Ryaan's Novice Training Log

[Ryaan]

Long time forum lurker; figured it's time to make a log and get some public accountability for my progress.

Basic info: I'm 27, male, 5'6", and my current bodyweight is around 190 lb.

Rambly history: I learned about Starting Strength and started the program once during college and again during grad school, but didn't get very far either time. This year I decided finally to make a serious go at it.

My PRs by Aug 2016 were:

Squat: 120 kg (264 lb) 3x5
Press: 51 kg (112.2 lb) 3x5
Bench: 62.5 kg (137.5 lb) 3x5
Deadlift: 120 kg (264 lb) 1x5

More rambly history: At that point, my squats were giving me serious elbow grief, and I knew my deadlifts were all messed up (I'd reset them twice in an attempt to fix back rounding that kept creeping in, which is why they were lagging relative to my squat), so I went to see SSC Carl Raghavan.

Carl fixed up my squat—I was basically squatting with high bar mechanics and with a big knee slide problem—and press, and then we got to the deadlift. My deadlift was a mess, which we didn't manage to fix in that one session, so I've been avoiding the deadlift since then. I'm seeing Carl again next week, and I hope we'll be able to get the deadlift sorted out in that session.

If anyone reading this hasn't seen a coach and is considering it: do it ASAP. I could be a year ahead in my deadlift training now if I'd seen a coach earlier. A good coaching session is worth every penny.

In the last few months, I've let work-related travel (I'm a musician, and I was on a three-month long tour) get in the way of any regular training, although I was able to get in enough workouts to mostly stave off major detraining. Other than a family trip, in early January, I should be able to train consistently for the next few months, so I'm going to take this opportunity to get back on the novice program and push it as far as possible.

Goals: My basic goal is to run out the novice progression. I'm also working on tightening up my diet, as I'm way fluffier around the middle than I'd like to be.

Goals by the end of January (should be about 18 workouts, if all goes according to plan):

Squat: 140 kg (308 lb)
Press: 60 kg (132 lb)
Bench: 75 kg (165 lb)
Deadlift: ??? -- not going to set this goal until I see Carl next week and work out where I am now

Nutrition: I'm eating at maintenance at 3000 kcal (188p / 338 c / 100 f), and doing a reasonably good job of tracking everything. I'm going to try and slowly reduce this to see if I can start shedding some bodyfat without compromising my recovery too much. Main priority is to keep the novice gainzzz going though, so I'm not going to reduce my intake drastically. A couple of months ago I made the ill-fated decision to drop all the way down to 2300 kcal, which certainly started peeling off the fat, but brought my training progress to a grinding halt. I'm certainly not doing that again! I might (gasp) throw some LISS cardio in a couple times a week to help with the bodyfat situation if I've got some extra time on my hands, but it's not looking likely.

[brun0306]

Depending on how much your lifts have fallen off since August, those goals may be tough to reach in January on maintenance or a deficit. Best of luck though

[Ryaan]

Depending on how much your lifts have fallen off since August, those goals may be tough to reach in January on maintenance or a deficit. Best of luck though

Thanks for the feedback. I haven't posted this week's workouts yet, but I squatted 100 and 105 kg without much difficulty, so it feels like my lifts haven't dropped off too much. I'll take another 5 kg leap on the squat then switch to 2.5 kg increments. Presses seem to have basically picked up where I left off.

I'm more concerned with eking as much out of my novice phase than losing body fat at this point, so I'll keep this in mind and start eating at a surplus if I find that my progress starts to stall.

[Ryaan]

2016-12-05

Squat: 20 x 12, 5; 50 x 5; 80 x 3; 90 x 2; 100 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest between work sets)
Press: 20 x 5 x 2; 25 x 5; 35 x 3; 45 x 5 x 3 (4 min rest between work sets)
Chins: 8 singles with a little jump
Lat pulldown: 115 lb x 8 x 2; 100 x 8; 85 x 8
LTE: 10 kg x 8 x 5

Squats felt fairly light, but my form has definitely decayed a bit. Same with the press, need to focus especially on building tightness and getting a good reach and snap with the hips. The reps where my form felt good went flying up, others were more of a struggle. Surprisingly tired by a set into the press... guess I'm fairly deconditioned. Hopefully that'll come back quickly.

I've been working up to strict singles on the chin with a bunch of different methods that I've seen on here. Going to try actual dead hang singles next time. I'm using lat pulls as a sort of backoff set to the chins to try and accumulate some more volume.

Did a bunch of light LTEs at the end because I felt like bro-ing out a bit.


2016-12-07

Squat: 20 x 10, 5; 60 x 5; 70 x 3; 90 x 2; 105 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest between work sets)
Bench: 20 x 10; 25 x 10; 35 x 3; 45 x 2; 60 x 5 x 3 (4 min rest between work sets)
Chins: 5 strict dead hang singles

I definitely did not do barbell curls, drop sets from 20 kg, at the end of my workout.

Squat form was better but still not feeling totally dialed like it did before the layoff. Trained with my girlfriend who called knee slide on a couple of reps, but I managed to fix it in later reps. Bench is basically where it was before the layoff.

I tried actual dead hang chins for the first time in a while, and I got 5 singles with about a minute of rest between each. I'm happy about that, since I couldn't do a single chin at the beginning of the year, and I've gained about 30 lb of bodyweight since then. I'm going to work up to 8-12 singles and then start adding doubles.

[carson]

Have you considered either finding a certified SS coach or getting online SS coaching?

[Ryaan]

Have you considered either finding a certified SS coach or getting online SS coaching?

Yep! I saw SSC Carl Raghavan back in August and will see him again next week.

[carson]

Good move. I find Sully's coaching to be invaluable.

[Ryaan]

2016-12-11

Squat: 20 x 5 x 2; 50 x 5; 80 x 3; 90 x 2; 110 x 5 x 3 (5, 6 min rest)
Press: 20 x 5 x 2; 25 x 5; 35 x 3; 47.5 x 5 x 3 (5 min rest)
Back ext: bw x 8; +10 x 8; +15 x 8

Not enough sleep over the last couple of nights, so it was a challenge to stay focused and tight under the bar. Today's session was brought to you by a lot of instant coffee mixed into my preworkout BCAAs. Mmm, mmm, good: apple, lime, and instant coffee.

Squats keep feeling better with practice. Videod sets 2 and 3, and they looked okay to me. 5th rep of set 3 I dropped into the hole too fast; I guess from from fatigue. I'm working on using the stretch reflex more and bouncing up, as Carl pointed out that I was pausing too much in the bottom of my sets.

Grip thought: I get a more secure hold on the bar if I keep my thenar eminence—the fleshy bit at the base of the thumb—firmly against the underside of the bar, even if it means losing contact at the base of the index finger (once the hand is supinated slightly to achieve this contact). More skin against the bar this way.

This is the last 5 kg jump I'm going to make. Next workout will be 112.5 kg.

Presses went well. Again, huge difference between dialed in reps and crappy reps, but fewer crappy reps this time. I had to grind my way to lockout in the 5th rep of the 2nd set and the last two reps of the 3rd set. I find that fatigue affects the press more than any of my other lifts; if I'm tired, it's hard to get tight at the bottom and send the bar flying up with a good hip movement.

Next workout will be a training session with Carl Raghavan on Tuesday. Looking forward to it and hoping that I can get my deadlift form sorted out.

[Ryaan]

2016-12-13 coaching session with Carl Raghavan

Bench: 20 x 5 x 2; 30 x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 5; 60 x 5
Deadlift: 40 x 5 x 2; 50 x 5; 60 x 5; 70 x 5; 80 x 3; 90 x 3 x 2

Bench, main points to remember:
- Feet further back and basically in squat position; push knees out to engage quads.
- Keep scalpulas retracted, especially when pressing and during the lockout (where it's easiest to disengage).
- Aim for the base of the sternum, not the top of my belly.
- Point base knuckles at the ceiling
- Experiment with taking a single breath at the beginning of the set and holding it, rather than resetting for each rep: can help maintain position instead of having reset tightness and arch each rep with a new breath.

Deadlift: PHEW... seems I have mostly fixed it with light practice over the last few months. I have very flexible hamstrings, so before I was basically SLDLing and dropping my butt/hips down before lifting in order to accomplish that. Main ideas:
- At the bottom position, knees need to go a bit further forward than I think.
- Take all of the slack out of the bar before lifting.
- Don't need to hold reps for so long at the top, just show a big chest and go back down.
- Remember to bend knees slightly on the way down so that the start position of every rep is the same -- otherwise I put the bar down without unlocking, and I end up SLDLing the rest of the set.
- Don't overcorrect and bend knees TOO much or else my balance gets messed up.

Didn't squat today but got a video check on my last workset, which was pretty much fine except for some knee slide in the last rep. I'm feeling very encouraged by finally having worked out my deadlift.

Chins: at Carl's advice, going to try a kind of HLM program for chins, where I alternate negatives with weight added, lat pulls, and bw chins for reps.

Maybe I should stop posting huge walls of text, but I figure these notes might be helpful to look back on later.

[Ryaan]

2016-12-15

Trained today with a friend that I'm coaching. Great to work with him, but my own workout was a bit lopsided.

Squat: 20 x 10, 5; 50 x 5; 80 x 3; 90 x 2; 112.5 x 5 x 2, 112.5 x 1, 2, 2 (5, 9? min rest)
Bench: 20 x 5 x 2; 30 x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 5; 62.5 x 5 x 3 (4 min rest)
Deadlift: 70 x 5; 80 x 3; 100 x 5

Squats: weird today. First two sets felt completely fine, although very fatiguing. Third set was a complete mess. Bunch of things went wrong. 1: I rested too long, as my trainer partner had finished squatting and I went to coach his first set of bench between my second and third set of squats. 2: I accidentally took the bar out in high bar position, did a single, and then racked it as I realized it that the bar was in the wrong place on my back. 3: After fixing the bar position, I did a double and felt completely gassed. At this point, I think I probably could have and should have finished the set out, but I racked it, rested 30 seconds, and then did another double.

Not really sure what to make of this. I didn't film the sets, so I don't know if there was some glaring technical problem. I think it was actually mostly mental. I should've just finished the set but was worried about failure because I was so exhausted.

Bench: ticking along smoothly.

Deadlift: I filmed my work set, thought I saw some rounding, and sent the video to Carl who confirmed. I should have warmed this up more thoroughly—started at 70 kg because there was a bar in the gym already loaded at that weight and I was being lazy. Next workout I'm deloading to 90 kg and am going to work up slowly and with immaculate technique.