Infantry 1SG finally getting strong

I started the program 8 weeks ago and figured just now I'd track my progress here as well: 37-year-old male, 5' 10" roughly 188 (scale is inaccurate) currently finishing up a second bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and attending the Army's Sergeants Major Academy, been in the Army National Guard for little over 20 years now, all Combat Arms with three overseas deployments, two were combat. I wear a belt for squat and OHP working sets. The Military has placed a toll on my body, compression fractures on multiple vertebrae L4-L6 if memory serves me right, bulging discs, arthritis, and scoliosis of a curve of about 3 degrees to the left in the lower back.

Three years ago I deployed to Qatar and was able to hit the gym as much as I wanted, I lifted a ton, got stronger but was really just going in and screwing around, didn't know about SS. When I came home my little boy was born and I went right back into school all within a week, so I stopped working out for about a year and a half, thankfully last spring I was able to start building a home gym and finally this spring I started working out again regularly, and then finally discovered this program.

Sept 21: Squat 3x5 180 Bench 3x5 180 Chin-up 10, 7, 7
Sept 23: Squat 3x5 185 OHP 5x3 85 Deadlift 1x5 210
Sept 25: Squat 3x5 190 Bench 3x5 185 pull-up 10, 9, 7

Sept 28: Squat 3x5 195 OHP 5x3 90 chin-up 12, 10, 9
Sept 30: Squat 3x5 200 Bench 3x5 190 Deadlift 1x5 220
Oct 2: Squat 3x5 205 OHP 5x3 95 pull-up 11, 10, 10

Oct 5: Squat 3x5 210 Bench 3x5 195 Chin-up 13, 11, 10
Oct 7: Squat 3x5 215 OHP 5x3 100 Deadlift 1x5 230
Oct 9: Squat 3x5 220 Bench 3x5 200 pull-up 12, 11, 10

Oct 12: Squat 3x5 225 OHP 5x3 105 Chin-up 15, 14, 12
Oct 14: Squat 3x5 230 * Bench 3x5 205 Deadlift 1x5 240 On my last rep of the last set of squat as I came up I let my back relax and the bar started to slid down my back, given that I lift late at night I didn't want to let it drop so I held it up with my arms while I racked it, messing up my elbows and shoulders. Missed my Friday session that week as I had a field drill with the Guard.

Oct 19: Squat 3x5 232 Bench 3x5 210 Chin-up 15, 15, 14
Oct 21: Squat 3x5 235 OHP 5x3 110 Deadlift 1x5 250
Oct 23: Squat 3x5 240 * Bench 3x5 0 pull-up 0 On my last rep I had to bail on the squat, the pain had been getting worse all week, and finally got to the point where I lost strength. was able to do the warm-up for the bench but couldn't unrack for the working set. call it a night. At this point I dropped my weights and started researching recovery.

Oct 26: Squat 3x5 160 OHP 5x3 115 chin-up 16, 15, 13
Oct 28: Squat 3x5 160 Bench 3x5 180 Deadlift 1x5 265
Oct 30: Squat 3x5 160 OHP 5x3 120 chin-up 20x5 (watched the video earlier that night)

Nov 2: Squat 3x5 160 Bench 3x5 180 chin-up 20x5
Nov 4: Squat 3x5 160 OHP 5x3 122.5 Deadlift 1x5 275 Chin-up 20x5
Nov 6: Squat 3x5 160 Bench 3x5 180 chin-up 20x5

Nov 9: Squat 3x5 180 OHP 5x3 125 Chin-up +10 lbs on belt 11, 11, 10
Nov 11: Squat 3x5 200 Bench 3x5 195 Deadlift 1x5 285
Nov 13: Squat 3x5 210 OHP 3x5 117.5 * Pull-up +10 lbs on belt 10, 10, 10 Swapped to 3x5 from 5x3 because the workout was dragging on, got a bunch of homework and papers to do.

Nov 16: Squat 3x5 215 Bench 3x5 205 Chin-up +10 lbs on belt 14, 13, 14

Nov 18: Squat 3x5 220 felt real good, bar started to slow on the last set but not terrible.

OHP 3x5 120 felt alright, form is probably not great as feeling pressure in lower back.

Deadlift 1x5 295 felt good, going to drop to 5 pound increments going forward. Heart rate was certainly elevated.

Nov 20: squat 2x5 225 and 1x3 lost my focus on the second rep of the second set at the bottom and started tilting forward so I muscles it back as I came up and now I have some pain on the left side right around the iliac crest, going from about an inch from the spine to about the 8 o’clock position in a narrow band.

Bench 3x5 210 felt real good. Back hurt laying on the bench but it is what it is.

Pull-ups with 10 lbs added to belt 12, 11, 11

Nov 23: Squat 3x5 230 back still hurts but not while under the bar (Just like what Rip was saying) overall the lift felt good

OHP 1x4, 1x3, 1x2 122.5 just overall garbage, just couldn't get my focus there to keep fatigue from affecting me.

Chin-ups with 10 lbs on belt 3x14 Will probably be increasing the weight on the belt in two weeks.

Nov 25: Squat 3x5 235 felt real good

Bench 3x5 215 I tried moving my grip a bit further out, realized I've been doing more of a close grip bench (edge of index finger on the edge of the knurling) caused some pain in my shoulders so I'm going to go back to my standard grip.

Deadlift 1x2 300 I think my feet were pointed to far outward, as I came up and just before I locked out, I fell backwards and ended up sitting on my bench with the bar on my lap (ouch) got the bar off me, reset and attempted to continue but it wasn't there. going to redo 300 next week.

Nov 27: Squat 3x5 240 felt great, back doesn't hurt nearly as much, definitely healing.

OHP 3x3 122.5 Just couldn't progress, I'm going to keep at it and get my reps up to 5 per set before increasing weight,

Pull-ups with 10 lbs on belt, 11, 9, 3

I'm not eating enough and I know for a fact I'm not sleeping enough but until the semester ends in a few weeks, that's just how it has to be. That's what I get for taking a full course load and taking the Army's Sergeants Major Academy online at the same time.

Nov 30: Squat 2x5 and 1x3 245 been wearing a hoodie under my belt but took it off to do a form check video and the buckle was digging into my gut on the 2nd set, went to do the third set and it was just too much of a distraction and I called it quits after the 3rd rep.

Bench 1x4 220 just ran out of energy, plain and simple, couldn't unrack it for the 2nd set.

chin-ups, 0 just couldn't work myself up to do any, my last final is on the 15th, so I just have to grind it out as best as I can until then, then I can move my workouts to the late morning and go to bed at an earlier hour and get more sleep. Thankfully I'm only taking 9 credit hours in the spring and can move my workouts from Mon Wed Fri to Tue Thu Sat to workout during the day and not have it conflict with classes.

I'm finally back at it; I had a Vasectomy back just before Christmas and was told by the Dr not to lift for four weeks. I recently was able to get my hands on a pair of Adidas Powerlift 4 and wore them for the first time tonight. I dropped my working weights by a fair amount to compensate for taking a month and a half off.

Squat 3x5 at 200, shoes totally made a difference, I felt like I wasn't just glued to the floor, but it was like my feet were apart of the floor.

Bench 3x5 at 185, probably could have gone a little heavier but wanted to ease back into it.

Chin-up 11, 12, 11 didn't use the weighted belt; once I get my reps back up, then I'll add that back into the mix.

Yesterday I was able to lift during the day and it was noticeable better

Squat: 3x5 at 205 form is getting better as my body remembers how to do the lift

OHP: 3x5 at 85, dropped way back on this as it’s my weakest lift and really want to focus on technique

Deadlift: 1x5 at 255, felt real good

All in all, I’m happy, no compilations from the surgery, still more sensitive than before the procedure but nothing swelled up or turned black and blue from lifting so that’s always a plus.