Look Out Chubby Wubby! Make Room for Wonder Woman!

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerful Women
1

Hey all,

After lurking on this like a crazed stalker reading all the articles and your blogs on T-Nation, I decided that I too want to be a powerful woman. I learned quite a bit from reading everything here and it’s about time for me to step it up.

Bio
My name is Rachel. I am 24 y/o recent college grad who still doesn’t know what she wants to do for a living. But what I do know is that I have a passion for the weight room, martial arts, and Buddhist practice. That is my holy Trinity. As the title suggests, I have some chubby wubby hanging on me since I can remember and quite frankly, it over stayed its welcome. I have been in and out of the weight room for a while and now am determined to make it an integral part of my life.

Stats:
wt: 175 vertical: 18in Squat: 165 x 2
ht: 5’5 1/2 bench: 85x4 (BOO) Dl: 185 x 3 (probably lower, form is off =/)
BF%: 30% pull up: 1

Short term goals: 20-22% BF. Frankly, whenever it feels right
Long term goals: bench 135, DL 315, Squat 275, vert: 25 (if possible)

I will be posting a log later today. I am using Alwyn Cosgrove & Mike Rousell’s Warp Speed Fat Loss with modifications. Modification I (Diet, instead of 10% carbs, 30% since I play competitive volleyball 3x/week.), Mod 2 (up calories by 250 since I am going to do this more than once), Mod 3, focus more on deadlifting technique and add some rehab work for my scapula winging on off days. I don’t know if I am being excessively detailed but I think that I must write it down since I am not doing the program 100%.

Bye Bye Chubby! HELLO Wonder Woman! =D

2

Hi and welcome! Looking forward to watching your transformation in to WW.

3

I think it’s awesome that you want to lose weight and you decide to do it with weights. That’s a great start so I’m sure that you’ll accomplish your goals.

I’ll be following.

4

Considering your bf% it’s pretty impressive that you can do a pullup. So good job there :slight_smile:

5

you can do 1 more pull up than probably more than half of America’s population, so you are already 100% better!

6

Hey there Buddha!

Never heard of this program so I’ll be interested to see what its all about.

Your numbers are already very impressive :slight_smile:

Looking forward to following along!

7

Sounds like you’ve done your homework! Welcome.

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Curious how your BF% was measured. Just because the measurements I have had done have had a ± 10% variation, which doesn’t seem to suggest most methods are very accurate.

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Yay for starting a log :slight_smile:

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Hey Everybody thank you for the warm welcome. I really appreciate it. =)

@ Nikki= Of course with weights! I think cardio is the devil’s advocate. IF that was the only way to exercise, I don’t think I ever would. =/

@ Bobby Miller= Thanks! Unfortunately it is a once a week thing. If I do it on Monday, I wont be able to repeat performance until next Monday. Gotta work on that. Grrrr… Oh and my bad I meant a chin up, the easier one. lol.

@ kpsnap= for the BF% measurement, I did it with calipers by 2 different ppl and the results were similar. However it was a while ago. I also did it with the bioelectric impedance thing they have at most gyms and the measurements were always extremely close to the calipers. I know the margin of error is great on those things, I understand the science to it. I had to do a presentation on different BF% measuring devices when I was in school. However… I think I am going to get calipered by 2 different people next week since it really has been a while. ±10%? Just curious, how did you get your bf% measure for such a huge deviation?

Ok here was my workout on Friday. When I got home last night I crashed really bad. But now am feeling good with slight soreness.

Alternating Set 1 with 90s rest in between exercises

1A. Deadlift 3sx4rx 135 (felt great! felt form was pretty good (will post vid soon) and finally didn’t feel my lower back taking the MAJORITY of the work.
1B. Bench Press 3sx4rx85, 85, 80

Alternating Set 2 with 60s rest in between exercises

2A. Deadlift 3x8x95,105,95 (all felt easy, but my form felt off on set two, so kept it light)
2B. Bench Press 3sx8,12,10rx65

Circuit1, 2 exercise no rest in between. Rest in between sets

3A. Bulgarian Split Squats 3sx15,12,12x20 barbell (6 reps wt overhead, 9 wt rest on forearm a la Zercher
3B. Single arm row with cable 3x15x 25,30,25

Circuit 2, like circuit one

4A. Pull throughs 2x15x30 felt it too much in my lower back, so I need to practice it
4B. Push ups shoulder width 2x9r Felt weak, wide grip is so much easier. BOO!

Cardio circuit, all exercises repeat and done for 2 mins, 3 min rest and repeat 2 x
hop scotch x10
explosive step up x10
jump squat x10
plank walk ups x 10

So lets say after this workout, my leg muscles felt fine, but my heart rate was definitely through the roof. I was pooped. It felt good, but my volleyball performance was no bueno. 2 ppl asked me if I worked out before… lol. They just gonna have to deal for one month. =P

Today: 5 mountain climbers intervals for 60 and a steady jog for 20 mins.

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hey!! nice workout! and you MiM’s right, you’re way ahead of most people on the pullups!

I like your screen name too…i myself have what i fondly call Sausage Gut. My version of buddha belly…WORD!

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I love me some Alwyn Cosgrove, and am interested to see how the program works out for you! That work out looks great, lots to feel good about in there!

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I think you can do better than Lynda Carter!!!

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Pullups are awesome & it is way cool you can do 1. Soon you will be at 5, 10, 15 - well you get the idea. I am going to sit right here and watch for that to happen now :slight_smile:

15

Great workout.
Volleybal= <3

That fat is going to melt off of you.
I had a higher BF than you and got to this point in less than a year and didn’t have your strength or knowledge, so big things are going to happen for you soon.

16

Hey everybody.

So I learned a valuable lesson. Preparation is key! Today, well… technically yesterday, I did my workout (yay) but missed my chance to meet my girl crush, Mary Louise Parker (main character from Weeds! IF you don’t like that show, you don’t know good TV. Ok, I am def bias. =P). F*ck Angelina puffer fish.

(ok Image isn’t loading) will figure it out later. Doh!

I think I just have a thing for confident milky skin women with big doe brown eyes cuz I would turn gay for Anne Hathaway and Victoria Beckham as well. <333 Ok, back to my point, she was doing a reading with other actors in the CUNY Grad Center in New York for free (2x Boo!) but I didn’t do my workout early enough so my only time to fit in the workout was during the performance. The show was for today only. (3x Boo!)

Lesson Learned.

BUT, I had a great workout!

Alternating sets w/ 90s rest bet exercises

  1. Front Squat 1x115x6, 1x135x6, 1x155x3 (PR Yo!) Right glute gave out (never thought I would EVER say that) and wasn’t dropping it like its hott.
  2. Pull Ups 3x4r

Alternating sets w/ 60s rest bet exercises

  1. Front Squat 1x95x12, 1x105x8(weak mind) 1x105x10 (focused, but could not ctrl the valgus collapse at rep 9 and 10
  2. Pull ups 3x4 with assistance… These machines are inconsistent. Different ones says different assistant weights. oh well.

Circuit 1, 60s after set
5a. Step ups (patella ht) 1x20x15, 1x35x15, 1x45barx15
5b. Lat Pull Down 1x15x75, 2x12x70

Circuit 2, 60s after set
6a. DB Squat 2x15x22.5
6b. DB Push Press 2x12x22.5

Cardio: each exercise 30s w/ 90s jog at 4.5mph & 2% incline

lateral squat 14r
explosive step up 10r
plank walk up 7
burpees 7
lateral squat 14r
explosive step up 10r

Lots of stretching afterwards. Felt good.

Question: I find that after squat days, I feel so charged up, my sports performance improves, even if my workouts end an hour before my game. I work hard with the weights and all. However, if I deadlift (even at sub capacity), my performance stinks like poo! Does anyone have theories how that may occur? Finding it quite strange. =/

Stay Strong.

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Buddha… that feels wrong calling a woman that. Rachel! That’s more like it. Welcome to the nation, and good stuff on committing yourself to the gym. Now for the question: what martial art do you partaketh in?

Good call on Mary Louise Parker and Anne Hathaway. You would have to fight me for those two…unless you opt to join in. However, NOOOO to Beckham. She looks like death. She should have been labeled “Scary Spice.”

Again, welcome.

18

very nice on the front squats.

deadlift: barefoot, chalk for grip, tape your lifts and analyze your form. Try to do it better next time. We all have stuff we are not so good at. If you poste your lift here we can give you better advice. A lot of us have improved that way.

just my 2 cents.

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Ok quick post b4 bed.

Rehab + Cardio day. Omit cardio cuz I had a vball game. WEAKNESS! just gotta move on.

Great rehab/prehap day tho.

dynamic warm up blah blahs… fire hydrants, bw single leg RDLs (right side)

Alternating sets. rest… eh when ever.

For ex 1, tried to do CT “perfect rep”… and it was great. workout did not impact performance like it can usually do. Will need to apply to DL.

  1. Wt Glute Bridges: 1x95x10, 1x115x8, 2x135x5. First time doing this with weights. Wow, taking the time out to do glute activation work on and off for months pays dividends. Now I feel like my glutes are not just for show. MY GLUTES HAVE PURPOSE.

1b. Swiss ball roll outs: 4x10,15,15,15. Felt too easy… Will shoot for 25r.

  1. Side planks: 2x30
    2b. push up plus: 2x20

Then I kicked arse at vb. albeit… a bit slow. >.< oops.

TMW, 2 sessions. one regular and one in the morning just for DL tech. A neighbor is willing to help. Sweet!

Happy Early Turkey Day!

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Hey girl!

First of all, are you in NYC? I teach at the Grad Center. Lol! I’d go gay for Anne Hathaway too…

I must’ve missed the bit where you said you play competitive volleyball. Very cool! For me training before a soccer game would suck! I have trained before practice though and that was ok.

Anyways, great training! These workouts look tough! But i do love circuit type stuff, so it looks fun to me. Keep at it!