Mike's SS Log

[mikeylikey]

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EDIT: This log is no longer active. My current log is here: http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=23259
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Currently, 5'10 and 185-188# depending on what I ate last night :-).

So I just got the book (SS:BBT), studied up, and yesterday (5/23/10) went to the gym for the first time - (not the first time ever, just the first time on the program). A summary is at the end of the post, but here are my reactions:

Okay, about the squats: looks like I need to work on my flexibility, because it hurts my elbows and shoulders like crazy to get into the position coach Rip shows in the book. Ouch. The weight was no problem, I think I could have handled an extra 40 lbs easy. But I was in such pain upstairs that I was totally distracted as to form, so didn't want to add more weight and fall over or something stupid like that. Got home and re-read the squat chapter, and noticed that he mentions you are allowed to do high-bar until you build up flexibility. Relieved about that.

Press: Nothing exciting - started with the bar, added weight till it slowed down, two more sets of 5. Pretty easy (although my shoulders are sore today)

Deadlift: I'm going to have to build some mental toughness here. The 165# came up quickly enough, but I sure felt like I had no business lifting that much weight. A glance in the mirror indicated my form was decent though.

Bench: Okay, I know, right? First day, and already INDTP. Here's the deal: After the non-workout squat workout, I had some time and energy left over, so I decided to just work on my bench form a teeny little bit. Haven't benched a free bar since college. Took this one real easy, just getting familiar with racking and unracking, staring at the celing, etc. - so i'm not counting this one as a workout.

I think my next workout is going to be wednesday the 26th. I'll update then. Eating lots of protein in the meantime.

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Here are yesterday's work sets. (Oh, and welcome, to those of you who wisely skimmed through all the long-winded crap above)

Squat: 3x5 @ 115# (see above)

Press: 3x5 @ 70#

Deadlift: 1x5 @ 165#

Bench: 3x5 @ 105# (annnnd see above)

[mikeylikey]

And by the way, I am pretty sore today.

[Beltshumeltz]

Nice job, and be proud of your bench work, working on form is always useful and too many people don't take this aspect seriously enough. Next time, do you plan to lift until the bar slows down on the last few reps to find your true starting weight or do you plan to start at 45 and add a bit each workout?

Didn't the deadlift make you feel great tho? My first deadlift was 160 pounds, and even though it was easy enough, I too felt the same thing as you in that it required some mental toughness. I can't wait to double my starting numbers as I'm getting close now (295).

For the squat, I had similar problems, but only elbow pain. To the point where it made me stop squatting, but I have now fixed it, and have now squatted 15 times over the last 5 weeks with no significant problems at all, going from 160 to 245.

So here's the trick (your problem might be different though).

I was letting my shoulders relax somewhere through the set, sometimes only on the way to re-racking the bar. So either during these last reps or while lowering the bar to rack it, I would let the bar roll on my back a bit and my elbows would bear some of its weight, even for a short time.

You could say that now that I never relax my shoulders, they got a bit stronger so keeping the shoulders and the elbows up is no longer a problem - they don't get tired even in a long set. I have had ZERO pain lately thanks to this. The rare times I do forget this, it hurts right away (well, right after racking the bar), but only for one set since I fix it after I notice it. So focus on keeping your deltoids and elbows up, even up to the time the bar is re-racked!


BTW if you are still sore by your next workout, go ahead and add weight to the bar anyway. As long as you warmup, muscle soreness is not an indicator of a loss of strength and you'll forget about sore legs once you have 125 or 120 pounds on your back. It is also not an indicator of a gain of anything, so don't try to seek soreness either. It's just there.

[mikeylikey]

oops double post

[mikeylikey]

Nice job, and be proud of your bench work, working on form is always useful and too many people don't take this aspect seriously enough. Next time, do you plan to lift until the bar slows down on the last few reps to find your true starting weight or do you plan to start at 45 and add a bit each workout?

Didn't the deadlift make you feel great tho? My first deadlift was 160 pounds, and even though it was easy enough, I too felt the same thing as you in that it required some mental toughness. I can't wait to double my starting numbers as I'm getting close now (295).

For the squat, I had similar problems, but only elbow pain. To the point where it made me stop squatting, but I have now fixed it, and have now squatted 15 times over the last 5 weeks with no significant problems at all, going from 160 to 245.

So here's the trick (your problem might be different though).

I was letting my shoulders relax somewhere through the set, sometimes only on the way to re-racking the bar. So either during these last reps or while lowering the bar to rack it, I would let the bar roll on my back a bit and my elbows would bear some of its weight, even for a short time.

You could say that now that I never relax my shoulders, they got a bit stronger so keeping the shoulders and the elbows up is no longer a problem - they don't get tired even in a long set. I have had ZERO pain lately thanks to this. The rare times I do forget this, it hurts right away (well, right after racking the bar), but only for one set since I fix it after I notice it. So focus on keeping your deltoids and elbows up, even up to the time the bar is re-racked!


BTW if you are still sore by your next workout, go ahead and add weight to the bar anyway. As long as you warmup, muscle soreness is not an indicator of a loss of strength and you'll forget about sore legs once you have 125 or 120 pounds on your back. It is also not an indicator of a gain of anything, so don't try to seek soreness either. It's just there.

Thanks for the encouragement.

On the Bench I do plan on repeating the "first workout" routine next time, and maybe another time or two after that. Not so much for form, after all it's just bench, it's pretty simple; more because I'm inexperienced enough, I don't want to work to failure by surprise - want to get a better feel for the weight. I did some benching on a smith machine recently (pre-ss), and had to bail out on some reps I thought I was going to make. Don't want that happening under a bar.

Yeah, squatting I'm just not used to having that bar up there. It's frustrating, becuase I had been doing some DB squats before, and had worked up to 65's, so I know my legs and back could have lifted more than I was able to hold on my shoulders. I'm definately going to use the high bar position for a while and work on my flexibility.

And deadlift, I just have this fear that I'm going to rip a massive heria or something, and I know that's silly because people lift 5 times what I'm doing all the time without any of these problems, and I myself have zero history of any issues. So confidence will help. For one thing, I worked my way to 165 really gradually, so by the time I got there I'd already worked quite a bit of volume. Next time my plan is to go for 185 with just a standard amount of warmup sets. That'll be this Friday.

Gotta go eat some chicken, and get psyched for tomorrow. Goals: Squat 125; Bench 110; Chins ?? (No pc's for me, yet)

[Beltshumeltz]

For the benchpress, you're gonna have to get used to either asking people for a spot or being ready to dump the weights from side to side (without having collars on), because you will eventually reach failure at the bottom...

If you are alone however, another thing you can do is set yourself a bench under a power rack, with safety bars right above or below your arched chest's level. This way if you really can't lift anymore, you lower the bar to the safety pins while lowering your chest too.

I did DB benchpresses for a while out of fear until it got more dangerous than benchpressing a BB. Now I just work on my confidence at asking (sometimes skinny ladies) for a spot :P

[mikeylikey]

Second workout:

Squats felt much better today. I moved the bar up a tad, and it was much more comfortable. I'll work on my flexibility and gradually get it lower. Was able to add 20# over last time, probably could have gone more as my reps were very quick and I didn't need much rest at all. But, no need to rush. It felt good to have the big wheels on the bar :-).

Also, I re-read the squat chapter a couple of times since my last workout, and today I focused on the bit about tightening the shoulders and lifting the elbows+chest BEFORE taking the bar out. What a difference that makes! Guys, you can't just read the book once and then put it away. Study that thing!

As I mentioned I'm doing chins instead of power cleans, so I guess I'm not doing SS but rather the Practical Programming Novice program. I have zero athletic aspirations, nor can I find a properly equipped gym (no bumper plates or platform) if I did. And I suck at chins, it's actually pretty pitiful. I guess that means I have lots of potential for novice gains!

Work sets:

Squat 3x5 @ 135#
Bench 3 x 5 @ 110#
(assisted) Chins 3x5 @ -80# (bleggkh)

[mikeylikey]

Okay, 3rd official workout today.

Squats: Easy. Still have the bar up higher than ideal, will continue to work on flexibility. At this point the lifting the weight is easier than keeping the bar where it's supposed to be. Oh, and I stopped at the bottom of #4 of the 3rd set, to look at my knees. Note to self: don't do that when the weight gets heavier :-).

Press: Went up 10 lbs, since last time was easy. Got all the reps, a little slower this time, but not like taking forever to get the bar up or anything. So I think the 10# jump was the right call, but I'm going to go to 5# jumps from here on presses.

Deads: Added 20 lbs. Was thinking, man, this feels like waay to much weight for me. But it came up pretty quick. Then I realized that's exactly how I felt 20 lbs ago. Cool. I think I'll switch to 15 lb jumps now, because I don't want to screw up my form getting overly ambitious.

Work sets:

Squat: 3 x 5 @ 145#
Press: 3 x 5 # 80#
Deadlift: 5 @ 185#

[mikeylikey]

For those interested, my BW is currently 188 (@ 5'10"). I technically started SS a week ago, but I'd been doing a hack version with DBs and the curl bar at my work gym for about 2 weeks prior. Before that bw was 185 and actually trying to still lose weight on 1700cals/day. I've upped my calories to about 2500/day because I don't want to lose any weight at the moment, but I don't really think I need to gain alot either; I think I'm kinda right in that zone where I just need to recompose, not go up or down. I'll increase my eating if and when my recovery starts to suffer, but so far so good.

[Beltshumeltz]

Also, I re-read the squat chapter a couple of times since my last workout, and today I focused on the bit about tightening the shoulders and lifting the elbows+chest BEFORE taking the bar out. What a difference that makes! Guys, you can't just read the book once and then put it away. Study that thing!

I just want to clarify something in case I induced you to error. You seem to have it right. But my own explanation earlier was incorrect as I stated you also need to bring the shoulders up. Someone corrected me on my own log and it was helpful - it's shoulders down (ie. not shrugged like I used to do), elbows up, chest up. Anyway, I think you got it right anyway but since I wrote something incorrect, I had to write this.