TensaiMD's Kiddie Log

[TensaiMD]

Age: 17
Height: 6"2
Weight: 62kg (137lb)

Hi! I'm from London, UK and I came across strength training around 1 month ago when I found SL5x5. Being an academic kind of guy, I read up on all the biology I could get my hands on (i'll be entering medschool this september) and concluded that bodybuilding wasn't for me - I wanted real strength.

I started the program, and while searching for more information I came across starting strength. At first I didn't really see much difference, but wanting more knowledge led be to buy the book and lo and behold, endless biology and theory explaining the reasons behind every movement. I switched over to SS pretty quickly. If there's one thing I can't stand it's people who do stuff without understanding (like those guys doing incline bench press while bouncing off a ball singing madonna "because I saw someone do it on youtube.")

having just completed my 4th week, I figured it'd be a good idea to start posting a log and maybe getting some advice from some of you experienced/monstrously strong chaps.

The Log:


Progress so far has been fairly steady. I'm especially proud of my deadlift reaching ~1.5x my BW even though 100kg is nothing here I suppose The rugby lads (jocks? for americans) were super surprised to see me in their domain. It was an amazing feeling ripping that weight off the ground for 1x5 when they were all standing by the dumbbell rack watching incredulously.

[TensaiMD]

This week was pretty horrible.
Monday
Squat went up, all good no problems and bench went up too. Great! Then came the deadlift. I had successfully done 90kg on friday, so I really wanted to go for that 100kg. Stupid I know, but it's just a big milestone number for me. I warmed up a little, trying not to spend too much energy, and failed to lift the 100kg. Damn. So I went down to 95kg, had a little rest...and failed that too. I didn't know what was going on, so I deloaded again to 90kg (same weight as friday.) And to my utter irritation, that was difficult to lift for more than 2 reps. I figured I had probably not eaten enough, or wasted too much energy early on etc. I took a 10 minute rest, came back in and ripped the 90kg up for 5 reps and felt a bit better.

Wednesday
Was a good day. I upped the squats and the OH press and was successful both times. I studied the OH press technique platform video and the hip movement really helped once I practiced the technique. The best part of the day was the deadlift. Have I mentioned I really love deadlifts? You just feel like such a damn beast when you lift that massive weight off the ground, look up and see people starting at you - not for having puffy water filled biceps but actually being strong (don't laugh...i'll get to 200kg soon!) Anyways, warmed up more carefully this time from 50kg -> 60kg -> 90kg -> 100kg. Ripped it up for 5 and walked out proud.

That evening though...It was a regular skype conversation between some guys. I was discussing the advantages of strength training with a friend of mine who'd been in the gym that day. Cue one of the cool kids seeing this and commenting how funny he found it that "I" was talking about gym. That pissed me off something fierce but I didn't say anything. I'm 6"2, and I don't have great posture. Partly genetic from my dad who is pretty kyphotic and partly from playing too many pc games. I try to stand straight whenever I catch myself slouching and bring my long neck back, but progress is fairly slow. The friend I was speaking to messaged me saying that he was slightly worried about my posture when deadlifting. He said my upper back was pretty rounded....shit.

These last two weeks have been set during my A-level exams (final exams before uni.) As I type this I have my bio final in less than 3 hours haha. Regardless, I spent hours that I should have been studying looking up stuff about upper back rounding - and no, I don't intend to emulate konstantin! (although that guy is a beast.) I asked my friend to video me in the gym on friday.

Friday
Really really shitty day. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was being on camera, not eating enough, I dunno. Squats I couldn't do 70kg, so I deloaded to 65. On the second set of 65 I failed and had to drop it to 60kg to complete the third set. Shitty. On reviewing the video, after the second set I noticed I wasn't going deep enough. I made sure to fix this for the third set. Bench was similar, 55kg was a no-go. I failed on the second set and had to deload back to 50kg to complete 3 sets. I'm confident in my bench technique though, so there's that. Cue deadlifts. I start with a lighter weight, just 60kg. I try to keep my back straight, lift my chest etc. and I lift it. Some random dude was there with an instructor t-shirt, I guess he works for the gym. I told him the problem I was having and he confirmed my upper back was rounding. He told me that I shouldn't put the bar above the middle of my foot because I had to curl over myself to grab the bar, so I should keep it infront of my toes. It didn't sound legit, would increase the moment and wouldn't give a vertical bar path so I thanked him and ignored him when he walked off. Maybe i'm just an idiot I dunno. Anyways, I raised the weight to 90kg, tried to keep my back straight, lift my chest etc and failed miserably. I could hardly lift it.

Went home pretty frustrated, my posture was screwing me over. I looked up a LOT of videos and stuff on friday night. The 3 results I basically found from endless searching was.

1) Rip's advice to another SS member, rebuild and work your way up. This would mean going back down to around like 40kg for me probably. I know it'd be a good idea...but I just feel like i'm going so far backwards from 100kg to 40kg, when I want to be bumrushing up the linear progression ladder.

2) Sumo style. Creating artificially short legs, advocated by that strengthcamp guy on youtube who seems to know his stuff. He mentions a lot of the same knowledge in SS and provides good explanations. He also has videos of him coaching people through rebuilding their conventional deadlift if they have upper back rounding, but at the same time for taller athletes he recommends sumo. I just wanna be able to pick up big ass weights, be able to stand up for myself, and not get injured lifting.

3) It's fine. Lots of advocation that upper back rounding is "ok" under certain circumstances providing evidence from top lifters like andy bolton, KK etc. I'm not that hench, and I can't DL 400kg so I doubt this would be a good idea. I mean, biologically I figure it wouldn't be terrible, since i'm starting with lighter weights the areas of the upper back under tension would surely get stronger as I go up. KK must have massively strong discs for example. And it is oh so tempting. I'll try various things and see how it goes today.

Christ this is a long post. Anyways, I hope those of you who haven't shot yourselves by this point didn't hate my teenage ranting too much. Feel free to ask me any questions, i'll be updating later tonight after my exam and my session.

[TensaiMD]

Today was kinda weird. The biology exam was pretty good, just 3 more left till i'm finally done. I arrived a few minutes later than usual, and some random had hijacked the power rack and was taking his sweet time, so I mulled about for a bit doing not much. I felt kinda hungry because I hadn't eaten much during the day, the 2pm exam meant I only had breakfast and lunch.

Squats were good, I warmed up to 60kg and did a set, found it pretty difficult. I decided not to go up today, just to work on my form since it felt like I wasn't driving my hips well. I focused on this on the second set and everything just clicked back to normal. I felt my depth was good and using correct hip drive made the weight a lot easier. I jumped up to 70kg and completed the set without a problem, but i'm a pussy and felt pretty hungry so I left squats there. I de-loaded a tiny bit on OH press to make sure my form was good, as I noticed I wasn't always getting the drive timing right after the snapping backwards.

Deadlift was...interesting. It seems like no matter what I do, my back just naturally rounds when I pick the weight up. At my lowest warm up of 50kg, I made sure to bring my chest up and follow Rip's guide, but when I was locking out I could feel my upper back rounding forwards a little. I decided to try sumo, which was pretty damn weird. On the one hand, lifting seemed REAL easy, like I picked up 90kg without a problem despite the starting position feeling a bit odd. However, my upper back rounded on that as well when pulling up. I didn't really know what to do, so I tried to compare straight back with round back strength. I went down to 60kg, tried lifting with straight back - ok fairly decent. Then I tried lifting like normal with rounded upper back and it was way easier. I know INDTP but...I dunno I guess. Anyways I went up to 100kg so I didn't end up wasting the whole time for no benefit and lifted it like normal. I tried to lift my chest a bit to keep a bit straighter, but it just dropped straight back when I began the lift. My lower back felt a tiny bit painful afterwards but once I stretched a bit it was ok. I suppose it was from doing the sumo, since it was pretty unusual for my body.

I've made sure to never miss a session for the last few weeks, even the night before exams. This wednesday - friday I have my last 3 exams, and they're all at 9am so i'll probably have to skip out on wednesday. Friday is graduation ball, so that'll be a miss as well. I'm pleased in a way, this will give me an excuse to come back next week and drop everything to a lower weight so I can perfect my form, and hopefully by then got some advice from you guys about what to do with my deadlift.

Cheers.