Happy in Sweden

[happyfred]

Male, 35y, 6'

I did Starting Strength for about 12 weeks starting in August. I got my squat up to 125kg however it was only at that point I filmed my squat and saw it was horrible. I spent a few weeks working on fixing my squat form. I've also had nearly four weeks off from training as I was on holidays and work has relocated me to Sweden for the time being.

Stats at the end of my first go at Starting Strength:

All work sets:
Squat 125kg (horrible form)
Press 66kg
Bench 92.5kg
Deadlift 145kg
Power Clean 52.5kg

My weight went from 95kg to 108kg. I'm a few kg lighter now as I've been eating normal for the last four weeks. Don't have scales handy.

Due to my previous dodgy squat form I'm going to pretty much start the novice progression from scratch.

[happyfred]

- TODAY'S WORKOUT -

Squats:
70kg x5x3

Press:
50kg x5x2
50kg x9x1

Dead Lift:
100kg x 5 x 1

Notes:
Great to be back in the gym. Light weight, everything felt good. I've decided, as I've actually deloaded quite a bit, to do max reps on the last set of bench & presses as per JP's recommendations.

First day training in the new gym. It's a really cool place. It's a small powerlifting club that's about 200m from my apartment. They have mostly Eleiko bars and plates however I think most of them were made before I was born. Still the bar felt good and they have bumpers and powerlifting plates - great find!

[Per]

Hi, im just curious. Where in sweden do you live?

[happyfred]

I'm in Stockholm, Hägersten.

[Per]

I'm in Stockholm, Hägersten.

Nice, thats where i grew up. Dont live there anymore though.
Where do you workout? I need a good gym to work out in over christmas!

[happyfred]

- TODAY'S WORKOUT -

Squats:
75kg x5x3

Bench Press:
80kg x5x2
80kg x8x1

Power Clean:
40kg x 3 x 5

Notes:
A bit of DOMS from Tuesdays workout. Felt okay once I warmed up though. The 75kg felt a bit heavier that I would have liked. I'll go up to 80kg on Saturday and then 2.5kg from then on.

Bench was fine. Power cleans felt really good. Weight was light but I think that having proper bumper plates and good bars makes a difference. Concentrated on not jumping forward.

[happyfred]

Nice, thats where i grew up. Dont live there anymore though.
Where do you workout? I need a good gym to work out in over christmas!

I'm training at a lifting club which is in the basement of the Västertorp pool.

[happyfred]

- TODAY'S WORKOUT -

Squats:
80kg x5x3

Press:
52.5kg x5x2
52.5kg x9x1

Dead Lift:
110kg x 5 x 1

Notes:
Felt a bit crappy for training, probably had one too many glasses of wine last night. Going to give Friday night drinks a miss now as I have to train Saturday at noon.

Again, squat felt heavier than I would have liked. I thought that as it's my second time round I'd breeze through till around 100kg or so, that doesn't look to be the case. Going to start upping my food intake now, it was pretty normal all of this week.

[happyfred]

- TODAY'S WORKOUT -

Squats:
82.5kg x5x3

Bench Press:
82.5kg x5x2
82.5kg x9x1

Power Cleans:
42.5kg x 3 x 5

Notes:
Squats felt better. Will try and video them ASAP to make sure that they're okay. Bench was good, got a spot on the last set which gave me the confidence to go for the 9th rep. Power cleans feel really good.

Chinup story:
I've always sucked at chinups. Before I did SS the first time round I could do 5x5x4. 12 weeks later and ~14kg heavier I struggle to do 1. I followed the Onus Wunsler program for a while so I still did chinups (used bands) reasonably often but I obviously couldn't keep up with my weight gain. So I've bought one of those doorway type bars and I'm going to do the following, as per JPs recommendations:

Chin up everyday!
Week 1: 2x5 (Negatives)
Week 2: 2x6 (Negatives)
Week 3: 1x5
Week 4: 1x6
Week 5: 2x5
Week 6: 2x6... etc.

[happyfred]

- TODAY'S WORKOUT -

Squats:
85kg x5x3

Press:
55kg x5x2
55kg x9x1

Dead Lift:
115kg x 5 x 1

Notes:
Missed Thursdays workout (I train Tue/Thur/Sat) due to work function. Trained Friday instead. Everything went reasonably well, squats starting to feel a bit hard, especially in the last set.

Found the scales in the gym. Fully dressed minus shoes, weighed in at 108.2kg. I haven't even started to eat for SS yet! I'm eating three solid meals a day plus a bowl of cottage cheese before bed. Will start adding in the whey shakes next week. Curious to see what will happen with my weight as I start to consume more food to keep the linear progression going.

There was a girl, perhaps 17 or 18 years old who was training in the gym today. She was doing high bar back squats with excellent form. Looked like she was an oly lifter. When I left she was still warming up I think, and had 90kg on the bar. It's true - somewhere out there there's a girl warming up with your work sets!