Gym was closed early tonight for no apparent reason. Unfortunately I have to move my next workout to tomorrow.
Hi there! I've been doing this for a few weeks now and I decided I'm going to start posting my progress just to keep myself accountable. I'm an untrained rank novice who, up until now, has been doing my best to stay out of the gym.
Over the last 8 months I lost over 30 pounds by running my fat ass off on the treadmill and now I've been turning my attention more to the weight room. I would describe my body type as having disproportionately long and thin arms, long and large legs, and a shorter core.
My Stats:
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 203lbs.
Age: 20
My current lifts (in lbs):
Squat: 155x3x5
Bench: 105x3x5
Dead Lift: 235x1x5
Press: 80x3x5
Power Clean: 95x5x3
Today was Squats, Bench, and Deadlifts. I got 9 hours of sleep and have been eating well over the last couple days.
Squats: 5 5 5 155lbs
Bench: 5 5 5 105lbs
Dead Lifts: 5 235lbs
Some thoughts:
Squats have been going up steadily, Dead Lifts have been easy for me and I continue to pile on the weight, Bench is making me sad inside and I need to do something about these scrawny arms.
Gym was closed early tonight for no apparent reason. Unfortunately I have to move my next workout to tomorrow.
Are you sure you can only bench 105? I hardly believe this would be the case.
Unless you know something I don't know about the bench press. I've been following the form described in the book.
I've got long and somewhat measly arms. I'll post pictures later. Problem is I can bench a lot more than that for one rep but I usually fatigue extremely rapidly. I described this problem to Mark and he said, "The way you know every time that your lifting too much is if you can't lift it."
I'm still somewhat new and so I might just have bad form.
Today was Squats, Press, and Power Cleans. Eating and sleeping have been good over the last few days.
Squats: 5 5 4 160lbs
Press: 5 5 5 85lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 100lbs
Thoughts:
Squat form got worse when I went up 5lbs. I'm still haven't problem holding myself in thoracic and lumbar extension. When I get to the bottom of the rep I round my back and then wind up doing a weird forward lean thing to get it back up.
Press was good. Probably my strongest lift form-wise.
Power Cleans continue to feel awkward. I tend to pull early and rack with elbows low.
Today was Squats, Bench, and Cleans. Spring break means plenty of time to sleep and eat.
Squats: 5 5 5 160lbs
Bench: 5 5 5 120lbs
Deads: 5 245lbs
Thoughts:
Turns out I'm pretty good at picking shit up off the ground.
I was mis-calculating how much I was benching PVC. Turns out 45+35+35=115. My bad.
Barely got the last rep with an added 5lbs on the bench.
Kept the bar lower on my back for squats and it helped alot with balance issues I've been having. No more good-mornings for me.
Today was Squats, Press, and Cleans. Sleep and Eating have both been good. I should say that I'm not doing GOMAD. I've been buying Whole milk and drinking ~1/3 of a gallon a day and eating a lot of high protein meals. Perhaps I'd be gaining faster if I was doing GOMAD but my budget doesn't allow for that.
Squats: 5 5 5 165lbs
Press: 5 5 5 90lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 95lbs
Thoughts:
Clean form is still sloppy. I'm having a hard time getting past that mental leap of actually jumping with a barbell.
Press and Squats felt light today. May need to go up a little more.
Squats, Bench, and Deads. Wasn't able to get great sleep the first night between the last workout and this one. Neighbors were outside being drunk/loud. Made up for it in Milk consumption though.
Squats: 5 5 5 175lbs
Bench: 5 4 3 125lbs
Deads: 5 255lbs
Thoughts:
I'm a little reluctant to say 5 on Deads. I couldn't lock out at the top because my grip was slipping and my gym doesn't have bumper plates. I don't have any qualms about ruining the floor but dropping weights on a hard surface can be obnoxious for other lifters.
I hate bench. I hate bench a lot.
Squats moving up nicely.
Today was Squats, Press, and Cleans. Didn't sleep great the first night but the second night was pretty good. Eating has been good too.
Squats: 5 - 5 - 5 - 185lbs - PR
Press: 5 - 5 - 5 - 90lbs
Cleans: 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 120lbs - PR
I had some kid try and tell me I'm doing the power clean wrong and that I should be doing the full squat clean instead. It was funny because he started super narrow and almost did the splits on the landing and he let the bar roll off the tips of his fingers onto his shoulders. Kid was pro.
Squats continue to move along nicely. Bad form on a couple of them but overall I'm getting the hang of it.
Decided I'd let my press sink in a little more and I kept the weight the same.
Hilarious descriptions of the workouts. Love the kid schooling you on cleans. Just smile and nod and keep doing what you're doing.
Your bench doesnt seem that far off in my opinion. 125 bench compared to 175 squats is quite decent really - a higher ratio than I usually have (you are about 3/4, I'm usually 2/3).
Only way to get better at cleans is to do them. We've all learned that the hard way. Cleaning the same as you bench is pretty nice too, by the way.
Anyway - from where I'm sitting things are looking good. Just drink your milk and remember patience+persistence=progress.