Reflection on Stagnation: Protein Time for Pancho

 Pancho's plan: embrace protein for future beefiness!

After weeks of minor ailments (a so-tight-I-limp hamstring here, an inflamed knee there), I'm just this week getting back on track with my lifts. It's humbling and frustrating to lose ground. My squats are back down to 5 x 105lbs, and even that felt ever so slightly out of control that next time I should drop down to 95lbs to get my form back perfect. Ugh.

It is true that my upper body lifts have improved, since my ailments have mostly been hip and hamstring related: I can now do 3 sets of 7+ perfect-form chest-to-ground push ups, and my pull ups are vastly improving in form and ease of execution, if not in number of reps. As satisfying as that is, I have always most strongly identified my lifting with strong dead lifts, and I'm still stuck at 175lbs (1 rep max). It has been inspiring as all hell to watch Marmot beat his previous 1RM max by 10lbs every week (now officially passing 2x his body weight!), and now that I'm not feeling injured I want to bring it full-on.

One thing I am going to do to improve my dead lift is to follow Marmot's lifting strategy. Instead of 3 sets of 5 reps, I'm going to warm up with a set of 5 reps, then push myself for 3 or 4 sets of single lifts, slowly adding weight (in 2.5lb increments) until I fail. He has had spectacular success using this strategy, so I will give it a try.

I also think I need to work on my diet a little more carefully. We have been eating paleo (with some flexibility for rice and popcorn when we eat out socially), which makes healthy eating choices for lifting a lot more intuitive as it emphasizes higher protein, more healthy fats and more vegetables than the Standard American Diet. That said, I just read these two articles (one on protein requirements for strength in general, one for protein requirements for strength in women) and I started doubting that I eat enough protein. I definitely eat more than I did on my vegetarian Standard American Diet, which helped me make serious strength gains, but is it enough for the frequency & intensity of strength days we currently enjoy?

The first article I linked to above recommends 1.5g protein for every lb of body weight, so let's use that as a guide.

I weigh 135lbs (down from a puffy 155lbs not 6 months ago--thanks, grain-free diet and paleo!).
1.5 x 135 = 202 g protein per day.

For breakfast I usually eat 2 hard boiled eggs (and some vegetables, usually turnip greens and squash): 14g protein.
For 1st lunch I eat half a chicken breast (and a load of spinach): 17g protein.
For 2nd lunch I eat leftovers so it's variable, but I'd estimate the amnt of meat is comparable to first lunch: 17g protein.
For dinner, I usually eat 2x what I eat at a lunch: approx 35g protein

Total: 83g protein.

YIKES. Apparently I need to eat significantly more! I just spent some time playing around with Nutrition Data, entering actual meals I've eaten instead of the above estimations, and the guess above was pretty accurate; the two days of meals I entered put me between 80g and 90g protein a day. A few weeks ago we purchased this protein supplement (nicknamed "choco-beef" around the house) and, though it's less disgusting than dehydrated chocolate-flavored beef would imply, I've still got enough of a gut-reaction "NO" response to not drink it regularly. I am struggling to figure out how to add more protein to my diet, since each meal feels filling and satisfying.

Here's hoping that upping my protein, changing my lifting strategy and avoiding repetitive stress injuries help me break through my 175lb dead lift plateau. It sure can't hurt, right?