jmessick Starting Strength Log

[jmessick]

Hello,
I'm 35, 5'11'', about 181 pounds, 22% BF. At age 33 at one point I was 138 lbs, 10% BF, which was more or less the size I was through college until beer and take-out caught up with me at 26 and I ballooned up to 195, 100% BF. I started running some, eating better, etc. but never tried to get stronger beyond pushups and pullups, which were relatively easy since I weighed nothing.

So around my 35th birthday back in January, I decided to get started. Starting BW was 163, 19% BF. I had discovered stronglifts first, so that's what I did. Everything went fine for about 8 weeks, then I developed a bad deep pain in my hip. I tried to work through it for a bit, but it just got worse, so I went to the doctor and he said it was an impingement caused by the femur pinching against the hip. So I basically started over while working on that. In the meantime I found this site, got the SS book and DVD, and gladly replaced barbell rows with power cleans. Bending over like that with weights killed my hip.

Anyway, here's my last couple weeks, which follow a week off due to work schedule:

4/23/11 Week 14, Day 1

Squat
45x5x2
75x5
105x3
135x1
155 - 5,3,2

Bench
45x5x2
65x5
95x3
120 - 3,4,3

Deadlift
135x5
165x3
195x1
225x3

Chinups (assisted)
-55 - 5,3,3

4/25/11 Week 14 Day 2
(Warmup sets similar)

Squat
155x5x3

Overhead
80 - 5,3,2 (I had been stuck here for a month mostly due to horrible form; bar way out in front of me)

Power clean
65x3x5 (just trying not to crack myself in the teeth)

Dips (assisted)
-25 - 5,1

4/27/11 Week 14 Day 3

Squat
160 - 1, 1 135 - 1
Hip pinched on the first work rep. Dammit. Rest of the workout was a wash.

Bench
120 - 5,3,3

Deadlift
135 x 5
165 x 3
Called it.

4/30/2011 - Week 15 Day 1

Squat
Pulled back a little to work on form (again)
140 x 5 x 2
95 x 5 x 2

OHP
80x5x3

Power clean
75x3x5

Dips
-25 x 5, -40 x 8, 3

5/2/2011 - Week 15 Day 2

Squat
160 x 5 x 3 - Hip felt good, form felt solid

Bench
120 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
225 x 4

Pullups
-55 - 5, 2

5/4/2011 - Week 15 Day 3

Squat
160 x 5 x 3 - I repeated 160 just to test out the hip one more time. Felt good.

OHP
85 - 5,4,3 - No fractional plates at the gym. Will have to get my own shortly. Still, form is getting better and after some spectacular failures at OHP, I was happy with this on a 5-pound jump.

Power clean
85 x 3 x 5

[jmessick]

Which brings me to yesterday's debacle:

5/7/2011 - Week 16, Day 1

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
80 x 5
110 x 3
140 x 1
165 - 2, 2, 1 - Ugh, what the hell was that? It was very weird. I try to treat squat like BP in that I don't start a rep that I don't think I'll finish. These failures caught me completely by surprise. The weight felt heavy but it wasn't like I jumped 20 pounds. On the first set, first rep was fine, second rep had a bit of a good morning, but still didn't feel awful. Third rep I just went straight down to the safety pins. The bottom came and went and I offered nominal resistance. Second set, I did my two and didn't go for #3. I rested for another few minutes and thought, OK, just do 2 like the others. First rep, felt OK, second rep, same thing as before: straight down. Good news is that my hip didn't hurt even with the extra depth of failing.

Bench Press
45 x 5 x 2
70 x 5
95 x 2
125 - 4, 4, 5 - Could have got all of these probably but no one was around at the gym and after getting surprised on the squat I was conservative.

Deadlift
135 x 5
165 x 3
195 x 1
225 x 2 - Similar to squat issues. Didn't feel horribly heavy on second rep, but wouldn't budge on 3rd. I even rested a few minutes and tried one more pull, but I had nothing.

Chinups
-55 - 5, 2

Got home, and within the hour I was running to the bathroom, followed by widespread body aches. Either a mild stomach bug or psychosomatic loser's limp. We'll see what happens next workout. I won't sweat one bad day as long as they don't string together.

[jmessick]

5/10/2011 - Week 16 Day 1A

I've been considering changing from Sat-Mon-Wed to Tue-Thu-Sat, so this seemed like as good a time as any.

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
80 x 5
110 x 3
140 x 1
165 - 5, 5, 3
Much better today. Third set technique went to hell though. First rep was good, second started to get away from me, and by the third my ass was almost even with my shoulders before the bar moved.

Press
45 x 5 2
65 x 3
85 - 5, 5, 4
So close. The 5th rep got up to my forehead but couldn't quite get under it.

Power clean
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
80 x 3
90 x 3 x 5
A couple of these felt like they might be not awful form. Lighter weights tend to stop with my forearms vertical, then get racked. Seemed to be less of a problem on the work sets.

Dips
Reading other comments and from personal experience, it is clear that the assisted dips machine only improves my assisted dips, without actually getting me to be able to do real dips. So instead of the 25# assisted I did about 10 single attempts, basically negatives. Hopefully that will work better.

[jmessick]

5/12/2011 - Week 16 Day 2

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
80 x 5
110 x 3
140 x 1
165 x 5 x 3
Fairly easy. Hopefully I can get 170 in a single shot next time. My first days with a new weight have been tentative lately. Need to work on confidence under the bar.

Bench
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
85 x 3
105 x 1
125 x 5 x 3
Also fairly easy. Working on not pushing my head into the bench, but I still did a little bit on a few reps.

Deadlift
135 x 5
165 x 3
195 x 1
225 x 5
Hands started to get slick on #4, so had a slightly longer reset on #5, but it still counts as a set I hope. Will go up 5 instead of 10 on these now since it took a few tries to get this.

[jmessick]

Forgot to mention, yesterday I saw a guy at work that I hadn't seen in several months, and he said, "Whoa, what happened to you? You used to be a real skinny dude like me. Now you're ..." and made the universal "big shoulders" gesture. I told him I was still scrawny but less so. Still, nice to hear I'm moving in the right direction.

[jmessick]

5/14/2011 - Week 16 Day 3

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
100 x 3
135 x 2
170 x 5, 5, 4
These felt pretty good at first, but I still need to work on keeping my chest up and my chin down. When they start to get hard I either look down and end up too bent over, or look up and watch myself turn red. Also managed to lose tension in the shoulders on the last set and the bar pushed in on something in my shoulder blade and made my whole left arm go numb.

Press
45 x 5 x 2
55 x 3
70 x 2
85 x 5 x 3
Easy. Thought about going up to 90 since I was so close last time, but don't want to get stuck again. Ordered some 1.25 plates, so smaller jumps are in my future.

Power Clean
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 3
80 x 2
95 x 3 x 5
Went fine, except for knocking one of the warm-up reps off my knee-cap.

Chins
Several half-reps, jumps, negatives and general ineptitude.

[jmessick]

5/17/2011 - Week 17 Day 1

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
100 x 3
135 x 2
170 x 4
155 x 5 x 2
Chest was caving at 170. That BS has to stop, so I dropped down to 155. I learned a little though. I start the sets out ok but lose it towards the end, like I just forget to keep my low back tight and my chest up. The last set I kept my back up better.

Bench
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
85 x 3
105 x 2
130 - 5, 5, 4
Got help from the spotter on the 5th rep of set 3. Felt good though. Getting closer to big boy plates.

Deadlift
135 x 5
165 x 3
195 x 1
230 x 1
One lousy rep. On the second one I stupidly didn't reset the bar against my shins and pulled it about halfway up a few inches away from my legs. That wasted me and I couldn't get it to move more than a couple inches on my next attempts. Was already running late so I didn't deload to get some reps. My new eco-ball was waiting in the mailbox when I got home, so some chalk should help.

[jmessick]

5/19/2011 - Week 17 Day 2

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
100 x 3
135 x 2
170 x 5 x 3
Better today. Chest caved a little on the last rep of the 2nd set, but the rest seemed solid.

Press
45 x 5 x 2
60 x 3
75 x 2
90 - 4, 3, 0
Couldn't get under the first one on the last set. The first one of each set was a killer. 1.25 # plates were waiting in the mail, so back down to 87.5 next time.

Power Clean
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 3
85 x 2
105 x 1
95 x 3 x 4
The 2.5 # plates had wandered off when I got to these. Was supposed to do 100 today, so I figured what the hell, try 105. Almost missed it and jammed my wrist a little. Dropped back to 95 but wrist started to feel pretty bad. No real bumper plates at the gym, just rubber-covered iron, so I quit before I made a mess of things.

[jmessick]

5/21/2011 - Week 17 Day 3

Squat
45 x 5 x 2
70 x 5
105 x 3
140 x 2
175 x 5 x 3
Not exactly easy, but not terribly difficult today. Nice to finally clear a new weight on the first try.

Bench Press
45 x 5 x 2
65 x 5
85 x 3
105 x 2
130 x 5 x 3

Deadlift
135 x 5
165 x 3
195 x 1
230 x 5
The chalk helped considerably. At first it didn't feel like the bar was going to move at all, but then it did just fine for all the reps.

Dips
Almost got a whole rep, then more jumping around. My hands sweat a lot and the dip/ab chair thing has fat slick handles, like parallel bars covered with smooth rubber. I have to wipe my hands and the handles after each attempt. I wonder if it is possible to use straps on dips ... I'd probably just end up tied to the thing with broken wrists.

[jmessick]

No workout yesterday. 12-hour work day followed by 14-hour work day to start the week ... hopefully this will be cleared up in time for Thursday's workout.