Nate's Log

[Nate]

Stats
Age: 29
Height: 5'8"

Measurements (07/05/13)
neck: 14 => 14.75
shoulders: 43 => 43
bicep: L10/R11 => 10.25/11
wrists: 6.5/6.5
thigh: 21/21 => 21.5/21.5
chest: 36 => 36
umbilicus: 35 => 36
"waist"-thinnest: 34 => 34
hips: 37 => 37
calf: 14/14 => 14.5/14.5

Training History
None, other than one previous very short-lived attempt at SS.

Before SS / "Pre-SS" Program
I weighed 135lbs. At first, I wasn't able to complete 5 reps with a 20kg bar for the press (0 reps) or squat (2 reps) and probably couldn't for the bench either. I did some fixed-weight barbell presses, db bench presses and for the squat I worked up from doubles to fives with the bar.

Goals
Health
Establish a reasonable strength base as quickly as possible
Prevent becoming disfunctionally weak, or stop being so since I'm arguably there already

Objectives
Hit my macros
Not miss workouts

Nutrition
Prior to SS and since about 1999, I ate a strict-vegetarian diet. Except for a brief period of my misguided youth, this was not for moral reasons. I can not stress that enough since I do not want to be associated with that ideology in any way, shape or form. Moving along: Since my diet now contradicted my goals, a change was fairly easy for me to make despite how long I ate this way and how radical the change was. I started with milk and was up to 1/2 GOMAD, but my stomach isn't very fond of milk and neither am I. My macros ran up to 400g carb, 225g protein, 180g fat. I discontinued the milk in the beginning of May. I then started following a plan created for me through a private consultation with Jordan Feigenbaum, with which I'm continuing to gain weight in a controlled manner.

Instruction Log
04-27, 04-28
Group and individual instruction at QC Barbell
05-25
SS Squat Training Camp
06-29
Individual instruction with Juli Peterson.

Lifting Log Summary
Updated when I feel like it. Basic format stolen from Bradley.
T=Technique Focus, L=Light Day, **=Missed one or more reps during any set at this weight for any reason, (c)=Clothed weight, italics=sets of 3

Note: MANY of the weights are 5 lb different from my daily entries because I found out later that my junk center-knurled bar is only 40 lbs. The summary is correct; the log is wrong. This is also why some of the jumps are nonsensical. I've used different bars in different locations and didn't yet know mine was light.

Pre-SS / Month 1

March-13	135(c)
04-10-13	142lb	S 40		B 40**				D 90
04-12-13	142lb	S 55				P 40		D 100
04-14-13	146lb	S 65		B 45				D 110
04-17-13	146lb	S 75				P 45		D 120
04-19-13	148lb	S 85		B 50				D 130
04-21-13	147lb	S 95				P 50		D 140
04-27-13	151(c)	S 105		B 65**				D 165                          
04-28-13	150(c)	S  T95				P 55**				C 65
05-02-13	149lb	S 105		B 65				D 175**                               
05-04-13	150lb	S 110				P 55**						Chins 5-4-4
05-06-13	150lb 	S 115**		B 70						C 77 
05-08-13	152lb	S  L80				P 60**						Chins 5-5-5

Month 2

05-10-13	152lb	S 100		B 75				D 185
                read
05-13-13	149lb	S 105**				P 60**				C 87**
05-15-13	149lb	S  L90		B 77.5								Chins 5-5-5
05-17-13	151lb	S   T??				P 60		D 195
05-20-13  	152lb	S 115		B 82.5						C 87
05-23-13	151lb	S  L90				P 65**						Chins 7-6-6
05-25-13	??	S 125**		B 87.5				D 205
05-27-13	152lb	S 115				P 65**				C 92
05-29-13	154lb	S  L90		B 92.5**							Chins 2
05-31-13	153lb	S 120				P 65**		D 215     
06-03-13  	154lb	S 125		B 92.5  		
06-05-13	153lb	S  L95				P 65						Chins 4-4-4
06-07-13	153lb	S 132		B 97.5**					Sn 67

Month 3

06-10-13	154lb	S 137				P 67.5		D 225**       
06-12-13	155lb	S  L110		B 101.25**							Chins 4-3-4	Back Ext 12-12-12
06-14-13	155lb	S 142				P 70**				C 97
06-17-13	155lb	S 147		B 97.5				D 205	
06-19-13	156lb	S  L112.5			P 72.5						Chins 6-3-3-3	Back Ext 12-12-12
06-21-13	156lb	S 152		B 97.5						C 100.75
06-25-13	157lb	S 157				P 72.5**	D 215	
06-27-13	157lb	S  L112.5	B 100								Chins 6-5-4	Back Ext 15-15-15
06-29-13	158lb	S 162**				P 75				C 105.75
07-02-13	158lb	S 162		B 100				D 225	
07-04-13	159lb	S  L115				P 75**						Chins 4-4-4-3	Back Ext 15-15-15
07-06-13	159lb	S 167.5		B 102.5						C 107.5
07-09-13	159lb	S 132				P 77.5		D 231.5

Home Gym Pics

People keep asking me about this, so here...

100_0540.jpg100_0541.jpg

Have since picked up a GHD an some other stuff and moved everything into a garage.

[Nate]

Work sets:
04-27-13  151lb     S 105     B 65                D 165                          
04-28-13  150lb     S Tech              P Tech                C Tech

I spent the weekend in the quad cities with Grant and Laura Mccaulley and all of the folks at QC Barbell. I had an awesome time and learned quite a lot. If anyone who needs coaching can make it there, do it! I'll have to get back there once I'm doing better with the things I have to work on.

On the nutritional side, my stomach doesn't seem to accept any more milk. I'm going to pick up some lactaid and see how that goes. I'm also going to start tracking my macros with a food scale and make some qualitative, quantitative, and timing improvements to my diet.

[Nate]

Work sets:
05-02-13  149lb     S 110     B 70                D 175**                               Rep 3 slipped out of hands, repeated.
05-04-13  150lb     S 115                P 60**                                         Chins: 5-4-4, Press 5-5-4/X/1 (failed due to poor form, redid rep immediately)
--Start M/W/F split--

Macros running about 250C/200P/60F.

[Nate]

Work sets:
05-06-13  150lb     S 120/105**  B 75                          C 77                  **Big fail on squats. 0@120, 5-5-4@105 
05-08-13  152lb     S light              P 65**                                      **4-3-4. Chins: 5-5-5 This week is not going well.
05-10-13  152lb     S 105        B 80             D 185

[Nate]

Work sets:
05-13-13  149 7/8lb**  S 110**           P 65**                C 87x2/X, (82x3)x4    **New beam scale, S 5-5/6?-4, P 3-4-5
05-15-13  149 1/8lb    S Light   B 82.5                                              Chins 5-5-5, Squat & Bench form vids for J.F.
05-17-13  151 1/8lb    S Note            P 65     D 195                              Work on fixing squat issues from 5-15 x many reps

5/13: Lost count on second squat set. Yeah, I know.

A brief note on weight: I am still gaining it, though the numbers don't reflect it for a couple of reasons. Towards the beginning of the month I had some digestive issues. I've also switched from weighing pre-WO to weighing first thing in the morning for consistency reasons, but I am lighter then. I weighed ~157 afer lunch.

Kind of depressing I'm failing so much.

[Nate]

Work sets:
05-20-13  152 3/8lb    S 120     B 87.5                        C 87
05-21-13                                                                             HIIT
05-22-13  151 3/8lb
05-23-13               S Light           P 70**                                      **Press 4-4-4, Chins 7-6-6 

Squat Camp & After:
05-25-13              S 125*/115 B 92.5           D 205                              **Earlyish spot? on 5th rep. Dropped to 115 to work on form,
                                                                                       but still had very slow bar speed.

I regret having used chains to microload. No matter how much I ball them up they still move and make things more difficult than just adding 5lbs. Fortunately, my 1.25 plates came in from BFS today. My bestbelts.net athlete belt also showed up this week. I'll be using it for the first time on Saturday.

Macros bumped up 100 cal, but was ill midweek and totally failed on compliance. It's hard to get five meals in when you sleep for 18 hrs. I'm going to use calendar days from now on just in case my sleep schedule goes bad again. I'm also going to start setting an alarm for everything.

[WaffleBox]

My bestbelts.net athlete belt also showed up this week. I'll be using it for the first time on Saturday.

How long did it take from the time you placed the order until you received it?

[Nate]

How long did it take from the time you placed the order until you received it?

16 days. I got it exactly when they said I would.

Picture: http://startingstrength.com/resource...517#post678517

[Nate]

Work sets:
05-27-13  152 -/8th lb    S 120, P 70** (5-5-4), C 92
05-28-13  152 -/8th lb    HIIT
05-29-13  154 2/8th lb    S Light, B 97.5* (5-3), 95 (5), Chins 2!
05-31-13  153 -/8th lb    S 125, P 70** (5-4-2), D 215

I bought some commonly suggested washers for micro-loading, but unfortunately their weight wasn't anywhere near the spec weight. Instead I'm going to pick up more 250g spring collars. They are more functional than washers anyway. 500g is a little short of 1.25 lbs but close enough and it's better for when I buy bumpers and switch to kilos.

5-27 Racking the left side of my cleans is pretty painful so I'm probably did something wrong during or prior to my cleans.
5-29 Left shoulder still really weak from whatever I did wrong on Monday. Next bench attempt will be @ 100.
5-31 Left shoulder felt fine at first then insta-quit on me on the last rep of the second press set. Oh, and deadlifting is awesome. That is all.

On back-to-back rest days I feel so lost now.

[Nate]

Now that the OP has a summary, I'm no longer going to bother to line up the numbers for scrolling purposes.

06-03-13  154 4/8th lb    S 125,  B 95 (5) 92.5 (5-5)
06-05-13  153 4/8th lb    S L95,  P 65, Chins 4-4-4, HIIT
06-07-13  153 4/8th lb    S 132,  B 97.5 (5-5-4), C ...nope.

06-03-13 Super-shakey left arm during bench. The last rep at 95 bar speed was approaching zero. I wanted to not fail a rep for a change and 92.5 is still progress.
No cleans today. I'm flip-flopping DLs and cleans in my schedule because I realized doing powercleans and then HIIT the next day was rather ill-conceived.
06-05-13 Tossed my cheapo bar on the scale... 40 lbs. Oops. Summary log has been corrected but I'm not going to bother with the daily posts. My CAP OB-86B was dead on.
Can't make up my mind on shoes. I'd get Adistar's if I could find them in my size. I might buy some Wei-Rui's and get the Adistar's later if I ever see a pair.
06-07-13 Got equipment-fucked today. The bar-catches on my rack are 6" long (aren't really j-hooks). As a result, it has become impossible for me to unrack for a bench press because the bar just travels backwards and I had to nearly pin-press the bar up. I did find a solution, but with shipping it probably will not get done before my next bench attempt. I thought I was done visiting commercial gyms when my GHD showed up, but it looks like I've been sentenced to another week or two. More shoulder pain during clean warm-ups, "something is not right"-type pain. Time to send my coach a form check vid. Sub power snatch for today.