Old Lady Picks Things up and Puts Them Down Again

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Hi everyone,

First the waffly introduction: I'm a 50 year-old female human. (I don't thing of myself as "old" or "a lady", but I liked it for the title). I've been training with a wonderful SSC for the past 6 months, and it appears that my novice/advanced novice phase is over. This makes me kind of sad, because my squat isn't even anywhere near my bodyweight yet, but then again, my presses are pretty good for my age and sex. I guess I'm kind of odd in that respect.

The squat has always been hard for me, partly because I started out with basically zero muscle anywhere on my body, but mostly because I had some pretty ingrained habits from a year of squatting MUCH higher than I thought I was, with too much weight. I wish I had had a SSC back then, but I didn't know what that was. Now, getting low enough and keeping my bar path from coming forward is a constant challenge, and I often have to go down in weight to work on form for a while.

Regardless, the idea is to get stronger than I was before, and that's what I'm doing. We're going to be starting a modified Texas Method for me this coming Monday, and I plan on logging that here in this thread (in addition to logging it in my paper training book, obviously).

I'm hoping that there will be other "older" women out there who find my logbook useful in some way. Personally, I find it very difficult to balance fat gain with strength gain. In my 6 months of training, I've gained a lot of belly fat relative to the amount of strength. It's making chin-ups more and more elusive. On the other hand, I don't ever get DOMS. Knock on wood.

My immediate goal for now is to get as strong as I can in preparation for the USSF 2017 Nationals in January, where I hope to a) beat my previous total, even if it's by one kg; and b) stay in the 75kg class, and not have to go up one. So basically get stronger without getting fatter. I have my doubts about how possible that is for me, but if I fail it won't be for lack of trying. Dammit.

For this first post, I'll just put my working weights from when I started six months ago, to now. Everything is in pounds.

Height: 5' 3"
Bodyweight: 140 - 158
Squat: 50 - 135 (3x5)
Press: 35 - 70 (5x3)
Bench: 70 - 112.5 (3x5)
Deadlift 90 - 190 (1x5)

Once I start the modified TM Monday evening, we'll be experimenting with percentages for a bit, and I'll be doing a bunch of volume on Monday, and box squats on Wednesday. I'll post about that next time. What fun!

[codger]

Excellent work, Elderwanda! I'll have to share your post with my wife--I think she'll find it inspiring.

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Thanks, Codger!

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Okay, here's my first entry for this log.
Monday, Nov. 13, 2017

Volume Day. This is the first time I've had a "volume day". It was supposed to 120 pounds for 5x5, but I mentioned that I was feeling particulary weak and tired today, so we tried 115. I struggled to get 4 reps, and said, "I could probably used spotters". Coach said put it away because it shouldn't be that heavy on volume day. So we ramped it down to 105.

So: 115 x4
110 x5
105 x5
105 x5
105 x5

What the hell? A couple of weeks ago I was squatting 135 pounds for 3x5, and very proud of that, because I've worked for so hard and so long. If I had tried to squat 135 today, it would have crushed me. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track soon.

And then I did Volume Presses. Presses have never been a problem for me and today was no different, thank goodness. 5x5 at 90@
Presses:
65 x 5
65 x 5
65 x 5
65 x 5
65 x 5

Then I did 3 sets of 3 negative chin-ups, with 6 minutes in between sets. Those aren't getting any easier.

And some conditioning HIIT on the rower.
178 meters in 45 seconds
3 minute rest
198 meters in 45 seconds
4 minute rest
176 meters in 45 seconds

This morning's Bodyweight: 158.8 pounds
Today's kCal in: 1868
Protein: 164 g
Carbs: 163 g
Fat: 65 g

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017

Today was Light Day.

Squat 70% x 130 = 91 pounds
91 = 5, 5, 5 Box Squats.
It was great to have a real easy squat day, and work on my form. Even at this light weight, I get annoying head pressure, so the coach gave me a few breathing tips to hopefully make that less awful. Apparently I haven't been breathing into my belly as much as I thought I was.

Bench 70% x 112 = 80 pounds. 5, 5, 5
Easy Peasy. Worked on keeping shoulders into the bench.

Deadlift 100% x 195 3, 3 Lost tightness a bit on last rep. Will repeat next week.

Negative Chin ups, 3x3

HIIT on Rowing machine. Can't be bothered to write details about that every day, because who cares?

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Friday Nov 17, 2017
Heavy Day

Squat 130 lbs. 1x5
My form was pretty good, but I forgot that I was supposed to try "hissing" a bit of air out on the way up until the last two reps. I tried it for those two, but it's hard for me to control, so I think I let too much go. I wrote "practice hissing" in my notebook for my warm-ups next time. The head pressure is really ruining squats for me. I'd much rather be able to concentrate completely on getting the bar up, without feeling like my head is exploding. At 130 pounds. If anyone has any tips, I'm all ears. Hopefully it will improve as I get stronger?

Overhead Press 67.5 x 5

Negative Chins 3x3 I think those went a bit better than usual.

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Monday November 20, 2017

Volume Day

Squats: 85% of 130 = 110 lbs. 5x5
These all went fairly well. I used the lighter weight to work on my breathing & bracing, which has been a bit wonky lately. I practiced hissing on the way up, which is supposed to help with the head pressure. We'll see how that works when I do my heavy set on Friday. All in all, not too bad.

Bench Press: 90% of 112.5 = 101.5 lbs. 5x5
These were amazingly easy. Coach says we may go up by a full five pounds next week. Then again, I was doing 3's during my LP, and now I'll be doing 5's. So we'll see.

Negative chins: 1x3
black band chins: 2, 3

No HITT, because I had a date to eat birthday cake with my son who turned 20 today.

[Oldster]

Love seeing those our age (or youngsters like you) pounding the iron!

You're making very good gains.

[Evelyn O'Donnell]

Ha ha! Thanks for the encouragement! The squats are so frustrating because they've always seemed to be a one step-forward, two-steps-back kind of progression for me. The other lifts just seem to progress nicely though, so that's good.

[Oldster]

Ha ha! Thanks for the encouragement! The squats are so frustrating because they've always seemed to be a one step-forward, two-steps-back kind of progression for me. The other lifts just seem to progress nicely though, so that's good.

Even in my thirties, I wasn't able to make the gains I needed in squats until I dropped to just a single top set each week, even if I was doing just singles. It didn't make just a difference when I switched, it was a ginormous improvement.

Now that I'm an...ahem...Oldster, it is the ONLY way I can make gains and lift hard.