The final stretch of advanced novice

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Hey everyone, here's my life story:

I did a push pull legs rest split for around 8 months starting July 2016, grew quite a bit, got injured and had to take a couple months off. I then decided that full body is more economical and strength is more addicting to focus on, moved on to lurk these forums more and more through the course of a few months, until finally adopting a program that looked something like SS on August 17th.

I have logged everything since then, but I won't bother with those logs here. I'm in the advanced novice phase now and unsure of how long my progress will keep going; could be a couple weeks, could be a couple months, but I'll keep adding weight until I can't. I will give my squats one more reset when necessary, and then modify the program to intermediate when it stalls after that. I got inspired into doing this from reading some other logs in which people were nearing their limits on novice LP. Reading their thoughts was interesting so here are mine.

25 years old. Height is 180cm / 5'11".

Stats on August 17th (close to maximal because I switched directly from a self-made full body program)

Bodyweight: 74kg
Waist: 79cm
Chest: 94cm
Thigh (thickest): 60cm
Upper arm (flexed): 35cm

Squat: 3x5 85kg
Deadlift: 1x5 100kg
Overhead press: 3x5 47.5kg
Dips: ~20
Chin ups: 16
Pull ups: ~8
Power clean: n/a

Stats January 1st

Bodyweight: 83kg
Waist: 85cm
Chest: 101cm
Thigh (thickest): 65cm
Upper arm (flexed): 37cm

Squat: 3x5 127.5kg
Deadlift: 1x5 140kg
Overhead press: 3x5 60kg
Dips: ~20
Chin ups: ~15
Pull ups: ~10
Power clean: 5x3 60kg (starting weight)

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TUE 2.1
Squat (light): 100kg x 5/5/5
Overhead press: 62.5kg x 5/5/4 video of the second set
Deadlift: 145kg x 5 video
Chin ups: 83kg bodyweight x 11/11/9

Have been hungry like never before between workout days for around 3 workouts now (since before starting this log), as well as sleeping 11 hours after both heavy squat workouts. Eating 4000-4500 calories on those days and still sometimes having to spend an hour here or there feeling like I really need food immediately. Either my workouts are really working, or my body is telling me to dial it down (I won't btw).

Upped the weight on press by 1.5kg from last time and ended up getting the same reps. It's a big increase, but I'm still a bit disappointed. Lost upper body balance on the first rep of the final set which might have been what cost me, and my timing was off on a few reps overall here and there. My heels also came off the ground on the last reps of set 2 and 3, which seems like subconscious assisting with my calves. Will repeat the same weight next time and try to fix these issues.

Warmed up for deadlifts with power cleans, doing 3 reps first with the bar, then 50 kilos and finally 60 kilos in hopes of eliminating some of my tendency to catch with the arms instead of shoulders. It worked and felt very good considering this was my second time performing the movement. Deadlift was an absolute grinder and the set took 50 seconds to complete. I'm only deadlifting once every 4 workouts so I added 5 kilos, but I feel like either 2.5 kilos from now on or a reset and reduced resting between reps might be the way to go. Will think about it.

It was a light day for squats so not much to say, except I did a few extra sets of 3 with 100kg because I video'd my worksets and noticed I'm going too deep trying to bounce off my calves with my rear thighs and wanted to try a fix to that. Throughout the program I've noticed some squats have been way easier than others, where everything just happens "automatically", without really understanding why. I think trying to stay less upright at the bottom and shoving knees out more was the answer. I feel the bounce more in the front of my hips this way and the hamstrings feel tighter at the bottom, and it happens right around parallel. I did an extra set of 3, then 4 and then 3 with 100 kilos to hammer this in, which may have been a bit excessive and might have affected my deadlifts, but likely not much because 100 kilos is pretty light to me.

Chins were harder than I hoped. Missed one rep compared to previous workout despite a technically (but arbitrarily) lower bodyweight. Probably just due to too much fuckery with extra squats and power cleans.

Still aggravated the right side of my lower back. It's very hard to resist my hips twisting to the right under heavy loads. I think this is due to my right knee rotating further externally in relation to my toes than my left one, so I can't just focus on shoving both knees out. Perhaps I need to focus more on the left one, or increase mobility somewhere there. It's frustrating. Made a topic about this elsewhere, but other than that, will work on knee and hip stability the best I can. I've been squatting barefoot until now, getting weightlifting shoes this week.

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THU 4.1
Squat: 130kg x 5/5/4 video of the last set
Dips: 83kg bodyweight x 16/14/11
Pull ups: 83kg bodyweight x 8/8/7

fffffffuck

Partially relieved about squats, partially pissed at myself. First true failed rep on this lift - prior to this I've only stalled on squats once, and instead of an actual fail I just decided not to go for another rep because of the first two reps feeling like my usual 4th and 5th. So this is sort of a milestone which I'm glad I've now experienced. However I'm pissed because here the final set was actually going very well - my 4th rep felt very solid, I got overconfident, went into rep 5 half-assed, didn't get enough speed from the bottom, started slowing down considerably, looked up because reasons and then started going down. I've completed 5 second grinders before, and this one was only around 3. If I concentrated fully like I usually do instead of thinking that I'll definitely make it so let's get this over with, I would've likely made it. Also finally got my weightlifting shoes. They don't make a magical difference like the belt did when I adopted that, but the shoes certainly feel more stable than being barefoot.

Still using the right side of my lower back more coming up from the bottom after the bounce. Will see if it flares up again (it always comes an hour or two after the workout is finished, so it's probably joint inflammation or something). Felt a bit of pain on some reps because of loosening up at the bottom, while reps where I maintained tightness felt very good. Will keep focusing on that as hard as I can, though there's not much focus to spare when squatting heavy. My second reset was done because of a similar situation, sacrificing progression to work on technique, which was impossible with maximal sets. However I would like to avoid it here as long as the pain doesn't get worse. So far it has been constant but dull and fairly mild after squats or deads, and goes almost completely away in 48 hours.

Dips and pull ups were lighter than last time. I avoid going to failure or even very near failure on chin ups and pull ups, as I've found doing that always starts a downhill on my progression.

Last week I was extremely exhausted during my heavy squat workouts after squatting, now considerably less so even though my diet, sleep and (lack of) life stress has been very consistent. Perhaps my work capacity is having a sudden boost. One can hope.

EDIT: It's been several hours now since the workout and while the back is not a 100%, it aches considerably less than after the previous 4 workouts or so. To me this indicates that technique has been the problem and I can keep on doing everything as long as I focus on proper mechanics. Had some tendonitis at the front of the right hip a couple months ago as well and it was fixed much the same way - keep doing the movement but properly.

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SAT 6.1
Squat (light): 100kg x 5/5/5
Overhead press: 62.5kg x 5/4/2
Power clean: 3x65kg, 3x65kg
Chin ups: 84kg bodyweight x 15

First time I have ever had to rush a workout combined with failing on two key movements. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Was traveling and training at a different gym and had to stop this one short due to time constraints, which was frustrating. Realized my power clean form is also way off so I'll have to deload considerably and really get it down if I am to continue doing those. Might do them every other session for the time being and sacrifice deadlifts for a while. Cannot learn this doing it once every 9 days for 15 reps plus some warm ups. It sucks to have no idea what you're doing, and having to wait days and days to practice said thing again.

Overhead press feeling unreasonably heavy now, and was pretty tired in general this session even though recovery has been consistent. I got 5/4/2 with a massive 5 second grind fail at the end despite getting 5/5/4 with the same weight last time, though I wonder if the bar I was using had any effect as it was olympic instead of powerlifting. The previous time my press stalled at 60kg after getting 5/4/3 and then 2/1/give up after that, so this is not quite as bad, but I don't want that to repeat as the fatigue build up back then forced me to do a ~20% deload to press without grinding again. So now instead of trying a third time and risking that, I will deload it down to 55kg. Though I am surprised I didn't get it further before this stall considering how well it was advancing a while ago, and how little total pressing volume I actually have for OHP to suddenly regress like this.

Went for one max set of chin ups instead of three sets due to the aforementioned time problems. The form was not great on the last two reps with the very final one having some advanced level knee bending, but there were no kicks and I got my chest to hit the bar at least. I estimated my chin up max to be around 15 but now it's confirmed. I am now 8 kilos heavier and have only lost 1 chin up in that time so that's pretty cool - might as well use chins as a measure to pace my weight gain. Or just keep eating slightly north of 4k.

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MON 8.1
Squat: 132.5kg 5/5/5 video of all sets
Dips: 83.5kg bodyweight + 20kg 5/5/7
Pull ups: 83.5kg bodyweight + 5kg 5/5/8

Reverting back to MON/WED/FRI schedule, therefore missing one of the usual two consecutive rest days this one time.

As I missed my final rep of squats last time due to a lack of focus instead of a lack of strength, I went up 2.5kg on this workout. It was my most difficult squat workout so far, but I made it, so I'm satisfied. I was going too deep a while ago on my reps and losing my lower back tightness which usually hurt, so I've been trying to fix that. At the moment I seem to be either hitting depth exactly or being an inch too high, but my lower back doesn't hurt anymore, so I'll just keep going and making the finer adjustments as I go. Still not focusing enough on tightness at the bottom on every rep, or getting that optimal timing for pushing my butt back, though when both things succeed I really feel it. My technique actually didn't feel on point today but I still somehow made it. 135kg should be fine if I can keep hitting the right pattern.

Brought back weighted dips and pull ups. Went for 8 reps on final sets of both for a psychological boost, but got a psychological decrease on dips and failed the 8th rep heh. Dips feel otherwise good on my shoulders and everything else, but goddamn the eccentric portion of the first rep feels tough every time to the point I'm considering starting every set with a 3/4 of a rep. Left upper / mid trap fatigue and ache is strong at the moment, it's the old injury I got a year ago doing PPL fucking around with rack pulls way too heavy for me at the time, but it always eases up without any specific procedures. It doesn't respond well to high volume though - one reason I initially switched to strength-oriented full body life.

I've never had problems eating, but one thing I'm gonna try to put some more effort into is the quality of the food and see if it makes a difference. 90% of my energy comes from wheat, rice, whey, dairy and chocolate with occasional meat and fruit. Will try to up the last two at least a bit and include more oats and potatoes.

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WED 10.1
Squat (light): 105kg 5/5/5
Overhead press: 55kg 5/5/7
Deadlift: 120kg 5
Chin ups: 83.5kg bodyweight + 10kg 5/5/5

Good session. Back home from holidays, did this workout after sitting 3 hours in a car but everything felt good once I got to the worksets.

Overhead press took a 10% deload. This is the 3rd one, and I decided to try something new and go for a bit of extra volume on the last set.

Was warming up for deadlifts (semi-sumo because I used to feel persistent lower back pain on conventionals in the past), and felt some aching pain at the right side of my lower back / pelvis again after the heavier warm up sets. It's been fine for a week now, ever since around 2 days after my previous deadlift session 9 days ago, so this made me realize that semi-sumo deadlifts were likely the main aggravator of this unilateral lower back pain and it just manifested on squats as well. Semi-sumo likely isn't the problem here, but the combination of it and my leg length discrepancy which results in me using my right side more despite my best efforts to resist that. Anyway, I was smart this time and didn't do my workset, and instead went for conventional deadlifts but with a somewhat conservative weight because I haven't done the movement in a year now. Felt good, nothing hurt, and I could've put a lot more on the bar. I'll deadlift every other workout for a while and add 5kg till this gets heavy (last rep 3 seconds or more), and then 2.5kg after that.

Extra weight is back on chins, will probably keep it at 10kg for a while and manipulate reps instead because every time I've raised the weight to around 15kg, I've stalled or regressed (3 times total so far). A bit of fuckery going on with my left inner elbow, but nothing too bad. One thing I have been lucky with is the lack of elbow and knee problems, hopefully it mostly stays that way.

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FRI 12.1
Squat: 135kg 4/4/3, 120kg 5
Dips: 84.5kg bodyweight 18/14/12
Pull ups: 84.5kg bodyweight 7/8/7

Squat fatigue finally caught up with me. I've been grinding every 4th and 5th rep, sometimes 3rd, since 117.5kg now. The reps today felt pretty ugly so I did one more set with 120kg to try to hammer in good movement pattern, but I still have an inconsistency problem with the technique in that almost every rep feels slightly different, mostly with regards to tightness and bounce from the bottom. In general though, my knees go a bit too much forward and my center of gravity slightly tips towards my toes at the bottom. Will focus on fixing that now that I'm deloading to 120kg. I think the cue for preventing the tipping would be to just focus on pushing the butt back and not bend forward at all. As for my knees going too far over my toes, obviously I just need to break more at the hips and less at the knees, though I think my quads are stronger than my posterior chain and like to take over. I might bump up my squat technique check topic for an update.

Bodyweight dips went really well, getting 3 more reps at a 1.5kg higher bodyweight than 4 workouts ago, and I'm a 100% certain I went past parallel on every rep. Bringing back the weighted dips probably helped. I'll keep them in for good, but I'll probably keep the extra weight at 20kg for a while and just go for 5, 5, AMRAP or something like that, then up the weight when the AMRAP set hits 9 or 10. Truly heavy 5s are really tough on the shoulders on the eccentric portion so I'll avoid those.

Bodyweight pull ups on the other hand were a bit tougher and I missed one compared to the previous time (could've gone for it but it would've been ugly). 1.5kg more bodyweight and shoes which weigh 1kg together and which I didn't have 4 workouts ago probably had an effect.

Pretty good session overall, though I'm completely beat up. 2 days of eating, sleeping and alternating 1-2 minute cold ass showers and sauna ahead. Also the squat stall happened at a pretty good time, since I'm also deloading my deadlift (and changing its style to conventional) and overhead press at the same time. Gives me some recovery and a final boost to try to get to as high numbers as possible. Next squat deload means intermediate programming.

Goals for program sets/reps before I'm done with it: Squat 140kg or higher, press 65kg or higher, deadlift 160kg or higher

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MON 15.1
Squat: 120kg 5/5/5
Overhead press: 57.5kg 5/5/5
Deadlift: 125kg 5
Chin ups: 84.5kg bodyweight 10/10/9

I was actually supposed to do light squats today, but I decided to do heavy squats a bit more often now that I'm deloading it until it feels like it's becoming too much. I finally figured out the proper technique. Just focusing on simultaneously breaking at the knees outwards and pushing the butt back and not trying to do anything else (besides maintaining tightness) finally did it for me. Knees no longer go past my toes and the tension at the bottom feels much more intense to the point that it feels like I'm not even close to hitting below parallel, yet recording my sets from the side clearly shows I am. Still fucked up a few reps with either breaking at the knees forward too much or trying to come up from the bottom too upright, but now I at least know what to do to get a proper rep and what it feels like.

Deadlift was challenging but smooth, with no reps taking longer than a second to lock out. Recorded my set and saw that my lower back is nowhere near flat, somehow it is impossible for me to get it that way and it always has been. Don't know why, but I can only get a flat lower back if I have a wider stance and can push my knees way out, otherwise something gets in the way and it's definitely not my stomach. I can keep my back completely flat on barbell rows off the floor for example, but as soon as I bend my knees forward, the lower back rounds. It still feels tight on deadlifts and stays that way during every rep, which I hope is good enough.

Forgot my microplates home so did a bigger jump on OHP but it was good. Missed a couple chin up reps compared to the previous time that I did them unweighted, but I was 1.5kg heavier now and had 1kg worth of lifting shoes on unlike that time. Will use them on every dip, chin up and pull up set from now on.

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WED 17.1
Squat: 122.5kg 5/5/5
Dips: 84.5kg bodyweight + 20kg 6/6/8
Pull ups: 84.5kg bodyweight + 5kg 6/6/6
EZ bar curl: 30kg 12/12

Squatting heavy two workouts in a row seems to have been a bad idea despite the deload lol. The last set with 122.5 kilos took over 10 seconds longer than my last set with 120 kilos on Monday. Will follow my program normally from now on.

Dips have exploded, though it's probably my body just getting used to weighted ones again. Extra 3 reps with 1 kilo more bodyweight than last time I did them, and I might've been able to crank out one or two more had I gone until failure again. Same total reps on pull ups as last time but with more bodyweight as mentioned.

Did some curls at the end because I'm tired of my arms not growing for 1½ months despite bodyweight gains. Performed with an EZ bar because the gym is relatively small and I don't want to curl in the power racks or on the deadlift platforms. These were easier with this weight than I expected, so I only rested around 45 seconds between the sets. Though between that and 1 minute is probably a good amount of rest on this exercise.

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FRI 19.1
Squat (light): 100kg 5/5
Overhead press: 60kg 5/5/5
Deadlift: 130kg 5
Chin ups: 84.5kg bodyweight + 10kg 5/5/7

Ditched the microplates on press again and it felt quite heavy, just about as heavy as it did before the current deload a month ago. However, I took off my weightlifting shoes on the third set and it felt noticeably easier than the first two sets with shoes on. Coincidentally, when I got 62.5kg for 5/5/4 barefoot a few weeks ago and then repeated it later with my then fresh weightlifting shoes, I got 5/4/2. I probably won't wear them on presses anymore and see how it goes. May have to switch programming to 5 sets of 3 soon regardless.

My back was more flat on deadlifts than last time, but I cannot get it quite completely flat (in the actual starting position). My hamstrings feel fine so I doubt I have tightness there, but the anterior groin area feels like it's being impinged on both sides. Never feel discomfort with anything else, except slightly on squats if I don't push the knees out enough. Trying to force a flat back in the deadlift starting position feels pretty discomforting though. On the other hand, the SI pain I had doing sumo is now gone.

Chins were good. Have had some tendinitis symptoms at my lower left bicep insertion, which is now getting better after I stopped hitting the bar with my chest on chin ups and just getting the chin over the bar. Chest to the bar seems to put considerable stress on the elbows. Also, I think I'll just keep the weight the same on all bodyweight exercises and go for rep PRs until I get somewhere around 20 total reps in 3 sets with a given weight.