Kittenmancer's account of tyrannosaurs and silliness

[Kittenmancer]

Stats:

• 34/F
• Height: 150 cm/4'11"
• Weight: 57 kg/126 lbs
• BF%: 29.5 (DEXA scan)

Competition maxes (-57kg):

• Squat: 110 kg/242 lbs
• Bench: 62.5 kg/137 lbs
• Deadlift: 130 kg/286 lbs

Log Format:

All weights in KILOGRAMS.
[Weight] x [Reps] - if only one set
[Weight] x [Sets] x [Reps] - if multiple sets

Goals

Short term: Cut a bit more for my next powerlifting competition (mid-June), win aforementioned competition.
Medium term: Figure out next set of goals. Do I continue to cut? Do I bulk and switch to hypertrophy training? Can you attain more swoleness while on a cut? We'll find out.
Long term: Achieve consistency in training and diet. Cut to <52 kg. Become She-Hulk strong and swole.

FAQ

Q: What is a Kittenmancer?
A: Beats me. I'm all about cats and 'mancer sounds cool.

Q: What does a Kittenmancer do?
She works as Quality Assurance manager for a video game studio.

Q: How does a Kittenmancer train?
A: Right now, she follows a custom program made by Greg Nuckols - a 4/week push-pull program focused on The Big Three and some accessory work.

Q: What does a Kittenmancer eat?
A: Mostly lean meat, veggies and ice cream. Recently developed an interest in protein baked goods so she can stuff her face with cake. The Kittenmancer has been on a slow cut for the last 6+ months, getting a bit more aggressive since March.

Q: What's with the tyrannosaurs?
A: I have decided to use tyrannosaurs as unit of measurement when tracking the weight lifted during a week. I also consider T-Rex my spirit animal because short arms and big legs.

[Kittenmancer]

Welp. After a month of rather aggressive cutting (I was eating below my BMR every day) and a couple of weeks of work-related stress I was starting to feel rather haggard - almost constant nausea and low energy - so my coach prescribed a deload week for me. The first day I managed to stick to the program. Today.... well, he knows I'm an overachiever, what did he expect? So I may or may not have done 6 extra sets of deadlifts. And some chin-ups.

Monday: Rest day because of national holiday (King's Day) and everything being closed, including gyms.

Tuesday:

Bench: 45 x 4x3
Squat: 80 x 4x3
Rear delt raises: 9 x 2x12
Arnold presses (superset with RDR): 9 x 2x10
Bench dips (weighted): 20 x 2x8

Wednesday:

Deadlift: 100 10x2
Partial RDL: 55 x 18, 17 - this is much lower weight than usual, but doing partials is really hitting my glutes and hams
Rear delt barbell rows with thoracic flexion and extension: 40 x 2x15 - these are targeting the rhomboids
Chin-ups: 3x6 - I haven't done these in years, I was curious

Macros were on target Monday and Tuesday, today I went over on protein and under on the others. Hoping to get all 4 workouts done during the week so that I can spend the weekend playing games and doing the occasional cardio (ugh).

[jrodri1234]

Im looking forward to following you. How long have you been lifting?

[Kittenmancer]

Thanks!

I've been training specifically for powerlifting since January 2014 (double checks that we're in 2015 now). Before that I did some on and off dicking around with barbells (more off than on) - Starting Strength, Strong Lifts, Starting Strength again but with a 5x5 scheme instead of 3x5... It was very inconsistent, though. I explored a bit of Oly lifting, which is fun but I like powerlifting more. I'd like to try some strongwoman stuff at some point, tire flipping especially because it sounds awesome. I have no tires to flip at the moment though, so I'll continue flipping tables. (╯'□')╯︵ ┻━┻

[thehobbes]

IN for lifting and cats! Those are some strong comp maxes OP! Impressed you've only been PLing for a yr+, excited to see lifts where your lifts go from here. How's your arm length compared to your height? I have total t-rex arms bench is my favorite and most natural lift, thank you t-rex arms, you are both a blessing and sometimes a curse.

[IrishLassie78]

You had me with your hilarious intro! Subbed

[mtnliones5]

Love the Pokemon reference!

I think my spirit animal would be a weiner dog (although I am a cat person too) because I have short legs and a long torso. It makes squatting easier though!

[Kittenmancer]

IN for lifting and cats! Those are some strong comp maxes OP! Impressed you've only been PLing for a yr+, excited to see lifts where your lifts go from here. How's your arm length compared to your height? I have total t-rex arms bench is my favorite and most natural lift, thank you t-rex arms, you are both a blessing and sometimes a curse.

Thanks! My arms are quite short, I couldn't do a L-sit because my palms would not reach the ground. Bench is my weakest lift, tho. Sadness.

You had me with your hilarious intro! Subbed

Thanks!

Love the Pokemon reference!

I think my spirit animal would be a weiner dog (although I am a cat person too) because I have short legs and a long torso. It makes squatting easier though!

Or maybe a munchkin cat!

-------------------------------

More deload week. At least this has allowed me to train 4 days in a row to make up for Monday being no-gym-allowed and leaving my weekend open for other enjoyable things, like playing games and playing some other games. My new Tanita scale has arrived yesterday, can't wait to try it on Sunday for my weekly weigh-in. The old one was giving me wonky results - as much as a 0.5kg difference between 2 different weigh-ins within a minute. Although this morning it said I was 1.3 kg lighter than last Sunday, so I may be inclined to forgive some of its transgressions.

My minions (I'm a manager, I have minions) have this weird bet going on - if someone knocks something off their desks 10 times they have to buy cake for the rest of the team. My second-in-command minion has been whining all week about cake, so this morning I bought a nice lemon cake from a nearby bakery, hid it under my desk and then deliberately knocked off a bunch of things from my desk. Apparently the cake was delicious - I didn't have any because cutting.

Onwards!

Thursday:

Bench press (3 seconds pause): 50 3x2
Speed squats: 65 5x3 - ridiculously light, but this is what my coach prescribed
Push press: 42.5 6x3
Dips (chest version): 8, 7

Friday:

Pull-ups: 11 (PR!), 8
Sumo DL: 110 3x2
Lat pull-downs: 30 5x8

On Sunday my boyfriend's littlest brother is celebrating his birthday, so I'll make a badass chocolate protein cake for him. And for me, obviously, because that stuff is the cat's whiskers.

[mtnliones5]

Or maybe a munchkin cat!

They are real...and they are cute!

[VO2Maxima]

Strong intro post. Subbed.

[JenSTL4]

Kittens and lifting?! Count me in Enjoy the birthday cake!

[Kittenmancer]

Strong intro post. Subbed.

Welcome to the nut show.

Kittens and lifting?! Count me in Enjoy the birthday cake!

Birthday cake was delicious and I even have leftovers to take with me to work tomorrow.

---------------

This weekend not much was done in the ways of training. Thanks to me cramming all 4 of my lifting workouts Tuesday-Friday, I was left with my favourite thing ever... cardio. [/sarcasm] I did 2 fasted sessions of 30 minutes each on the stationary bike at ~24km/h, average heart rate 139-140.

Checkpoint this morning and trying out my new Tanita scales. It turns out that the old ones were inaccurate as fuark. 57.3 kg weigh-in, not a huge drop from last week but at least things are moving in the right direction. Measurements still the same. Also took progress pictures and spent a few minutes comparing them to the ones from 2 months ago. Such happy, very progress.

For the next 2 weeks I'm on a diet break and my daily calories are increasing by 400, which is hyuuuuge. I actually started my diet break a day early because of birthday party and delicious brownies. I regret nothing. My coach also wants to change my program, so we'll have a chat on Monday about that.

[VO2Maxima]

Diet break sounds great. 400kcal is like, an extra PB&J sandwich! (So said because I'm eating PB&J right now and rather happy about that)

[thehobbes]

400 more is quite the treasure, it's like a pack of poptarts or an easy mac cup + jerky stick.

[Kittenmancer]

Diet break sounds great. 400kcal is like, an extra PB&J sandwich! (So said because I'm eating PB&J right now and rather happy about that)

400 more is quite the treasure, it's like a pack of poptarts or an easy mac cup + jerky stick.

Kittenmancer habitat is in Europe, so these 'murican things are beyond me.

And now I shall tell you the story of Kittenmancer the Kind and the Demon of Endless Squats. Gather 'round and hearken to me, little ones.

Once upon a time, Kittenmancer was in the Iron Temple, paying her respects to Brodin. As she finished a mighty set of close grip bench presses, she turned to the main altar to perform a set of genuflections commonly known as "squats". But lo! a fearsome demon arrived just then and with a mighty roar asserted his desire to worship as well. Not afeared of his dreadful appearance, Kittenmancer asked the demon how long his worship would be. "Twelve sets!" he roared, "for twelve is a sacred number and most pleasing to the gods." "Very well", Kittenmancer replied, "I shall worship at the lesser altars of delt raises and overhead presses while you pray, so that you are not disturbed."

And thus Kittenmancer performed arduous sacrifices to the dumbbell demigods while the demon busied himself at the main altar. After a while, Kittenmancer grew anxious and asked the demon how much longer his worship would take. "Five sets", replied the demon, "but I feel loathe to inconvenience you, so if you so wish I will leave now before my worship is done." Not wanting to deter a fellow believer, Kittenmancer declined the demon's offer and went off to worship at the lesser altar of weighted bench dips. However, after a while she had ran out of lesser deities to pay homage to and returned to the demon, inquiring again how much longer his worhsip would last. "Four sets", was the demon's reply, which puzzled Kittenmancer greatly as she had expected the demon to be almost finished by now. Seeing her confusion, the demon hastened to add "I have remembered some sins which I had forgotten about and I am now performing front-loaded genuflections to atone for those." "All that is very well", Kittenmancer said, "but I have my own worship to do and I have already honoured all the lesser deities." Thus, the demon acknowledged his hubris of overlong worship and moved away so that Kittenmancer could complete her worship.

No sooner was Kittenmancer finished though that the demon returned to the main altar and for all we know he may still be there, endlessly worshipping.

Tl;dr: Guy at the gym wanted to do a bazillion squats in the only rack, we had a laugh about it and I did my squats last.

Monday:

Close grip bench press: 40 6x5, 45 x 5 - was supposed to be 6x4 but they felt super easy so I did an extra rep on each set
Rear delt raises: 9 x 20, 16 (to failure)
Arnold presses (superset with RDR): 9 x 14, 12 (to failure)
Weighted bench dips: 20 3x8
Squats: 90 6x2 - the new, wider, stance is still not clicking with me and I'll revert to my old one. These were poop.

[VO2Maxima]

Europeans don't eat PB&J??? Uhhh...you should get on that, because each one is +2 STR, +1 STA with a cooldown time of only however long it takes you to make another sandwich.

[IrishLassie78]

Well... at least the demon wasn't curling in the squat rack... Or doing something sort of resembling a clean and press like I keep seeing some weirdo in my gym doing...

I know those deload feels. Am on that train myself this week

[mtnliones5]

There's only one squat rack at my gym too! I always feel like I am hogging it doing five sets but I take reasonable rests in between sets and try to be courteous. One time a guy was using the squat rack and left to go upstairs (where the machines are). I finished up doing the exercise I was on and moved onto another one...and he still wasn't there. He left a notepad behind but since he was gone so long I assumed he was done. NOPE! He was gone for like 20 mins, came back saw me using the squat rack and then was like "uhh I was still using that." Really?!

[thehobbes]

LMAO, literally sat her like a five year old with my chin in my hands, wide-eyed, wondering how the story would end. Glad you got your squats in after all. Yeah that does suck when there's one rack in the whole gym and out of the 2% of members who actaully squat two of you end up being there at the same time, haha. That problem alone makes me soooo appreciate having a home gym with a rack, never waiting, and I don't feel rushed if I want to do 12 sets of something.

Irish - I see the c&p in the rack too at the one gym I go to, and LOTS of deadlift. There is enough open space to set that stuff up elsewhere, never understood why people flock to the rack to do that.

[Kittenmancer]

Third training session in as many day and the last before I go on a 2-days journey to the north-east of the country for a work-related training course in a tiny town on the border with Germany. Fun times. Smashed today's training and ran into another squat rack shortage - a couple that I see all the time were doing squats, but they let me work in with them and we had a great time. I gave the girl a tip on doing paused squats, since she was struggling with getting out of the hole.

Tuesday:

Deadlift: 110 8x2 - these were smooth, fast and easy. 2 extra sets because I liek dedlifts and I cannot lie.
Partial RDL: 55 x 16, 17 - my glutes are ded. DED
Barbell rows with thoracic flexion and extension: 42.5 2x12
Hip thrusts with 2 seconds pause at the top: 45 2x12 - these were done to failure, my legs were done afterwards

Wednesday:

Absolutely hectic and frantic day at work - build was broken, everything was crashing, five billion meetings and reviews, bugs everywhere and Starbucks didn't have the cookie I wanted for my pre-workout.

Bench (paused): 50 6x2
Front squat: 50 6x5 - these were so easy, even though I haven't done them in forever
Push press: 45 6x2 - plus a bunch of military presses for warm-up
Reverse lunges: 50 x 10, 9 - ow. OW!
Dips (chest): BW x 8, 7

[thehobbes]

Absolutely hectic and frantic day at work - build was broken, everything was crashing, five billion meetings and reviews, bugs everywhere and Starbucks didn't have the cookie I wanted for my pre-workout.

Ahh, that is when you know the day has beaten you.

Nice dips!

[Kittenmancer]

Thursday and Friday I had two gruelling, exhausting days of off-site training for work. Mentally and emotionally exhausting, but good progress was made and I'm feeling a lot more confident. Bonus: getting a haircut and my hair dyed, something I never find time for on my own. Nothing dramatic, just the ends cut off and reshaped and the colour is very close to my natural one, but a bit darker and with a hint of deep red. I also did some sneaky pull-ups in the coaches' garden using their wooden vine trellis.

Last training session for this week and my arms so tired that I'm having difficulty playing games. >.<

Pull 2:

Sumo deadlifts: 110 6x3
Pull-ups: 6x4 - every minute on the minute
Pendlay row: 45 x 16, 16, 15
Step-ups: 32 2x10 - slightly lower height than usual
Preacher alternate hammer curls: 6 x 24, 7 x 16, 14

Cardio: 30 minutes stationary bike (fasted), 1 hour fast walking (to and from the gym).

[VO2Maxima]

Sneaky pull-ups in random places = fun
Fasted cardio = not fun at all.

Nice workout!

[thehobbes]

Watch out for the pull up police, OP, "ma'am do you have a permit to be doing all those pull ups over here?" The pull up police = serious business. You've been awared.

[Kittenmancer]

Family dinner this Sunday and a last-minute menu change meant that I had a second dinner of protein bars and gingerbread in order to meet my macros. #thestruggleisreal
Made Victoria protein cake but the texture turned out a bit too moist for my taste; I also used a different brand of Greek yoghurt than last time so there was a great mess with the filling. Oh well, at least it's tasty, low-cal and full of protein.

Weigh-in on Sunday - slight weight gain (unsurprising), but some measurements are going down, so yay!

Week 21 of my training program - volume week!

Push 1:

Squat: 90 8x2 - bringing in my stance a little and that improved things a bit, but still felt grindy and blah
Close grip bench press: 45 8x4
Rear delt raises: 9 x 20, 16, 15
Superset with Arnold press: 9 x 14, 13, 10
Weighted bench dips: 24 x 6, 7, 6 - the kettlebell is now too huge to comfortably hold it on my lap

Curled one of my cats for a few reps but he's too thin. I may have to switch to the dog.

The demon of endless squats was back again, but this time I was slightly earlier and he walked in just as I was on my first warm-up set of squats. Without stopping, I shout over my shoulder at him "MINE! You can't have it!", at which he laughed and asked me how many sets I was doing. Then he cried because there were many. So he spent half an hour talking to his boyfriend until I allowed him to perform the sacrament of squats.

[Kittenmancer]

Another day of broken builds and crashes and bugs, but all was well in the end because it was deadlift day and all woes were forgotten when I was lifting that sweet, sweet weight.

Pull 1:

Deadlift: 110 8x2 - did these beltless since last week they felt so easy
Partial RDL: 60 x 17, 15
Barbell row (with thoracic flexion and extension): 42.5 x 15, 13, 12
Hip thrusts: 45 2x12 (with 2 seconds pause at the top)
Lat pull-downs: 30 5x8 - did these extra because wings

I got annoyed with a Crossfitter dude deadlifting 130 with terrible terrible form and slamming the bar like it was some big deal. This is not a Crossfit gym, by the way. I call it my gay hipster gym as it's close to Reguliersdwarsstraat, which is the gay hotspot in Amsterdam, so a lot of gay guys come there to work out.

[LunaLifts]

Haha, that's why I'm not interested in crossfit, all I see is bad form, and I heard there's no real progression. Though some people use it alongside proper lifting, which I think is the smart way to go. As for slamming the bar, that's just bad gym manners.

Way to own the squat rack! Lol.

[IrishLassie78]

Deadlift day solves so many problems. It's my favorite way to take out all my rage at the stupidity I deal with on a daily basis

[thehobbes]

Not sure why some people are slamming the dl bar all around when it's not even some extreme amount of wt. I can understand a 5 plate dl making a ruckus no matter what you do but sub 3 plates jeez. Or people that drop it from the top lockout, wtf? Gonna eventually lose a finger doing that. If your bloody amputated finger rolls into my foot while I'm doing arm circle warmups there will be hell to pay.

[Kittenmancer]

I tried pre-workout for the first time this week. I got Optimum Nutrition's Gold Standard because it was on sale and because the brand has a good reputation as far as I'm aware. It came into a small tub with a golden lid, so my boyfriend promptly christened it "the box of bling".

So I take said box of bling to work. As an aside, one of our senior producers is on a diet, his wife packs him diet lunch, he calls that "the box of sadness". Anyway. I open the lid and break the seal, releasing a small cloud of powder. I stick my nose in the box to smell it and accidentally snort some of the stuff. I loudly proclaim that fact to the room. The room happens to contain said senior producer and the game director. Eh. The smell is very, very strong. The minion sitting behind me is curious, so I give him the box to smell. Instant brainfreeze. Ok. No big deal. Put one scoop in cup, add water. Holy crap, this stuff is PINK! I mean... pink. No matter. I drink it. Childhood memories of soft drinks chock full of synthetic stuff emerge. Minion confirms that similar memories have emerged for him. Off to the gym I go.

Push 2:

Bench: 50 8x2
Front squat: 60 8x3, 70x2 - accidental PR. Probably the PWO at work.
Push press: 45 8x2
Reverse lunges: 50 3x10
Dips (chest): 9, 7, 6 - another PR

Conclusion: Pre-workout is magic.

Pull 2:

Sumo DL: 100 8x3 - beltless
Pull-ups: 8x4
Pendlay row: 45 x 16, 15, 15
Step-ups: 2x9 with 16kg DBs on a 50cm step
Preacher hammer curls: 7 3x16