Pre-Baby Gainzzz

[Ryan Hirschman]

Hello everyone! This training log has been long overdue, so here it goes...

Thanks in advance to anyone who has taken the time to read this. I apologize in advance for the long post. I will provide my brief training history, along with my goals. This will be a shortened explanation of what should have been my SS_LP log, along with how I have progressed until now. I am not a true novice, I did the LP a while back, but recently restarted it this past January after a long layoff from training. I’ve done a few sessions with an SS coach as well, and he really helped me with some major form issues and programming. This is also basically the tail end of advanced novice training, not quite at the INT level yet, but will shortly become a full blown INT training log. Quick stats: 29 yo M, 6’4”, BW around 250 lbs.

And as the title indicates, my wife and I found out we were having a baby back in December, and the due date is in August. So I really wanted to get as many gainzzz as I could before the little rugrat gets here.

I ran the basic LP for a few weeks, but quickly added in a light squat day on Wednesday, and then switched to deadlifting only once a week, on Fridays. So my program was basically looking like this for a while, towards the end of January:

Mon: Squat 5x3; Bench 5x3; BW Chins 3x3 (switched to weighted chins shortly thereafter)
Wed: 80% Squat 5x2; Press 5x3; Powercleans 3x5
Fri: Squat 5x3; Bench 5x3; Deadlift 5x1
(alternating bench and press every other workout)

Throughout this training period, I also had a goal to get up to 250 pounds (BW) before the baby arrived. I was around 220 lbs back in January ’17 when I restarted the training. So I basically ate everything in sight, which I still do currently, in order to gain the weight and drive progress in the gym. However, I reached a BW of 250 about a two weeks ago, so I’ll see how much more weight I can gain before August, and I’ve started to add in some conditioning work on Saturday mornings (either prowler work or a light bike ride).

The long and short of it is that I have been able to consistently recover from my workouts, and eventually started to run my reps out, eventually switching to triples, doubles, and currently singles on the squat; currently still running trips on the bench, press and DL (currently doing two trips for the DL).

Ok, enough of the fluff, here is the past week or so of my training. I will now continue to update my training log. I have been really pushing my luck here before switching to an intermediate program, and I am leaning towards an HLM split, because I really prefer 3-day lifting split, with some conditioning work on Saturdays.

M 5/29
Sq: 405 2x3; 315 3x1
B: 243 3x3 (doing 2 lb jumps for bench)
BW Chins: 8,8,7 (I was doing weighted chins for a while, but stalled out around +45 lbs, probably due to the fact that I also gained about 30 lbs in the same timeframe of about 3 months.)

W 5/31
Sq: 315 5x1; 325 5x1 (Doing a kind of "ascending sets" for my light day)
Press: 165.5 3*3 (doing 1.5 lb jumps for press)
PC: 195; 2,2,1,2 (Recently switched to doing 4 doubles rather than 5 trips, but missed a rep on the third set, so I will be switching to 5/6 singles for now)

F 6/2
Sq: 410 1x4; 355 3*1 (Goal was 3 doubles, but only got 1 rep on the first set, so switching to 4 singles plus back-off for now)
B: 247 3x3
D/L: 390 3x2

M 6/5
Sq: 415 1x4; 365 3x1 (back-off set)
Press: 167 3x3
W. Chins: 20 lbs; 6,6,5 (switching back to weighted chins for now, since I’m probably not going to be gaining another 30 lbs)

W 6/7
Sq: 320 5x1; 330 5x1
Bench: 249 3x3 (felt pretty hard today, but doable)
PC: 197 1x5 *Goal was 6 singles, but missed my second rep* (Was doing 2.5 lb jumps on PC, but I’m going to try 2 lb jumps for now and see how that works, especially since I’m down to doing singles)

Thanks again to everyone who took the time to read through this post. I really look forward to getting feedback from others, and hopefully improve my numbers. Videos will be posted shortly as well.

[Agilic]

Big and strong like ox

[Ryan Hirschman]

F 6/9

Sq: 405 1x4; 365 3x1
P: 168.5 2x4 (Goal was 3 triples today, but couldn't get the 3rd rep on my first set, so switched to doubles)
D/L: 395 3x2

Squat vid:


D/L vid:



Also did some super fun Prowler work on Saturday morning.

[shib]

Nice belt broski.

[Ryan Hirschman]

M 6/12

Sq: 425x1 (PR); 335 5x3
B: 215 3x3 3,3,2 -- missed the last rep, definitely time to switch up programs
W. Chins: +24 5x3

[Ryan Hirschman]

W 6/14

Sq: 335 5x1; 345 5x1
Press: 175x1 (PR); 135 5x2
PCs: 199 1x5

I've been using this week as a "recovery" week, before I start the HLM program next week. Below are videos from today's workout, my 175 press, and my first and last PCs:







Sorry about the short shorts, they're just so comfortable!

[Agilic]

Yes sir! Get your toes forward on the press, let you get more hips

[davetooch]

Yes sir! Get your toes forward on the press, let you get more hips

what do you think about the actual press itself? Personally, when i aim for my nose i feel like it's a lot less a of a fight and smoother. It looks like the bar is going up up up and then back.

[Ryan Hirschman]

F 6/16

Sq: 335 5x1; 345 5x1; 355 5x1
Press lockouts 155 5x1; 175 5x2 (I think I'll be using these as my upper body exercise on medium day)
DL: 405 3x1 (PR, video below)

[Ryan Hirschman]

Sat 6/17 - Went for a light 4 mile bike ride

M 6/19
Started HLM this week

Sq: 355 5x3
B: 215 5x3
D/L: 365 5x1