Strength

I'd say that I'm getting pretty into the whole lifting and strength thing.  I, just in the past several weeks, have started doing things like deadlifts, cleans, pull ups (negatives, obvs can't do the real thing yet).  These are all things I've NEVER done before, even though I have a fair bit of experience with weight training, until now I've stayed away from anything that intimidated me.  I'll tell ya though, nothing makes you feel like a bad ass quite like lifting heavy things.  I'm kind of addicted!  It's thrilling to be able to progress each workout.  I was able to deadlift 100 pounds last night for two sets of three after warming up with lower weight.  I did some cleans, dumbbell incline bench, and barbell rows too.  I felt super strong.  Got me wondering though, what's the standard of strength for women in the bigger lifts. 

If you've read my blog at all before this post you'll know I'm into the numbers.  Sometimes it's purely for comparison's sake, sometimes it's because I'm goal oriented and need the numbers to shoot for.  Since I'm maintaining now, my number focus has been kind of cut off.  I like having that focus though, and now I've found new numbers to focus on!  So after my huge feat of strength last night (ha!) I decided to try and find some sort of numbers out there that say what "strong" is for a woman, on various lifts.  And guess what!?  There are people out there who have put together a nice little chart for my viewing pleasure.  I actually found a couple, but this one is my favorite CHART (thought I like THIS ONE, and THIS ONE as well, the first is more pleasing to my eyeballs).  These number are based on a max, not several reps and sets, so I'm probably in the novice range for most (which makes sense since I JUST started doing these lifts), though you better bet I'll be finding out!  It's just nice to have something to work toward!