Justified or not here I am

[John Tony]

9/9
Volume Day

Squat 295 5,5,5,4,4
Press 125 5x5
Deadlift 345x3

I took a week off because on my last intensity day I felt a pain on my right abdomen just below the belt. Went to the doc and he said it could either be a small hernia or muscle strain. He said to take two weeks off and rest (of course I only took one...) and see how it felt. It felt okay but I started noticing some discomfort on my last sets of squats and didn't want to test it too much. Same with deadlift. I think it will be fine going forward.

[gjcardoza]

I just found your log and will be following it. Your lifts are nearly identical to mine and you're also running TM.

I look forward to your progress!

[John Tony]

I just found your log and will be following it. Your lifts are nearly identical to mine and you're also running TM.

I look forward to your progress!

Thanks for reading; glad to have you here.

[John Tony]

9/11
Recovery Day

Squats 235 2x5
Bench 175 3x5
Chin up +30lbs 3x6

I didn't realize how sore I still was from Monday until I got started with squats. I was moving pretty slow. Did about 20min of foam rolling and stretching afterwards which seemed to help a little.

[John Tony]

9/13
Intensity Day

Squat 335x3
Press 137.5x3
PC 95 5x3

[John Tony]

9/17
Volume Day

Squat 295 5x5
Bench 205 5x5
Deadlift 345x4

I had the last rep of deadlifts but it slipped out of my grip.

[John Tony]

9/18

Chin ups +35lbs 6,5,4
I'm not doing a recovery day this week because my volume workout didn't happen until Tuesday and my Intensity Day will be Friday. Just got some weighted chins in today.

[John Tony]

9/20
Intensity Day

Squat 335x4
Bench 225x5
PC 105 5x3

4 reps was my absolute max on squats. I hit good depth and form felt decent. I think if I would have had another day I could have gotten all 5 reps. But since I wasn't able to do volume day until Tues I essentially lost a day of recovery this week. So my plan is to move up to 340 next week.

I'm really surprised because historically the bench has been my worst lift. I improved some things with my form and the weight just keeps flying up. I am still able to make 5lb jumps which is great.

I decided to take another stab at Power Cleans and I am much happier with the way things are going this time around. I had a bad habit of catching the bar in my hands and resting it on my shoulders, but this time was great, the bar landed on my delts really well and I got my elbows around much quicker. I think I can make 10lb jumps on this for a while as long as my form is good. I know the strength is there, I just needed to nail down my technique.

[John Tony]

There are countless variations of Intensity Day rep/set ranges. For example :
Justin Lascek's E-book suggests when 5 stall go to 2x3 (two sets of 3), then to 3x2, then 5 singles.
Andy Baker's recommendation is to run 5's for a little bit but quickly move to 5 singles. Then once they stall go back to where you left off with your 5RM and start the process over.
And of course Rip has several variations, the one in PPST: when a 5RM doesn't work you can move to a 2RM or 3RM, and also suggests if you only get 2 reps on intensity day keep the weight the same the following week and go for 3 reps, the next week 4 etc.
then I saw this discussion recently:
http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=41888&page=2
and it calls for running 5RM until it stalls, then move to 3x3, then 5x2, then 5x1 alternating the rep ranges weekly.

My point in all of this rambling is my long term plan with ID is when 5's stall use a hybrid of Justin and Rip's recommendations:
week 1- 1x5
week 2- 2x3
week 3- 3x2
week 4- 5x1

Increase weight each week and then week 5 start the rep cycle over. This seems the most appealing to me. Not that any of the other methods are bad by any means, I am sure there are a lot of people that have had success with each of these. But for me personally I think this will work the best. If you have any feedback positive or negative please feel free to chime in. It's always good to get some objective opinions.

[gjcardoza]

There are countless variations of Intensity Day rep/set ranges. For example :
Justin Lascek's E-book suggests when 5 stall go to 2x3 (two sets of 3), then to 3x2, then 5 singles.
Andy Baker's recommendation is to run 5's for a little bit but quickly move to 5 singles. Then once they stall go back to where you left off with your 5RM and start the process over.
And of course Rip has several variations, the one in PPST: when a 5RM doesn't work you can move to a 2RM or 3RM, and also suggests if you only get 2 reps on intensity day keep the weight the same the following week and go for 3 reps, the next week 4 etc.
then I saw this discussion recently:
http://startingstrength.com/resource...t=41888&page=2
and it calls for running 5RM until it stalls, then move to 3x3, then 5x2, then 5x1 alternating the rep ranges weekly.

My point in all of this rambling is my long term plan with ID is when 5's stall use a hybrid of Justin and Rip's recommendations:
week 1- 1x5
week 2- 2x3
week 3- 3x2
week 4- 5x1

Increase weight each week and then week 5 start the rep cycle over. This seems the most appealing to me. Not that any of the other methods are bad by any means, I am sure there are a lot of people that have had success with each of these. But for me personally I think this will work the best. If you have any feedback positive or negative please feel free to chime in. It's always good to get some objective opinions.

I've been thinking about the same thing since my last ID for squat I only got 4 reps myself. I've been searching the forum and looking at all the TM threads and see a lot of people doing a similar rep schemes (3RM, singles, etc.). I'll give the same rep cycle a shot as well to see how it works for me as well.

Since I haven't progressed much further than you I can't really give many suggestions but I can try it out and give some feedback.