Three Years Later: SS Part Deux

[Anthony King]

SQ 200x5x3
PR 97.5x5x3
PC 97x3x5
Chins 7,4,5

[Anthony King]

SQ 205x5x3
BP 145x5x3
DL 260x5x1

Squat felt heavier than last time; deadlift felt lighter. Bench still feels easy-ish. I started too low, I guess, I'll keep jumping five pounds for now.

Bench still gives me the most problems technically. I consistently lose tightness in the upper back after a couple of reps and my shoulder blades get out of place. But my upper back flexibility seems to be improving. Probably post a form vid to get some help.

[Anthony King]

Week 5, Session 3

Weigh In: 206

Squat 210x5x3
Press 100x5x3
Power Clean 103x3x5
Chins 7,6,5

Squat and press were tough. First squat session in weightlifting shoes. Previously squatted barefoot. Don't know if the shoes or the extra five pounds threw me off but I felt awkward.

I later had time to look at video of the squat and power clean. Squat depth was fine, but just barely. Maybe the elevated heels, which I'm not used to, threw me off. I'm usually an inch or two lower. On the reps that were tough my knees shot back after I came out the hole so I've got to work on that. Power clean needs some work. I'm starting the jump with my shoulders in front of the bar which is making the bar path arc. I wasn't close to missing any of the PC's, but today's form won't do when the weight gets heavy.

I think I'm moving out of the easy phase of the LP and each session will be tough from now on. (Except the bench, which will get tough in another two of three sessions, I think). I've been eating just under 4K calories a day and I'm gaining good weight. Waist measurement is the same as when I checked 10 days ago but I've put on four pounds. I didn't think I'd have such long levers at over 200lbs. Even though I'm not exceptionally tall (6'0") my arms and legs are very long so my leverage isn't great.

I reference my numbers from an eleven week run of SS in 2010 to get a feel for how I'm doing this time around and the numbers look good. Lifting in my garage this time allows me to concentrate better and be more picky about my form. Also, I never lost all the LBM from the 2010 SS run, and I added some more doing some quick barbell workouts this year before starting a strict SS routine, so I wasn't starting at the same place (was 162lbs when I started at beginning of SS in 2010)

2010 best numbers (all work sets) through eleven weeks:
SQ 230 BP 155 PR 95 PC 95 DL 255

2014, same, but at the end of five weeks
SQ 210 BP 145 PR 100 PC 103 DL 260

[Anthony King]

Week 6, Session 1

Failed as my own coach today. I ended up in an unplanned ride on hilly New Hampshire back roads with my little girl on a seat in the back of my bicycle. Tried to go slow but my legs were still tired at the end. Also got stuck at lunch with some dieters who served me soup after we'd all done an hour and a half of LSS.

For a second I had the wise notion to do a light squat day but was too greedy. Didn't want to back off.

Squat 215x5x2,3
Bench 150x5x3
Deadlift 270x4x1

Could've got one more on the last squat set maybe but I don't think ask had five in me. Knew I was in trouble when the bar speed on the last rep of the first set was slow.

Bench wasn't too hard. Bar speed still good on all reps.

Deadlift also suffered for the leg exhaustion. I need to build a platform or find another place to deadlift. The floor in the garage has a drain in the middle so the bar rolls around a lot. Chasing the barbell between reps is not fun. Last rep didn't break off the floor and I was mentally and physically toast, so I walked away.

Gonna rest and eat as much as I can and lift again Wed.

[HandPlaneSteve]

Glad you had a good day. I love bike riding! One cool thing about SS is that missed reps get absorbed into your daily planning. Accounts for that thing called life.

Your lifts and progress are looking good. Keep at it!

[Anthony King]

Squat 215x5x3
Press 102.5x5x3
Power Clean 105x3x5

bolds are PR's.

Glad to see the missed reps Sunday were due to the biking before training. I wasn't happy with my depth in the last two sessions and worked on getting my knees a little further forward, going deeper, and using my hips. I kinda overshot it and was going too deep at the expense of tightness at the bottom, but I think I improved through the work sets.

Took a phone call at the end of the power clean warm up and then tried to jump back in and start at the work sets. Mistake. Form was so bad that after one rep my seven year old boy declared "That was garbage." After a couple ugly attempted sets with some misses I got the flow back and did five clean sets of three. I have to fight the urge to jump early on the PC.

[Anthony King]

Squat 220x5x3
Bench Press 155.5x5x3
Deadlift 270x5x1

Threw on the extra half pound so I could surpass the last work set I did on bench when I did some SS in 2010. Silly, but there it is.

[HandPlaneSteve]

Nice job! You have very good consistency and your half pound is NOT silly.

[Anthony King]

I tweaked my groin playing soccer w/ my boy and have lifted through it since it didn't hurt much, but between lifting and playing more soccer the groin keeps getting worse, so I'm going to modify lifts for awhile and not chase soccer balls to let it heal.

I did the close-stance "bodybuilder's" squat recommended in SS for squatting while a groin injury heals.

Close stance LBBS 175x5x3
Press 105x5,5,4

got the last one halfway up and could not get it locked out, pushed until it started moving back down toward me.

Chins 7,6,6

No power clean today b/c of the groin. I'm going to hop over to the training forum to see what I should do to replace the deadlift while the leg heals up.

[Anthony King]

Slammed at work and still nursing the leg, so I just did bench today.

Bench Press 160x5x3

Surprised the 5 pound jumps on bench are still going up easy. Must have started waaaay too low.

Will start doing some high rep squats with the bar tomorrow to get some blood to the tweaked groin, which feels much better today.

Still not clear if a minor pull requires the full Starr Protocol. Seems like overkill for a minor pull. I'm thinking I'll just scale down the Starr rehab and be back doing work sets the middle of next week.