The Slow Grind

[JFick]

Hello all.

Starting my intermediate programming today. To anyone new to my log, I just ran starting strength for almost 7 months, started 5/2/16 after a long lay off from strength training. You can view my SS log here: Fat Fuck Log

Starting body weight was 345, last day of SS was 338, body measurements went in the right direction, i.e. naval measurement went from 54 to 49.5in. Work sets on SS went from 135 squat to 405, 1RM 455. 135 bench to 262.5, 300 1RM. 80 press to 175, never maxed it out. 205 deadlift to 465, 515 1RM. 135 clean to 210, never maxed it. Everything is in pounds obviously.

Decided to call my intermediate log the slow grind because I'll be in a seemingly perpetual cut while doing intermediate programming. Slowly losing weight while trying to continue to get stronger, it's gonna feel like a grind.

I'm going to attempting the 4 day Texas Method (version 1 from PPST3). One, for time reasons, two, a 4 day split is a little easier to do in a deficit according to Andy Baker.

So my split will look something like this:

Day 1
Volume Bench or Volume Press
Bench Assistance or Press Assistance

Day 2
Volume Squat
Volume Pull (cleans for now)

Day 3
Intensity Bench / Press
Light Press / Bench
Maybe some assistance

Day 4
Intensity Squat
Intensity Pull (deadlift)
Maybe some assistance

Cardio 2 to 3 times a week. HIIT or LISS.

Wish me luck and thanks for following.

[JFick]

Nov 28th

Body Weight 342 (Thanksgiving yo)

Volume Bench (weight, reps, sets)
235 x 5 x 5
Incline Bench
135 x 10 x 3
LISS, only 12 mins due to time

Everything felt good today. Was nice and carb loaded thanks to Thanksgiving. To be honest, had no idea how much weight to do for assistance. I figured I'd start light and LP it for a bit. I'm anticipating some DOMS tomorrow.

[peez]

So you are hanging with the big boys now? May the gainzZz be strong with you!

[slowmotion]

Good luck, have fun with the TM!

[JFick]

So you are hanging with the big boys now? May the gainzZz be strong with you!

Good luck, have fun with the TM!

Thanks guys

[JFick]

Nov 29th

BW 342

Volume Squats
365 x 5 x 5
Power Cleans
215 x 3 x 5

First day of 5x5 squats, they were just as much fun as I imagined they would be, so not much at all. But honestly it wasn't too bad, sets were probably RPE 8 or so, so not terribly grindy.

Cleans went very well, this was a PR for me They actually felt good, they were hard, no doubt, but they didn't feel as heavy as the 210 I did last Friday.

[Toasterleavings]

Hey nice work on the clean novice LP wrap-up & move to intermediate. You managed to avoid the whole "must milk novice gains by doing advanced novice LP & near killing myself for 3 completely unproductive months" trap that so many fall for (me included)!

Good luck with the TM. Sleep & Food.

[JFick]

Hey nice work on the clean novice LP wrap-up & move to intermediate. You managed to avoid the whole "must milk novice gains by doing advanced novice LP & near killing myself for 3 completely unproductive months" trap that so many fall for (me included)!

Good luck with the TM. Sleep & Food.

Thanks! I had one full reset about 3 months through and then a small one after a vacation in Oct. Once I missed some sets on the second heavy day of the week I figured it was time to move on and not muddle around and get fatigued as hell for no reason.

[JFick]

Dec 1st

BW 343

Intensity Bench
265 x 5
Light Press
160 x 5 x 3
Assisted Dips (hey I'm fat)
-140 x 8 x 3

First intensity day went well. Probably thanks to one last Thanksgiving family dinner last night, as I am apparently retaining all sorts of carbs and water at the moment.

Bench was surprisingly easy for this PR, felt like I had a 1 or 2 reps left in the tank RPE 8.5/9.

I forgot if I was supposed to do 80 or 90% for light pressing on intensity day so I went with 90... It was tougher than I thought.

Had a lot of time left so I did some assistance. used the assisted dip machine, cuz hey, I'm heavy as fuck, so using 140 lbs still means I'm pressing 200 lbs up 8 times.

Good day tho.

[irongeek]

You're the first person I'm following who has graduated to the intermediate forum. I guess we're growing up, training-wise, together. Good to see you and others stick with and make great gains on the novice and intermediate programs. I will continue to follow you and, as always, I covet your deadlift!