I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!

[armerida]

Had to take a week off due to some miserable virus, first time I've been sick in a year. Decided to switch to the Greyskull LP this week (minus curls and neck work) based on feedback from Mazda and Briks. Seemed like the perfect time since I was re-setting basically all of my lifts.

I haven't been happy with the (in)frequency of PC's and DL's with the advanced novice SS routine, and I want to work on conditioning to get ready for spring biking, hiking, etc. Greyskull is very similar to SS, but squats are 2x/week, 3rd work set is to failure, and DL's are every Wed, w/PC's as their warmup.

My plan is to lift M-W-F, do conditioning drills W & Sa, and work on "Villain Challenge #1: 100 burpees in 5 minutes." I am also doing chin-ups w/the frequency method every day, and started doing negatives for these instead of the band. Ouch! Hopefully with this plan, I can keep gaining strength and be fit for the other stuff I like to do. I was BEAT after this workout, high reps and burpees are a different kind of tough...felt all shaky the rest of the night, and today I am SORE!

Monday 2/21/11

Bench Press
22x5x2
30x5x1
37.5x3x1
47.5x2x1
55x5x2
55x14 - Did a big de-load on this to push my last work set into the 8-10 rep range; guess I went a little too light since I got to 14

Squat
45x5x2
57.5x5x1
67.5x3x1
80x2x1
90x5x2
85x12 - Wasn't sure how much to take off, thought 90 was too heavy for 8-10 reps so went down to 85 for last work set, but again, I underestimated

Practice for VC #1
(5 minutes, did as many burpees as I could at the top of each minute and then rested until the next minute)
16-10-10-8-8
These were miserable, think I need a different method for working on them...

Chin-ups
5x5 negatives (throughout the day, pre-workout)

[Jamie J. Skibicki]

For high rep stuff like burpees, kb snatches, push ups, etc. I've had good luck with either grease the groove programs (which could be difficult with burpees depending on your job) or alternating max reps with sub maximal sets (lets say 5 sets of 10 in your case) and then adding reps every couple of days.

SO say monday you do 1 set of as many burpees you can unbroken (I'll let you decide what "unbroken means", but a 60 seconds rest is certianly broken) and then wednesday do say 5 sets of 10. On max reps, try to set a pr, on sub max day, just raise each set by 1.

[Briks42]

Great start Amanda. Its better to start light and do higher rep final sets to start than to start too high and stall early. You made the right choice. Id repeat 90 on the squats next time for 5,5,AMRAP and Im sure youll get a bunch with 90 on the last set. On the bench I'd make a 5 pound jump next time to 60 and then see how you do there before deciding whether to make 2.5 pound jumps going forward.

I'm sure Jamie's advice for the burpees is very good so I'd definitely give that a shot.

[MazdaMatt]

Disclaimer: I don't think I ever suggested Greyskull :-)

Negatives are a bitch. I think you're crazy not to continue with the band. BTW, have you tried to just... do a chin-up?

[armerida]

Matt,
Sorry, didn't mean you suggested Greyskull, just that you explained a different rotation of deads and cleans, and how to warm up the DL with PC's. I like this idea

So I should just keep doing the band? I did graduate to the next lighter of the 3, and got 3 sets of 8, but for some reason thought doing the negatives frequently might quicken my progress. They do suck, my lats are so fried today...

Sadly, I can't do chins unassisted yet. I tried yesterday, but to no avail. I am a wimp. Actually, when I was doing p90x I was able to do a few, but I have totally lost that since I didn't train them at all with SS. Funny since p90 is mostly isolation moves, high reps, basically cardio with weights.

Don't worry, I am not giving up on lifting heavy (well for me, anyhow), just wanted a change...

[MazdaMatt]

Change when one is desired is not necessarily a bad thing if it keeps you under the bar and off the couch. There's nothing wrong, IMO, with the greyskull method.

Personally, trying to train my very-wide-grip chins I had zero luck and much pain with negatives. Bands got me rolling, I think because I'm actually DOING the same movement. I'd keep at it with the bands if I were you. 3x8 is a solid start. I think I liked your goal of hitting 15 then moving to the next band. If I recall correctly you're now on the second-weakest band? See if you can get 3x9, 3x10, etc up till you can nail at least 1 set of 15, then move on to the next band and progress the same way.

Once you can do one without assitance, the method of progression changes - then you just do a pullups as often every day as you can till you can do two :-)

[armerida]

Wednesday 2/23/11

Press
22x5x2
27.5x5x1
30x3x1
35x2x1
42.5x5x2
42.5x8

Power Clean/Deadlift
PC:
30x3x1
40x3x1
50x3x1
55x3x1
DL:
80x3x1
100x2x1
120x9

Hanging Knee Raises
BWx8x3

Conditioning - Greyskull Drill #9
15 tuck jumps/15 sit-ups x 10 = 9:00 - tough!

FM Chin-ups (Tuesday)
5x2 negatives - will cut back on these to 5-6 singles, or go back to the band - these hurt!

[Briks42]

Great work, Amanda. You picked very good starting weights for this workout. 5 pound weekly jumps on the deadlifts should work for you for a while. Youll be deadlifting 200 for sets in less than 4 months if you don't need a re-set (and I don't think you will). Press would be 2.5 pound jumps obviously.

Hahahaha, those conditioning workouts are brutal, aren't they? They look so innocent on paper and they kill you.

Don't forget to mix some lat pulldowns in your routine on your press day if you have access to one. If you don't, no big deal. Just stick with your negatives and keep testing yourself to see if you can get a chinup on your own. Once you can get one, it becomes easy to get more.

[valan]

Hi there,
For what it's work, I just read through your whole log and I really think you should feel great about what you've accomplished. In 12 weeks you've built more strength, skill and knowledge that 95% of the people out there who go to gyms and just work out will ever have. Ever. Your log has really inspired me. I started SS 4 weeks ago and and it's really good to see the progress.

Definitely keep it up. I might move my training over from Robb Wolf's site to here - there is a lot more knowledge and feedback here. You'e clearly benefited from it.

Keep it up.

[armerida]

Valan,
Thanks for the kind words - it has been tough but rewarding, never really thought I'd be lifting barbells, but now I'm addicted! Good luck with your SS journey, there are definitely some kind and knowledgable people on here who really want to help others succeed and will root for you!
~Amanda