Ozzie's road to first PL meet.

[Ozzie]

Hello everybody i've been running SS for about 8 weeks now and ive seen nothing but results.

Backround:
Starting off, growing up i was always "the fat kid". Fast foward to the age of 16 I was introduced to barbell training from a local S&C coach for football and i always felt i was strong for my age, soon after that i fell in love. After i graduated from highschool and i got extremely obese and started to weigh upwards to 300 pounds. After getting sick of being overweight i decided to lose weight and ran about 2 years worth of " cookie cutter programs" and went on a "cut" and got down to 165 in a matter of two years, but it came with a price, I lost all my strength. So after endless searching i came across Mark Rippetoe and the book starting strength. I read it and then decided to start his program. After being so weak from losing weight i started all lifts at 135.

Cliffs:
- Introduced to barbell training
- Graduated high school became fat
- got sick of being fat lost weight/strength
- found SS
- want to compete in PL

Stats:
Age- 22
Height:5'9
Weight:170

Lifts 6/10/14:
Bench: 135
Squat: 135
Dead : 135
Clean : 95
Press: 75

Lifts as of now 8/01/14:
Bench: 185
Squat : 185( Deloaded due to form and depth issue)
dead: 245( No belt, Dbl overhand)
Clean: 160
Press: 120

Goals:

compete in a powerlifting meet and hopefully more and also become stronger. I want to be able to rep 225 on bench, squat 315, and deadlift 350. I didn't choose powerlifting for the glamour because well there isnt any. I chose it for the love of moving heavy objects.

Training days:

I will be training on Tues, Thurs, Sat as of now, When school starts i may change to Mon, Wed, Fri. I typically go straight after i get off work which is around 8 o' clock in the evening.

Nutrition:

Right now I'm eating pretty much whatever(within reason) and also getting about 8-9 hours of sleep. I'm milking the sleep as much as i can, i have 18 credit hours next semester and its going to be killer.

[Ozzie]

Well just got back from the gym and i can say this was the worst training session to date. Apparently i got the squat number mixed up it was only 175 in my notes and so i did 180 well below parallel and i struggled so I'm thinking about deloading all the way down to 135 and throw up a video so you guys can destroy me on how bad my form is. Also my power clean is starting to struggle but i think thats also a form issue so i will also throw a video up of that also
8/02/14
Squat:
Warm up:
45 2x5
135 2x5
Working sets:
180 3x5
Press
Warm up:
45 2x5
95 2x5
Working sets
125 3x5
Power Clean
Warm up:
135 2x5
Working sets:
165 3x5( failed to turn the bar on the last couple sets)

Notes- I'm pretty pissed that im failing this much but thats part of the game. I'm going to rest and eat up and hopefully kill it on Tuesday. Also any advice is welcome. Thank you.

[bean counter]

Welcome!

Squat:
180 3x5
Press
125 3x5
Power Clean
165 3x5

Notes- I'm pretty pissed that im failing this much but thats part of the game.

I don't see how any of this is a failure. It looks like you successfully hit your target weights and are ready to increase next time. If you think you have major form issues that's another matter.

Power cleans are typically done for 5 sets of 3 rather than 3 sets of 5.

[Ozzie]

Thank you for the reply!

The only reason for the deload on the squat would be since im going deeper on the squat im starting to struggle with a weight that was easy. So i figured if i deloaded all the way down i could build up the strength for it. Also the clean part was a typo. i meant 5 x3

[bean counter]

How much were you squatting before your current deload?

I think a further deload to 135 would be counterproductive unless you have major form issues, which I can't see from here. If you want to build up strength to squat more than 180, then squatting 180 is going to do a better job of it than squatting 135. This isn't supposed to be easy.

[Ozzie]

I got up 235 before my form started going south and i recorded myself when i was up at 235 and found out i wasn't going parallel and that's what caused the deload

[Ozzie]

Weight update: Today i weighed in at 173.4. Dont know if thats good or bad but im going to keep eating like a champ. Training day tomorrow hopefully ill be able to kill it! Also looked in the mirror, i see more muscle then i i have seen before.

[Ozzie]

Tuesday 8/5/14
Just got back from the gym. This training session went ok. Could have been better
Squat
45 2x5
135 2x5
Working sets:
185 3x5
Bench
45 2x5
135 2x5
185 (failed on second attempt, spotter had to help)
Deadlift
135 3x5
250 1x5

Abs:
3x8 with 75 DB.

Notes: I had to repeat 185 on bench because the spotter had to help the first time and the second time i failed to get up the 3 rep on second set,Ill try 185 again on saturday before i think about a deload, I think i have the squat form down. I keep telling myself in my head.stay tight, knees out and drive up. I dont know if this is a bad idea but i put blocks behind me so i know i'm hitting depth and it seems to help me with my hip drive, alsoDeadlifts at 250 seem to go up easy as pie this time, I'm still doing double overhand with no belt. Any advice on the bench is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[Ozzie]

Thursday 8/7/14

I'm late updating. The power went out mid training so i had to train in the dark. I set a new pr for press tonight pretty happy about that.

Squat
45 2x5
135 2x5
190 3x5
Press
45 2x5
95 2x5
130 3x5
Power clean
135 3x5
165 5x3

Notes. My pair of chucks came in today so it felt different squatting and power cleaning in shoes but it was Overall a good workout. I started to wear down on the third set of power cleans, also I had to grind out my last set of press and squat went good also.

[Ozzie]

squats
45 2x5
135 2x5
195 3x5
bench
135 3x5
185 3x5
deadlift
135 2x5
225 2x5
255 1x5
Notes- squats went up pretty well even though i felt like i was leaning forward to much but ill have to work on that next time. Im super stoked that i hit 185 on bench even though i had to bench in the squat rack due to not having a spotter. Deadlifts are starting to get hard since i started to do singles instead of touch n go, but i still explode up, overall a great workout. I'll post again on monday or tuesday with a weight update.