M&M's Training Journal

Bigger Stronger Leaner Powerful Women
1

Hi everyone. I’ve been stalking T NATION for a while after being recommended to it by a trainer who saw me trying to do olympic lifts at the gym I used to go to. After working out for a while on my own and failing to stay motivated, I’ve decided that I need a training buddy and a goal. My friend M2 suggested that we do judo and workout together. She’s been doing judo for two years, but never lifted weights seriously. I’m pretty much the opposite story.

I wanted to try a training program that I haven’t used before and she wants to include a lot of conditioning work, so we settled on the original westside for skinny bastards with a few modifications. I added a dynamic lower body day to it, so it’s now a 4-day program instead of a 3-day. Also, she wants to do a conditioning day after our WS4SB day. So, instead of doing three workouts throughout a 7-day period, we’re going to do a strength workout the first day, a conditioning workout the second day, and then have a third day off. When judo starts, it will only be one day per week officially, so that shouldn’t affect our training too much.

Here is what we did yesterday and the day before:

Yesterday:
Conditioning- 1 mile-2min break-.75 mile-2min break-.5mile-2min-break-.25mile-2min break:
M1: total of 25min:55sec
M2: total of 27min:56sec
(including all of the 2 min breaks in total time)

Day before:
We didn’t realize that the gym was going to close early, so we only got in half of the upper body strength day:
M1: Bench press:
65lbsx5
85lbsx5
95lbsx5
105lbsx1 followed by fail

Upright DB bench:
15x10
17.5x10
25x10

Cable Row:
60lbsx10

M2:
Bench press:
45lbsx5
65lbsx4
65lbsx3

Incline DB bench:
10x10
15x10
20x10 (last few were with assistance)

Cable row:
30x10

2

First of all, I just want to throw it out there that the training names M1 and M2 are based on our last names (I’m M1 and she’s M2)

Today was the first legs day I’ve had in over 9 months and M2’s first ever. I set her up with a 30lb barbell so she could practice the front squat form. It was pretty shaky at first and she had trouble keeping her chest up. She was struggling at the end of a set of ten, so we decided not to push the weight.

Warm-up: 5 min rowing and foam rolling hamstrings, calves, and side of leg

Front Squats: The goal was a max set of 3-5. I got over-enthusiastic and once again performed a terribly-ramped one-rep max. Suggestions on how to ramp when working a program like this would be awesome.

M1: 45x5, 65x5, 95x4, 105x1 then fail
M2: 30lbsx15, 30x10,30x5, 30x5

“speed skater” squats single leg: These were absolutely brutal. I half-considered starting with small DBs and ended up being glad that I tried it first without weight. At 12 reps we were just about falling over (M2 did fall over on the third set when she tried to high-five me afterwards, but we’re blaming that on me)

M1: 3setsx12reps per leg
M2: 2setsx12reps per leg
during the last set she broke it up into two sets of 6 per leg with no rest.

cable Pull-throughs:

M1: 60x10, 70x10, 80x12
M2: 40x10, 40x10, 40x10

farmers walk:
we attempted to go all the way around the 1/8th mile track, but I had to keep stopping for breaks about halfway around and she was cheating! :stuck_out_tongue:

M1: 30lb DBS the first walk and 25lb the second
M2: 20lb DBs for both.

3

Conditioning Day:
Today two of my coworkers decided to join M2 and I. Everyone agreed that this was much harder than it looks on paper or even feels after the first five minutes. I was dying with cramps near the end and nearly threw up once I got off the treadmill. It was lovely :confused:

M1:
Treadmill incline was set on 14. Walked for two minutes, followed by a minute of jogging for 10 rounds. Completed 1.80 miles in 30 minutes. My thighs are so not happy.

M2: 11 incline. completed 1.9 miles in 30 minutes.

It’s crazy how much more difficult it is to attack the treadmill when there’s incline. We weren’t expecting it to be that hard.

I’m thinking about making this a set conditioning workout because it’s not very stressful on the joints, is great for calf development, and we can eventually add weighted backpacks.

4

Welcom to PW! It’s awesome that you guys are able to work together on similar goals. Having a great training partner is the best!

5

[quote]sbmart2 wrote:
Welcom to PW! It’s awesome that you guys are able to work together on similar goals. Having a great training partner is the best![/quote]

Thanks! I’m praying she sticks with me. All of my previous training “partners” have either left the country or flaked. Hopefully the two years of judo dedication is a good sign.

6

Welcome!

I don’t think anybody over here is currently doing Westside so that will be cool to follow.

What are your stats and lifting goals? You mentioned an OLY background?

7

[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Welcome!

I don’t think anybody over here is currently doing Westside so that will be cool to follow.

What are your stats and lifting goals? You mentioned an OLY background?[/quote]

Thanks! I’ve squeeze olympic lifts into programs that I’ve done in the past just because I think they’re super fun, but I’ve never done it competitively.

As for stats:
M1: 5’6" 126lbs, visually between 20%-25% bf, Best lifts (before the 9 months of sitting on my ass)
Squat: 175lbs
Deadlift:200lbsx5
Pullups:15
Front squat: 145lbs
Bench press: 135lbs
Power Clean: 130lbs
Overhead press: 85lbsx2
Now: Terribly terribly weak.

M2: 5’4" 135lbs She looks like she’s between 25%-30% bf and has never lifted before so what you see is her best yet.

Our goal isn’t weight or time specific. We’re just trying to improve our conditioning and strength as much as possible for judo which starts in the fall.

On that note, I figured out why the original program only has one legs day. Shockingly (note sarcasm), you work your legs a lot when doing conditioning and they don’t recover as fast. I’m debating whether I should just try to eat a lot more and see if the recovery speeds up or simply scrap the second legs day.

Today:

A. Regular pushups. 3 sets of max reps with 60sec between sets.
M1: 25/9/4
M2(on knees): 20/20/10 (partially cheated and was struggling with learning proper form in order to complete full ROM)

B. Decline DB skullcrushers:
M1:10lbsx10/15x6/15x6/15x6+assistance
M2:7.5x15/10x10/10x6/10x7

C. Chinups with assistance:
M1:70lbsx10/70x7/70x7/70x4
M2:90lbsx8/90lbsx7/100lbsx5

d. Dumbbell Shoulder Press:
M1: 12.5x15/15x10/15x11
M2:12.5x10x3sets

e. Preacher Curls:
M1: 15lbsx7/12.5x9/12.5x4+1
M2:10x10/12.5x7/12.5x7

F. ab circuit of 15decline situps on knotch 2 with arms held out to side+ 15 weighted hanging leg raises. M2 didn’t use weight. M1 used 20lbs.

M2 seemed very distant after the workout. I tried asking her what she was thinking and she responded with “Ok” after a pause. I kept trying with a “Haha thanks for being specific” to which she responded “I’m listening to my muscles”. Her muscles were apparently rather shaky (normal but she’s never worked out like that before). I’m also wondering if she derived some sort of an emotional release from the workout that she didn’t feel like sharing.

Weights seem to be good a breaking nice, shy women out of their shells.

8

Edit: M2 is 135lbs.

9

hi. welcome to the compound :slight_smile:

so cool that you have a training partner and you can help her with the weights and she can help you with the judo. will be interested to hear how the judo goes for you, too.

i think i remember something of a bit of a stunned feeling when i first started listening to my muscles… the strangest feeling. i need to do more of it.

10

Ironcross! OK, it just dawned on me who you are, after I saw you on my log!! I was thinking you were some “random” guy stopping in over there so I was kinda inclined to bust your balls a bit! LOL! I didn’t remember your username. :slight_smile:

Anywho…About your stats…That’s awesome! You already have better than a BW bench and are close on Nadia’s heels with your 15 pullups. Looking strong! You are going to have some of us jealous right from the start!!

I agree that the OLY lifting looks so fun. I sometimes go over to Deb’s log and just lurk and watch her vids. We don’t have a setup to do it in my current gym.

11

[quote]Powerpuff wrote:
Ironcross! OK, it just dawned on me who you are, after I saw you on my log!! I was thinking you were some “random” guy stopping in over there so I was kinda inclined to bust your balls a bit! LOL! I didn’t remember your username. :slight_smile:

Anywho…About your stats…That’s awesome! You already have better than a BW bench and are close on Nadia’s heels with your 15 pullups. Looking strong! You are going to have some of us jealous right from the start!!

I agree that the OLY lifting looks so fun. I sometimes go over to Deb’s log and just lurk and watch her vids. We don’t have a setup to do it in my current gym. [/quote]

Nope, definitely not a guy. I was just trying to offer some encouragement.

As for my stats, those are from nearly a year ago and I can no longer lift that much. My fingers are crossed in hopes that it will come back quickly, but I’m not that strong right now.

12

[quote]alexus wrote:
hi. welcome to the compound :slight_smile:

so cool that you have a training partner and you can help her with the weights and she can help you with the judo. will be interested to hear how the judo goes for you, too.

i think i remember something of a bit of a stunned feeling when i first started listening to my muscles… the strangest feeling. i need to do more of it. [/quote]

I’m not really sure what she meant by “listening to my muscles”. Mine are always in one of four states: sore, not sore, fatigued, or bouncy. What do your muscles say to you?

13

Today I relearned that drinking is bad for you. The day before last I went to the neighbor’s block party and yesterday I hung out with a girlfriend while putting back four bellinis (champaign with slushed frozen peach) and two shots of absinthe. Today I’ve been one big ball of hurting, hating hangover. On a side note, absinthe is not all Moulin Rouge cracks it up to be. The hallucinations I experienced were dream-like horrors, there was no body high, and it just sucked.

M2 is currently out of town at a seminar on how to identify fish for working as a biologist on a boat in Alaska. She’ll be back around Thursday.

My plan was to do a crossfit style workout, but I chickened out at the thought of what that would feel like in my current state and just went for a run.

Time to lay off the booze.

14

I’ll bet your strength comes back pretty quickly. Your training partner sounds like she’s got a very cool job.

Impressed that you are running while hungover. That’s Hardcore! I don’t drink, but when I used to, I was was kind of boring. I skip over crazy “life of the party girl” and just go straight to being very quiet, and then sleepy. :slight_smile:

15

well… i’m not sure what she meant by it… but for me…

my muscles would shake because they weren’t used to being worked. it frightened me a bit. i thought they would just give up. took a while to learn that they don’t just give up and drop the weight. rather, the weight simply won’t go up anymore, then won’t be held in that position anymore, then will gradually make its way back down to earth.

it freaked me out, though. especially on overhead movements. was terrified i’d drop something on my head. which is probably why i find oly lifting so empowering now :slight_smile:

16

Today sucked the big one. I don’t know what it is about working out in the mornings but I feel like I’m shaking and going to puke the whole time. Today was especially bad. I had to take much longer breaks than I planned (3-5 min), and I ended up calling it quits halfway through because it was getting worse. I still feel queasy an hour after the fact.

Does anyone have suggestions on things you can eat in the morning before working out that don’t make you feel like you’re going to hurl while lifting? This morning I had three slices of toast with peanutbutter and two scoops of protein powder in water with a shot of coffee (ran out of milk). I’ve tried oatmeal (fail), hamburgers (fail), omelet (fail), protein shake with fruit (fail)…nothing seems to work and I can’t work out later in the day because the gym closes before my work gets out. In the past I’ve always lifted at night and never had an issue.

Today:

Deadlift: only 60 seconds inbetween each set going for maximum reps. I played it easy the first set and then started trying to increase. The last set felt pretty hard at the end.

115x12 , 115x15, 115x20

Leg curl:
70x10 , 80x10, 80x10 (last few were pretty challenging)

Step up to balance on very high step:

0lbsx12, 0lbsx12 10lbsx12 By the last set it took me a full five minutes to recover and even then as soon as I stood up I felt awful.

I really need to figure something out. No, I haven’t been drinking. This is just a problem I’ve always had with working out in the morning.

17

I love that you log for 2 people. And both of you ladies are strong and follow a nice training program.

Poptarts for breakfast? =D
Probably not ideal for you but I have no idea. I don’t have that problem =/

18

[quote]Nikki9591 wrote:
I love that you log for 2 people. And both of you ladies are strong and follow a nice training program.

Poptarts for breakfast? =D
Probably not ideal for you but I have no idea. I don’t have that problem =/[/quote]

I’m ready to add them to the shopping list if the rice, eggs, and fruit doesn’t work tomorrow!

Today has just been off. I got a side-stitch walking home from work! Last week I ran two and a half miles, quickly, after 9 months off, and was just fine.

19

i dunno.

i find a protein shake doesn’t sit so well in my stomach before training. but coffee is fine. if it is very early i’ll just grab a banana. if it is later oatmeal and some yoghurt and an apple or something like that. or a bacon and egg roll.

i’m actually really bad at just having coffee then training. and i wonder why i’m not getting stronger. sigh. trying to snack lightly on nuts and dried fruit between sets.

20

Hi M1 lol

The muscle memory will kick in.
As far as the eating before the workout, I’d have just gone with the peanut butter toasts, and I usually prefer to workout soon after getting up too. I work nights though so that is usually in the evening. I usually just aim for not being hungry before my weightlifting workouts, then having a big meal after. Anyways that’s how I do it.

Welcome, to you and M2 too. :slight_smile: