A Blessing in Disguise - Starting Over the Right Way with NLP

[Nikola Blagojevic]

Me. a 32 year old dad with a new home gym and sore knees. I like nice guns, good food, and strong drink.

My physical stats.
- 6'0" in height
- 220 pounds in weight. I have been as much as 250 pounds and as little as 210 pounds in the last few years.

Why do I train.
- As I reach middle age, I want to be harder to kill.
- I don't want to be broken down and fat at 45 like so many guys I know who just gave up.
- I want my daughters to see their dad doing things that are hard.
- I want to enter a powerlifting meet within the next three years; I'm pretty sure I have some competitive fire left over from my high school wrestling days.

My training history.
I started a little over a year ago in my local gym with Stronglifts 5x5. I started with the bar and did what felt natural - i.e. I did all the lifts wrong. I did my 5x5s faithfully and transitioned to the Madcow program after about nine months. Shortly before the pandemic closed my gym, I accomplished these one rep PRs:
- 385 lb Squat (high bar with caved knees, probably above parallel)
- 395 lb Deadlift (low hips, bar over the toes, wide stance, snatch grip, trying to lift with my quads)
- 225 lb Bench Press (bounced off the chest)
- 130 lb Press (wasn't training the press seriously)

My best working sets were:
- 305x5 Squat
- 320x5 Deadlift
- 190x5 Bench Press
- 125x5 Press

The pandemic.
And then COVID came, and it saved me from myself. I think I was getting close to injuring myself seriously. I ordered a power rack and a bench, and while I waited I had three months to rest and read about why squats and deadlifts were beating the shit out of my knees. This research and reading led me to the Starting Strength web site and You Tube channel. Learning about the mechanics of the low bar squat was like an epiphany. I ordered the blue book That Day.

So here I am. De-trained, re-educated, and ready to start over the RIGHT way.


Commence my Novice Linear Progression.

I recorded my form and bar speed and decided my starting weights are:
S(quat) - 185
P(ress) - 85
B(ench) - 135
D(eadlift) - 205

[Nikola Blagojevic]

Mon 5/25/20
S - 185x5x3
P - 85x5x3
D - 205x5

Wed 5/27/20
S - 195x5x3
B - 135x5x3
D - 225x5

Fri 5/29/20
S - 205x5x3
P - 95x5x3
D - 235x5

Mon 6/1/20
S - 215x5x3
B - 145x5x3
D - 245x5

Wed 6/3/20
S - 225x5x3
P - 100x5x3
D - 255x5

I'm recording my work sets. I'm hitting squat depth, but I need to work on setting and maintaining my back angle. The 225x5x3 squats felt heavy; I'm going to start making 5 lb jumps now. Same with bench press. Deadlift feels great.

[Cheesepuff]

Welcome.
Excellent progress!!!
You'll approach the point where Practical Programming (page 86) would have you Deadlifting once a week, but with a 395 deadlift, you can get away with this, and the 20 lb jumps.
As long as you're recovering, go for it.
Good luck, you're off to a great start.
Tough time to get gym equipment! Grats!

[Nicky H]

Nice work, man! Got a height and weight for us?

Looking forward to seeing where NLP takes you.

[Nikola Blagojevic]

Right! I am 6'0" and 220 pounds. Adding it to the intro post.

[Nikola Blagojevic]

I'll wrap up this week with this morning's session and then just post every week or two going forward.

Fri 6/5/20
S - 230x5x3
B - 150x5x3
D - 265x5

Squats feel pretty good. From watching my work set videos, the cues I need to focus on are leading with the hips out of the hole (I like the cue of imagining a chain pulling my sacrum straight up) and consciously shoving my knees out. However, I'm also developing a habit of pausing at the bottom on the first rep to think about my cues instead of bouncing.

Next session I think I will try thinking about "lifting a coffee table with my ass". Rip uses this in the squat section of the blue book as an example of using your body to interact with your environment, but when I read that it struck me as maybe a useful squat cue. That might help me keep my back horizontal as I come up. Deadlifts are still solid. No recovery issues yet!

I want to say a word or two about keeping a log for anyone who's reading.

When I started with Stronglifts, I used their phone app, and it was fine. When I switched to the Madcow program, I switched to using the Strong iPhone app (free version). It worked fine, and the auto rest timer between sets was nice. But here's the problem - now my training data is distributed between two apps, and I'm trusting the developers to keep it. I can export it, but it's not an elegant solution. Furthermore, the features I really wanted - warmup calculator, plate math widget, unlimited routines - were behind a steep pay wall. This time, I have decided to keep a paper log.

I'm using a small graph paper bound notebook (Moleskine small size notebook I had laying around) in the same format suggested in the blue book. I have dates going across the top, and I log warmup sets and work sets in a column. I can fit three days on one page, so when I open up the notebook I can see two weeks of training at once. The graph paper helps keep it neat.

Each set has its own line with space for a check mark next to it. It looks like this (work sets are below the line):

45x5x2✓
95x5 ✓
135x3 ✓
185x2 ✓
230x5 ✓
230x5 ✓
230x5 ✓

This lets me check off each set as I progress through the training session, and if I miss reps I can log that set accurately as 230x4 or whatever.

At the end of each training session, I plan my next one and use the SS Warmups app to calculate the warmup sets. That way, everything is already written down and ready for me to just check off the sets as I do them, and I don't need to think about anything except my cues.

I still use my phone's native clock app to time four minute rests between work sets, but I find I'm not bullshitting around with my phone as much when it isn't the thing controlling my training. I don't train with music, so I'm not scrolling for a perfect song either like some pump-chasing bro. I have also found that doing plate math in my head is not hard.

I enter my training data (just work sets) into a spreadsheet for backup purposes whenever I have time, and I guess this thread is in case I lose my notebook AND my iCloud account gets corrupted or something. I'm also using this thread to record some of my thoughts and impressions.

I would encourage anyone to try planning and logging your training on paper. It helps me keep my focus. I may even get a gym timer one day so I can leave my phone alone entirely.

[ajlindahl]

I would encourage anyone to try planning and logging your training on paper. It helps me keep my focus. I may even get a gym timer one day so I can leave my phone alone entirely.

Thought about switching to pencil and paper. Right now I am using a digital notebook (microsoft OneNote) inserting my data Into a table. I just carry my iPad out to the garage with me and record stuff in my OneNote table. It works pretty well... I thought later if I wanted I could dump it in a spread sheet and make pretty graphs or something someday when I want to tink around with Excel.

[Nikola Blagojevic]

That's pretty much what I'm doing with the iCloud spreadsheet. The main advantage of my notebook is that I can check off warmup and work sets without opening my phone, and I don't have to plan or log warmups on the spreadsheet so it can stay nice and compact.

[Nikola Blagojevic]

Mon 6/8/20
S - 235x5x3
P - 105x5x3
D - 275x5

Wed 6/10/20
S - 240x5x3
B - 155x5x3
D - 285x5

Sat 6/13/20
S - 245x5x3
P - 110x5x3
D - 295x5

That set of deadlifts was killer. The last two sessions I have felt like I was not fully recovered from deadlifting. On Monday I plan to begin Phase 2 and start doing power cleans on my bench days.

I have been feeling very fatigued in my low and mid back after squats, and I have begun to suspect I am doing something very wrong. I posted a form check video on the SS facebook group, and the feedback was that I am not staying tight in my back, which is causing a lot of wobble. The bar is all over the place. Also, I am exaggerating the sit back such that my knees aren't moving forward at all and my low back is in flexion.

In summary:
- Keep your chest up more (from SSC)
- Get your knees forward more (from SSC)
- Elbows too high
- Get tight before lifting off
- Control the descent
- Proper shoes will help

[carson]

You made an excellent decision to move to Starting Strength. Many people here started the same way you started. Proper form, as you surmise, is essential to keep you gaining strength and resist injury. The USSF is a great place for competitions. I don't know if they will pick up with regular competitions as before but check is out.