My Starting Strength log

[hondotbt]

Copy on what Geoff said. Hope you feel better abg.

[Adam Gottstein]

Feeling a lot better today. Hope to be lifting on Monday. I'll try to repeat last Monday's workout (260 squat, 175 bench, 305 deadlift). I will need to figure out what to do about press and cleans on Wed since that will be almost 2 weeks since last time doing presses and cleans, but I think it will be either a repeat of its last working session (weights are heavy relative to the lifts, but lighter as an absolute weight, so figure that may be more forgiving in some aspects). If not, then a minor deload (5-10lbs) and work back up.

[Adam Gottstein]

Monday, January 21, 2019
Squat: 260x5x3
Bench: 175x5x3
Deadlift: 305x3, 1, 1

BW: 304.6 (down 4.8 lb)
Waist: 51.5" (down .5")

Back to lifting today, and it felt good. You can see that being sick was "good" to my body weight, and I was actually down to 302, but bounced back to 304 on Saturday and stayed there throughout the weekend and today. Waist was down correspondingly. I was able to bring the lifting belt in another notch, so I now have it at the 48" hole, and this felt even more solid.

Squat was much more challenging that last week, and I know some reps had not the best form. Still, I got all of the reps and will move on to 265 on Wednesday and expect that the form issues are due to the week lay off and my body will adapt and be ready for that 265. Bench had a couple of grind reps, but overall form felt better than last week. I will be going to 180 on Friday, and want to push for 185 before switching this to 2.5 lb increases. Hopefully I'm not being too greedy.

Deadlift was still tough, but better than last week. First thing I did was wear the belt for all warm-ups. I didn't do this last week, only wearing it for the last warm-up, and that was my first time wearing a belt. The feel of the belt on the deadlift is definitely different than the squat, and I know it impacted things last week. I will get back to not wearing it on warm-ups, but it was needed today. I also forced all 5 reps. First 3 were pretty good, 4th was only about a 10 second reset. I count it separately, because I took my hands off the bar, stood up, reset completely, then did the pull. Set 5 was closer to a minute between set 4 and 5, so not a full rest (I just stood up to reset, and catch my breath), but not part of the same set. I will repeat 305 on Friday to get all 5 reps in at one shot.

Overall I am pleased with this workout due to the week off sick.

[positronbomb]

I would like to try a nylon belt for deadlifts.

[Adam Gottstein]

I can definitely see that being more comfortable. I think I was good for the working sets today, but last Monday, I just wasn't adjusted enough to pulling with the belt. Add in that I was undoubtedly more run down than I thought as I was unknowingly getting sick.

[hondotbt]

Glad to see you getting back after it ABG, I just got a 3" belt for D/L and it feels a bit better than my 4".

[Adam Gottstein]

Thanks, bt. I had read the 3" is better for deads than the 4" which is why I went with it. I can definitely see how a 4" would feel better for squats, but I'm liking my 3" belt for both.

[Adam Gottstein]

Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Squat: 265x5, 4&2, 5
Press: 110x5x3
Power Clean: 125x3x5

Cardio: 3 miles @ 60 mins.

Overall today was good. Squats were heavy, but actually felt less heavy than 260 did. I suspect this was due to the week off between Monday's, and today my body was more accustomed to the lift. The 2nd set had a few reps that weren't great. Particularly, rep 4 I shifted forward, actually lost balance, hit the uprights, managed to keep pushing up which then hit the j-hooks. At that point, I got back under control and brought the weight the rest of the way up and racked it. I spent about 5 seconds pushing the plates back on the rest of the way as they had slid some, got immediately back under the bar, and did 2 more reps. I did the 2 reps because 1) rep 4 was horrible and shouldn't count; and 2) the 2nd rep was more like rep 5 than if I had just done one more.

Set 3 was WAAAAY more solid than set 2. I really don't know what happened. I think I may have got in my head and nervous about the weight, resulting in me dive bombing some of the reps and losing tightness and in that rep, balance. I should note that over the past few sessions I have moved my grip inward. I had been putting my index finger on the inner ring, which was ok, but I wanted to tighten up the grip and in turn the back. Today I was lifting with my ring finger on the inner ring, and while it felt great, I noticed my grip slipping outward a finger or 2 by the time the set was done. About half way through set 3, I realized this is because my back was losing tightness, so I forced myself to keep my hands in position and back tight. With this queue in mind, my last few reps felt more solid than other through the workout.

Press was easy. It's weird to say that, but it really was easy. Last pressing session was 12 days ago, so I repeated the weight. Being "only" 110, I expected it to be doable, but honestly, I think it went up more easily today than 12 days ago. I even did a single with 125 after power cleans without wraps, and probably could have pulled at least a double if not a triple. This is really good news for me since 110x5x3 was where I failed before and had to reset. Hopefully this means plenty of gains ahead.

Power cleans were good.

[positronbomb]

Nice one.

[hondotbt]

Set 3 was WAAAAY more solid than set 2. I really don't know what happened. I think I may have got in my head and nervous about the weight,

I don't know about way more solid, but definitely have experienced this and sometimes in between sets (particularly with squats) I do some deep breathing and visualization and find that things get smoother from set to set....but then again sometimes it's just a grind. I think with the squat more than any of the lifts the mental/emotional component is a significant.