Saan's Strength Log

Training
121

[quote]Saan wrote:
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. :wink: 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.[/quote]

I don’t feel so bad now! Military press is hard… I start off doing them but will finish on a machine. Bad me.

My husband and I had looked at Mike’s Gym but there is no child care. I could imagine some characters go in there!!

122

I’m in the US now and fairly settled in so it’s time for an update. I didn’t realize until I looked that it’s been more than two months since I posted here.

It was difficult to keep up with training through the move but I did my best. I focused on the essentials–squats, deadlifts, overhead presses, rows, chinups and dips with supplemental bodyweight sessions when I couldn’t get to a gym.

So I was training total body workouts about three times a week for two months. About a month ago I found a house–I am in Florham Park, New Jersey–and shortly thereafter joined a gym that’s about a 20 minute walk away.

This was good since I didn’t even have a car until last week. It’s pretty difficult to get by in this car-oriented country without one! I had to hunt down all the sidewalks.

The trainer who signed me up at the gym said there are some powerlifters who train there, which really excited me. I have yet to meet them though. The gym has three squat racks, plenty of weights and some nifty tools I haven’t used before like the ab wheel and wrist roller. I know these are probably pretty basic but hey, my gym in China was small.

A bit after joining the gym I went back to my old standard WS4SB3, not knowing–or really having the time to find or plan–what else to do.

I was pretty excited to deadlift 250lbs. for a double last Thursday. I actually caused a bit of a stir in my gym and gathered a crowd when I pulled 245lbs. I was so focused on my lift I didn’t notice until I’d finished my set of three and I’m thankful for that–I might have felt nervous with about a dozen people watching.

Luckily they mostly wandered off while I rested before adding just a little more weight so I could have the nice round number 250. One trainer commented that my form looked good and another said that the 250 looked pretty easy. :slight_smile:

So I was all glowing and hopeful for my deadlift after that. My goal has been to hit 300lbs. by the end of the year but that gives me only two months to add 50lbs. I’m not sure how that will go but I will keep working on it.

I’ve been aggravated with many of my other lifts though. I benched 125lbs. for a set of three on Sunday but had a little help from my spotter with the third rep. This represents some progress from this summer, when I seemed to be stuck in the 52kg. range for months…but progress is so slow it is frustrating.

I’m similarly frustrated with my squat. A couple of weeks ago I was doing sets of 5 with 157.5lbs. but my form kept sucking on the last couple of reps. I find myself bending over too far and kind of good-morning-ing the weight up. I know I can go heavier but I have to get my form under control.

So my last session with squats I took the weight down to 135 and tried for five sets of five but my form started going again at the end of the fourth set and I decided to stop there. Blah.

I looked into powerlifting competitions coming up in my area but didn’t really find much that happens soon–a bench and curl competition but that is surely not for me. I’m feeling a little lost and drifting right now.

I want to add some more physical activity to my schedule besides weightlifting and raking leaves :stuck_out_tongue: but there are no African dance classes near enough to be practical to go to a couple of times a week.

I’ve been asking around about martial arts and there is a recommended school for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu near me, which I am considering trying. Their website really intimidates me–I will just have to get over that though. I was intimidated by the gym at first too.

But then I’m afraid I’ll really like BJJ and how will I have time to do both that and go to the gym four times a week and work on getting my deadlift to 300? Then I keep hoping I will meet these powerlifters in my gym and they will let me be a part of their secret club :wink: and help me out with deadlifting and maybe competing . . .

For now I’m still drifting, still lifting.

123

Proof! Ok, here is one of Friday’s warmup sets, 3 at 225lbs.

[video]1072[/video]

(Edit: seems to not be working? I will try uploading it directly rather than embedding).

124

225lbs.

(Edit: aww, still not appearing. Perhaps I need to wait and it will appear after a bit? Regardless, the three videos are in my profile. Sets of three with 225 and 245 and a single at 255. I wanted to lift the 255 twice but I was displeased with my form and decided to stop there for the time being. Any form critique would be greatly appreciated. As long as I remember my camera, I’ll take some video later this/next week of my sucky squats and bench too).

125

Ah, yes, I just needed patience. Here is 245lbs.

126

Heh, I’m not really as wide as I appear to be in the last two videos–they were oriented vertically and I guess they got automatically stretched out when converted to flash. I’ve gained weight but not that much. :wink:

127

One more try. :stuck_out_tongue: 255lbs.

128

can’t believe you cut the hair…great lifting!

129

[quote]HARA wrote:
can’t believe you cut the hair…great lifting![/quote]

Thanks.

It was a difficult decision but my dreads were getting ridiculous. They took almost two hours to wash and were so long I was starting to sit on them. I had them seven years; it was time for a change. It’s weird having short hair though. I’m already growing it out again.

130

I met another powerful woman from T-Nation in the gym last night! She was deadlifting; 'twas very cool. I had noticed her before because she has nicely muscular arms and was benching real weight but it was nice that she came up and said hello because I’m kind of shy and also usually too focused on doing my own thing to act social at the gym

On to the videos, perhaps too many of them. I started filming my squats at 135lbs. because last week I tried to do five sets of five at that weight, concentrating on form (I’ve felt my form has been a bit crappy for a while now) but found the last two sets pretty difficult. So I wasn’t sure how much heavier I’d go this week. Heavy enough for form issues to become apparent was the intent.

So here’s 135, which was pretty easy this week but then again the first set was pretty easy last week too.

131

145lbs.

132

155lbs.

133

165lbs.

134

Last one, 170lbs. Here you can see how I start to bend forward too much. Still, it doesn’t seem to look as bad as I thought it was. Probably all the squatting I’ve been doing is finally paying off. I’ve been squatting for only about seven months becaues my gym in China didn’t have a rack for the longest time, so I feel like I’m playing catch-up. Any form critique is, again, appreciated.

Turns out this is a PR in both weight and reps. That was a bit of a surprise (I had to go back and convert kilos to pounds from my sessions in China).

135

Heh, I can’t count. It’s been more like ten months since I started squatting. Perhaps I was subconsciously subtracting all the time I had off traveling and moving.

136

Saan, a couple tips:

  1. go up to a wall and put your feet slightly wider than your hips(toes slightly outward) and then lock your arms out over your head, slightly wider than shoulder width. Your toes should ideally be right against the wall.
    Your face should be 6 inches or so away from the wall.

Finally, squat down without your face getting smashed in the wall:) If it is, step back as needed. The point is to be able to do it right against the wall though.

This should help you maintain a more upright squat… if you able to bust these out easily up against the wall, I’d be very surprised.

  1. I can’t tell from the video all that well… but if you are placing the bar high on your traps, this might be another cause for leaning forward. If you are placing it high, try a lower bar placement.

  2. Do you have a stomach full of air at the bottom? (stomach, not chest)

  3. weight on heels, initiate from the hips.

All that being said, you have pretty good form for going ass to grass with some good weight.

137

Thanks for the tips. (And sorry to take so long to respond; I hadn’t been on the forums for a while and for some reason didn’t get an email informing me that I had a new post in my thread).

  1. I was able to get the wall squats about an inch away but when right against the wall got the face-smash. I will work on these.

  2. Honestly I don’t know if my placement is high or low. It’s at a place that feels comfortable to me but it is possibly a bit high. I will see about getting a video or photo that shows my bar placement.

  3. Yes, my stomach is definitely full of air. Belly-breathing is natural to me and I take a big breath and brace my abs before squatting down.

  4. Occasionally I’ll find my weight rolling forward but I usually do a good job of keeping my weight centered on my heels. Of course the rolling forward is often accompanied by the bending forward that I mention having trouble with when going heavier.

Thanks again. These are helpful tips, especially the wall squats. I’m going to try to work on their form almost daily until they feel comfortable.

138

While I’m here . . .

Last week I started a round of EDT as well as tightening up my diet with the goal of losing some of the excess fat I’ve gained over the last several months while dealing with the move from China. If I can knock off just 10lbs. of fat without losing muscle or strength I’ll be happy.

I’m basing my EDT on this program, though I’m only doing two PR zones after the strength lift:

I enjoy the way EDT has me pushing myself and it’s nice for a change. The “as many singles with 80-90% of 1RM in 15 minutes as possible” is fun and challenging. I can’t say how well it works yet as I’m only starting my second week but last week I deadlifted 215lbs. 16 times in 15 minutes (plus a double at that weight as my last warmup, just because) and this week I managed 12 reps at 230. This is pretty damn exciting given that it means I get to lift 240 as many times as possible next time and 240 is a weight I’ve only done for single sets of 2-3 in the past.

I remember when 200lbs. sounded like a lot and now it’s a warmup weight and these weights over 200 are starting to seem light. Lifting 230lbs. 12 times was no big deal. :slight_smile: I probably won’t get 300lbs. by the end of the year but it is definitely within my grasp in the next few months.

My other strength lifts are weighted dips and T-bar rows. My PR Zones are:

A day:
Zone 1: Front squats / pullups (15 minutes)
Zone 2: Pin press / ab wheel (15 minutes)

B day:
Zone 1: King deadlifts / push-press (20 minutes)
Zone 2: Full contact twist (10 minutes)

But I’m looking to replace the full-contact twist as it’s just killing me after push-presses. I’ve been trying to come up with something that balances the rest of my program but is more interesting than curls, triceps extensions or calf work. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’m also doing foam rolling and yoga twice a week and GPP on Saturdays. I’ve been trying to go on daily walks but a bunch of my winter clothing got destroyed in the sea shipment from China so without warm enough clothes (I have no winter jacket and only one set of long underwear) I’m failing to walk on colder days.

139

Saan,

Very impressive. Great work.
May I make two comments?

1~ On your deadlift, drop your butt FIRST, and use your legs and hips more. You have a very strong back, and seem to be using that in your deads, rathr than your legs. You will be able to lift more this way too.

2~ With your squat, again, butt back first, and keep tight. You are going down first, rather than butt back first. In your video, your kness are coming out over your feet. They should remain over the feet. This will keep your form tighter. Push your knees outward too.

Just my 2 cents!

Keep up the good work.

Frank
aka
mrbeefy

140

Great effort Saan!
Just an observation on something I used to do too - for safety reasons you’re better off BACKING OUT from the rack as you proceed to get into the squat position, this way you can see the hooks when its time to put the bar back on the rack. Really important especially when working with heavy weights and/or without spotters