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Thread: SeanThornton gets back in fighting shape!

  1. #101
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    5/20/19

    Weight: 180.0

    Bench: 162 x 3 x 5

    Finally completed 162#, not missing any reps Moving up to 164 next time!

    Airdyne: skipped it, had a lousy night's sleep, and want to keep more energy for projects this afternoon.

    Oh yeah, forgot... no workout yesterday. By the time I had time for it, it was after dinner time, and I was too pooped to party
    Last edited by SeanThornton; 05-20-2019 at 12:10 PM.

  2. #102
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    5/21/19

    Weight: 179.6

    PCs: 75 x 3 x 2, 85 x 3 x 2, 95 x 3 x 3

    Was going to be deads, with first reset, but in my review of the NLP (which, admittedly, I've customized quite a bit, but anyway...), you're supposed to be alternating PCs with DLs once DLs get heavy. They got heavy several weeks ago, LOL, so I added PCs in today, which I haven't done in just over 3 years. I had worked up to 115 x 3 x 5 at that time.

    Today I kept the weights low, and, while I'm sure my form absolutely sucks, I'm concentrating on form over increasing the weight quickly. Next time I will aim for 100 x 3 x 5, and then probably make 2.5# increases after that.

    Side note: Having watched Rip's videos about trans people in women's sports, and his in-depth discussion of nueromuscular efficiency and the SVJ, I did a quick test of my SVJ, quick and dirty, and not even necessarily a max reading, due to the spur of the moment test setup. I came in at about 16", which isn't very good, but totally expected, since I never had great reflexes or "explosiveness", as Rip would put it. (Actually, I have tremendous 'explosiveness', but in a totally unrelated sense

    Typing this made me curious how that's changed since I was younger. Right now, my reach standing flat-footed is 7'3". Assume 1 more inch when I was in my late teens, due to getting a little shorter with age, and that's 7'4". When I was in my late teens, I could JUST touch a basketball rim, which is 10', so that's 2'8" = 32" jump. That can't be right, could it?

    Oh wait, that was with a running start. So, actually, I have no idea what my SVJ was when I was that age. Anyway, semi-interesting trivia, LOL.

  3. #103
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    5/22/19

    Weight: 179.9

    Chins: 7, 7, 6

    Up from 6, 6, 6 last time.

    Skipped the Airdyne, plenty of projects to keep me busy today!

  4. #104
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    Quote Originally Posted by SeanThornton View Post
    5/21/19

    Weight: 179.6

    PCs: 75 x 3 x 2, 85 x 3 x 2, 95 x 3 x 3

    Was going to be deads, with first reset, but in my review of the NLP (which, admittedly, I've customized quite a bit, but anyway...), you're supposed to be alternating PCs with DLs once DLs get heavy. They got heavy several weeks ago, LOL, so I added PCs in today, which I haven't done in just over 3 years. I had worked up to 115 x 3 x 5 at that time.
    Heya, Bob. I'm sensing from my progression on the Novice Linear that I am getting close (maybe 2 weeks more in this phase) to moving to the next phase, which seems to be about where you are too. I was wondering, though:

    Sullivan in _The Barbell Prescription_ does not recommend doing power cleans for those of us in his Master Athletes category (i.e., old guys). Did you decide to do them because you liked them? I'm trying to figure out which one of Sullivan's programming profiles would keep me on the progression, and was wondering if you had any advice -- you've been at this longer than I. Then again, I am in the next decade older than you, so maybe I just need to re-read Sullivan.

    Thanks

  5. #105
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    beware,

    When I did them (PCs) back in '16, I figured why not try it. I was 52 at the time, and though never very strong, I'd always been in decent cardio shape, and still ran, biked, played sports with the kids, etc. So, though old calendar-wise, I never felt "old". So, I never had a good reason >not< to do them. If you've read my log, you know I've had numerous stops and starts to my NLP. When I came back this time, frankly, I'd forgotten about PCs, or I would have worked them back into the rotation well over a month ago.

    I totally understand the warnings mentioned by Rip and Sully regarding Masters and the PC. And I don't think they're wrong, >in general<. However, 50+ year olds come in a wide variety of specimens, and I think those who could at least try them know who they are. Personally, if you have access to some light bumpers of standard circumference (I have a couple 15#-ers), or a light bar, I don't think it would hurt masters to at least learn the lift with light weights. Unless, of course, other circumstances indicate otherwise (really bad balance, extremely overweight, haven't run, biked, or played an active sport in well over a decade, or two, you get the idea).

    When I started learning the PC in '16, shortly after that I did a pulling day-seminar at an SS gym in Chicago. We learned and practiced the deadlift and the PC (and power snatch, for one guy who did have REALLY short forearms and couldn't rack the bar properly). I was tied for the oldest student there, and everyone else was at least 20 years younger, LOL. The coaches were fine taking me through the lessons for PC, since I was willing, and had already started learning it on my own. And I did pull off 115 x 3 x 5 that day, whereas my best before that was 85 x 3 x 5, so I was quite happy.

    Though I do have Sully's book, I've really been using the NLP section of Practical Programming (pg. 86-ish) to guide my workouts, and even that is with a giant grain of salt. As you've seen, I went to 1 lift a day a while back, because once squats and DLs got heavy, doing both in the same day was just killing me. Because of my extreme "customization" (or, as Rip would say, NDTFP!), I hadn't actually re-read the book in quite a while, and that's what reminded me about the PC

    I highly recommend you re-read Sully's book, and learn all you can. There are some great ideas in there, and they are a terrific guide to help you with your programming. The one other piece of advice I'd give is this.... use them as a guide, not as gospel. We're all different, and what works best for you may be following the plan exactly, or it may be a modification of it. But the most important thing to remember is, we're not gonna set any world records at our age. Err on the side of not over-training, because it can take a while to get through over-training at our age. But even taking it slow, you're way ahead of the curve for your age cohort. And you're gaining the health benefits talked about in Sully's book even if you squat 220 and DL 280 when you ought to be able to squat 300 and DL 400. You can still keep training and getting there eventually. At least, that's how I'm approaching it.

  6. #106
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    Thanks, Bob. Very sound advice. And also thanks for the quick history of your experience. I'll likely stay away from power cleans, as my experience with them was just awful. So far, I'm able to do the "standard" 3-day rank novice, and I'll probably migrate into the "masters early novice (2B)" profile that Sullivan lays out once I reach a point of (a) stalling on incremental increases, or (b) deadlift weight surpasses squat weight. Way things are going, could happen in two or three weeks from now.

    Again, appreciate your help, Quiet Man!

    Bruce

  7. #107
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    5/23/19

    Weight: 179.8

    OHP: 95 x 5 x 3

    This is my first reset (10%) on NLP. Last w/o was 105#, so reset to 95# for today. The nice part, I can do sets of 5 again, so it went quicker

    Next, a change up for my rotation. I've been wanting to add other assistance exercises to the mix, and that starts today.

    Dips: 8, 8, 7

    These were unassisted, and unweighted. I'll use the same approach as chins for deciding when to add weight.

    My thoughts are to follow this schedule:

    Day 1 - squats and pull-ups
    Day 2 - Bench and LTEs
    Day 3 - DL/PC and chins
    Day 4 - OHP and dips

    So, today would have been a day 4, and tomorrow will be squats and pull-ups. With this change, chins are no longer on their own day, and it's a four day cycle instead of a 5 day cycle.

  8. #108
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    5/24/19

    Weight: 180.0

    Squats: 215 x 5 x 3

    Pull-ups: LOL, first attempt at any kind of a pull-up in over 20 years. Let my good progress with chins fool me.....

    1st set (unassisted): 2, and even those weren't really full reps, couldn't get the last 1-1.5" at the top
    2nd set (~30# assist at the top): 14. OK, too much assist
    3rd set (~10# assist at the top): 2, and again, not really, couldn't get the last inch or so.

    Next time, will try to set it up for ~20# of assist at the top, and see how that goes.

  9. #109
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    5/27/19

    Weight: 180.6

    This is the first time since my return (2/6/19) that I missed more than one day of workouts. Out of town, so couldn't be helped. Back at it today

    Bench: 164 x 3, 3, 2 150 x 5

    Was intending to do 164 x 3 x 5, but could tell it just wasn't going to happen. Very tired after the road trip/long weekend, and hadn't benched in 7 days. So, 164 is a PR, but it's a fail as far as progress goes, so, will repeat next time.

    LTEs: First time doing these. Watched Rip's video for form advice.

    15 x 5
    35 x 5
    55 x 5 x 3

    55 still wasn't too bad, so I'll shoot for about 65 next time, and then make small jumps from there.

  10. #110
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    starting strength coach development program
    5/29/19

    Weight: 180.1

    Missed yesterday, bad migraine day

    Deadlifts: 280 x 5

    First time at 280 doing a set of 5 (last time did 4, 4, 3), and all double overhand! And note to Carson, whole set took ~35 seconds

    Chins: 7, 7, 6

    Same as last time, though I came >awfully< close to 8 on the first set.

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