seward meets barbells

[seward]

Hi, my handle is seward, and I'm new to barbells. As in, today is maybe the 4th time I've so much as touched one.

37 y.o. male, 5'11. My bathroom scale said 159 pounds this morning.

I was active in running and field sports in my teens, 20s, and early 30s. Had a nasty ankle injury 5 years ago, finally got it operated on in 2011. Since that surgery, I've been doing rehab, and some kettlebell-based strength training at home.

Today was Starting Strength workout #1 for me. Planning to do things by the book. I've had a few pointers on squats and deadlifts from the trainer who's helping me rehab, but the press was completely new.

Squats
2 x 5 x bar
5 x 65lbs
3 x 5 x 85lbs

Felt pretty easy for now. Squatting movements (bodyweight, with kettlebell) haven't always worked so well on my operated-on side, but no problems here today.

Presses
2 x 5 x bar
3 x 5 x 50lbs

This is a different kind of movement for me. I think I'm in the ballpark, but still have lots of work to do. My elbows didn't feel great during the last couple sets. Guessing they weren't forward enough. Planning to review the press chapter and watch http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...g_to_press_2.0

Deadlifts
5 x 135lbs
5 x 155lbs
5 x 175lbs

Felt challenging but not unreasonable. Will be interested to see how the 15lb jump feels next time.

[seward]

Session 2

Squats
2x5x45
5x65
5x85
3x5x95

Realized I have some work to do on the hands & arms. Focused on keeping elbows up throughout last sets, that helped.

Bench
2x5x45
5x65
3x5x85

I was surprised to run out of steam so quickly on these. I can do a reasonable amount of pushups, and I'm moving quite a bit more weight for those. I guess since this is literally the first time I've tried the bench, I may have some motor learning to do.

Deadlifts
5x135
5x165
5x190

Working set is starting to feel pretty heavy. Thinking about swapping in power cleans pretty soon so I don't overdo the DL.

[driveclimbslide]

Best of luck seward! I think at your weight and height you'll be putting on some pounds so don't forget to eat tons. It gets heavy quick.

[seward]

Thanks for the encouragement, driveclimbslide. I'm trying to shovel in as much food as I can.

Made it through week #1 with session #3 today. The weights are starting to feel heavy all around.

Squats
45x5x2
65x5
85x5
105x5x3

Cleaned up the arm position a little, and lost focus on keeping the knees wide.

Press
45x5x2
55x5x3

Watching the platform video on pressing (http://startingstrength.com/index.ph...g_to_press_2.0) was really helpful. Elbows felt fine, and the whole movement made more sense. Still felt reasonably heavy, though.

Deadlift
135x5
155x3
185x2
205x5

The work set might have been a little heavy for me. Felt like I might have let my back round on the last couple reps.

First thing I'm planning to do about that is to start alternating power cleans. Also, for my next deadlift session, I'm thinking about dropping 5 or 10 lbs and advancing by 5s. Will try to get some video so I can see how my back position is holding up.

Totally ready for the two rest days!

[seward]

Session #4 today.

Weighed in at 163. My weight does bounce up and down day to day, but this is 4 pounds in the right direction from last week.

Despite fighting off a cold for the last few days, the weights didn't feel quite as heavy today.

Squats
45x5x2
65x5
85x5
125x5
115x5x2

Had a math failure on the first working set; realized it as soon as I was done, so backed off to the intended 115lbs.

Bench Press
45x5x2
60x5
75x5
90x5x3

Deadlift
135x5
155x3
185x2
205x5

Got video of these sets, looking to see if I was rounding my lower back. They looked good except for reps 3 and 5 of the working set. That makes me think I just have a little too much weight for this point in time. Will proceed by starting to work on power cleans next session, and then backing off to a working set of 195 for the next deadlift session.

[seward]

Session #5

Squats
45x5x2
65x5
85x5
105x5
125x5x3

Bar slowing down quite a bit in last 2 working sets. Have only been doing 90 second rests before & between work sets, will bump that up to 2 minutes for next time.

Press
45x5x2
55x5
60x5x3

Last couple work sets, the bar was really slowing down. Bumped up rest periods to 120 seconds. Hard getting the hip snap once I hit the working set.

Power Clean
45x3x many
55x3
65x3
75x3

The jump to 75 made quite a difference, plus I ran out of time. Will shoot for a 5 pound increase, plus a full 5 working sets, next time.

[seward]

intermission

Met with the owner of my gym to see about some coaching. He put me through the lifts I've been doing, plus pull ups (had 3 in me today) and dips (managed a couple, having no previous experience). His initial assessment is that I'm moving pretty well and on the right path.

We're going to work together for the next week to tighten down my form and work on some range of motion issues I'm having getting the bar racked for the back squat. Then I should be back to regularly scheduled programming.

Bathroom scale said 166.6 this morning, about 7 pounds up from day 1.

[seward]

Had the first session with my gym's owner today. Turns out he's a proponent of legs day / pressing day / back day. I'm not sold on that programming over SS for this point in my lifting career, but the technique work was definitely helpful, so I'll call it a win.

Today was "legs". Started with the back squat, worked up to 155x5, 30 lbs. up from my last 5x3 working set. Funny, after doing 125x5x3 I thought it was about time to start going to 5 lb. increments; guess not yet. Worked on depth, keeping the back tight, and speed on the way up.

Did a number of things after that including front squats, walking lunges, and glute/ham raises. Never tried those before, so it was good to get an introduction before I need to start working them into rotation with the deadlifts.

[seward]

Yesterday I got some insight into the wisdom of the Starting Strength programming. After a couple of rest days, I went back to the gym, planning on just squatting and deadlifting. Since I'd done 155x5 in the squat on Thursday, I thought 145x5x3 would be doable. Nope, my legs were still shot. At this early point in my learning curve, I think it's more valuable to keep squatting 3 times a week and keep improving my form, rather than doing one big killer session a week.

Squat
45x5x2
75x5
105x5
125x5x3

I'd thought 125 would be my last warmup, but from the set of 105, I could tell that I wasn't at full strength. One of the main corrections I got on squat form was not to go quite as low -- I'd been doing pretty much ass to grass, and my lower back was starting to round at the very bottom. Tried to keep all of these a little higher, but still below parallel.

deadlift
135x5
155x3
175x2
185x5

These went well. 185 felt heavy, but I didn't have any of the back rounding I was getting back at 205. Will plan on working up by 10s from here, with the clean mixed in every other session.

[Rufus]

Hey seward, I'm the same age & height as you but I currently weigh a few pounds more than you (I'm at about 205lbs right now). Good luck with SS & keep on eating, what seems heavy today will be part of your warm ups next week.