My "I'll be strong eventually. Hopefully" Log

[Ben Baker]

Hey everyone,

Long time stalker, first time poster.

I finally decided to give myself some accountability and begin a journal of my successes and failures online for everyone to judge. A few deetz for those interested:

Age: 25
Hometown: Mesquite, TX
Occupation: personal trainer (with the goal of becoming a Starting Strength coach sometime in the future!)

I began lifting in college nearly 7 years ago out of sheer boredom and in dire need of a hobby. Being completely ignorant of anything health and fitness, I naturally dove right in. The following is a semi-detailed summary of the wacky and wild adventure that has been my training career.

My first training program was something I googled and paid $4 for online. It was essentially a 3 day/week bodybuilding split routine focusing on the big 3 PL lifts. If I remember correctly, I weighed between 175-180 lbs at the time. I stuck with this program until late 2012/early 2013 when for some reason I didn't like being semi-strong and fat. Using this program, I learned to deadlift and bench press, getting my lifts up to 345lbsx5x1 and 250lbsx5x1 respectively. My squat is a bit of an embarrassing story. Essentially, lack of equipment kept me from barbell squatting for years. I learned to squat on a smith machine, being the only thing that I could squat with (yea, I know). I weighed 220 lbs or so by the beginning of 2013.

Starting early 2013, I decided I was tired of being kindofnotreallystrongandfat and I canceled my membership at the Y. I purchased a TRX, a doorway mounted pull up bar, and a dip station and began a calisthenics program which I would continue with, uninterrupted, for nearly a year and a half. I dropped down to 175 lbs during that time with 8-10% body fat.

Mid 2014, I'm 5-6 months out of college and finally ready to do something with my life. I study for and ace the ACE (pun intended) personal trainer exam and begin working as a personal trainer immediately afterwards. Having access to much better strength training equipment (for free!), I "rediscovered" strength training with Dan John's "Mass Made Simple". Using that program, I learn to FINALLY LP my squat up to body weight for around 10 reps, which at the time was around 200 lbs.

Mid 2015 I discover Starting Strength and I feel like I've found strength training nirvana. But, being a total newbz, I don't do the LP recommended in BBST3 and instead begin some kind of bastardized Mass Made Simple + TM program that I screw around with for a few months. In late 2015 I begin an honest TM training cycle, which lasts for around 8-10 weeks, but the weights start getting heavy and I wuss out. Now after a few more months of screwing around, I finally decided 3 weeks ago to take my training seriously.

Now up until 3 weeks ago, I've been doing HBBS for all of my squatting work. However, wanting to be as true to the program as possible, I learned how to LBBS and maxed before beginning this new TM cycle. Now that I have this log to keep me accountable and available for the Starting Strength community to judge and critique as y'all see fit, I have no choice but to finally get stronger!

My 1RM's are as follows:

Squat: 365 lbs
Press: 175 lbs
Deadlift: 445 lbs
Bench Press: 270 lbs


My first week of TM:


3/28

Body weight: 215 lbs

Squat: 290x5x5@8.25
-Not heavy but definitely awkward feeling, being that I learned LBBS like 2ish-weeks ago.
Bench Press: 220x5x5@7.75
-Honestly felt easier than I was expecting. Dos Boobiez gainzzz.
Deadlift: 400x1x5
-Starting singles instead of 5's. I know, I know, YNDTP, but I feel like I need to work up to doubles, triples etc. Plus, my endurance sucks so bad, that anything more feels like I'm doing wind sprints at 20,000 ft.


3/30

Body weight: 216 lbs

Squat: 230x5x2@5.25
-Yea recovery days!
Press: 140x5x3@6.5
-More recovery!
Weighted Chins:+60lbsx5x3@9
-PR's for days!!
Weighted Back Extensions: +55lbsx10x5@7
-That low back pump mayne

4/1

Body weight: 216 lbs

Squat: 325x5x1@9.25
-Again, felt awkward. But it's starting to feel a tad better. May have been able to grind out another 1 MAYBE 2 reps.
Bench Press: 265x1x1@9
-Heavy but doable, may have had another 5-7.5 lbs in me.
SGDL: 225x3x5@7
-Using DE for these. Need to work on pulling faster without feeling like I'm going to fly backwards. Grip also sucks. Oh wellz.


Onwards and upwards!

[Músculo-Tonto]

Whattafan, whattafan, whattafan, what a MightyMetFan.

I'm in. . .

[Ben Baker]

Nothing like a little Salt 'N' Peppa to shake up a thread haha

[Ben Baker]

4/4

Body weight: 218 lbs

Squat: 295x5x5@7.25
-Finally not feeling as awkward. Fortunately weight still feels very light on my back. I hope I can keep saying that a few more weeks from now.
Press: 140x5x5@7
-I had to speed through these because it was peak times at my gym and I had people breathing down my neck for the rack I was using. I guess people don't appreciate you using the rack for more than an hour at a time.
Deadlift: 405x1x5@8
-Not feeling terribly heavy yet, but I can feel my spinal erectors and lats really working hard to keep my spine straight. I might have a few weeks left doing singles before I need to switch to another rep scheme.


Had a stressful day at work today, so I wasn't expecting this session to go nearly as well as it did. Maybe I'm channeling my stress into the weights instead of letting it all weigh me down. Maybe I just need to get super stressed more often lolz.

[Ben Baker]

4/6

Body weight: 216

Squat: 235x5x2@5.5
-On recovery days I'm practicing trying to push my knees out harder and to keep my head a little more down during the concentric portion of the lift.
Bench Press: 195x5x3@6
-Nothing much to report here.
Weighted Chin Ups: 62.5x4x3@8.75
-I'm going to work my way up to 5 reps before I move up, I'm liking where these are headed though.
Weighted Back Extensions: 55x10x5@7
-I'm practicing disassociating spinal flexion with hip flexion, I feel it much more in my glutes.

Again, was in a bit of a rush today. I'm kind of anxious about Friday, but I'm confident I can hit the 330x5 for squat. See everyone on Friday!

[Ben Baker]

4/8

Body weight: 217

Squat: 330x5x1@8.75
-I'm finally used to low bar! This is the best it's felt. Ever. Thus, today's squats felt much better than last weeks ID squats. However (always a however), I'm having major issues keeping my head down during these, and it's worse during ID. Must. Look. Down.
Press:175x1x1@9.25
-Since squats went so well, something has to be harder than I expected haha. I haven't 1RM'd my press in a while, and I'm glad to see I got it so close when I input my weight selections onto my handy TM spreadsheet. My real sticking point was the last portion of the lockout, maybe triceps are lagging?
SGDL: 230x3x5@6.5
-They felt a little faster than last weeks, but I'm still woefully lagging in immediate power production.

I was running on maybe <5 hours of sleep, so this workout went unexpectedly well. Felt refreshed, focused and everything. This is the end of week 2! Really looking forward to the next few weeks, I would like to stick to 5's on ID until I hopefully get to around 365 lbs before I switch to triples.

[Ben Baker]

4/11

Body weight: 220 (A little bloated from On The Border margarita's and enchiladas haha)

Squat: 300x5x5@7.5
-Everything felt good, bar speed was consistent and I was able to keep my head down a little better on these. The only thing that sucked was my super-bloat I had going and I couldn't stop farting while I was squatting. Needless to say, feeling your anus being pressed by internal gasses while Valsalva-ing is just a tad disconcerting.
Bench Press: 225x5x5@ 7.75
- Took my time with these since it's been a while since I have benched two wheels for volume. Overall they felt good.
Deadlift: 375x5x1@8.75
-I dedcided to actually try and stick more closely to the program and do 5's instead of singles. So I dropped the weight by 30 lbs and went for it. I surprised with how smooth these felt since it has been a VERY long time since I've done any deadlift set for over 3 reps. I'm going to stick with these for as long as I can.
Standing Cable Curls: 120x10x3@7
-Curls for the girls
Standing Cable Triceps Extensions: 140x10x3@7.25
-Tri's for the guys

EVERYONE wanted to stop and talk to me today while I was training, so this workout was a 3+ hour one. One of the unfortunate "perks" of being an employee at the same gym I train at.

[Ben Baker]

4/13

Body weight: 222 (Maybe not bloat??)

Squat: 240x5x2@5.5
-These are going so fast now. I'm doing these without a belt as well so that's good.
Press: 140x5x3@6.5
-Same weight as last week but felt even easier.
Weighted Chins: +62.5x4x3@9, BWx10x1@7.5
-Still can't get that fifth rep, so for a little extra volume I threw in the set of 10 at just body weight.
Weighted Back Extensions: +55x10x5@7
-These fucking wind me, next to volume squats this is as much cardio as I ever get.

Same workout as last weeks recovery day, but since I'm about 5 lbs fatter and more bloated than last week, all these weights felt a lot easier. That's the secret ladies and gents, fat-bloat. I'm looking forward to crushing my 335x5x1 ID squats on Friday. 340x5x1 will match my best high bar squat rep PR, so just a few more weeks and I'll finally be PR'ing on my squats again. I got this.

[Ben Baker]

4/15

Body weight: 221

Squat: 335x5x1@8.25
-It was one of those squats where the weight felt heavy on my back, but it flew up throughout the set. This felt even easier than last weeks ID squats!
Bench Press: 260x2x1@8.75
-It was supposed to be 262.5 lbs, but I left my micro plates in my car and I wasn't about to trudge my happy ass all the way back to the parking garage across campus to get them. Oh well, I felt like I maybe had another rep in me.
SGDL: 235x3x5@7.5
-These kinda sucked all the way until the last set, where I somehow remembered to pull the weight faster and I nearly flew off of my feet.

I'm really liking where my squats are heading, my 405 lb 1RM goal will be mine before the start of the summer. Now for a well deserved Monster burrito from Freebirds!

[Músculo-Tonto]

4/15 I'm really liking where my squats are heading, my 405 lb 1RM goal will be mine before the start of the summer.

66 more days, bro. You have committed yourself; no going back now.
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-It was supposed to be 262.5 lbs, but I left my micro plates in my car and I wasn't about to trudge my happy ass all the way back to the parking garage across campus to get them. Oh well, I felt like I maybe had another rep in me.

Just throw on some extra clips on each end. I can't give you a weight, of course, as I don't know what collar-type your campus-gym uses. The large, common, spring-clips are .44lbs; the small ones are .22lbs -- figured this out when I was obsessively M-loading, uh, bicep curls, and my .65lbs industrial-washers were just a wee bit too much. X-|
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Now for a well deserved Monster burrito from Freebirds!

I'm really liking where this^^ is heading.