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Tim's Log
Coaching a friend now. Here's hoping for consistency, commitment, and compliance.
Mid-20s, Army officer, fast runner but not strong. 74", 165lbs.
Intent: 2/wk, and 2/wk conditioning/running (because Army). Got the conditioning days set in places that will hopefully keep its impact on training minimized.
Today, teaching progression and then:
Squat: 105x5x3
His form from the chest down is pretty good for a newbie. It was a surprising challenge for him to get his arms and shoulders into position, and the grip is painfully tight for him even with his hands out by the collars (doesn't help he's got a 7-foot wingspan). His body had another 40lbs in it, but we stopped at 105. We'll add weight next session.
Bench: 105x5x3
He was surprised to learn how far he had to bring his arms in to have vertical lower arms in the down position. Needs work on wrists, tightness, everything. He has a recent set of 135x8 in an Army gym, but 105x5x3 was the perfect weight for him.
Deadlift: 175x5
Pressed for time, so had to stop at 175x5. He smoked this, so he may've had 205x5 today if we had time to get there. 0.9 seconds per pull, consistently, in double overhand, and his form is a lot better than expected for a new deadlifter.
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Tim's LP, W1D2
Corrections: Tim is 30, and weights 173 at start of LP.
Squat: 135x5x3
Bumped 30lbs today. Got his grip much better nailed-in on the warmup, and he was able to concentrate better on moving weight, rather than on fighting wrist pain.
Press: 65x5x3
First press session. Worked on straight wrists, and elbows forward.
Deadlift: 205x5
30lb bump here, too. As it was, the working set locked out in 0.8 to 1.2 seconds per rep. Form is looking pretty solid. Needs to keep the bar against his legs better.
Bench: 125x5x3
Tim is massively undertrained in his upper body, especially in relation to his Army peers. Army dudes who joined at 18 have been bro-benching and doing tons of push-ups for 12 years now. Tim needs more upper body volume, and I'm going to give it to him for as long as he can tolerate it.
Good session today. We're supposed to be back at it Thurs.
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Tim's LP, W2D1
Squat: 145x5x3
10lb bump. Grip's going even better; squats are moving fast. Limiting factor remains grip flexibility, but he said 2nd session was better than 1st, and 3rd was better than 2nd. Progress!
Press: 80x5, 5, 4; 75x1
Coaching failure here. He'd have had 75 for sets across, but I got greedy. We'll do 77.5 for sets across next session.
Deadlift: 215x5
Another 10lb bump. The last of them I think. The set was taxing for him (even though slowest rep was 1.4 seconds, but you know how it goes: Feels like 1.4 years). He's jerking a bit rather than pulling out slack, and the "high hips" cue that worked so well last session was over-working this time. So ... slow and steady.
Bench: 130x5x3
These came up quite easily.
Good session, on a Tuesday. Tim's decided that right now he can swing T/TH/SA so we'll go with that.
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Tim's LP, W2D2
Squat: 155x5x3
Another +10. Much easier time getting under the bar. He's not flexible enough yet to gain value from a "proud chest" cue, but that's in his future.
Press: 77.5x5x3
Much better. Worked press 1.5, and told him to quit screwing around up top (he was taking 2 or 3 breaths at upper lockout before valsalva and bounce-press). Elbows-forward consistency is an issue. But he smoked this.
Deadlift: 225x5 Video with crappy camera-holding at Geoffrey Bischoff on Instagram: “@tzell170 with a 225x5 PR. SDG! Fire that camera man. He sucks. #22000lbs4johnson #22miles4johnson #weights #wendler531 #teamssoc…”
Not hard. Bar gets in front of him a bit; he has to be reminded to keep it in contact with his legs. At some point, heavier loads will self-correct that: He'll either sock it in tight, or the bar will stay on the ground.
Bench: 135x5x3
Tim reports this is the most weight he's ever done for 15 reps. He reports a 185-lb bench single back in high school when he was a soccer player, but can't recall how legit it was (touch chest? Can't recall. Spotter help? Can't recall). Anyway, smoked this.
Another good session. Today marks exactly 7 days since our first session, so stats:
Squat: +50 (105 - 155)
Bench: +30 (105 - 135)
Press: +12.5 (65 - 77.5)
Deadlift: +50 (175 - 225)
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Notation change: Tim is logging his first four sessions as "Week 1," even though it's an enhanced "week." So we'll call this:
Tim's LP, W2D1
Biggest thing to report: BW is 181 today. That's 8lbs gain in 10 days. He's been incredibly compliant in the eating department, and his young, T-ridden body is responding.
Squat: 165x5x3
+10 again, and still flying up so far. More improvement on bar grip and position; better looking all around. Introduced "proud chest" cue, with immediate improvement.
Press: 80x5x3
Moving now. This came up easy. If Tim's feeling ballsy and well-recovered, he says he may want 85 next session.
Deadlift: 235x5
+10. These still moved fast; fifth rep was Tim's first experience of grind. I showed him the stopwatch after the rep: 1.82 seconds to lockout. He barely believed it; said the music quit in the gym and time froze basically. In any event: He wants to move to 5lb bumps, and that sounds fine by me.
Bench: 140x5x3
Easy.
Put a belt on him for all lifts this time. My wife's belt; Tim's got a 3" belt on the way in the mail.
Last edited by Geoff Bischoff; 01-26-2020 at 05:01 PM.
Reason: Spacing. Also, weight gain is for 10 days, not 7 days.
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Tim's LP, W2D2
Squat: 175x5x3
+10 again. Grip is challenging but not excruciating. Getting there.
Press: 85x5x3
Tim wanted 5lbs, and he knocked it out without much grind.
Deadlift: 245x5
After saying on Sunday that he wanted to move to 5lbs jumps, he decided he was feeling better after a day off, and asked to do +10. I didn't stop him. Last rep was 1.93 seconds to lockout. We'll play Thursday by ear.
Bench: 145x5x3
Easy +5 again.
We'll see how he does once the true mental grind settles in, but so far it's full speed ahead.
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Tim's LP, W2D3
Squat: 185x5x3
+10 again. Tim's getting in this groove and loving the iron. Grip pain is improving. Put wrist wraps on today and that helped a lot.
Press: 90x5x3
+5. Had to work for it a bit, but slowest rep (set 3, rep 5) was still sub-1.5 seconds. He's learning some grind.
Deadlift: 250x3, 225x3
Tim got in his head a bit today, and chose this moment (after a 3.7 second grind for rep 3 at 250) to let me know he'd felt sick a bit that day, and had done a poor job of eating since our last session. We'll see how he feels Sunday: We'll either reattempt 250 to close out the 5PR, or else move to alternating with rows.
In any event: 250 is the most he's ever pulled for 3, and he thinks it may be the most he's ever pulled, period (he had an abortive CrossFit career a few years ago, which ended in injury ... of course, because it's CrossFit and CrossFit is stupid). So still a victory.
Bench: 155x5x3
Tim's getting competitive. There's a friend of ours whose undulating periodization program has him benching 225 by late February. That dude is already benching 210. Tim wants to see if, from a 65lb trail, he can pass this friend of ours and beat him to 225. Whatevs. We'll see. But we took a +10 today and he smoked it.
Another great session, despite the deadlift hiccup.
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Tim's LP, W3D1
Bodyweight: 182 (+1lb) Tim says he's been a bit sick, and his eating's been off. I guess I'm happy he still managed to gain a pound this week.
Squat: 190x5x3
+5. Tim's got a bit of erector soreness left over; thinks it might be a strain. I told him the difference between a strain and hypertrophic soreness is really only a matter of degree, eat more, and keep at it. Squats came up without trouble (but I'm glad we didn't have to deadlift today).
Bench: 165x5x3
+10. That's two +10s in a row. I think it's our last. But this one went great: Slowest rep was 1.6 seconds.
Row: 95x8x3
A good light pull. Brought warmth and relief to the low back.
Press: 95x5x3 Video at Geoffrey Bischoff on Instagram: “@tzell170 takes 95 for a ride for 5. Good show brother. #linearprogression #startingstrength #usstrengthlifting #teamssoc #teambloc…”
+5. Tim's proud of this, and I'm proud of him. He's in the half-plate club now.
Good session, and Tim's still highly motivated. Wewt.
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Tim's making good progress. Glad to see him doing it.
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Adam; me too man. Plus it gives us a reason to hang out more together. Bonus.
Tim's LP, W3D2
Tim reports headcold-like symptoms today; the same crud he's been fighting but today it took him down. Has him short of breath and generally hating life. I asked if he had enough wind to do a valsalva for one rep at a time, five times. He said yeah. So we trained.
Squat: 195x5x3
+5. Still smoking these. Took longer rests between sets. The erector pain he was reporting has become less acute, and Tim says it feels more like regular workout soreness now.
Press: 100x5x3
+5. Into triple digits now. These are slowing down a bit, but it's hard to say if that's the head cold or a strength issue. In any event, we're planning to jump to 3lb rises here on out.
Deadlift: 250x5
Tim did battle with 250 again, and this time closed out the set.
Bench: 195x1, 170x5x3
Tim's still chasing our friend to 225. I humored him and ran him up to a single at 195 before doing his working weight. 195 looked like maybe RPE 8; he smoked it. I expect Tim's going to outrun our pal.
Another good session; LP continues. Next up: Rows for pull, smaller jump on press. Going to continue double-booking the upper body for now.
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