Recovering from 6 years behind a desk...

[NKT]

4/26/10
squat - 265x5,3, 225x3,3,3 (trying to sort out form... these still just feel off somehow.)
press - 135x5 (stopped at the warmup sets... not going to happen today.)

I think this disaster of a workout is a result of the combined effects of WAY too much building of fences and digging of garden beds, and woefully inadequate nutrition this weekend. I'll pretend this didn't happen and repeat next time. Time to go eat now.

[NKT]

4/28/10
squat - 225x5,5,5
press - 150x5,3,3,3,3...1
powerclean - 165x3,3,3,3,3

Something feels really wrong with the squats. I have a persistent pain in the upper quads, around 6" down from the hip joint. I can't get out of a chair without severe pain today. I thought I had the form sorted out, and I was expecting this to start getting better. I'll post a form check in the Technique forum.

4/29/10 squat form check 225x5

[NKT]

5/2/10
deadlift - 315x5,5,5
press - 135x5,5,5
chin up - BWx3,2,2 (first chins in a long long time; stopped well short of failure to limit soreness)

Observant readers may notice something different. I feel like I'm finally getting the squat form close to right, but in the process of pushing the weight up without perfecting form first I seem to have developed some tendinitis in my upper quads. I need to give my quads some serious recovery time, so I'm replacing squats with deadlifts as the "big-exercise-that-drives-growth" in my program. Temporarily. I realize that I'm fucking with the program and no longer doing Starting Strength, but it's the best I can come up with to still make progress while my quads recover. I've reset the deadlift and press to 315lb and 135lb, and I'm planning on a six-week linear progression of the following two workouts:

Workout 1
deadlift 3x5 (I may drop the DL volume to 10 reps ± if it feels like I'm not recovering well)
press 3x5
powerclean 5x3

Workout 2
deadlift 3x5
press 3x5
chin 3x(F-1)

[NKT]

I have six hens in my back yard churning out a half-dozen eggs per day; realized today that I've been falling behind on my egg-eating duties. Time for some 70's-big scrambles.The fridge photo is after cooking the dozen-egg-and-two-potato monstrosity of a lunch shown next to it. Started out with 50 eggs; since the hens are adding six eggs per day, it will take me about eight days to work through the backlog at 1-dozen per day. I've got a lot of work to do...

edit: holy shit... I just added up the calories and came up with around 2300kCal for that meal...

[NKT]

5/4/10
deadlift - 320x5,5
press - 135x5,5,5
powerclean - 170x3,3,3,3,3

Felt pretty good; the powerlunch did me some real good today. Decided to cut the deadlift volume before they trashed me. Two sets of five for now, then I'll switch to three sets of three when I start approaching a 5RM.

[NKT]

5/6/10
deadlift - 325 x 5,5
press - 140 x 5,5,5
chin up - BW x 4,3,3
press - 115 x 5 x 15 sets after 1 hour rest

[Mr.City]

If you don't mind me asking, what's up with the increased deadlift volume?

[NKT]

I developed what I assume to be a wicked case of tendonitis at the upper rectus femoris tendon. I'm temporarily replacing squats with deadlifts as "the-big-exercise-that-drives-growth" to give the quads a chance to calm down.

[NKT]

5/9/10
press - 140 x 5,5,5
deadlift - 330 x 5,5
powerclean - 175 x 3,3,3,3,3

[NKT]

5/11/10
deadlift - 335 x 5,5
press - 145 x 5,5,5
chins - BW x 5,5,5

I've been stretching my hip flexors several times a day for the past few days, and it seems to be improving the pain in my upper thighs. Hopefully, a couple more weeks of stretching, foam rolling, and resting the quads will lead to pain-free squats. I may start adding in some light squats after one more week off.