aschaefer's SS Log

[aschaefer]

Hi all,

I was one of those guys who "did" SS but didn't actually follow the program.. Now, I'm trying to, straight from the book, nutrition and all. The catch is that I'm in the Navy, so I have to participate in pseudo-crossfit (i.e. flail around on the floor for an hour to tire yourself out) every Tuesday and Thursday, so I'm trying to find a way to keep building real strength.

I also need to be careful with my nutrition because I'm already nearing the BF limits and weight standards for the Navy, so I really need to try to dial in my diet so I can get proper recovery while minimizing the amount of BF I put on.

ANYWAY: Now I'm trying to do the program.

Age 26, Wt 220, Ht 6'3"

Trying to keep my diet at 3000kcal, 200g protein. I'm going to start monitoring closer and looking up what actual macros I should try to hit. This diet, combined with fatigue from Navy PT has already got me starting to stall out every lift.

Squat: 205
Press: 105
Bench: 180
DL: 265
PC: Learning tomorrow. Hence, "wasn't doing the program"

Tomorrow's going to be SQ/SP/PC. I'll get some videos taken tomorrow and Friday to get a form check thread started.

Thanks all! Glad to be here. Look forward to making more progress. Started mid january at 135,70,140,200 respectively (Again, slow gains because of bad form injuries (tweaked my back and had to deload squat on bad form), outside workout fatigue, etc)

[carson]

You are most welcome. With all of the limitations imposed upon you it will be fascinating to see how you manage. I don't suppose that there is anyway to get the Navy to get real about strength training. I wonder if there is anyway to get SS introduced into the Navy.

[aschaefer]

You are most welcome. With all of the limitations imposed upon you it will be fascinating to see how you manage. I don't suppose that there is anyway to get the Navy to get real about strength training. I wonder if there is anyway to get SS introduced into the Navy.

If I ever become the Chief of Naval Operations (lolno), I'd be sure to send them Rip's way.

Until then, I'll just try to keep my diet as dialed in as I can until I get to a bulletproof bodyweight where I can go nuts with my diet and still pass. I need to either be below 216lb (which I cut to when it comes weigh-in day) or pass a Rope and Choke bodyfat test. I currently measure (myself) around 17" neck and 38.5" waist so I should pass the bodyfat analysis, but I have big ol' lovehandles and the measurement process is just too subjective to trust someone else but myself to do correctly. So basically I have to wait until my bodyfat gets to a point where there's no WAY I'll fail a bodyfat analysis.

It sucks, though, if I fail a test I get put on a fitness enhancement program (flail around on the floor for an hour 4 times a week at 0500 instead of 2 times...) and if that happens, I won't get ANY progress done in the gym.

Luckily for me, I get paid to go to college to participate in the ROTC (long story) so we really only have organized PT during the school semesters. I'm looking forward to the summer semester, where I can stop wasting time and energy on Navy PT and get serious about da gainz.

I'd love to be able to DL 400, Squat 315 and bench 250 for working sets by the beginning of September. Likely? Probably not, but it's worth a try.

[Nate]

The catch is that I'm in the Navy, so I have to participate in pseudo-crossfit (i.e. flail around on the floor for an hour to tire yourself out) every Tuesday and Thursday, so I'm trying to find a way to keep building real strength.

You might consider training as close to immediately before your floor flailing as is possible to allow the maximum time for recovery. I have an Andy Baker post about this bookmarked somewhere but I can't find it right now. I guess if you really want to know, ask him. The post was about MMA, but I imagine the principle is the same, not that I have the slightest idea what you do on those days.

[aschaefer]

You might consider training as close to immediately before your floor flailing as is possible to allow the maximum time for recovery. I have an Andy Baker post about this bookmarked somewhere but I can't find it right now. I guess if you really want to know, ask him. The post was about MMA, but I imagine the principle is the same, not that I have the slightest idea what you do on those days.

For example:

"Deck of Cards" Where we run through a 52 card deck, every suit is a different calisthenic exercise (burpees, pushup, air squats, etc) and we do the face value of each card as they are in Blackjack. Edit: If we finish the deck, we just keep going through it until our scheduled 50 minutes is up.

A cardio-type circuit where we do 5 rounds on a basketball court of down-and-back fireman carries, buddy drags, bear crawl, burpee broad jumps and 2 sprinting laps. Following this, we have competitive relay sprints to finish out the rest of the time.

...These type of things.

I do appreciate the suggestion though. I'll probably try to train MWF later in the day to get my workouts closer to Navy PT so I can maximize recovery time.

[aschaefer]

Failed my attempt at a 210 squat on Friday, managed to succeed in it today (had to miss a workout Monday to rest for my Navy physical test yesterday morning)...Although I did take a video of my last set and it looks like I'm stopping juuuuust north of parallel.

Press felt good, dropped down to 100lbs because I failed 110 on Friday and wanted to try to bust back through. I benched yesterday after my PRT, too (failed 185), so I didn't think going for a PR was prudent. I know this isn't DTP, like I said, I'm trying to get more dedicated to it, starting today. With that said...

I watched the SS DVD, re-read the Power Clean chapter, and made some attempts at learning the movement. It could have gone worse, but looking at my form videos, my deadlift stance has me starting with what looks like a round back. Tough to see, because I'm wearing a pretty bulky sweatshirt. I try to follow all of his cues in the book, and will try to get a better angle on the video Friday when I deadlift so I can see exactly what's going on. Maybe my form is why I failed 275 DL last week.

Squat 210x3x5
Press 100x3x5
Power Clean 85x5x3

I'll get my 3 form videos up as soon as I can. From what I can see, my biggest problems are lack of depth and I tipped a bit forward on the earlier squats (3rd working set), I'm not popping my hips in the press, and I have back position issues on the PC.

Thanks for reading!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_RRhKRMXQA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7mTxpC7mQc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWvyrCSw-Ok

[carson]

An error message came up for all three videos. I'll try again later.

[aschaefer]

An error message came up for all three videos. I'll try again later.

I think it's a little bit funny cause I tried posting them before youtube was done putting through the edits that I made. I'll just post the links to the vids instead of trying to embed.

[carson]

Squats: The bar looks a bit high on your back but can't tell for sure. You need to go a couple of inches deeper. You're close but not quite there.

[carson]

Press: That low ceiling must drive you to distraction. Get a bit more stable before you press upward. You looked like you were still shuffling around as you pressed. Tighten your whole body including your legs before you lift.