132 lb Female, 8 weeks on 5-3-1 Program

[twodragons]

I am in my second month of Wendlers 5-3-1. I have been a competitor in the NPC Womens Fitness Division since 2002 (if youre not familiar, its part physique,part gymnastics type routine)...so basically my body goal was always stay light, lean, and explosive to look and perform my best. I recently retired from that. I found I enjoyed lifting heavy more than i enjoyed maintaining a competition body/low bodyfat, and the glitz of the stage just didnt appeal to me anymore as much when I started making strength gains and feeling healthier with the increase in calories,etc...I fell in love with building STRENGTH! To describe myself in a nutshell, I have a tiny body.Im 5'2 and have small joints. (Built like a typical gymnastics body.) But decently strong even though my diet was always designed to keep me small and tight. I would compete anywhere between 110-116 depending how ripped I wanted to be. I am now up to 132 lbs, eating more to keep lifts going up...Ive put some fat on for sure, but I have gotten stronger. My bench is now up to 140 for 1, my squat is right around 190 for 1, my best deadlift was 200 for 1(and ive never deadlifted!), and I have a 90 for 1 overhead press. I never trained solely for strength before, so these lifts are pretty new to me. I would always do sets of 12-15 like a typical bodybuilding workout, I never knew my "max's" on any lifts until I began this program. Im about 8 or so weeks into it and I like it alot. My goal would be to eventually enter a meet, not anything huge, but to get strong enough to go in with respectable numbers for a woman who is 5'2 132 lbs and see where this takes me....transitioning from Fitness competitor to Powerlifter is probably not too common, and I dont want to look like a jackass..lol...but Im feeling good about this , as long as my joints hold up and I dont get any injuries(I am 38 yrs old...didnt mention that). Would anyone have any advice to offer me in regards to this being an attainable/realistic goal for me? I am serious about it, obviously I am no stranger to setting goals and following through with my career of over 10 years to show for what I am capable of. I am really proud of how well Ive done, but Im ready to try something new and an even bigger challenge. Appreciate any feedback from someone who has either DONE this, or trained with women with similar goals....thank you.

[sonti]

Since you are a fitness girl I'm not surprised to see your bench so out of skew with your deadlifts, since your previous training was probably quite chest heavy/pushup training etc.

Your lifts are fine and I suspect you will be able to improve quite a bit with the squat/deadlifts as time goes on - I do think that perhaps you could try Starting Strength to try and improve those to be more "in line" with your bench but that's a personal opinion.

Lots of women 35+ compete in PL, okay not a lot, but your lifts are decent and it's a fun tight knit community. Off the top of my head, you would probably do very well in bench but the deadlift will need some work. Is your squat down to proper depth??

[twodragons]

My squat has really good form, I dont have knee issues so Im able to go below parallel without any problem. Being short helps of course and its always been a very comfortable movement for me. I think all the years of doing hundreds of jumping drills has also made it a "natural" feeling movement as well. You are right about the bench...the focus in my training before was to be explosive and our pushups were concentrated on flying off the floor a few feet, so some strength required, but much more emphasis on plyometrics. Ive known lots of fitness girls who had incredible benches, but I myself never focused on it enough to get it anywhere that was impressive. Not to mention, I had been told many times that as small as I was, I'd never be "really strong or big"...and I wish I had never listened to those people quite frankly I think in that industry, so many of the girls use drugs unfortunately, and i have always been natural, so I just conceded that it was beyond my reality...but Im ready to prove everyone wrong! Thanks for replying...appreciate your time!

Since you are a fitness girl I'm not surprised to see your bench so out of skew with your deadlifts, since your previous training was probably quite chest heavy/pushup training etc.

Your lifts are fine and I suspect you will be able to improve quite a bit with the squat/deadlifts as time goes on - I do think that perhaps you could try Starting Strength to try and improve those to be more "in line" with your bench but that's a personal opinion.

Lots of women 35+ compete in PL, okay not a lot, but your lifts are decent and it's a fun tight knit community. Off the top of my head, you would probably do very well in bench but the deadlift will need some work. Is your squat down to proper depth??