Whole30 – Day 25: Training ‘n stuff

On March 30, 2012 by Juliet

I feel like in the last week or so my life has just taken off. I can’t seem to get graduate school and my move off my mind. It’s becoming a reality now. Oh well. No looking back! Training has really, really taken off since I began incorporating Wendler’s 5/3/1.

I purposely underestimated my 1RM’s for the big lifts because, well, I wasn’t quite sure where I’d be at and Wendler pretty adamantly stresses starting lighter than you think you should. In fact, I went so far as to approximate my 1RM’s and then take 90% of it and use that for all my ‘calculations’ as he recommends.

Conventional Deadlifts:
I have always been a lot weaker when pulling conventional vs. sumo but decided I wanted to bring this one up as a challenge. I definitely underestimated my potential, though. This week my last set was supposed to be at least 1 rep (but more if I can) at 95% of my “1RM”.

I ended up pulling 175×4.  I ended up throwing more weight on the bar and pulling about 200×1.

Bench Press:
I was never really a big bench presser because I was always afraid to ask someone to spot me. I’ve gotten over it and have been really improving on this lift the last few months. Same as w/ the deadlifts, I ended up getting 95×4. I didn’t try going heavier, but I was really happy with this one.

Squat:
My squats suck. When I first started lifting, I boasted pretty hefty squat #’s. Now that I look back, I don’t count them. I barely got low enough (I don’t know if even I DID get low enough), and I always felt unstable.  After meeting with TG in September, my form improved dramatically.

I now feel stable when I perform the movement and am much more comfortable with them, but I took a significant strength drop. I’m not worried in the least. I’d rather have good form and progress forward, but it means I really overestimated my ability these last few weeks and struggled with some of my sets.

This week I managed 115×2. Not terrible. Good news is, that means there’s room to improve.

OH Press:
I’m doing this tomorrow so I don’t know how I’ll do. I don’t so much care about this lift as much as I do the other “big” ones.

Other Lifts:
My pull-ups have taken a bit of a hit. I’m not sure what has happened there, especially since I am cranking out inverted rows like a BAMF these days.  It might be that I’m attempting my pull ups the day after deadlifting and my back is just shot, though. Lately I’ve been putting a big emphasis on pulling movements to counter my benching. Most of my upper body sessions have been bench, pull up variation, 2 rowing variations, & maybe a pushup variation.

Where am I planning to go with all of this?
I don’t know. I am starting to get the itch to train for something specific again but I don’t know if that is just summer fever or if it’s a sign that “it’s time” LOL. A friend of mine at the gym is doing a strongman competition Memorial Day weekend and he said he’d see if they had a women’s division for me.

I would get pwn’d in a strong(wo)man comp. He also said he’d keep an eye out for a powerlifting meet for me because “I need to compete.” bahaha Guess I better get strong first.

Okay. On to some food. Nothing exciting yesterday.

Roasted up some curried cauliflower.

Breakfast was the second half of my frittata and cauliflower.

Lunch was a kale salad with smokey roast & guac on top. I’m so glad that guac is gone. It gave me rank garlic breath.

I ended up making plans for a girls night last night so my meals were on the fly. As a result, I ate pre-workout (which I normally don’t do) and didn’t picture it because I was running out the door. I had the end of my ground beef, some more cauliflower, and an avocado.

PWO was just some roast and butternut squash. It ain’t pretty, but it did the trick. Especially since I ate it with my hands, in the car, on the way to girls night. Oh, I forgot a napkin so my gym pants got covered in gnarly.

Yes, I washed my hands after working out and before eating.

And in case you were wondering, I bought my first lottery ticket in light of the $540,000,000 jackpot. The way I see it, is that, I have better odds of being a runway model or professional athlete than I do winning the jackpot… so by buying a lottery ticket, I am increasing my odds of becoming one of those things.

Right? That’s how it works?

Category :
Competition, Graduate School, Strength Goals, Take It Apart, Whole30 Challenge
  • Alison

    Your understanding of probability is as awesome as mine.

    When I was deadlifting heavy I had to alternate deadlifts and pullups, because my lats couldn’t take both in one week. (Well, they could, but not if I was trying to make significant progress with one or the other.) Forearms and upper back were also an issue. So anecdotally I def agree that the deadlift progress (HELL YEAH!!) is holding back the pullups.

    And let’s have a second HELL YEAH!! for grad school :-)

  • http://www.followingfit.com/ Kristen @ Following Fit

    Powerlifting Joob? Iron(wo)man Joob? Either’d be pretty awesome.

    I may need to try butternut squash PWO this week. I need to branch out from sweet potatoes and apples, and butternut squash is still available around here pretty easily. And I can get it pre-cut and peeled, so I can be even more lazy about food prep.

  • http://www.bikiniorbust.com/ Donloree

    Niiiiiicccceeee work on the lifts! I love it. I have also been doing some incredible strength work with my coach and seen some great gains. Your regular DL has me inspired though. :)

    So what I hear you saying is that I should go buy my first lottery ticket… ;)