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Thread: Master in Central Florida Novice log

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Inverness,FL
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    164

    Default Back to Training

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    Returned from a 10 day vacation in the Pacific Northwest, cold, damp, and rainy, just like I remember. I grew up and lived there until I retired. The Florida climate suits me a lot better. Not sure if it was the 5 hour airplane rides or shivering for days (the people we stayed with keep their house at 66 degrees) but the whole upper left back and shoulder ache. I’m going to lay out in the sun today and see if I can’t loosen it up. I’m not looking forward to the press on Monday.

    Weight: I ate like a starving pig while on vacation. It was mostly at casino barfettes… dozens of oysters, Dungeness crab clusters, planked salmon, prime rib, all followed by copious numbers of mini crème brulee. For all that eating and no exercise, I am still at 146.2.

    We arrived back in Florida on Wednesday. I had planned to train that night, but collapsed on the bed instead. I wanted to return to the MWF schedule, so did an hour of treadmill cardio on Thursday.

    Back to training! I considered doing a 10% back-off, but decided to just repeat my last training session. I got through it, but it was tough. Hopefully I’ll be fully recovered by Monday so I can continue my linear progression.
    I got a chalk ball and it really helps the grip for the dead lift. I also got myself a belt. It seemed to help a little with my squats, but not much with the dead lift. I think it may have been too loose on the dead lift.

    Squat 125X5X3
    Bench 90X5X3
    Dead Lift 200X5X1

    Tom Campitelli Looked at my squat form and suggested that I move my feet closer together and stop going ass to grass. I tried that today and not going all the way down seems to put a lot more stress on the hamstrings. They are a bit sore.

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    New York
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    3,368

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    The squat depth issue is sure controversial in the lifting world.Rebound, pause, tempo,low bar and high bar have all been talked about in volumes here and on other forums. I would take the advice of Tom Campetitelli.I guess not going ATG takes the bounce off your calves away and relies more.on the hamstring stretch reflex resulting in the.soreness you felt.

  3. #23
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Inverness,FL
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    164

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    Jerry:
    I’m with Tom on the depth issues, too. I think I was getting some bounce of the muscle compression of the hamstring/calf contact, as well as using the calf as a depth stop. Cutting the depth off at just below parallel makes the hamstring solely responsible for decelerating and stopping the drop. The added work on the hamstring makes it sore and stronger… a good thing.

    Saturday training:
    Saturday is normally a cardio/active-rest day. I took a peek at what the app was going to call for on Monday. The app is calling for bench instead of press. I haven’t done a press since before vacation. The last training before leaving was also the bench press. That would make it 19 days from press to press. I deemed that to be a bad idea and did presses off book on Saturday.

    As mentioned before, my left triceps (long head I think) has been painful for a while. I tried the press motion without a bar and again felt the catch near the bottom, even with such a long layoff. I tried rotating my wrists in the hope that I could use a curl bar. As it turned out, a supinated grip worked with little pain, so I started a warm up for a work set equal to my last press. All went well for the first few sets, but once I got some weight on the bar, it wanted to pull me backward at the top. A pronated grip locks the elbows at lockout. A supinated grip pushes the elbows forward, prevents them from locking, and messes up the balance. I cautiously switched to the normal pronated grip and was able to push the now warmed and stretched muscles without pain. I was not able to get even the first rep up on a work set of the weight from the last press training. I backed off 2.5# and was able to get all but the last rep, of the last set to lockout. The next press training will be Wednesday and I hope to get back to my old weight.

    The press has been a killer since the start. All of the other lifts are progressing with 5# increases, but the press is not liking even 2.5# ones. I have a set of micro plates on order. I will continue to push the press, even if it is only a few ounces at a time.

    By the way cardio was fine at 41 minutes, with 20 minutes of that in the peak range.

  4. #24
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    Sep 2017
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    Inverness,FL
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    Default Back To Progression

    Really cold for this morning’s training. The furnace even came on for 15 minutes or so at 5:00AM.

    Pretty much everything felt good. I added chins to the B day and even managed to do 3. I haven’t done chins in probably 30 years, so I wasn’t expecting to do even one. I think I could have done even more, and next time I’m shooting for 6.

    Dead lift felt really heavy warming up, so I increased rest time between work sets to 4 minutes. I wish that I had gotten a 3 or 3 ½ inch belt. The 4 inch really digs into the ribs. I dropped the progression to 2.5# for a while so the squats can catch up.

    Weight is dropping a bit since I’m not loading up with deserts like I was on vacation.

    Squats – 130X5X3
    Bench – 95X5X3
    Dead Lift – 202.5X5X1
    Chins - 3

  5. #25
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
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    Inverness,FL
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    Started with a 5 minute, 3mph walk on the old treadmill, and then hung on the chin bar for 45 seconds to stretch out the shoulders.

    Low Bar Squat – 135X5X3
    It keeps getting easier to get the bar on my back. The triceps still complain when I un-rack, but not so much any more. I have had a problem with consistently getting my feet in the right place. Having a tape measure in front of the cage helped with width, but the angle was inconsistent. Having the feet turned out too much seems to make it easier to get down too far and back up. Closer to the recommended 30 degrees feels like the hamstrings are working harder. I made up a board with foot positions marked and it helps. In a few weeks the muscle memory will kick in and I can dispose of the crutch. Going up another 5 pounds on Friday.

    Press – 67.5X5X1 + 67X3X1
    I failed on the third rep of the second set and almost failed the last rep on the first. It started out OK but the last warm up set and the work sets were quite painful. I originally thought it was a tricep issue, but now think it is in the shoulder or rotator. I can bench and chin just fine. It is the push straight up that kills me. I tried partial movements, but no cigar. I am trying to get an appointment with the doctor, but she seems to be on a vacation binge. My plan is to bench at each training session and leave the press alone until whatever it is improves.

    Dead Lift – 205X5X1
    The belt helps, but I have bruises under my rib cage. Chalk is the bomb.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
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    Inverness,FL
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    End of the 5th week of the program. Of that, 4 weeks are lifting and one week vacation.

    Diet: I am back down to 143 pounds with 16.8BF. This was quite discouraging since I had increased my calorie intake by 50% to 1800 per day. My wife pointed out that I am picking up more weights, and on inspection; I have increased my calorie expenditure enough to offset my more liberal diet. My protein intake on off days is about 130gr and 150gr on training days. My blood glucose and pressure are holding in there, so I have room to fiddle with adding more carbs and lean protein. It seems that this will be a constant battle of diet fiddling until I get as strong as I want to be, whatever that will be. It would be a lot easier if I had a working pancreas.

    Injury: I have been whining about my left shoulder for a while. The failure on Wednesday’s Press has now started to affect my bench. I failed the 95# that I was supposed to do today after just 2 reps. I backed off to 90# and was able to do 5X3. I called my doctor to talk about just what it is that is buggered up, but she doesn’t have an opening through December. Depending on what transpires on Monday, I may have to get my wallet out and go to the ER. I am going to try to bench every training day. I will alternate flat bench and incline benching with the incline as high as I can go without major pain. It is either the rear delt or the rotator, both should reduce on their own if they aren’t too bad.

    The Training:

    Squat: 135X5X3. It was really heavy, but the last rep felt better than the first. It seems like my form gets better as the weight on the bar goes up. It may be because you can get away with being out of balance with a bare bar, but get some weight on it and it doesn’t want to get very far off. I think I can go up 5# another day. That would put me very close to body weight. From there I think I can get a few weeks of 2.5# increases before I need to go to some kind of light day system.

    Bench Press: 90X5X2 and 90X6X1. See above about my shoulder problem. I’m going to try to modulate volume as well as intensity for a while. I will do 90X6X3 until I can get a 7th rep on the last set, then go up in weight with a set back off to 5X3. I did this system with dumbbells with some success when I first got interested in picking up heavy things. This hopefully will allow me to get pushing work done and keep my range of motion up while my shoulder heals. The incline bench presses will be at the same intensity. I’m not staying strictly with the program, but some pushing is better than no.

    Dead Lift: 207.5X5X1. This was really hard to lock out at the end, but I think I can get a few more training sessions of 2.5# before I have to go to an every other training day pull program.

    Chins:Three sets of 2. Three per set next.
    Last edited by LarryLohkamp; 11-03-2017 at 05:20 PM.

  7. #27
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Inverness,FL
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    164

    Default Week 6-1 A

    Week 6 Monday

    Weight is back up to 145. It took 2 pizzas, beer, 2 steaks, and a huge plate of enchiladas to do it.

    Squat – 145X5X3.
    Finally made it to body weight squat. I’m switching to a 10% light squat on Wednesday with a 5# increment on Monday and Friday. I haven’t missed a rep yet, but my struggle with the Press has me more conservative. I’d rather get there slow than get hurt.

    Press.
    The shoulder felt pretty good, so I tried to get the missed 67.5# that I got hurt on. I made it through the warm up to 65#, but failed there after 2 reps. I think I am going to replace the Press with high angle Incline Bench Press until I heal. It only hurts when I try to go straight up. I have a doctor appointment 4 weeks.

    Incline Bench Press – 67.5X5X3
    I set my bench to 60deg up from horizontal. I tried 75, but it didn’t feel good at all. It took a bit of time to get the bench and squat rack situated and work out the bar handling, but I got the reps and sets done. It doesn’t train as much of the body as a standing Press would, but at least I get some upper back and shoulder work in. I’ll try 75deg again next week.

    Dead Lift – 210X5X1
    I am surprised every time I pull, that I can get this much weight off the floor. I think adding in the chins has helped my grip strength. I didn’t need the split grip until the second work set rep. I took a video of the lift. I was going to send it in for a check, but even I can see that my back was too rounded. I seem to have short arms, because the only way to get a flatter back is to drop my butt, and the only way to do that is push the knees farther forward. The back felt fine after the lift, but I will work on getting it straight for the future. I am incrementing the lift at 2.5# per session. That moves the Dead Lift 7.5# per week, while the Squat is going up 10#.

  8. #28
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    Sep 2017
    Location
    Inverness,FL
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    164

    Default Week 6-2 B

    Week 6 Wednesday

    Weight is still 145. Body fat is 16.9, which translates to 121 lbs lean. I gained 2 pounds of lean weight in 5 weeks. My projected A1c is still 6.0, so I can afford to ramp up the calories some more. Protein intake is 150 on training days and 135 on off days.

    Squat – 135X5X3.
    This is light squat day. Current target for LB Squat is 10#/week

    Bench Press – 92.5X5X3
    The shoulder felt pretty good. Weight felt heavy, like I was out of gas at the end. I was being greedy trying to keep up a 5#/session increase. I paid for that by failing the first rep for 100#. I really wanted 120 by Thanksgiving. No cigar! I will have to be happy with 2.5 or even 2 pound increases.

    Dead Lift – 212.5X5X1
    I watched a slew of videos yesterday. I discovered that I was way off. My feet were too far apart, the lower back wasn’t set, and my upper back was rounded. I closed the stance and tried to focus on getting my back set and squeezing the weight off the floor. I will shoot another video Friday and see how well I’m fixing it. Squat is going up 2.5#/session. I want the squat to catch up a bit.

    Chins – 3X3
    I got them is all I can say. The last one was ugly. Next ‘B’ day will be 4X3.
    Last edited by LarryLohkamp; 11-10-2017 at 05:33 PM. Reason: Corrected incorrect Squat weight.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Aug 2017
    Location
    NE USA
    Posts
    95

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    good stuff,I cant even do 1 chin yet.

  10. #30
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Location
    Inverness,FL
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    164

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    starting strength coach development program
    HA! I'll gladly trade a few chins for presses. Them darn things just hate me.

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