Stuffed Superdud: Bumpy road to respectable lifting

[stuffedsuperdud]

History
I have been lifting weights for 9 years, mostly spinning wheels doing bodybuilding routines with dumbbells and machines and afraid to increase poundages. I also fell for the whole marathon-runners-are-super-fit trap and forced myself to run (badly) a lot which didn't help. In 2010 I stumbled across 70sbig.com through my college strength training instructor and have since taken up Olympic lifting.

Biological stats:
Age: 27 (Started Olympic lifting at 25. Yes, over the hill, I know. Still fun.)
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 215 but still a bit soft. Would like to be a lean 207 or so.

2011: The initial LP
I had always done the barbell lifts, just not with anything heavy, so I started LP a bit higher than the average fella. My lifts, for 3 sets of 5, went from:
Back squat: 225 -> 345
Deadlift: 225 -> 355
Bench: 165 -> 237.5
Press: 65 (yea...) -> 155
Bodyweight from soft 198 -> less soft 215
I started with 16 dead hang pullups but degraded down to about 12 (maintained since) because I wasn't super diligent about them and the bodyweight increase didn't help. Would like to get to 20.

Late 2011 - 2012: Enter snatch, clean and jerk
I then got into Olympic lifting, something I had wanted to do for a while now, but due to a combination of a shitty body, lack of hard work, and shaky coaching, the strength stagnated, and due to shoulder injuries, actually regressed in the pressing movements.

My Oly 1RMs went up a bit though, from
Snatch: 60kg (ugly power snatch) -> 87kg
C&J: 80kg -> 107kg
Clean: 80kg -> 120kg
i.e. I wouldn't be worth anything even in the 48kg women's category....

This was a fucked up year. My strength stagnated while I picked up sn/cj technique and suffered through various injuries. I competed in one local meet and had a great time (two snatch PR's) though so that's something.

2013: It gets worse
A few friends and I got together and got ourselves a respectable coach who was horrified at the lack of strength work in my old program. We see a return of pressing, deads, eccentric pulls, and lots of squatting. I am having a great time and did a run of Steel's pressing and squatting programs (Didn't want the rigid structure of TM)...and then:

In March I hurt my knee trying to stand up with a missed snatch. Torn MCL, possible meniscus injury, no squats for 2 months. I tried to tough it out but the pain, loss of strength, and secondary chondromalacia took a huge toll. I spent three months doing RDLs and presses (press, bench press, snatch press) only, and watched helplessly as my legs withered.

My comeback progress in the last 4 months
Snatch: Back to 70kg
Clean and jerk: Back to 90kg

Squat: Bodyweight -> 205x5x3
Squatting is still unnatural and I am shifting my weight to the good leg constantly. I also picked up a tendency to good-morning the weight. This is frustrating, to say the least.

Front squat: Bodyweight -> 92kgx5x3
For shits and giggles, I've been cleaning these. Feels much more natural than back squat right now for some reason.

CG Bench press: 135x5x3 -> 210x5x3, getting towards that 205lb voodoo reset
Press: Stuck at 150x5x3
Snatch press: 88x5x3 -> 125x5x3 and climbing rapidly

Eccentric pulls (I love these. Start at the top, lower over a 5-second count, explode off floor into pull)
Snatch grip: 95kgx5x3
Clean grip: 110kgx5x3
Both lifts climbing

So yea I have a lot of work cut out for me. My program for the next few months is simple and pretty intuitive:
5-7 long sessions a week. Every session: One squat, one push, (yes doing these first when I am freshest), all for 3x5 for as long as possible, and the classical lifts up to a daily max, then backoff sets. Finish it off with pulls. My weights are so low right now that I doubt recovery will be an issue.

This might be blasphemous but I'll also mix in some conditioning on days I don't feel strong enough to lift because I think stuff like Prowlers and barbell complexes are ridiculously fun.

By the end of the year I hope to be pain-free and have a 4-plate squat and dead and (back to) a 3-plate front squat. The presses and sn/cj will fall where they fall. I might enter a local meet or too for fun, no worries about stuff like PR's or big #s or cutting weight. Not sure how realistic this is but it's not impossible so I might as well get to it. Posting a log here because the SV forum where my old log was has headed in a weird direction that doesn't appeal to me and I've found the logs in this section quite motivating.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/13/2013
Push
Press 152.5 5,5,6
Aggravated a chronic bit of TFCC inflammation in the left hand that had been threatening me all week.

Squat
Plan: FS 210x5x3, but the wrist would have none of it. Since I had the bar loaded though...
Squat: 210x5x3 Post-injury PR. Previous best from a few weeks ago was 205x5x1.
This took quite a bit out of me though as I am thoroughly deconditioned to the movement so I called it here.

Sn/CJ
N/A

Pulls
N/A
Flirted with the idea of doing clean pulls as a warmup to a top set of DL, but decided to give the low back and wrist a break. Will do these tomorrow.

[Rori Alter]

Welcome!

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/14/2013
Basically did what was supposed to be the 2nd half of yesterday's session.
Push
N/A

Squat
N/A

Sn/CJ
This was a disaster. Feeling tight and slow going into the gym, warmups didn't really help much.
Snatch:
50kg 3x3, missed behind on all but 3 of them.
60kgx3
70kg missed 3, behind again, ended the shitshow there

Pulls
Eccentric clean pulls: 110kgx5, 120kgx5x2
Deadlift: 140kgx5
Better...
The deadlifts were super easy, esp. considering I haven't deadlifted in almost a year, but I decided to keep it conservative and cut it off at 5. Will definitely make some big jumps in the next few weeks. EXCITED. Race to 500 started today, I guess.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/14/2013
...and we're back. My schedule the last few days was terrible and getting an hour to go lift was impossible. Back on track now though.

Push
N/A
Saved this for last but then I got called away from the gym for an emergency.

Squat
Front squat: 210x5x3. Embarrassingly hard, but still a post-injury PR so I'll take it.

Sn/CJ
This started poorly but I got a bit snappier after warming up.

Snatch:
40kgx3x2
50kgx3x2
55kgx3
60kgx2
70kgx2x2
There were a few misses sprinkled in there, and the weights are still terribly low, but hey, I'm glad just to be able to snatch again.

Clean:
70kgx3
80kgx3
85kgx3
Angry knee = no more after this.

Pulls
Eccentric snatch pulls: 90kgx5, 95kgx5x2
These were hard on my knee so I called it here without doing snatch-grip deads. Maybe tomorrow.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/21/2013
Push
N/A
Saved this for last but then I got called away from the gym for an emergency AGAIN. WTF.

Squat
Squat: 225x5x3. First time squatting two wheels since injury. Yay! Legs already buzzed; tomorrow's going to be fun.

Sn/CJ
Snatch:
40kgx3x2
50kgx3x2
60kgx3
65kgx2
70kgx2
75kgx1 Post-injury PR.

CJ:
70kgx3
80kgx2
85kgx2


Pulls
N/A
My upper back has been "exquisitely sore," as Ellee Carlson of 70's Big puts it, since Monday's pulls. Bitched out.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/21/2013
Sleep lacking and nutrition in the shitter due to this week's awful work schedule.

Push
I'll push something eventually, I promise.

Squat
Front squat: 210 for 5,2 Knee flared up on the second set and I actually dropped the bar. Cut it off here to save something for tomorrow.

Sn/CJ
Snatch:
50kgx3x2
55kgx3x2
60kgx3
65kgx3
70kgx2
75kgx0 Slooooooow going under the bar and missed it 2x. Elbow tightened up and I cut it off before pulling anything terrible had the chance to happen.

CJ:
75kgx3
80kgx3
85kgx3
90kgx1 Post-injury PR

Pulls
Eccentric clean pulls: 110kgx5, 125kgx5x2
Deadlift: 145kgx5
Note: I don't do true deadlifts in that I crowd the bar a bit and keep the hips low to mimic the 1st pull of a clean. Felt the hips slipping up a bit towards the end so I cut it off at 5 even though I had a rep or two left in the tank.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/25/2013
Squat and leave. It was one of those days...

Push
Ugh no go. My rotator cuffs are killing me. I am prone to impingement and it seems that during my layoff these last few months, they forgot how to do overhead work. Right side in particular is very grumpy.

Squat
Squat: 235 for 5,5,7. Here comes your comeback.

Sn/CJ
Again, no overhead work. Just lots of mobility crap.

Pulls
N/A Still sore from Friday's fun.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/28/2013
What the fuck is this shitshow? Went to the gym feeling slow and praying for a miracle. Right rotator is still inflamed as hell and of course the left knee makes me hate life.

Opened by mobbing my face off trying to get those rotators and hips to behave.

Push
Snatch press 55kgx2. LEFT rotator clicking funny for no reason at all and cramped up clearly irritated after rep 2. Dropped it to:
50kgx5x3. The left side felt better after this but I wouldn't be surprised if I woke up tomorrow to find it murdering me in the eye.

Squat
This didn't happen because of the knee.

Sn/CJ
Can it get any worse? Oh yea. Because of the rotator troubles, my mental game fell apart and I was hesitating to drop under the bar with each rep. Result: Missed reps and the ones I didn't miss I didn't catch well either so the shoulders took a beating.

Snatch:
40kgx3x2 I actually missed one of these backwards wtf. Was so out of position that while I was down there I managed to tweak both hip flexors just for shits and giggles.
I felt a BIT better after this though so I did:
50kgx3x2
55kgx3x2

C&J:
50kgx3
60kgx3
70kgx3
80kgx2
85kgx1 and then I gave up here.

Pulls
Here's where I restored my ego a smidge.
Eccentric snatch pulls:
85kgx5
90kgx5
97kgx5x2
After this the knee flared and I couldn't correctly push myself away from the floor to start the rep so I ended it here.

Definitely filing this one under the 10% of sessions that totally sucked. Hope I don't wake up dead tomorrow.

[stuffedsuperdud]

8/31/2013
Got my act together a bit today. Started with lots of mobility work and the shoulders finally loosened up a bit thank god.

Push
Decided to give the left rotator a bit of a rest.

Squat
245x5x3. Form fell apart during the sticking points where the body transitions from glute/ham to squads because of the patellar issues. Incidentally this is where I started LP 2 years ago, so I guess I am officially restarting strength.

Sn/CJ
Snatch:
40kgx3x2
50kgx3x
55kgx3
60kgx3
65kgx3
70kg for four attempts, missed 3. -____-

C&J:
50kgx3
60kgx3
70kgx3
80kgx2
85kgx1 and then I gave up here.

Pulls
N/A The squats were too exhausting.