Jenica's Strongwoman & PL Log

[jenica]

I've been thinking about starting a log here for a while; I'm finally making it happen tonight.

A little about me:
Height: 5'6"
Age: 30
BW: 165 lb.?

I'm a relative newbie competitor in powerlifting and strongwoman. I followed bodybuilding-type workouts for many years and was a Figure competitor prior to seeing the light and moving to strength sports. It was nice to look strong, but it’s even better to be strong. I did WAY too much and ate WAY too little for a long time, so I have some hormonal chaos that gets in the way of feeling super energetic sometimes (working on it, but it’s a slow process to fix). My husband does his best to keep my tendency to overdo it in the gym in check!

My last PL meet was Nov. 6, 2011 and my lifts were:
Squat: 215 lb.
Bench: 140 lb.
Deadlift: 280 lb.

My real focus last year was competing in strongwoman. I zeroed only once, in my very first contest. I placed pretty well all season, but it became clear that even though I was stronger than the average Jane, I needed to be much stronger to be a truly competitive strongwoman. So, here I am.

I stripped out event training over the winter to focus on building my strength base. My squats were really lagging, so I’m following an advanced novice program to bring them up. I’m following the Texas Method for overhead presses, bench, and deadlifts. I’m working on my power clean technique so I can stop embarrassing myself in public. I’m also a little flabbier than I want to be (and need to be for the strongwoman weight class I want to compete in), so I’m doing 2-3 days/week of interval cardio or metcon workouts. I hate cardio with a passion, but I have a blessing & a curse: I build muscle well, but losing fat sometimes takes a small miracle. My diet is primarily whole, unprocessed food because I feel much better eating this way.

I have 3 goals for this year: 1) compete at the North American Strongman (NAS) Nationals, 2) qualify for the newly announced Strongman Fitness at the 2013 Arnold, and 3) get an 800 PL total. Some of these are loftier than others, but aim high and get close, right?

Looking forward to being a part of the SS community!

[jenica]

2/4/2012

Saturdays are intensity day. However, I was traveling all week for work, so my body was more than a little cranky. I foam rolled a ton and did lots of dynamic warm up, but my low back was just mad. I ended up doing a small reset on squats, but benching was fine.

Squat:
warm up
4 x 205 lb. (I was repeating last Saturday's weight, but it became clear it wasn't going to happen with proper form)
5 x 195 lb. x 2 much better

bench:
warm up
2 x 137.5 lb.

neutral grip chins:
1 x bw x 8 (still working on singles, making them all dead hang)

I should have done power cleans, but my back wanted nothing of it, and I was pretty wiped out from traveling. I decided this was good enough and called it a day.

More foam rolling later.

2/5/2012

Sunday is interval and/or metcon day. Body was still pretty tight, so lots of rolling before and after. Still feeling a bit tired even after sleeping a lot, so took it a little easier than usual.

Drills: ~450 ft. each (multiple trips back & forth in the gym), short rest in between (untimed)
lateral shuffle
karaoke
ladder
skip forward & backward
backward run/sprint
sprint
repeat the sequence again-- 2 times total

1 extra sprint

handstand mountain climbers/med ball slams: 10-20 sec between sets
12/side/12 x 6kg X 3

TRX fallouts 10 x bw x 3

~40 minutes work
Feeling good at the end. Hoping to be back to my normal schedule this week!

[Gillian Mounsey]

Welcome Jenica. Great to see your log here. Very nice to have a community of female lifters.

How did you get into strongman competition? I'm intrigued by it but know little about it.

Best of luck in your pursuits. I'll be following your progress.

[melody]

I'll be following your log

[jenica]

I've been reading logs here for a while, including yours Gillian and melody, so thanks for the welcome! I like the community feel.

To answer your question Gillian, I found strongwoman through a friend. After watching her compete, I knew I had to try it. I found a local gym that has some strongman implements and the owner/trainer is a competitor himself. I trained with him for most of last year and spent a lot of time learning events. I'm training myself for now (the logistics of getting to said gym are challenging on a day-to-day basis), but I'm planning to go back at least once a week to train events once the competition season gets closer. The biggest governing body for amateur competition is North American Strongman. American Strongman Corp. runs the contest at the Arnold, and all the qualifying events. ASC is just getting started with women's competitions, but most NAS contests have at least a women's open division.

I love strongwoman and encourage any ladies interested to give it a try. The women I've met are incredibly supportive, even though they're also trying to beat you

[Staci Rudnitsky]

I'll be following along as well...looking forward to learning more about strongwoman competitions through your log!

[thisjelly]

I'm following you log, looks like it will be inspiring!

[yonkyogirl]

Welcome, your log's going to be really interesting. I'm thinking about competing in strongwoman next year, though I am going to have to check what comps in the UK will allow women to enter. Generally, what percentage of the men's weight do the women lift?

[jenica]

Well, there's not really a set % less for women-- a lot of it depends on the event and what the promoter has for equipment. If s/he only has down to a 400lb tire, that's what we do! The men are divided up and the women's weights are usually equal to or less than the lightest men's class. Typical ranges might be 110-140lb on the log, 300-500 lb tire, 350-450lb yoke, stones 125-200lb., car deadlifts or truck pulls are hard no matter what (but absolutely fun!). I'm not sure who runs contests in the UK, but there must be some!

[jenica]

2/6/2012
Rest day.

2/7/2012
Volume day. Feeling much more normal after a few days of decent sleep and a regular schedule. The gremlin in my low back is finally gone too!

Foam & PVC pipe, dynamic warm up
All weights in lbs., listed as sets x reps

Squat:
Warm up: 5x45, 5x95, 4x125, 3x165, 1x185 (no belt, all feel good)
Work: 3 x 5 x 200 (belt, feeling pretty good. Hit the rails on my very last rep—oops—but recovered ok)

OH press:
Warm up: 5x45, 5x65
Work: 5 x 5 x 75
My technique was really bad on OH presses when I started this process, so I’ve been playing with getting the bar path vertical and not hyperextending my back more than pushing my limits. My weights are much lower than where I need to be for competition, so I need to get this sorted out ASAP.

Deadlift:
Warm up: 5x45, 5x135, 3x165, 1x185, 2x205 (no belt, all felt good)
Work: 5 x 225 (belt, decent set, lost some back extension on rep 5, but acceptable)
I’m setting a new 5RM every session now, which is kind of fun.

Chins- neutral grip, dead hang:
8 x 1 x bw (these were hard after heavy deadlifts)
At some point, I have to start doing multiples…but will probably cut down to chins 1x/week when I do

Since I’m not working with a trainer and the weights are getting heavy, I took some video of my working sets. Once I figure out how to upload them efficiently, I’ll post them to the technique forum. Constructive criticism appreciated!