The Phoenix.

[Jason Cross]

Intro: Hello Starting Strength Nation. Jason from Minneapolis, Minnesota here. Why Phoenix? It seemed fitting for a former early intermediate lifter coming back after an extended break from training. Emphasis on extended.

Wikipedia: In Greek mythology, a phoenix (/ˈfiːnɪks/; Ancient Greek: φοῖνιξ, phoînix) is a long-lived bird that cyclically regenerates or is otherwise born again.

From couch potato to badass. And it has begun.

Former Peak:
BW 185
1RM: Dead:410 Squat: 390 Bench: 275 Press: 160 Clean: 85kg

Current Stats:
BW: 195 BF: 22-24% (accumeasure calipers) Age: 32 Height 5'9"

Crossjj1'''s Food Diary | MyFitnessPal.com

Stay tuned...

[Jason Cross]

I workout at a D3 college gym. Its a solid place for starting strength. Aside from the occasional pubescent adolescent slamming weights in a proverbial gorilla-like chest beating fashion, it provides an excellent place to train. Its got great custom made squat racks, 90's jams and none of the health club crowd. Not to mention "free" to use for alumni and paying students.

I've used SS and 5/3/1 in the past. Upon returning to training I used 5/3/1 programming for about 8 training sessions. However I have recently been enlightened by Jordan's article on the subject of 5/3/1. I have decided to train through LP programming again and then move to intermediate programming when necessary (Thanks Coach Michael Wolf for contributions.)

Two Starting Strength workouts are in the books and here are the numbers:

A
Squat: 245lbx5x3
Press: 120lbx5x3
Dead: 130kgx5

B
Squat: 265x5x3
Bench:185x5x3
Dead: Failed 150kg, 3 reps 140kg

Reflections: Ego got the better of me on workout B. I was feeling pretty confident after a good squat and bench. The weight room was unusually crowded. But I could not pull 150kg off the ground. I was underfed and overconfident.

Adjustments: Introduce power cleans in favor of dead lifting every workout. I need to check the ego and take a longer term approach.

[Jason Cross]

A
Squat: 275x5x3
Press: 125x5x3
Power Clean: 60kgx5x3

Get more sleep.
Don't workout so late at night.

[Adam Gottstein]

Welcome back, and good call on switching back to NLP while you can still add weight each session. I'm curious - why are you listing pulls in kg and everything else in lb? It's a bit weird to read 265 squat and 150 deadlift. At a glance it looks like squat > deadlift by quite a bit. It's crazy to think that if you can NLP all the way back to a 390 squat, that will only take you ~8 weeks. You may/probably will stall a bit sooner and move to intermediate sooner, but taking this time to add weight as quickly as you can will be great for your progress. Are you going back to 5/3/1 after you milk these gains?

[Jason Cross]

@abg

Thanks for your post.

I am listing the deadlift in KG because I have been using bumper plates with this lift. But you do make a good point, I should probably switch before the weight goes up quite a bit and all the bumpers no longer fit on the bar. I purchased some micro plates this time through, my plan is to realize a definitive ending of my LP, which I never did the first time around. Goals are 225 press, 315 bench, 405 squat, 495 dead (for longer term, not strictly novice LP.)

Jordan's article The Texas Method and 5/3/1 | Jordan Feigenbaum

The above article which I referred to in the second post has me exploring other options for what type of programming will be next. Most likely not 5/3/1.

[Jason Cross]

B
Squat 280x5x3
Bench 190x5x3
Dead 300x5

Due to the -65 degree wind chills the college was shut down today. I went with a buddy to an anytime fitness. He is about my height and 135lbs. I have him doing starting strength and GOMAD. He's using the SS app. He's about a week into it. He's read the three questions.

Today I am very grateful that my apartment office was staffed even with the extreme cold. I was working from home and was able to pick up my amazon packages at the office (normally I can only do this on Saturday) which contained my new lifting shoes, set of micro plates, chalk, and a lax ball. I'm still waiting on a 3" belt from dominion and some bar collars from clout. The shoes are an excellent addition, after all I have been training in "slippers."

This was an excellent workout, coming off a night of 8hrs of sleep, with the addition of the shoes, I felt like I could have lifted more today.

[Jason Cross]

A
Squat 285lbx5x3
Press 135lbx5x3
Clean 65kgx3x5

Squat felt heavy, may need to increase calorie intake. I have soreness that sets in after the first work set and continues to get worse each set.

*After some light reading: This was probably soreness from the last workout, so I ate more.

I am going to start doing 2 HIT sessions a week, a little conditioning will help me recover between sets, and possibly aid in controlling body fat. Next week I will deadlift on workout A. I'm going to have a Bodpod reading taken at the college. I will have another one taken when I finish the LP and switch to Intermediate programming. This will hopefully provide more accurate LBM and BF readings to gauge physical changes from the strength gains over time.

[Jason Cross]

I think in the first couple weeks there I might have jumped the gun making modifications to the programming, as well as jumping up in weight too quickly. I Started today with traditional workout B (deadlift.)

B
Squat 295x 5,3,4
Bench 205x 5,5,4
Dead 315x5 (this felt really good)

I am a 5'9" lifter with a 6' wingspan. Anatomically I have a deadlifting advantage since the bar travels a shorter distance during a pull than a lifter of similar height with average wingspan. My deadlift is way too close to my squat at moment for a lifter in the novice stage. This may begin to hold my squat progress back if it is not addressed, therefor I am going to stick with deadlifting every workout until it is truly time to switch, and not simply because I want easier workouts.

Today was odd since I felt pretty good, I felt powerful. I honestly cut off my two squat sets short because it felt like I was about to shart my pants mid rep. I should have went and taken care of business and salvaged the sets, but I lifted on and missed a few reps.

Bodpod appointment set for 2/19/19.

As a side note, when I worked out at Anytime Fitness I realized later that I used a 6.5' bar. I am not sure the poundage of the bar. Everything was probably 10lbs less.

[carson]

I remember that while still doing the novice progression I visited a gym of which I was unfamiliar. I loaded up the bar to what I thought was 275. The bar turned out to weigh 65 lbs. I did a pr of 295 and did not realize it until I had done it.

It's all good.

[Jason Cross]

You earned a steak dinner that day. Speaking of steak dinners, steak was on sale the other day stupidly cheap so I bought like 12 ribeyes.

A
Squat 285x5x3
Press 140x5x3
Dead 330x5

Took my buddy to a black iron gym I used to go to. We had a great session. Love that place, they are hosting a meet in August so I now have some extra motivation to train for the meet.