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Thread: BWare's Novice Training Log

  1. #21
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    6/4 - first session of the full-summer novice rowing program. We only got about an hour or so on the water, and did some pretty low-intensity drills, with intervals. I might have actually spent about 25 minutes rowing, and it was pretty light. I expect the load to pick up a bit as the summer advances, but I'm feeling easy about today's lifts not being adversely affected by the rowing.

  2. #22
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    6/5 - Session 4--3.

    Squat -- 5 x 3 at 245; I'm feeling great and know I'm getting solid depth. Knees are well out, bar sitting nice and snug, and feeling balanced on my hip drive. Go plus-5 next session. This weight will put me just 10 pounds under the weight I managed to get a set at a couple of weeks ago before my lower back strike.

    Press -- 5 x 3 at 84; solid and pretty strict on form (not a whole lot of hip thrust/pop yet, but my timing on the start is much smoother). Continue at plus-2.

    Deadlift -- 5 x 1 at 275; still very solid on form and movement pattern; I re-set my grip, chest, and breath on each rep but it only takes a couple of seconds, so it's not like I'm doing rest-pauses. Continue at plus-5.
    Last edited by Bruce Ware; 06-17-2019 at 08:24 AM. Reason: convert to Rip's rep x set report format

  3. #23
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    6/6 - Rowing class; a little more intensive than two nights ago, still doing technique drills and rotating through the various subsets of the crew, but I estimate (credit myself with) about 40 minutes of good conditioning rowing over the course of the 2-hour class. I'm still sitting in the #8 seat, i.e., the "stroke" for the boat, and have gotten compliments from fellow crew members and coach of a nice pace in training. I'll try to stick with stroke as long as the coach wants me to, but I'm sure he'll want to rotate us through all the seats for experience-building purposes.

  4. #24
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    6/7 - Session 5-1

    Squats 5 x 3 at 250; still feeling good with good form and depth, no back problems; plus-5 next time.

    Bench 5 x 3 at 171; OK, well, I got 'em all, but had a really tough time making the chest-touch; I'm going to reduce the LP to plus-1 next time.

    Deadlift 5 x 1 at 280; this is my all-time best with a straight bar; most of the time, by now I had switched to my hex bar, but I want to stick with the straight bar this time and see how the correct form and movement pattern can keep me progressing; plus-5 next time.
    Last edited by Bruce Ware; 06-17-2019 at 08:25 AM. Reason: convert to Rip's rep x set report format

  5. #25
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    6/8 - Rowing. About 45 minutes of good conditioning activity over the course of 2 hour period. Still sitting in #8, stroke for the boat, but some pair-wise drills have me idle. I think just about everyone on the crew wants me to stay in stroke seat, as I am getting lots of solid compliments on my pace and timing.

  6. #26
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    6/9, Weekly Measurement Stats:

    Weight: 187.6, week's avg 187.0, long-term avg 186.7

    BF%: 9.7% (18.3 pounds, down 1.6 from last week), long-term avg 10.3%

    Lean mass est: 169.3 pounds (up 3.2 from last week), long-term avg 167.5

    Avg daily cals consumed: 2630 (130 less than last week)

    As you can see, I'm still a bit short on calorie uptake; I began adding in consuming whole milk on Friday -- initially, a pint or so -- as part of my post-training routine, so we'll see how that goes; I'll gradually add in more per day, depending on how my body responds. I think the increasing intensity of the rowing may have helped burn off some excess body-fat this week -- that was a pretty big drop in fat pounds calculated -- and I'm going to try to increase my protein and carb intake to off-set the additional burn.

    While this week's numbers might look like back-sliding, I should note that my weekly avg number since starting the NLP is up 4.0 pounds, with 3.5 pounds of that increase contained in lean mass. That's not too bad for 4 solid weeks of training. (The workout coming up on Monday will be week 5, #2.)

    In general, the usual "body-building" type body-part measurements (waist girth, shoulder girth, thigh, calf, chest, bicep) all continue to remain consistent within one standard deviation of my long-term averages. I conclude that I have not observed any appreciable loss of previous "hypertrophic" gains while concentrating on strength/power with SS NLP. I'm not yet knowledgeable enough, nor do I have enough data yet, to make any inferences in respect to myofibrillar versus sarcoplasmic hypertrophy; am I getting more efficient at motor-unit recruitment -- are satellite cells being recruited to become new muscle cells -- theories of cell-splitting and so on? <Shrugs> Don't know, but I feel great! Bigger, strong enough to get my lifts *and* row a sweep boat a bunch. Here's to keeping that going.

  7. #27
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    6/10, 5--2

    Squat:

    Warm-ups -- 5 x 2 @ 45
    5 x 1 @ 95
    5 x 1 @ 135
    3 x 1 @ 185
    2 x 1 @ 225

    Working -- 5 x 3 @ 255; about 4:30 inter-set rest; form good although I think set 2 was a little less horizontal than it ought to have been; I also think it is time to acquire some weight-lifting shoes; I am going for 260 next session, which is where I was before I had the rowing-induced back issues a couple of weeks ago that caused me to re-set the weight.

    Press:

    Warm-ups -- 5 x 2 @ 45
    3 x 1 @ 75

    Working -- 5 x 3 @ 86; 3:00 inter-set rest; improved timing of the hip thrust/pop; continue LP to 88 (I feel I could add more, but don't want to get greedy, as I know this is my weakest lift and I want to continue to make progress at getting it better and stronger).

    Deadlift:

    Warm-ups -- 5 x 1 @ 135
    5 x 1 @ 185
    5 x 1 @ 225
    5 x 1 @ 255

    Working -- 5 x 1 @ 285; 4:00 rest between last warm-up and working set; I also used about 2:30 in between the warm-up sets; continue LP to 290.
    Last edited by Bruce Ware; 06-17-2019 at 08:26 AM. Reason: convert to Rip's rep x set report format

  8. #28
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    6/11 - Rowing; I am still in the #8 seat and the "stroke" for the boat. Sounds like it has me doing more "work", but our drills keep things rotating among the crew, and there are times when I am "out" and idle (setting the boat for improved stability while other novices are doing their drills). All-in-all, when I do row, it is for a fairly good sustained time, and I have been instructed to maintain a stroke per minute pace of about 20. We had some opportunities to try out "power" strokes during these drills; the pace remains constant, but the drive of the legs increases significantly. I estimate that I get about 8 minutes of steady rowing out of every 12 minutes of time on the water. Some of that time is pretty easy and with only partial pressure (not too physically demanding), so I "credit" myself with about 45 minutes of moderate conditioning over a 2-hour class session. I am having a blast doing this!

  9. #29
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    6/12, Session 5-3:

    Squats

    Warm-ups -- 5 x 2 @ 45
    5 x 1 @ 95
    5 x 1 @ 135
    3 x 1 @ 185
    2 x 1 @ 225

    Working -- 5 x 3 @ 260; had to give myself a "caution" on these, as I felt that I was not quite getting as deep as I wanted to get. I allowed myself just about 5:00 inter-set rest on these, and felt that was sufficient to recover. I also decided to bite the bullet and purchase some real weight-lifting shoes, rather than continue to use these flat sneakers I've been using. They've been very good, fairly rigid, but with no heel elevation or side-ways stabilization, I think they've become a limiting factor. I hope they'll be here before my Friday session. Meantime, I've elected to reduce the linear progression for the next one to a 2.5 pound increase.

    Bench Press

    Warm-ups -- 5 x 2 @ 45
    5 x 1 @ 100
    3 x 1 @ 135

    Working -- @ 172, a 5, 3, and 2; first failure on this exercise; set 1 was extremely solid, with a good chest touch on each rep; on set 2, however, as I was pushing upward for my 4th rep, my left foot slipped and I had to bring the bar back down to the safety stops. I have been using 35 pound plates on the floor to "shim" my feet up a bit - the bench is a little too high for my feet to reach the floor completely while providing a base to do the leg-drive. Unfortunately, this time, the plate slid a couple of inches on the floor and my foot went with it. I re-positioned the plates, added a couple more plates into the mix to hold them more solidly on the floor, and gave myself about 5:30 to rest. Set 3 was no better, though, and I was only able to get 2 reps with good form; on third push, I got stuck about 4 inches up and was out of gas, having to allow the bar to return to the safety stops. I will use this weight again next session, and try to brace my feet more solidly.

    Deadlift

    Warm-ups -- 5 x 1 @ 135
    5 x 1 @ 185
    5 x 1 @ 225
    5 x 1 @ 255

    I allowed about 2 minutes rest between each of the warm-up sets, and 5 full minutes before the working set.

    Working -- 5 x 1 @ 290; this is by far the highest weight I've ever truly deadlifted with a straight bar (truly, as in with good form and no "bounce"). The movement pattern continues to feel very solid. Pace of the lift was slightly slower than previous sessions - the weight took about 2 seconds to get from the floor to lock-out, and I gave myself 4 or 5 seconds to re-set my leg position and grip each rep. But they all felt great, and I'm moving on. Plus-5 next time.
    Last edited by Bruce Ware; 06-17-2019 at 08:28 AM. Reason: convert to Rip's rep x set report format

  10. #30
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    starting strength coach development program
    6/13 -- Rowing, again lots of different technique drills, and I credit myself with about 45 minutes of conditioning activity.

    BTW, my lifting shoes arrived in the mail late in the afternoon, so I'll be able to wear them for Friday's lifting session, which will be the first workout of week 6 for me.

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