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Thread: hewmon's huffing and puffing - Starting Strength Log

  1. #11
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    • starting strength seminar april 2024
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    Aug 7, 2022

    Arrived before opening at the gym, and got in about 5 min early. I guess the staff don't like seeing customers loiter out front. It was a little busier on Sunday, so I'm glad I'm cheating a bit to get on the equipment first. One amusing thing: when I was leaving, one of the guys who had been working out was standing by his car doing muscle poses and looking at his reflection in the car's windows. I hadn't been paying close attention, but I recall he had been doing isolation exercises on the lines of exercise machines. I've always hated those things.

    Anyway, I set baselines today based on what Rip describes in the blue book. It was definitely a heavier workout. I bumped my rests between sets from 30 seconds to 90 for warmup sets, and 120 for the work sets.

    My baselining for squat and press were as per the blue book. Essentially add weight and do sets of 5 until you feel like your form will fail if you go higher.

    Squat: warmup sets: 1x5 @ 45 lbs, 1x5 @ 95 lbs, 1x5 @ 105 lbs, 1x5 @ 115 lbs, 1x5 @ 125 lbs, work set: 1x5 @ 135 lbs
    Press: warmup sets: 1x5 @ 45 lbs, 1x5 @ 55 lbs, 1x5 @ 65 lbs, 1x5 @ 75 lbs, work set: 1x5 @ 85 lbs
    Deadlift: warm sets: 1x5 @ 45lbs, 2x5 @ 95lbs, 1x5 @ 105 lbs, 1x3 @ 115 lbs, 1x2 @ 125lbs, work set: 1x5 @ 135 lbs

    No real surprises. Way back when I was lifting earlier in life my squats were better than my deads. That said, I never really got to very heavy weight in the past. I suspect it is a mix of form and my body structure. I definitely felt that deadlift work set the most. The squat work set wasn't easy, but it felt ok in compared to the deadlift. Of course, the deadlift came at the very end of all the other work. I felt like I had actually worked this workout, which was nice. I feel the effects mostly in my legs, hips and low back. It'll be interesting to see how it all feels tomorrow morning. I have two days rest until my next workout on Wednesday.

    I'm thinking about getting a barbell and some 10 lbs rubber training plates the same diameter as regular 45 lbs plates to practice lift form at home on my rest days. I'm in an apartment, so no room for my own power rack set up unfortunately. Nothing requiring a lot of work, but just something to keep me focused on the cues. I will shell out for some online form checks soon. I've already had a physio I was seeing about my back check my lift form for squat and deadlift. She lifts, but she's not nearly as picky as SS coaches are. But form will be increasingly important the heavier the lifts get.

    Diet-wise, as I mentioned I will scale back on the heavy cream smoothies. No more than one a day, with the addition of 2 quarts of ultrafiltered whole milk. Those two food items are 193 grams of protein combined. Given that I eat meat, while I haven't exactly calculated I'm getting another 30 to 50+ grams of protein per day easy. I am upping my carbs as well. I will definitely be eating more fruit, which is like my candy. I can get back to eating a lot more of it now. I've also mostly stopped buying keto low carb bread (I have some I have to finish off) and moved back to whole grain high fibre high carb (but relatively low GI) bread that I used to use. I'm not sure about other grains. White rice in particular puts me to sleep, and, in the past, tended to make me feel crappy. I've been using riced cauliflower as a replacement for it. I will try some basmati rice with a curry chicken dish I make regularly. I'll be see what effect the rice has when I have it with the curry for a dinner next week.

  2. #12
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    Good first day, hewmon. Those are some good baselines to start working from. Out of curiosity, what did the app have you do the first day?

    BTW, it's water under the bridge now, but once you reached those work sets, you were to do two more sets at that weight for a total of three sets, as described in the book—"Then do two more sets at the current weight, for a total of three sets across with the heaviest weight. And that is your first squat workout."—so your squats and would have been 135x3x5 and your press 85x3x5 for your workout. Your deadlift was good at single workset of 135x5.

    re: practicing at home - don't. You'll get plenty at the gym 3x/week. Plus, us over-50s don't need the extra volume, even if it's light weight, and even this light weight will disrupt your recovery. It doesn't make sense now, but it will once your squat and deadlift get above 300lbs. Use that time to read the book(s) and watch the videos.

    Your practice will come during your warmup sets for the next few weeks (and thereafter). For these next few weeks, keep doing x5 warmup sets like you did today, which means that you'll be doing 30-40 practice reps per workout (90-120 reps/week), which is plenty of practice. During that time, treat every single warmup rep as if it's a textbook work rep and that's your practice. In a few weeks, you'll want to start tapering those warmup sets down to x2's and x1's. The Grey Book has a section called, simply enough, "Warm-up" in the Training Program Basics chapter (pg 76 in the physical book). And while that book does a good job of explaining it, The Barbell Prescription (BBRx) does a great job over a couple of pages (pp 174-6), complete with examples. And not that I'm a great example to follow, I list my warmups and worksets over in my training log that may help illustrate what I'm saying.

    As far as figuring out warmups once it gets heavier, I like the process that SSC Phil Meggers lays out here, since I'd rather not do too much thinking about what plates to put on the bar. That's the process that you'll see laid out in my training logs.

    Enjoy feeling that work sink in over the next few days. It will slowly fade away as you get more consistent.

    Keep at it!

  3. #13
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    Aug 10, 2022

    Before I get into the workout, as a follow up to Bill's question about the app, its starts the very first workout with everything set to 45 lbs for all sets and all lifts. You need to go in and configure a higher work set weight if you don't want to start at 45 lbs for every lift. The app defaults increases to 10 lbs for squat and deadlift, and 5 lbs for press and bench. Nothing yet for cleans or chins since it will be a while before they start getting included for me.

    I was mostly over my muscle soreness from Sunday's workout. I decided to do something mentioned by Rip in one of his videos on how to spend less time at the gym while making sure you get enough rest time between sets, which is to start warm up sets for the presses while doing squat work sets. I did that and it seemed to work well.

    Squat: warmup sets: 2x5 @ 45 lbs, 1x5 @ 70 lbs, 1x3 @ 95, 1x2 @ 120 work sets: 3x5 @ 140
    Bench Press: warmup sets 2x5 @ 45 lbs, 1x5 @ 60 lbs, 1x3 @ 70 lbs, 1x2 @ 85 lbs work sets: 3x5 @ 95 lbs
    Deadlift: warmup sets: 2x5 @ 95lbs, 1x5 @ 110 lbs, 1x3 @ 120 lbs, 1x2 @ 135 work set: 1x5 @ 140 lbs

    Did the full 3 sets of squats without too much difficulty other than having to correct my depth on the first work set. The work sets for bench were too easy at 95 lbs, so I may bump it up by 10 lbs on Sunday. Deadlift again was the hardest. After my last deadlift warmup set, I felt the need to increase the rest period, so I waited six minutes before doing the work set. I also used one of the crappy gym provided weight belts (I have a good one on order). I felt the need for a little low back support. Both of those things definitely made a difference and the work set went better than I expected. I suspect the cardio I had been doing before beginning Starting Strength made my legs and core more attuned to high volume light effort work, so those areas are feeling it a lot more than my upper body.

    Post workout I am feeling it the most in my low back and legs.

    Diet-wise. I am going to avoid carbs in the evening, as I sleep better if I don't eat them at night.

  4. #14
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    Aug 12, 2022

    My DOMS are starting to lessen the day after a workout. I suspect a lot of the initial soreness in my legs was due to all the stationary bike cardio I had been doing. Rip talks about how cycling has no eccentric muscle contraction in the legs (I hope I'm getting that right), so cyclists will have fairly intense DOMS if they start squatting. Definitely true for me.

    The press was a little easier than I was expecting, but while I'll try an extra 10 lbs for my bench on Sunday, I'll stick to 5 lbs increases for press. The deadlift despite being a little heavier also felt easier today. The squat was the hardest this time. I was making sure to get full depth for all sets.

    Squat: warmup sets: 2x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 70, 1x3 @ 95, 1x2 @ 120 work sets: 3x5 @ 145
    Press: warmup sets 2x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 60, 1x3 @ 70, 1x2 @ 80 work sets: 3x5 @ 90
    Deadlift: warmup sets: 2x5 @ 95, 1x5 @ 110, 1x3 @ 120, 1x2 @ 135 work set: 1x5 @ 145

    Oh, I was poking around the SS app a bit more and found the description of how to set baselines in the FAQ section of the app. So anyone considering starting the novice program with the app can find it there.
    Last edited by hewmon; 08-17-2022 at 07:27 AM. Reason: Typo

  5. #15
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    Aug 14, 2022

    DOMS were even less. Although I have a minor strain of some kind below my left hip that feels like it is near top of my quad. I also have a bit of strain in my left ankle.

    That ankle has been injured in the past. That previous injury was like a sprain, but it wasn't from a twisted ankle. The first time I injured it I'm not sure what the cause was, but it took a long time to heal - something in the range of six months and got very swollen. A second re-injury many years later was due to impact (again not a twist) from a minor jump. It didn't take as long to heal, but I was very careful with it immediately, and I made sure RICE it. It took a week or two to get better. So I am somewhat paranoid when there is even a hint of an issue with that ankle, as it will derail squats and deadlifts. It's also quite painful. The original injury none of the doctors I saw could figure out the problem, and I wasn't able to see a specialist. If it starts to act up I'll have to get it investigated, but I have huge reservations about any kind of surgical treatment.

    Anyway, back to the present. I took my body weight, and got a shock.

    Weight: 207 lbs
    Waist (belly button level): 40 inches

    So I've gained 17 lbs and 2 inches in a little less than 2 weeks... yikes. I will pull back a bit on my food intake, because that seems excessive. I am feeling increasingly better with each workout (not including the minor strains), so I won't completely reduce. I will make sure my protein intake stays high, but I'll try half GOMAD with ultrafiltered milk. I'm hoping a decent amount of that extra weight is at least some muscle.

    As for the workout today, I'm glad I snuck in just before the gym official opening time, because it got fairly busy today. The workout went much more smoothly than I expected given the strains I mentioned above. They didn't interfere, so I am hoping they don't become larger problems. All the lifts were straightforward and actually felt easier even though I am continuing to add weight. The bench in particular felt still too easy even though I added 10 lbs. I may add another 10 next time.

    Squat: warmup sets: 2x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 75, 1x3 @ 100, 1x2 @ 125 work sets: 3x5 @ 150
    Bench Press: warmup sets 2x5 @ 45, 1x5 @ 60, 1x3 @ 75, 1x2 @ 90 work sets: 3x5 @ 105
    Deadlift: warmup sets: 2x5 @ 95, 1x5 @ 110, 1x3 @ 135, 1x2 @ 140 work set: 1x5 @ 150

  6. #16
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    That's quite the weight gain for that amount of time, hewmon! It's in the right direction, but you've already figured that it's too quick.

    I'm glad to see that you're keeping with it and moving those weights up. But you are being too conservative with your deadlift. That's going to end up biting you once you start approaching 300lbs for both the squat and deadlift, if you keep them both the same up to that point. You'll end up with what Coach Santana calls an "Artificially Weak Deadlift." And trust me, it sucks to be in that situation. And it can hurt.

    Artificially Weak Deadlifts, Part 1: Perception vs Reality

    Artificially Weak Deadlifts, Part 2: The Arms

    So work towards getting a decent spread between those two lifts, with your deadlift being 50-100lbs ahead of your squat.

    Also, make sure that you read the forum discussions linked at the bottom of each article. There's plenty of goodness to be gleaned from those discussions that will make it all make more sense.

    Keep at it!

  7. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bill Anders View Post
    That's quite the weight gain for that amount of time, hewmon! It's in the right direction, but you've already figured that it's too quick.

    I'm glad to see that you're keeping with it and moving those weights up. But you are being too conservative with your deadlift. That's going to end up biting you once you start approaching 300lbs for both the squat and deadlift, if you keep them both the same up to that point. You'll end up with what Coach Santana calls an "Artificially Weak Deadlift." And trust me, it sucks to be in that situation. And it can hurt.

    Artificially Weak Deadlifts, Part 1: Perception vs Reality

    Artificially Weak Deadlifts, Part 2: The Arms

    So work towards getting a decent spread between those two lifts, with your deadlift being 50-100lbs ahead of your squat.

    Also, make sure that you read the forum discussions linked at the bottom of each article. There's plenty of goodness to be gleaned from those discussions that will make it all make more sense.

    Keep at it!
    Yes thanks, I was actually going to be pushing deadlifts ahead after today's workout, because they were even easier in comparison to squats than last time.

    I was planning on jumping up at least +10 lbs on deads for Friday's workout, while sticking with just +5 lbs for squats. Sort of similar to the difference between my overhead and bench presses.

    As for the food, yeah GOMAD + carbs was too much. Although I suspect my weight was low prior to starting, because of my high cardio/HIIT style exercise, and because I was always skipping breakfasts. My wife commented that my shoulders were already broader, and she was surprised it had happened so fast. So not all of it is fat. But yes, I want to slow down on that kind of weight gain or instead of walking I'll be rolling myself around in no time.

  8. #18
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    Aug 17, 2022

    Today's workout. I'll stick to just the worksets from now on.

    Squat: 3x5 @ 155
    Press: 3x5 @ 95
    Deadlift: 1x5 @ 155

    As I mentioned above I'm planning on increasing deads by at least +10 lbs next workout. Squats will stay the same at +5 lbs for now. Bench will be +10 lbs. Sunday's press will be +5 lbs.

    Deads were far easier than I expected. Squats and press were fine, although press was a little harder, and I will be re-watching form videos for that again.

    I have reduced to 2 quarts of milk per day instead of the full GOMAD. I'll weigh myself on Sunday to see how that's working.

  9. #19
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    Aug 19, 2022

    I'm finding it odd to be adding weight each workout for all the lifts, but to be finding them progressively easier. I hope this continues for a good long while.

    I'll be sticking with +10 lbs on the deads for as long as it feels right. In fact, the deads felt so much better I'm tempted to add +20 lbs, but I don't want to get greedy. Bench was a little more work, but I will stick with +10 lbs for that too. The squat and press I'll stick with +5 lbs.

    Squat: 3x5 @ 160
    Bench Press: 3x5 @ 115
    Deadlift: 1x5 @ 165

  10. #20
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    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by hewmon View Post
    Aug 19, 2022

    I'm finding it odd to be adding weight each workout for all the lifts, but to be finding them progressively easier. I hope this continues for a good long while.

    I'll be sticking with +10 lbs on the deads for as long as it feels right. In fact, the deads felt so much better I'm tempted to add +20 lbs, but I don't want to get greedy. Bench was a little more work, but I will stick with +10 lbs for that too. The squat and press I'll stick with +5 lbs.

    Squat: 3x5 @ 160
    Bench Press: 3x5 @ 115
    Deadlift: 1x5 @ 165
    Good to hear that it's working out for you (yep, I see WIDT).

    Re: deads. You might be able to get away with it. Enjoy your weekend break, then next session consider doing your normal warmup, followed by a single at your next planned work weight (175lbs). If that single feels similar to how it did today, throw on another 10-15lbs and do that x5 as your workset. If that warmup single feels like a struggle, take a solid break (5+ minutes), then pull that 175x5. This is the only time in your training from here on out that you can embrace being a bit greedy, based on feel.**

    To illustrate, let's say that that 175x1 feels fantastic and you decide to go for it. If that's your 90% warmup single, that works out to 195lbs for your workset (really, 194.4, but you aren't working with fractionals yet). You likely could pull that, but I do understand your concerns, which would likely play in your mind and impact your x5. So drop 5-10lbs from there.

    It seems like a huge jump, but it really isn't, considering your background (not a couch potato) and the fact that you've started these so conservatively. If you pull 195x5, that's still only a 30lb gap between your squat and deadlift. After that, if you stick with +5lbs for the squat and +10lbs for the deadlift for a while, you'll still get into that 50-100lb window comfortably. Chances are you'll make it to 250lbs for the deadlift before you have to start making +5lb jumps.

    ETA: Your "progressively easier" comment could be tied to your +17lbs of BW in two weeks. It's amazing what that extra muscle mass (with a bit of fat) will do!

    **obligatory "I'm not a coach" comment. But I've been around here long enough to see this play out, not just in myself, but in others (see those forum discussions on the Artificially Weak Deadlift). Start to think of your squat and deadlift being interdependent, since they both rely on so many of the same large muscles. Because of that, you can run your deadlift up pretty high while letting your squat lag, during which time your squat will actually get stronger because of the deadlift work. Conversely, let your deadlift lag while running up your squat and your deadlift will stall, even regress. It's an odd thing that will become more obvious to you when both lifts are 100-150lbs heavier than they are now. Based on your description of how your 165x5 felt and the likely bar speed based on that, that would be enough to prompt a coach to program more than +10lbs for your next workout.

    Keep at it!
    Last edited by Bill Anders; 08-19-2022 at 12:59 PM. Reason: ETA to add the ETA

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