2/27/19 Week 5
Squat: 105x5x3 YouTube
Press: 75x5x3 YouTube
Deadlift: 195x5 YouTube
The outsides of my hips were still sore from last week and had a somewhat sharp pain when I was warming up with the wider/angled out stance this morning. So I changed to a slightly narrower/more foot-forward stance (12" between heels, feet ~15deg out) on the later warm-up sets and work sets. This seemed to help reduce the soreness and minimize the hip pain.
You should walk the bar all the way until you run into the uprights when you finish your set, that setting it down without touching the uprights is asking for trouble.
It's hard to perceive effort on video, but that looks really really easy for you.
Thanks for the feedback! Walking the bar back 'gently' is something I've been doing trying to keep noise down in the morning. But I agree, I need to first contact the uprights before trying to just 'land' the bar on the hooks. I think I improved this some with the sets this morning; take a look below. The weight continues to feel somewhat light on my back but I'm still honing in my stance, toe angle, and grip so I'd rather not jump too fast.
3/3/19
Squat: 115x5x3 YouTube
Press: 80x5x3 YouTube
Deadlift: 205x5 YouTube
As I said above, I'm still dialing in my squat setup - mostly with grip. After some good stretching, I can consistently put my pinky finger on the rings with thumbs on top but then my elbows hurt afterwards and are really sore for benching. I resorted back to the thumbs-around grip today but kept the same grip width. My wrists are definitely not straight when I do this but they don't hurt at all and this seemed to help ease the strain on my elbows.
I decided to put on the belt today as I'm now deadlifting more than my bodyweight! I also tried pulling with just socks to see how it felt - seems a little easier since there's less distance to pull but the jury's still out on this one. Either way, I'm going to start alternating deadlifts with chin-ups to let my squat catch up.
Why aren't you doing power cleans?
A few reasons: I really like chin-ups, I'm not a fan of olympic lifts in general, I'm not trying to train explosiveness for a given sport/be an athlete, and I'm not confident I would be able to do them somewhat quietly upstairs without waking my wife and kids.
3/6/19
Squat: 120x5x3 YouTube
Bench: 80x5x3 YouTube
Chins: BWx5,5,5
Work has asked me to go on night shift (12hr shifts, 6 days/week) for 3 weeks starting this Sunday night. This ought to be interesting...
3/8/19
Squat: 125x5x3 YouTube
Press: 85x5x3 YouTube
Deadlift: 210x5 YouTube
My squat reps are finally starting to feel somewhat consistent. I used a slightly wider grip today with ring fingers on the rings and it felt better on my elbows and still allowed my upper back to be tight.
Press is starting to feel heavy. Hopefully I can hit 100lbs before moving to 2.5lb jumps.
Deadlifts felt good after the extra 2 days of rest. I think I may stick with the socks for now as it seems to make the pulls feel a little easier.
Hey man,
I was following your log up until I went on vacation. I love a log with lots of video haha. I notice you haven't posted since you got slammed with a crazy work schedule. Have you had to cut out the training, or just been too busy to bother posting about it? I hope it's the latter! If it's the former, I hope you come back to it when work eases up.
I know you think I was being a dick when I was calling you out for starting everything with the empty bar, but that was never my intent. Situations like this are why starting too conservatively can be risky. You did a great job of sticking with it long enough that the weights were starting to challenge you, but then life happened, as it tends to. You just could have been much further ahead when it happened, and gotten a lot more out of all the work you put in before it did. This isn't meant to be be an "I told you so" or anything. Just want to suggest that you don't take too big a step backwards when you come back to this, and I'm assuming you will come back. The weights you worked up to are weights you probably could have started out with. I hope you come back and pick up pretty much right where you left off, because I'm betting you'll be able to!
Hope to see you back around soon!
I’m still here, just trying to adjust back to normal work and sleep schedule. I haven’t touched a barbell or exercised at all in 3 weeks so I may take a slight ~10% reset. If I can sleep good tonight and tomorrow, I’ll pick back up Sunday.
3/31/19
Squat: 110x5x3 YouTube
Bench: 70x5x3 YouTube
Chins: BWx5,5,5
I took a small step back since I haven't touched a bar in 3 weeks but it felt good getting back in the routine. To much surprise, shoulder/elbow mobility felt great today. I was also surprised to duplicate 3 sets of five chin-ups from last time. Hopefully my work schedule remains stable for a while