Three Years Later: SS Part Deux

[Anthony King]

I did SS for a couple months in late 2010. Hurt my shoulder (not lifting weights) but had to lay off and shortly thereafter moved waaaay out to the country. Driving into town to workout wasn't practical, and I let regular weight training slide. Did some bodyweight stuff, but no serious heavy lifting.

My original log from 2010 is here.
http://startingstrength.com/resource...ad.php?t=19441

A couple of months ago I started working a second job in town and decided that since I'd be close to a gym I might as well lift before work.

But I was working ~70hrs a week and had very little time. I did the weight gain workout from 4-hr body* and drank my GOMAD. Gained fifteen pounds quickly. Knew it wasn't optimal training, but was doing what I could in the time I had.

The job in town was temporary, and my wife recently decided she wanted to lift weights, so we bought a power rack, bar, and weights last week so we could workout at home.

So I'm not a novice, but I haven't advanced very far past my untrained strength in 2010.

* Very short workout, with all lifts done very slowly (5 secs up/5 secs down) and to failure, with another 5 seconds of exertion at failure. Two lifts are done each workout (A: squat and bench B: OHP and lat pulldown) and weight is added to bar each workout, with extra rest days added to resolve stalls. Not trying to sell it here and it isn't advertised at optimal, but it got me back under the bar when I only had 20mins to spend in the gym, so I'm grateful.

[Anthony King]

Since I've been doing a LP program for about 6 weeks I didn't start as low as I did last time. I took my weight from two weeks into the program last time and used them here.

Weigh-In 196lb.

Squat 146 3x5
Press 65 3x5
Deadlift 155 1x5


Squat was tougher than I thought, most of the difficulty was getting the bar position right.
Press and Deadlift were work, but not very hard.

[HandPlaneSteve]

Good to see a skinny-tall guy on here. I think we're about the same build, I'm a bit heavier but maybe have a little more skeleton from what I've done in the past. It's actually neat to study how different builds and musculature advance and at what rate. For example, I have long limbs (less leverage), but a short torso (= deadlift monster, relatively).

[Anthony King]

Squat 150 3x5
Bench 111.5 3x5
Deadlift 175 1x5
Chin-Ups 3x4

[Anthony King]

Week 1, Session 3

Squat 155 3x5
Press 75 3x5
Deadlift 185 1x5

[Anthony King]

Week 2 Session 1

Weigh In 198 lbs

Squat 160 3x5
Bench 115 3x5
Dead 195 1x5


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[Anthony King]

Week 2 Session 2

Squat 160 3x5 (I was in a hurry and loaded the bar with the wrong weight, intended it to be 165)
Press 80 3x5

Used the chainsaw quite a bit yesterday and my lower back was toast, so I skipped the deadlift.

[Anthony King]

Squat 165 3x5
Bench 125 3x5
Deadlift 205 1x5
Pull-Ups 6,5,4

A couple of workouts ago I noticed I was focusing so much on getting depth I was letting my pelvis rotate forward at the bottom of the squat. Consequently I was going too low and losing tightness in my hamstrings and adductors. I believe I've fixed that and I can feel that I'm recruiting those muscles now when I squat. If there's anything else to fix on the squat I don't know what it is, so I'm going to post a video to the technique section.

Bench seemed too easy last time, so I added ten. I think I'll be able to add ten for another session or two before going back to fives.

Deadlifts still seem easy-ish. I'm going to review the readings to see if I should start doing the power clean soon. Any input on that welcome.

[HandPlaneSteve]

I would keep the DL thrice a week until you miss your first pull or things are REALLY feeling heavy. I started PC last week after a month of SS-LP, but others' logs report going on 18 weeks of LP and still no PC.

If I were you, I'd keep the DL until you have a month under your belt. That would put your DL around, what, 260 or so and your squat at 190 +/-. That's a nice cozy time to toss in the PC, in my opinion.

[Anthony King]

I would keep the DL thrice a week until you miss your first pull or things are REALLY feeling heavy. I started PC last week after a month of SS-LP, but others' logs report going on 18 weeks of LP and still no PC.

If I were you, I'd keep the DL until you have a month under your belt. That would put your DL around, what, 260 or so and your squat at 190 +/-. That's a nice cozy time to toss in the PC, in my opinion.

Thanks Steve. For now I'm working in deadlift depending on what work I've done/have to do around the homestead. Chainsaw work and splitting wood gets my lower back pretty good.