A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

[Caesar]

I had a very short log here. After losing my account information to dream thieves I decided to simply make a new one, as little has happened since then and it was a very whiny thread anyway. I'll skip the history (for now...) and get right to the meat.

[Vitals]
Age: 19
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 190

Indeed, I am a chubby. This shall be remedied.

[Starting Lifts]

Squat:
55 x 5

Bench Press:
55 x 5

Press:
45 x 5

Deadlift:
135 x 5

Power Clean:
45 x 5

Now for today's workout:

8/10/2011

Squat:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 3
105 x 3
135 x 5 x 3

Bench Press:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
90 x 5
95 x 5 x 3

Deadlift:
135 x 4
185 x 1
245 x 5 x 1

Lying Tricep Extension:
25 x 8
45 x 12 x 3

Yes, I know the tricep extensions are for intermediate lifters but I had a few extra minutes and had been dying to try them since the platform video came out. I definitely took the shoulder extension a little too far as a consequence of an uneven grip on the camber - something to watch out for when I eventually program these in - but my arms have never been so exhausted. Felt great, and these are every bits as fulfilling as I was hoping. Can't wait to get started on them proper.

I dropped the weight on the squats to 135 to make sure my form was adequate. As opposed to going ATG every rep - I realized there's a point right about parallel where I can no longer keep my lower back in extension to the extent I want to - I discovered how to initiate the bounce without literally dropping all the way down. The concern with this is that I'm fairly sure I cut off too much depth at least once, and as fatigue sets in I need to make sure this doesn't happen. The improvement in posture throughout each rep was immediately noticeable though.

The bench was interesting. I slowed down at 85 and figured I had my work set, but at the end it I realized I definitely had more in me. Bumped it up to 90, pumped out a set, same deal. At 95 I got to the point where I wasn't comfortable increasing the weight any further without a spotter, and my arms were quivering on the last rep or two of the second and third sets. I felt a very strange vibrating sensation in my outer elbows during those same reps, which I imagine has something to do with keeping my arms in position and not letting my elbows go wherever they want. Hopefully the weight was heavy enough to spur on that adaptation and get me some chesticles.

Deadlifting, as usual, was fun. I usually warm up to the tune of 135 x 5, 155 x 4, 175 x 3, 195 x 2, 215 x 1 --> [workset], but I thought I was running out of time and skipped through most of that. I have a feeling my back may have rounded a bit on the second and third reps, but if they did I brought it under control on the last two. I switched the supinated hand from left to right on the last rep for the sake of making an effort at balance. I actually think the bar came off the ground quickest on the fourth rep or so, and I had to fight just a bit to actually lock it out on the last. I'm keeping the rest between reps appropriate - I think the whole set was done in fifty seconds or so - which was a concern the last time I was pulling this weight. All said, this was a good set.

I'd been awake for fifteen hours as of the beginning of this 5:18AM workout, so I slept for six and a half hours after the post-workout meal. I woke up with a slight twinge right above my left buttock (which tells me I should be careful about my starting position in deadlifts) as well as a slight inability to dislocate my shoulders, doubtlessly because of the stupid degree to which I let my arms fall back during the extensions. Nothing severe, and nothing that won't go away in a day or two with lots of food and sleep.

[Ham]

Good luck with the program.

Obviously you need to ditch the EZ-bar Lying Triceps Extension and just do the basics. If you feel like doing something extra do chins, maybe situps (dips are fine too).

Nice deadlift. Squat is sort of lagging, any particular reason for that?

How long have you been doing SS?

I recently started doing the program (and I'm myself a chronic chubby).

[Caesar]

I acquainted myself with Starting Strength last summer but since then have put maybe three or four weeks of diligent training under my belt. My biggest problem in general was eating enough food; while I rarely go without the necessary protein, in terms of sheer caloric intake I've always put myself on the light end of 3000 due to my body composition. But I find that when I eat whatever I want in whatever quantities I deem satisfying, keeping track only of protein, I make progress and maintain [or lose!] weight [as per A Clarification]. So that is what I'm doing now.

The squat - and press, bench press, and power clean - are lagging because I have not consistently attacked them with any conviction. The bench press was simply a matter of insecurity; I was always too embarrassed to be seen struggling with the baby plates, so I just never did the lift. I started doing pushups instead, which has certainly helped in the absence of any other relevant work but is obviously not a true substitute even at the low-rep ranges in which I can manage them. The press largely fell victim to the nutrition debacle, but also caused me a couple of temporary dings in the left shoulder, elbow, and lower back because of truly terrible form. The power clean has never been terribly hard and I enjoy doing it, and I imagine my progress on the deadlift has helped drive it even if I haven't practiced it as consistently as I should have.

The squat I have wrestled with for a long time. I suffered through at least half a dozen major form faults for months of sporadic work usually without realizing I was committing them, and of course the lack of sufficient food didn't help. Two weeks of decent work saw my squat jump from 105 to 165 but with no active lumbar extension and a caving chest, as well as what I've recently recognized to be a lack of control - or understanding - of the bounce. I count myself lucky to have escaped that trial phase with nothing more than a minor [and thankfully long gone] twinge in the left knee. I'm attempting to fix all this good and proper by lowering the weight and working my way back up with strict attention to form and all the food necessary to drive progress.

And while I don't want to give anyone the impression that I place the premium on giant arms that many men do, it's never been clear to me why a novice shouldn't undertake any "beach work," as Bill Starr calls it. I understand the idea of redundancy, as many feel that chin ups and the presses will add sufficient mass to the arms, but many have also expressed the sentiment that this program does not build enough upper body mass in general. Maybe a lot of these folks come from the curl-bench-curl crowd Rippetoe so disdains, and as such will have already experienced most of the hypertrophy that would otherwise have been milked from the novice program, but I don't want to dismiss criticism without fair thought.

Now, I have no plans to continue EZ-curl lying tricep extensions, nor will I be adding barbell curls. I think it could be instructive to see what a young male with no real history of upper body training sees happen during the novice program. I'm simply curious as to what the experience of others has been, and what precedent says I would be likely to gain or lose by making minor modifications.

[Caesar]

8/12/2011

Squat:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
105 x 5
125 x 3
145 x 5 x 3

Press:
45 x 5
65 x 5
75 x 4 --> 70 x 5 x 2

Power Clean:
45 x 1
65 x 1
95 x 3 x 5

I met a young Crossfitter today with whom I worked in on squats. Great guy, and a lean 5' 10" 190 with a +400 deadlift to boot. He let me know when I lost lumbar extension - which happened to be right when I missed my conscious bounce and dropped ATG - which was a huge help in figuring out exactly how to feel the right depth at which to get on up out of the hole. Timing couldn't be better. Perhaps not coincidentally, squats were somewhat fun for the first time in memory. I definitely felt ready for this weight.

The press was sad. My triceps are still morbidly trashed from the extensions I shouldn't have done last Wednesday, but they didn't cause me any real trouble here; I just couldn't power out of the bottom on the last rep of 75, and I forgot that I'd brought my 1.25s. I'll get it next time.

The power clean warmups look strange, I'm sure, but the 45 offered too little resistance to get anything out of the movement and I nearly hit my forehead on the 65. 95 was enough resistance to work with, this being my first time doing the lift in at least two months, and at least at first just hard enough that I had to work to land it cleanly on the deltoids. On the second rep of the fourth set I think I really hit my stride, and ended up cleaning the bar way too high again but landing it solidly. I did notice that my feet end up pointing out at 70 degrees or so after the clean, probably because I'm not focusing enough on the stomp. I'll fix this next time too, and bump up the weight ten pounds.

[Caesar]

8/28/2011

Squat:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 4
105 x 3
115 x 2
135 x 5 x 3

Bench Press:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
95 x 5 x 3

Power Clean:
45 x 1
65 x 1
85 x 1
95 x 3
105 x 3 x 3

---

8/31/2011

Squat:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
105 x 4
125 x 3
145 x 5 x 3

Press:
45 x 5
55 x 5
65 x 5
70 x 4
65 x 5 x 3

Deadlift:
135 x 5
185 x 3
205 x 2
225 x 1
245 x 5 x 1

Long layoff as I transitioned from home in New York to school in Atlanta, but lifting and eating is now underway. Dropped the squat back again a little bit to reinforce form and work on flexibility, and same deal with the press; the difficulty at 70 wasn't terrible, but my friend pointed out that a) the left side of the bar is dipping down at the top of the rep b) the right side of the bar is tilted a little forward of the left at the top of the rep c) my right wrist is bent slightly more than the left. I suspect the first two issues are tied to the third, as my grip on the squat is uneven as well and there was a distinct pain in my wrist immediately after my first work set on the squats that made me realize and adjust it.

The deadlift was weird, though. The work weight was literally pulling my left hand open, and while I'll acknowledge an unevenness in grip strength it's never been a problem to that extent. I actually had to drop the left side down before the right on the last two reps because I was about to drop the bar, and that does not seem healthy. The warm up was brief because [I thought] the gym was closing, so I'll make sure not to let that be a problem again.

[Caesar]

9/10/2011

Squat:
45 x 5
65 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 4
135 x 3
155 x 5 x 3

Bench Press:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5 x 2
95 x 5
105 x 5 x 3

Power Clean:
95 x 3
115 x 3
115 x 3 x 5

Finally got back to 155. The 135 felt heavy and I was considering just doing my work sets with that - Saturday morning, give me a break - but thankfully I threw on the 10s, gave it a shot, and wasn't disappointed. The first set was admittedly completed with almost intolerable form as far as posture is concerned and had a twinge on the outside of my right ankle from letting it cave in a bit, but I improved everything by tightening up and the rest of the workset was fine.

Bench wasn't bad at all; I think that was a PR, actually. I find that I warm up very slowly on this lift, and I don't know how much of that to attribute to the time of day.

Cleans were fine. I failed the second rep of my first set and realized I was reverse curling the bar a little. Adjusting for that, I called it a warmup, started the workset over, and everything else went off more or less without a hitch.

[Caesar]

9/13/2011

Squat:
BW x 5
45 x 5
65 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 3
135 x 3
155 x 1
165 x 5 x 3

Press:
45 x 5
55 x 5
65 x 3
75 x 5 x 3

Due to continual scheduling mishaps that will be dealt with shortly, I had to cut out the pull today. I will be hitting the gym at 6:30 AM tomorrow to get that in, and may go for the bench press or assistance work while I'm there. I'll be out of town and away from a good gym until Saturday evening and can resume training on Sunday; thankfully, this trip will see me very well fed and I will return with the bucket of whey I left at home.

I think I'm finally getting used to squatting. I was comfortable with the lower back business and the weight didn't crush me like I thought it was going to. The last rep of the first set was a little "eh" (chest didn't stay up) and the second set in general was just barely acceptable. The third was fine. I'd planned on caffeinating myself - college encourages chemicals, just saying - immediately before squats as a source of placeboeffectorotherwise-derived confidence but forgot my coffee, and as such was a little scared to get under the bar. But I did, and I made it. On my way up from the last rep of the last set, Rippetoe's "your limits are rarely what you think they are" came to mind.

Keeping in mind that making large jumps one is not prepared for tends to be an inefficient way of sustaining linear progress, I put ten pounds on the press from last week and made it comfortably due to a change in form. In one of the other logs here (Sullydog?) the lifter lauded the version of the press in which breathing occurs at the top and a stretch reflex is utilized at the bottom. I like this.

Lots.

Edit: Yes, it was Sullydog. Much obliged.

[Caesar]

9/20/2011

Squat:
BW x 5
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 5
135 x 3
155 x 3
175 x 3/2/2

Bench Press:
45 x 5
65 x 5
85 x 5
95 x 5
115 x 5/5/3

Didn't see this coming. The excuse that comes to mind is that I had four and a half hours of sleep and one box of Chinese food - which has now successfully upset my stomach - prior to the workout, and was too gassed to pull. I didn't expect to crash this badly this soon; I'll check with SSBT2/PPST2 to see what to do next workout, but in the interim food and sleep clearly need to be seen to.

Edit: Perhaps fewer warmup sets next time on the squat. I should note that the 115 bench was a ten pound PR, and regardless of the fact that I didn't complete the sets this pleases me.