2014

alright, let's do this.

long time coming, i hired a powerlifting coach!  i'm a terrible client to colin (from wonderful girlfriend to raging bitch, in seconds) and finding my own way was getting me results slower than desired.  one session deep into my program and my brain has already gone from wanting to be the strongest megan i can be, to wanting to totally crush all the 48kg wimps!

january was my last chance to fuck around and do what i wanted in the gym.  dropped in on an online competition with martha...


max rep bench press at 65#

and hit up the aau 'feats of strength' at l.a. fit expo...


max rep bench press at 105# and max rep deadlift at 181#

i took her on for diet about a month before training, so i could get a handle on that... not too much new at once.  i took some pics the first morning of the eating protocol, but i won't show those until i have new pics of the super shredded, total babe i become.  here's this nugget... 01.03.14 diet day 1:

bodyweight 115.2#

body fat by caliper measure:

cheek -6.5
chin -3.8
tricep -10.3
subscap -11.3
midaxilla -7.8
suprailiac -13.3
umbilical -17.6
calf -10.6
thigh -13.4
hamstring -18

TRAINING

To: teeny-wahine
Subject: Training and Nutrition
From: urbankstrengthteam
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 10:18:55 -0500

Here are your first 4 weeks of training, and your next 6 weeks of nutrition. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns. All primary exercises should have ~90seconds-3 minutes of rest between sets, all support exercises can be super setted.

Week1	Day1				Day 2
	Back Squat	x10	bar		Standing Strict Press	x10	bar
		1x8	95			4x8	55-75
		2x2	120		Deadlift	3x2	135
		2x2	145			2x2	165
		6x2	165			4x2	200
	Bench Press	x10	bar			3x6	135	beltless, straps ok
		2x4	65		Rack pull (from below knee)	x3	135
		2x4	80			x3	185
		6x4	95			x2	225	May need to stop here depending on back strength. No failed attempts
	Floor Press	4x2	85-105			3x1	275
	Leg Press	20,15, 15, 10	up weight every set			3x5	185	straps ok
	Pull ups	2x2, 3xMax			Shrugs	3x8	135
	Bent Over Rows	3x25			Narrow Grip Lat Pulldown	3x20
	Face Pulls	3x30			Cable Rows	3x20
	Chest Fly	3x15			Chest supported rows	3x20
	Rear Delt Fly	3x15
Week 2	Day1				Day 2
	Back Squat	x10	bar		Standing Strict Press	x10	bar
		1x8	95			3x5	60-80
		2x3	125		Deadlift	3x2	135
		1x3	150			2x2	165
		3x3	165-175			3x1	225
	Bench Press	x10	bar			1xMax	145	beltless, straps ok
		2x4	65		Rack pull (from below knee)	x3	135
		2x2	80			x3	185
		4x2	95-105			x2	225
		2x5	90			3x1	265-280
	Leg Press	20,15, 15, 10	up weight every set			1xMax	195	straps ok
	Pull ups	2x2, 3xMax			Shrugs	3x8	135
	Bent Over Rows	3x25			Narrow Grip Lat Pulldown	3x20
	Face Pulls	3x30			Cable Rows	3x20
	Chest Fly	3x15			Chest supported rows	3x20
	Rear Delt Fly	3x15
Week 3	Day1				Day 2
	Back Squat	x10	bar		Standing Strict Press	x10	bar
		1x8	105			5x2	60-75
		2x3	135		Deadlift	3x2	135
		2x3	155			2x2	165
		3x1	180-190			6x2	185-195
	Bench Press	x10	bar			3x6	165	beltless, straps ok
		3x2	65		Rack pull (from below knee)	x3	135
		2x2	80			x3	185
		5x2	90-100			x2	225
	Floor Press	4x1	90-110			3x1	275-295
	Leg Press	20,15, 15, 10	up weight every set			1xMax	165	straps ok
	Pull ups	2x2, 3xMax			Shrugs	3x8	135
	Bent Over Rows	3x25			Narrow Grip Lat Pulldown	3x20
	Face Pulls	3x30			Cable Rows	3x20
	Chest Fly	3x15			Chest supported rows	3x20
	Rear Delt Fly	3x15
Week 4	Day1				Day 2
	Back Squat	x10	bar		Standing Strict Press	x10	bar
		1x8	85			4x6	65-85
		2x2	115		Deadlift	3x2	135
		2x2	130			1x3	165
		3x8	145-155			6x2	190-200
	Bench Press	x10	bar			1xMax	135	beltless, straps ok
		2x5	65		Rack pull (from below knee)	x3	135
		1x5	85			x3	185
		4x5	85-100			x2	235
		2x5	70-80			3x1	285-300
	Leg Press	20,15, 15, 10	up weight every set			1xMax	200	straps ok
	Pull ups	2x2, 3xMax			Shrugs	3x5	155-165
	Bent Over Rows	3x25			Narrow Grip Lat Pulldown	3x20
	Face Pulls	3x30			Cable Rows	3x20
	Chest Fly	3x15			Chest supported rows	3x20
	Rear Delt Fly	3x15

-----Original Message-----
From: meg holliday 
To: urbankstrengthteam 
Sent: 23-Jan-2014 11:22:32 +0000
Subject: RE: Training and Nutrition 

Thanks, Lindsey! 

A few questions… When you write “up in weight every set”, that goes for all the support exercises listed there, or just for the one it’s written next to?  Pull-ups, strict weighted, yes?  For deadlift, should I try to go pronated grip as long as possible or do mixed grip out the gate?  Should I ever experiment with varied mixed grip, or stick to the way I lift for maxes?  Knee sleeves for squatting… don’t do it?  I have a pair that’s a size bigger than my competition sleeves that I sometimes wear, should I be trying to squat as heavy as possible without them?  I don’t have any knee issues (or any issues with any body parts, for that matter!), so if you think it’s smarter to train without, let me know.

How many days apart should these sessions be?  And would you see a big problem with me ever hitting low (extremely low, like sub-zone 1) a.m. cardio a couple times a week?  (We don’t have cable, so some mornings I go to our fitness center and cruise on the bike/elliptical to watch ‘sports center’… not critical, so I won’t do it if you think it could screw shit up)

Looks fun, I’m totally down!!!

To: teeny-wahine
Subject: Re: RE: Training and Nutrition
From: urbankstrengthteam
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 10:28:09 -0500

Go up every set just on the one listed. Pullups are strict, neutral
grip. Can be weighted.
On the deadlifts, use hook grip or try mixed grip. Double over tends to
make pulls slower. On max reps or 5+ rep sets use straps.
Use light sleeves for 85-95% use competition sleeves for 95%+.

Work out days will be 2-3 days apart. Tuesday/ Saturday or wednesday/Saturday or Sunday would be a good split.

If its very low intensity it should be fine in moderation

DIET

Non work out days		Work-out days
Meal 1		Meal 1
3 large eggs		Same
3 whites
1/3 cup fruit
Meal 2		Pre workout
4oz beef		1 scoop whey protein
1/2 cup cottage cheese		8oz whole milk
and 1/2 TBS butter		1/3 cup of rice
Meal 3		Post workout
4oz chicken breast		1 scoop whey protein
1oz cheese		8oz whole milk
1/3 cup fruit		1/3 cup of rice
Meal 4		Meal 4
4oz chicken thigh		Same
8oz whole milk
1 cup veggies (any kind)
Meal 5		Meal 5
4oz beef		Same
1oz cheese
1 cup veggies (any kind)

diet notes from coach: Aren't many vegetables listed in your diet, I don't often list them because they are pretty calorically empty, but you can eat as many leafy greens or cruciferous veggies (broccoli, cauliflower) as you like. Also, try to consistently drink about a gallon of water per day.  Meat and rice are cooked amounts, cheese ounce by weight.

age, the great equalizer

growing up, i didn't feel a strong connection to many other females, outside of those in my family.  we can be a little pessimistic, a lot sarcastic, crude, loud... girls just weren't super drawn to me.  but as i've gotten older, i've found that my life, my thoughts, my experiences, are pretty relatable.  a woman might read this post and laugh, a man, criiiiinge.

 

 

 

hollidays love technology, ipad technology

to be fair to my mom, this email to my sister is actually from my dad.  he got my mom an ipad for her birthday last year, and could not get enough of that damn thing.

From: JANIS HOLLIDAY <________@me.com>
Date: November 18, 2012, 11:37:48 AM PST
To: Miranda Holliday <________@gmail.com>
Subject: Mandy I hope I'm not driving you crazy but this talking email shit is great love you bye

Mandy I hope I'm not driving you crazy but this talking email shit is great love you bye


Sent from my iPad

---

but how much fun can my sister poke at that email?  three months earlier, she sent me this:


Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 17:05:24 -0700
Subject: amazing stuff
From: _________@gmail.com
To: teeny-wahine@hotmail.com

Do you see what I crafted with my own two hands using nothing but and iPad and unlimited artistic gifts???!!!

PS Mom asked me what code word she could use to text me in case she really needed me to call her. I said, just call me, and if I don't want to talk to you, I just won't pick up. And, she said, well what if I fall down and there's no one here to help me? I said, call 911!!!!!

Come back from Arizona soon!!!

Did you get the pants?

 

a journey through my physical feats on film

these are all the videos colin's put together for me, some of my particularly proud moments.  i started up a youtube channel to post some of the not-so-special moments, things i can learn from during my training, but figured i'd beef the thing up with some of these fun ones from the past.
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/leanmeanteenywahine
 
 

hitting 235# deadlift, aug 2012

 

 

overhead press online competition, nov 2012

 

 

first muscle-up, same day as overhead press competition!

 

 

january 2013, banged out a bunch of shit before surgery...

 

took on 'diane'

 

 

bodyweight overhead squats

 

 

maxed bench

 

 

next thing you know, vivid entertainment's gonna wanna piece of my ass!

 

six stops on the crazy train to crossfit

my first year of crossfit was marginally about gains in strength or better conditioning.  i’m a head tripper and when i joined crossfit, it was all aboard the crazy train!  i made six distinct stops, spent more time at some, than others, but definitely picked up baggage at each.

1.  i’m weak, uncoordinated, uninformed, a mess!

i feel like this one, no one is exempt.  even the people who come in buff as shit, they get a jump rope in their hands and they’re like, “double unders?!  you’re fucking kidding me!”  or someone who is so very lean, is immobile beyond words, squatting below parallel, not an option.  for me, it was my lack of strength, number one, and then EVERYTHING else was like a big huge number two.  i couldn’t even count while working out.  my brain was turning off at the onset of the first movement and all was lost.  so i felt physically inferior, plus mentally retarded.  couldn’t do a push-up, my running was meant for distance, not speed, couldn’t keep rhythm for a kip, couldn’t remember the next part of a lift after it had been started (if i had a dollar for every time i got the bar to the pocket position and then froze, i’d be rich!  just a nickel, i'd still be rich.)  the only thing they showed me that i could already do was ‘toes-to-bar’, but only because it’s the most ridiculous movement known to man and has no business being in a gym.

2. … AND everyone is looking at me!

this, i know now (and in my rational mind, knew then), was not true in the slightest, but you couldn’t have told me that back then.  for at least my first four months, every modified movement i did, every tiny amount of weight i lifted, every hideous “trying as hard as i can” face i made, i was absolutely certain everyone was looking at me.  and i was soooo important, that they remembered that moment they saw me and hung onto that mental picture through the whole workout, to be able to laugh about it with all the other hundreds of people who saw me at that same exact moment.  of course, there aren’t hundreds of people in the gym at a time, usually less than 30, but when you’re new and neurotic, every one face counts for 15.

3.  not everyone was super nice.

a crossfit gym is unlike any other gym you will ever go to.  people introduce themselves, strike up conversation, help you, encourage you.  but when i started, there was this small (tiny, insignificant, less than 3% of the population) that was less than friendly to me.  and where did i focus all my energies?  yeah, on these people.  wondering what about me turned them off so much, how i could possibly get them to warm up to me.  i didn’t really realize how much i was letting them effect me until months into group classes, when i was at the cusp of newbie vs.  knowing what the fuck is going on; finally at the point i could go through a workout, come out of it feeling accomplished and on a serious endorphin high.  but then, during the post-wod mobility, i'd be talking with (or more, just be present while they talked as if i was not even there) parts of this group, and by the time i left the gym, i felt shitty and inferior.  this one took some outside coaching.  my dad reminded me of something he hadn’t had to tell me since elementary school (because really, this type of situation is that juvenile), but he told me “people who don’t like you, it’s not because you have a personality defect, it’s because they do!”  so i let those people go and life at the gym got exponentially better.

4. cheaters!

definitely the pinnacle of my crossfit paranoia was the “everyone cheats” phase.  i can’t clean 100# and i can’t fake it either.  someone can’t do a proper, chest all the way to the ground push-up, but they can fake it, all… day… long.  can’t quite get your chin all the way over the bar on the pull-up?  fake it!  just keep going and who’s gonna say anything?!  WHY THE FUCK SHOULD I CARE?!  a half-assed knee push-up was never gonna get me to the push-ups i can do today, a ‘nose over the bar’ pull-up isn’t gonna help me get to my muscle-up.  and on top of that, other people doing those things isn’t gonna keep me from it either!!!  why i ever cared so much about that is beyond me.  i’m almost even embarrassed to admit it, but it’s full disclosure on all stations of the crazy train.

5. when gauging progress, compare yourself to yourself… and every single other person!

i’m 4’11” in shoes and 110# after the three meals of the day, but i find it completely unacceptable that i can’t lift as much as any other chicks who started around the same time as me, nevermind their size or background.  who cares that they came in able to do a push-up, with a much more robust athletic background, for whatever reason, i’m fixated on their numbers. this really came to a head right before we did ‘nancy’ in the gym.  i just felt like it had been days on end that i was coming into the gym and seeing numbers on the board i couldn’t beat with a bat!  plus, we’d done ‘the chief’ just a few days before, and i was still bent about all the shitty push-ups (because i hadn’t fully departed #4 before approaching stop #5).  so i decided to do ‘nancy’ in open gym because i was feeling like such a stagnant piece of crossfit crap, better off alone… in the 7p darkness, by myself, with just one really, um, enthusiastic [read: annoying] gym goer doing his thing on the neighboring platform.  and you know what?  it sucked!  it was boring and no one cared when i was banging out decent numbers of overhead squats unbroken.  no one cared!  and i was setting p.r.’s all over the place for slowest 400m runs.  i was running into the dark, all by myself… i couldn’t gauge my speed by moving scenery or people.  as i kicked off my pity party of one to celebrate the end of ‘nancy’, i made the decision to turn my shit around.

6. it’s not your performance that sucks, it’s you attitude!

i never drank the kool-aid, wasn’t instantly a worshipper of all things crossfit.  yes, it was everywhere because i was dating colin, but it just hadn’t fully penetrated the pleasure center of my brain.  i wasn’t understanding why everyone seemed to be having so much more fun than me… and i wasn’t understanding why everyone seemed to be progressing so much better than me… and i was that dumb that it took me 10 months to connect the two.  well, i wasn’t dumb, just that deep rooted in pessimistic (realist, i like to say) thinking that the possibility that a positive mental attitude could unleash greater physical capabilities was, seriously, a crossfit conspiracy theory.  i decided i wanted to have as much fun as the next person, so i needed to let go of every piece of baggage i still hung onto from all the stops.  i am, by no stretch of the imagination, done with revamping my mentality, but just the day i decided i was willing to let go, it was like night and day.  for the first time, i was finishing workouts too wasted to talk, setting seemingly unattainable goals, and getting within a couple reps of them.  from there, that one hour in the gym carried over to hours afterwards of feeling great and, sometimes, even proud.  all my energy and effort in the workout, is on the workout, no longer is a fraction of me being consumed by self doubt, self hate, worrying about the quality of that other person’s movement.  sure, i’ll finish a workout, and look to another and instead of thinking “good job!”  i’ll be thinking “how the hell did you get that many rounds?!”  but i won’t let that thought replace me telling myself good job, their stellar performance isn’t taking away from what i was able to do.  this change in my way of thinking has me looking forward to year number two waaaaay more than i ever did for year one.  next stop, total wod domination!

"all the way down the buffet line"!

From: "Salgado, Jose"

Date: Wed, May 25, 2011 11:57 am
Subject: this shit is whacky!
To: "Curiel, John", "Miranda Holliday", "meg holliday" 

---

From: teeny-wahine@hotmail.com [mailto:teeny-wahine@hotmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:08 PM
To: Salgado, Jose; Curiel, John; Miranda Holliday
Subject: Re: this shit is whacky!

WHAAAAAT.  that pictured killed me!  I like all of it, but especially the guitar guy in the corner.

  

---

From: Curiel, John
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:09 PM
To: 'teeny-wahine@hotmail.com'; Salgado, Jose; Miranda Holliday
Subject: RE: this shit is whacky!

As you all may have already concluded, my favorite is the computer generated muscle man.

---

From: Miranda Holliday
Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:25 PM
To: Curiel, John; 'teeny-wahine@hotmail.com'; Salgado, Jose
Subject: RE: this shit is whacky!

Go with what you know.  the t-rex is also in my favorite sex position: lazy lounge

---

From: Salgado, Jose

Sent: Wednesday, May 25, 2011 12:21 PM
To: Miranda Holliday; Curiel, John; 'teeny-wahine@hotmail.com'
Subject: RE: this shit is whacky!

I bet you the t-rex can also do fat guy vogue.

---

From: miranda
To: JSalgado; JCuriel; teeny-wahine@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 12:26:26 -0700
Subject: RE: this shit is whacky!

Oh most definitely. All the way down the buffet line!