Siggy's log

[sika]

Hi all,
I'm 6"2', 36 years old, and my weight varies between 185 (little training) and 195 (when I train more).

Brief background:
I'm into many sports, with MMA being my favorite. I trained MMA intensely when I was 25-30 and stopped due to a knee injury. I got married and bought a flat that needed total renovation, so that was the end of serious training for about 3 years.

I started lifting in late 2011 with a friend who had been doing it for a year. This consisted of squats (5x5), bench (5x5), deadlift (1x5), press (5x5) and rows (5x5). I mostly followed his routine and increments, and although it felt light and we did it irregularly, I think it was a god learning phase.

I continued alone in early 2012 ending up with:
Squats: 220
Bench: 176
Deadlift: 205
Press: 88
I never pushed myself on deadlifts because I'd heard bad stories of herniated discs.

In May 2012 I moved to Brazil, where for months I couldn't find a gym with barbells and squat racks. I started up jiu-jitsu, training 3-4 times a week. Only interrupted by a broken finger and a broken toe.

In August I found a barbell gym, and in September I started doing the full SS routine, with pull-ups as assistance. I would do SS in the mornings and grapple in the evenings, with one day of rest inbetween. (I would bike to work every day though, 20km total). I found myself stalling on the squat and bench, even after deloading. My best no-missed-reps were:
Squats: 230
Bench: 175
Deadlift: 280
Press: 100
Power clean: 150
(I found out some of these plates were off by a few pounds. And sometimes I couldn't find the 2.5lb plates)

I didn't train during Xmas and carnival with travels and visitors getting in the way. In March 2013 I started jiu-jitsu again, and in April I started with a squat-bench-deadlift only routine since I figured I was overtraining before.

In May I re-injured by knee while rock climbing/running in the jungle. This time I got an MR and the doctor told me I have a partial tear in my ACL and a rupture in my medial meniscus. He told me to get back to him if it got worse.

This July, I just started squatting, benching and deadlifting again. New gym with lots of 2.5lb plates, and also better quality plates. The knee feels ok, although it pops sometimes when I walk. I plan to start jiu-jitsu next week.

My program is thus:
Monday: Morning squats 3x5, bench 3x5, deadlift 1x5.
Tuesday: Evening JJ
Wednesday: Morning squats 3x5. Evening JJ.
Thursday: Evening JJ
Friday: Morning squats 3x5, bench 3x5, deadlift 1x5.
Saturday: Noon JJ

I will see how this goes, if my knee holds up, and perhaps I can add press and power cleans to the program. I still bike 20km every day, and go rock climbing about once a week.

I will keep posting here, and appreciate any comments or tips.

Attached is a chart of my brief weight lifting history.

ss6.png

Big version:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/30229713/ss4.png

[sika]

I didn't feel quite well yesterday, but went to the gym anyway. Almost passed out from squatting, and I just did one bench set. Today I've been on the can all day so that kinda figures I guess.

Squats: 215 (missed 1 rep in second set)
Bench: 164 (skipped 2 sets)
Deadlift: 285

[dpinsen]

Where in brazil are you?

[sika]

I'm in Rio.

[sika]

I was sick last week so no lifting. Started again yesterday:


Squats: 220 (missed 1 rep in last set)
Bench: 164 (missed 1 rep in last set)
Deadlift: 295

[sika]

Well fuck me. My back is out. The plan today was just squats, 3 sets of 5x225, then jiu-jitsu.

On the first workload rep I felt a sharp pain in my lower back, just as I was coming up from the bottom. My form is not perfect, but I did not foresee a total crash like this.

[belowparallel]

Siggy, I'm pretty much a beginner myself but based on your log you haven't had one good workout yet as you are feeling pain and consistently skipping or missing reps. You also memtion technique issues. This likely means that you should be starting off with lighter weights and clean up your form. With linear progression you shouldn't be missing reps until you've made months of progress. There is plenty of time to add weight later, start with loads you can handle.

Separately, your bike ride and Ju jitsu training are going to keep you from maximizing your potential progress. Not saying you should stop it, but if you have a different way to get to work in particular that will help your progress. And with everything you're doing make sure you eat a lot of good food

Good luck...

[sika]

Thanks for the feedback man. Yeah, I know there are probably several things that I do wrong. It's hard to improve form when I don't have a training partner. I eat a normal breakfast and big lunch, but then I don't have much of a chance to eat until after jiu-jitsu, i.e. 9pm.

I have also been confused about how to progress. When I've been leaving the program for months for instance, how much do I reset? If I have one missed rep, should I stick to that same weight next time or increase by 5 lb? I've been going for the latter. Smaller plates don't exist in this country. In the old gym I had troubles finding 2.5lb plates, until I noticed they use them for leveling wonky machines.

Biking to work saves me 1 hour every day so I won't stop that. Jiu-jitsu is my main sport, and the reason for why I would like to get stronger. I've seen significant improvement when working from the bottom position, with sweeps etc.

Anyway, I'll start off light again once my back feels better. And I'll post some videos for form check, even though that means I have to bring a tripod to the gym

[belowparallel]

I hear you Siggy.

Again, a caveat that I am just a beginner myself, although I have read the books and taken them to heart, but here are a couple of thoughts.

Based on my own experience with layoffs, if you have been off the program for months, you should reset by a pretty good amount. I don't think there's a magic number. You just have to get a feel for it. The work sets should be challenging but doable. An occasional missed rep is not a big deal but if you are missing reps every time it means you're progressing with weight increases too fast. All things being equal, it's probably better to err on the side of resetting too much. The weights will increase fast enough. If you do 12 workouts in a month you will be increasing your squat work sets by 60 pounds. Let's say you went down to 200 next workout. It might be a little easy for a couple of workouts but you'll be able to concentrate on form and in 4 weeks if all goes according to plan you'll be doing 260.

With all the calories you're burning in BJJ and bike riding, you probably need to eat a lot more food than you are. I keep a food journal and find that to be helpful.

You shouldn't need to microload until you've done linear progression for a while, at least several workouts, but don't let the absence of plates in the gym stop you. That is something you can easily solve yourself by mail-ordering a pair of 2.5 pound plates and a pair of 1.25 pound plates. Even with airmail, this would be an expense of less than $50 I would think, and there is no reason you couldn't just schlep those plates in your gym bag for your own use. If you have a permanent locker all the better.

Good luck man

[sika]

Thanks again for valuable input. Getting back to lifting as soon as possible seems to be the best advice for this type of injury, and the way my back feels now I have to start up very light. I posted videos for form check: http://startingstrength.com/resource...374#post719374 Let's see, it could be that it's a combination of bad form and food intake that has kept me from progressing.

I've read various advice on how many calories I should eat and what type of food at what time of the day etc. I just eat when I'm hungry and stop when I'm full. I drink a quart of milk in the evening and protein shake after training. I don't even know how to estimate calories of a meal, but maybe I should look into this.

Thanks again for the input!