Scrawn78's Novice Log

[Scrawn78]

AGE: 34
HEIGHT: 5FT 6IN
WEIGHT: 129LBS (58.5KG)

I started doing the program about six weeks ago. I'm fairly faithful to it, with the exception of the gallon of milk, and also for the time being, doing power cleans. I'm eating 3500kCals per day. Over the six weeks, my three sets of five across numbers have increased thusly:

SQUAT: 56kg x 5 x 3 (on 28th Oct 2012) to 72kg x 5 x 3 (today)
BENCH: 45kg x 5 x 3 (28th Oct) to 55.5kg x 5 x 3 (8th Dec)
DEADLIFT: 95kg x 5 x 1 (30th Oct) to 104kg x 5 x 1 (6th Dec)
PRESS: 37.5kg x 5 x 3 (30th Oct) to 42.5kg x 5 x 3 (today)
CHIN: BW+21kg x 5 x 3 (2nd Nov) to BW+26kg x 5 x 3 (29th Dec)
PULL-UP: BW+17kg x 5 x 3 (28th Oct) to BW+20kg x 5 x 3 (24th Nov)

My program is like this:

WORKOUT A:
Squat
Press
Deadlift/Romanian Deadlift

WORKOUT B:
Squat
Bench Press
Chin/Pull-up

I train first thing in the morning (i.e. 5:15am) on an empty stomach, in my garage. My job comprises sitting at a CAD workstation for 7.5 hours per day. I walk a couple of miles most lunchtimes. Before Starting Strength, I was training with weights regularly - following various programs , but generally never progressing very far. I attribute this to the overriding desire I had for visible abs. I therefore never consumed enough calories to capitalise on my hard work under the bar. An exception to this would be for a period in 2006, following Stuart McRobert's Hardgainer (two-day-per-week) program. I managed to bench press 60kg x 6, and to squat 82.5kg x 6. I think the squats were half-squats, although I thought at the time they were to-parallel. Aside from these two lifts, my numbers now are better than they were then, and I'm at a lighter body-weight.

LINK TO STRENGTH/BODYWEIGHT RATIO GRAPH:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-d...jdzRHhyZ0RXZVU

[Scrawn78]

SQUAT
60kg x 3
65kg x 2
70kg x 1
72kg x 5 x 3
1st work set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_I-E...ature=g-crec-u
2nd work set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy6ht...ature=g-crec-u
3rd work set: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unMib...ature=g-crec-u

PRESS
40kg x 1
42.5kg x 5 x 3

RDL
80kg x 2
84kg x 1
90kg x 8 x 2

[Adam Stevenson]

As someone else named Adam (Judging by your Youtube account, I'm assuming that's your name), who also sits at a CAD station all day, and who started the program right around the time you did - Good luck!

[Scrawn78]

Ha ha... What are the chances?! It's a RACE!!! (Joking)

[Scrawn78]

warm-up: 100x jump-rope then 10 air-squats, repeat 3x.

SQUAT
(silly-weight warm-up sets omitted)
60kg x 2
64kg x 2
70kg x 1
74kg x 5 x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa7UyiDsq0E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBeXnmi3icM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrN7S7p8Fes
Felt lots heavier than Tuesday. Pulled an adductor some time during 3rd set. Hope the depth's okay. I'm not sure how other people can squat deeper than this.

BENCH PRESS
50kg x 1
54kg x 1
56kg x 5 x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA0_NBdha4w
These flew up... Should have used more weight really.

PULL-UP
BW+15kg x 1
BW+20.5kg x 5 x 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZtOjRwIRrA
BW+15kg x 5 x 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhjzb_FYR4
I noticed from the recording how rounded my upper back was, so for the last set I took 5kg off and concentrated on puffing my chest out. I can't get nearly the ROM with these as I can with chins.

STANDING CALF RAISES (single leg)
BW+20.5kg x 8,6

Just a vanity thing, so my pins don't look quite so snap-able wearing shorts.

[Scrawn78]

SQUAT
60kg x 3
64kg x 1
70kg x 1
74kg x 1 (last time's working weight)
76kg x 5 x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXureO2hlkA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG0sbw7ue0Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR3GmQpn-Jw
On the final set, I concentrated on sitting BACK as I got near the bottom, and it seemed to make a big difference. After the first rep, I was concentrating so hard on sitting back, that I lost count of the reps, so I did six.

PRESS
40kg x 1
43kg x 5 x 3
Since a week or two ago, I've found it helps me lots to squeeze my glutes together REALLY hard on these... Even though I've read it's not something coach Rip teaches on any lifts.

DEADLIFT
80kg x 1
90kg x 1
100kg x 1
104kg x 1 (last time's working weight)
108 x 5 x 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eMeYbqU7bM
I concentrated on pushing only with my glutes until the bar got to knee height, THEN inclining my torso... Previously I've been trying to do both at the same time.

I'm pretty happy with today's workout. Particularly in how much the technique modifications helped with squats & DLs. I've also beefed up the calorie intake to 4000kCals/day.

[Scrawn78]

SQUAT
60kg x 3
70kg x 1
76kg x 1 (last time's working weight)
78kg x 5 x 3

BENCH PRESS
50kg x 1
56kg x 1 (last time's working weight)
57.5kg x 5 x 3

CHIN
BW+10kg x 1
BW+20kg x 1
BW+25kg x 1
BW+27.5kg x 5 x 3 (last time I got [reps]: 5,5,4 @ BW+27kg)

I've found something that seems to help this impingement/inflammation thing I get in the crease of my hip on the left side... Leg swings - back and forth, followed by a thing I've seen footballers (soccer-players) do: basically rotating your leg - lifting your knee to the front and then abducting it, then lowering it and starting again. This always hurts a lot, but it gets better after a few reps. Straight after a few sets of these, I get ice on it straight away. After ten minutes, I put an aluminium bottle full of boiling water wrapped in a sock onto the area. Then after five minutes, back to the ice. I'm trying to do this a couple of times a day. It hasn't got rid of the pain, but my hip feels sort of healthier somehow.

[Scrawn78]

SQUAT
60kg x 2
70kg x 1
77kg x 1
79kg x 4; 74kg x 5; 70kg x 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjMnfMAAu3Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUMMmP1JLow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM3A8ZROTlA
Even the 70kg warm-up single rep felt heavy today. I didn't attempt the fifth rep with 79kg, as I wasn't fond of having to dump the bar and wake up the neighbours. For the second set, I was thinking 'what makes you think you'll get five with this set?!' So I took 5kg off. This felt extremely heavy too, so for the third I went right down to 70kg. I suppose I'm 'stuck'. Will read PPST again for what to do next. The recordings don't do justice to how heavy the bar felt this morning.

PRESS
40kg x 1
44kg x 5 x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ugyEkS6Ps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gB2MJXScpQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylq2Uh5tDC8
This is how I've been doing presses for years. I think it could be improved, as I'm not resting at either the top or the bottom of the rep. But this is a 1kg increase from last time. Normally I'm jumping 0.5kg at most.

RDL
90kg x 1
94kg x 8 x 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keTxkORk2vM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpdBoyBK_HY
A 4kg jump from last time, and I wasn't particularly taxed.

[Scrawn78]

SQUAT
I took an awful lot of weight off the bar to get my technique better. I've noticed that my back is more vertical than I think it should be, and I thought this is probably because my knees come too far forward during the descent. So I did the TUBOW thing, using a rolled-up yoga mat. Also I've been told my knees are opening up too soon on the ascent, so I was concentrating on firing my glutes first, on coming out of the hole... Kind of tensing the muscle as the first thing I do on reaching the bottom... Which felt more proper somehow, even though I'm suddenly struggling a bit with just 64kg.
60kg x 4
64kg x 5 x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUVOSvBgCgo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry7I7ZHyJv8

BENCH PRESS
Shot for the Bodyweight Bench... A greedy 2.5kg jump from Tuesday.
50kg x 1
56kg x 1
60kg x 5,5,4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh9J12vmVak

PULL-UP
BW+10kg x 1
BW+15kg x 1
BW+21kg x 5,5,4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lQYjemoZsE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fohLyp9xeMI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRnDlemwJjA

[Scrawn78]

Nothing to do with the program. I just felt like doing some extra stuff. I'll drop the fourth day in future if I think it's hindering recovery.

FRONT SQUAT
50kg x 3 x 5

BARBELL CURL
34kg x 5,4,4

CALF RAISE
BW+15kg x 8,8,6