bean counter's novice log (29yo, 6')

[bean counter]

28 May 2014

Bodyweight 77 kg

Squat
20 kg: 2 X 5
40 kg: 1 X 5
60 kg: 1 X 3
80 kg: 1 X 2
92.5 kg: 3 X 5

Bench Press
20 kg: 2 X 5
35 kg: 1 X 5
45 kg: 1 X 3
62.5 kg: 1 X 2
77.5 kg: 1 X 3
72.5 kg: 1 X 4
70 kg: 1 X 5

Chin-up (superset with bench press work sets)
Bodyweight: 10, 10, 10

Bench Press 60 kg X 9 (failed 10)

Squat still feels good from a strength perspective. Technique not quite as solid as last session - I need to reinforce the knees out cue on the way down when I'm getting fatigued.

Bench Press was very weak today. Much like my last press session I failed after only three reps of the first working set. Rather than have to get rescued from under the bar two more times I dropped the weight, but couldn't manage five until I had gone down a long way. Even at 70 kg five reps was a struggle today.

Chins were OK - no extra reps left in the tank on the last set.

Even more surprisingly than my working weight failure, I failed the last rep of a 60 kg X 10 back-off bench press set as I remember doing a set like this weeks ago without too much difficulty. I don't know if the tail end of my illness is still affecting my lifting. I will continue to try and eat more (weight hasn't gone up recently) and if my upper body lifts are still weak I'll reset them.

[bean counter]

Hey mate, thanks for the blog, it's a good source of inspiration for people like me who just started SS. I started 2 weeks ago, and have been lurking here since then, but your log encouraged me to make an account here, so this is my first post .

We've got similar stats, though I'm shorter at 179cm and 74kg, and our starting weights were similar.

You're welcome. I'm glad my log is a source of inspiration. My rate of progress has been a lot slower than the SS ideal, but I'm still happy to be lifting weights that would have terrified me a few months ago. Start your own log - I'd be interesting in following your progress.

The problem is I just reset squats at 65kg since I started at 50kg, so maybe I should have started lower. Yesterday I was able to complete the first working set at 65kg, but it felt like my head was going to explode from the stress I was putting myself under. So I did the remaining 2 sets at 50kg so I could keep my form correct. I've been reading SS:BBT over and over to get all the technique right and watching Youtube vids, since I really don't want to injure my back.

I'm alright on the Press and Bench Press, but I just really dread squats, it feels like hell when I do them. I have to mentally tell my body to push up since I am under so much strain, even though it's low weight compared to everyone else.

I'm not in a position to coach anyone based on my limited experience, but I do think that trying to get your form right is time well spent. I still have squat form issues after more than four months and think I might need some coaching to get this sorted out. I started at 50 kg at a lighter bodyweight, so I don't necessarily think that was too heavy, although it really depends on how hard it was for you at the time.

Squat is also the toughest lift for me. You're not that much shorter than me and I do feel that being fairly tall and slender gives me an anthropomorphic disadvantage with this lift. My head does indeed feel like it's going to explode on my heavier squat sets. I've also experienced a hugely reddened face and light-headedness after heavy sets. To me these are just a sign you're working hard. What's nice though it that on my current deload I'm not getting these feelings at 92.5 kg.

I think my Deadlift is pretty rubbish on form too, but I can still do them no problem at 70kg.

Do you find that every set of 5 is really a struggle, since you are way higher than me now? I don't know if I was right to reset, or if I should just expect that at a certain point it will be a real slog to get through the sets and I will have to grin and bear it.

Good to see a blog in kg, I keep having to convert all the lbs round here on Google to get an idea of what people are doing!

Deadlift was my favourite lift at the start as the weight kept shooting up rapidly. Unlike the other lifts, for me it feels like that even when the bar starts to feel heavy I can go quite a bit higher. For example, on my last workout my final warmup set of 110 kg felt very heavy, but I still sucessfully pulled 130 kg. My deadlift working sets feel very tough now and lead to the same sort of symptoms I described for squat earlier, but they're less intimidating than the squat as the bar is not trying to crush you into the floor.

I'm glad the kilos are helpful. One thing it took me a while to pick up on were that the common weights you see quoted are just multiples of 45 lb plates, which is approximately equal to 20 kg plates, although the US loads will be a little heavier.

i.e.

135 lb = 1 plate = about 60 kg
225 lb = 2 plates = about 100 kg
315 lb = 3 plates = about 140 kg
405 lb = 4 plates = about 180 kg

[RationalGaze]

Ah cheers about the plates, I didn't realise that.

Weird about your BP. Are you sure you were rested enough after the last warmup set? Did you eat plenty beforehand? Sounds like you just ran out of fuel. I'm eating loads more now. Don't know what your diet is like, but I'm currently eating lots of Total Greek yoghurt, which has 9g of protein per 100g and 96 calories. You can throw protein powder in there and it makes a kind of cheesecake dessert. I also make protein shakes with oat flour, peanut butter, protein powder, BCAA powder, whole milk, cinnamon and honey. Tastes awesome and gives you fat, protein and carbs in one shake.

[bean counter]

Ah cheers about the plates, I didn't realise that.

Weird about your BP. Are you sure you were rested enough after the last warmup set? Did you eat plenty beforehand? Sounds like you just ran out of fuel. I'm eating loads more now. Don't know what your diet is like, but I'm currently eating lots of Total Greek yoghurt, which has 9g of protein per 100g and 96 calories. You can throw protein powder in there and it makes a kind of cheesecake dessert. I also make protein shakes with oat flour, peanut butter, protein powder, BCAA powder, whole milk, cinnamon and honey. Tastes awesome and gives you fat, protein and carbs in one shake.

I'm pretty sure today's bench press failures were illness / recovery related rather than anything different about my morning routine. I did only manage a shake and a black coffee first, but that's usual for an 0630 weekday morning workout. I would need to get up even earlier if I wanted to eat beforehand and I'm not sure I can face that.

Coincidentally enough I'm also eating lots (250g each weekday morning) of Total yoghurt, but the 0% fat variety which has 10g protein and 57 kcal / 100g. Given my lack of weight gain recently I could probably do with the extra fat and calories though. Diet in general definitely needs an increase. Although I'm eating a lot more than I used to it's clearly no longer enough to drive much weight gain at my current weight. Illness recently hasn't helped either.

[RationalGaze]

I just finished a whole 500g tub of Total this morning with granola thrown in. Was a struggle but I just kept thinking about how frustrating it will be if I have to reset something again so early on. Previous diet was pretty much Paleo since I was losing weight for a holiday, but now I'm in full bulk-mode. Got 2 pints of whole milk on my desk now too that I'm drinking.

[bean counter]

30 May 2014

Bodyweight 77 kg

Squat
20 kg: 2 X 5
40 kg: 1 X 5
60 kg: 1 X 3
80 kg: 1 X 2
95 kg: 3 X 5

Press
20 kg: 2 X 5
25 kg: 1 X 5
35 kg: 1 X 3
40 kg: 1 X 2
51.25 kg: 0
45 kg: 4, 6, 5

Deadlift
60 kg: 2 X 5
80 kg: 1 X 5
100 kg: 1 X 3
110 kg: 1 X 2
132.5 kg 1 X 5 (PB, right hand under)

Still not very well and no weight gain (RationalGaze is putting my eating to shame). With any luck I'll be back on form by Monday after another two days of rest.

Squat felt good. I need to keep focused on my technique and not get sloppy, but so long as I do that things have been going well on my recent deload. Attention to the knees-out cue is helping me get hip drive out of the hole.

Press was a mess as all my upper body lifts have been this week. My target working weight completely failed to go up. I then misloaded the bar with 55 kg trying to drop to 45 kg, but realised it felt way too heavy after cleaning it to my shoulders. Surprised to miss my first set at a modest target of 45 kg, but this must have been technique related as the other two sets were OK. I failed a sixth rep on the last set.

Hitting a PB on the deadlift was really pleasing after the struggles I've had with LP recently. I did have to take multiple breaths between reps during the working set though. I was feeling the weight in my lumbar region through the warmup sets so I took care to reset each rep. Some previous deadlifts have been hard to lock out, but this is the first time that breaking the weight off the floor has been a challenge. Unlike every other lift I've still never missed a deadlift rep.

Since my upper body strength has deserted me this week I will be deloading to press 45 kg / bench 70 kg from my next session and working back up from there.

[Lion Heart]

Glad to see you still chopping away. Do you track daily calories?

[bean counter]

Glad to see you still chopping away. Do you track daily calories?

It definitely feels more like chopping away rather than smoothly executing a plan at the moment. I don't track calories consistently. This would be a good idea if I really wanted to tighten up my diet. I currently get around 3000 to 4000 per day. 3000 might be maintenance level for me now so I need to stick within the higher portion of that range.

I've been running the program for nearly four and a half months now. At some point reasonably soon I'll need to plan what to do next. I will probably have to decide whether I can face bulking up significantly to push my LP further or end it prematurely. In either case I'm definitely hoping for a 1.5 x BW 3 X 5 squat. At the moment I'm not thinking further ahead than the six month mark.

[bean counter]

2 June 2014

Bodyweight 77 kg

Squat
20 kg: 2 X 5
40 kg: 1 X 5
60 kg: 1 X 3
80 kg: 1 X 2
97.5 kg: 3 X 5

Bench Press
20 kg: 2 X 5
35 kg: 1 X 5
45 kg: 1 X 3
60 kg: 1 X 2
70 kg: 3 X 5

Power Clean
20 kg: 1 X 3
30 kg: 1 X 3
40 kg: 1 X 3
50 kg: 1 X 3
57.5 kg: 5 X 3 [PB]

Squat felt heavy, but unlike the last time I was on this weight, not on the verge of failure. Given how beaten up I felt before I deloaded my squat I'm going to try and avoid this by taking a light day on Wednesday and then go for 100 kg (previous PB) on Friday. This is advanced novice squat programming from PPST 3 without the drop sets.

Bench press was the beginning of my deload on this. The fifth reps were a struggle to lock out, so I don't think I could have managed any more weight. I will try a 2.5 kg increase next time. It would be frustrating if I had to microload back to my previous working maximum attempt of 77.5 kg.

Power clean went much better than last week, although the third reps were tough. On the fourth set I barely made the third rep which went up pretty asymmetrically (stronger on the left oddly enough). I also felt a little faint at that point and sat down for my final rest period. This is still yanking on my shoulder a bit, so I'll have to see whether any pain shows up for Wednesday's squat session. Excited I'll get to try 60 kg next time, which should make for a much nicer pull from the floor.

[bean counter]

4 June 2014

Squat
20 kg: 2 X 5
40 kg: 1 X 5
60 kg: 1 X 5
80 kg: 3 X 5

Press
20 kg: 2 X 5
30 kg: 1 X 5
35 kg: 3 X 5

Chin Up
Bodyweight: 3 X 10

These lifts took place within a coaching session, the first that I've had. This was also my first time lifting in the evening in quite a while.

I was pleased to find out my squat isn't the technical disaster area I was worried it might be. Lots of good points from the coaching but the key cues I want to remember are:
-Elbows up
-Keep the knees out and stay tight at the bottom
-Hip drive
80 kg 3 X 5 was a light day so not too challenging from a strength perspective.

Press however we ended up completely rebuilding. Each rep is now starting from the bottom, with hip involvement. I'm not confident I could repeat my old working weights with the new technique, but it felt really good and explosive when I was doing it right. 35 kg 3 X 5 wasn't easy. I think I'll try for 40 kg next time and build up from there. I also got the chance to press from a rack today, which definitely made the setup way easier. Getting into a good starting position when cleaning from the floor in my regular gym will be more of a challenge.

Chins were as tough as they have been for a while with no further reps in the tank. I don't think these are going to progress only being done once a week, but I like pulling twice a week too much to properly alternate SS A and B workouts. Plus my gym doesn't have anything for back extensions, so I can't do the full B workout anyway.