Farmer's Beginner Training Log

[Nbk41hm]

Hi all,

I am thankful to be able to post my beginner training log here and appreciate any comments or feedback you have to offer.

I have been working through the starting strength program for a couple of months, and I started logging on May 25th of 2015. I’ll reference where I started and where I am now.

38yo male, 6’1” I have been running a calorie deficit for a few months now. around 10% below maintenance in an effort to lose some body fat, starting when I weighed around 206 lbs. I realize the deficit will compromise my strength gains for the time being, but I will eventually flip over to a surplus. I do supplement protein daily to ensure I hit 180-190grams and also added creatine monohydrate to the mix at 5grams daily.

I row for ~5min before each workout and have some basic calisthenics and stretches I do prior to getting under the bar to make sure I am warm.

First logged workout:
May 25th 2015

Weight: 196
Body fat: 16% (Calipers)

Squat:
45x5x2
95x5x1
115x3x1
185x5x3

Bench:
45x5x2
65x5x1
95x5x1
135x5x3

Clean:
45x5x2
65x5x1
95x5x3

May 27th 2015

Squat:
45x5x2
95x5x1
145x5x1
195x5x3

Press:
45x5x2
65x5x1
95x5x3

Dead:
95x5x2
155x5x1
225x5x1

*******
I have lifted Sat, Mon, Wed since then, fortunately without missing a workout so far. I engaged the services of a trainer in my area familiar with the SS lifts and he has helped me considerably on my technique. As a consequence of incorrect technique, I reset my progress on Clean and have started a new progression there.

Also, I have already begun micro loading my press, clearly my weakest lift by a good margin.

So…

June 27th 2015
Weight: 192
BF: 13.5% Calipers

Squat: (+5)
45x5x1
135x5x1
185x3x1
215x3x1
245x5x3

Bench: (+5)
45x5x1
135x3x1
145x2x1
160x5x3

Clean: (+5)
45x5x1
65x3x1
85x3x1
100x3x1
110x5x3

June 29th 2015 (today)

Weight: 191

Squat: (+5)
45x5x1
135x5x1
185x3x1
220x3x1
250x5x3

Press: (+3)
45x5x1
70x3x1
90x3x1
110x5x3

Dead: (+10)
135x5x1
185x3x1
240x2x1
275x2x1
305x5x1

Chins: 5,4,2 reps at body weight
Dips: 5,5,5 reps at body weight
Just added these assistance exercises to the end of the workout as I was still feeling pretty good. Not really sure how to program them in yet and any suggestions on when, reps, and threshold for adding weight would be much appreciated.

Next workout is Wednesday and I will be visiting a gym out of town. Since I usually lift at my house with the same weights, when I travel I usually do not advance my weight to avoid inconsistency. If I am feeling strong on a lift and do advance a weight on the road, then I will repeat that weight at home to remain consistent.

I hope to link some video soon on each of my lifts for critique as well.

That's it for now, any comments or feedback very much appreciated!!

Farmer

[Agilic]

Interested to see some videos. Was this a certified SS coach you worked with? A trainer who is familiar with squats, deadlifts, and presses could mean anything, and potentially be very bad.

[hondotbt]

Welcome to the forum, keep up the hard work.

[Nbk41hm]

Thank you! There are no starting strength certified trainers in the Denver area that I am aware of via the registry. However, when I posted to Thumbtack and specifically requested someone with knowledge of the starting strength, the gentleman I connected with turned out to be very familiar with the program and the lifts. Not to say I think I am doing them perfectly, but I believe it is the case that my mistakes on the lifts are my own.

I tried searching the forums a few times on incorporating dips, chins, glute ham raises and back extensions but the info I am looking for remains elusive. I understand the program would have these subbing in for clean/dead every other workout, but is it 3 sets of 5 reps and then progression with weight as with the lifts, or should one be targeting 3 sets at 10 reps first then onto weight?

Thank you!

[peez]

I tried searching the forums a few times on incorporating dips, chins, glute ham raises and back extensions but the info I am looking for remains elusive. I understand the program would have these subbing in for clean/dead every other workout, but is it 3 sets of 5 reps and then progression with weight as with the lifts, or should one be targeting 3 sets at 10 reps first then onto weight?

Allow me to chime in here ... once you can't DL every workout, you could alternate between DL and dips/chins (it does wonders for the press). I progress the added weight on dips and chins adding weight that I can just finish three sets of five - just like any other lift on LP. If you work out three times a week you could DL one day, power clean the next and Chin/dip the third.

[Nbk41hm]

Great points and idea, thank you! I am definitely interested in anything that helps progress my press. Tomorrow I lift at a different gym on the road so I likely won't be advancing my weight(s).

[Nbk41hm]

I lifted in the mountains today. Roughly 7300 feet of altitude compared to the 5200 that I am accustom to. I was surprised the difference it made and I my recovery from squats showed it in the additional time it took to get my pulse down. I know some people have strict time frames between sets, but I tend to focus on getting my pulse back down to 130 and getting back under the bar immediately thereafter. Welcome any thoughts on that.

It is pretty cool that since the reps themselves are anaerobic, the actual lifts felt the same (pretty good), but once the reps are over the altitude comes crashing down on you.

I realize in my first log post I used a backwards convention for reps and sets. Fixing that here and going forward.

Today's work sets:
Squats: 250x3x5 (+0) {three sets of 5}
Bench: 165x3x5 (+5)
Clean: 120x3x5 (+10) {55 kilos}
Chins: 5,5,5 @ body weight
Dips: 5,5,5 @ body weight

As indicated earlier I repeated my weight on squats given the unfamiliarity of the gym.
I was feeling good on the warm ups for bench and pressed ahead to 165. No issues there except for the very last rep... Shaky right arm.
For the clean, I am still drilling on technique. I think I can clean quite a bit more weight, but I want to make sure my form is solid.

I will be adding weight to dips and chins once I get back home. I forgot to bring my chain belt.

I did take video this time but didn't think of it until after the first two sets of squats. So here is my ugliest (final) set of squats and the rest of the lifts. Any comments or critiques welcome and thank you for taking the time to read my log!

July 1 2015 Squat 250 3rd Set on Vimeo
July 1 2015 Bench 165 1st set on Vimeo
July 1 2015 Bench 165 2nd set on Vimeo
July 1 2015 Bench 165 3rd set on Vimeo
July 1 2015 clean 120 1st set on Vimeo
http://vimeo.com/132378313
http://vimeo.com/132375939

[Nbk41hm]

From one perspective, Saturday's lift was an absolute train wreck. With the benefit of a few hours separation, it may just have been a natural consequence of cause and effect.

The setup: I hadn't eaten much all day, nor had a drank half the amount of water I typically consume. I had loaded a half-ton truck, driven it ~3 hours, and then unloaded it, and was coming off of three nights of relatively poor sleep. So clearly I wasn't walking into the gym in top form.

Going into the gym I wanted to work on my squat form as it was clear from recent videos that I wasn't quite hitting the full range of motion. So I set up a camera (phone) and proceeded to film each of my warm ups. I actually had to change clothes to something that would allow me to see the contrast of me vs. the background.

Sidebar: if anyone has a recommendation of shorts or whatever is ideal for lifting and assessing technique, I would love to hear it. I am not quite mentally ready to rock a singlet though.

I proceeded to warm up while filming the squat:
45x1x5
135x2x5
185x1x3
225x1x3

In each of these warm up sets I seemed to be stopping just short of the full ROM so I decided to stay at 225 even though my working weight was supposed to be 255.

225x1x5
I started to feel a loud protest from what I believe is my left adductor longus (feels like a left groin pull, I guess these are synonymous?). I had experienced discomfort here in the past few weeks, but this time it started screaming at me. It got so distracting that I missed my last rep with an incomplete ROM. What is really weird is that I don't feel the pain until the very last 10% of the movement, just the last few inches at the lockout up top. The good news is I did drop below parallel properly in the first four reps, so at least I wasn't missing those reps unintentionally.

225x1x5
So I took a few minutes to stretch and quickly look up in a physiology app what muscle I had indeed aggravated. On the second de-loaded working set, it happened again, and by "it" I mean everything. Protesting left groin/adductor longus and a missed 5th rep on an incomplete ROM due to the distraction of the pain. In addition, my arms started shaking in the upward portion of the lift.

225x1x5
Failed on the 4th rep... literally couldn't lift more than a few inches out of the squat before my body said, "that's it" and I proceeded to lower down onto the pins.

I do not have enough experience to know if this series of events was due to the muscle injury moving to the foreground or my broader fatigue prior to entering the gym. But sufficed to say, I failed to do a single proper set of 5 at full ROM @ 225. To say it was quite discouraging would be an understatement.

So, I moved on to the Overhead press!
Warmup:
45x1x5
70x1x5
90x1x3

Working weight is 112, up 2 lbs from prior. First set of 5 went fine, felt heavy since this was a new working personal record but nothing unexpected. Second set of 5, was cruising along and then just stalled on the 5th rep. Video of form showed it to still be intact, vertical arms, tight core etc but just ran out of gas.

At this point I decided to call the workout off. Clearly something or many things was wrong/off and with the dead lift still to go, I could only see trouble ahead... like an arm falling off or equivalent.

This now leaves me with many questions:

• What is the protocol for healing a groin strain? If that's what it is.
• Why does it only hurt in the last few inches of the ROM?
• How did I strain it in the first place? Was it due to the incomplete ROMs or something in my setup?
• How on Earth could I be brought to the pins on 30lbs less than what I had intended to workout with? Clearly with incomplete ROMS, I shouldn't have been lifting at the 250 level in the first place.
• What to do next? Reset/deload my squat to a notably lower weight and work my way back up with copious video seems most likely.

Any feedback or wisdom would be appreciated!

[Nbk41hm]

Today was much better than Saturday, a few hiccups not withstanding.

Body weight: 189.8 (first time below 190 in longer than I can recall, so that's pretty cool)

I reset my squat to 225 with a focus on form and lots of video. In fact, I was so focused on form, I miss-counted a rep in my first set. *sigh* so...

Squat:
225x1x4
225x2x5

Overall, very pleased with the depth. Unfortunately my left groin/adductor area is still overtaxed and it let me know the moment I engaged it. I get the impression it will be a while before that settles down and I may not be advancing my weight much, if at all until then.

Bench:
165x3x5
A repeat of last wednesday's weight since then I had lifted at an unfamiliar gym. Next set will advance to 170. No issues, but I could get more drive from my legs if I focus better.

Clean:
125x3x5
Again a repeat of last wednesday with my own weights. No issues, but I am posting video for form review to make sure I am on the right track at this weight. Feel good advancing to 130.

Chins (body weight + 5lbs): 5,5,5
Dips (body weight + 5lbs): 5,5,5
Barely eked out the last chin, but I am excited to be adding weight to these assistance exercises.

I should have realize that Vimeo had limits on uploads... here are the 3rd sets of the three main lifts for any comments or critiques.

July 6 2015 Squat 225 3rd set on Vimeo
July 6 2015 Bench 165 3rd set on Vimeo
July 6 2015 Power Clean 125 3rd set on Vimeo

Happy Monday everyone!

[chromoly]

I'm no expert, but it looks like your squats are getting better (at least depth-wise). Have you thought about posting a form check on the Technique part of the forum? You can mention the pain that you're having too. Since you don't have an SS coach in the area, it could be really helpful.

Good luck with your squat (and the rest of SS!)! Keep up the good work!