Will these weights be good for a girl my size?

Question

I am a beginner at power lifting and my coach says that the goal is for me to bench 150 and squat 250. I am 5'5, weigh 137, and I am 18 years old.

Answer 1

Is your coach giving you enough recovery time? You may need a week off. Also negative reps,one, or two per session can trick the body into lifting more. Hopefully you are taking creatine on a loading basis and using a protein drink, or protein bar after each session.

Answer 2

Wow, seems like a lot, but I've never trained with power lifting as the goal.  But as 1 rep maxes, I'm sure they are attainable.

About the bench

Sticking points:

Bottom.  Back is weak.

Half-way.  Front deltoids are weak.

Lockout.  Tri's are weak.  

Answer 3

I've never had a coach, but this method worked for me.

When I am strengthening I start with a ridiculously small weight For bench say 60 pounds) and do as many reps as I can. If it seems really easy I stop at 40 reps and increase the starting weight on my next session.  This mainly it builds endurance.  Then after a rest of 20-30 minutes  I increase the weight by around 20-25 pounds and also do as many reps as I can. I then increase the weight to about 80% of what I want to lift. If you are trying to bench 150 pounds this would be about 120 pounds. Depending on how this feels to me I do 3 sets of 5-8 lifts with a 2 minute rest between sets. This helps build the muscles needed for larger weights while still assisting with endurance.

After a rest period I add in half the difference between what I lifted and what I need to lift. 120+150/2 = 135 pounds and do the same 3 sets of 5-8 lifts with a 2 minute rest between sets. If needed I take a longer rest but I do all three sets..

If I haven't been able to lift my desired weight, I then change the weight to 5 pounds under what I need to lift, or the heaviest weight that I know I can lift. . I lift this weight one time and take 1-2 minutes then lift it again, then rest 2-3 minutes and lift it again. If I am not at 5 pounds under the needed weight I attempt this with 5 pounds under after a rest period.

If I have been discouraged by attempting and failing my desired weight I repeat these exercises ever second day for a week or 2 weeks without attempting the full weight I need to lift.  After the time  is up I take two days to rest and then do the 1 set of 5 lifts  at 135 pounds to warm up my muscles. After a 10 minute rest I am ready to try the full weight.

If you are following a coaches training schedule I might just sneak this in once or twice a week instead of every second day.

Good luck, don't get discouraged. Keep training, these plateaus are very common and take some work to get over, but you can do it.

Answer 4

Those numbers are really quite manageable.

In your weight and age category the records for women's lifts are (last time I checked):

Squat - 336.20lb

Bench - 181.88lb

Deadlift - 308.64lb

You're a beginner so those numbers are more of a long term goal especially since they're records.

The numbers your coach has are good as medium term goals.

What you have to do is set short term goals.  Set a goal you want to hit every month.  Be realistic.

You've hit a plateau on your bench.  It could be caused by 2 things.  Either you haven't changed your routine often enough and your body has adjusted or you have hit a sticking point.

For the first one just changed your routine every 4 weeks.  Take a full week off every 8 weeks.

I'd have to say that it sounds more likely that you're sticking.

Sticking is what happens when you go heavy and you stick at a certain point every time.  What that tells you is that you're weakest at that point.

It's easier to fix than you think.  You're sticking at the bottom of your lift.  The reason is that you commonly start your bench at the top.  That means once you fatigue at the bottom you don't have the strength to lift the weight.

Here's how you fix it.  For a few weeks start and end your bench at the bottom.  Either use a bench that has rack points at the top and bottom or get your spotter to hand it to you.  

If you want to really break that sticking point then for 1 month do the following only train the positive movement on bench.

Let me explain.

In a lift there is the positive and negative movement and holding position.

You can move more on negative than positive and hold more than both.

Sometimes you have to take one movement out of the equation and only train the other.

So here's what you do.

Set the bar with a good, heavy weight you know you can control.

Get the spotter to hand you the bar on your chest or work off the bottom position on the rack.  Your spotter will need to be there for the whole set.  Push the weight all the way up as much on your own as you can.  Let the spotter help you bring it down.  You really shouldn't be doing much on the negative.  Repeat this for your set.