Bubbafat's novice strongman training log

[bubbafat]

Well ... 2 years come and go quickly, don't they?

What have I been up to? Not lifting and getting fat again.

All the normal excuses. Re-injured my back. Changed jobs so getting to the gym was suddenly less conveniant. Family stuff. Kids. Whatever.

I got lazy and I'm really good at being lazy.

When I saw my weight eight weeks ago I said "Fuck man, you're doing it again." So I got on the phone with my old lifting coach and setup remote coaching and nutritional planning.

Down 20 lbs (the first 20 are the easiest) and have been lifting 3x week on a dumbbell-only plan for the last 8 weeks. Why dumbbells? The company-gym only has dumbbells and my schedule meant I needed to be at the office early and lift over lunch or whenever I could find an hour. That was fine for 8 weeks but I talked with the boss about coming in a bit later so I could hit a "real" gym before work. He was on board with it so this week I started back under the bar.

I'm getting a new baseline to figure out where I'm at to restart. Monday and Tuesday were just to get the feel again and not push too hard.

Monday:

Squat: 195x5 - easy
Dead: 195x5 - easy but gut is bigger so form will need to adjust a little

Tuesday:

Bench: 135x12 - first 10 were easy, 11-12 were slower.
Press: 95x9 - first 5 were easy, next 4 were slow.
Cleans: 105x5 - very easy but was just focusing on form

On Thursday and Friday I'll raise the weights and get a better feel for where I'm at. Legs are a bit sore today (adjusting to squatting), but back and upper body feel fine.

As for strongman ... I still love the sport and haven't given up on it. Just on myself. For a while, anyway.

[bubbafat]

Pretty zapped this morning. Slept terrible and have been eating at too much of a deficit the last few days. Got a stern talking to from my coach about that.

Squats: 185#
Bench: 140#
Deads: 195#

Everything moved fairly easy.

Worked on deadlift form with 95# on the bar for a few sets of five after my working set.

[bubbafat]

Re-watched Rip's press instruction last night and worked on form this morning. 95x3x5. Went up pretty easy.

For squats and cleans I focused on form doing triples to get to a conservative 3RM where form was still good.

Press: 95 (3x5)
Squat: 245 (3)
Cleans: 135 (3)

With these numbers in place I think I'm ready to start a new progression.

[bubbafat]

Second day of rest. Four mile hike today for light cardio.

Blood pressure is down from last check-in (12 weeks) and had to pop a new notch in my belt (even though weight didn't move much).

[bubbafat]

Felt good going in this morning and hit all the planned lifts.

Squats:

45 x 2 x 5
135 x 1 x 5
185 x 1 x 5
225 x 1 x 3
230 x 3 x 5

Bench:

45 x 2 x 5
95 x 1 x 5
135 x 1 x 3
140 x 3 x 5

Deadlift

135 x 1 x 5
185 x 1 x 3
205 x 1 x 5

I'll add 5 to squat and bench on Thursday and 10 to deadlift. Everything went up fine.

After the deads I did 30 second intervals of bar holds at 205 to work on grip strength. Before falling off the wagon I was doing 100' farmers walks with 170# per hand - I need to get back to that and then start adding more.

Notes:

- BW 297. 1% loss this week which is right on track. Waiting for feedback from my coach to see if we're adjusting anything this week but I suspect not just yet.

- Sleep was a little less than ideal. Laid down around 10 but didn't fall asleep until midnight (tough to sleep when you know a kid is out on the road coming home late). Was up by 5:15 so while I got about 7 hours of rest, only 5 of sleep. I've found that with the sleep cycle alarm, though, it's so much easier getting up. I'm never jarred awake - I'm always already awake when the alarm goes off.

- Trying a new pre-workout/BCAA combo. No rush or jitters but don't feel sluggish. Will see how the next month goes.

- Tomorrow's focus is OHP and cleans.

[bubbafat]

All good today. Up at 5:30 and at the gym working by 6:30.

Hit all the planned lifts.

OHP: 100x3x5
Cleans: 115x3x5
RDL + Bent over Row superset: 115x3x5
50% squats to focus on form

Notes:

- BW: 296.6
- Sleep was OK. 6.5 hours.
- Ate a bit more than expected yesterday (about +150 kcal over plan). Coach has said we might be bumping the number this weekend anyway.
- Tomorrow is a rest day. I'll do some light cardio at CBC Run Club
- Going to flip deads and cleans to avoid squat and deads on the same day

[hector_garza]

Well ... 2 years come and go quickly, don't they?

Yeah they do. And each year comes faster than the year before it.

Glad you're back lifting and I look forward to following your progress! Strongman is a hell of a sport!

[bubbafat]

Yeah they do. And each year comes faster than the year before it.

Glad you're back lifting and I look forward to following your progress! Strongman is a hell of a sport!

Thanks, appreciate it.

And it is a great sport. Implement training is fun as hell and it seems to be filled with great people. Awesome combination.

[bubbafat]

Wake 5:55AM. 6:45AM-7:45AM. Decent sleep.

Squat: 235x3x5 (+5)
Bench: 145x3x5 (+5)
Dead: 225x1x5 (+20)
RDLs: 135x3x5

Everything went up easy. Will continue to add more weight.

Notes:

- Had my form observed on squats. Back and depth were good. Need to do some shoulder mobility work. Going to try this.
- Rested a bit longer than normal on my second set of bench (got to chatting with a guy about favorite lifting podcasts) and the weight went up *really* easy. Not sure if this means I should rest more or if I rested too long.
- When locking out my deadlift I'm over-extending my back to the point where I'm curving my lumbar unnecessarily. Used RDLs to focus on locking out properly.
- Working on conventional deads. This extra gut is killing my ability to get a good valsalva. Going sumo would help but avoiding that for now.

BW: 297

[Mr. Bingley]

good stuff, and great to see you focused! the weight will come down; i know it doesn't seem like it but it's coming off quicker than it went on, and what's left is becoming muscle