jealously wish you strength for Friday!
I’ve always been envious of the kind of strength you have…glad to see you back and hope you can stick around!
I am also doing the ws4sb program, so it would be fun to compare notes!
oh wait, I just noticed there are different versions of the ws4sb program…I’m trying to look it up!
Heh. I haven’t been on the forums in almost a month! Well, I did say this is a busy time for me. I just got back from a short trip to Europe where I didn’t lift at all. I really missed the gym but it was an insanely busy trip (finishing up business in Germany and getting my belongings that are in storage there ready for shipment to the US). I walked a hell of a lot but that didn’t satisfy me. However, right before the trip I went to the gym three days in a row and got some exciting PRs:
Your wishes for strength for me did me good as I finally got my 105kg (232lbs) deadlift that Friday! On my next ME lower day I smashed my previous PR of 52.5kg in the front squat and got 57.5kg. Two days later I got another huge PR of 20kg additional weight on dips for a total weight (bodyweight was 70.5) of 90.5kg which is that nice round number 200lbs.! So I probably needed the break.
Now that I’m back everything is still going well–did a 82.5kg snatch-grip deadlift on Monday, my first day back–and it felt easy. My bench progress is still slow though–I tried for 55kg for the first time tonight and my spotter had to help me a little. 
I’m a little worried that I’m going to have a hard time with chins/pullups now, as my weight is up to 73kg after feasting in Europe. I’m going to cut a few calories and carbs this last month in China and try to do a bit more cardio in an effort to lose a little fat. I’ve been eating a lot and focusing on strength for almost a year now. I’ve gained about 10kg in that time and it can’t all be muscle. I figure now is a good time to lose some fat because when I get to the US I am going to be finding a hardcore gym and looking into competing in powerlifting or strongwoman.
I’m enjoying all the new threads with photos and videos of competition etc. I wish I had more time to contribute myself but that probably won’t happen until after I’m in NJ in October. Looking forward to closing this chapter of my life and starting the next one.
Thanks for the compliments on my back photo, Brett. I really need to take new ones since that one is from, I believe, March!
Mom-in-MD–I’m doing WS4SB3 and you can find it here:
http://defrancotraining.com/articles/articles.htm
I’ve used the template for quite a while now so I’ve started modifying it here and there to suit my needs and experiment a bit with what works best for me.
You are one strong strong woman!! Holy cow! Military press isn’t my favorite by a long shot but I might try some of your variations you use.
What gym in Albuquerque did you go to? It sounds like it could almost be any of them. Thank goodness its not mine… our pull up bar is on a machine.
Thanks, nrosaliem. I feel weak compared to some of the other women here but I try! I don’t exactly love the military press but when I first started lifting I read somewhere that women tend to be weak in overhead strength and I decided to make it a priority right from the beginning. Before my trip to Europe I pressed 4 sets of 8 reps with 32.5kg (71 lbs.) and I was hugely proud of that. I’m considering trying the BB military press as a max effort movement soon; I have no idea what kind of weight I could lift if I lowered the reps since I’ve generally been in the 6-12 rep range.
I do feel strong doing the one-arm DB version though; not sure why, maybe it just looks cool. Give it a try.
I was at Mike’s Gym in Albuquerque. I was so happy to be at a place where people came to actually lift heavy weights rather than my gym here in China where people come to look at themselves in the mirror, bench press on the Smith machine, swing around the 5-15lbs. dumbbells and watch television, all while music that would suck the testosterone out of the manliest of men plays stupidly loud.