AndMcG's SS Training Log

[andmcg]

I'm a 22 y/o college student. I'm 6'3" weighing 180 lbs. I restarted SS after about four months off. My previous bests for 3x5 were: Squat 225 lbs, Bench 165 lbs, Press 100 lbs, Deadlift 255 lbs, Power Clean 105 lbs.

My last run with SS lasted for about three months but was cut short when I came down with mono. After a month of awful sickness, two months of sleeping, and one month of laziness, I'm back in action about 15 lbs lighter and a hell of a lot weaker.

I plan to do SS with real attention to form, diet, and progression. No fookin' aboot this time...

[andmcg]

Two days ago on Monday I went to the gym to see where I'm at strength-wise. Also I hope to be able to walk after today's workout so I did an little intro SS workout.

Squat 135 2x5, 185 1x5

Squats felt super easy at 135 but at 185 felt pretty hard. Immediately after my set of 185 I felt the burn in my Hams/Ass so I decided to quit.

Bench 135 1x5 145 1x4

Bench was a big letdown, I thought I'd easily be able to get 145 3x5 but without a spotter I didn't feel confident on my 5th rep of the first set so I quit.

Chin's 5,5,4

At this point I was feeling pretty gassed and my legs were really starting to burn from squats so I skipped deadlifts. Chin-ups went surprisingly well, probably because I'm 15 pounds lighter than I was.

So I'm a way weaker than I thought I was going to be, but I also didn't go all out seeing as it was my first workout in 4 months.
I figured I'm in it for the long haul this time so I didn't want to kill myself out of the gate.

[andmcg]

Squats 3x5 175 lbs

These felt easy. I focused hard to keep strict form and felt good. Will go to 185 next time.

Press 3x5 75 lbs

Again very easy. Will jump to 85.

Deadlift 1x5 200 lbs

This was a little harder than the rest, but still easy.

2x8 Dips

Not to hard but felt a weird pain in my left shoulder after for about 5 minutes...

Overall I felt really good about my first real workout. I know I'll be really sore tomorrow so I'm glad I didn't try to do to much. I'm gonna eat like a fiend tonight.

[andmcg]

I went to the gym today after finally fighting off a wicked hangover. Some geezers needed one more for some basketball 5v5 so I obliged. Immediately I regretted it as my hangover came roaring back. I got my ass handed to me on the court and almost left the contents of my stomach on it too. Great way to start out the session!

Weighed myself and I'm up to 184. Not sure if that's beer or the 2 am chipotle, I'm hoping the latter.

Squats 185 lbs: 5 5 5

These weren't too hard but my stomach wasn't too happy with them.

Bench 145 lbs: 5 5 5

Again, not too hard.

Power Cleans 75 lbs: 3 3 3 3 3

I want to really nail down the form on PC's before I start getting heavier. I think this might have been TOO light though, they felt extremely awkward and didn't feel right at all. Still, my last set felt better than my first.

Chins BW: 8 8 3

Went to failure on my second set... bad idea as I was barely able to get three on my last one. Next time I'll be careful not to go to failure ever so I can get to 25 in 4 sets.

All in all a good day despite the hangover. Definitely gonna remember getting wiped on the bball court though.

[andmcg]

I went home for the weekend so I convinced my mom and dad to go to the local YMCA with me. They've had a membership for 2 months and haven't gone at all... Anyways this YMCA has a plethora of cardio machines and state of the art strength machines. In the far corner of the gym they have one power cage, two benches, and some dumbells.

Weight: 186. Have been eating plenty of home cooked meals so this gain was expected.

Squats 195: 5 5 5

Not too hard weight wise, need to post a form check soon though. I may be doing a more HB style squat than LB.

Bench 150: 5 5 6

Since there's only one squat rack and no room to do presses anywhere else, I decided to bench again today. These were easy and just shot right up. Did an extra one for good measure on the final set.

Deadlift 225: 5

Worked in with a huge guy so I didn't want to look TOO puny. Probably wasn't a good idea but these felt pretty easy and my form felt good as well.

Chins BW: 5 5

Gym didn't have a chin up bar except one of those crappy ones on the power rack where the grips are way too far apart. Just gave up on these as the Deadlift guy was looking grumpy as he was about to pull 405. I'm glad I'm going back to school tomorrow so I can work out in the gym there.

[andmcg]

Got back to my university gym today. Completely packed with groups of scared looking freshman. Luckily the Squat and Deadlift area were empty so I got my workout in without a hitch.

Weight 189: I attribute this gain to two things. First I quit smoking cigs! Currently at 72 hours without one and not looking back. Besides a little quitter's cough, and some restless nights, quitting has been much easier than I thought it would be. Also I've been eating a lot more without the cigs to suppress my appetite. Second I started Creatine 3 days ago, so I've been chugging water and shakes. I'm hoping to slow my weight gain in the future but for now I feel like there are some pretty damn good reasons for this gain.

Squat 205: 5 5 5

I watched a few videos on the LB Squat placement and form and I feel like I've really nailed it down. These were tough but I also felt more explosive out of the whole. I think there's a lot of room for improvement before stalling. I'm going to drop down to 5 lb jumps however so I can continue working on my form.

Press 85: 5 5 5

These were tough. I'm going to go with 5 lb jumps for this now.

Deadlift 235 5

I'm going to do deads for one more consecutive on friday so that I establish my deadlift well ahead of my squat. After that I'll work in Power Cleans again. These were tough but not impossible.

Chins BW: 6 5 3

I realized I've been doing pussy chins until now. I'm now paying attention to strict form and pace. I feel like I can make good progress on these.

[andmcg]

Great workout today depite not eating enough and drinking too much the past few days.

Squat 210: 5 5 5

These went well, tough but form felt on point.

Bench 155: 5 5 5

These were the toughest I've ever worked but got them all in! The last rep of set 2 and 3 took like 10 seconds each, but I ground them out.

Deadlift 255: 5

These were extremely hard and grindy. May have broken form on the last few. I'm gonna start incorporating PC's so that I'm not doing deads every workout.

Pull Ups: 4 2

Pull ups are tougher for me than Chins. I was super tired from deadlifting as well so I didn't put forth 100%.

[andmcg]

A little story from my university gym...

There's only one squat cage at my regular gym but it is usually open. Today however a huge guy was speed squatting 225 for 3 sets of 30 or something, pretty ridiculous. He was very courteous and I had all day so I just waited for 10 minutes or so. He finished and I began warming up.

After about 2 minutes one of the most stereotypical frat-bro types asks to work in with me. He had on his full bro-uniform, ray-bans, a bro tank that was cut all the way through so it was more like a smock or something, and I kid you not, birkenstock sandals. Immediately, without a warm-up, he tells me to load on 3 plates. Now this guy looked cut but pretty tiny, but I obliged and figured he must be hiding that muscle somewhere. He then puts a puss-pad on the bar, flips his ray-bans over his eyes, and begins doing the worst squats I've ever seen. With a super rounded back, he goes down about 1/6th of the way, then gorilla-grunts as he goes back up while tilting his head back to look at the ceiling.

After his first set he just walks away, leaving the puss-pad and 3 goddamn plates on each side for me to rack. I was frustrated but laughing a bit to myself so I wasn't too mad. I load on my work-set of 215, take off the puss-pad, and get into it. After I finish my first set, frat-douche comes back and tells me to load on 3 plates plus a 25. Grudgingly I rack one side for him, and then walk off to get a quick drink. As I'm walking back laughing to myself I see the huge guy who squatted before me sprinting over to the squat racks. Lo and behold the frat-bro was stuck under the bar grunting with all his might and just stuck in a 1/4 squat position. The huge guy grabs the kid under the armpits and lifts him up, basically saving his life.

Of course everyone in the gym was now staring at this spectacle. The frat-bro realizes this and starts looking around sheepishly and mumbling thanks to the huge guy. He must have gained a little humility from that because he then racks one side of the bar and I tell him to put on a 215: a 45, a 35, and a 5. He does it and stalks off as I start my set. Immediately I realize that I'm an idiot for not checking this dumbass's work as the bar is obviously unbalanced. I rack the bar and check his side to find that he only put a 45 and a 35 on and didn't even screw the clip on tightly. I'm flabbergasted at the idiocy of this guy but finish my set anyway. Of course on the last set I'm completely unfocused and a frustrated and I lost my back tightness and extension and tweak my back a little bit. After my set the huge guy who saved the dumbass's life catches my eye, laughs and shakes his head.

[andmcg]

Apart from frat-boy and tweaking my back I had a pretty good workout.

Weight: 190

Squats 215: 5 5 5

Tweaked my back from the last set due to loss of focus and back extension. Didn't feel too heavy though...

Press 90: 5 5 5

These went well, last rep of last set was a bit of a struggle but triple digits definitely feels within reach.

Power Cleans 95: 3 3 3 3 3

I watched a bunch of videos on the PC and I felt much better about these. Really tried to get full triple extension+shrug before bringing my elbows around. Definitely need to work on the speed and getting racked right away though. I feel like I've made a huge step on these, plus they're fun as hell.

Chins BW: 6 6 4

These were good with strict form. Making progress!

[andmcg]

It felt like I was constantly full the last few days, I was wolfing down everything in sight. Disappointingly however, the scale read 190 lbs, down a pound. Better have a double burger tonight.

Squats 225: 5 5 5

Was feeling strong and 220 looks pretty dumb so I went for 2 plates. These weren't my best squats but not my worst either. Will continue with 5 lb increases.

Bench 160: 5 5 4

My first miss... I was pissed about these, my first set was ugly and took a lot of energy out of me. The second set was good though so I figured I would be fine on the 3rd. I even took like 8 minutes rest. This really made me angry about not eating enough.

Deadlift 265: 5

Fuckin hard...

Had to go to work so no pull ups.