katja's training log

[katja]

Hi all. English is not my main language, please bear with me

I'm a 34 y.o female programmer, with no sports background. After being a total couch potato and eating unhealthy for years and years, I started exercising and eating cleaner in August 2008, and then lifting in December 2008, with a full body program taken from stumptuous.com. My goal is to be fitter, healthier, stronger and improve body composition. And to just have fun lifting

I made some progress for the first couple of months, but from then on it's been an uphill struggle. There's been some illness and other setbacks, but mainly I'm just a wimp and afraid of adding weight. So I thought I'd give the strong lifts program a try, to help cure me of my fear of weight. I've been visiting the site and forum for half a year now and the program appeals to me, I just haven't had the courage to try it before now!

Stats:
161 cm / 5'3"
58 kg / 130 lbs

Best lifts so far:
squat 3x5x40 kg (88 lbs)
press 3x6x19 kg (41 lbs)
deadlift 5x55 kg (121 lbs)
bench press 3x30 kg (66 lbs) or 8x27,5 kg (60 lbs)
negative chinups 5 reps
7 pushups

Goals: squat own weight, do an unassisted chinup/pullup, deadlift 80 kg.

I thought I'd start with 30 kg squats, 12 kg OHP, 40 kg deadlift, 20 kg bench press. Does this sound reasonable? Or should I also restart squat with the empty bar? I've been squatting between 25 and 37,5 kg for months and months now. This week, I finally gathered the courage to try 40 kg...

My main worries are a bad elbow and wrist which sometimes give me trouble when lifting with a bar. So I've been mainly sticking to dumbbell presses. But now I've found a therapist who can help with my elbow, and I can press with a bar again About the wrist, I'm not so sure, but I hope to be able to bench press with a bar at least once every two weeks. I include some forearm work weekly to help with the weak wrists.

I also try to fit in some cardio every week, usually walking and running intervals with my dogs.

I look forward to trying this program, and maybe chatting with other women who lift to be stronger. In real life, I don't know ANY women who train with free weights. Some have even tried to talk me out of it. For example, my (former) female massage therapist gave me a strict half-an-hour lecture against lifting anything more than a 3 kg dumbbell. And the women whose training blogs I follow, all do bodybuilding type programs. It can get a bit lonely...

In case you're interested, here's how my midsection has changed lately due to lifting. In February, I'd already lifted for a few months and wasn't nearly as flabby as in the beginning. My weight has stayed pretty much the same throughout. I try to eat about 2000 kcal every day.

[mpetry]

hey, looks like you've made good progress so far!

i would say that you should start with the empty bar if you have a mental thing against adding weight to the bar. in three weeks you'll be back to your maxes anyway!

[katja]

mpetry -- thanks for taking the time to read and answer, and thanks for the encouragement.

You might be right about starting the squat with an empty bar. Maybe my mind is more in need of a reset than my body, currently...

[Mouse]

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your lifting goals.
Here are some logs of some of the ladies here to get you started:

Pagangoddess
Kathy
Zizzy
Sandi
xcouchpotato

[Kathy]

Hi Katja and welcome to SL.

You've made wonderful progress already, I look look forward to reading about your continued journey.

Since you haven't been working with the bar much, I'll echo mpetry and suggest you start with just the bar. I know it seems like you're going backward but this way, you get used to balancing/controlling the bar. The weight adds up quickly so you'll be back to your max weights before you know it.

As for your fear of adding weight, have you practiced "dumping" the weights on the safety bars for squats? I found that this gave me lots of confidence-knew I could "escape" safely if I had to.

Oh...Mouse showed incredible restraint by NOT mentioning the color of your attire in the pictures. He's really got a thing for white undergarments His theory is that white enables you to lift heavier I tend to disagree but you may want to give it a try.

Happy Lifting!

[pagangoddess]

He's really got a thing for white undergarments His theory is that white enables you to lift heavier I tend to disagree but you may want to give it a try.

I was going to point out the same thing. No whities.

Welcome to the forum Katja. Kathy's advice is dead on. Practice dumping the bar so you know how to get out of it safely. Also start with the bar. You need the extra time to work on form.

Don't sweat not having other females around that strength train. I don't have any either but it hasn't stopped me. I fell in love with the iron. Like I said in my log "you can't separate a girl from her true love".

[XCouchPotato]

Hi Katja:

Welcome to the forum. I hope you will find us a very supportive and helpfull group.

I would agree with the others on the suggestion that you start your back squats using an empty bar first, particularly if you have not used a bar before. I know it was a big adjustment for me going from barbell squats to back squats. I thought my form should be identical but I found that the balance point of my body was really different between the two and it took me a bit to learn to proper form again.

Again wlcome aboard, I look forward to watching your progress.

[katja]

Hi everyone, and a huge thanks for the warm welcome I've been reading your logs today, you're all very impressive women (and a mouse).

I rarely wear white underwear, maybe that's why I'm so weak? *lol* My white undies somehow always magically turn grey, which should probably tell me something if I was smart enough to listen.

I made a mistake when I wrote "give me trouble when lifting with a bar", that should have been "pressing"... I have been squatting with a barbell from the beginning, but my bad wrist and elbow have made it difficult to press it. I haven't practiced dumping the barbell, but learning to use the squat rack has made it mentally easier to try more weight. Still, I always rather go for more reps than more weight, because weight intimidates me... Which seems to be getting me nowhere... Which is why I decided to give 5x5 a try

Day one today. It was... interesting. Nice to try something new. I don't know if I'll write about every workout so comprehensively but here goes...

Warmup with a broomstick:

I do this pretty much the same way every time... 100 back twists, then repeated 3 times: 12 shoulder locations, 12 GMs, 10 squats. When squatting heavier (well... heavier for me at least), I do more dynamic stretches.

Squat 5x5 20 kg

Kept the rests short and practiced form. My squat is probably not excellent, but I think it's getting better... At least I always go low, I have a mental thing against squatting too high after reading too much stumptuous.com And I think my back doesn't round much any more.

Bench 5x5 20 kg

My bad wrist didn't like the bar today I think I'll have to use dumbbells and longer sets at least every other A workout. I tried different grip widths and the best one seems to be with my little fingers on the rings. Still, didn't feel like I should try this with more weight again this week.

Inverted row 5, 5, 6

Based on this first attempt, I'm not a big fan of this... Just didn't get it at all. Right now I'd rather do bb rows, but maybe I'll give these a couple more attempts first.

Pushups 6, 4, 2 + 10 on knees

Disappointed that I still couldn't do more. Again, bad wrist didn't like. I tried using dumbbells for the last set (if you can call 2 reps a set...) and it felt better, although harder.

Bicep curl, overhand grip, barbell 9 kg 15, 12

These are not about biceps but my forearms... My massage therapist told me to do these to help with the weak wrists. He's the one who cured my bad elbow, so I hope he'll be right about this, too. I weep every time I have to do these because my grip is so weak But it's getting better, I think I should finally add weight.

a. Leg and hip lifts 3x12
b. Russian twist 5 kg 25, 25, 30

I think I'm going to continue doing abs the way I've done them before 5x5... I think I should keep a rotating exercise in my routine anyway since I've had some problems with my back. And working harder on abs has helped me with squat form.

[sgi4950]

Hi Katja,

Welcome to SL's.

I have one female friend that lifts weights (high reps, low weight) but she is more interested in physique as opposed to strength training. No benching, squatting, D/L's and she's vehemently opposed to my lifting program. Most other females think I'm crazy and don't "get it" but most of my friends are men anyways and they think it's cool - we get to lift together on occasion. Anyway, don't worry you'll have plenty of female (and male) support here.

Everyone that mentioned that you should practice dumping the bar is spot on, IMO. I found myself being much less intimidated by the weights once I learned how to dump the bar in the rack and how it actually feels to not be able to successfully make a weight. Hope that makes sense.

As for Mouse's whities....I might have to go out and get myself a pair of whities just to see if his theory has any validity. Mouse has a killer D/L!

Nice job on your progress so far. It will be fun following your log and watching your progress with SL's.

[katja]

Pffft I need to work on my English... Frex "12 shoulder locations" was of course supposed to be "dislocations" etc I hope someone, somewhere can make some sense of what I'm writing.

Kathy, Sandi, Pagangoddess, I'm in awe of what you women can do. I can only hope to be at your level some day myself. And XCouchPotato, I wish my progress had been as fast as yours...

Of course none of you are quite that old yet, but I really admire women who are older than myself and lift weights. My ultimate goal is to be able to live independently for as long as I can, and it seems that iron is the way to go.

Most other females think I'm crazy and don't "get it" but most of my friends are men anyways and they think it's cool - we get to lift together on occasion.

You're so lucky, I wish I had training buddies, too, whatever the gender I've thought about trying Crossfit, not only because that type of training interests me, but to meet like-minded people.

I know everybody makes their own decisions about how to exercise, but I can't understand why so many people are actually against women's strength training with anything more than some isolation machines and a pink dumbbell or two. It's like there's something fundamentally wrong with the idea of woman wanting to be stronger and not just more toned. Whenever I talk to people about lifting, even intelligent people, their first response is always to ask WHY. And the tone of voice tells me they think there's something wrong with it. if someone says they go to karate classes or rock climbing or train for a marathon, people go "hey that's cool, how's it going" or whatever. With weight lifting it's always basically "why do you want to be a muscle freak and do steroids". It's hard to even discuss it, because the prejudices are so strong.

In Finland there are many great female powerlifters, but powerlifting doesn't get any mainstream media coverage. No one knows what a female powerlifter can look like. When you say "women's powerlifting", they think of East German shotputters and female bodybuilders in competitions. I guess that might be the same everywhere. And even if they knew better, would they still accept it? After all, these women usually DO have some visible muscle even in the lower weight classes, they have broad backs, athletic shoulders etc. Why is the skinny soft look the only one that can be acceptably strived at, and otherwise there's something wrong with you?

When I told my SO that I'm going to try a powerlifting style routine... WHY? was again the answer. Well, why indeed. Maybe to get STRONGER, dummy?? Fortunately I didn't say that aloud... But it made me think of how I mostly don't talk about lifting with anyone these days. My SO especially has such a mixed reaction to my weight training that it feels hard to talk to him. He tries to be supportive but in the end he just doesn't understand my choice of exercise. And I don't know whether talking more about it would help, or just irritate him.

I wish I could get him to try weight lifting, I'm sure he'd do fantastically since he's already big and strong. But even if he does, he's not the type to come and lift with me He doesn't like to exercise in public.

Dunno... Sorry about the rant. I'm feeling a bit down today.

[pagangoddess]

Keep your chin up Katja. There is a lot of misconceptions regarding female strength training. If you have the energy then defend it but if you don't just walk away and keep lifting.

Just know that you will have great support here.

[katja]

I wish for a delete button, I already feel silly for ranting about something that everybody here knows anyway. It's been a bad day, started with a fight, and dog having loose bowels on a new shaggy carpet.

Thanks for the kind words

[pagangoddess]

I wish for a delete button, I already feel silly for ranting about something that everybody here knows anyway.

Don't feel bad for ranting. We all need to blow off steam.

I dont' know how much of my current log and my old log you have read, but I'm the queen of whining and bitching. If something is on my mind . . out my mouth it comes.

[XCouchPotato]

Of course none of you are quite that old yet, but I really admire women who are older than myself and lift weights. My ultimate goal is to be able to live independently for as long as I can, and it seems that iron is the way to go.

Thanks for the great compliment, Katja! I know I don't feel old myself but at 58, some people think I'm crazy for starting a power lifting routine. Me, I figure I might only be able to do it for a few years but the stronger I am before I have to stop the less bent over I'll be later.

As for ranting and letting it all hang out here on the list, that's part of the great thing here - nobody minds. This is a place to share your thoughts and be with like minded people. Besides, someone might be able to give you a great comeback or two for all those nay sayers (unfortunately not me, I don't think that fast).

[katja]

Me, I figure I might only be able to do it for a few years but the stronger I am before I have to stop the less bent over I'll be later.

Why would you only be able to do it for a few years? Check out Wanja Sjödin from Sweden. She started when she was 50 and now in her 70's, she's stronger than ever.

And pagangoddess, I've been reading your interesting and inspiring log and if you call that bitching and moaning, I don't know what mine will be