Hi! I’m Ann.
Starting a log today as I got back to the gym for the first time since lockdown started here in the UK.
Brief athletic history: I have been a committed non-athlete since childhood.
However, I started cycling for transport at uni and this morphed into a fun leisure occupation in my mid 20s. I have never owned a car and I still cycle as my main form of transport.
After finishing my doctorate (in experimental physical chemistry) I got an office job in my late 20s and gained an uncomfortable amount of weight. I started reading accounts of women’s experiences with strength training and specifically powerlifting on the good ship The Toast (may she continue to rest in peace) and then Casey Johnston’s Swole Woman column in The Hairpin (may that publication also rest in peace) and which is now in Vice.
Finally made it to a gym with a squat rack in March 2017, and did Starting Strength for ~6 months or so. Then BBM released The Bridge just at the right time, but I ignored it and tried to do something that if you’d asked I would have called the Texas Method. I eventually joined a nicer gym with more squat racks and also deadlift platforms in early 2018, and then actually did The Bridge and various other BBM programmes and made good steady progress. I also got to a weight I felt comfortable at with changes to my diet, and then tracking macros for a bit.
Regular training and modest progress continued until 10-03-2020 at which point I went to Australia and nearly got stuck there during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic. Made it back to the UK at the very start of lockdown here on the 23-03-2020, and really haven’t done much in the way of resistance exercise.
Stats:
Female, age 33
174 cm, 80 kg (yes, BMI is on the high side as is waist measurement at the mo)
Sq: 95 kg
Bench: 50 kg
Press: 40 kg
Deadlift: 120 kg
And without further ado, here are the details of today’s session, the first after 20 weeks without training:
28-07-2020
Squat
4@5 x1 40 kg
4@6 x2 45 kg
Press 2.0(ish)
8@ [idk, just wanted to press the bar so] x2 20 kg
and then a set of 6 reps of 20 kg because I wussed out a little
This was at around 07:30 this morning, and the gym was very empty. Two bros using dumbbells and no-one else using any squat rack or deadlift platform, the gym is very well ventilated with large several metres tall shutters open at either end of the building. Case counts here are currently low, I would like to know percentage testing positive too but the statistics the UK government release don’t give this number on a sufficiently localised basis for this to be useful. I will be keeping an eye on case counts, especially as we go into Autumn.
I walked to and from the gym, which is probably about 3000 steps, and I did an additional 4000 or so on two other walks later on in the day.
Overall, a great improvement on the past 20 weeks. Upwards.
My gym has asked that folks don’t plan workouts longer than 45 mins, so I’m probably going to do something that looks like the Beginners’ Prescription minus the barbell rows split over four days and arranged so I can switch equipment stations as little as possible.