Caveman's Log

[caveman89]

Hello everyone! I started Rippetoe's Starting Strength program in the middle of March and decided I wanted to join the forums and track my progress!

Age: 26
Height: 5' 11" or 6 ' (not quite sure)
Starting BW: ??Around 220 lbs??

Mar 14
Squat: 135 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 135 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 175 x 5

Mar 16
Squat: 145 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 85 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift:185 x 5

Mar 18
Squat: 155 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 140 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 195 x 5

Switched to Power Cleans every other workout...

Mar 21
Squat: 160 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 90 x 5, 5, 5
Power Clean: 95 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Mar 23
Squat: 165 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 145 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 200 x 5

Mar 25
Squat: 170 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 95 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 205 x 5

Mar 28
Squat: 175 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 150 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 215 x 5

Mar 30
Squat: 180 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 100 x 5, 5, 5
Power Clean: 100 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

April 1
Squat: 185 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 155 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 225 x 5

April 4
Squat: 190 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 105 x 5, 5, 5
Power Clean:105 x 3, 3, 3

April 6
Squat: 195 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 160 x 5, 5, 4 (Spotter didn't let me grind last rep grr!!!)
Deadlift: 235 x 5

April 8
Squat: 200 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 110 x 4, 4, 3
Power Clean: 110 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

April 11
Squat: 205 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 160 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 215 x 5

April 13
Squat: 210 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 110 x 5, 5, 4 (first stall on 110 almost made it)
Power Clean: 115 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

April 15
Squat: 215 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 165 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 255 x 5

April 18
Squat: 220 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 110 x 5, 5, 5
Power Clean: 120 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

April 20
Squat: 225 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 170 x 5, 4, 3
Deadlift: 265 x 3 (Grip failed on double overhand)

April 22
Squat: 230 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 115 x 3, 3, 3 (first stall on 115)
Power Clean: 125 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

April 25
Squat: 235 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 170 x 3, 1, 135 x 12 (Got mad and just repped out 135 )
(Set up my bench press in the squat rack today so I didn't have to have a spotter and got some weird temporary pain in my right chest when lifting off cause it was awkward)
Deadlift: 265 x 3 (Failed this lift again even though I switched to mixed grip! Really disappointed)

April 27
Squat: 240 x 5, 3, 5 (Mind played games with me that second set I guess because I got pissed that I was humiliated failing that 4th rep and having to set it on the bottom pins and made my 3rd set... Expect to get all three sets next time!)
Press: 115 x 3, 3, 2
Power Clean: 130 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Ending BW (today): 234

Anyways my progress so far (after about a month and a half) is:
Squat -----------135 ------> 240 (105 lb increase!)
Deadlift -------- 175 ------> 260 (85 lb increase)
Bench -----------135 ------> 165 (30 lb increase)
Press ------------- 85 ------> 110 (25 lb increase)
Power Clean ----- 95 ------> 130 (35 lb increase)

While I am relatively happy with my gains so far, I am a little disappointed that it seems like I might need to reset Deadlift... I'm going to try for 265 x 5 again with mixed grip on Wednesday and praying to the gainz gods that I can do it!

Anyone else have a problem where their deadlift is so close to their squat? Is it something I should be concerned about? (I squat to parallel so it's not that I'm doing half squats like everyone in my gym! lol) Or should I just worry about getting stronger overall on my lifts and the squats and my deadlift will grow with it?...

Thanks for reading!

Caveman out!

[carson]

Welcome. Age and height, please. Nice gains. I have no idea why some people can do better with Squats than Deadlifts. Sometimes it has to do with the shape of our bodies. Sometimes it has to do with relative strength. Keep enjoying the ride. Maybe someone else has answers.

[caveman89]

Thanks for your encouragement Carson! I put in another training session this morning... It looks like I'll have to deload the Bench and Deads, I was only able to do 4 deadlifts at 265 this time, making an @$$ of myself letting loose primal rage screams!

I also noticed the bar wasn't sliding along my shins like it's supposed to so I'm going to try to focus on that aspect of the deadlift when I train it next (Monday). I plan to deload about 15% and will try keeping my deadlift increments at 10 lbs...

Workout A:
Squats: 240 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 170 x 3, 3, 3
Deadlift: 265 x 4

[caveman89]

Made it through another workout! Squats have been real hard these last few workouts, having to grind the last few out on each set, but will keep upping the weight! I'm hoping to be able to squat 275 soon, it'll feel good!

Deloaded on the Press today to an easy 95, and it was a breeze... It was kinda nice to have a little break after those damn squats! And I finally made it to a 135 lb power clean today, so I got to use the "big boy" plates on those!

Workout B:
Squats: 245 x 5, 5, 5
Press: 95 x 5, 5, 5 (Deloaded the press after failing at 115 three times...)
Power Cleans: 135 x 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

[caveman89]

Well, it happened today, I failed on squats. Hoping to be able to make it next workout... On a side-note, my micro-plates came in the mail, so that should help me on the overhead and bench press...

Workout A:
Squats: 250 x 4, 3, 3
Bench: 150 x 5, 5, 5 (deloaded)
Deadlift: 225 x 5 (deloaded)

[artvandalay]

Really nice progress so far -- keep it up.

I unfortunately share your affliction with deadlift. Mine has not kept up with my squat. I don't think it's anything to worry about -- carson is right that it does depend on body type in some ways. In my case I think it's a combination of body type (long legs, short torso, relatively short arms) and just not having done as many of them in my life and thus not having the movement down yet. I'm still tweaking my setup and trying to find the strongest position. Hopefully we can both turn that around one of these days. Until then, onward and upward.

[caveman89]

Didn't get all five reps on squats again this time but I at least did more reps. Will give it one last go Saturday after 2 days off (I lift Mon Wed Sat). I also got two reps on power cleans on my first set, I think I was just worn out and mentally not there I started pulling and just didn't have the power for the second pull. Got three on the other sets, but form is getting sloppy.... Might wanna work on that...

Workout B:
Squats: 250 x 4, 4, 4
Press: 97.5 x 5, 5, 5
Power Cleans: 137.5 x 2, 3, 3, 3, 3

[Oldman]

Hey, Caveman, nice progress in a short time. How's your eating and sleep? Sometimes not eating enough can lead to a stall, particularly for young guys such as yourself.

[caveman89]

Pretty sure I'm eating enough. Lots of milk, meat, tuna, peanut butter, chili dogs. I like eating haha.
I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep a night but sometimes I can't sleep or have to work late... This past workout was on about 6 hours of sleep because I had trouble getting to rest even though I took melatonin and benadryls, but I've heard that at my level this shouldn't impact my performance too much.

[caveman89]

Ok so I woke up earlier than usual today (I like to sleep in on Saturdays...) so I went to the gym around 8 am or so... The three squat racks were taken up; one guy was squatting 225 with decent depth (for my gym about 3/4 way down) another was taken up by some guy squatting light weight (like maybe 135) with a p****y pad and then there was some girl doing deadlifts outside the rack with 135. So I started warming up in the rack with no pins to catch the weight if you fail...

After a few warm-up sets the guy with the p****y pad gets done, so I finish my warm-up sets in that rack. The deadlift chick keeps adding weight to her deadlifts while I'm doing my warm-ups. So I get done with my warm-ups and put on my work weight and head to the bathroom before my first set and when I get back, this hot soccer girl is taking my weight off! I tell her I'm not done yet and I just went to the bathroom and so she left to do some other leg exercises and stuff.

So I'm getting ready to try 250 again trying to psyche myself up because this is my last chance before I have to de-load. The guy next to me gets done, and hot soccer girl is doing squats next to me with 185... Meanwhile deadlift girl is deadlifting like 5-10 pounds less than my squat weight. So I'm there between these two girls just going hard and saying to myself "I can't fail this weight I will look like a total wimp!" lol. So I did my first set and it was surprisingly pretty easy

By the time I was doing sets 2 & 3, hot soccer girl was doing sets at 205 and 225! Very impressive! The next two sets were still hard but I pushed through so I wouldn't have to humiliate myself failing girl weight! These two girls I think are part of the reason I was able to make 250 today, because I didn't want to look pathetic haha

Anyways, the rest of my workout was good got my reps even though my deadlift still sux

Workout A:
Squat: 250 x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 155 x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 235 x 5