Nick's Training Log

[ngilbert]

Hello,

A bit about me. I live in Southwest Missouri, husband, father of 3, work as a software developer, and I've been training in a functional medicine gym for the past year. Gym had very good equipment, and real sophisticated methods for working on mobility... I started there to specifically work on my squat, thinking I had some type of ankle or hip mobility. Spent my time there doing kettle bell swings, sumo DL, front squats, carries, and many pulling variations. I didn't necessarily get weaker there, but I certainly didn't make great strength strides and I never got confidence in my squat. (Because no one told me about a low bar squat!) Fast forward to this past July/August, made a friend who is into power lifting, start watching youtube videos and discover Mr. Rip and his no-bull shit approach to strength training. I'm hooked, hard. I ordered the book and am about half way through. I joined a new gym that has the right equipment and started the novice program just over two weeks ago.

I have been really happy with my progress so far, but I'm still working with light weights. Here are my details below.

Gender: Male
Age: 35 yo
BW: 169 lbs
Height: 5'10"

8/21/2017
Squat: 155# 3x5
Bench: 135# 3x5
DL: 200# 1x5

8/23/2017
Squat: 165# 3x5
OHP: 105# 3x5 (real bad form, essentially military...regress soon)
DL: 225# 1x5
CU: BW (169#) 1x8,6,3

8/25/2017
Squat: 170# 3x5 (dropped to 5lb increments, no rushing it)
Bench: 145# 1x5,4,4 (form suffering, haven't read chapter yet...)
DL: 235# 1x5

8/28/2017
Squat: 175# 3x5
OHP: 75# 3x5 (Regressed to improve form)
DL: 245# 1x5
CU: BW 1x8,6,3

!!!!! New squat shoes arrive !!!!!
8/30/2017
Squat: 180# 1x5, 185# 2x5
Bench: 145# 3x5 (working on form, feels a lot better)
DL: 255# 1x5 (this feels okay, but I'm concerned with form. DL in squat shoes)

9/1/2017
Squat: 190# 3x5
OHP: 85# 3x5 (feels better after form improvements.)
DL: 265# 1x5 (recorded myself to watch form, knees locking out before hip movement. regress coming)
CU: 10# 1x4,3,4

9/4/2017
Squat: 195# 3x5
Bench: 155# 3x5 (getting better. form helps. felt strong)
DL: 225# 1x5 (regressed, focused on form and hip movement. ditched squat shoes for DL)

That gets my log all caught up.

DIET:
I'm working on my diet. I've been eating fairly low carb for the past year, so I'm working to improve my macros. Right now I have a calorie goal of 2,740 per day, broken down with 171g protein, 240g carb, and 122g fat. Thanks to all the fantastic advice given out by Jason F.

SLEEP:
I have pretty good sleep hygiene. In bed by 10:20 most nights, up at 6:15am. I sleep well and track with fitbit, even though it says I'm awake an average of 60ish minutes a night I mostly feel well rested and think I move a bit during my light phases.

GOALS:
I have a burning desire to be strong. By the end of next year I would like to be able to do the following; bench 315lbs, squat 405lbs, and deadlift 500lbs. We'll see where I go from there. I live in SW Missouri and think I would love to become a SSC. Matt Reynolds used to live here and it seems like there isn't anyone in the area left to evangelize starting strength. Not saying he's doing the wrong thing with SSOC at all, I just want a true SS gym here again. This program can benefit so many people, especially the middle aged and elderly.

Respect to all of you for your commitment to SS. And much appreciation to Rip and company for beating this drum over the decades, the message is getting out. Keep up the good work!

[ngilbert]

9/6/2017
Squat: 200# 3x5
OHP: 90# 3x5
DL: 245 1x5

I've had some stress the last couple of days any my sleep the last two night has been questionable. Today's workout was tough. The Squat was very much a grind and I let my form suffer on the last couple reps of the last set, not getting my back to rise fast enough. The DL was heavy. The last rep takes a moment to work up to. I'm now confident that I was bumping my weight up to quickly by trying to achieve 20# gains per exercise. I'm now backing off to 10# increases per workout and hoping I can carry that on to 315 at least.

[ngilbert]

9/8/2017
Squat: 205# 5,5,3
Bench: 160# 3, 155# 3,3
DL: 255# 1x3

Today sucked. I had to get to the gym earlier than usual and I just woke up feeling sore. I spent yesterday moving boxes and stuff around for a garage sale, and think I may have exerted myself more than I thought. By the time I got to my third squat set I wasn't sure I could finish, reps getting slow, and half way through decided to rack the weight than risk injury. I then went to the bench which went out with a fizzle. I struggled to find the groove and make it feel as good as Monday. I need to go back and watch some of Rip's bench videos. The DL felt a lot like the other two, and I eeked out my third rep. All in all, a pretty disappointing day. I expected disappointment to come, I just wasn't ready for it today. I'm going to spend some time over the weekend looking at the programming in the book and see if I need to do something different. If anyone has suggestions, please offer them.

[ngilbert]

9/11/2017
Squat: 205# 3x5
OHP: 95# 3x5
DL: 255# 1x3

Today felt a lot better than Friday. I spent some time thinking about my lifts this week and dealing with some shoulder pain. The shoulder pain could have come from my bench, but also could have been my grip in the squat. I focused on my form this morning and did the weight. The weight rose better than Friday and my wrists felt better. I widened my grip a tad, focused on tightening my back with chest up and wrists in a neutral alignment. Press went well. The dead lift did good, I didn't need to reset or take as long between reps 3 and 5, but I did feel like my form suffered. I'm moving on to Phase 2 this week and going to start incorporating the clean. Also, I realized that I haven't been eating enough. My previous goal of 2700 cal wasn't cutting it and my fatigue was building up. I've increased my calorie goal to 3000 per day, although I'm really only making sure I hit my protein target of 188 grams and carb target of 338 grams.

[ngilbert]

9/13/2017
Squat: 210# 3x5 Recorded my second set. The grind felt real, but the video showed the bar moving. Form struggled a bit on the fourth rep, but cleaned up on the last rep.
Bench: 155# 3x4,5,3 This continues to be a struggle. Form felt better, but I think I need to back off to 145/135 and take 5# jumps. Theory is that the couple of 10# jumps I did served me poorly.
DL: 265# 1x5 Felt good. Felt a bit of back rounding on the last two reps, will record next time. Used hook grip to much success.
BW: 171# The needle finally moved after increasing my calories to 3000+ per day. This seems a bit rapid, but I'm going to give it another two weeks to see how I trend.

[ngilbert]

9/15/2017

I got hooked up with a coach and am having to go through a deload to work on my form. We didn't have time to get through the whole workout and had to miss out on deadlifts.

Squat: Reset to 155#
OHP: Reset to 80#
Deadlift: Not yet.

[ngilbert]

So I got out of the habit of updating this for a week, and I need to remedy that. Working with a coach has been a huge help. My form got cleaned up and it is really helpful to have someone give me cues during a set. Here is what I've been doing.

9/19/2017
Squat: 155#
Bench: 140#
Deadlift: 235#

9/21/2017
Squat: 160#
OHP: 85#
Deadlift: 240#

9/23/2017
Squat: 165#
Bench: 145#
Deadlift: 245#

9/26/2017
Squat: 170#
OHP: 90#
Deadlift: 250#

[ngilbert]

Weighed myself this morning. I'm sitting at a body weight of about 174.