AK's Starting Strength Log

[Anthony King]

11-6

Squat 180--5,5,3
Bench 140--5,5,5

Ran out of time and didn't do the clean. I'm not exactly sure what happened on the last squat set. I was going very slow today and my form felt good. I think I was going a little to slow while concentrating on form and tired myself out on the negative part of the rep. First two sets felt easy. Might also need to rest a little longer between work sets on the squat.

[Anthony King]

11-8

Squat 180--5,5,6
Press 82.5--5,5,7
Pull-Ups 7,7,6

[Anthony King]

11-10

Squat 185--5,5,6
Bench 142.5--5,5,6
Dead 225--5

Took some video. Everything felt good. Still a little high on about one rep per squat set--generally the first or second rep. Took video of deadlift for the first time.

[Anthony King]

11-13

Squat 190--5,5,6
Press 85--5,5,7
Pull Ups--8,7,6

I'm still doing GOMAD religiously but weight gain has slowed a lot the last three weeks. Only a pound a week. The lifts are still progressing at 2.5 for bench and press and 5 for dead and squat, so I don't know if I should be concerned. I'll make a concerted effort to eat more this week.

[Anthony King]

11-15

Squat 195 3x5
Bench 145 3x5
Deadlift 230 1x5
Bodyweight Dips 8,7,7

Squat felt harder than it has for a couple of weeks. Took some video of my deads, haven't looked at it yet but I know my chest wasn't up on a couple reps and it was making it hard to drag the bar against my shins. Squats looked good though my knees still go forward a little at the end. I'm starting to wonder if my anthropometry means the correct position for my kneed insn't farther forward than I'm placing them midway through the descent, which is causing them to go forward at the bottom. I'd have to ask a coach. It just seems like no matter how much I think about keeping my butt back, bending at the hips and not letting the knees slide forward at the bottom them still do.

[Anthony King]

11-17

A niggling shoulder problem got a little worse after the last workout so I decided to cut out any compound upper body movements until it feels normal again. I didn't hurt the shoulder lifting, which makes it more frustrating.

I really just focused on the squat form today, specifically keeping my knees from sliding forward at the very bottom of the squat. Video looked pretty good, but doing it correctly certainly isn't natural for me yet. I did one set at my linear progression weight of 200, but my form didn't feel good, so I dropped 10% to work on form. I'm going to stick with the reset so that I can get in the habit of good form before the weights get challenging again.

I felt comfortable doing dumbell curls since they weren't stressing my shoulders at all, so I threw them in to have some upper body workout.

Squats 200--1x5 180--5,5,7
Barbell Curls 50-- 11,12

[Anthony King]

11-19

Squat 200--5,5,6 (I have a habit of losing count and throwing in an extra to make sure I get five.)
Press 87.5--5,5,5
Back Extensions Bodyweight 2x10
Pull-Ups 8,7,6

Shoulder seems better so I pressed today. Looks like I ditched my reset the squat plan. I worked on form leading up to my worksets, looked at video of my warmups and did 160 and 180 before going to 200.

Good news is my depth is looking great. Bad news is that my knees are still going forward at the bottom. I forgot my camera cord so I can't post the video now, but it looked to me like my bottom position is good and that I'm not getting my knees far enough forward at the beginning of the descent. I think they're coming forward at the bottom because they have to for balance. I've gotta get them about an inch and half forward earlier so that they don't slip forward at the end. I'll run this by the more experienced hands when I can post video. Squats felt very good today all in all.

Back extensions cut short by a crew coming into the gym and spreading a nasty oil based coating on the workout room with wood flooring. Fumes were overwhelming, so I left early and finished pull-ups at the playground outside.

Press felt pretty easy, honestly. I've been doing AMRAP on the last set but didn't today because of the shoulder problem. I'm beginning to think the shoulder problem was mostly from the dips on Monday. The dip station has very wide handles and I've since read that this can cause undue stress on the shoulders. I'll cut the dips for now. Bench is going nicely anyway.

This is the first time I've done the back extensions but they seem like a good addition to the program. Deads and Squat are starting to work my lower back very well, so the BE's seem like a good assistance exercise. I'm going to go with the Onus novice program from SS for now.

[Anthony King]

11-22

TomC gave some great feedback in the technique forum that helped me get more depth on my squat. I felt squats more in the hamstrings than quads for the first time and today's squat felt easier than Friday. However, the feedback was directed at my knees sliding forward at the bottom of the squat, which is still happening, so I still gotta work on the that.

Bad news is that my squats are catching up with my deads. Good for squat, bad for deads. I only got four reps on the dead today. I felt like my form was bad on the fourth and that I was going to hunchback the fifth as well as being pretty lightheaded. I'll post video in technique section for critique.

Squat 205--5,6,6 (upon reviewing the vid, I did an extra rep on the last two sets. I really gotta start counting aloud when exhaling at the top of the rep, this is getting ridiculous)
Bench 147.5--3x5
Deadlift 235--1x4

[Anthony King]

11-24

Squat 210--3x5
Press 90--3x5
Power Clean 95--5x3
Bodyweight Pull Ups 7,7,6
Unable to do any technique video today because I didn't put fresh batteries in the camera before heading to the gym. Got back on the power cleans, which I haven't done in a while. Reread the press section of SS last night and tried to work on technique.

[Anthony King]

11-26

City gym was closed today but I was able to work out at the CF gym a block from my shop. It was nice to have bumper plates.

Squat 215-3x5
Bench 160--4 (I put the wrong weight on the bar.) 150 2x5
Power Clean 100--3,3 95--3,3,3
form didn't feel good at 100 on the power clean, so I went back down to 95 to work on it.

My deadlift technique needed some work so I did a some singles at 175 and 225. I reread the deadlift chapter of SS last night and everything felt much better.