ccs89's Novice Training Log - F|26|5'6"|168

[ccs89]

Hey peeps,

Been lurking here for a little over a week, drawing inspiration from other people's gains and figured it was time to put my own work out there. I am new to Starting Strength but not new to lifting, though I hadn't been under a barbell regularly for over a year when I started a little over a week ago. My starting stats are as follows:

Female, 26, 5'6", 168lb, 28% body fat (determined by DEXA scan)

My goals are to improve my strength and performance in my day to day life (I'm a bartender and running 9 trips with two ice buckets up two flights of stairs means strength gains are felt every day I work) and improve my body composition. I've been at 16%BF before and, while the level of neurosis required to be that lean doesn't sound appealing to me right now, I hope to end up somewhere in the 19-21% range. I'm very mesomorphic and typically have a pretty easy time gaining muscle (and fat, sadly). I've found a ketogenic approach to nutrition allows me to manage my thyroid disorder and migraine headaches without medication. I'm doing a gentle cut right now with my macros set as follows: 30g net carbs (heaviest carb intake timed around my workouts), 100g protein, 120g fat (1600kcal daily).

For starting weights I simply worked up to something challenging but which I believed I could comfortably complete the work sets and then used that as my first weight, from which I started building. I am working on mastering the low bar back squat, as I have always been a high bar squatter largely due to my love of Olympic lifting. My front squat is a little overdeveloped when compared to my back squat and I am losing some of the back squat advantage as I retrain my body for the low bar form, so for now my front squat and back squat are tracking together. I expect my back squat will begin to pull away from my front squat soon (and I am terrified that I will never again find pants that fit once my glutes finally get with the program). I make a couple of modifications to incorporate some skill work at full depth and strength work specific to my Oly goals and to add some more pulling work, as my job pulls my shoulders forward and I'd hate to look like Quasimodo in five years. Once I get my C&J back to 145 I am going to start working with a coach on my snatch, a long term goal of mine and a long term serious weakness. My workouts right now are the following:

Workout A:
Front Squat 3x5
Overhead Press 3x5
Deadlift 1x5
Chin Up Work 3xMax jumping chin up with negative

Workout B:
Back Squat 3x5
Bench Press 3x5
Clean Complex 5x(1+1+1) (for this complex I link 1 power clean + 1 full depth clean + 1 clean & jerk)
Pull Up work 3xMax jumping pull up with negative

Training so far (work sets only, assume warm up to working weight):

8/10
FS 85lb 3x5
OHP 65lb 3x5
DL 155lb 1x5
CU 3x12,9,8

8/12
BS 85lb 3x5
BP 75lb 3x5
CC 85lb 3x5
PU 3x6,4,4

8/16
FS 95lb 3x5
OHP 70lb 3x5
DL 165lb 1x5
CU 3x13,10,8

8/19
BS 105lb 3x5
BP 90lb 3x5 (benching felt great and I just worked up to a weight where 5 was challenging, prepared to drop back down if need be. 90 felt awesome. I'm okay with hanging at this weight for a few weeks if need be)
CC 85lb 5x3 (took this up to 95lb for one set and failed my third clean twice. Knocked it back to 85 and everything went back to feeling good. I think the block was mostly mental. Will attempt 95lb again next workout.)
PU 3x5,4,5

8/20
FS 115lb 3x5
OHP 75lb 3x5
DL 175lb 1x5
CU 3x10,9,11

About to go to the gym today as this is about the time the after work crowd clears out (I live in Chicago's central business district, so my gym is PACKED from 4:45-6:45). Looking forward to getting to know some of you here on the forum! Particularly looking forward to getting to know more women who lift heavy... My gym is packed with bros with mediocre to downright frightening form who really like to give me a lot of advice and waif-like professional women grinding out an hour+ on cardio machines. Have a great workout, everybody!

[anniemichael]

Welcome!

I'm a few years older than you but we are basically the same exact size. I'll be curious to follow along with how a keto diet works for your lifting -- the only time I've lost significant weight in my life (~20lbs) was on a very low carb diet (not quite keto, but <60 net g carbs), but I wasn't lifting heavy at the time. I'm normally comfortable with <100 net g carbs per day but I've found that I have needed to increase that to make it through long heavy workouts.

And yeah, the pants thing is real. I've always been very pear-shaped, but with lifting my wardrobe has really shifted towards dresses and tights/leggings. Or ridiculous stretchy jeggings. Small price to pay, IMO.

[ccs89]

Oh man. I just watched a bunch of your lifting videos and I totally have a gym crush on you. Haha.

I've always lifted and done keto. I've found that I have a little less pep in my step than my carbed up lifting buddies but that being well fat adapted makes the whole thing far less traumatic than everyone told me it was going to be and, for me, having (comparatively) less gas for my workouts was a small price to pay for all of the other benfits an HFLC diet accomplishes for me. I would guess though trying to transition to a ketogenic diet while lifting heavy is going to result in some rough work outs for up to a month. Getting fat adapted takes time and keto flu is a real (bitch of a) thing. For me it's all about priorities. I'm not lifting competitively, so my priorities are managing my health first and fueling my workouts second.

And the pants thing. Oh the pants thing. For a while Levi's made what they called their "supreme curve" Skinnies and those jeans were heaven. Now I find I have the best luck with their "Mile High Super Skinny" cut, but it can still be a touch hit or miss. Knowing where I gain when I lift heavy, I am just waiting for my shoulders and my ass to start exploding out of my clothes. Lol. I agree with you that it's totally worth it though. (:

Looking forward to following your lifting on here!

[ccs89]

8/20

BS 125lb 3x5
OHP 75lb 3x5 (Went up to 80 for one set, failed my fourth rep, went back to 75 and completed my subsequent sets. Gains come in all forms, I guess)
DL 185lb 1x5
CU 3x8,7,4 (these felt super crappy today. Not entire sure why, but my energy level was totally tanked by the end)

Today was one of those days where I kind of knew that having some carbs on board would have given me a bit more kick, but I've had a few migraines lately due to going off keto for a special event and it's just not worth it.

[anniemichael]

*blushing hardcore*

That makes sense regarding being fat adapted. Glad it works for you (especially for thyroid and migraines)! Looking forward to your gainzzzz.