What 6 Months of Weight Training Can Do! (Ashley)

You can read my full story in my 1st entry, but to sum things up: I was always pretty fit and a healthy weight but gained 60lbs during my pregnancy. Three months after giving birth I suffered from severe ankle injuries which left me pretty much unable to walk for 6 months. While I lost all the weight by 6 month PP I still felt jiggly and soft. I was able to start working out 9 months pp. I had a lot of muscle atrophy especially in my legs.

I have now had 6 months in the gym and I wanted to share “What 6 months of weight training” can do for a woman! I don’t like cardio so I haven’t done any other then going on walks pretty regularly. I lift weights for an hour a day 5 days a week. A lot of women are afraid to lift “heavy” weights, I want to show them that they won’t look like men if they pick up more the a 10lb weight! I’m TRYING to gain muscle and it’s not easy!

So to try to put things in prospective here are my “stats”:
Height: 5’9.5″
Weight: ~138-140lbs
Estimated One Rep Max Lifts:
Bench Press: 156lbs
Squat: 168lbs
Dead Lift: 168lbs
Leg Press: 600+lbs

I can do 30+ military style push-ups, only 4 military pull-ups (working on bringing that up), I can do 3 sets of 10 dips with my body weight, I’m doing bicep curls with 25 to 30lb dumbbells, etc.

I still want to get stronger but I’m pretty proud of how far I’ve come in 6 months! I think I lift pretty heavy and I sure don’t think I look “too big or manly” lol. Hopefully this will inspire some other mama’s to pick up the weights too!

-1st 2 pics: My progress, the 1st pic is 8wks pp, the second is 6 months later (I had lost the weight but not made it to the gym), 3rd pic is 6 months after the 2nd with 6 months of weight lifting (15mo pp).
-The 3rd pic is of my ab progress with 1yr between photos.
-The 4th Pic is of my ab progress with 6 months between (after I’d lost the weight to after 6 months in the gym).
-The 5th pic is my back.
-The 6th pic is back/shoulders/arms flexed.
-The 7th is front/shoulders/arms flexed.
-The 8th pic is of my legs flexed.
-AND the last one’s just for fun.

~Age: 27
~Number of pregnancies and births: 1
~The age of your children and how far postpartum you are: 16 months (15 months in the last pictures)

Updated here.

62 thoughts on “What 6 Months of Weight Training Can Do! (Ashley)

  • Wednesday, March 31, 2010 at 7:57 pm
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    you wrote on my thing ( Irelynd) and you look amazing I can’t believe how fit you look which is how I use to look… So how much cardeo did you do, and what did you do for your stretch marks b/c I can’t see them in your 1 year

  • Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 8:33 pm
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    My 1st child I was at the gym 3 x a week, running, swimming, walking the dogs and I still put on a lot of weight because I felt all sorry for myself so I have in to my cravings.

    Hurt my foot while walking in… flip flops :( and well finally at 8 mths I decide to get back into gear and start running again besides my once a week exercise class and …. found out I’m pregnant again.

    Your story is inspiring and I hope since I’m a second time Mom and know what I’m doing that I’ll get back into gear better and faster this time round.

    Thank you.

  • Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 5:42 pm
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    Whoa! I just saw ur leg press routine….. that’s crazy! :) You can max out at 825??? How can u do that much?

  • Pingback:Wanna Be Just Like Her « Blended Baby

  • Monday, September 13, 2010 at 9:46 pm
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    Thanks “blended baby” but I “only” got up to 92kg not over 100 :)

  • Sunday, October 3, 2010 at 4:32 pm
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    I linked to this from your comment on the most recent post so I hope you’re still checking comments!

    The rate of rupture for VBAC is actually lower than 1%. The 1% figure includes dehiscences, or small, symptomless tears. The actual rate: “Excluding symptomless wound breakdown, the rate of reported uterine rupture has ranged from 0.09 to 0.8% for women with a singleton vertex presentation who underwent a planned vaginal birth after a previous transverse lower segment cesarean section”

    This is from: https://www.vbac.com/chapter38.html

    Good luck with a VBAC!

  • Thursday, February 21, 2013 at 8:21 pm
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    You look awsome. Great job!! When do you drink the whey protein?? During workout? Or after workout? And what do you mix the whey protein powder with?? Thank you for the information, its really helpfull

  • Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 1:21 pm
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    @Tamara, I usually drink the protein right after a work out, sometimes I’d have another 1.2 a shake throughout the day. I usually just mix it with water, but sometimes I’ll put the whey in a smoothie, with oats, yogurt, frozen fruit, and juice/coconut milk/milk/etc

    @squidoo ???

  • Sunday, April 21, 2013 at 9:33 pm
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    Whoops, Ashley, sorry. That was a spam that got through by accident. :)

  • Friday, August 12, 2016 at 4:36 am
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    Hi dear!! great job you’ve done! such an inspiration. I’m training 5 days a week but I don’t see results…It’s been two months and I gaining weight instead.. I eat suuuper healthy and have to lose 18pounds! I do 30 min cardio and 40 min weight lifting always under supervision of a trainner. What do yo think?

  • Monday, September 4, 2017 at 2:51 pm
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    Do you only lift? or do you do cardio too? I have been stuck at 166lbs after dropping 52lbs…. mostly with cardio. I am just burnt out on cardio. Would I start to lose if only did weights for a while?

  • Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at 12:09 pm
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    I lift, but I would love to know your routine!

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