rjg91680 starting strength log

[rjg91680]

I'm 29 years old and haven't seriously lifted ever in my life. I've played soccer pretty much all my life, and in the past few years took up running, so I think I'm the prototypical skinny fat guy.

I started on 11-28-2009, at a body weight of 177 lbs, 20% bf. Today I'm at 192 lbs, 22-24% bf. I'm 5' 7"

Here's my progression so far, before yesterday's workout (all in lbs):

Squat: 100 >>225
Bench: 85 >> 115
Press: 75 >> 95
Deadlift: 105 >> 205
Power cleans (just added 1-9-2010): 65

1-12-2010 was my last workout before last night. No excuses for the time off except that I was in Vegas for my wife's 30th birthday.

During my last workout my squat form really sucked - I definitely was doing leg presses because my quads hurt like hell the next day. Combined with a 9 day training hiatus, I decided to back off a little on my squat to work on form and get back into the swing of things.

Session 15, 1-21-2009

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 5
125 x 3
165 x 2
205 x 5 x 3

Bench Press
45 x 5 x 3
65 x 5
85 x 3
105 x 2
120 x 5 x 3

Power clean
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
70 x 3 x 5

Squats felt really good - no weird soreness today. Power cleans were introduced recently and the bar felt really heavy, so I'm pretty sure my form sucked. Videos for everything coming soon.

[Mr.City]

I've had the same problem with squats.

[rjg91680]

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
85 x 5
125 x 3
165 x 2
210 x 5 x 3

Press
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
75 x 3
85 x 2
97.5 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
135 x 5 x 2
165 x 3
195 x 2
215 x 5

All of the weights felt pretty heavy today. This time on squats I definitely shoved the knees out and waited until the stretch in my glutes/hamstrings to come up out of the hole. Quads aren't sore, so I think I'm doing it correctly.

Press continues to be difficult. Last time I did something funky to my shoulder and had some discomfort today on all of the reps. I didn't think I'd get the last one in the last set, but it went up.

Deadlifts are progressing nicely. I'm still using double overhand grip. I'll go to alternate grip when the regular grip fails me.

[rjg91680]

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
175 x 2
215 x 4/5/5

Bench press
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
85 x 3
105 x 2
125 x 5 x 3

Power clean
45 x 5 x 3
55 x 5
65 x 3
75 x 2
85 x 3 x 5

Weird training day. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night and had a lot of coffee today to compensate. I don't drink coffee much, so I think that the lack of sleep + caffeine did weird things.

I didn't think I'd get that last rep on my first work set of squats, so I just pussy-ed out and racked the bar. Then I saw some dude deadlift 570 and I decided to man up and just do my squats. They were hard. On the last rep of the 2nd and 3rd work sets I think my back was a little too horizontal and I did a little good morning.

I think that I need to get my deadlift numbers up to keep progressing on my squat.

Bench and power cleans both went up very easily.

[rjg91680]

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
135 x 3
175 x 2
220 x 5 x 3

Press
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
75 x 3
85 x 2
100 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
135 x 5 x 2
165 x 3
195 x 2
225 x 5

Overall the workout was fairly easy today. I've been picking up on stuff other people have been saying on other's form checks.

On squats I worked on being more explosive out of the hole. Worked great.

Press is usually tough for me, but today went up without too much trouble. Finally triple digits on this.

Deadlifts were not too bad today too. I re-read SS deadlift chapter and realized that I was pretty much doing SLDLs. Getting the quads to fire early and locking the hips late really made the movement a lot easier.

Onward and upward.

[rjg91680]

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
145 x 3
195 x 2
225 x 5 x 3

Bench
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
85 x 3
115 x 2
130 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
135 x 5 x 2
165 x 3
195 x 2
235 x 5

I went to another gym today because the one I originally go to closes early on Saturday.

Squats were good - this is where I was before I deloaded to work on form. There was one rep where I think I leaned forward too much, but otherwise it went pretty good.

No problems with bench or deadlifts.

I'm going to train deadlifts on consecutive days for this week to get the numbers well past my squat per the suggestion in Practical Programming.

Cool thing - some old fat dude complimented my on my squats. I think he was a weight/powerlifter back in the 80's. He seemed kinda crazy though, but I'll take it.

[rjg91680]

Ever have one of those days when you're sitting on the toilet more than anywhere else? Yeah, that was yesterday. No workout for me. That would have been bad. Especially squats.

I lost about 3 lbs of water weight in the last 24 hours. Stomach is feeling ok today. Will workout tomorrow before I have to travel this weekend.

[rjg91680]

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
145 x 3
185 x 2
230 x 5 x 3

Press
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
75 x 3
85 x 2
105 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
135 x 5 x 2
175 x 3
215 x 2
245 x 5

Did this workout last night.

Squat form was a little iffy on some of the reps - I keep leaning forward too much. Some reps were spot on though. I think I'm going to start lifting my toes.

I increased the press by 5 lbs instead of 2.5 lbs because I went to the alternate gym where the smallest plates they have are 2.5 lbs. That said, I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to get all the reps.

Deadlift went well. I'm going to train deadlifts maybe 1 or 2 more times until I begin to alternate with power cleans again.

[rjg91680]

Last night's workout:

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
145 x 3
195 x 2
235 x 5 x 3

Bench
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
95 x 3
115 x 2
135 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
135 x 5 x 2
185 x 3
225 x 2
255 x 5

A 5 days break from training plus crap sleep = a brutal training day. Squats were really tough, and some were done with some bad form. I'm still leaning forward a bit on one or two of the reps, and I'm doing a very small good morning on a few of the final reps.

Bench press was a nice break from squats. I'm finally lifting a wheel on each side, which is a cool milestone. All of these went up pretty easy.

As I was completely gassed from the prior two exercises, the deadlift workset was more of a set of 4 with a single added onto the end. I really had to fight through this. I'm still using a double overhand grip, but my hands are pretty torn up. I think I'm going to switch to alternate grip for the next deadlift workset. This will probably be the last time I do deadlifts on consecutive workouts. Back to power cleans!

[rjg91680]

Last night's workout:

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
145 x 3
195 x 2
240 x 5 x 3

Press
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
85 x 3
95 x 2
107.5 x 5 x 3

Power clean
55 x 5
65 x 3
75 x 2
85 x 3

I had to cut this session short because I got to the gym late.

Squats were pretty terrible. My form was crap on the first rep of each set - I actually had to step forward to keep my balance on the very first workset rep. I also played around with grip, which was a mistake. On the first rep of the last set my grip was too wide and I could feel my arms holding the bar up instead of against my back. I racked the weight and readjusted my grip and did the remaining 4 reps. Weirdly enough, all of the other reps were fine. It's definitely time for some video.

Press was a little easier than I thought it would be, but still tough. I re-read the press chapter in SS and adjusted my elbows to be in front of the bar and for the bar to rest more on my deltoids.

Power cleans feel weird and slow. I think I knew that the place was going to close so I wanted to get some reps done, no matter how crappy the form was.