John's Log

[John Harper]

Hi.

I've been doing weight lifting for a few years, separating my workouts into arms, back, chest, shoulder, and generally hammering myself into exhaustion every time. I tweaked here and there but had been stalled for so long I had forgotten I was supposed to be pushing for PBs.

Read starting strength, rewrote my workout book to the novice workout described there and I'm into my second week

All my numbers are pretty damn low to everything I read here (Squat up to 70kg, but that's 20kg gain on what it was before 'starting strength') but every workout im hitting PBs and it feels bloody awesome!

My initial problem was gear - I workout at home as going out to a gym is impractical due to kids - and I had second hand stuff that was a)incorrect b) not enough and c)impractical - i.e for my bench I was using saw horses instead of a proper rack.

So i've been doing squats without a rack which has become a bit bloody tricky at 70kg. Now I've got the right bar, racks in the mail and I'm looking forward to making some serious progress. I also just brought the book for a mate and really talked it up to him, so stoked was I by the revelations inside.

Cheers

John

[carson]

John, The book is indeed full of revelations. The business models for the fitness centers are designed to make money and that's about it. When a person gets frustrated enough without the expected gains many eventually find the gold standard for strength and fitness. Starting Strength is that gold standard.

Welcome. I look forward to your logs.

[John Harper]

Hi all

Thought i'd do a quick update on how I've been going.

Start of SS: (5/5/15)

Squat: ~ 63kg
Dead: ~ 90kg
Clean: ~ 45kg
Press: ~ 40kg
Bench: ~ 75kg

Currently: (24/7/15) ...or 2.5 months into it, with a couple of breaks here and there.

Squat: 108.75kg (going up 1.25kg every workout)
Dead: 131.25kg (going up 1.25kg every workout)
Clean: 73.25kg (going up 1.25kg every workout, but starting to struggle with that)
Press: 60kg (really struggling, I need a smaller plate to help with LP)
Bench: 96.25kg (going up 1.25kg every 2nd workout - i need a smaller plate)

So all in all pretty happy with progress. I work out at a gym now rather than at home. Thinking of taking my 1" 1.25kg plates and machining them out to fit the olympic bar and make them a smaller weight to help the bench and press.

[John Harper]

I haven't made much progress since the last time. I got the squat up to 127.5kg, the dead up to 140kg, bench to 100.9 and clean to 80, but then had to stop for surgery to remove the ol' cancer.

Started getting back into it, though dropped it back a bit to deal with the fact that i'd been chopped up, under general, etc etc.

Also took the opportunity to relook at my squat which I had been suspicious of. I reread the squat chapter of SS, and I think now know what I was doing wrong:

I think my back was too horizontal. I've got a reasonably flexible body and I think I was over arching my back, allowing me to drop my back lower, more horizontal, but my legs weren't dropping enough. So although my body COG was low, i wasn't squatting full depth. . . at least thats what I think.

Two things from SS stuck in my mind with this re-do of squatting 1) imagine the bar travelling a vertical path and 2) knees over toes.

I looked straight down while squatting. I watched those toes and knees. My knees come out to about my toes (not really in front) and my back angle is a lot more open. Last workout it felt shit and for my work set (112.5kg) I did 4,1,1. Today my work set of 113.75 was 5,4,5. Def felt better.

Watching my knees though, while they poked out real good on the way down, as soon as I start moving up, they come back in again. It doesn't feel like its an issue, the knees seem to be going where they can best help lift my back up. At least it feels that way.

So currently:

Squat: 113.75 (massive drop back on weights, but i'm doing better depth now)
Press: 55kg (8kg drop, but I didn't do them for ages as it hurt one of the incision sites, but ok now)
Clean: 77.5kg (2kg drop) not bad, first time back i nearly fainted, but onto it now)
Bench: 100kg (a bit pigheaded, didn't want to drop below 100kg, so just did lots of small sets until i built back up)
Dead: 137.5kg (went down to 130kg, nearly back up to the 140kg i was doing before)

So not too bad (squats aside) and working my way back in.

[carson]

I'm glad you have completed some (all?) of your cancer procedures. I will add you to my prayers. It's good that you are able to get back with lifting. Keep up the good work.

[John Harper]

I was feeling bored today (i.e. procrastinating) so I thought I'd graph my progress since I started on the Rip Method.

I've only shown the primary lifts, i.e no chins and no machine work or alternate lifts I did when I injured myself.

I think that it makes interesting viewing (at least to me). There is a discontinuity around June where I stop lifting at home and transfer to olympic bars. Previous to that i wasn't including the weight of the 1" bar I had at home (I didn't know what it weighed).

Then at the beginning of October I had cancer surgery, which pretty much screwed everything up. Then after that I hurt my back, hurt my back again, sprained my ankle and had a rather memorable vomiting session. Then finally it started to come right near the end (About 5 five months after surgery). Finally near the end you can see the see-saw on my squat showing that I have moved to the texas method.

I started with linear progression at around 92kg (~202lbs), swelled up to 102kg, lost about 5kg with a vomiting bug and have got back to around 101kg. (~220lbs). I had some excess weight hanging around the middle which has been (mostly) replaced with muscle. so I'd say the gain in muscle has been more than 20lbs, its just not evident on the scales)

Overall I'd say my progress has been slower that ideal, but I've been restricted to 2 x a week workouts due to my family situation, so despite the flat period in the middle (October to April) I think I've done reasonably well and forsee more of my exercises moving into the 'intermediate' realm soon.


The Bench got quite hard around 100kg (220lbs) and I managed to improve steadily up to 108kg (at around 0.6lb per session) until a massive puking bug made me lose 5kg in weight and I had reset the bench back down to 100kg. I'm still not as high as I used to be.




The deadlift has seen solid improvement despite a couple of resets for surgery and back pain. It's only going up by about 2.5lbs per session (once a week) but continues to improve in a linear (but weekly) fashion. I've almost doubled my starting lift weight.




Technique is my only problem with the power clean. When I have physically been able to do the required movements I have generally been able to make good gains.




The press has been my biggest disappointment. I've been stuck a few times and unintentionally de-loaded a few times, but I look pretty close to my linear progression ceiling which is lower than I had hoped.




The squat has been my most consistent exercise. I got stuck in the high 120s a couple of times, but once I started wearing a belt it took off again. However after surgery I couldn't bend my body in the necessary way so had to take a lot of time off. Ditto after the sprained ankle. I found the leg extension machine (which I used when I couldn't squat) added little value to my squat. Its currently at 317lbs and seems to be going up ok on the Texas Method.

[peez]

Hey John,

thanks for sharing your data! When I see how you have been making quite steady gains over the past weeks I get envious. You are setting PRs in all lifts except for the bench, where you are close. Keep doing whatever you are doing!