Bench, Sweat & Tears ~ My Powerlifting Life and Times

[kjake55]

It was suggested that a throw a journal on here and the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. I already keep one on another forum so essentially I will cut & paste between the two. For those of you who join me here Hi! If you do stop by please comment and critique at will. Good or bad opinions are always welcome. I’m enjoy getting outside perspective on what I am doing and if I’m moving in the right direction to meet my goals.



A little background about me to get started with. In May of 2009 I decided it was time to quit smoking. I had a 2-pack a day habit. I had been smoking since I was a teen so were talking about a 25+ year habit. OMG am I really old enough to have had a 25+ year habit?!? How the hell did that happen! Anyway I also weighed 198 lbs at that point which I’m sad to say wasn’t the heaviest I ever weighed. Point being I didn’t want to gain the “I quit smoking pounds” so I kept a close eye on what I was eating. I wound up losing 9 lbs on my own. After that I joined Weight Watchers and lost an additional 53 lbs. Problem was that at 134 I was skinny/fat although I didn’t quite know it yet. I got into working out, originally with a Crossfit trainer and then when he closed the box I moved onto a power lifting gym where I have made my home for the last 3 years. It’s an “ole skool” place where you work, you grunt, you sweat and you go the fuk home to eat! No cardio bunnies, muscle heads or any of the other crap that goes on in commercial chain gyms. I love the place. It’s a garage grunge gym and exactly my style. Eventually I left WW and now I plan my nutrition around IIFYM. I don’t restrict myself from anything except dairy (lactose intolerant) and have been fairly successful in my weight management.

It wasn’t until this last year that I competed and in that regard I am a complete newb. My first competition was a Bench meet for charity. I won the women’s division but in the interest of full disclosure I was the only woman lifting so it was more a personal victory for just being there than anything else. It did give me the bug though. I’m extremely goal orientated and competing is a natural progression from that.

I am currently training for a USAPL meet in August (push/pull) where I assume I won’t be the only woman lifting! I’m currently cutting so I can compete in the 67.5 kg weight class. This morning’s scale weight was 146.9 so I’m where I need to be. I’ll continue my cut until the end of the month. And then thank God, I’ll do maintenance until the meet (I hate cutting more than anything in the world!) Afterwards I plan on doing a 2-year recomp. By age 50 I want to have a concrete body! Esthetics are always a motivator but my real goal is to be strong and beastly on the platform. The actual scale weight is irrelevant to me except for competition weight class purposes.

I’m in my 3rd week of a Basic Strength Cycle. Before that I completed 4 weeks Hypertrophy. When I’m done I have 1 week of SP/P and then a 6-week comp cycle which is based on the Russian progressive training cycles. I have a trainer who constructs all my programs for me. I’ll post videos to give interested parties a base level look at what my abilities are to date.

To wrap this up I’ll leave with some recent PR’s, achievements and goals that I am striving for by year’s end:

• Bench: 110 (x3) PR 6/11/12 ~ Goal=Body weight
• Deadlift: 2-Plates (x1) PR 6/3/12 ~ Goal=3 Plates
• Squat: 140 (x3) ATG 5/30/12 ~ Goal=2 Plates
• OHP: 70 lbs (x3) ~ Goal=1 Plate (I would be ecstatic to get there!)
• Leg Press: 410 (x5) PR ~ No Goal I just like pushing lots and lots of weight with my legs
• Unassisted Pull Ups: 2 so far (3 w/neutral grip) ~ Goal 10

If you bothered to read all of this, thank you! I hope to get to know some of you better as we journey along.

[Rottenrogue]

Great to see you posting this here. I will be following it for sure. PL ladies are pretty rare it seems .It is always nice to see other female strength athletes share thier experiences. I'm not sure if we have any other PL women here . We do have some figure ladies and a few bodybuilders(forgive me ladies I dont know the classes 100%) and a few strongwomen competitors.

[kjake55]

Thanks for comming on in!

Yea, women PLers aren't the group of usual suspects but then again I would guess Strongwomen are pretty unique as well. I have all the respect in the world for you gals. That's srs sh!t you're doing out there! I have to admit that every once in a while I get in touch with my inner-strongwoman and flip a tire but it's not often. I hope the figure and BB girls stop by to chat as well (along with the guys if they're so inclined). Everyone has something to teach and we all have lots to learn.

[kjake55]

As promised (or threatened) here's a couple of vids from my channel. Again, critiques are always welcomed. I apologize in advance. I'm not a great You-Tube editor so please forgive the extranious nonesense in the vids.

185x3 Deadlifts (6/9/12)


Box Squats 100x5 (4/19/12)

[kjake55]

Bench Comp (4/12/12) 2nd Attemp - 100 lbs


I have others but I won't bore you with them. My You-Tube channel is kjake555 if anyone is interested.

[kjake55]

Last night's workout (not including warm up sets):

*Squats 1x5x115 - 1x5x115 - 1x5x135 - 1x5x135 - 1x5x135 Wasn't getting good depth. My hip didn't hurt but it was noticably weaker on the right side. Weird. I dnk if it's feeling weaker bc of all the stretchibg and rolling or if it's getting ready to crap out on me again. It was a strange feeling.
*Leg Press 3x5 @ 360 - 370 - 380
*Step Ups 1-shoulder BSB w/25lb KB 3x8 E/L
*Close Grip Lats 3x5 7 - 7 1/2 - 8
*Bicep Rotational Curls 3x5 @ 20 - 25 - 30
*Asst'd Pullups - 13 plate <-70lbs> making pulled weight 77lbs approx - 25xAFSAP 16 - 9
*UnAsst'd Pull Ups -0- Neutral Grip -0-

the plan is to continue working the asst'd pullups 2 times a week until I hit 1 complete set @ 25 and then change the assistance plate up 1 which is what I did last night (moving from the 14 plate to the 13 plate offering less assistance). At the same time I will continue to get as many reps as possible unasst'd (not an overwhelming success last night I may change it around and do the unasst'd 1st and the asst'd 2nd to give myself a better chance of getting unasst'd work in but I'm not sure which is the better way to do it). My therory is that by the time I get to the plates offering the least amount of assistance I should be able to hit my goal of 10 unasst'd by the end of the year. Stay tunned.

Diet: (refeed day - hooray!) cals 1741, 46g fat, 151g carbs, 166g protein. 1 gallon water
Supps: Dailys + 2000 mg beta alanine - 2 scoops N'gage

(Laziness alet: this entry has been cut & pasted from my other log)

[kjake55]

Last night's workout (not including warmup sets):

* Bench Press w/SlingShot 1x5x105 - 1x5x105 - 1x5x105 - 1x1x115 - 1x1x115 I still don't have command of the 115's but last night was better
* Seated DB Shoulder Press 5x5 @ 25 ea, 30's were being used & I couldn't get the 35's to move off my shoulders
* DB Alt Bench Press 1x5x25 - 1x5x30 - 1x5x30 - 1x5x30 - 1x5x30
* Barbell Upright Rows 1x5x45 - 1x5x55 - 1x5x60 - 1x5x60 - 1x5x60
* Tricep Split Rope Pull Downs 3x8 @ 40
* Dips w/SlingShot 3x5 still having that problem behind the collar bone but I haven't been able to really find anything on it so far...anyone have any ideas what that might be?

Diet: cals 1884 (don't even go there - it was a bad night), 54g fat, 168g carbs, 166g protein, 1 gallon water
Supps: Daily's + 2000 mg beta alanine, 2 scoops N'gage

[tilltheend]

Nice workouts.

[Bigherm21]

Nice work!!! You made a great choice and seems like its going great for you. Congrats!!! Keep going and nothing can hold you back.

[kjake55]

Thanks guys! Hopefully I'll realize a big payoff in August by doing well at the meet.

[kjake55]

Saturday morning's workout (not including warmup sets):

* Deadlifts 1x3x155 - 1x3x155 - 1x3x185 - 1x3x185 - 1x1x225

I had an outstanding deadlift day on Saturday. No so much the weights but my form was spot on for a change. My PT even commented on it more than once. But of course there's no vid to prove it this week! ~LOL~
It's interesting to me how 1 simple change in your mindset can make such a significant difference. In one of the hundreds of deadlifting tip articles I read recently the writer said to stop looking at the deadlift as a pull, start seeing the lift executed through the levergae of pressing your heels into the ground and leaning the weight back. I'm not explaining it correctly here but when I executed the lift from that perspective I was able to execute way better than I ever have in the past. And as proof of my madness my hammies are SCREAMINING at me today! I have no tightness or tension in my lower back as I usually do after heavy deads and I don't remember the last time my hamstrings were sore so I guess something changed.

* 1-Sided Sled Pulls w/45lb plate 3 x 90 yards (Right side down, left side back) These were a lot of fun. It's nice to get outside to get some work done once in a while.

* Partial Deadlifts 1x5x135 - 1x3x235 - 1x3x235 - 1x1x275 - 1x1x275
* Thick Bar BOR (UH Grip) 3x8 @ 65 - 70 - 85 (OH Grip) 2x5 @ 95 each
* DB Rotational Bicep Curls 3x10 @ 20 - 25 - 25
* Asst'd Pull Ups 13 plate <-70 lbs> 25xAFSAP 17 - 8 (Unasst'd -0- Neutral Grip -0-)
* Back Extensiuons w/Reverse Fly 4x6 @ 10lbs
* GHR's x10 in between work sets

Diet: Friday - I had the Monday of Fridays on Friday! It was just a crummy day in a lot of ways so DH and I decided to go to the lake and unwind for a while. Well 5 beers later I wasn't to worried about cals and macros and just enjoyed my date night. This is why I'll never be a bikini model. I would much rather enjoy a date night with my honey than think about my food choices for the night! It was what it was and I still had a great workout on Saturday so Say la vie!
Saturday - I was within cals and macros (mostly! )

Supps - all the usual over the weekend.

Which brings us to today. Today is Sunday. A day of rest. May you all have peace in your day today.

And to all the Dear Ole Dads out there --- Happy Father's Day!

[Halo]

Great job KJ, keep it up!

[pshnbgw8]

Great job, keep it up, all the hard work pays off. Good job on stopping smoking, I've been down that allie, it sucks, I have 1 1/2 yrs clean from cigs. Life is so much better now

[kjake55]

Great job KJ, keep it up!

Great job, keep it up, all the hard work pays off. Good job on stopping smoking, I've been down that allie, it sucks, I have 1 1/2 yrs clean from cigs. Life is so much better now

Thanks for the support guys!

@pshnbgw8 quitting smoking literally changed my life. I'm glad it's been all good for you as well.

[Ms.Wetback]

Great having you post here, incredible work on your lifts !!