Starting Strength Training Log: Ethan Bynon
STATS: male, 27 years old, 6 ft. tall, 220 lbs and estimated 23% bodyfat.
Former 1RM: 175/255/340/415
Former 5RM: 152.5/225/295/365
Current 5RM 95/???/185/275
I am returning to barbell lifting after 6+ weeks of high stress life events and having no access to a barbell. This time, I want to do things right. I will be training using a proper strength program LP, I will be tracking my food/protein intake every day instead of just eyeballing it, and I will be taking my sleep schedule seriously.
My primary goal is to not only return to my previous strength standards in a short amount of time than it took to get them the first time, but to exceed them on all my major barbell lifts before I move on to intermediate programs. To accomplish this goal, I will be doing the Starting Strength LP and this time I will be doing it as written, so no adding barbell curls every workout or subbing power cleans with rows and RDLs as I have done in the past. I will learn how to do the power clean and I will succeed.
My secondary goal is to get my body fat percentage below 20%. I have no strong interest in six-pack abs; I just want to have a healthier body composition. To accomplish this goal, I will be utilizing Jordan Feigenbaum’s “To Be A Beast” online article, specifically his caloric recommendations for “fat loss” and use of short amounts of HIIT conditioning (2/week) for overweight clients. This will be done for a short period of time until I am either under 20% bodyfat (I’ll say 18% is the goal number just to be safe) or until it begins to affect my recovery for my strength progression, after which I will taper up my calorie/protein intake and taper down my HIIT if necessary.
According to Feigenbaum’s “To Be A Beast” macro chart, I require 2500 calories for fat loss (about -300 under my TDEE). I like to eat 1g/lb of protein and carbs when training, what ever is leftover goes to fats (220g protein, 220g carbs, 83g fat). If I am still gaining a substantial amount of fat after 1-2 weeks, I will begin to taper my fats and then my carbs until I find a sweet spot. HIIT for sub 20% body fat
For today’s workout, I established my current 5RMs for the squat, OHP, and deadlift. I accomplished this by practicing my form with the empty barbell for a few sets, and then performing sets of 5, increasing the weight by 10-20 lbs until I felt the next set would give me some trouble.
Squat 185x5 (110 lbs drop)
OHP 95x5 (57.5 lbs drop)
Deadlift 275x5 (90 lbs drop)
HIIT for 15 minutes (20 secs on/100 secs off)
All in all, a painfully embarrassing process finding out how much I lost, but I am optimistic for the future that I will come back stronger than before. On Wednesday I will be doing the squat 3x5 proper at 185 lbs, testing my bench numbers, and increasing my deadlift by 10 lbs. I will be recording my training days here, M/W/F, as well as my weigh-in day on Sundays, from now until I finish my NLP.