Starting Martha’s Strength Journey
Reply With QuoteWhy am I starting this log?
It was the middle of the night on December 27. I couldn’t sleep from a horrible case of the flu, and was just browsing the Starting Strength website; I had decided to make it a habit to watch one SS video every night. I don’t know what this sickness and Tylenol were doing to my neurotransmitters, but I was somehow overcome with an overwhelming desire to share with you all how utterly attractive I find strong men.
People always think being a woman is difficult in male dominated enterprises, but for a long time I wanted to proclaim that when it comes to strength training, at least at this point in history and in my experience, it is a GLORIOUS thing to be a woman in this male dominated enterprise. And I finally found a place where such a message would be most appreciated.
I posted the outpourings of my heart in a post entitled, "Strength Training Among Men: A Woman's Fantasy." I was thrilled to see my message well received, and the conversation quickly turned to the benefits of keeping a training log on here. And so, I have the lovely individuals who took the time to comment on my post to thank for welcoming me into the SS forum community.
My hope for my log is to post video updates every 3 months. Other than that, I’d like to use this forum to be my facebook replacement (I deleted facebook years ago and don’t engage in any social media). I’m wise enough now to know I should give myself a daily time limit on my social media use, so I’ll probably check this out for a half an hour every night.
My Training History
- I did a little bit of track and swimming in high school. I was falsely enamored with the long distance events, thinking that was the highest measure of physical self-discipline. I always intuitively knew, though, that being strong was really what I needed to be fit, and I was never the type of girl that worried about getting “bulky,” I welcomed the idea of some muscle on my frame.
- Freshman year of college I ran 3 miles every morning with one of my floormates. We also did an ab circuit together every night. One of my other floormates was the coxswain (person steering and directing orders) of the crew team, and she was also in charge of writing the workouts for the crew team in the winter. So I asked her to write me a workout (it ended up being a bodybuilding type workout) and I bought 5lb and 10lb dumbbells from Target to workout in my room. I wanted to at least have SOME strength before entering the daunting weight room.
- I continued these at home workouts for about a year, until my brother introduced me to bodybuilding.com. I used Jamie Eason’s LiveFit program as a template for my workouts, and began programming for myself for the next 1.5 years, constantly researching to learn more.
- I then broke my right hip in a freak accident at the gym and had a plate and bunch of screws put in, but that’ll require a post of its own. But yeah, I was incapacitated for 8 months and back to square one. It was during this time off, however, when literally the only productive thing I could do was sit and read, that I had probably discovered Rippetoe and Starting Strength.
- I did a bit more programming for myself, horribly overtrained, then followed a workout I found on leangains.com which worked well, then finally read Starting Strength.
- I read Michael Wolf’s article on strength and fitness, looked him up and found out he was near me and one of the senior SS coaches, and instantly signed up for sessions with him. He has been an amazing mentor to me.
- Now here I am, a few months into truly beginning Starting Strength, though not consistently due to lack of gym access and weird work hours, but all of that will change this month!
Current Stats
Height: 5’4”
Weight: 145
Body Fat: 23%
Overhead Press 5RM: 75lb
Bench Press 5RM: 115lb
Squat 5RM: 185lb
Deadlift 5RM: 235lb
Clean 3RM: Don’t know, just learned it.
Upcoming goals:
Finish my linear progression, finish reading Practical Programming and Mean Ol’ Mr. Gravity.
Overhead Press 5RM: 95lb
Bench Press 5RM: 135lb
Squat 5RM: 225lb
Deadlift 5RM: 285lb
Clean 3RM: 205lb
Hopefully I will have videos with all of those numbers achieved in 3 months.
I love you all!
Originally Posted by carson
