starting strength gym
Page 15 of 32 FirstFirst ... 5131415161725 ... LastLast
Results 141 to 150 of 312

Thread: Once More. From The Top.

  1. #141

    Default

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
    • starting strength seminar jume 2024
    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    [2014-12-31, Wednesday]
    Low Bar Back Squat, sleeves, *belt

    45 x 10 x 2
    135 x 8
    225 x 4
    275 x 2
    295 x 2 *
    315 x 1 *
    325 x 2, 1, 3 *

    Sumo Deadlift, belt, hook grip 385 x 3 x 5

    Turned out I wasn't scheduled to work today after all.

    I was reminded that a belt helps low bar way more than it helps high bar. 275 no belt started feeling heavy. But 295 with a belt was light. 325 x 3 was just shy of failure. I'm hoping my high rep beltless high bar prescription will propel me to 375 x 3 low bar belted over the next eight weeks.

    As usual, didn't need to warm up for pulls because the squats were an even better warmup than light pulls. 385 x3 was really easy and I could have done 6 reps on that first set. My hook grip started slipping on set 3. Grip was the limiting factor. Also, my back felt fresh as a daisy afterward. Sumo's more upright back angle and wide stance really make it a test of leg strength and grip instead of back strength and grip. In any case I need to work up to 475 x 3 in eight weeks.

    I was planning to have a 3 to 4-day block of rest each week, but I wonder if I shouldn't slip in a very light squat and bench day. I think I have the maturity to keep it light. I certainly don't have the time during my 3-day work week to do any volume. After 14 hours at work I have to get into bed almost immediately after work in order to get enough sleep for the next day.

  2. #142

    Default

    [2014-01-05, Monday]
    Olympic Squat, very light wraps, no belt

    45 x 10 x 3
    135 x 6
    185 x 4
    225 x 7 x 5

    Took a little bit to warm up with that pain in my left hip.

    Decided to give Intermittent Fasting a go. It's how I like to schedule my eating and fits with my 14-hour work days. Squatted while fasting this morning. A little scary at first, but I seemed to adapt quickly. Things got super easy on the third set. Coasted through set four. Truly the warmups were the only difficult part. Left hip and right knew were cranky and unstable and I was a little light-headed and slow. But I really found the groove under the work weight.

    I started with a magnificent brunch feast yesterday. But I started drinking in the evening and managed to avoid getting any calories from things that weren't beer. Not ideal. I was gonna eat some leftover beef at home. But I'd saved if too long and it had started to go green.

    Wraps were Harbinger blacks and wrapped so loosely that I wore them the entire session. In fact, I kept them on on the drive to my dad's shop where I weighed myself in my underwear on his industrial scale (the shop is closed today). I am a frighteningly high 167 lbs even with my prodigious lack of calories for the past 13 hours. I am doing IF because it suits how I like to space my meals (hunger is the best seasoning), because the science makes sense to me, etc...but also because I need to try to get stronger while losing some fat. Plus I'm meeting up with an old flame when she visits Florida. Need to be ready for the beach next Monday.

    Some of you may want to protest my use of IF. The high bar heretic now does the opposite of the dietary advice on this site. If you protest, I'll just link a bunch of pro-IF articles and do IF anyway till I find reason not to.

    Here is what happened yesterday (which I never got around to blogging)...

    [2014-01-04, Sunday]
    After a couple thousand kcals for breakfast, I decided to devote the morning to Achilles/gastrocnemius work with dorsiflexion deceleration of increasing intensity...

    Ankle hops x 100
    One-stair hops x 10, 5
    Vertical Jump to stiff-knee landing x 5

    And then I felt so revved up that I tested my vertical a couple of times to find I have a non-peaked vertical of 26". Then I figured I'd get in some rare conditioning work with my dad's kettlebell...

    Swing with 16 kg KB 1:30 - 1 off - 1:20 - 1 off - 1:10 - 1 off - 1:00
    One-arm Press with 16 kg KB 8 x 3

    I was sucking major wind after the swings. And my left lat let me know it still isn't at 100%. But I worked out the persistent kink in my left hip after the second round.

  3. #143

    Default

    [2015-01-06, Tuesday]
    Close Grip Bench Press, pinkies inside rings

    45 x 20
    135 x 5
    175 x 4, 5, 5, 3, 3

    Competition Bench Press, paused, index on rings 175 x 1, 2, 3

    DB Row, semi-supinated 100 x 8 x 5

    Bench day is always so humbling. I didn't get anywhere near the volume I thought I would after upping the weight just ten pounds. I think I need to address the standard grip width a bit more. This close grip seems hit or miss as far as making me feel likes it's helping the main lift. Also I'm sure that bench simply needs higher frequency with volume than squat.

    I will probably need to squat more often eventually too. I will continue this microcycle for another week at least and maybe till the Feb 28 meet, but honestly I probably need to do the Olympic squat at least twice per week. And bench three times per week. Really difficult with my current work schedule that completely ties me up for three or four days every week. Trying to get more frequent sessions would infringe on my sleep.

    I actually like the setup I have now. It fits my work schedule, lets my knees get a solid four days rest and lets me incorporate both strength-building volume with the high bar and strength-practice with competition style low bar (wider stance, belt, naturally stopping at parallel due to wider stance). But I was reading some notes from a Dimitri Klokov seminar...squatting every five days is fine to get to a double bodyweight squat, but people who squat over three times bodyweight are doing 9 to 15 sessions per week. But they're also genetically elite, lifelong professionals on "assistance." I don't think I'll EVER be able to handle that kind of volume and frequency. Still, I may need periods of two or even three times per week to help peak temporarily.

    I ate a plate of very wholesome ethnic food last night: curry chicken over white rice (yeah, white rice) with roasted breadfruit and sweet potato with a glass of mauby. The joys of being around family again.

    That was my only meal and I had it between 6 and 7 pm last night. Haven't eaten again yet, though I had a small cup of coffee with a splash of creamer. Trained fasted. Still feeling good this afternoon. Weighed just under 164 in my skivvies. That's down three pounds from yesterday, but a lot of that is glycogen depletion. I'm taking photos every morning to look for visual changes in my fat levels. It's 1 pm as I hit the "submit" button. 2 pm will be 20 hours of fasting and I will start eating by then.

    The heaviest dumbbells at this LA Fitness were only 100 lbs. So I upped the reps and got more volume than last time. I think I'm ready for sets of five with the 110's.

    I have every other Sunday off and I should do some more benching then. And make time on Fridays, too. Can go light and quick on Fridays and practice paused benching every other Sunday. I don't think what I'm doing now (just Tuesdays) is working.

  4. #144

    Default

    [2014-01-07, Wednesday]
    Sumo Deadlift, belt, hook grip

    315 x 3
    (belt)
    365 x 2
    385 x 1
    405 x 3 x 6

    Keeping a food diary, but I haven't been sharing it here because I myself have always hated reading them. But since I'm trying something radical for this site, I figured I'd give a peek into my method.

    Yesterday I broke my fast after 20 hours with a Hardee's 1/2-pound cheeseburger and a Coke at 2 pm. I LOVE Hardee's burgers, but not their fries so didn't have many of those. That was about 40 g of protein and 1800 kcals.

    Then at half past 6 pm I sat down for a family dinner at Miller's Alehouse where I had 23 oz of Bud Light as an appetizer, then 3/4 of a drab blackened chicken pasta, and 23 oz of Bud Light for dessert. About 60 g of protein with 1600 kcals.

    So 100 g (@ 73 kg bodymass) of protein (1.3 g per kg of bodymass) and ~3500 kcals yesterday in a 5-hour window. Woke up and felt energetic all morning. Had a couple cups of coffee at 9:30 am with a total 3 tablespoons of condensed milk or about 36 kcals, i.e. not enough to blunt the fast which was over 14 hours old at that point.

    I weighed 162.2 on the sturdy electronic scale. But I really hit the wall on squats today. Between the 5-lbs of glycogen and water depletion and my injured left hip, I could do nothing useful. Major compensation pushing out of bottom of PL squat. Switched to high bar and still had pain and just felt weak overall.

    This was a surprise at first because my first session of fasted squat training went really well. Live, experiment, and learn: no more fasted lifting. ESPECIALLY with squat and bench which depend so heavily on mass and being even temporarily hydrated/pumped because of glycogen.

    As proven by my deadlift performance I am not weaker at all. But with 5 lbs of water gone I no longer have the mass cushion to shut down my body's inhibitory reflex while supporting heavy loads. Squatting and benching while glycogen and water depleted is like trying to deadlift with a thick bar. Your body may be able to generate the necessary force, but it will not under those conditions. So I could barely squat 225 either low or high bar...but a bunch of sumo deadlift triples with 405 was a relative breeze.

    I got away with fasted squatting on Monday because I wasn't glycogen depleted yet. The bench suffered a bit yesterday as I started getting depleted and shrinking and by today I was down five pounds of glycogen and water so my squat went to hell. I'm too fascinated by my personal experience of this phenomenon to be pissed...plus it was deadlift day and not squatting much at all allowed me to go for twice as much deadlift volume as I'd planned/

    Note that my deadlifts took four work sets to get dialed in. I still have reason to believe that the range of motion in a squat with a similar stance is a better warm up for heavy deadlifts than lighter deadlifts are.

    I have since refed with a supersized McDonald's 2-hamburger meal and am weighing 167 on the industrial scale at Dad's shop.

    Sumo started looking prettier on set five. Bar had been getting out in front of me before that. Set six was a bit of a mess. But this was the most weight and volume I've done on deadlift in a loooooong time.I weighed just 162 lbs at the time of these lifts. So today I got a whole bunch of deadlift triples with exactly 2.5 x bodyweight. Yes, it was sumo and it was with a belt...which automatically means 10% more than beltless conventional. But I'm counting this as a milestone. And I'd say that I was good for AT LEAST five reps and likely six reps with this weight. That tells me that I am good for 450 at least and as much as 475 with a proper peak and with ammonia and adrenalin.

    If I can cut a couple pounds of fat with IF...and maintain my muscle mass and perhaps add just a pound or two more of it...a 500-lb pull at 163 lbs bodyweight should be in the bag. I need to work up to at least one triple with 465 without going to failure. Six triples with 405 tells me I'm good for maybe one triple with 435 right now (both those predict a 475 1RM). So 465 x 3 x 1 isn't unreachable over the next seven weeks.

    Will be training in the afternoons from now on after breaking my fast. See you Monday.

  5. #145

    Default

    [2015-01-13, Tuesday]
    Bench Press, touch and go

    45 x 20
    135 x 5
    155 x 4
    175 x 3 x 6

    Dumbell Row, semi-supinated (alternated with Bench Press)100 x 10 x 5

    Trained fasted again because of scheduling. About 20 hours since an alcohol day and night. Felt sort of nauseated at first, but it cleared up and the bench got really easy on fourth set.

    Haven't had a chance to check weight lately, but I am looking really cut.

    The plan now is to allow more rest for my knees.

    Mon: Bench (RSR), DB Row
    Wed: Olympic Squat, light Bench (RSR)
    Sun: alternate rest with PL Squat + Sumo Deadlift

    Squat once a week on Wednesday with the Olympic version (high bar, no belt) with high volume to keep building strength. Squat every other Sunday with the competition version (low bar, wider stance, belt) and pull sumo.

    I may swap out the Olympic version for the PL as the meet approaches.

  6. #146

    Default

    [2015-01-14, Wednesday]
    High Bar Back Squat, loose suit bottoms (Inzer Champion), light wraps (Harbinger black)

    45 x 10 x 2
    135 x 8
    185 x 4
    225 x 3
    235 x 9 x 3

    I started the morning with 16-kg KB swing intervals and a cup of black coffee 12 hours into my fast. I got a chance to open the shop and weigh myself on the calibrated scale: 162 lbs almost on the nose. I honestly thought I'd weigh a lot less by now. I've been intermittently fasting for -- what? -- two weeks. I do look leaner. This is subjective of course, but I'm taking pictures and giving it a a couple of months. I'm just happy that I'm not withering away to nothing. My weight is stable and I have reason to believe that my body composition is changing for the better.

    I broke my fast for the squats because I've learned the hard way that squatting while fasted and glycogen-depleted can be...iffy.

    My left hip is mostly healed, but I wore my Inzer suit bottoms just to be on the safe side. These are sized for 83 kilo class so they are very loose on me. Between the wraps and suit bottoms I figure I get an extra 15-20 lbs. I had a slight effusion in my left knee these past few days, but that cleared up just in time for squat day. Got to watch frequency; my knees are still very prone to react to any mistreatment with that swelling.

    I got some personal life shit that is taking its toll. I missed the first rep of my attempted fourth set. I tried to set it back up but the rep still felt too heavy so I terminated the set. It didn't help that there was a group of doofuses chatting and the lead lunk was outtalking all of then for the entire hour I was there. He was about 200-220 and was squatting 405 for a rep or two and seemed to be broadcasting his voice around the gym so people would notice. You really had to be there to understand how annoying this one. I'm talking a straight stream of shit from one guy only occasionally punctuated by a couple words from his beta males pack.

    I'm supposed to do the PL squat with the sumo deadlift this coming Sunday. But I will not do that version of the squat if my hip doesn't want me to. I should be fine sumo pulling. The target is triples with 425. Next high bar squat session on Wednesday aims for 255 for a target of five sets of seven. On the Wednesday the week before the meet I'd like to get 315 for a few triples while wearing the bottoms and light wraps.

    I'm still holding out hope that I can work up to a 400-lb PL squat and 500-lb sumo deadlift as a 162-lb lifter.

  7. #147
    Join Date
    Oct 2008
    Location
    Baltimore, MD
    Posts
    1,139

    Default

    Just getting back on the site Gary. I keep tabs on you through FB, but I'm glad to see you're still logging here too. I've always admired your resilience and determination.

  8. #148

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by K.Diesel View Post
    Just getting back on the site Gary. I keep tabs on you through FB, but I'm glad to see you're still logging here too. I've always admired your resilience and determination.
    That means a lot to me, my friend. I shut down the FB because it was just too much of a distraction right now with all I got going on. Glad you'll be hanging around here again.

    [2015-01-18, Sunday]
    KB Swings 16 kg x 30 x 3 HIIT (12+ hours of fasting) warmed up then drove to gym.
    PL Squat, low bar, wide stance, squat shoes, belt

    45 x 12
    135 x 8
    195 x 6
    235 x 3
    275 x 2
    (belt)
    315 x 2
    335 x 1

    Sumo Deadlift, belt 425 x 1
    Conventional Deadlift, belt, squat shoes 405 x 2, 3, 3, 3, 3

    Dammit. The 335 low bar squat was hard. LBBS just sucks for me now. And then my hip screamed at me on that first sumo pull. Switched to conventional and had no problem.

    I think I'm going to go ahead and just stick to high bar and conventional for training and likely for the meet. I may get an extra 20-30 lbs with the low bar and with the sumo stance, but it's hard on my hips and I need more time to adapt. And honestly my low bar is so much uglier than my high bar. Sumo is a toss up and I may switch back to it. But high bar and conventional both actually build strength better.

    I trained fasted today and didn't ever feel weak or slow. It's two weeks in to my Intermittent Fasting. I have been strict. At least 16 hours, often 20 hours. I even drink my coffee black now as my carb cravings are gone. I must have gotten fat-adapted. I use fat for energy instead of carbs. I never get hunger pangs, cravings, or crashes. And I am getting fucking lean around the middle. I will have to start putting pics up.

    Went to the shop afterward and weighed myself for the fist time in days. i'm still 162 on the nose on the calibrated scale. So I don't think I'll have much trouble coming in at or under 163 lbs to make the new 74 kilo cutoff. I think I will have to put my squat goals on hold for this meet. Part of me wants to do the Smolov base phase, but I just turned 39 today and after a couple years of really bad decisions I'm really encouraged on my birthday to start making slightly smarter ones.

    My knee health has been good, but one knee or the other will occasionally get aggravated by something I do and swell up for a few days. Hard to apply Smolov under such conditions. Maybe a half-paced Smolov where I just do it two or three times per week instead of the insane four times per week with back to back day three and four. I'd have to start now. And I kind of already have, though I crashed on 70%+20lbs x 9 x 3 a few days ago on Wednesday.

    No definite plans now. Will play it by ear, with an attempt to up squat frequency a smidge. And a mind to let the the low bar and sumo alone till maybe the next meet. Right now I'm looking good on the conventional deadlift with exactly 2.5 x bodyweight for multiple triples. Granted it's with a belt, but whatevs. The belt gives me 15 lbs AT BEST, but saves my lower back at the very base. I think 445 is doable now. I'm hoping I can peak my squat and put another 20 lbs or so on that deadlift. I've tempered my goals for this meet, but I would still like to push for a triple bodyweight deadlift of 485.

  9. #149

    Default

    [2015-01-20, Tuesday]
    Bench Press, touch and go

    45 x 20
    135 x 5
    185 x 3
    175 x 4 x 6

    I went up to 185 just to see and I was all over the place. I might have gotten 2 sets of 4, tops. So I humbly crawled back to 175 where I belong and got the prescribed volume. What also struck me was how I wasn't really dialed in till the very last set. This is where frequency matters. I last benched exactly one week ago with 175 for six of three. Seven days without benching and I was a little rusty with a degraded groove. And such is the challenge as one gets stronger: balancing intensity and volume for growth with frequency that allows for compensation without sacrificing too much in terms of loss of specific skill. It's easy to train enough to hone skill when one is starting out and weak. Luckily(?) I am still a weak if advanced novice on the bench.

    This was around 2 pm after 16+ hours of fasting (last beer was before 10 pm last night). Just a half cup of black coffee at 9 am. Chowed down on some leftover chicken minis and a fresh Hardee's 1/3 lb cheeseburger afterward to break my fast.

    There's been a lot of birthday anniversary celebration intertwined with liquid coping mechanisms. For the past couple of days at least half my calories have come from your lower end beers. I haven't gotten fatter, but I have gotten glycogen-loaded which means I'm carrying a lot of water. I weighed in at 166 this morning on the calibrated scale, a full four pounds heavier than I'd been for the past couple of weeks.

    It's good to know that I can get a couple of pounds of glycogen and water packed on in a very short time...the morning of a meet for example. It's good to know that I can get fairly dry and lean just by staying within an eating window and not drinking a lot of beer. I was walking around at 162 for days and never felt deprived. It's also good to know that I seem still well "fat-adapted" and can function fine and train hard without a whiff of trouble after 16 hours of fasting. My body is happily pulling steady energy from fat stores instead of crashing and being weak because I don't have carbs coursing through my bloodstream.

    I will get back on the wagon and tighten up my eating windows. No more crying into a pitcher of Bud Light after work and then crying myself to sleep with a twelve-pack of Heineken.

    My left knee effusion is going back down. My left hip is still feeling a little achy and sometimes unstable. And as you might expect the heavy deadlift session a couple days ago has me feeling slow. I tested my vertical yesterday and only managed 22-24"! I'm usually good for 24-26" at around this weight and squat strength. I strained the base of my lower back a bit after the work sets yesterday as I moved the stripped bar with 315 onto the stops to make it easier to strip further. That feels much better today, too, however.

    I would love to pretend that I'm a professional Eastern European weightlifter. But the fact is I'm an increasingly aged and frail American-ish low tier, amateur powerlifter. I simply have no business squatting as often as I would like. I often need 2-3 days of rest after squats and deadlifts just so my knees calm down and don't start accumulating trauma and the effusion that accompanies it. This is even when I use wraps. If I didn't use wraps, I'd need more like a week!

    Right now I'm in love with the idea of putting everything I have into a squat or deadlift session and then letting my body pull itself together for many days afterward. I am sick of nursing swollen, stiff knees for weeks at a time.

    This setup maximizes the days of rest between squats and deadlifts, which is essential for recovery not only of neuromuscular output but also integrity of my joints, particularly my knees. It also keeps a day of rest between bench sessions during the week. I'm tempted to squeeze in a light bench session between the heavy squat and deadlift, but I am hesitant to pile up all three lifts onto one day like that. I can count the absence of the bench on SQ/DL day as a "light bench".

    Week A
    Sun: SQ h
    Mon: BP h
    Wed: SQ, BP l
    Fri: BP h

    Week B
    Mon: SQ, DL h + belt
    Wed: BP h
    Fri: BP l

    I can start this on January 25 which would mean the meet would occur on the Saturday of Week A. I'd drop the last heavy bench, obviously and wrap it up on Wednesday with a light squat and bench. Except I'd use the belt for squat and pause for bench. I might do paused benches again the Friday before the meet, but would surely keep it from poking into max territory. I may even go lightly on the competition style lifts all three days before the meet as a ramp up and to dial in form. But I swear to heaven I won't wreck my prep by going heavy. I know that frequency in the short term can really amp my lifts. So the idea would be to go just heavy enough to prime me for my meet attempts. Also this would be a great time to make my switch to sumo and to get used to pausing my bench. My sumo strength is almost always "there" based on whatever my conventional pull strength is and I just have to get used to the sumo. This is also almost the case with low bar, but low bar doesn't come as naturally to me anymore and the switch from high bar to low bar would be a bit more troublesome than the switch from conventional to sumo in such a short time.

    I know that many a powerlifter would deride my plan to switch styles just a couple days out from a meet. But for me sumo really can be a quick extra 20 lbs with almost zero dedicated practice. So it's worth it to build strength in the other style and with squats and then pull out sumo on or near game day. Again, not as cut and dried with low bar. I'm actually weaker on low bar without the belt! I have to get used to the more bent over initial position with the lower bar position and extra weight crushing my chest into the belt.

    With the left hip injured from the paused squats, the strategy this cycle isn't in question: narrow stance pulls and squats for the next few weeks. If I feel okay the week of the meet, I'll play around with widening my stance for low bar and for sumo. But truth be told I'm more than okay with using high bar with a belt for competition because it's just not that much weaker than my low bar anymore and I want the personal satisfaction of having squatted in the purer style in competition. I'm not competitive on a national level or anything anyway and this meet is more about the deadlift for me at this point. I want to deadlift as much as possible and as close to triple bodyweight as possible. If I can use sumo safely, I will. If not, then I'll "settle" for deadlifting 20 lbs less in the style that pleases the pull purists.

  10. #150

    Default

    starting strength coach development program
    [2015-01-21, Wednesday]
    KB deadlifts into KB progressive front squats
    KB Swing intervals 30 seconds / 90 seconds for 10 minutes while fasted


    Olympic Squat, loose wraps over 185
    45 x 12
    135 x 6
    185 x 5
    225 x 4
    245 x 3
    265 x 1
    225 x 3
    135 x 6 x 5

    Buzzing with energy today and my left knee felt less effused while my left hip felt a bit more stable. So I decided to do some fasted movements this morning that ended up being light rehab for my left hip and knee. I decided to do an honest to god light squat day for once. I went to the gym late in the morning and just used an extended warm up progression. My left hip said "nyet" on the 265 single so I stopped there and went back down to 135 for a bunch of sets of six. That really stretched out the entire quad which seemed to have been getting tight because of the sprain near the hip.*

    The knee was still a little full, but I could get down into a full squat with minimal discomfort. I took it really easy, just trying to get my body used to holding form under load, and trying to get the beat up parts to start doing the motion again.*

    This damned hip may keep me out of the meet. Every time I say I'm going to compete I manage to find a way to jack myself myself up. Even if the hip is better in time to compete, I will not be anywhere near my best in the squat. Even a successful Smolov base phase couldn't save me now.

    Maybe I could just do a deadlift-only, or put up a token squat. But I hate to do that. These meets represent a tremendous investment in time and money. I have to drive several hours, rent a room, and pay for gas.*

    I hurt my hip during paused squats with 225 x 3 x 3. They were very long pauses and apparently I let something get loose at the bottom as I sank in deep. That was 12/12. It's been six weeks and the hip is still a problem.*

    It's a few hours later and I am sad. Hip is acutely painful when I move it after sitting still for a few minutes. I have anelgesic patches on my lower back, left hip, and left knee. I think I'm done squatting for a few weeks. Dammit.

    I'll try to put my energy into bench and even deadlift. I'm a little older and wiser now and I think I can accept that there will be times I just can't squat and will have to let the lift degrade. But I should use the opportunity to bring up that lagging bench and peak my conventional deadlift.

Page 15 of 32 FirstFirst ... 5131415161725 ... LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •