Petesmithings Log

[petesmithing]

Hello, my name is Pete and I'm fairly new to the starting strength program.

Info
Age: 26
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 205 lbs
Wasit: 36"

Training History
I've been weight training for a little more than 10 years. I've always trained consistently for about 4-5 months before taking an extended vacation and coming back again. In my younger days it was due to changing circumstances and goals, for the past 5 years I've always hit a plateau while over training and causing some moderate aggravation of old injuries. I come from more of a bodybuilding background; six day splits, 3 sets of 10, and unnecessary overuse of assistance exercises. Found the Starting Strength program while looking for a technique and form book, read the rest of the book and bought practical programming, and the logic just made sense. Now this is my first go around with the program.

Previous Maxes, around Dec 2015
Squat: 250x3x10
Bench: 225x3x10
Seated Press: 135x3x10
Deadlift: N/A, never really trained deadlift before

Initial Goals
Make steady progression while focusing on improving form. Choose my next weight with the perspective of how will this jump allow me to maintain consistency on a program over the next 3, 6, or 12 months. Have foresight to know that I overtrain too quickly in the past and give up due to injuries. Choose form that is safe for steady progress over the big gains right now. Have the vision to see the big gains over the next 6-12 months, and focus my program around long term consistency.

[petesmithing]

16 JAN
Squat 115x3x5
Bench 95x3x5
Deadlift 155x1x5

18 JAN
Squat 125x3x5
Press 85x3x5
Deadlift 165x1x5

20 JAN
Squat 135x3x5
Bench 105x3x5
Deadlift 175x1x5

23 JAN
Squat 145x3x5
Press 90x3x5
Deadlift 185x1x5

25 JAN
Squat 155x3x5
Bench 115x3x5
Deadlift 195x1x5

27 Jan
Squat 165x3x5
Press 95x3x5
Deadlift 205x1x5

Thoughts on previous lifting sessions:
Started the program off very light for all of my lifts other than the press. I wanted to focus on form over weight. Squat form is not as bad as I thought after videoing myself, but I did temporarily give up on squatting the low bar position, I don't think I have the flexibility for it right now and I think the discomfort has really thrown off my form. I did much better with high bar. Right now I'm positioning the bar just above the spine of the scapula. I will continue to work on stretching and trying to incorporate low bar in my warmups. Long term goal is to comfortably low bar squat, but I feel that squatting high bar is better than not at all or low bar with terrible form that risks injury. Bench still feels very light, form feels ok, but having difficulty with bar path at such a light weight. Press needs some work. I really overestimated my strength here. Still capable of making steady progress, just started this lift closer to my ceiling than the rest. I cant seem to get the forward hip thrust yet. Deadlift feels good, right now seems like moderate resistance and I feel like I really got form down quickly since I had no serious past experience with the deadlift and I dont have to battle what is potentially thousands of reps with bad form like the rest of my lifts.

[petesmithing]

30 JAN
Squat 175x3x5
Bench 125x3x5
Deadlift 210x1x5, 215x1x5

Session Notes:
This is my second session using video recordings for feedback. I'm not posting videos at this time because I feel like I'm doing well correcting myself with visual feedback. I'd rather not subject myself to outside critique when I'm progressing well on form by intuitively knowing how to correct myself once I see the video. Maybe in the future I'll add videos when I feel like I have good form or get lost on how to make the proper changes.

I've always lined up under the bar by placing my back to the bar and stretching my arms back into position, probably due to limited mobility. Decided to try to stretch and start with the bar in front of me. Still using the high bar position. Before my last set I figured out I have a wrist imbalance, I'm keeping my left wrist straight, but I'm cocking my right wrist into extension. Got my wrists straight and elbows up on the last set. Made a huge difference, I felt much stronger and my form looked much better. I think the imbalance was also causing me to lose tightness in my back and I wasted energy focusing on stabilizing myself.

Bench felt ok, I might be overthinking grip width a little too much, but I need to find a good spotter so I can find the grip width that leaves my forearms vertical at the bottom position. Also realized that my lockout looks crazy, because I overextend my elbows because I'm double jointed. Its weird to see your forearms at about a 20 degree angle bending the wrong way. Just need to get on the bench and lift, not think next time

Did first set of deadlifts, felt a bad shoulder imbalance at lockout, decided to push through the set anyway. Went to deload the bar and realized I was 5lb short on one side. This was the 210 set. Decided to reload the bar with the correct weight and got 215 much stronger than the first set. Dumb and I should have just repeated 215 next session, but I really let my ego get to me because I wanted to hit 2 plates next session. I'm having a little trouble figuring out lockout position, because I'm pinching my crotch at the top. I've also had a shoulder imbalance when doing shrugs in the past, I'm talking about cocking my head to a 45 degree angle to one side because my traps and neck are all knotted up. I think I might be doing that again, and maybe a shrug at the top that I don't need. Also might be overextending my lumbar at lockout. I'll have to make sure to get a video next session.

[Quit Tomorrow]

1. What are your old injuries?

2. What would you describe as over training?

3. Some helpful advice from someone having success on this program – Post your videos and humble yourself. Our ego’s tend to get in the way sometimes but there are a lot of strong people who are happy to help you along. You don’t need to take the advice if you don’t agree but its VERY helpful to at least get a different perspective. If you’re doing something wrong it’s much easier to fix when the weight is light. It’s very hard to “un-fuck” a heavy squat.

Ps. Thanks for stopping and leaving your positive comment on my log.

[petesmithing]

1 FEB
Squat 185x3x5
Press 100x3x5
Deadlift 225x1x5

Session Notes:
Had a terrible session at the gym today. Hit all my reps, but had no mental focus. My morning didnt go well running errands and I was about an hour late to the gym. Had enough time to get my session done if I would have relaxed, but I felt rushed because I didn't have 2 hours available to lift if I wanted it. Tried using a belt today. It's not a great belt, goes from 4" in the back down to about 2.5" in front, but its better than nothing. Probably chose a bad day to introduce the belt because my complete lack of focus caused some serious deterioration of my form on the squat. I need to drop to 5lb jumps on the squat now. Tried to work on the hip movement in the press, felt like I had to stick my ass out to "wind up" for the press. Need to get video but didnt have time. Felt confident going into the deadlift, but decided to video my warmups. Found out I have been rounding my back in the deadlift. That killed any confidence I had left today. Couldn't figure out how to get proper back position at all today. Still did my 225 work set, but I need to stop progression until I read the book and get my form corrected.

[Quit Tomorrow]

Watch for progressing to fast. It looks like you're got a bit greedy with the rate of progression. Keep it going!

[petesmithing]

1. What are your old injuries?

2. What would you describe as over training?

3. Some helpful advice from someone having success on this program – Post your videos and humble yourself. Our ego’s tend to get in the way sometimes but there are a lot of strong people who are happy to help you along. You don’t need to take the advice if you don’t agree but its VERY helpful to at least get a different perspective. If you’re doing something wrong it’s much easier to fix when the weight is light. It’s very hard to “un-fuck” a heavy squat.

Ps. Thanks for stopping and leaving your positive comment on my log.

1. The primary injury that I deal with in restricting progress is in my left shoulder. Tried to learn how to golf with some friends. Had no experience, spent the time out at the driving range. Got hit in the crotch with a stray ball mid stroke, went through the cringe motion simultaneously. So for one, I had no idea of a proper drive stroke. And I went from extending the the second half of the stroke to pulling it back at a very bad time. Didn't feel the damage to my shoulder for about 2 days. I don'c care what anyone says, golf is a far more dangerous sport than weightlifting. The rest of my injuries have really just been a buildup of excessive wear and tear, probably from doing dumb programming like leg extensions or curls.

2. What I've described as over training in the past always involves a stalling out of linear progress combined with a weird soreness. I go from the sensation of a firm contraction, but sill feeling like supple muscle tissue to feeling like Im doing sets while my muscle is made out of quickly drying concrete. Overtraining feels like a weird pump, but in a bad way. In all honesty, its probably due to poor nutrition on my part. I've never counted protein/calories and its very likely to be an issue with a deficiency of one or both.

3. I plan on posting videos soon. My logic behind not submitting myself to criticism at this point is that I'm making stupid form mistakes. Stupid because I've never made videos of myself to watch, and they seem like pretty easily correctable major faults. Not that I dont welcome criticism. I just dont feel ready yet when I understand the major issues that Im doing wrong and its boosting my confidence to be able to correct form myself. But I should probably do it anyway. Maybe I can get the video of my last deadlift up, because I have no idea what cues I need to correct rounding my back.

Thanks for the response, its great to get some feedback, support, and accountability.

[Quit Tomorrow]

1. The primary injury that I deal with in restricting progress is in my left shoulder. Tried to learn how to golf with some friends. Had no experience, spent the time out at the driving range. Got hit in the crotch with a stray ball mid stroke, went through the cringe motion simultaneously. So for one, I had no idea of a proper drive stroke. And I went from extending the the second half of the stroke to pulling it back at a very bad time. Didn't feel the damage to my shoulder for about 2 days. I don'c care what anyone says, golf is a far more dangerous sport than weightlifting. The rest of my injuries have really just been a buildup of excessive wear and tear, probably from doing dumb programming like leg extensions or curls.

2. What I've described as over training in the past always involves a stalling out of linear progress combined with a weird soreness. I go from the sensation of a firm contraction, but sill feeling like supple muscle tissue to feeling like Im doing sets while my muscle is made out of quickly drying concrete. Overtraining feels like a weird pump, but in a bad way. In all honesty, its probably due to poor nutrition on my part. I've never counted protein/calories and its very likely to be an issue with a deficiency of one or both.

3. I plan on posting videos soon. My logic behind not submitting myself to criticism at this point is that I'm making stupid form mistakes. Stupid because I've never made videos of myself to watch, and they seem like pretty easily correctable major faults. Not that I dont welcome criticism. I just dont feel ready yet when I understand the major issues that Im doing wrong and its boosting my confidence to be able to correct form myself. But I should probably do it anyway. Maybe I can get the video of my last deadlift up, because I have no idea what cues I need to correct rounding my back.

Thanks for the response, its great to get some feedback, support, and accountability.

1. Depending on what's going on with your shoulder you may find working with a bent wrist will allow you to get into low bar with an issue. You can take a look a my videos if you need an example of this. (You may also just have a stiff thoracic spine or crappy mobility or both)

2. Def wrong use of the term overtraining and you've hit the nail on the dot get your nutrition in order. Being at a caloric surplus will allow you to make the most of the program. Also stop progressing your weight so quickly. You are going to stall yourself out earlier than you need to. Stalling out is a normal part of finishing linear progression but from what I've seen you're moving too fast.

3. And my question to you is why would you allow yourself to make mistakes that we've all made already. Why not avoid them and the injuries we've run into because of those mistakes. Your call There is also a subsection that is dedicated to video feedback. Use it or reach out and get some coaching from an SS coach.

[petesmithing]

petesmithing 30 JAN Squat 175 - YouTube

Let's see if this finally works. This was my third set at 175 on 30 JAN.

[petesmithing]

3 FEB
Squat 185x1x5
Bench 135x3x5

Session Notes:
The last off day really threw me off. Lost my confidence in having some decent form, everything went to shit. 185 felt terrible on the squat, tried to do some lighter sets to work on form and just couldn't get it together. Called it a day for squats. Bench went ok, just didn't trust myself on form and made it more difficult than it needed to be. For some reason I incorrectly remembered that my elbows should be rubbing my ribs after watching my first set. Next sets didn't feel too good trying to fix form that didnt need fixing. Couldn't solve the rounding of my back in deadlift at 135 so didn't do a work set.


6 FEB
Should have had a session, took it off for a mental health day.


8 FEB
Squat 175x3x5
Press 100x3x5
Deadlift 225x1x5

Session Notes:
Squats didnt feel strong at all, but only in the way that I could tell I was leaking a lot of power with terrible form. Got my confidence back, which was the most important thing for this session. I'll work on cleaning up form next session. I think I might have forgotten proper breathing which would explain a lot. Presses went ok, remembered breathing on the last set, and that one felt much stronger. Not sure I got the hip movement down, but I'll check next time after I remember to focus on breathing. I think I worked on rounding my back on deadlift, I cant really tell. I need to upload the video of my work set soon for a critique. Dont have time at the immediate moment.