Gwynn's Training Log

[Gwyn Brookes]

So I was browsing through all these training logs looking for other women and found only one. In case there are other female beginners out there, training alone with very little to gauge your progress by, I thought I'd bite the bullet and start logging. I started Starting Strength a year ago exactly. Therefore, I consider myself to be a beginner. I just turned 40. My professional dance career (modern and ballet) ended at around 32 like it does for most dancers, and somehow I ended up replacing my passion for dance with a passion for martial arts. Which is like dance except for the part where you hurt people. Haha. Anyway because of all that I have abused my body for a long time; a plethora of overuse injuries but nothing serious (i.e. requiring surgery). I started lifting weights because a mass marketing title promised me I could lift like a man. Well, I wish. But someone at my dojo turned my on to Starting Strength and now here I am.

I looked over my training log for the last year and it seems to me that I have wasted a bunch of time doing silly things with my programming. I just got the second edition of PPST and have simplified back to an advanced novice program and so far I really like it.

Including my MA training schedule, this is what my week looks like:
Sunday: Squat 3x5, either Bench or Press 3x5, Power Clean 5x3
Monday: 2 hours of jujitsu, 1 hour of either sword or aikido
Tuesday: Squat @ 80% 2x5, either Press or Bench 3x5, DL 1x5
Wednesday: 2 hours of jujitsu and/or aikido and sword
Thursday: Squat 3x5, either Bench or Press 3x5, Power Clean 5x3
Friday: 1 hour of aikido, 1 hour of sword, 1 1/2 of jujitsu
Saturday: 1 hour jujitsu, 1 hour aikido, 2 hours sword
Assistance: I have been throwing in weighted sit ups, back extensions, pull ups (I can do three unaided on a Good Day) or dips. I either do them all on the middle day or if I have extra juice I'll throw in a couple sets on other days too.

Yes, I train every day. I have nearly always trained every day. I like it. But it does make recovery a bit more complicated. Right now I'm in the final stages of prepping for my second degree black belt test in jujitsu (Danzan Ryu) which is a three hour test. So probably towards the end of next week I won't be adding any weight to the bar.

Current numbers:
Squat 150x5x3
Deadlift 225x5 (yay two plates :-) )
Bench 101x5x3
Press 77x5x3
Power Clean 100x3x5

At 5'9" and 160 lb I still have a ways to go before I would consider myself strong.

(For any one that is curious my sword style is Toyama Ryu Battodo and the style of aikido I practice has its lineage in Yoshinkan Aikido.)

[misspelledgeoff]

Welcome and glad to have you around! This place could use a female touch!

Look forward to following your log.

Misspelled

[isis]

Your log looks like it's going to be good reading--I'm glad you started it. Except it makes me feel like I should bite the bullet too. And I read that same mass marketing title that was going to make me look like a goddess, except that I had more unanswered questions about lifting after I read it than before. But I found Rip on amazon.com and found all the answers I needed.

In the weeks when you do add weight, how much are you adding?

[Gwyn Brookes]

Thanks for the welcome misspelled! And isis, for the past few months I've been doing TM and only adding about 2 pounds a week to my squat, 2 pounds a week to my DL and about 1 pound a week to bench, press and powerclean.
And burning myself out doing a lot of assistance work.

Now that I've simplified my programming back to something a little more linear I've been adding weight every time I train - 2-3 pounds for squat and deadlift, 1-2 pounds for bench and power clean and 1/2 - 1 pound for press.
I'll see how that goes, I've been doing it a couple of weeks and may need to slow down at some point.

Looking forward to seeing your log! :-)

[Tor]

Hello Gwynn,

Thanks for posting yr log. A couple questions. What's the motivation behind returning to a linear, novice-style training after training at an intermediate level? And how did you like micro-loading on the Texas Method? Were you adding 2 lbs on the volume day AND the intensity day? And what was your set/rep set-up for the intensity day? How did it work for you?

Thanks,

Tor

[Gwyn Brookes]

11/8
Squat 152x5x3
Press 77.5x5x3
Power Clean 102x3x2, 100x3x1, 101x3x2.
Friday and Saturday I hit the mat really hard, put in extra time etc. which is why my power cleans sucked - I mean suffered. Definitely will spend the rest of the week taking it easy in preparation for Monday.

Tor - The reason I went from intermediate back to novice programming - I had originally gone straight ahead to intermediate because I was stalled and totally exhausted all the time. TM felt like a much more do-able program, but after re-reading PPST, I thought about the difference between not being able to create a big enough training stress to cause adaptation with three sets of five, and simply needing a bit more time to recover than a younger person would need. I suspected that in my case it was the latter rather than the former. In answer to your second question, yes I added the same amounts of weight to the volume day and the intensity day. On the intensity day I did one set of five. It was working fine, but once I suspected I could make faster progress, I had to try.

[Tor]

Thank you for the thoughtful reply, Gwynn. I'll be following yr progress!

Tor

[Gwyn Brookes]

11/10
Warmup weights only today:
Squat 135x5x2; Bench 95x5x2, Deadlift 205x5x1.
It was (mentally) hard to stick to my plan of using this week to recover.
I may go up in weight again on Thursday and then use Sunday to recover again, depending on how this week feels. Last night I felt like someone threw me out a window :-) But after this morning's training I feel pretty refreshed.

[Gwyn Brookes]

11/12
Squat 154x5x3
Press 78x5x3
Power Clean 102x3x5

[Gwyn Brookes]

11/14
I decided to split my Sunday training into two days as a concession to my Monday test. Squats were today. 156x5x3 felt LIGHTER than 154x5x3 two days ago. Maybe that is because I am RESTED. I also had just enough time to do 3 sets of 3 pullups. Then I had a full-pound burger for dinner which I've never tried before. Damn that was good.