Squidwina

Thanks for the info. If I have this right, USAPL goes by the IPF guidelines. The approved StrengthShop singlets are only 25 bucks, so at least you can get into a legal singlet for a low price.

There seem to be about a zillion federations out there. Would you mind giving a rundown of the major ones and what the story is with each one? I'd like to know how to prioritize my choices about which meets I want to do, and to make sure that any equipment I purchase conforms to the standards of the strictest important federation. And I definitely don't want to end up doing anything with a federation that is not drug-tested. I'm primarily interested in powerlifting in the United States, but any and all info would be appreciated. Thanks.

Totally agreed with this, especially when you're new to lifting. I've been doing my current program for about 3 months now, and I've made tremendous gains (165 to 500 lbs on the 3 main lifts in the first 10 weeks) and I'm only now starting to feel like it's getting "hard." That's mainly because of my own dumb mistake. I tried to push myself faster than my plan, which ran me right into a brick wall. Noob gains are a wonderful thing. Enjoy them! This is the kind of thing I was getting at when I suggested that you might want do a glute exercise or similar. You can also choose cardio that will help build the right kind of strength, like maybe the stationary bike/spin class if that works for you. Of course, doing additional mobility work as TurtleRunner suggested is a great idea. With all that said, the fact that you have to focus your strength training mainly on your upper body at this point actually creates a unique opportunity for you. Most women's upper-body strength develops more slowly than their lower-body strength, so in a sense, you'll be putting yourself ahead of the game. Or even more ahead of the game, because benching and barbell rowing 65 lbs is very very good for a woman who is just starting out. I assume you spent a lot of time on crutches...well, it's paying off. By the way, there are a number of articles on Tnation about knee issues and squatting. I can't speak to the quality or applicability of any of them so I'm not going to link directly to them, but they might be worth a look.

Congratulations! Sounds like a great start.

Better programming? I'll take a shot at it- It would be easy for you to adapt the basic Starting Strength/Stronglifts template to meet your needs. Both of these are extremely successful novice programs, and they both are centered on the big basic compound lifts. The workouts are both 3 days per week and each day has squats and 2 other exercises. Alternate workouts A and B. Here's the basics of both of them, kind of squished together: Workout A: Squat Overhead Press Deadlift Workout B Squat Bench Press Power Clean (SS) or Barbell Row (SL) So let's see how we can modify it... - Sub in the leg press for squats. The potential issue here is that the program calls for squatting 3x per week. - If it turns out that leg pressing that often aggravates your knees, then maybe do something else on 1 of the 3 days. - You can't power clean, so do the barbell row or other horizontal-pull row. - You're good on the OH press, bench press, and deadlift. (Have you tried a trap bar deadlift?) Jfreaksho's suggestions for general rehab and working towards squatting sound excellent. Something like the one-legged deadlifts might be good to sub in for the one day of leg presses. Maybe Romanian deadlifts? As a novice, you definitely want to keep it simple and not add in too much fluff. That said, if you want to do a little more lower-body work because you're squat-less, you could take the opportunity to do some targeted glute work. Glute bridges and bird dogs are bodyweight options. I'm guessing cable kickbacks and cable pull-throughs wouldn't bother your knees too much.

I understand that hydrolyzed whey protein is often tolerable for people with milk allergies. It is used in baby formulas for babies with milk allergies, but I don't know if that is more highly processed than typical hydrolyzed whey protein powder. It may or may not work for you, but I just wanted to mention that it may be an option.

That works. TrueNutrition offers a lot of flavors and varieties of protein, and more importantly, you can choose 1/2 strength flavor/sweetener. The "better" ones are stevia sweetened. You can get double-strength flavor too if you like. I got the cold-filtered whey isolate in "vanilla cake batter" at 1/2 strength along with the same in unflavored and unsweetened. The half-strength still tasted super-sweet to me!! And a little TOO delicious. Right now, I'm mixing 1 part of the half-flavored powder with 2 parts of unflavored, and it tastes pretty good.

I tried the hemp protein in oatmeal...yuck. It was like getting a mouthful of grass clippings and sand. I might try making some granola-ish bars or something with it. There seem to be a variety of thoroughly unappetizing recipes out there. If that doesn't work, I conveniently have a vegan friend who can't have gluten. Maybe she'd be willing to eat it.

This thread may be of interest to you: http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/42281-lets-talk-undies/

Bummer. Thanks.

http://i.imgur.com/l15KlMW.png http://i.imgur.com/ofhNU6Z.png I can't seem to find any info on what the difference might be.

Good to know. I wonder what the difference between the "Men's Version" and the "Women's Version" is. Then again, I'm not sure I want to know.

I record everything in a notebook too. But then I put all of the data in excel and crunch away to my heart's content. I like playing with data and excel gives me many more options than any app. I find it very motivating to quantify what I've been doing. Maybe it seems wrongheaded to want to get my butt to the gym to make sure my weekly average doesn't drop too low or push more weight so I can see the line on my graph go up, but it's working for me.

Yay for being old!! I don't care about doing well at this point. I just wanna play. The NJ State Open is on Aug 1 in New Brunswick. I assume "Open" means you don't have to qualify to get in, yes?

I'm in. Could somebody please explain how one qualifies in Masters? I may well qualify in "open" by then anyway. We'll have to see. Even if I don't qualify for this year's nationals, I'd definitely like to join the team! I'll be in Scranton cheering you all on. I'll wait to sign up for USAPL.