Chris is getting stronger

[Chris Griffith]

Hi! I’ve been exercising for 10+ years, but only recently discovered Starting Strength, and have now been training for roughly 10 weeks. I’m really enjoying making progress for the first time in a long time and I figure it will be fun to share with anyone who’s interested in following along with me.

Current Stats/Lifts (as of 3/27/17):

Age: 33 (34 very soon)
Height: 5’10.5”
Weight: 178
Bodyfat: “lean(ish)”

Squat: 255x5x3 (started at 155)
Press: 114x5x3 (started at 85)
Deadlift: 260x5x1 (started at 185)
Bench: 160x5x3 (started at 115)
Power clean: 151x3x5 (started at 115)

I’ve had a couple rough weeks at work and a couple illness setbacks (see below) so far. Otherwise I think my progress would be even better. But I’m really happy with how things have gone, and even happier that I can see my lifts continuing to improve.

Physical history:

Growing up I did a lot of running (my dad was a fairly serious marathon runner) and karate. However, in high school I stopped all that and got pretty out of shape. I was never incredibly heavy (probably max of 185-190lb), but I had virtually no muscle, so I carried that weight very poorly. Pretty much the definition of skinny-fat. When I was 17, something clicked* and I decided to lose the flab. Over the next year I cleaned up my diet (nothing intelligent: just dropping obvious junk and skipping breakfast most days) and started “working out.” I got down to about 155. No longer skinny-fat, just skinny. Over the next decade-plus I got more interested in weight training, but never made much progress beyond my newbie-gains (with one exception**).

Challenges:

1) Sleep: I have a 1 year old an almost-3 year old and a very demanding job (weeks where I work 14-20 hours/day, 6-7 days/week are not uncommon)***. So getting enough sleep is always a challenge.
2) Illness: My kids also bring home all sorts of viruses, so I’ve been sick more in the past 3 years than I had been in the previous 10. Hopefully once my daughter starts walking and stops putting everything she finds on the ground in her mouth this will abate a little…
3) Stress/time: See above regarding my job. Most of the time I work 50-55 hours/ week and that’s very manageable. But every few months I’ll have a week or two where I work 80+ hours/week and that makes it really difficult to get in the gym more than once per week. Still, I think I can work around this.
4) Food: Most of the time, getting sufficient food to gain weight isn’t a problem, but it can be hard to eat enough when I’m busy/stressed, and I have a tendency to drop weight those weeks. I can fight this with better planning and more easy, quick, accessible foods for those weeks (protein bars, shakes, etc).

Whew! If you’ve made it this far, congrats. You now know more about me than 90% of my friends.

*Actually I very vividly remember what clicked: embarrassing as this may be, I watched the movie “American Beauty” and was like “Holy shit, if Kevin Spacey can change his body, maybe I can too!” Seriously

**I had about 8 months off before I started my first serious, post-grad-school job where I decided to “get big.” Although I didn’t follow anything as logical as Starting Strength (it was a total bro-split), I did, unknowingly, follow a couple basic principles: lift progressively heavier and eat enough to grow. I went from roughly 170 pounds (my general baseline) up to 205-ish and (for me) pretty strong. Once I started working like a dog I didn’t manage the transition well (not enough food, didn't manage stress well, lost motivation in the gym) and quickly returned to “baseline” where I’ve hovered for the past 6+ years.

***Note, this is actually a big improvement over my previous job where I had a lot more of these miserable 80-100 hour weeks.

[Chris Griffith]

My most recent workout:

3-25-17

Squat
45x5,5,5 / 95x5 / 185x3 / 235 x 2 / 255x5x3 (PR)
Third set: 3-25-17 - Squat 255x5x3 (third set) - YouTube
Press
45x5,5 / 65x5 / 85x5 / 105x2 / 114x5x3 (PR)
Third set: 3-25-17 - Press 114x5x3 (third set) - YouTube
Power clean
85x3 / 115x3 / 135x3 / 151x3x5 (PR)
Fifth set: 3-25-17 - Powerclean 151x3x5 (fifth set) - YouTube

Notes: Nice workout. Press was harder than it should have been. I tried messing with my breathing (need to look back at the book to see whats recommended as to when to breathe...) and it screwed up my rhythm on the second set.

I've been training Tu/Th/Sa. Last week was my first week of doing a light squat day on Thursday. That really seemed to help with recovery for Saturday, so I'm going to keep that up. I'm also planning on replacing one DL/PC slot with chins. So going forward I'll be doing the following:

Tuesday:
Squat 5x3
Press/Bench 5x3
Deadlift 5x1

Thursday
Squat (light) 5x3
Press/Bench 5x3
Chins max reps x2

Saturday
Squat 5x3
Press/Bench 5x3
Power clean 3x5

[Chris Griffith]

Meh workout last night. I narrowed my squat depth slightly. I liked it better on my warmups, but I think it threw me off on the work sets.

Squat
45x5,5,5 / 95x5 / 185x3 / 235 x 2 / 260x5,3,3
[no vid]
Bench
45x5,5 / 95x5 / 135x5 / 155x2 / 165x5x3 (PR)
Third set: 3-28-17 - Bench 165x5 (third set) - YouTube
Deadlift
95x5 / 135x5 / 185x5 / 235x2 / 265x5 (PR)
Work set: 3-28-17 - Deadlift 265x5 - YouTube

Notes: Squats were disappointing, although I chalk it up to narrowing my stance. I think once I get used to it, it'll be better. I found it much easier to hit depth, and felt my quads were more engaged. Bench felt really heavy; I'll move to 2lb jumps. Deadlift was hard, but felt good.

I haven't checked my weight in a few days, but I can tell I need to eat more to keep making progress. So I'll do that.

I'm excited that my pioneer 3" deadlift belt will hopefully be here for my Thursday session.

[carson]

Can you think of a reason by following the SS model that your squat is almost as heavy as your Deadlift?

[Chris Griffith]

Can you think of a reason by following the SS model that your squat is almost as heavy as your Deadlift?

I think there are a few things at play. First, on SS I'm obviously squatting at higher frequency and at the beginning of each workout, so that probably helps it increase faster. Second, I'd say my squat working sets are closer to my 5RM compared to my DL. 260x5 on squats is probably close to my 5RM. Doing 265x5 on DL (after squats, no less), I still seemed to have a fair amount in reserve. Third, I've probably been pretty conservative with my jumps on DL (going to 5lb jumps relatively early, due to previous lower back injuries). The good news is my back is definitely getting a lot stronger and I think 5lb jumps can be sustained for a while.

[Chris Griffith]

Last two workouts (work sets only):

3/30/17

Squat (light)
worked up to 210x5x3 - very easy
Press
116x5x3 (PR)
Chin
bwx5x3

Notes: squats felt great with slightly narrower stance. Press was very solid. First time doing chins in a while, so I was conservative.

4/1/17

Bodyweight: 178.8

Squat
260x5x3 (PR) - 4/1/17 - Squat 260x5x3 (third set) - YouTube
(note: the vid is slightly tilted due to how i propped up my camera - I promise my squat stands are plumb and my floor is level)
Bench
168x5x3 (PR) - 4/1/17 - Bench 168x5x3 (third set) - YouTube
Power clean
153x3x5 (PR) - 4/1/17 - power clean 153x3x5 (fifth set) - YouTube

Notes: Squats were good, although my form deteriorated slightly on the last set--more due to impatience than weakness I think. I rushed the last couple reps and my hips shot up. Bench, I intended to start doing 2.5lb jumps, but miscounted my microplates. Math is hard. Oh well, I'll jump to 170 next time and continue at 2.5lb jumps. Also played an April fools joke on my wife during bench warmups, pretending to get pinned under 155 and yelling for help. Hahaha...