Sgsolberg Finishing Strong

[Sgsolberg]

I’ve been working on the program for a while, but want to finish strong. I am convinced that most people leave their novice progression far before they should. If I’m going to finish strong or bitch about my lifts, you should all be able to see my progress. I’ll include a bit about where I’ve been and where I’m going to be.

Age: 23
Height: 5 feet, 10.75 inches tall.

Start ------------>Current ---->Goals for End of Novice Progression
BW: 188 lbs ------- 217 lbs ----------- ~225-245lbs
~%BF: 25% ------- 20% ------------- ~15-20%
Squat: 135x5x3 --- 335x5x3 ---------- ~400 lbs
Bench: 95x5x3 ---- 205x5x3 ---------- >250 lbs
Deads: 135x5 ----- 365x5 ------------ ~500 lbs
Press: 70x5x3 ----- 140x5x3 ---------- >170 lbs

My current routine is based on the advanced novice program, but focusing on bench strength. I have not had a problem with deadlifting 1x per week, so I am keeping that for the time being. I also include a set of weighted crunches (ala Lon Kilgore’s article) once per week due to a history of back injuries.

A
Squat (heavy, 5 reps x 3 sets)
Bench (5 reps x 3 sets)
Pullups (failure x 3 sets)
Back Extensions (8-12 reps x 3 sets)

B
Squat (Light: 80% of heavy day, 5 reps x 3 sets)
Press (5 reps x 3 sets)
Deadlift (5 reps x 1 set)

C
Squat (heavy, 5 reps x 3 sets)
Bench (5 reps x 3 sets)
Chinups (failure x 3 sets)
Back Extensions (8-12 reps x 3 sets)
Weighted Incline Crunches (Plate at arm’s length held overhead, 8-12 reps x 3 sets)

[Mr.City]

Unless I'm missing something, I think you forgot cleans.

[bowdirk]

Those look like really solid gains so far, Congratulations!

When you state you have been working on the program 'for a while' can you spell that out a bit? How many months, how many resets, etc.

Thanks,
Bowdirk

[misspelledgeoff]

That's a nice squat.

[Sgsolberg]

Tonight's lifts:
Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x3, 335x5x3. 6-8 mins between sets.
I was redoing this weight due to some concerns about my form from my last attempt. This time, it felt really good. Good-morninged my 4th rep in my second set, but focused on a further point for the 5th rep and it came up alright. Progress with a 5 lb jump next workout.

Bench: 115x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x3, 195x1, 207.5x5x3. 5-6 mins between sets.
I got a spot from a guy on my final set. Fucker kept reaching in for the bar when I was still struggling up. I kept telling him between reps to leave it be unless it goes down. I don't think he applied any effort to the bar, because it never felt lighter, but I'm considering redoing this weight due to his interference.

Chins: 8,7,5. ~2 mins between sets.
I was rushing these due to time constraints. I think I had another 1-2 reps in me for the second two sets if I had rested another min or two.
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Misc. Notes:
8 hours of sleep last night.
I'm upping my caloric intake by 1 mcdouble (~300 cals) each afternoon, hopefully this will help with the recovery a bit. I'll re-evaluate if I need more on Wed. next week.

[Sgsolberg]

Unless I'm missing something, I think you forgot cleans.

Mr.City, I have a wrist injury right now, so I'm dropping the cleans for a week or two in favor of keeping my pressing progressing. I'll hopefully be able to work through it by taping my wrist before the workout. It seems to be aggravated by sudden movement, so it seems plausible that this may take care of itself. Once this is healed I'll resume cleans.


When you state you have been working on the program 'for a while' can you spell that out a bit? How many months, how many resets, etc.

My "for a while" would be about 9 months now. I had a herniated disc due to non-lifting activities back in late Sept. This really wrecked my lifting for a while. I also had a pretty bad sickness back over Christmas, which derailed me for about 2 weeks. Otherwise, I reset squat once at 265, I really just needed to eat more though. As for Bench, I reset at about 175 but really needed to be less greedy with my jumps leading up to that.

[Sgsolberg]

Just to complete the log, I'll include my rest/off days.

Sat, 2/6/2010.
Taught ski lessons from 8am - 3:30pm. Cleaned up the lodge from 3:30-5pm.
I didn't get enough food yesterday, but it was the last full day of teaching I'll have for the year. I should be able to get a better hold of my weekends now.
Misc:
~7.5 hrs of sleep last night.
~2500 calories.

[Sgsolberg]

Yesterday, I began feeling pretty sick. I had a weezing cough, and pretty bad fatigue.

Today:
Went to the gym and warmed up (it took much longer than usual). Then I started my warmup sets and couldn't get past my last warmup set for either lift I was supposed to train today.

I'll re-evaluate where I am tomorrow, possibly lifting Tues-Thurs-Sat this week. If not, I'll plan to resume my normal programming schedule on Wed.

Update: I stayed home sick Tues, Wed, returning to work on Thurs. I plan to use Friday for a light day and return to training on Monday with a slight drop in weights.

Any time I return from some time off I prefer to resume linear progression from a slightly lower point. I'll squat 315, Bench 202.5, and resume powercleans since my wrist is no longer bothering me. I'll clean 155 on Monday, increasing 10 lbs every Monday until I hit 175, then progressing at 5 lbs every week.

[Sgsolberg]

Wow, that was rough. Due to the sickness, I decided to wait until today (Sat) to get back into the gym.

Squat: 135x5x2, 185x5, 225x5, 275x3, 315x5x3. ~7 mins between sets
I really felt rough getting going today. I definitely was not as strong coming back out of the hole, and even this weight may have been a little too aggressive.

Bench: 115x5, 135x5, 155x5, 180x3, 200x5x2 +3. ~5-7 mins between sets
I thought this was going alright until my last set. I just ran out of steam. I think my body is still trying to recover.

Cleans: 115x3, 135x3, 155x3x5. Minimal rest between sets.
I haven't cleaned in a while due to a wrist injury I was working through. Today felt fine and I'll jump by 10 lbs for next week. I plan to work back up by 10 lb jumps over the next few weeks.


---------------------------------------------
Misc. Notes:
8 hours of sleep last night.
I've been trying to eat everything in sight. I'm down about 3 lbs, probably from not eating enough when I was sick. I plan to return to my normal M,W,F lifts this week.

[Sgsolberg]

Still under the weather, but I'm more or less back up to speed and should be able to resume PR's within a week or two. Pretty good case of DOMS from Saturday.

Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x3, 320x5x3. ~7 mins between sets
This was pretty easy, but I don't want to over do it coming back from being sick. First set was rock solid. Second set, I GM'ed the 4th rep. Third set felt fine, but I could tell I was tired.

Bench: 115x5, 135x5, 155x5, 180x3, 200x3x5. ~5-7 mins between sets
I thought I would try triples for a change. I really enjoyed this for pressing. I'll see if this will help keep my progress going as I have had trouble with the pressing motions recently. All reps went up easily for every set.

Cleans: 115x3, 135x3, 165x3x5. About 1 min rest between sets.
This was pretty easy. I plan to hit 175 next Monday, and I should be able to progress by 5's for a while after that. I think that I'll probably start having trouble around 185.

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Misc. Notes:
9 hours of sleep last night.
I'm eating about 4k calories/day right now, and plan to keep around the same total until I start failing reps, then I'll up the calories again. I'm back up to normal weight, and I'm starting to feel better from this sickness.
I felt a bit light headed mid-afternoon, so I made sure to have a second lunch.
I'm starting to set some short term goals for when I plan to hit my benchmarks. If I can continue on the pace that I've set (that'll be tough), I should be able to have a 400lb squat and 500 lb deadlift by late April to early May. I know that the next 2-3 months will be tough recovery wise, but I'm stoked to see how far I can push this.

[Gottatri2lift]

I agree with your opinion about leaving Linear Progression too early, I am 70" 230# and currently 365x3x5 squats hoping to hit 400 on linear as well, just the basic form though. Like the advanced novice program, good call on shifting.
When did you decide on shifting?

[Sgsolberg]

Nice squat, Gottatri2lift.

I switched over to the modified advanced novice program mid-January, right after I hit 315 lbs for the first time. I probably could have kept progressing a little longer on the basic program, but it was turning into hell to recover.

I was having trouble with keeping my deadlift progressing after squatting heavy in the same session (which is why it’s closer that I would like to my squat).
I was also having little success with squatting Fridays, but felt fine on Mondays. This indicated that I needed a bit more time to recover between heavy squat sessions.

The current program felt great before I got sick, and it feels very easy to resume the weights now that I’m back in the gym.

[Sgsolberg]

Once again, I'm returning from illness, so I had dropped my numbers a bit. I think I could have come back a little faster, but I don't want to fuck my recovery. I will repeat any of my previous PR's Friday, and resume setting new PR's Monday.

Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x3x3. Minimal rest between sets.
Today is my light day, and it was certainly welcome after Saturday and Monday. I definitely feel my strength returning day by day. All reps and sets fine, no belt used.

Press: 95x5, 105x5, 115x5, 135x5x3. ~3 mins between sets.
I shouldn't have dropped the weight for this lift, despite feeling like I want to make sure I don't overdo it after last week. All reps went up easy, and I put up an extra 3 reps for the last set (total of 8 reps for set 3).

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 365x8. ~3 mins between warmup sets.
I used no belt for the warmups. Belted up for my work set, and 365 came up way too easy. I should have jumped to 375 or 380. I am a little pissed at myself for being a pussy and not pushing this one forward.

---------------------------------------------
Misc. Notes:
9 hours of sleep last night.
Still eating ~4000 calories. I started a creatine cycle earlier this week, and weighed in at 220 tonight. This is about 3-5 lbs over what I normally walk around at.

[Gottatri2lift]

Since reading about your shift to advance novice I shifted and THANK YOU. Recovery is much better.
I did recovery day yesterday and it was 300x5x3 and it was cake.

Playing the speed of recovery game sucks - sometimes think it is more mental then anything. But if you think of it as a Starr rehab, you will come back stronger, even though it isn't.

[Mr.City]

I like your log, Sgsol. It's charing the deep end of SS, the place where most dare not enter. However, I feel like I'm doing something wrong with my programming when I see the lifts in this log. I shouldn't be stalling at 350 lb on my deadlifts or 130 lbs on my press at a bodyweight of 230 lbs. Best of luck. If Justin and the 70's big crew can hit a squat in the low 400's, so can we.

[Sgsolberg]

Thanks for the kind words. I've been reading some of Dan John's stuff lately, and I've been impressed with how serious recovery is. Seriously. Recovery is harder than the lifting at this point.

I've started logging my sleep and trying to get at least 9 hours per night during the week. I'm shooting for 12 hours of sleep per day on weekends. What this has done for me is that I have a singular focus after lifting, I eat, hot tub -> cold shower, bed. I don't have much social life right now, but it's only going to be for a few more months (at least that's what I'm telling my wife).

I think this is what a lot of people fail to do... it's relatively easy to have the mental discipline to lift heavy things. It's exhilerating. It is the monotonous, minutes laying in bed staring at the dark room before falling asleep that is truly hard.

[Mr.City]

The sleep bit worries me. I live in a college dorm and my asshole roommates stuck me with the top bunk. The mattress sucks and other noisy, drunk asshole wake up in the middle of the night. Who would of thought getting stronger would turn me into an old man?

[Sgsolberg]

Have you tried napping? If not, I used to have good success with some earplugs, a nip of the bottle, and very serious threat to kill my roomates if they woke me.

I have also become convinced of the value of supplementing zinc and magnesium. Try something like ZMA, alternatively I think Walgreens carries some sort of supplement for these. This really has a positive boost on how I feel, and clinical studies (yeah, I know) have shown it can help maintain higher Test levels.

[Mr.City]

I've been taking a couple of cal and mag tablets before going to bed, although I might try the earplugs and nip of the bottle advice. God knows I love whiskey. How do you dose your cal and mag? I find that if I take too much at once, I get a terrible headache.

[Sgsolberg]

I use a 30mg tab of zinc and about 400mg of mg in the evening. I try to take it about an hour after dinner with some liquid calories.

[Sgsolberg]

Today was my first day back at more or less full speed. I can still feel a day-day improvement in my strength coming back from the flu. I was feeling pretty good today. Minor issues include a tweaked back from Tuesday, some IT band issues on my left leg, and slightly stiff elbows. Nothing in this list held me back today.

Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x3, 330x5x3. 4-5 mins rest between sets.
This was awesome. I got fired up before each set and the bar came rocketing up. I videoed my third set and I felt pretty good about depth and form. I feel pretty confident in new PR's next week.

Bench: 95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 205x3x5. ~4 mins between sets.
I really enjoyed benching triples on Monday, and am going to try progressing with this format for a while. I had been struggling with 5's for a bit, so 3's may help me get past this.

Chins: 7-5-5. ~2 mins rest between sets.
I was running out of time tonight, so I rushed these a bit.

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Misc. Notes:
9 hours of sleep last night.
Weighed in at 222 today (full 100.00 kilos). This is partially due to the creatine that I'm including with my shakes every day. Waist officially measures 38" today, which estimates me for 20% bf. This is fine. I am eating everything I can. I can tell that the biggest struggle for the deep end of the novice progression will be recovery.

[Sgsolberg]

Shit. That was a tough one. I had gone skiing yesterday for 5 hours, and didn't eat enough because I was on hill. I tried cramming as much as I could, but I doubt I got over 3k calories. I've felt pretty irritable all day, and tired throughout the afternoon. While I completed all my reps and weights, I'm considering redoing this workout on Friday.

Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x3, 315x1, 340x5x3 (PR). 7 mins rest between sets.
Tough, but they went up. I definitely GM-ed a few reps, so I'll consider repeating this weight on Friday.

Bench: 95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 207.5 x5x3 (ties PR). ~7 mins between sets.
Tough. I think I'm going to repeat this weight on Friday.

Cleans: 135x3, 155x3, 175x3x5. ~4 mins between sets. These were not great, but they got the job done.

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Misc. Notes:
9 hours of sleep last night.
Weighed in at 218 today.

[Sgsolberg]

Well, this was an epic fail. I went home and went to bed early, so this is yesterday's post.

Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x1, 340x3.
Today is my light day, but I thought I'd work up to one triple at Monday's weight. This felt pretty good, but heavy.

Press: 95x5, 105x5, 115x5, 140x5x3. ~5 mins between sets.
This felt good.

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x5, 380x3 +1. ~3 mins between warmup sets.
I used no belt for the warmups. Wow, after the way 365 came up last week I expected this to be fine. I really struggled with the deads today. I wonder if I fucked myself with my squats... I will repeat 380 next week.

[Sgsolberg]

"Success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiasm." -Winston Churchill


Squat: 185x5, 225x5, 275x3, 315x1, 345x5x3 (PR). 10 mins rest between sets.
Tough, but they went up. This actually felt better than Monday, tougher, but better.

Bench: 95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x5, 207.5 x3x3. ~7 mins between sets.
I'm considering shifting the pressing movements to a TM progression. I think I can make better progress using that.

Chins: 7-5-5.
Weighted Situps on the incline bench. 45 lbs, 3 sets of 8.

---------------------------------------------
Misc. Notes:
8.5 hours of sleep last night.
Weighed in at 217 today.
I didn't eat enough today, and had to grab a pop during my workout. This definitely affected the session.
Skiing is having a profoundly negative impact on my training. I'm trying to think of ways to keep from stagnating, but not being dead to the world all the time. There may be no way around this.

[Mr.City]

Are you making 2.5 lb jumps on on your pressing movements? IF so, you can still make 5 lb - 2.5 lb jumps per on your bench/press. Something to consider.

[Sgsolberg]

Yeah, I'm trying to make 2.5 lbs jumps, but I've been having trouble recently (last month or so). I am still fighting off the tail end of my flu that I had 2 weeks ago (slept 18 hours yesterday). I have a feeling that that is still affecting my recovery.

What I've decided to do is to give myself a reset on the bench press, dropping 10% and moving back up in 5 lb jumps to 205, then I should be able to ramp up in 2.5 lb jumps from there. The extra recovery could help with this situation.

My presses are still progressing fine with 2.5 lb jumps, I think, in part due to the increased frequency that I've been benching.

[Sgsolberg]

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for I am the baddest mother fucker in the God damn valley..."

Squat: 135x5, 225x5, 275x3, 315x1, 350x5x3 (PR). 7 mins rest between sets.
Tough. Each set felt like it was a max effort. GMed a rep or two, but this mostly came up like it should.
Forgive my quote above, but this made my day. 350 is one of those nice big round numbers that makes each of us so very happy. Also, I was able to do it with one of the guys who lifts heavier than me watching... he was totally stoked for this milestone.

Bench: 95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 195x5x3. ~5 mins between sets.
This felt really good, very easy. I'm hoping that this ramp up will work, if it doesn't it's intermediate benching for me.

Powercleans: 115x3, 155x3, 180x3x5 (PR). ~3 mins between sets.
This really came together for me today. I felt like the bar really was flying during the second pull.

---------------------------------------------
Misc. Notes:
8.5 hours of sleep last night.
Weighed in at 221 today.
I slept and ate a ton this weekend, and it really showed today. I felt energized and strong all day long.
Tweaked my back at some point this weekend (maybe while sleeping, I might have slept on it wrong). This was mildy bothersome, but it didn't hurt during my squats or cleans, and it doesn't seem worse for the work.

[Sgsolberg]

My bench stall worries me. I’m eating enough to recover and grow, which is attested to by my gains on the squats. I understand an occasional bad day (last wed. for example), but my bench has hit a wall hard.

I wonder if I’m hosing my gains by having fucked with the program… I had increased my bench frequency (Monday and Friday every week) because it had lagged so badly, and it worked for a while, but I’ve repeatedly stalled out at 207.5 lbs.

I could use this reset as a time to return my presses to the basic progression. Hmm…

[Sgsolberg]

Oh, Yeah! Today, I feel like the man!

Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x5, 275x1, 315x3x2.
Today is my light day for squats. Really not much to say about this except that I felt great, super tight on all sets. I can't believe this was my work set not too long ago. No belt.

Press: 95x5, 105x5, 115x5, 142.5x5x3 (PR). ~5 mins between sets.
This felt good, really good. I nearly lost my last rep forward on my last set, right as it was getting above my head. I made sure to drive my torso through the gap and it shot up from there.

Deadlift: 135x7, 225x5, 315x1, 385x5 (PR). ~5 mins between warmup sets.
I used no belt for the warmups. After my epic fail last week, I decided to bump this up just 5 lbs. I really wanted those 35's instead of the small plates. This came up great. It looks like 10 lbs per week is about what I can handle right now, but that still will give me 405 in 2 weeks.

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Misc. Notes:
9 hours of sleep last night.
Weighed in at 221 today.
Tweaked back is gone. I felt powerful all day long. I'm really focusing on making sure I get 1.25+ grams of protein per lb bw.

I really think the biggest difference for my success has been sleep. Seriously. Since I've committed to sleeping at least 8 hours per night, and sleeping more than that whenever I can, my lifts have felt so much better. My wife also says I'm less of an asshole, but that's to be debated.