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Thread: Lifting the Lifestyle

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
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    Default Lifting the Lifestyle

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    Me: a 45-year old desk worker who's run out the NLP and looking to generally get stronger and physically more useful. As of 29 November 2021, I'm 5'-9" and about 212 pounds. Probably about 25-27% body fat at the end of my NLP log. Also, I have never met a pun I didn't like, as evidenced by this log title. Edit: I also added my first name. Figured I 'earned' it.

    Training Parameters:
    -I have no plans for meets, sports, or really any end point. For now, my training will continue with general strength as measured by the compound lifts.

    - I can work out 3.5 days per (normal) week. Three 'full' days and a shorter day on Saturday morning are doable. This allows me to get in two presses and two benches per week, as well as spreading out the chinup days.

    - I'll aim for weekly progress on major lifts until I can't sustain it (whether by time or stress/recovery). This will also incorporate better balance of time between days in a week and more focus on stress management.

    - Head toward 15-20% body fat. There's no rush so long as I'm not heading in the wrong direction. Somewhat related, I'll also eventually work in some metcon, particularly Prowler work. This may wait until the spring.

    Program of the Moment:
    This is very much Texas Method derived and also very similar to what I've been doing. I'm shifting a few things to what I think will allow for better time and stress management and better progress on cleans in particular.

    Monday Wednesday Friday Saturday
    Squat Volume 5x5 Light 5x2 Intensity 5x1 -
    Press Volume 5x5 - Intensity 3x5 -
    Bench - Volume 5x5 - Intensity 3x5
    Pulls Snatch Clean Deadlift -
    Chin - Weighted - Weighted

    Squat:
    The current 5x5 on Monday and intensity Friday is working. On Friday, I'm getting rid of the back-off sets and backing the weight down a bit for a few reasons. First is to alleviate stress and enable recovery. Second is to see if I can get the deadlift working on Friday rather than Monday. Third is to get more of a gap between the deadlift and squat. (I'll eventually quit worrying about this, but it seems useful for now.)

    Press and Bench:
    Keep doing what's working. Press is still 5x5 Monday, 3x5 Friday. Bench is 5x5 Wednesday, 3x5 Saturday. I'll start using ramped worksets on 3x5 days (e.g., 140, 142.5, 145, 145, 140 for press), eventually go into singles for press and 5x1 (probably 3x2) for bench, and then do resets.

    Deadlift:
    Perhaps the biggest change is moving deadlifts from Wednesday to Friday. This should hopefully be enabled by Friday's squat reduction in both volume and (temporarily) intensity. This also means I only have two 'major' stress days: Monday and Friday, so hopefully it allows for more recovery. I plan on running this weekly until it gets unmanageable and then adding in variations every other week (rack pulls, etc.).

    Power Clean and Power Snatch:
    Move the clean to Wednesday. Since Wednesday has only light squats and bench, this should allow peak performance on the clean. As for the snatch, I'll get the weight up to where I need to do doubles but otherwise progress as normal.

    Chins:
    Move Monday to Wednesday. This shortens a very long Monday session. Wednesday is my shortest session currently, so this should work well. It also gives better recovery intervals (Wednesday/Saturday rather than Monday/Saturday).

    Assistance exercises:
    I'll have a back pocket list of things I can do if time and stress reserves are available. E.g., pull ups, bicep curls, or lat pulldowns for chins, dips, LTEs, etc.

    Lastly, I'll generally update once a week and keep it higher level. No need to tire everybody with complaints about form on things at this stage.
    Last edited by David Hooper; 11-29-2021 at 02:18 PM. Reason: Added link to old log. Explained name change.

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    This looks interesting. I will follow along.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
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    Well hell, I'm still going to call you Hooper (unless you tell me not to).

    Looking forward to seeing your progress on this new log.

  4. #4
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    Most people I know call me Hooper. That's partly why I've generally used it as a forum name. :-)

    Hi Carson!

  5. #5
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    29 November 2021
    Weight - 212
    Squat (Vol.) - 335x5x5
    Strict Press (Vol.) - 132.5x5,5,5,4,4,2
    Power Snatch - 100x3x5

    01 December 2021
    Weight - 213
    Squat (light) - 315x5x2
    Bench (Vol.) - 182.5x5x5
    Power Clean - 140x3x5; 145x1
    Chin - (BW+15)x6,5,5

    03 December 2021
    Weight - 212
    Squat (Int.) - 365x5x1
    Press (Int.) - 140x3; 142.5x3; 145x3,2,1; 137.5x3
    Deadlift - 385x5

    04 December 2021
    Bench (Int.) - 190x3; 195x3; 200x1(!); 200x3x2; 190x3
    Chin - BWx9,8,7,6

    Quick Notes:
    Backing off on squats and deadlifts about 10% partly to re-start deadlifts (it's been three weeks now) and partly to let the left hip heal up. Original plan for Friday (03 Dec) was 375 on squats and either 395 or 405 on deads, but the hip was more sore than usual that morning so I went slow and shaved a bit more off. Feeling no worse for wear today.

    Failures on press were from throwing the bar forward. My press 2.0 bounce has deteriorated somewhat. I'm going to repeat the weight on strict press volume if I have opportunity. It's very close to my intensity weight, relatively speaking.

    The miss on the bench (04 Dec) was also from throwing the bar forward on the second rep. I've never done that before but I had to lower it to the rails. Took a couple minutes, got the sets otherwise, and will move on.

    Cleans got stronger throughout the workout. By the last set, I was confident enough that I decided to try a single with an extra 5 lbs for fun. It went great, reaffirming that my issues are form, not strength.

    Forgot my dip belt on Saturday, so I did 4 sets of chins instead of 3. I should have had the 10th chin but was juuuust short.

    Travel begins in earnest next week. Workouts will have to be played by ear as I really don't know what days I'll have available yet.

  6. #6
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    Halfway through the month and haven't had a chance to work out at all. I'm getting edgy. The first work trip had potential, but that went out the window pretty quickly due to coordination of schedules. The second work trip was a no-go no matter my ambition - evidently the world has been overrun by Orange Theory. Coming up next are trips to visit family, and we'll see how that goes. I think I can make it work, and that'll give us a break from each other anyhow. (We get along great, but breathers are still nice.)

    On the upside, I've really healed up the last couple of weeks. I didn't realize how stiff my joints were getting; they weren't recovering from the stress as fast as the musculature was. I'll have lost ground but will still be far stronger than I was before, so that's fine.

    Lastly, I found out that work is going to start having us come back to the office soon, which will wreck my current routine. I may have to abort the pseudo-TM idea before it begins and find something less time-intensive. That's also fine - I now know how to optimize.

    I figure this is a useful data point for my progress. Hence my posting.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
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    As one who takes longer breaks throughout the year, know that your body is appreciating the break, as you've already noticed. Sure, you'll have to reset a bit once you start lifting again, and you'll have a bit of DOMS for a few days (especially squats), but while your absolute numbers won't be quite as high as you think they should be, the depth of your strength has increased in ways that you will soon appreciate as you soon cruise past your PRs.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jun 2021
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by David Hooper View Post
    Lastly, I found out that work is going to start having us come back to the office soon, which will wreck my current routine.
    Maybe Santa has some home gym equipment for you in 2022? Happy Holidays and enjoy your time with the family!

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