Justin's SS Log

[Wroathe]

Sorry, haven't posted for a couple days - been busy with school and life.

I'll do my last two workouts in one post.

The workout before last was squats, bench, and deads. I didn't get very good sleep and I barely made 3000 calories a day. As a result I screwed up my knee in the middle of squats.

Squats: 3 1 190lbs PR attempt...\
Bench: 5 5 5 120lbs
Deadlifts: 5 255lbs

Not much progress and a shitty day in squats.

Thanks for the reply Sir Viking. I'm gonna keep pushing along. Hopefully my arms get the message.

Last workout was Squats, Press, and Cleans. Sleep and eating were both much better.
I kicked squats back to 185lbs just to get a little bit more acquainted with that weight.
Squats: 5 5 5 185lbs
Press: 5 5 5 95lbs PR
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 120lbs

PR on Press. Yay.

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deads

Squats: 5 5 5 190lbs
Bench: 5 5 4 125lbs
Deadlifts: 5 265lbs

Two PRs. As per Mark's recommendation in the book my training partner and I have been mounting the hooks on the other side of the squat rack during squats so that we don't face the mirrors (that my gym has covering every wall).

My buddy went for a PR attempt of 225lbs today.

During our sets we had this bulky looking football player kid staring at us from across the room. On my buddies fifth rep of his second set he just collapsed without any prior warning (the first four were perfect, deep, and powerful). It caught me off guard but I got my hands under the barbell and helped him up.

This prompted Mr. Football to come across the room and say something like, "The mirrors are there for a reason. You should use them and take my advice because I'm going to be doing this professionally."

We just smiled and nodded and went back to what we were doing. That visibly pissed off the kid so I could hear him whispering to his buddy about newb lifters.

Something tells me that if I was squatting 350lbs that would shut this kid up.

PS. He then proceeded to go over and pyramid reps on the bench. Kid was pro.

[Wroathe]

Squats, press, and cleans. Sleeping and eating have been great over the past three days.

Squats: 5 5 5 200lbs PR
Press: 5 4 3 95 lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 120lbs

So I figured out why Rip says it's best to just do the program. I tried doing 3x5 Barbell Curls and 3x5 dips the day before the workout. My arms were still soar coming into this workout. Press wound up being fail.

Squats were a big PR for me. Yay. On to two wheels I go!

I tried asking my weight training teacher for help on cleans. He wasn't much help, turns out no one really shows these football players at my school how to lift. They just tell them to, "Get the barbell on your shoulders".

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deadlift day. Excellent sleep and eating. Fail workout.
Squat: 5 4 4 205lbs
Bench: 4 4 4 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 275lbs PR

I tried going up on squats despite a really difficult PR last workout. I'm still doing hybrid good-mornings and I think I need to cut back a bit to see if I can fix that problem.

Bench press is starting to piss me off. Anyone have any tips? I'll see if I can post a video eventually.

PR on Deadlift. Although for the last two reps I had to use an alternate grip. My back says, "This is easy" and my grip has been saying, "OMGWHATTHEFUCKOARAGAHAGA!"

[Wroathe]

So I've been overthinking my lifting lately and convincing myself that I can't do things.
Squat: 5 5 5 205lbs
Press: 3 95lbs 4 90lbs
Clean: 3 3 3 3 3 125lbs

So a few things on this. I'm not sure if I should call what looks like a really difficult good-morning a squat. By anyone's standards what I was doing couldn't be considered a squat.

Secondly, Press has been a disaster. I was making nice progress and I got 3 sets of 5 at 95lbs a few weeks ago but I haven't been able to do that much weight since. I don't know if I'm just overthinking my lifts or what the problem is. Out of frustration I just said fuck it on the last set.

And my cleans are a big pile of what the fuck. When I get time I'm going to grab a barbell and just go over the form until I literally can't bring myself to jump again.

/endrant

On a seperate topic I did feel slightly redeemed when the football player next to me said he was going to do 6 reps @385lbs on squats then he proceeded to do what could only be considered quarter squats. Seriously, on one rep I swear all he did was unlock his knees and hips then stand back up again and grunt really loudly.

All situations like do is reinforce the fact that, because I've read a book on how to do the exercise properly, I already know more than some people who have spent every day in the gym for the past three years.

On a final note, as summer moves In I'm going to start keeping a log of my calorie and protein intake and using that to get a general feeling of what I need to take in food-wise to keep making gains.

My question is this: Have any of you hit mental walls that you've had to overcome in your lifting careers? If so, how did you overcome them?

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deads. Workout went much better this time.
Squat: 5 5 5 205lbs
Bench: 5 5 5 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 280lbs

I could probably stand to go up on Deadlifts. I've decided that I'm going to use an alternate grip and then train grip in my spare time rather than trying to train it using double overhand on Deads. I have yet to really dig deep to get a deadlift off the ground so I think it's time to throw some real weight on the bar.

Squats and Bench felt solid today. Pain free and everything (whether that's a good thing or not will reveal itself next workout).

[DV]

My question is this: Have any of you hit mental walls that you've had to overcome in your lifting careers? If so, how did you overcome them?

Sure - mine have mostly been caused by pain in joints and such. Usually backing off and taking some Ibuprofen helps in those cases.

With your stall, I'm wondering how your weightgain is going? Gaining a few pounds in short order usually does wonders for my progression.

[Wroathe]

Yesterday was Squats, Press, and Cleans.
Squats: 5 5 5 210lbs
Press: 5 5 5 90lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 125lbs

Squats and Press went well. I de-loaded on press a bit and now they're going up smoothly.

I'm hesitant to ask for coaching on cleans because most of these college coach types don't know what the fuck their talking about.

Hey Viking! I'm up to 208lbs right now. I'm not especially trying for weight gain. I've been fat or overweight most of my adult life and I'm somewhat concerned about aesthetics now. I'm hoping to use strength training both as a means for becoming a useful human being AND eventually to look good (I'm focusing more on the strength right now though and I've been eating enough to facilitate gains).

The last couple of workouts have been really good so far. Got past the mental block. I may have just been overdoing it.

[Wroathe]

Today was Squats, Bench, and Deadlifts
Squat: 5 5 1 220lbs PR fail
Bench: 5 5 4 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 295lbs PR

I think I may have done the first two sets of squats too quickly... I had to take a longer break after the second set and because of that I ended up putting too much thought into it. Fucked up my knee a bit.

Bench was sloppy.

Deadlift is an odd situation for me. I have atrocious form, which I know is dangerous, but part of that stems from the fact that I have really long legs. I could hardly bend my knees down far enough to get the bar in my hands and because of that I wound up letting my back bend. Surprisingly enough though I have no problem toughing out these lifts. I don't even have any back pain O.o

[DV]

Deadlift is an odd situation for me. I have atrocious form, which I know is dangerous, but part of that stems from the fact that I have really long legs. I could hardly bend my knees down far enough to get the bar in my hands and because of that I wound up letting my back bend. Surprisingly enough though I have no problem toughing out these lifts. I don't even have any back pain O.o

Just dont go all Diesel Weasel on them. Deadlifts can seriously wreck things, if done with sloppy form.

If you really have anthropometry issues, you might try Sumo-style, as recommended in the book for people with your specific issue.