tdood's trying

[tdood]

My name is Tom Shadood, and this is my log.

Having spent a few years dicking around in the gym with fluctuating levels of dedication, I finally heard about Rippetoe from the "everything you know about fitness is a lie" article in the November 2010 issue of Men's Journal. I immediately began lurking this site and attempting to learn to squat. I bought the SS second edition and was able to learn to lift through a full range of motion and discovered the magic of 5's and "the novice effect."


I began my novice LP in November 2010 and logged my workouts. There were some hiccups and resets as I learned the movements, battled sore knees and worked through other minor injuries. I bought lifting shoes a few months in. A proper belt a few months after that and most of Rip's books and DVD that first year. My LP looked like this:

Squat: 95x5x3 - 285x5x3
Bench: 185x5x3 - 250x5x3
Press: 85x5x3 - 150x5x3
Deadlift: 395x5 - 450x5
PC: 95x3x5 - 205x3x5

This progression took place from November 2010 to August 2011, about 9 months. During this time I went from 230 to about 260 lbs. I drank a a half gallon of whole milk on many days.

Oh yeah, I was born in 1983, as of this entry I am 31. I'm currently 5'11" with long arms and legs and a short torso. This is not likely to change.

Thus I was reborn as an intermediate.
From that point on, for better or for worse, I have been milking the texas method in one form or another for every ounce I could. I have been on the texas method for almost 4 years. My knees hurt. My progress has been slow.

Lifts, then and now:
Squat: 275x5x5 - 405x5x3
5rm: 305- 435

Bench: we're not going to talk about this. My contest best is 303lbs.

Deadlift: 5rm 450 - 535

As I've shifted focus to competitive powerlifting press has not been a major focus. Recent lifts..
Press: 190x5 , 195x3, 205x2
Power clean: what's that?

At some point I had a kid and went from training 3x/w to 2x/w.

Current BW hovers around 260, I've been as high as 280 in the past year. That was a PR. My best platform total was 1410 in October 2014. I've done two meets and have my third in 12 days I think. I've been training alone for the past two years and allowed some form creep on my squats in the form of knee slide and possibly some other issues resulting in some pretty nasty knee pain that has derailed this current training cycle. I'm not feeling great about this upcoming meet but I think I will break my total, but wont come close to what I was hoping for a few months ago. I recently decided that I need to switch my programming around and found some hope in Andy Baker's two-part article about Dr. P. You will all be in on the ground floor for this experiment.

Past meet results: Aug 2014 - 490/276/586, Oct 2014 - 501/303/606

I'm hoping for something around 510/310/620 at the USAPL Brooklyn meet on April 26.

I post my contest videos on my instagram, look me up - Tom Shadood https://instagram.com/tomshadood/

I invite anyone to comment and share your thoughts with me.

[Sean Herbison]

So you decided not to wait for the meet to start this? Good on you. I'm younger and taller, but otherwise pretty similar. Unfortunately, this similarity also extends to the bench, except I don't even have the excuse of long arms.

Glad you started a log. I'll be watching.

[tdood]

I'll log my last workout so we have someplace to begin.

4/11/15 - I was a guest lifter at Adam Skillin's Black Iron Loft.
Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x3, 315x2, 365x1, 405x1, 445x1, 465x1, 490x1
Apparently my head was not down and I wasn't sitting back enough because everyone was yelling that at me during my heavier sets.
Minimal knee pain while trying the implement the cues.

Bench: I am not looking forward to publicly disclosing my embarrassing bench issues but here it goes, no excuses...
95x10, 135x8, 185x5, 225x3, 275x1, 305xfail, 275x4, 225x10
I was disappointed with this as I had done 310 the week before. Whatever, I can't do much before the meet to turn things around, only a few workouts left.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Hey its Tommy SHA- DOOOOOOD! as Geno would say.
I remember you from the NJ States meet. You borrowed my nose tork.

[tdood]

Hey its Tommy SHA- DOOOOOOD! as Geno would say.
I remember you from the NJ States meet. You borrowed my nose tork.

Haha yeah man!! I got my own now... Are you going to do that meet again?

[Adam Skillin]

Haha yeah man!! I got my own now... Are you going to do that meet again?

Should have brought it Saturday. Wouldn't have missed that 305 bench!

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

Haha yeah man!! I got my own now... Are you going to do that meet again?

I think I might. Haven't quite planned it out yet.

[tdood]

4/13/15 Monday
I wanted reinforce the stuff I had worked on regarding my squat;
slightly wider stance, sit back more, chin down.
I considered putting a tennis ball under my chin, but I was able to use my fat.
Squat: 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 275x3, 315x2,365x5, 385x5

These felt good, a little bit different, but hopefully they'll be second nature by the meet (13 days out)
Something was giving me crippling pain beginning behind my left scapula and radiating down my arm into my elbow where I felt the beginnings of "squatters elbow" starting to develop. I couldn't press at this point so I moved on to deadlifts.

Deadlift: 315x3, 405x1, 495x1, 615xfail

I took way too big a jump to my top set. I would have gotten it had I pulled another warmup. The left arm pain affected my grip and I just quit on it. I wanted more back work so I did the following.

2" block pull : 615x1, 515x2
Power shrug: 615x5
Snatch grip SLDL: 315x5

I was feeling cooked at this point but I wanted a little blood in my shoulders and arms so I did some light presses.
155x5x3

[B. Murphy]

SHA-DOOOOOD! Glad to see the log on here, I wish I could put up numbers like you do.
Stay on track with your workouts before the meet and crush it there!

[Sean Herbison]

Something was giving me crippling pain beginning behind my left scapula and radiating down my arm into my elbow where I felt the beginnings of "squatters elbow" starting to develop.

Do you chin much? I used to get elbow pain from various sources, but I haven't had any problems since I started doing chinups regularly.