Narvaez Family Starting Strength Log

[LeonidasfromSparta]

I tried doing your thing when I stalled on my LP. I got fat and didn't get any stronger. But go ahead, it's not like I can stop you.

Yep, me too, and that's why I'm being against this. But I was 27, so maybe Tom has got a good point...

[Tom Narvaez]

But I haven't stalled. That's an important distinction, no? I still have lots of tricks left to try. I haven't tried a light day yet. I've barely started going up by 2.5 on bench. I haven't gone up by 1s on press yet. Rip confirmed to me that I should definitely try 1lbs jumps on LP when it comes to the press. I'm still deadlifting like six times a month. I have a lot more stalling to do before I tap this program out. In the mean time, I need to eat or I will stall.

I can't do LP on maintenance. It doesn't work.

[LeonidasfromSparta]

http://startingstrength.com/index.ph..._kirk_karwoski

come on, he's out of breath just sitting down..

Well he's a big guy, and probably hasn't done conditioning work in a long time. But I wouldn't consider him fat at all (and this said from a guy who lost 25 lbs of bw in the last 3 months).

what's p-ratio? sorry for ignorance..

It's the ratio of muscle to fat gain. Here's a good article about it.

[Josiah Moye]

But I haven't stalled. That's an important distinction, no? I still have lots of tricks left to try. I haven't tried a light day yet. I've barely started going up by 2.5 on bench. I haven't gone up by 1s on press yet. Rip confirmed to me that I should definitely try 1lbs jumps on LP when it comes to the press. I'm still deadlifting like six times a month. I have a lot more stalling to do before I tap this program out. In the mean time, I need to eat or I will stall.

I can't do LP on maintenance. It doesn't work.

I agree with all this. Ride LP out. Just don't have a set BW number in mind. 1-2lb a week is reasonable. 1-2lb a week for the next 7 months? Probably overkill. Just my opinion. You'll know when it's time to stop gaining weight.

[Tom Narvaez]

Me: 350x5x3, 135x5x3, ghr 3x5 x2 pink minis
Tony: 245x5x3, 107.5x5x3, 265x5x1
Tony started gomad with whole milk yesterday and so did I.

Video and analysis after work

[skipbeat]

oh god, GOMAD. I'd really go skim milk at least. I see there's no talking you out of this!

[Tom Narvaez]

Starting Strength, Workout B, 2/29/12
Tom's Lifts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4m7BoNFoJs
Tony's Lifts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIbdzjnsK_U

Tom:
Squat: 350x5x3

I'm really not proud of these sets. Old habits die hard. As you can see, I was really trying to slow things down and perform the lift correctly, but I've gotten so used to relaxing into the bottom, I've gotten so used to relying on a huge bounce (by being loose), that I started doing the same thing. I started losing extension towards the end of some of these sets. All in all, I probably should have reset like 5% in order to implement some of the new form changes. Oh well. I'm going to keep pushing the weight up. Hopefully the won't feel so heavy next session and I'll be able to improve both my technique and the weight on the bar.

Press: 135x5x3
The lay back might be excessive, but I'm fairly flexible in the upperback and I didn't feel my lumbar overextending. On the last rep of set 2 and 3, I accidentally figured out how to use double layback. This was harder than I expected, but, then again, this was my third time pressing heavy in seven days (fourth if you count the benching I did on Saturday).

Deadlift:

I didn't do them because I started warming up and they felt like shit. I realized it was probably a bad idea to pull three times in seven days. I just did some easy GHRs with two pink minis instead. After the heavy squatting, it was more or less torture.

Tony:
Squats:
245x5x3

For the most part, Tony is a pretty good squatter. He tends to have similar problems to me. Mostly, I want him to work on getting a better bounce. On the third set, that translated into a few of the reps being a bit high. On the second set, he was pausing a bit in the hole and it was making it way harder than necessary. We'll keep working on it.

Press:
107.5x5x3

Like me, Tony puts the bar down wrong. We both need to lay back more on the way down. I don't have too many complaints about these sets. He did well, I think. 110 should be no problem. This was a PR for him.

Deadlift:
265x5

Definitely a bit more rounding than I'd like to see. He just needs to be a bit more patient with his set-up. He's moving around too much at the bottom. I'll probably walk him through the set-up steps more thoroughly next time we lift. Not terrible in any case and a solid PR for him.

[Carlos Daniel]

This is but a suggestion, so just think about it and see if sounds good. You seem to have problems with reaching for the hole without going lose. I'm thinking paused squats could, in theory help with that. The reasoning being that you can't really dive bomb into a pause squat, you have to go down and just sit there for a while.

How does that sound?

[Tom Narvaez]

This is but a suggestion, so just think about it and see if sounds good. You seem to have problems with reaching for the hole without going lose. I'm thinking paused squats could, in theory help with that. The reasoning being that you can't really dive bomb into a pause squat, you have to go down and just sit there for a while.

How does that sound?

It definitely makes sense and it is something that I could implement on my lighter warmups or, eventually, on light day when light day becomes necessary. I know Ed Coan was a fan of them and I'm sure Mike T programs them in as well.

All in all, as a novice, I probably just need more practice at lighter weights. I did just fine with 140kg at the seminar, but 140kg is quite a bit lighter than 350lbs. If I stall any time soon, I may just do a bigger reset than usual.

[Carlos Daniel]

It definitely makes sense and it is something that I could implement on my lighter warmups or, eventually, on light day when light day becomes necessary. I know Ed Coan was a fan of them and I'm sure Mike T programs them in as well.

All in all, as a novice, I probably just need more practice at lighter weights. I did just fine with 140kg at the seminar, but 140kg is quite a bit lighter than 350lbs. If I stall any time soon, I may just do a bigger reset than usual.

It's not a light exercise... by a long shot! I did them today, hard stuff. You could, in theory do two sets of regular squats and one set of paused squats, taking some weight off. I too agree that as a novice you should just squat. But if this solves your problem, I can't see a problem. You don't need to do them forever, maybe just a couple of weeks is enough to give you confidence to go deep into the hole (lol) and go back without doing this mini dive-bomb thing you're doing.

But taking some weight off should also work, AS LONG AS YOU STOP DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Otherwise it's pointless, right? maybe you should assign your brother (Tim, Tem, Tum, whoever) to sorta yell at you some sort of cue to remind you to squat right, during your sets. The second solution is in fact more in line with my philosophy on training novices.