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Thread: Less weak than last week

  1. #21
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
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    Knoxville, TN
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    310

    Default NLP Week 12

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    TL;DR - still waiting on rib to heal. Squats and bench went well.

    24 February 2021
    Weight - 201
    Squat - 280
    Bench - 142.5
    Clean - some practice but had to leave early

    I finally feel confident in my squat technique and not shreking my elbows. I now start with my hands out a bit so I can get under the bar while keeping things loose. Then I walk my hands in and tighten everything up while just barely touching the bar to the back (so I can keep in the right spot). From there it's much easier to get the upper back nice and tight with the bar well secured, and it avoids both of my prior elbow sore points (while getting under the bar, and due to loose upper back). I think the squat is back on linear progression now.

    Bench went okay, but I will have to figure out a way to unrack better. The rack is one of these things, which is sturdy enough to survive the apocalypse but has something like 4-6" gaps between pin settings. I've been having to press a bit to get the bar out of the rack and I am starting to feel it in the elbow joint (very different from the squat-related issues earlier).

    Worked on power cleans briefly but I had to run before I could get too far along on them. I wasn't doing workset levels today so I'm not too upset, but I'm starting to really get the itch to get moving on my pulls again.

  2. #22
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    Jul 2016
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    Knoxville, TN
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    310

    Default NLP Week 12

    TL;DR - Made progress until injuries caught up. Dying to resume LP but still need to heal a bit.

    27 February 2021
    Weight - 200
    Squats - 245 (light day, kept off elbow)

    I cut short here. I think I was unracking badly last Wednesday when bench pressing. I had a lot of strain in the elbow but made it work, but it's been sore ever since. I've probably always been unracking in a way that's hard on the elbow but it's just now catching up to me in terms of weight on the bar. When warming up for overhead press, lifting the empty bar was painful so I'll just let it go today and start up on the chin ups of doom to get things to heal faster. I'm going to get an elbow sleeve I can work out in.

    Dying to get back into power cleans and deadlifts.

    Trying to make plans to get to an SSC. I could obviously use it at this point.

    For 12 weeks, I've made the following progress though, with several comments. As always, this is mostly me organizing my thoughts.

    Squat 105 285 Haven't been adding weight while rib healing. Form is finally feeling really solid.
    Overhead Press 46 97.5 Likely have to back up a couple pounds since I missed today.
    Bench 75 140 My kingdom for hooks without a 2" lip.
    Deadlift 155 325 Missing at least 2 weeks, so slight deload coming.
    Power Clean 65 110 Form went to crap after 110, so in the middle of a complete restart. :-(

    Edit: Forgot to mention that my belt shipped and is arriving Monday! Finally! (Dominion's estimated lead time is pretty much on point, btw.)
    Last edited by David Hooper; 02-27-2021 at 09:48 AM. Reason: Getting a belt!

  3. #23
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    Jul 2016
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    Knoxville, TN
    Posts
    310

    Default NLP Week 13

    TL;DR - Ribs and elbow better but still problematic. Elbow sleeve seemed to help.

    1 March 2021
    Weight - 200
    Squat - 285
    Press - 95
    Power Clean - 95

    Thanks to a sick old dog, I slept on the couch last night so I could get ready to get her outside ASAP whenever her diarrhea or vomiting hit. Needless to say, I didn't sleep particularly well. Still, squats went well. I'm basically back on them to where I was before the injury, so I can at least get them to progress. Given that my deadlifts are going to regress I'll probably have to stick with light squat days on deadlift days to keep the squats from interfering. I'm probably a bit lighter in weights than what Santana intended in that article, but I do find the light squats to be very helpful on the deadlift and I want the deads to make strong progress once I get them back in routine.

    Press went alright. I went up to 100 and got a few up, but could tell it was going to fail so backed it down to a weight I could get the proper volume on. Still, it was worlds better than Saturday when the empty bar felt like fire in my elbow. I'm really hoping I can get presses moving again. It's the most constant reminder that I should have been in a weight room 25 years ago.

    Power Clean: to be honest I don't know how many I did, but it felt great to do a pull again. I'd do a set of 3 with double overhand, then a set of 3 with hook grip to continue training away the arm pull. It seems to be helping. I got up to 105 on the bar before the hook grip cleans got problematic, so backed it down to a weight where I could practice the form without the weight being trivial.

    New belt is arriving imminently. Looking forward to Wednesday's workout already.

  4. #24
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    Jul 2016
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    Default NLP Week 13

    TL;DR - Still not really on the program at the moment. Injuries are healing but not quite ready for prime time. New belt is fantastic.

    4 March 2021
    Weight - 203
    Squat - 235 (Light day)
    Press - 95 (sorta)
    Power Clean - 100

    Kept the squats light today partly because it was the rotation and partly to test the new belt out. Dominion makes a fantastic belt; it's so much better at holding against Valsalva pressure than the tired, old gym belts on the wall. 10/10 would recommend.

    Press went okay-ish. I actually tried 100, but the rib injury kept getting aggravated the more I did (even through the warmups). Seems that doing work overhead and stretching it makes it angry right now. I dialed it back a bit to get a few reps in, but realized I was just making things worse so I cut it off.

    I very briefly dallied with the bench. The elbow is still a little sore so I didn't add weight, but I figured out I can raise the hooks up one notch. The notches on their racks are spaced at 3 1/2" center-to-center, which is ridiculously huge. Still, that'll help me unrack it, even if I may have more trouble re-racking.

    Power clean was the star of the show today. I'm finally starting to get my technique figured out. The double overhand grip is much better for me, and using it up to 100 lb worked well. Most of my work reps actually felt like I was exploding the weight upward. I still did the pattern of one or two double overhands, followed by using hook grip once I had a good rep. That really helps me feel the errors in my hook grip pulls. I still need some improvement on my feet (extending during the jump and landing in a good position).

    I'm really hoping I can work back into the program next week. At the very least I think I can get back to deadlifting.
    Last edited by David Hooper; 03-06-2021 at 09:14 AM. Reason: Fixed title

  5. #25
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    Jul 2016
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    Default NLP Week 13

    TL;DR - Squats back on progression. Hello deadlift, my old friend.

    6 March 2021
    Weight - 202
    Squat - 290
    Press - 95
    Clean - 105
    (Deadlift - 265)

    Officially back to adding weight on the squat; 290 is a new high. The new belt is fantastic. I felt much more stable.

    Press is still hampered by the rib, which still hurts anytime my elbows are above my shoulders. I feel like I have more in me; it's just a matter of healing.

    Power Cleans went alright. They went up but weren't as well executed as last time. I may repeat the weight to keep working on form, but I am seriously itching to get it progressing again.

    Just out of curiosity, I did some deadlifts after the cleans to see how they'd feel. I'd add weight, do a set of 5, etc. Got all the way to 265 before figuring I had beat myself up enough. This pleased me the most, though; the rib didn't interfere at all. :-) I feel I can work the deadlift back in and get one step closer to linear progressions again. Currently I'm thinking of going to 295 on Monday, then 315 on Friday, then 10 lb increases from there.
    Last edited by David Hooper; 03-08-2021 at 02:16 PM. Reason: Fixed typo.

  6. #26
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Knoxville, TN
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    Default NLP Week 14

    TL;DR - Press is progressing again. Bench is close but not quite ready for full workload (elbow).

    8 March 2021
    Weight - 202
    Squat - 245 (light day)
    Press - 100
    Deadlift - 295*

    Squat is going great now. I don't feel any antagonism in my elbow from it anymore, so I think I've finally fixed the upper back tightness problem. The light days are really useful for practicing form with a reasonably heavy workload at 3 sets of 5.

    I tried bench pressing, but the elbow was sore enough during the ROM that I went away from it. Still, I got to 115 before discretion won out. I was planning on 135, so I'm getting close but I don't want to re-aggravate it. (Upside: unracking the bar didn't hurt nearly as much, so I think I'm figuring that out.)

    After that, I figured I'd just press and get some work in. It felt good in warmups so I went ahead and went for 100 on a whim. First set felt great. Second set felt great. Third set went successfully, but that last rep was a killer. Still, it's a 5x3. I'm surprised the bench didn't screw up anything. Perhaps more noticeable was that the rib didn't hamper the lift. That's now the second lift that's back on progression.

    The deadlift is coming back online. I give it an asterisk because I mistakenly used the bar with the Death Knurl. I had to keep stopping to shake off the pain in my skin from the knurl, so it wasn't a clean set of 5. On the upside, my hook grip is still holding well. I'll avoid that bar like the plague now, but I"ll also add some tape to my bag so I can tape the thumbs if I ever do get stuck using it again. the plan was to do 315 on Friday, but I may redo 295, or just do 305 instead since today's wasn't technically a successful set. (It was more like 2, 2, 1.)

    Injury report: the elbow is steadily progressing. ROM is much better and most of the issues are gone. The bench still makes it hurt; it feels like it's in the head of the humerus where the radius meets it. The rib feels a lot better too. i can do overhead work without aggravating it.

  7. #27
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    Default NLP Week 14

    TL;DR - Able to bench. Power Clean actually worked. NLP is slowly coming back online.

    10 March 2021
    Weight - 202
    Squat - 295
    Bench - 135
    Power Clean - 105

    Best overall day in a long time. The squat went well and I feel like I'm not doing anything bad to my elbows anymore. I honestly felt like I comfortably had 300 or 305 in me. I can't wait to get the deadlift back to progress before the squat totally overtakes it.

    I did an actual 5x3 on the bench. I feel like I could have maybe done 140 or even 142.5, but I wasn't sure how the elbow would take it. The elbow is currently tender so I'll see tomorrow if I pushed too hard or not. Either way, though, I did feel better unracking bar, so there's at least progress.

    Prior to the cleans, I did a lot of stiff-arm jumping with the bar to really get the feel of the jump without an arm pull. From there, I was much better at keeping locked elbows on the jump and getting the bar moving properly. I kept with double overhand as I'm more consistent with it, but I plan on working in hook grip practice over the next few weeks. I did the five sets of three at 105 so I feel I can get back to NLP on the clean. That's three lifts back on progression.

  8. #28
    Join Date
    Jun 2020
    Location
    Maine
    Posts
    268

    Default

    Looks like you're back on track! Glad you're feeling better.

  9. #29
    Join Date
    Jul 2016
    Location
    Knoxville, TN
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    Default

    Thanks! Really looking forward to getting back to boring old NLP udpates and no longer whining about all the self-inflicted stuff. That plus the prospect of visiting a SSC in the near future should put me in good shape moving forward.

  10. #30
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    Jul 2016
    Location
    Knoxville, TN
    Posts
    310

    Default NLP Week 14

    starting strength coach development program
    TL;DR - Deadlift is back. (Random pondering: why does the editor think deadlift is a misspelled word?)

    12 March 2021
    Weight - 202
    Squat - 245 (light day)
    Press - 102.5 (5,4,3 fail)
    Deadlift - 315

    The light day for squats is still a blessing. I get to really focus on form and I save some energy for the deadlift. Given that the injuries have brought my squat nearly equal to my deadlift, this also allows me to let the deadlift regain some weight advantage. Assuming all goes well, I'm on track for 30 lb / month on the squat and 60 lb / month on the deadlift.

    Press failed, partly because I let the bar float forward on the 4th rep of the second set. I got it up, but it took a lot of effort. It killed the 5th rep and possibly hurt the third set. Still, the press is stronger than in the past and I'm sure I can get 102.5 on Wednesday next week. It'll always be a brutal struggle (thanks, lifetime of not developing my skinny arms and shoulders!) but it's going to get there eventually.

    Deadlift was great! Monday, I had thought about doing a bit less since I had troubles holding onto the Death Knurl bar, but by the time today rolled around I had a healthy dose of effitol and decided that 315 was the plan. To be honest, it went up far better than the first time I pulled 315 - to the point I held it up for a while on my final rep just because I was feeling good. This could have been 325 or even 335 but I'm not worried about that. The rib isn't 100% (it's still tender), but it doesn't impair any lifts anymore. This is now the 4th lift back on NLP and I feel good about the odds that the bench will join the club on Monday.

    I'm happy I kept my weight in check while floundering around the last three weeks. I'm still probably a shade over 25% body fat so that can come down a bit without hurting myself. I'm thinking I'm good at my current caloric intake until the end of the month and then I'll have to re-evaluate.

    Now that I'm effectively back to the program, here are the losses from the elbow tendonitis and the cracked rib. Deadlift, power clean, and bench press lost a month of progress. Overhead press lost about three weeks. Squat lost two to three, but that was the one thing I could still do at the worst of it. Currently in negotiation with the better half to let me visit an SSC in early April to fix the things I'm sure I'm doing wrong. Things are looking up.

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