Female Athlete Q&A

[quote]MeganQ wrote:
As a newbie, I am having problems keeping good form as I add weight. Honestly, even at times when I’m just warming up with the bar if my head’s not in the game. I am being encouraged to add weight anyways, but I’m concerned about never developing good form if I do that. Or possibly injuring myself. What are your thoughts? Is it a cop out, or should I be concerned about my form? [/quote]

Depends what kind of mistakes you are making with your technique and how your form is to begin with. There’s so many different things that can effect your technique… Imbalances, posture, strength etc. If you can post a video I would gladly take a look and see what I think.

Personally, I need to add more weight and push myself way out of my comfort zone to feel a new weight or else I’ll never progress because I get a mental block at certain weights. When my form is being compromised it’s because I’ve reached a weight that is near my limit and at this point my coach/husband is able to see my weak points based on what’s happening with my technique at this point.

Thanks! I feel pretty confident in my upper body workout even though I am still working on correcting an imbalance. That is more of a mental game to push myself. Lower body though… I started front squat and sumo deadlift pretty recently, so those are the lifts I’ll take videos of during my next workout- I didn’t get to take any today.

[quote]Bron Sapir wrote:
A little video from my workout last night.

pull-ups 6 reps with a 45lb weight (neutral fat grip) & some pulldowns for my last exercise of the day.

That was absolutely sick. I haven’t even seen the guys at Gold’s do that where I live. Most women struggle to get one solid bodyweight pullup. That was very impressive.

Thank you to you and Dani for all of your contributions to the forum lately. I also love following you both on Facebook.

I think you’ll do very well at your upcoming comp. It’s quite fascinating to see someone go from figure to powerlifting as it’s usually the other way around. Love that you’re shattering the myth that bodybuilders and figure/bikini girls and guys are weak and only lift for aesthetics. That’s obviously not the case here.

@MsM

Thank you for your compliments and for following, I really appreciate the support. Right now my training is mainly based around my powerlifting goals but I am planning to compete in figure in 2015 so I still include “bodybuilding” type training in my programs.

Pull-ups have always been a strong point for me. When I was hitting 20-25reps regularly with bodyweight it was about time to start adding more weight! Usually I play around with different grip positions so I gain strength at all different angles… The fat grip bars are also a nice change and feel very comfortable for me.

More videos will be coming soon and I’ve got to get stronger if I want to stand a chance at the Worlds in November :slight_smile:


A few photos from my first figure competition. I placed 5th in the figure tall division.

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On the far right in the teal suit…
1st place in Red
3rd place in Blue
5th place meeeeee!

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20-25??? You have super human strength. I gave up on pull ups a long time in favor of various lat pull downs.

No problem! I love reading the updates and I do remember when your contest photos were posted. Basically, I was in agreement with everyone that didn’t agree with that outcome. You, by far, had the best conditioning. Especially your legs. I thought that you looked fabulous and can’t wait to see what you bring next year.

Kill it at World’s! We all know that you will. Please do post pics and videos as there are many women here, including myself, who find them inspiring.

So impressed with your weighted pullups Bron. My goodness.

And you look great up there in your competition pics. Well done.


I thought some of you might appreciate some Broscience here.

Tip of the day. For really impressive forearms, I recommend curling a 10 pound handbag like so.

The handles have sort of a tourniquet effect, making you look WAY more built than you really are. :slight_smile:

I sort of hate that picture. A lot. But if you’re gonna have some muscles, you’re gonna need a vascular system to go with them.

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[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
I thought some of you might appreciate some Broscience here.

Tip of the day. For really impressive forearms, I recommend curling a 10 pound handbag like so.

The handles have sort of a tourniquet effect, making you look WAY more built than you really are. :slight_smile:

I sort of hate that picture. A lot. But if you’re gonna have some muscles, you’re gonna need a vascular system to go with them. [/quote]

Lol, you bring up a good point… I suppose this would explain the vascularity in my hands and forearms. :wink:

My 20lb purse/training bag/diaper bag is making me look pretty hardcore… Until I bring out my belt during the workout and a diaper falls out of the bag haha.

[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
So impressed with your weighted pullups Bron. My goodness.

And you look great up there in your competition pics. Well done. [/quote]

Thank you :slight_smile:

[quote]MsM wrote:
20-25??? You have super human strength. I gave up on pull ups a long time in favor of various lat pull downs.

No problem! I love reading the updates and I do remember when your contest photos were posted. Basically, I was in agreement with everyone that didn’t agree with that outcome. You, by far, had the best conditioning. Especially your legs. I thought that you looked fabulous and can’t wait to see what you bring next year.

Kill it at World’s! We all know that you will. Please do post pics and videos as there are many women here, including myself, who find them inspiring. [/quote]

Don’t give up!! Until about 4.5 years ago I couldn’t even do one and I never thought I’d be able to. I started with assisted pull-ups and gradually built up strength. Once I was able to do it with my own body weight I would do a lot of sets with the maximum reps I could handle and kept building from there (for example: 8 sets of 2 reps)

Absolutely, I will continue to post videos and updates as much as possible.

Thanks again for the support!!

I posted the other day that I could do 20-25 bodyweight pull-ups and I was thinking there’s probably a lot of people who would doubt this…

So I wanted to give it a shot… As my 5th exercise last night I decided it would be an excellent idea to do an all out set of bodyweight pull-ups just to see how many I could do. I had just finished my Spike and was ready to rock and feeling optimistic. The Spike Original energy drink is insannnneeeee, I was pretty tired yesterday but not after that haha. I don’t usually drink a lot of energy drinks but I really like this one, I don’t like to feel jittery and this just makes me very alert without jitters or a crash.

This was done on a narrow width neutral grip bar.

My workout:
Deadlifts (speed work day) competition stance
6 sets x 2 reps @ 60%

Snatch grip pulls from 4" Block
4 sets x 8 reps @ 225lbs

Trap Bar Deadlifts
5 sets x 8 reps

Meadows Rows
3 sets x 12 reps

Pull-ups (bodyweight)
Set 1- max reps neutral grip
Set 2 - wide grip 12 reps
Set 3 - reverse grip 12 reps
Set 4 - wide grip 10 reps

Barbell Bicep Curls
3 sets x 12 reps

Biceps Superset: DB Hammer Curls/DB Concentration Curls

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Trap bar deadlifts and squats are an excellent exercise by themselves as an alternative to conventional deads and squats. They’re great for beginners and for athletes trying to perfect their technique. I do a lot of conventional squats and deadlifts but whenever I have a flaw in my technique I revert to a trap bar to address weaknesses.

In case you missed it, here’s a great article that TC published a few weeks back. Have a look…

All the videos are awesome, Bron! Are you on instagram too or do you post most of your stuff on here?

Yesterday I tried uploading this video but I don’t think it worked. My apologies if some how it ends up double posting.

Here’s a video of my main lift yesterday- close grip bench. The first rep I don’t have control, but after that I think it looks good. Let me know if you have any feedback. Tomorrow I’ll post squat and deadlift, that is what I’m really struggling with right now.

The clip is a new PR 75lb five times. I went on to do 85 three times.

[quote]MeganQ wrote:
All the videos are awesome, Bron! Are you on instagram too or do you post most of your stuff on here?

Yesterday I tried uploading this video but I don’t think it worked. My apologies if some how it ends up double posting.

Here’s a video of my main lift yesterday- close grip bench. The first rep I don’t have control, but after that I think it looks good. Let me know if you have any feedback. Tomorrow I’ll post squat and deadlift, that is what I’m really struggling with right now.

The clip is a new PR 75lb five times. I went on to do 85 three times.[/quote]

I post most of my stuff here and on Facebook. I just opened Instagram so I’ll be using it soon.

I don’t see any video here, is it on YouTube? How did your squat and deadlift go?

Nothing better than a squat date with my husband on a Friday night :slight_smile:
270lbs for 1 rep!

Back Squats
Box Pause Squats
Bulgarian Squats
Glute Ham Raise
Hamstring Curls
Good mornings (light)

Puuh! Holidays without internet… weird! But now I’m back :slight_smile:
I will definitely give it a try. As I live in Europe, it’s so expensive to buy (taxes + shipping fees). Next year we plan to travel to the States so I’ll try to get it there, I guess.

[quote]yesssy wrote:
Puuh! Holidays without internet… weird! But now I’m back :slight_smile:
I will definitely give it a try. As I live in Europe, it’s so expensive to buy (taxes + shipping fees). Next year we plan to travel to the States so I’ll try to get it there, I guess.[/quote]

Welcome back! Hope your holiday was awesome :slight_smile:

For sure, shipping is always a bitch when shopping international but it’s a real lifesaver in the workouts and the results speak for themselves. Worst case scenario you can wait til your trip to the US!

8 reps with 45lbs!!

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