Musician's Log

[musician]

Squat: 230x5x2
Press: 137.5x4, 3, 3
Back Extensions: 40x10x3
Band-Assisted Chins: 7, 6, 6, 5, 3
Conditioning on BioDyne

Press stalled at this weight before. I believe the next step recommended by Practical Programming is to move to 3 sets of 3. If I fail at this weight two more times, I may do that, although I will be pretty disappointed if this is as far as my press goes on LP. Hopefully this was just a bad day. Shoulder is feeling pretty crappy, recovery was sub-par since last workout, and technique felt a bit off.

[musician]

Squat: 295x5, 3 290x1
Bench: 232.5x5x3
Deadlift: 335x4

I don't know what the hell is happening, everything felt good in the warm-up sets, my last rep at 275 felt great, then 295 destroyed me. Only one of my reps in the first set was below parallel and that one felt like a 1 rep max. Clearly I'm not recovered. I guess I shouldn't attempt this again next workout and wait until my mid-week workout to try again, but I'm also worried about detraining. This is exactly where I got stuck before. Do I really have to move on to doing one top set and two back-off sets now? It seems way too early for someone of my size. Then again, what else am I going to do, I am sick of stalling and working back up. I'm going to try one more time and then do the back-off sets thing if that doesn't work, then I'm going to call it a day with SS and move on to Texas Method or possibly a cut before doing TM. We shall see. This is demoralizing.

Bench was fine, the only lift that has worked for me lately. Still going strong.

Deadlift felt dog-heavy, and I couldn't get my last rep off the floor. Lame. This sucks.

[musician]

Squat: 230x5x2
Press: 137.5x4, 5, 4, 2
Back Extensions: 45x10x3
Band-Assisted Chins: 7, 6, 6, 6, 5
Elliptical Conditioning

On the first set of press (and probably throughout my sets last time) I think I was letting the bar go forward of my mid-foot. I found that feeling like I'm actually pushing the bar backwards instead of straight up tends to make it go up in a straight line. On the third set I couldn't even get the bar an inch off of my shoulders. I felt like getting my two missed reps a few minutes later and they went up easily. I don't think I will count this as a stall until I don't get more reps than the previous workout. Hopefully I'll get 3x5 next time.

I am getting closer to being able to do a chin. I tried one at the beginning of the workout and I was able to get up most of the way.

Strange pains in my elbows and wrists for the last couple of days. I've never had these pains before. Maybe I had a weird squat grip the other day. Also some persistent right shoulder pain, both near the AC joint and in the rotator cuff. And some lower back pain from my last deadlift session - the 4th rep killed me, I let me back round a bit so I could get the rep.

[musician]

Squat: 295x"5"x3
Bench: 235x2

Squats were pretty much all high. Shoulder felt awful when I started benching. Decided to shut down this session.

With various unresolved pains, a growing waist line, summer approaching, and a general lack of motivation with this program due to lackluster results as of late, I'm considering shutting it down for a while and doing a good old fashioned cut. I think if I got down to 12-15% body fat and then came back to Starting Strength, I would be more motivated and my results would be better.

Maybe I'm just wimping out here, but I honestly feel like I need a break. I'm not going to stop training with barbells, I'm going to look into what the best cutting protocols are that won't result in much of a strength decrease, really dial in my diet, and see what I can do in the next 2-3 months.

I'll keep doing this program until I work out the details of my next phase. Stay tuned to the zero people that actually read this.

[JTC_MN]

I can 100% relate my man. My expectations of LP results left me disappointed as well. I have also been at the mental point you are as well. I changed things up to a one-lift-a-day type program and got a mental break, for maybe a month or two, then re-started my LP after some technique work. I can honestly say thay I didn't get much farther on my 2nd LP. I would advise doing something that brings enjoyment back to lifting. Also, I made a mental note to myself that my main priority is general health. This gives me a reprieve from being disappointed and driving myself insane with less than ideal outcomes. As long as I get to the gym and lift, I'm meeting the general health priority. Competing and getting stronger are close behind as priorities. As far as a good program for cutting, HLM gets the nod.

[musician]

Yeah, I've read in several places that HLM is good for cutting, so I might give it a go.

I'm also lifting primarily for health and just because I enjoy it. And I don't think squatting 500 lbs. vs. 250 lbs. really makes you any healthier. 250 lbs. vs. 100 lbs, yes, but there is a point at which you clearly aren't doing it for "health" anymore. That being said I really would like to squat that much one day, but what difference does it make if that takes me 6 months vs. 2 years? If you're not trying to be a competitive lifter, nobody gives a crap how much you lift except the odd bro asking how much you bench, so why not enjoy the process?