On strength

This trainer/weight-lifter/writer, Alexander Cortes, over at elitefts.com, has written several articles that really speak to me as a woman powerlifter. He writes frequently and passionately about how important it is for women to train for strength, not to achieve an absurd (and likely unachievable) ideal of what female beauty is supposed to be. It's the "train because you love your body, not because you hate it," idea with a heavy-weight-training emphasis, so obviously I am a fan.

My favorite piece of his is this one "Women - Be More Not Less."

His most recent article was also good, my favorite part is excerpted below, you can read the whole thing here. 

And everyone starts at the same place—with an unloaded bar. You decide how much you’ll add to it.

Beyond the physical benefits, strength becomes entirely mental. How far, how hard, and how long you progress is a personal process that makes anyone, man or woman, a tougher and more complete human being. You can’t be mentally strong and physically weak just as you can’t be mentally weak and physically strong. At a certain point, these two qualities will intersect and intertwine with each other. They will become the same path and the same process. Absolutely none of this is dependent on whether you have a Y or double X chromosome. That doesn’t matter. It’s never mattered, and it never will matter.

Physical strength is born in the mind and achieved through the body. Man or woman, we all have the means to possess it. We all have the means to build it, and we all can come to know it. Strength is a human right, so claim it.

__________________

Strict Press Set. Mostly here to show off my color-coordinated self.

Positives about training today:
1) I hit my 1 rep max with a split jerk of 104#x2 and followed it up with another single.
2) I sported a coordinated red headband/tank top/BRIGHT red shoes outfit. This always makes me feel good.
3) I added 5# to my last four sets of speed bench so the complete set ended up being 105#x3x4 and 110#x3x4. And I squeezed out a 4th rep on my last set, which felt great. Considering that my competition max on bench is 105# I am taking this as excellent progress.
4) New post-workout snack - Glutino's strawberry toaster pastry. (terrible brand name, delicious product) It. Was. Delicious.

This trap shot is for Eric.

Negatives:
1) My knee valgus on my heavy split jerks is horrendous. I have been hitting my glutes and glut med hard for a while, but my mechanics under heavy load are still pretty embarrassing in terms of how much my knees fall in and how spazzy I look. Yet another sign I suppose that Olympic lifting is not in my future.
2) I effed up my left knee. I think during my not-so-great squat session on Tuesday. It hurts coming up from a body weight squat and with any sort of loaded movement not in a completely straight plane. It hurt enough to keep me off the erg for my finisher today (which, admittedly, was sort of ok with me.) It feels a lot like what happened to my right knee last fall, and that sucked and lasted for weeks and weeks, so I am hoping maybe this is different/will go away faster. Time will tell, until then I have to be a little smarter about my mechanics. Boo.

Positives: 4 vs. Negatives: 2 = WIN.