Yet another, run of the mill, boring old...... Starting Strength Log

[aron]

ok, cutting a very long story short here. 2 years ago, I had managed to eat myself to a very very fat 220 lbs at 5' 8''. I decided to do something about it and began running every day. I managed to bring myself down to a much trimmer, but still pretty fat 180lbs.

About three weeks ago I discovered starting strength, bought the book, and pretty much read everything on the internet there was to read on it. I am now two weeks into the program, and will begin logging from here. Progress so far: (weight for workouts in 5rm)

Bodyweight: 180 lb- 190 lb
Squat: 110 lb - 176 lb (i have an old knee injury from years ago which recently started hurting again, so i wear a knee sleeve, and weirdly enough it hurts when i do a bodyweight squat, but when i have weight on my back and i break parralel, it completely stops hurting during the set)
Bench: 110 lb - 154 lb
Deadlift: 132 lb - 209 lb
Press: 66 lb - 104.5 lb
Power Clean: just started these, was able to pretty easily hit 110 lb but starting at 77 lb to get form

I guess the purpose of this log is to have somewhere to post my workouts and any difficulties I run into. I have a logbook already, so feel free to insert as many of your own comments in as you want.

Aims: (Big three total)
Current: 245 kg > 539 lb

December 30th: 280 kg > 616 lb

January 30th: 340 kg > 748 lb

February 30th: 390 kg > 858 lb

March 30th: 440 kg > 968 lb

Cheers guys, support and suggestions are most welcome!

[aron]

Quick post about diet, since Im a uni student living at home, my diets not rlly very fixed. I generally get about 60g of protein from my shakes, plus a few chicken mayo sandwhiches, plus some tuna or eggs, cereal in the morning, and i snack a lot on bread and stuff during the day. My major two weaknesses in terms of diet are mayo and bread, and lack of fruit and veggies.

[aron]

Todays workout:

Squats: 80 kg x 5 > this was the hardest set of anything ive ever done, my face was going red and i was straining to get the reps, so lowered to 70 kg and got 70 kg x 10 and then x 8

Bench: 70 kg x 5, 5, 4 missed the last rep on the last set, all three sets were rlly hard, so gonna repeat the weight and if i hit all three then ill increase it.

Deadlift: 95 kg x 5 felt pretty easy, feeling good about the deadlifts.

I think next workout im going to deload squats to 70 kg and restart 5,5,5 from there, only increasing 2.5 kg per workout instead of my previous 5 or 10 kg jumps.

[aron]

Up to 192.5 lb today!! definately starting to feel the roll on my stomach when i sit down....... might be time to start adding some cardio in :s

noticed something weird tho... altho im nowhere near visible abs, when i tense, only my upper abs harden, i guess because theres so much excess skin on my stomach

[aron]

Todays Workout:

Squat: 70kg 5,5,5

Press: 50kg 4,5,5,5 PR!!--
rlly happy with this, i think the press is fast turning into my favourite excersize.... I started with 4 reps, struggled, and just managed to heavily push press the last one. I began to swap the plates to move it down to 47.5 kg but then i thought, fuck it i can do this, so i put the 15s back on either side and easily hit the reps. I found it was easier when i widened my legs. I did the extra set just to make sure i could hit 5,5,5

Power Cleans: didnt go very well, thought id be clever and use 50kg my second time ever power cleaning, thought i got the first two sets pretty easily, but then an oly lifter who lifts in my gym told me that i wasnt shrugging hard enough and i was using my arms. I tried about 20 times with the bar only but it didnt seem to go any better.

Pretty happy with the workout because of the press, but i need to seriously think about the power cleans. I have winter break coming up so i think im going to book a couple of sessions in at a powerlifting/ oly lifting gym near me and have them go through my form on all the lifts with me..... its called genesis gym, run by a guy named Dave Beattie, who according to their website has squatted over 1000 lbs!! should be awesome if i can get a couple of sessions in

If ppl do read this post, id be very interested to know what you would do in my case.... if i practice my powerclean form with just the bar, how will i know when its time to add weight on? i mean its not like a deadlift where you either get the weight up or dont... ur form has to be perferct

[aron]

just tried suit on, the suit which i was measured for in october is now clinging to my legs when i sit down, pretty tight around the chest and under the arms.... think im gonna have to get a new one in a couple of weeks.... also, had an idea... whenever i read starting strength logs, people always give a weight and then just estimate their bodyfat levels, and you can never really get a clear picture of how big they actually got, so i think im going to include an updated progress picture every month..... the one in the first post was taken at the beggining of november, this is from the beggining of december. Ideally id like to reach 200 lb by the end of the year and then maintain that whilst radically altering my body composition.

Me at 192 lbs:

Attachment 838

[aron]

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[aron]

Todays Workout

Squats: 72.5 kg 5,5,5

Bench: 60 kg 5,5,5: i knew it wasn't happening with 72.5kg, i squeezed out two reps and had to rack it before i hurt myself, problem was definitely form. I deloaded to 60 kg and bench 5,5,5 with impecable form, explosively up, controlled down, pause on chest. Gonna reload up from here keeping form in check.

Deadlift: 100 kg 5,5,5 PR! I've hit the weight once before, but form was shit and i struggled, here, i reset every rep, and by the 15th rep it sailed up. Feeling really confident about the deadlift, i think that and the press are my favorite lifts.

Curlz: 30 kg: 10,10,10,8 Gay PR! when i started a month ago i could just about cheat curl 30kg for 6 reps, today i easily hit the 10 and felt i could probably get 12, and my form was freakin awesome

Dips: Still on BW dips: 6,5

1000m Row: 3:58 mins !!!!! last tested this a month ago, since then ive put on 12 pounds and done no cardio. When i last tested it, I went all out, had it on difficulty 6/10, and managed to just about hit 4:12 mins. Today i upped it to a nearly manly 8/10, and hit 3:58 mins, only having to break once as opposed to the 6 times i had to break last time..... so essentially, the strength < conditioning argument, can go screw itself. (not rlly, but still very happy with this)

[aron]

Todays Workout

Squats: 75 kg 5,6,5 Lost concentration in second set and did extra rep. Focused on curling toes up and staying on heels. Harder than normal.

Press: 52.5 kg 4,4,4 PR I guess 2.5 kg jumps per workout are starting to get too much for the press so im ordering some micro plates. In the meantime Im gonna follow Rips advice, and retry the weight for two workouts before deloading.

Deadlift: 105 kg 5 PR Not gonna be doing power cleans till january so figured id throw in an extra set of deadlifts. Hit it easily. Deadlifts are much easier than squats now.

Weighted decline crunches: BW+10kg 15,15 I read on another thread that weighted crunches rlly helped someone else burst through a press plateu so figured id try it out

Dips: BW 7,7,7 PR Keepin em slow an controlled

[aron]

Todays Workout
Squat: 77.5 kg 5,5,5

Bench: 62.5 kg: 5,5,5

Deadlift: 110 kg 1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1 PR!!

Dips: BW 8,7,7 (8: PR!)

Weighted Decline crunches: BW + 10kg: 15,15