Less posting, more lifting.

[mstrofbass]

Just so I can make everyone happy and open myself up to some added ridicule (never bad to let the ego get chopped down a bit), I guess I'll go ahead and start posting my log here. I was pretty regular about posting it elsewhere, until everyone left and there was no discussion there.

Background: Never been very athletic at all. Always a pretty tiny ~180 lbs., 6' 2" (ish), skinny fat weakling. Started working out back in early 2007 doing the basic bis/tris, chest/back, legs splits. Made a pretty big difference by itself. Then Mr. Jacob Cloud introduced me to Starting Strength and getting stronger. I was quickly enamored by the thought of actually getting strong, and my journey commenced.

I spent years trying to get my LBBS to focus on my posterior chain, and still don't really have a good feel for it. I think I finally got it worked out, but it doesn't matter since I have an utterly ridiculous case of tendinitis, and have stopped squatting since March. This was mostly due to me not recognizing what it was, and just trying to workout and play soccer without taking care of it, so no one to else to blame.

Maxes as of when I quit squatting in March:

Squats: 3x5 - 305-315 (using a modified TM program)
Deadlift: 385x5, then recovery finally failed and I pulled 395x3 one week, followed by 405x1.
Press: 3x5 - ~150
Bench: 3x5 - 225 (I never really benched much)
PC: 225x1
Power Snatch: 165x3 (alright, these were muscled up about four inches, but I had virtually no squat, so I could have gotten them with just a bit)
OHS: 135x7

My recovery has always sucked due to not eating enough protein (something I suspected but never wanted to deal with) and not getting proper rest. I SHOULD have been much stronger than I was, and, thankfully, my recovery had been much better in the months before March that I managed to add probably 75 lbs. to my squat in < 6 months. Over the past few weeks, my recovery has been excellent, and I've been focusing on getting the necessary amounts of protein and sleep. It is amazing how much better all this shit works now.

[mstrofbass]

Current stuff:

28 y/o male (as of Nov. 14th), ~220 lbs. ~20-22% BF (probably a percent or two in my man boobs). Been doing TM for presses, and deadlifting once a week. Asked JohnnyPain for some advice related to adding more work to assist deadlifts since I wasn't squatting at all. And I will start this log as of last week when I started on his suggestion.

General program is modified TM Press and JP's deadlift suggestions:

Sunday:
Press 3x5
SLDL 1x6-8, 1x8-12
Dips: 3xfailure (depending on how I'm feeling)

Tuesday:
Press 2x5


Thursday:
Press 1x3,4,5 (as many at the specified weight I can get, up to five, then increase weight)
Press Starts 3x3
DL 1x4-6, 1x8-12

[mstrofbass]

Sun 10-31-10

SLDL - 1x6-8, 1x8-12
WU - 45x5, 65x5, 95x4, 135x5, 185x5
215 - 8
170 - 12
Was just working my way up. Was unsure what to start with.

Press - 3x5
WU - 45x5, 75x5, 95x3, 125x2
162.5 - 5, 5, 5

Curlz: Did some just to show my trainee how to do them. He has a $20 bet he can beat his dad in arm wrestling over Thanksgiving, so working on some bicep strength.

[mstrofbass]

Tues 11-2-10

Press - 2x5
WU - 45x5, 75x5, 95x3
125 - 5, 5

Was going to do some other chins, but there were 50 billion people in the gym, and a group of three people were using the squat rack that has the straight bar I like to use.

[mstrofbass]

Thurs 11-4-10

Press - 1x3-5
WU - 45x5, 75x5, 95x3, 135x2
180 - 3

I should have been able to get at least four...not sure what happened.

Press Starts - 3x3
195x3
205x3
205x3

I do these belted, because like Starr says, each rep pushes you out of optimal positioning, and this starts taking its toll on my back. After a couple weeks of doing these, they seem to be helping...or my recovery is outpacing everything else. It's hard to say which, but all I know is my first rep at 195 went up high enough I was worried I was just going to have to press it all the way up.

DL - 1x4-6, 1x8-12
WU - 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x2, 315x1
385 - 5
285 - 10

Grip was an issue on the DLs since I used minimal chalk (trying to hide it from the employees). Probably could have gotten the sixth otherwise. Was unsure how much to do on the back off set. Probably could have gotten all twelve, but grip was again an issue, even using mixed grip (didn't think I'd need to chalk up for this).

[mstrofbass]

Sun 11-7-10

Press - 3x5
WU - 45x5, 75x5, 95x3, 130x2
165 - 5, 5, 5

I knocked these out like they were nothing. Yay for good recovery. Depending on what happens on Thursday, may think about adding back a set. These sets are what made me think press starts are starting to work. The initial reps out of the hole were amazingly easy.

SLDL - 1x6-8, 1x8-12
WU - 135x5, 185x3
225 - 8
180 - 12
These were easy. I was amazed and couldn't figure out why...but I just realized last week I had a shit-ton of warm up sets. Tempted to bump these up 15/10 lbs., respectively.

[stronger]

nice press. my 2nd favorite exercise

[mstrofbass]

nice press. my 2nd favorite exercise

Thanks. It's definitely one of my favorites (hence why I dropped bench completely). Probably behind snatches and deadlifts though.

[stronger]

Thanks. It's definitely one of my favorites (hence why I dropped bench completely). Probably behind snatches and deadlifts though.

I've gotta agree with the snatch part. It's just so much fun. I wish I could drop bench completely but I'm also not good at it so I need it

[msingh]

you're a smarmy son-of-a-bitch, i'll be ridiculing you regularly on this log. Good luck.