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Thread: My attempt at SS

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    38

    Default My attempt at SS

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    I'm 29 and decided to try SS a couple of weeks ago. Fridays workout was a bit of a breakthrough as I realised I had been squatting high bar and also using my arms during the power clean. Hopefully I've caught both early enough to fix easily.

    Squat should have been aiming for 75kg but that didn't feel good with the bar lower down so I went for 50kg which felt good. Hopefully now I've sorted the bar position hip drive and the bounce will fall into place, as I kept finding myself pushing with my chest before, with no bounce at the bottom. I had a little tightness up at the inner top left thigh, so I dunno if I was pushing my knee out a little too much. I'll watch this next time.

    Press went well and I added 2.5kg to go to 35kg. Happy with form with this.

    Once I realised I was using my arms in the second pull of the power clean I dropped the weight and went over and over it. After what must have been 50 attempts it clicked that if I emphasised the shrug then my arms stayed straight. Hopefully that's right! After coming home and skimming the book it seems the hook grip would also help, so I'll try this next time. I finished with 40kg, the same as the last workout, but I was wiped out from 50 light cleans.

    Next workout is squat, bench and deadlift. I'm happy with bench and deadlift form so I'll concentrate on nailing the squat form. Hopefully the low bar position helps.

    I'm finishing my first full week of gomad, after building up to it for 2 weeks. So with 2 partial and one full week of gomad my weight has gone from 162lbs to 171lbs. At 6 foot I still need a lot more weight!

    Hopefully tomorrows workout goes well.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    38

    Default

    Had quite a good workout today...

    Squat 55kg (+5kg)
    Press 35kg (see below)
    Bench 55kg (+2.5kg)
    Deadlift 90kg (+5kg)

    Squat went well, although depth was maybe lacking. Shoulders are still hurting from the switch to low bar position, but I'm sure that will wear off soon.
    Press went well till I went to fill it in my notes then realised I wasn't supposed to do it today! That's the first and last time I'll make that mistake!!
    Bench went well and I completed all reps at 2.5kg higher than last time. Considering the f*@k up with the press I was happy with that.
    Deadlift again went well, with 5kg added to the last numbers.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    East Coast
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    Default

    Good luck, keep pus posted

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    38

    Default

    Thanks Tiburon

    Couldn't do my squat work sets today as I pulled something in my right thigh on my last warmup. I had the same thing happen during my workset to my left thigh last week so it's pretty frustrating. Either I need to start stretching properly before squatting, or more likely, there is a problem with my stance. During my last workout my knees were sliding forward at the bottom of the squat, so today I tried standing a little wider and pushing my knees out more. Maybe I was a bit too wide and stretched something too much. Really frustrating! Will need to practise bodyweight squats tomorrow to find a good stance. Hopefully my thigh feels better for Friday's workout.

    Press went well and I added 2.5kg to go to 37.5kg

    Power Clean... Not happy with my form here... I'm too slow racking the bar so my foot stomp is before the rack. I added 2.5kg to go to 42.5kg. Not sure if I should keep adding weight, or hold off till I'm happy with my form.

    Left the gym feeling annoyed at how it went. Hopefully it's just teething problems I can work out quickly.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    Squat 60kg (+5kg)
    Bench 57.5kg (+2.5kg)
    Deadlift 95kg (+5kg)

    Was a bit worried about the squat after the last workout but it turned out ok. I kept a close eye on my knees and I found that shoving them forward early kept my hamstrings and back tighter at the bottom. Found the 3rd set the easiest as I got happier with my form. I should be able to add 5kg to each workout for a while to catch up with my other lifts. I could probably add more but I'd rather concentrate on nailing the form.

    Bench and deadlift went well. No complaints!

  6. #6
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    Mar 2011
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    Squat: 65kg (+5kg)
    Press: 40kg (+2.5kg)
    Power Clean: 45kg (+2.5kg)

    Squat form was a bit dodgy today... Kept forgetting my cues... Still managed an extra 5kg so will concentrate on keeping form 100% next time.

    Adding 2.5kg to the press is getting harder. Gonna have to pick up some 0.5kg weights soon.

    Did 1 power clean warmup set with just the bar, before deciding that the light weight was hindering my form more than helping. Going straight to 40kg for warmups really helped. Pretty happy with my form on this today. Really concentrated on an aggressive jump which helped.

  7. #7
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    Mar 2011
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    Weight today is 175lb @ 6 foot.

    2 weeks of full gomad and 5000 cals have put on 11lb. The 2 weeks I took to build up to full gomad put on about 3lb.

    I'd guess my body fat is around 16-17%, but I was around 16% when I started. I thought I would put on more to be honest!

    I'll need to decide how close to 20% I want to take it before backing off.
    Last edited by Paulcor; 04-05-2011 at 03:53 AM.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
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    I've decided I'm putting on too much fat just now and I'm too close to 20% BF.

    I'm dropping from a full gomad to a half gomad and from 5000 cals to 4000. If my lifts stall I'll increase.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    149

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    Sounds like a good plan Paul. I did GOMAD for ~ 2-3weeks ish, it was just a bit too much. For skinny teenagers, then fine, but when you're approaching 20% bodyfat, prob time to drop it down. Half GOMAD should do you great for a good few months, but most important thing I found for keeping progression going was taking in adequate protein, at least 1g per lb BW, better if closer to 1.5 or 2g per lb.

    Keep up the good work!

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    NYC
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    starting strength coach development program
    For me, the key benefit to the milk turned out to be carbs, since my diet had plenty of healthy protein and fat. Coming off the milk, I had to adjust my diet to include more carbs from veggies, potatos, rice, et al.

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