My Starting Strength log

[Adam Gottstein]

Saturday, March 23, 2019
Squat: 225x5x3
Press: 122.5x5
Deadlift: 315x3, 285x3
Bench: 175x5

Had my coaching session with Coach Nikki Burman on Saturday. It was really good, and thankfully she said my form wasn't too bad. As expected, squat and deadlift have the most corrections, but even those weren't as bad as I was thinking they would be. We worked squat up and she noticed my form starting to break down when we got to 225, so we kept that as the working set. This is about the weight where I thought we would end up based on recent adjustments.

Turns out I've been squatting with the bar a bit too low. Ironically enough, I was thinking maybe it wasn't low enough and tried to put it lower one day last week. I don't think I made it to 185 before I realized that was wrong, and went back with my normal bar position. Now I put it up even higher and it's more on my shoulders. I was right about needing to be more horizontal, so working on that the past few weeks was good, but with the lower bar, I would have been leaning over too far. I need to keep working on proud chest, and watching for knees forward at the bottom. I'm also in my heals too much, which carries over to deadlift as well but to a lesser detriment. I think this is a result of being overweight and naturally leaning back onto my heals to reach a modified COM created by my gut. Whether that's right or wrong, I still need to focus on staying more midfoot, which I've been applying outside of lifting as well.

Deadlift I need to squeeze the slack out of the bar before doing the pull. Turns out I was squeezing right into the pull, which results in not being as tight as I should be, and lifting with my back before driving through my feet. I'm still working on this one. I also need to squeeze my scapula back/down more, which is no surprise to anyone that's seen me pull with the bar not scraping my legs. I also got a queue on looking at a fixed point...not sure where I was looking before, but it was wrong. We talked about how I tend to do well on reps 1-3, and form breaks down a lot come rep 4. Sure enough at 315, 3 reps were great, 4th rep was bad and I failed it. Going forward I will be doing a triple and a backoff triple so the weight can keep driving up while still getting the volume in.

Press was overall good. The two big corrections she gave were eyes on a fixed point forward, ideally above eye level. I now have masking tape on the wall behind my rack. Other thing to work on is keeping elbows forward when I bring the weight down, and I'm finding this is a lot harder than it seems it should be.

Bench was also overall good. Coach Burman has me touching a bit lower on the chest (almost bottom sternum area), which seemed to recruit more of my chest into the press. Beyond that, I need to leverage leg drive more (I've used it to stabilize, but not so much to help press), and I need a straighter bar path as I'm more inclined to arch up to start than push a straight path.

We didn't review power cleans, which is fine, but did discuss whether they are enough to help drive up my deadlift. The recommendation going forward is to include rows, so I'll be doing that. However, I like power cleans and want to keep doing them, so I'll be doing 3x3 after my rows just to keep them going.

I really enjoyed my training session with Coach Burman, though I'm glad I don't have to drive 2 hours to the gym three times a week . Now the goal is to apply what I've learned and improve my lifts.

[Adam Gottstein]

Monday, March 25, 2019
Squat: 230x5x3 (set 1, set 2, set 3)
Press: 122.5x5x3
Rows: 155x5x3
Power Cleans: 140x3x3

Following Saturday's coaching session, the weight is now officially reset to 230 (225 Sat. +5 today). Overall I feel the sets were good. I did feel my upper back lose tightness on the last rep of set 3, and overall I am learning how to better tell about knee slide at the bottom. Any weird moving between sets is me pushing to be midfoot rather than in my heals.

Press was good, and looking at a fixed spot forward has made a huge difference. I'm looking forward to hitting 135. There's just something about a big plate on each side that just feels good.

This was my first time doing rows this time through the program, though I have done them before. Per recommendation, I am using a pronated grip instead of supine. This works out well for training hook grip more. I got to this initial weight by feel, and I think 155 was a good place to start. I probably could have done more, but not a whole lot, and this seemed to be heavier than I was expecting. Going to go to 160 on Friday.

Power cleans were pretty solid here. These are officially in the "doing because I want to" category with rows being the primary deadlift driver on this day. Corrections in my deadlift form definitely seemed to help here as they apply to the initial pull.

[Geoff Bischoff]

I knew your time with Nikki wouldn't be wasted!

Those squats are looking solid, mate.

[Adam Gottstein]

I knew your time with Nikki wouldn't be wasted!

Those squats are looking solid, mate.

Thanks, Geoff. She told me how you and her husband knew each other before you ever went for the training session, and how he got you going in the direction that lead you to SS (if I recall what she said correctly). It really is a small world, and yes, it was a great session.

[Adam Gottstein]

Forgot to mention, been eating well above cut calories the past few weeks, so floating around the same weight as several weeks ago. This week I'm back to adhering to my caloric deficit. So, based on today:

BW: 291.3#
Waist: 50"

Waist was a rough measure, so it may be a little on either end. Will try and remember to put this in my Monday posts again going forward.

[Adam Gottstein]

Wednesday, March 27, 2019
Squat: 185x5x3
Bench: 185x5x3
Deadlift: 325x3, 295x3

Light day squat, so that went well/easy enough. Bench felt really really solid today. I feel like I could have done at least 1 more rep per set, and definitely another set. Definitely going up to 187.5 next time. Deadlift was overall good. As mentioned before, I'm now doing a triple followed by a backoff triple at around 90% of the working set. Working set first and 2nd rep were decent, though the bar got away from my legs a bit on the 2nd rep. 3rd rep I felt like I didn't have it to hook it again, so I did switched to mixed grip, and as usual, the bar was away from the legs almost the entire way up with some hitching at the very top. I believe I was a fair bit into my heels on that rep, which is something we discussed on Saturday. I'm going to go to 330 for next session, but will need to keep the bar against my legs better regardless of grip.

I thought the backoff set looked a lot more solid, which hopefully that is the case at 30 lbs lighter. That said, I tore a thumb callus on the last rep. I think I loosened my grip on the way down in an "I'm done" fashion. Hopefully it's good enough for rows and cleans on Friday, and may push me to a full mixed grip on Monday's deadlifts.

[Adam Gottstein]

Friday, March 29, 2019
Squat: 235x5x3 (set 1, set 2, set 3)
Press: 125x5x3
Rows: 160x5x3
Power Clean: 142.5x3x3

Squats felt good today. Presses were heavy, but none of the reps felt like they barely finished, so definitely going up. 2nd day of rows, and 160 felt good. I figure I'll be moving these to 2.5lb increments at some point, maybe more around 180 or 185. Power cleans were really good. All-in-all, this was a good workout.

[Adam Gottstein]

Monday, April 1, 2019
Squat: 240x5x3 (set 2, set 3)
Bench: 187.5x5x3
Deadlift: 330x3, 300x3

Squat was pretty good. Last rep my hips got ahead of my back (or, more accurately, my back didn't hold as well as it should have). I wasn't going to record these today, but after the first working set I thought I should, thus only video for sets 2 and 3.

Last rep of bench became a "get up at any cost" rep, and left side went up faster than the right side (just a bit, no weights dropping off situation). I'll be going to 190 on Friday, but if I have a similar difficulty, I'll repeat. Deadlift was tough today. I don't think it was too much strength-wise, but getting it all together was a bit tough. Still, it went up as did 300 backoff set. I have decided I am going to just do mixed grip on these and avoid switching grip part way through, which I did on both the working and backoff set.

On a side note, my son ended up sick with the flu yesterday and today (and probably another day or 2, though I think he's getting better). Here's hoping I don't get it, or I'll be missing some training days.

[positronbomb]

What I do to fix imbalances is to perform some form of tricep work just on the weak side.
I specifically use a cable machine and perform something that resembles a one arm dip on the weak body part. Just 2 sets at heavy weight.
Works everytime.
I don't perform them all the time, just when a correction is needed. Once or twice in a week and then that usually fixes the problem and I stop them.

[Adam Gottstein]

Wednesday, April 3, 2019
Squat: 195x5x3
Press: 127.5x5x3
Rows: 165x5x3
Power Cleans: 145x3x3


My back was still pretty beat up from Monday going into this, so I'm glad it was a light squat day. Squats felt good and went pretty quickly. Press was a bit tough, but went up for every rep. Going to 130 on Monday, and if I don't miss, I'm 2 weeks away from 135, which is a big milestone for me. Rows were good, but I had a couple week pulls on the 2nd set (near touch, but not actual touch). I corrected that on the 3rd set. I think those will be going to 2.5 lb increments soon. Power cleans are feeling the most solid they ever have at t his kind of weight, which is good. I had a weak rack on the last rep, but still going up for next Monday.


positronbomb - That's a pretty good idea, though lifting at home, I don't have a cable pulldown. That said, I am looking into making one of my own which can attach to the pull-up bars and is easily removable so it's not in the rack when I want to squat or bench in there. If I can make it considerably cheaper than buying, I will do that. For my bench, I will either repeat the weight if I have the rep issue again, or I'll push through at the next weight.