PDC's training log

[PDC]

Hello, I'm relatively new here, but have been NDTP for about 7 months now, and was NDTP last summer as well, my goal was primarily weight loss, because I was big, and not the good kind, the fat-as-fatass kind. In hindsight I think it would've been a better idea for me to actually do the program, and have it gradually take me down to my "correct" body size, but oh well, that's what I plan to do now. At any rate I'm down from 233 to 152 @ around 20% body fat. I am 5' 6" tall 19 yrs old, so I think 170-175@20% is a good 4-month goal for me, my main goal is to get strong, because being weak sucks.

My best recent lifts, with good form are: 150x5/5/4 Squat, 105x5x3 Bench, 165x5 Deadlift, 90lbx5/4/3 Press, and 95x5x3 Power Clean. My first day, doing the program, eating(hopefully) enough, instead of NDTP and only eating 1200 calories a day in protein powder and chicken breast, was today. I've eaten 2320 calories so far, and plan to eat another 680 for dinner, I'm prepared to up my calories to 3500 as my first response to stalling, or any hint at stalling.

8/16/12
Squat 105x5x3
Press 65x5x3
Deadlift 135x5

Felt fine, can't wait to get some serious weight on the bar. Presses felt the best form-wise, I feel like I still haven't mastered hip drive yet for squats, but I stay tight and hit depth every time. Knees have been hurting a bit recently, dunno if its from the excessive cardio I was doing, knees traveling forward on squats, or what, going to really focus on sitting back and hip drive though. Gotta make sure to not look too far up while deadlifting, don't wanna hurt my neck when the weight gets heavy.

Had 6 eggs fried in a tbsp of butter, with an orange for breakfast - 600 cal, 42g prot, quart of milk- 600 cal, 32g prot, 2 turkey burgers and half a bag of peas - 575 cal, 44g prot, and a 1/3lb beef burger with more peas, 545 cal, 41g prot. Total so far: 2320 cal, 169g protein, I'm thinking another burger, a piece of chicken, and more veggies for dinner for another 680 cals and 50g+ protein. Feeling hungry right now, which sucks. I think this is still above maintenance for me right now though, enough to allow a steady gain without much fat gain, which I have plenty of..but I think I'll eventually up the calorie intake to at least 3500 to continue seeing progress. I envy you tall guys that can drink milk and eat burgers all day...sounds like heaven. Edit: total: 3035 calories, 260g protein, lots of chicken breast and broccoli for dinner.

Gonna make sure I get to bed early tonight, and be ready for some bench press and power cleans on sat. Gonna bring my bro(12) with me and try to get him a 7-day free pass, planning on teaching him the 5 main lifts. I was wrestling with him in the pool earlier and after some questions discovered his school has a wrestling team...hmm.....

[PDC]

Good nutrition past 2 days, good sleep, slept like a baby Thursday night. Gonna be a good day tomorrow, got 2 16 ounce steaks in the fridge, 2 4 ounce steaks for breakfast, a chicken, pork chops, and some ground beef I gotta get through in the next few days, plus plenty of burgers, chicken, shrimp, eggs and milk.

Decided to do deadlifts instead of power cleans today, because I still have yet to re-read the chapter on power cleans since I read it last summer, and want to make sure I've got form down, so today was:

Squat115x5x3
Bench 85x5x3
Deadlift 150x5

Um, btw, in my notes for the Programming section of the book it says to start with 15lb increments for the deadlift, then go down to 5lb after that...won't that eventually put my squat ahead of my deadlift, if I'm adding 5lbs 3x a week to that, but the same amount - but only 1-2 times a week to my deadlift? I mean the deadlift will have a good headstart, but still..maybe I made a mistake and Rip actually suggests 10lb increments?

Btw, training with my bro did not go particularly well..tried to teach him to squat, but at about half depth he just lowers his chest and rounds his back and makes it horizontal. Told him to keep chest up, back straight, weight on heels, knees out, made sure he had the right stance, perhaps he's too weak to squat even his body weight? Or perhaps he just has no control over his hips? Not sure.. at any rate, the press didn't work out, he said the 45lb bar was too heavy while I was just trying to get him in the right position to carry the bar, and the only smaller bar my gym has won't fit in the rack. Bar again was too heavy for benching, got him to lock it out and then he immediately put it back in the rack..so I had him do some dumbell bench presses which he didn't take very seriously, don't do the exercise myself but made sure he was tucking his elbows in a little and bringing the weights to his lower chest, or at least tried to enforce this, he seemed more interested in mocking my suggestion to "ignore outside factors, like people talking to you, during a heavy set - stay focused" as permission to tell his coach "not listening haha, cant listen to you right now" while I'm trying to correct his form errors. The weight was light - 15lbs total, and he did a lot of reps but he just refused to do them correctly. I thought deadlifts would be easy enough, but despite all my attempts to teach him how to control his spine, he apparently just couldn't do it, and pulled a rep without me giving the go-ahead, which I told him not to do before I said so - in the end I decided not to let him do any deadlifting - even with the empty bar raised 8 inches off the floor, unless he could straigten his back before the pull. I told him to try squatting some more while I finished my workout(going on 2 hours now in the gym), but he was more interested in watching me, at least for a brief moment, before deciding to walk on the treadmill for 7 minutes. It was a very frustrating experience, if anyone has any suggestions they would be greatly appreciated, the next time we go I think I'll have him do some dumbbell presses, and do a little more with the dumbbell bench press, if I can get him to do them right. Perhaps I can have him do leg presses with really light weights, to work his way up with the squat?

[PDC]

Today went well, last 2 days have been decent nutrition, definitely getting enough calories, ate out for dinner twice though, made sure to get something with meat, meatball hero yesterday, hamburgers today, had desert though and made me feel kinda crappy, even though it was delicious. Gonna focus hard on meat, eggs, fruits and veggies, thinking about cutting the dairy and definitely limiting/eliminating the starches and nuts, and most definitely stop myself from indulging in sweets too often, hard to pass up after you've been on a diet of chicken, vegetables, and protein powder for 7 months. Eating 3500 calories is far too easy, especially with liquid calories(milk) and 200 calories in 2 spoonfuls(peanut butter), I could easily eat 6000-7000 calories if I wanted to, wish I was a skinny 6-footer with a 65lb squat.

Anyway, squat 125x5x3, Press 70x5x3, Deadliftx165x5 - I don't know if I rounded my back on these, I didn't want to turn my head to check in the mirror and it was early am with nobody nearby to ask to make sure. I was definitely extending hard, but I don't know if it was enough..can tell if I'm activity trying to keep my back extended, just can't tell if it's actually extended or not. Also not sure if after I'm done increasing these by 15lbs if I move down to 10lbs(logical) or 5lbs(what the book says, but it also says deadlift should be ahead of squat..which it wont be for long if I only increase the deadlift 5lbs every workout, since it will be done less frequently than the squat, which I'll be increasing by the same amount, 3 times a week, once I'm done with 10lb jumps). I think I might want to repeat deadlifts at this weight, and get someone to watch me and make sure my back's straight, perhaps even reduce it to 10lb jumps after this, I have a history of rounding my back with the deadlift, and afterall, I want to make steady progress with proper form, not rush ahead just to stroke my ego.

[PDC]

Squat 135x5x3
Bench 90x5x3
Power Clean 80x3x5

Power cleans felt a lot better with a wider grip, but I think I may need to go even wider - I have a tendency to rack the bar too far back, hitting my clavicles instead of my anterior shoulder - that's gonna hurt when the weight gets heavy. Overall they went pretty good. Asked someone to watch my back, told me it rounded once, focused more on extending back throughout lift and he said it was good after that. I think I need to focus more on the valsalva maneuver and squeezing my abs - during all the lifts, I ordered a belt, so that should help with that, also going to ask someone to watch my back for the deadlift, which I've decided to repeat@165 on Saturday, just to be sure. I believe I've gotten into the habit of just relaxing my back when I pull or bend over in general, especially at work, going to focus on this - if I'm not upright, and my hamstrings don't feel stretched and uncomfortable, I'm not doin it right. Felt the same thing about valsalva/abs on bench, could feel my lower back working hard with the arch, felt a lot better when I focused on the deep breath and squeezing abs before each rep.

Nutrition good, little confusion tonight due to a smaller-than-I-expected chicken I bought, but had a taco and some bacon to make up for it, families leftovers. Gonna tighten up my diet these next few weeks, focus on quality, not sure if I should exclude milk(drinking about a quart a day), it's good value and good quality, plus I don't know where else I'll get all my calcium from, unless I start buying a lot of cheese..the milk is not very filling but I think I'll survive, more veggies. Everybody seems to be pretty down on it though when it comes to people that don't fall into the skinny-razor-abs-noob-lifter demographic.

[PDC]

Good nutrition past 2 days.

Lifting went pretty well today, squats I asked a gymbro to watch my form for me, I thought it was pretty good but he said my upper back rounded slightly near the bottom, which was strange because I managed to keep my chest up throughout the lift, like i said, it felt pretty good - though a little challenging, I did 145, 5lbs less than what I last failed with.

I think I realized something though, I'm pretty sure what I'm doing is unevenly loading the bar, it makes sense because 1. I feel my upper back compress on the left side - in fact I've had a left upper back pain for a long time...I believe since I started squatting, my legs always feel like they're not doing symmetrical work, and I always have issues setting up the bar, at first I think I get it right, but it doesn't feel right agaisnt my back so I shift it to what I think is symmetrical, but really isn't. Perhaps one shoulder is more flexible than the other, or I just need to stay tighter, I dunno, but I'm definitely going to pay more attention to it and try just letting the bar go where it goes naturally when I'm seting up, hopefully can nail 155 on Tuesday with good, symmetrical form.

Press went well, did 75x5x3, most I've done is 90 for like 5/4/3 or something, so this was relatively easy.

Deadlift went well, repeated 165 and had gymbro watch me again to make sure my back was staying straight, and it was, I focused REALLY hard on staying tight. I was not doing this before, it's a HUGE difference in feel. I can't wait for my belt, will help a lot in reinforcing that effort. Will do 180 on thursday, hopefully I can maintain my straight back and then the next week I'll have my belt.

[PDC]

Today went well, 155x5x3 Squat, 95x5x3 Bench, 85lbx3x5 Power Cleans, tried to do a chin-up, no way. Couldn't even do one with 35lbs of assistance(machine), tried 40 after fatiguing myself a little, couldn't do that, got 1 rep with 55, not sure if I want to just try to add reps to that, or wait till my press and deadlift are up and try again, or maybe just get to the top using a jump, and then lowering myself.

Looking into getting a camera, when the weight gets heavy there are obvious form deficiencies with the squat, and I don't think deloading will help - these issues are only present with significant weight, not during warm-up sets, furthermore they're easily fixed, if I can identify them, I just need to focus on "elbows up" or "weight on heels". Being able to tape myself would really help, though.

Started school yesterday(Monday), gonna be working(hopefully) full-time and going to school full time(15.5 credits), this week I'm working 40 hours in addition to school, but I can handle it, I'm going to need to change my lifting schedule though, no big deal, just going to get an extra day of "rest" this week. New schedule is Sun/Tue/Thurs instead of Tue/Thurs/Sat, I have school on Saturday and I'm already running into a scheduling issue - my class starts early morning, ends at 1:15, and I'm working 2-11:30, other school days are mon and fri.

[PDC]

Good day, good nutrition, long though, and tomorrow will be much longer. Gotta be up in a little over 5 1/2 hrs, hopefully can get in a nap inbetween classes, and inbetween my last class and work, same shit different day on saturday, and working a full day on sunday as well, gotta figure out when I'll go to the gym on Sunday as I'm not sure when my gym closes on that day, I think 7..I get out of work at 5:30...gotta be there at 9:30, gonna be sleep deprived if I get up at 6 on Sunday, so it's a tough call whether to go in the morning or after work, morning is probably my safest bet..just gonna have to sneak in as much sleep as I can in the form of short naps.

Anyway, 165x5x3 squat - was a grind, on some tough reps I have the tendency to try to pull down the bar for some reason, I corrected myself when that happened and made my elbows go back up, but it still had a somewhat negative effect on bar positioning. I managed to keep my weight even through all the reps though, felt myself leaning forward slightly on one but quickly corrected it, I think my form actually improves the more weight I add, as my body figures out how to move it more efficiently, even without my conscious direction, I also realized when I set up for both the squat and deadlift, I hyperextend my lower back, and realized that I go the opposite direction when I let myself go significantly below parallel, and let my low back round at the bottom. I can feel all tension in my quads and adductors drop once i go down a certain level, after feeling it out and confirming it with a mirror, I found the perfect depth, I get that full bounce off the hamstrings and go just below parallel. Lets hope 175 goes well on Sunday, I'd love to keep making 10lb jumps, and will continue to as long as I can. Presses and deadlifts went well too, 80x5x3, 180x5 - realized I do the same thing with the deadlifts, I need to learn how to keep tight but NOT hyperextend when I set up.

There really are certain cues that just fix everything. For me it's elbows up, heels on floor for squats, bar close to face for press, the set-up points for deadlifts(bar over midfoot, bring shins to bar, dont move it, take grip, chest up big breath) and keeping the bar on my legs just fix all the problems I've had, now I just gotta train myself to do it every single time, particularly when the weight gets heavy and bad habits take over. Also, if my abs aren't fatigued after heavy squats or deadlifts I'm probably hyperextending my back. After correcting myself on this error my abs were very tired.

[PDC]

Sunday went horribly, less than 5 hours of sleep, asked somebody to watch form because I thought it was iffy on 175 and it destroyed my confidence even though I don't think he knew wtf he was talking about, was looking at me from the front too, after I told him to look for form failures that can only be viewed from the side - kept telling me I was leaning forward too much, my experience with the people at my gym is they don't know how to squat, except 2 personal trainers, one being a powerlifter. Anyway, I got 5 reps first set, stopped after 1 rep at 175. I probably could have grinded out more reps, but I wasn't confident in my form and it felt heavy as fuck, I doubt very much I would've gotten 3x5. Anyway, I changed my work schedule to avoid situations like this...sorta, they could still be assholes and schedule me on both saturday night and sunday morning, but I don't know how to avoid that except making myself completely unavailable on sunday..my gym closes at 5 on sundays. I'll figure it out, it wont be a problem this upcoming week. Anyway going to do 170 on Tuesday and start 5lb jumps, 10lb jumps were only supposed to last 2-3 weeks anyway, if I can't add 5lbs I'll know it's an issue with sleep, food or technique, not jumps that are too large, and I have a camera now so I can better identify those. Belt should be shipping today...ate a lot yesterday and slept a lot last night and got today and tomorrow off, so gonna relax and nail it tomorrow. 100x5x3 bench and 90lbx3x5 power cleans went fine..although It's difficult to stay in balance with the bench press, I partially blaim the shitty upright benches we have that aren't straight - bar racks unevenly, but also perhaps different levels of flexibility in my left and right arm/shoulder? Even when I lower it evenly on both sides I touch the top of my right rib before the left rib - touching the left rib requires that I lower the bar more on the left side than the right. Also power cleans have been a pain on my clavicles, my elbows just don't want to rotate up fast enough. I let the bar land on my clavicles/chest then shrug it up onto my shoulders. Maybe I need to jump harder to give myself more time to get into rack position?

[PDC]

Got my belt today and did 170x3x5 squat with it, and wow, what a difference. My spine felt unbreakable, it made it so much easier to just focus on driving the hips. Also got a camera so I can film form videos!

85x5x3 Press, also good, let the bar get away from me on a couple reps but corrected it, last set was pretty good. Did the last warm-up+work sets with the belt, not as dramatic a difference as with the squat, but still helpful.

Deadlift 195x5 - kept my back straight . I was so focused on pushing the floor with my feet and keeping my spine rigid in extension that I let the bar get away from me, now I know at this weight I also gotta focus on pulling the bar in with my lats, which I can do just fine at this weight, I proved this to myself with a 6th rep after looking at the video. The belt was also really useful here.

Weighed in 165, 20% bf on my scale today, gonna start to keep an eye on this, and write here what I eat. I've been eating more than 3500 on some days, I pack on water like a champ(I went from 175 to 190 the weekend of my 19th birthday, then down to 170 the following weekend) and I've been eating not-so-high-quality food on those days where I ate more than that, so I don't blame Rippetoe or his diet recommendations at all. Going to stick with 3500 calories of high quality food until I stall, and if everything else is in order I'll be willing to try eating more, but now is not that time. My main goal is 300lb squat by Christmas, my side goal is to not become a fatass to achieve that goal, and no 20% bf is not fatass. I'll post weight/bf on Sundays, may take pics. If I'm still gaining significant amounts of fat in a few weeks I may consider dropping the calories a bit.

Today:
6 eggs, 1tbsp butter - 520 cals, 42g protein
2/3 cup cereal, 1/2 cup milk 1/2 banana - 375, 4

2/3 cup cereal, 1/2 cup milk, 1/2 banana - 375, 4
1/3lb burger, 1 slice swiss cheese - 440, 35
6oz chicken - 180, 31
1 bag peas - 350
Fish Oil - 25

Total thus far, will update later after dinner: 2165 calories, 116g protein
(Goal: 3500 cals, 170g+ protein, I usually get around 200 or more but I'm going out to eat with family tonight, will try my best to get lots of meat and veggies and avoid tons of carbs)

Edit: Ok so my family is wasteful and I had a big appetite..were all gonna throw away their half-eaten burgers, I offered to "dispose" of them. My mom was worried I'd have stomache aches, heh..left half my fries for my bro and just had water for a beverage, still though that's probably about 1500-2000 calories, maybe more, good 60-100g protein, so definitely exceeded my goals, I'm going to try to relax and be more strict tomorrow.

[PDC]

Had some cereal last night before bed cause couldn't go to sleep hungry, meh w/e.

Today:
6 eggs, 1tbsp butter, 2 bananas, fish oil - 745 cal, 42g protein
2 burgers, 1 slice swiss cheese, half bag mixed veggies - 960 calories, 64g protein
Same^ - 960 calories, 64g protein
2 bananas - 200 calories
Quart of milk - 600 calories, 32g protein
Fish Oil - 25 calories
Total: 3490 calories, 202g protein

Gonna nail 175 tomorrow!