The last attempt to grow out of novice adaptation

[dynamo]

male, 32y, 193 cm (6'4"), 120 kg (265 lbs)
Skinny fat type with long limbs, wingspan 206 cm
Played hockey for most of life, now days rec hockey 1-3 times per week, starting again on August

Started lifting two years ago, but lived then in China where time management issues and lousy gyms prevented to do the program. Lifted anyway the big lifts (squat replaced with front squat) irregularly. Started "real SS" on November 2009 when moved back to Europe and work sets were around numbers below:

Squat 95 kg (209 lbs)
Bench 70 kg (155 lbs)
Deadlift 140 kg (309 lbs)
Press 47,5 kg (105 lbs)
Power clean 70 kg (155 lbs)

From November to June some breaks did take place and steady progression wasn't maintained. Lots of time was spent to regain the strength after breaks.

Nov 2009 - 10 workouts
Dec 2009 - 7 workouts (some work related travel)
Jan 2010 - 4 workouts (wedding + honeymoon took 3 weeks from the beginning)
Feb 2010 - 3 workouts (old low back/hip/groin issue repeated when warming up for squats, maybe due to too much hockey)
Mar 2010 - 2 workouts (injury rehab was slow)
Apr 2010 - 8 workouts (12 days of work related travel in the middle)
May 2010 - 11 workouts
June 2010 - 4 workouts (3 weeks of work related travel without access to a decent gym)

PR sets across
6th Dec 2009 - Squat - 110 kg (243 lbs) x 5 x 3
3rd June 2010 - Bench - 80 kg (176 lbs) x 5 x 3
1st June 2010 - Deadlift - 160 kg (353 lbs) x 5
23rd May 2010 - Press - 57,5 kg (127 lbs) x 5 x 3
30th May 2010 - Power Clean 80 kg (176 lbs) x 3 x 5

Now it is time to finish up the linear progression within upcoming months. After that cutting fat a bit could take place thus skating is easier when not carrying this much dead meat. Focusing on olympic lift programs could be one direction in future, but let's worry that later on.

On late June all lifts were close to PR's but couldn't make new ones. The last workouts were energy-wise pathetic and decided to reset 5 kg for all the lifts but deadlift and have a two week summer break.

Started again after break with this workout:

Thu 15th July 2010
Squat - 95 kg (209 lbs) x 5/5/5
Press - 55 kg (121 lbs) x 5/5/4
Deadlift - 160 kg (353 lbs) x 2

Press fail was something that I didn't expect, bar speed was very good for all the other reps. Went out of gas with deadlift. Weight felt heavy but doable, just didn't have guts to pull hard enough on that day.

[dynamo]

Mon 19th July 2010
Squat - 97,5 kg (215 lbs) x 5/5/5
Bench - 75 kg (165 lbs) x 5/5/5
Power clean - 75 kg (165 lbs) x 3/3/3/3/3

First time squatted sets with belt, feels different. Squat tends to lean forward during last reps. Bench and pc were easy.

[dynamo]

Tue 20th July 2010
BW@morning 118,5 kg (261 lbs)

Fri 23rd July 2010
BW@morning 120 kg (265 lbs)

Squat - 100 kg (220 lbs) x 5/5/5
Press - 55 kg (121 lbs) x 5/5/5
Deadlift - 160 kg (353 lbs) x 3

Squats felt good, got more used to belt. Somehow belt added with "chest up" cue is helping a lot with form. I pressed last warm-up and two work sets with belt but it didn't work. Last set of presses without belt was the easiest one. Tried to pull first time with belt as well and it didn't work out. I needed to repeat last warm-up 140 kg x 3 with belt twice and still it was uncomfortable. I decided to pull work set without belt and couldn't get 5. Maybe time to reset deadlift as well.

[dynamo]

Sun 25th July 2010
BW@morning 118 kg (260 lbs)

Squat - 102,5 kg (226 lbs) x 5/5/5
Bench - 77,5 kg (171 lbs) x 5/5/5
Power clean - 77,5 kg (171 lbs) x 3/3/3/0/0/3/3

Regular gym closed on Sundays during summer and went to the other one. Squatting with a one step tighter belt felt even better than ast time. Benching felt as it should on linear progression, effort needed but the last rep came up with good bar speed. Two first sets of PC were solid. Second rep of third set touched knees followed by bad racking of the third rep (elbows were late). After that two next attempts failed miserably, somehow second pull didn't happen at all. After clearing distractions from my head got fourth and fifth triples done. A bit more effort needed for PC's compared to bench sets.

Some shoulder discomfort appeared during the cleans, do not know what is the reason but one suspect is the shitty bars where sleeve rotation is not as smooth as it should.

[dynamo]

Tue 27th July 2010
BW@morning 120 kg (265 lbs)

Squat - 105 kg (231 lbs) x 4/5/4
Press - 57,5 kg (127 lbs) x 5/5/2
Deadlift - 160 kg (353 lbs) x 5

Had a long warm-up + squat form session, TUBOW and other drills. That made good for form, but also cumulated some fatigue. Should have drove harder to get all squat reps completed. Press fail was technical, lost tension on upper back and descended the bar too low and away from chest. A nice deadlift set finished the workout well.

[dynamo]

Wed 28th July 2010
Beer league soccer match, guys were short and helped them by keeping our net almost untouched. Not very hard hour, but did some jumping, sprinting and diving to the ball. Mild soreness in quads and shins after the match.

Thu 29th July 2010
Squat - 105 kg (231 lbs) x 1, 70 kg (154 lbs) x 5/5
Bench - 80 kg (176 lbs) x 5/5/4
Power clean - only warm-up sets up to 70 kg (154 lbs) x 1

Got my weightlifting shoes today and tried to get form working with them. Ramped up to working weight but didn't feel comfortable and backed off to 70 kg. Light squat day, but valuable form lesson. Nothing special on bench, last rep was just a bit too heavy. Shoulder discomfort appeared again during power clean warm-ups and decided to skip those. I need to dial in some improvements soonest, microloading for presses, adding the back extensions to the bench day and altering between DL and PC on press day.

[Dastardly]

It takes a few sessions to get used to weightlifting shoes. Best thing to do is to back off quite a lot, so you can learn proper technique with the shoes.

You'll soon fly past your old weights. Squatting with the right shoes is so much better! It will also improve cleans & deadlifts.

[dynamo]

Sat 31st July 2010
BW@post work-out 119 kg (262 lbs)

Squat - 80 kg (176 lbs) x 5/5/5
Press - 57,5 kg (127 lbs) x 5/5/4
Deadlift - 140 kg (309 lbs) x 2

Working on the form with weightlifting shoes, squat felt OK. Press set was tough, next time 3x5 will be done. Deadlifting with shoes was a mess, needed a lot of warm-up sets and decided to finished after warm-ups.

Dastardly, thanks for advice. Any comments about deadlifting with 1" heels? For me it felt that I couldn't use ass and hamstrings at all in the beginning of the pull. Bar also travelled away from shins during the heaviest reps.

[dynamo]

Mon 2nd August 2010
BW@morning 118,5 kg (261 lbs)

Squat - 90 kg (198 lbs) x 5/5/5
Bench - 80 kg (176 lbs) x (4 or 5)/5/5
Power clean - only warm-up sets up to 80 kg (176 lbs) x 1

I think that I nailed the form for squats with shoes. Some reps must've been perfect and the others very good. After racking first set of bench, got a feeling that miscounted reps. So I am not sure if it was 4 or 5 reps. As I don't have access to microloads I won't increase the weight for next session.

I was about to finish it up with some back extensions but couldn't resist the lifting platform and also wanted to find out if it's the power clean which makes shoulder discomfort. Decided to do ramp up clean warm-ups as long as they feel snappy and shoulders are fine. No shoulder problems there, but when work weight according to linear progression was loaded to the bar, snappiness wasn't there anymore. Shoes seem to work with cleans, at least they are not making it worse.

Lesson of the day: if you can't count from one to five, do not try heavy cleans. At least for me the heavy cleans need 100% focus on lifting spiced up with certain mood.

[dynamo]

Wed 4th August 2010
BW@morning 119 kg (262 lbs)

Squat - 92,5 kg (204 lbs) x 5/5/5
Press - 57,5 kg (127 lbs) x 5/4/4
Deadlift - 162,5 kg (358 lbs) x 1

7 AM to the office and right after working hours to the gym. Not exactly the pattern I am preferring, but sometimes things need to be done in suboptimal ways. Squat felt OK and I recorded two sets. From video it can be clearly seen that knee sliding at the bottom is the issue to fix. Otherwise it looked solid. Couldn't complete press sets, they were just too heavy. Deadlift warm-ups felt good, but work weight was way too heavy. I need to reset deadlift down to 145 kg and ramp it up again and work on the form with oly shoes.

Thu 5th August 2010
7 AM - first hockey session of the season, a hard hour as always after break