Shut up and Squat! Mums can be strong too can't they?

nagolina

This is my journey from slightly fit but still flabby mum of 3 to Lara Croft. Well, nothing wrong in aiming high is there?! I'm hoping that keeping a log will help with staying motivated.

I'm 36 years old, single parent to 3 small kids, 5'2" tall, 9st 12lbs. Probably about 30% bf.

I've tried all sorts of fitness stuff - I have an air rower, stepper, trampoline, leg magic machine, several sets of "barbie" weights as well as 5 different dvds, none of which have given the results I wanted - except for one which I did 6 days a week for 6 weeks resulting in a lovely shin injury! I can't afford to join a gym so I needed to find a routine which I could do at home.

I stumbled on Stronglifts 5x5 at the start of August whilst looking for info on strength training for women. I started the programme on the 14th August. (The only equipment I had was a barbell and 25kg set of weights which I bought a few months ago and a wooden toy box as a bench!)

By 3rd Sept I was squatting 19kg and had to stop as I was having trouble getting the bar over my head after my sets, my arms weren't strong enough to lift the weight I needed to squat.

Now I am the proud owner of a cheap and basic set of squat stands so I'm back in the game. I am going to need to buy more weights very soon....however I'm only loading the bar by an extra 1.25kg per workout as I want to make sure my form is right.

So.....

12/9/11 - Squat - 19.5kg
Bench - 17kg
Barbell Row - 17kg

14/9/11 Squat - 20.75kg
OHP - 15.75kg

ETA: just noticed the rogue apostrophie in the title - can't edit it out.....the shame

nagolina

16/9/11 - had to borrow 2 x 5kg weights from my neighbour as I've almost run out

Squat: 23.75kg.
Bench: 18.75kg
Barbell Row: 18.75kg

These numbers are tiny compared to what I've read some people are lifting but I plan to be squatting my body weight (60kg) very soon!

Will have to invest in a proper bench as the toy box I'm using doesn't fit between the squat bars so I have to reach behind my head to unrack the bar. It feels awkward.

Also, the BR is done with each side of the bar resting on 3 cushions to make it high enough!

howtomake

nagolina wrote: »

By 3rd Sept I was squatting 19kg and had to stop as I was having trouble getting the bar over my head after my sets, my arms weren't strong enough to lift the weight I needed to squat.

Now I am the proud owner of a cheap and basic set of squat stands so I'm back in the game. I am going to need to buy more weights very soon....however I'm only loading the bar by an extra 1.25kg per workout as I want to make sure my form is right.

What squat stands did you get? I had the same problem, no rack or stands for many moons of my workouts unless I randomly went to some other gym or trainer that had them. Also if you are concerned about your squat form, can you vid it, even if you just PM someone for help if you don't want to post anything so publicly.

nagolina

I got these ones:

http://www.healthandfitnessireland.com/index.php?module=store&parent=strength_equipment&category=squat_racks_and_stands&show=post&post=bodymax_cf310_squat_stands

very basic, but they don't take up a lot of room and they do the job - only problem is I have a 5.5ft bar and I can't squat inside the stands so can't use the catchers. It's not an issue so far though.

As for posting a vid, I might do that at some point. I'd be mortified though

howtomake

That's funny because I was looking at the same ones last year but not quite right for the measurements & pricing. I have not put up any vids myself because so far only vids are in my kitchen:o, but I have PM'ed a few to people. Not to mention even just viewing them on my own has helped a lot. We are around the same age & BF, although not height. Wish I would've discovered a lot of stuff I know over the past couple of years sooner, but now is just as good as time. Welcome to real womenhood, lifting heavy stuff!

nagolina

I didn't think about watching the vids myself! Good tip thanks!

I know what you mean - it's amazing to me the changes in my body even after only a few weeks of lifting. All the time I've wasted on faddy diets and exercise whims....argh!

Going to drop the kids off at school then do a workout in peace later, woooohooooo!

nagolina

Right:

19/9/11

Squats: 25kg. Still feel fine legs a bit wobbly though!
OHP : 17kg.

The OHP are a killer. I've discovered that if I squeeze my abs and glutes when I press then it's a bit easier, but the last rep in each set is hard fought! I'm not even lifting the weight of an olympic bar yet

itsallaboutheL

nagolina wrote: »

Right:

19/9/11

Squats: 25kg. Still feel fine legs a bit wobbly though!
OHP : 17kg.

The OHP are a killer. I've discovered that if I squeeze my abs and glutes when I press then it's a bit easier, but the last rep in each set is hard fought! I'm not even lifting the weight of an olympic bar yet

Womens bar is 15kg. Congrats :P

nagolina

itsallaboutheL wrote: »

Womens bar is 15kg. Congrats :P

woohoooooooo I am SHERA

Today: 21/9/11

Squats: 26.25kg....still feeling fine!
Bench : 20kg
Barbell Row : 20kg

it's taken ages to get the hang of the BR and just use my arms to pull - somehow my legs and back want to join in.

Also managed to do 10 full push ups as part of my warm up (could only do push ups from the knee when I started!) so feeling gooooood

Very tired today though, not been sleeping well - workouts are really tough when you feel like your head has been clubbed by a blunt instrument I notice.

nagolina

23/9/11

squat: 27.5kg
OHP : 18.75kg

also did 30 prisoner lunges and 12 push ups as part of warm up.

OHP is a killer. I hate it! Beginning to feel wrists a little on squats too, will keep an eye on that

Nearly lifting half my own bodyweight now, am delighted!

nagolina

28/9/11

squats: 28.75kg
Bench : 21.25kg
BR : 21.25kg

feeling squats in my wrists and elbows until I realised the bar was a teensy bit too low on my back Sorted once I adjusted it by a small bit.

Bench still feels awkward, hopefully can invest in a new bench in the near future

By Friday will be squatting half my bodyweight...woohoo!

nagolina

30/9/11

16 push ups today

Squat: 30kg
OHP : 20kg

OHP is my least favourite, it totally KILLS me! I have to rest for 3-4 mins in between sets and nearly failed my 5th set but just made it!

Half way to my 1x BW squat....

I don't know whether to keep adding weights to the OHP - I've a feeling I'm going to stall on that soon.

Pavel66

Impressive stuff!

Great resolve. I know you don't want to use any excuses, but to fit this in as a single mother of 3 is incredible.

You should post the sets and reps for each exercise, including the warm ups

nagolina

Pavel66 wrote: »

Impressive stuff!

Great resolve. I know you don't want to use any excuses, but to fit this in as a single mother of 3 is incredible.

You should post the sets and reps for each exercise, including the warm ups

Thanks for the compliment! It's actually no problem as my kids are all at school now

So....3/10/11

Squat:
w/up - 22.5kg x5
27.5kg x5

Working weight : 31.25 - 5 sets of 5 reps.

Bench:
w/up - 17.5kg x5
20kg x5

Working weight : 22.5kg 5x5

B/R
22.5kg 5x5

Squat beginning to feel tough but still do-able. I breathe at the top of the exercise, I find this helps make it a bit easier! With the bench I just push and breathe if I remember, it feels way harder than the squats do! Stupid puny arms

nagolina

Frustrating session today :mad:

5/10/11

squats

warm up
22.5kg x 5
27.5kg x 5

working weight
32.5kg 5 sets of 5 reps.

2 mins rest between sets.

OHP

warm up
12.5kg x5
17.5kg x5

working weight
20kg 2 sets of 5 reps.

set 3- couldn't lift at all so deloaded to 17.5kg and rested 2 mins. Still unable to do even 1 rep.

Surely I can't be stalling already on OHP?!!

I haven't been sleeping well this week and am pretty tired, diet probably not the best either. Maybe it's time to really start eating well & trying to rest properly...

feeling totally knackered

nagolina

7/10/11

Squat


warm up: 22.5kg x5, 27.5kg x5

working weight: 33.75kg 5x5

Bench

w/up: 17.5kg x5, 20kg x5

working weight: 23.75kg 5x5

BR

23.75kg 5x5

Squat felt tough but ok, at one point I went very low and thought I wouldn't get back up, but managed it!


Past the halfway point in my goal of 1xBW woohoo!

nagolina

10/10/11

squats:

22.5kg 1x5
27.5kg 1x5
32.5kg 1x5
35kg 5x5

OHP:

12.5kg 1x5
17.5kg 1x5
18.75kg 5x5

Squats beginning to feel tough now. I noticed my back rounding out a couple of times then realised I was looking straight ahead which might have been throwing me off. Then again, it might just be the weight testing my form!

OHP (insert many many swear words here!) - I started off very light and worked my way up till it felt tough but not "I'm surely going to die"....stuck with 18.75kg for working weight today, will add 0.5 on Friday and go up slowly with the increases. Staggered stance really helped as did keeping my whole lower body tight.

I've noticed my arms are getting tired from the squats too - so the OHP is that bit harder!

nagolina

Totally forgot about this log - time to start updating again!

Bodyweight at present 64kg, need to stock up on protein and really sort diet out. Plan is to carb cycle in a relaxed fashion! I am focusing less on my weight and more on my strength - I refuse to buy into the idea that women can only be beautiful when we are stick thin. My thighs show that I squat and that's ok.

After my last entry I managed another 6 weeks of workouts then was under the weather for most of December - took 6 weeks off training and restarted at the beginning of January.

I've switched from Stronglifts 5x5 to a sort of intermediate programme as I was having trouble adding weight each wo for 5x5...I'm now doing 3x5 for squats/OHP/BBR/bench, 1x5 for deadlifts and have added some assistance work to try and increase upper body strength as I suck at OHP & now bench - these are lying triceps extensions, ab wheel rollouts & hip thrusts. I have toyed with the Evil 8 barbell complex but will leave it for a while as my recovery for the main lifts was completely thrown by it.

This was Friday's log:

2/3/12

Squats:(squats 80% of 5RM to concentrate on DL)

32.5kg 1x5, 35 1x5, 37.5, 2x5

DLs:

47.5kg x1, 52.5 x1, 57.5 x1, 62.5 x1, 67.5 x1, 72.5 x1, 75kg 1 x 5, 77.5 x1, 80kg 0, 1 (messy)

LTE:

15kg 2x10

Today is a good day DLs felt amazing. Managed 75kg 1x5 with rest pause, although between the 4th & 5th rep there was a loooong pause! I really wanted to see if I could get 80kg, 1st only only a semi (:D) but got the 2nd one up even though it was very messy. I can't count it but will nail it next week with good form.

Thinking about a deload week soon as have done 8 weeks without a break, but will see how I feel on Monday.

ps. one of my favourite sites just now: http://gubernatrix.co.uk/

howtomake

Glad to see you're back. Can ya lift some weights for me too?

nagolina

Thanks! Well if by weights you mean a bar of Dairy Milk then no problem (not helping size of thighs!)

nagolina

5/3/12

Squats:

32.5kg 1x5, 37.5 1x3, 42.5 1x2, 45 1x2, 47.5kg 3x5

OHP:

22.5kg 1x5, 23kg 3x5

Hip Thrusts:

42.5kg 3x10

AWR:

1x10

Argh. Squats were horrible and extremely ugly today - even the warm up sets felt heavy. At one point I even lifted up my heel coming out of the hole, and after that I began to panic. Totally dreading next session with extra loading...although I should know by now that no 2 workouts are ever the same.

OHP felt stronger than last week - managed 22.5kg 1x5, all strict. Re-did 23 kg and the last 1/3/2 lifts from respective sets were PP. I take that as progress. Next week I will aim for all strict then microload again.

Hip Thrusts are becoming troublesome because of the plates I have which are not big enough to simply roll the bar over my huge thighs....I have to lift the bar onto the towel (cushioning!) and it's getting too heavy to do from a seated position...will investigate possibility of bumpers or at the very least a foam pad for the bar or something. Otherwise might have to give this exercise a skip for now.

Thought I would throw in a few sets of AWR, and only managed 1, but it was an extra anyway!

Am fecking knackered shower then lovely walk in the sunshine.

howtomake

nagolina wrote: »

Thanks! Well if by weights you mean a bar of Dairy Milk then no problem (not helping size of thighs!)

That's fine lift that for me too. I've practically given up on sugar, and I'll lift a few glasses of wine for you instead.

nagolina

Perfect! I've all but given up drinking

nagolina

7/3/12

extra warm up (on top of normal arms circles and BW squats) - 30 sec plank, 10kg goblet squats with a long hold on last rep to open up hips 1x10.

Squats:

32.5kg 2x5, 37.5 1x5, 42.5 1x3, 45 1x2, 48.75kg 3x5

Bench:

22.5kg 1x5, 25 1x2, 27.5 1x2, 30kg 1x3, (failed 4th rep) deloaded to 27.5kg 1x4, failed 5th rep, deloaded (again!) to 25kg 1x6, 1x5.

BBR:

32.5kg 3x5

AWR:

2x10

This was intended to be a light session to concentrate on squat form, but the tweaks I made felt so strong that I was able to add load to my squats and do 3x5 with a level of control I haven't had before.

What I did was - unracked the bar looking ever so slightly higher than neutral, my feet a little further apart than I usually do (just outside shoulders) and only pointing slightly out, maybe 25 deg. The I took a huge breath, pushed my chest out, which really did make my upper back tighten, contracted my lumbar spine (never done this before) and braced my abs. The squat felt so stable and strong.

What I did notice is that I found it very difficult to feel a good contraction on my lower abs. The lower back contraction felt strong, but I was struggling to brace the front of me! Lots of abs work needed.

Bench - hopeless! Had to deload twice and even by the time I got down to 25kg, my arms and shoulders were wrecked. Going to let go of my ego on this one for now and work up very slowly. I might try low weight/high reps for a while.

BBR is starting to get a little messy, but no more so than last week. I am wondering if there will be any imbalance issues with my BBR being a bit heavier than my bench? I have an image in my head of a huge lumpy back and a weedy chest

AWR 2x10 cos I was well and truly fecked by the time I got round to that.

Waiting now for a giant baby sized tub of protein to arrive, yippee!

Dotcomdolly

nagolina wrote: »

1st only only a semi (:D) but got the 2nd one up even though it was very messy.

Gnarf gnarf

Look forward to following your log as a fellow mammy lifter (a mammy who lifts, not a fella that lifts his mother!)

Have a look at hardformfitness on facebook, she has 3 kids too - inspiring stuff!

nagolina

hehe there's a teenage boy lurking in me somewhere! Did have a giggle at mammy lifter. Will check that FB page out, thanks.

Womens' strength training seems to really be taking off, so much inspiration to be found on the web now!

nagolina

9/3/12

warm up - arm circles, BW squats x20, goblet squats 10kg x10, 30 sec plank.

Squats:

32.5kg 1x5, 37.5 1x5, 40kg 1x5

DL:

77.5kg 1x3, 1x2, 80kg x1, 67.5kg 1x3, 62.5kg 1x3, 52.5kg 1x10.

LTE:

15kg 2x10, 1x7

I LOVE Deadlift day!!

After reading a suggestion on another site about not doing loads of warm up sets for DLs I decided to just go for the jugular and so kicked off with my working set. It felt so much better than usual. Then I got a nice clean 80kg x1 for a new PR and did some back off sets. I was really surprised how hard the 1x10 set was, given that it was so light.

LTE - if I can get 12 reps next time I'll up the weight. These are far from easy so worth doing.

Now...I want to sleep!

nagolina

12/3/12

Squats:

32.5kg 1x5, 37.5 1x3, 42.5 1x2, 47.5 1x2, 50kg 3x5

OHP:

23.5kg 3x5, 20kg 1x5

Hip Thrusts:

45kg 3x10, supersetted with

AWR:

3x10

I'm so amazed I've managed to get to 50kg squats. A long way off my 1xBW goal but still, progress!

I recorded the 2nd set because I had a feeling I wasn't quite hitting depth, and I was right. A couple of the reps were a little high. I'll really be focusing on depth now that I think the rest of my form is ok. I could clearly see myself sticking out my chest and contracting my lumbar spine which is good!

For the OHP I was supposed to repeat last week's weight of 23kg, but accidentally loaded 23.5...gave it a bash anyway and managed 4 strict reps for first 2 sets and 3 for the last one. The rest were PP.

I was able to do the hip thrusts with the bar balanced on a couple of 2.5kg plates...I had to do a slick motion to slide between my couch (my makeshift bench for this exercise) and the bar, so I was channeling my inner super hero. Supersetting these with the AWR worked very well, and was mucho hard work.

Now food!

nagolina

Light week this week (shattered!)

16/3/12

Warm up: BW squats x20, push ups 5,5,3.

Evil 8 Barbell complex - 20kg

AWR 1x10

Thought I'd better do something! Will be back Monday with some renewed energy and some proper lifting.

DOMS in traps and lats today along with a sore throat - beautiful!!

nagolina

Woops, going to dump last week's logs in one post cos I forgot to update...


19/3/12

Conditioning day.

Goblet Squats:

10kg 1x20

Push ups:

10, 8

Evil 8 complex:

22.5kg

AWR:

1x15

Forgot the kids were on holiday from school today so no chance of getting in a full workout. This little lot took 25 mins from start to finish including warm up and cool down. Am still shaking from evil bastard 8.



21/3/12

Squats:

32.5kg 1x5, 37.5 1x3, 42.5 1x3, 47.5 1x2, 51.25kg 5, 5, 4. (failed last rep)

Bench:

27.5kg 3x5, 22.5kg, 1x10

BBR:

33.75kg 3x5 (very untidy!)

This was a "oh crap everything feels heavy" day...horrible. Moan moan moan...please skip to the end if you want to miss self indulgent whine!

Failed last rep of squats - first time in yonks that this has happened. It's not even that heavy in terms of BW!

Bench felt ok, managed to dig heels in and dial scapula back & down properly which seemed to help.

BBR felt heavy and was really untidy - however, got them all done with a pause between each rep.

Feeling dog tired a lot lately, not sleeping too well but diet is much better - more protein and less carbs than ever before. Was hoping that would help lifts more...mutter mutter.

Going to repeat weight on Monday for squats (unless I'm feeling **** hot!) and if I can't nail them will consider weekly loading as my recovery seems to be taking much longer now.

Sorry, moan moan!! On a positive note, I have lost one whole pound and I can see those lines up the sides of my abs woohoooo



24/3/12

Warm up, arm cirles (lots) BW squats x20, Goblet Sq 10kg x10, push ups 1x8

Squats:

32.5kg 1x5, 37.5 1x3, 40kg 2x5

DL:

82.5kg 2x1, 80kg 1x2...aborted rest of mission!

New DL PR!! Woohoo! However, was doing 80kg for 5 reps and after 2nd rep felt something go ping in my mid-back so stopped everything. Deloaded to 62.5 kg and thought about going for 10 reps, but I could feel discomfort when I bent over so decided not to risk making things worse.

Foam rolling for 5 mins was absolute agony, there is a huge knot on the left handside of my back just above my ass which I will attempt to dislodge over the next few days. Back is not sore so fingers crossed nothing which will hamper lifts.

Oh DLs why would you hurt me? Did this workout with a bit of a chesty cold so that'll fecking teach me!

Listening to beautiful Audioslave just now...perfect!

howtomake

Hey, your squats are coming up nicely. Have you thought of maybe using your kids as weights, so next time you could get in a full workout;)