EOF's log

[eof]

Hi,

Figured I would start doing my own log here, so I could hopefully get some constructive feedback. I am a newbie in the sense that I was in relatively good shape about 2 years ago, especially cardiovascular, but in January this year I would faint if I stood up too fast from sitting on a sofa. This had to do with a combination of surgery and cancer treatment. I am 189cm (6'2") and weigh around 82kg (181 lbs). Since January I have already gained around 20kg of weight, so you can pretty much imagine what kind of condition I was in...

My squat and deadlift form should be pretty good, but my hamstrings have gotten pretty tight. Consequently, I need to work on stretching as currently I feel my lower back is rounding slightly when I squat. Unfortunately, I have never done power cleans, so that is something I need to teach myself. I will probably try to ask some of the coaches at my school in the fall to see if they could be hired to help. Now I'm staying in central London for the summer and paying hefty sums for a gym with only one squat rack... Fortunately, I am pretty much the only one using it.

Workout is as follows:

Workout A: Squat, bench, deadlift
Workout B: Squat, press, row
Sets: 3x5, except deadlift 1x5
Training every other day.

I started very light on the deadlift and the squat, because I was told by a doctor to be careful after having been on a high dose of cortisone for over a year. Current working sets are done with:

Squat: 60kg
Deadlift: 70kg
Bench: 50kg
Press: 30kg
Row: 47.5kg
Increments: 2.5kg, except deadlift 5kg

My bench has always been extremely weak, so the 50kg bench is the first set I've had problems with and last time I was only able to do 4 reps on the last set. I will order some microplates next week, as the smallest plates at my gym are 1.25kg.

I have also done crunches for abs. Currently 2x30 is pretty much the maximum and I am going to get this up to 2x40. At that point I think my abs will be strong enough to withstand sets of 10 reps with plates behind my neck. I want to be careful with my abs, because I have a fresh 15cm scar on my stomach.

I have one question though. What kind of stretching have you done while on a program like this? I used to do isometric and dynamic stretches and could almost do a full split. Isometric stretching makes muscles tired, however, so I was wondering how much they could interfere with the lifting regime? My current goal is developing strength.

[eof]

5/18/2009

Squat: 62.5kg 5x5x5 - not hard
Press: 32.5kg 5x5x5 - last rep in 3rd set was almost a failure
Row: 50kg 5x5x5 - could most probably do 5 more reps on 3rd set

As an extra I did:

Sit-ups: 3x10 with 5kg plate behind neck.

I probably started disproportionately light on the row. Maybe I should go with 5kg increments for a few weeks? I don't do Pendley rows, but instead "normal" rows as I have very long legs and my hamstrings don't let me lean forward enough. I am doing isometric stretches after each exercise and static morning stretches, so in a month I should be able to switch to Pendleys. Lying in bed seems to kill flexibility.

[karpasia]

Hi

Great start.

I would sub rows for power cleans like the proper starting strength program. Don't wait for a coach. Buy the Starting Strength book and DVD, video tape your lifts and you'll probably be better than most coaches out there. Good olympic lifting coaches are hard to find, and expensive. If Rippetoe didn't think you could learn it on your own, he wouldn't have included them in the program.

Also, I would recommend zero isometric stretching. None.
Some light dynamic stretching to loosen up the joints is fine as a warmup. But in terms of flexibility, static stretching - particularly hamstrings - has the potential to make your lifts weaker as a stretched muscle has diminished stretch reflex.
You will get all the flexibility you need from doing weighted back squats with proper form - the loaded bar will actually get your muscles stretched in a manner conducive to heavy squatting at depth. Deadlifting properly will also stretch the hamstrings. It might take a few weeks, but you will get there.

Back rounding, contrary to what is commonly written on the internet, is usually not hamstring tightness - it's usually a technique problem that can be resolved with an appropriate cue. Keeping the chest up fixes it for a lot of people. Rippetoe has written about the fact most people can't consciously contract their lower back muscles - SS outlines some drills to fix this. They don't involve stretching.

Stretching, either before or after exercise, has been categorically proven to have no bearing on injury rates.

The coach at my powerlifting club has a no stretching policy.:eek:

[eof]

I bought the book "stretching scientifically" a few years back and stopped stretching before exercise after reading it. According to the book stretching impairs your muscles maximal strength and coordination. It did however advocate isometric stretching after exercise, but also acknowledged that for some sports loose muscles impair performance (bench pressing was given as an example, but I assume it applies to squats too).

I was thinking about asking some of the coaches at UPenn for tips regarding technique after I get back to Philly. However, I found this which seems to be what I was looking (and it's also less than two miles from my place):

http://www.crossfitsouthphilly.com/

Regarding back rounding, I am currently barely able to sit on the floor with my legs straight and with my back in a 90 degree angle. That sums pretty well my current stiffness.

Anyway, thanks for the tips. I will check the exercises in SS to see if they improve my form.

[Mucius]

I feel that just going down into squat position and pushing your knees out with your elbows (the way Rip teaches novices to squat) before the actual squatting takes place (and in between sets), really helps to reach the necessary flexibility for squatting, but doesn't push it too far (like other stretches might). And since it helps your technique as well (gives you a 'feel' for correct position), I'd recommend it (I do it myself and have my younger brother do it; it works for us).

You've come a long way and seem to do a hell of a job (gaining 20kg in four or five months time...). I wish you the best of luck with your training.

[eof]

5/20/2009

Squat: 65kg 5x5x5 no problems
Bench: 50kg 5x5x5 some effort on last rep in last set
Deadlift: 75kg 1x5 no problems at all

Somehow the squat felt easier than last time even though the weight was bigger. Looking forward to my next workout!

[eof]

5/22/2009

Squat: 67.5kg 5x5x5 eeeeasy
Press: 35kg 5x5x4 disappointing
Row: 52.5kg 5x5x5 eeeasy

I don't know why, but the two first sets were very easy for the press. In the last set, suddenly the 3rd rep felt heavy, the 4th really tough and on the 5th I couldn't get under the bar anymore as I couldn't lift the weight over my forehead. When small muscles get out of juice there doesn't seem to be much you can do. Should I keep the weight till next time or try 37.5kg? Or is this the time go buy microplates and go with 36kg?

I also bought a belt, so I am going to start using it once my deadlift reaches 90kg and my squat reaches 80kg.

[eof]

5/24/2009

Ok, so I was abroad today and did my training at a hotel. The hotel had only a Smith-machine, so I couldn't do squats with free weights (they had a bar, but you can't get it behind your back). Another interesting thing was that their smallest plates were 2.5kg.

I thus did the following:

Squat: ??kg 5x3x3 the machine was weirdly balanced, so that the bar had no weight, but the inertia when trying to push it fast was huge...
Bench: 55kg 5x5x5 yay! they had no 1.25kg plates, so I had to go with this.
Deadlift: 85kg 1x5 no problems at all

I was pissed off after the squat, so I did a 10kg heavier deadlift. It was no problem, so it seems I'm still quite a lot under my max.

What pisses me off the most is that I'm in a little town and this is the only gym. The interesting thing is that it's the largest gym I've ever been to and the amount of empty space between machines is just huge.

The gym also claims that they have this revolutionary system that makes it possible to do moves in 3 dimensions!!! Wow, I never thought a barbell could to that:

http://www.technogym.com/gb/viewdoc.asp?co_id=2268&target=commercial

[Flying Fox]

Why are you doing 5 sets instead of 3?

About the gym issue, you could try a homegym.

[eof]

A home gym is really not an option when I am abroad. I am also a grad student, so I live in a little box, which barely fits my bed, so there's maybe space for some dumbbell curls. I don't even own a car much less a garage. ;)

Regarding your confusion about my sets, I should probably use commas instead of 'x' between the sets as it can be interpreted as doing 5x5x5=125 reps instead of just 15. :)

5/27/2009

Squat: 70kg, 5,5,5 -- eeeasy
Press: 35kg, 5,4,3 -- should I reset?
Row: 60kg, 6,6,6 -- felt so light, that I did more... still no problems

I also did the following:

Barbell curls: 32.5kg 5,5,5
Sit-ups: 5kg behind neck, 15,15,15

I should probably go with a 10kg plate the next time I do sit-ups. How about the press? Should I still do 35kg or drop it to maybe 30kg and start microloading with 0.5kg microplates?

[Flying Fox]

Missed reps 2 workouts in a row, so yeah, I'd reset.

How is your diet and your press technique?

[eof]

6/1/2009

Squat: 72.5kg 5,5,5 easy
Bench: 57.5kg 4,3 felt so weak I skipped the whole 3rd set
Deadlift: 90kg 5 easy

OK, so the bench sucked completely today. Even the first rep felt a lot heavier than I expected. I even checked that I did load the correct weight and it was right. I did feel slightly sore in my throat since yesterday, so I might have a flu coming up. I was also put on some antibiotics last Tuesday after having a camera up my ass as a routine check after the surgery I had in December. I also had some nice little jet lag... Should I just try benching the same weight next time to see if it was just some kind of an anomaly?

Regarding my diet, I have been gaining about 1kg per week for the past month, so at least I'm getting enough calories. I am basically eating stuff like musli, bran flakes, milk, eggs, pasta, noodles and turkey. I also take a tablespoon of olive oil every time I eat. I eat two warm meals per day, a large breakfast and something before getting sleep. I can't really eat more often than that, because I don't have a colon, which means that I shit out everything I eat about 2-3 hours later. Thus, I don't want to spend the whole day on the toilet. Drinking also has the same effect, so I try to drink large amounts when I eat, instead of drinking throughout the day. I just ordered 3kg of protein powder, so I'm probably trying to use my blender for something useful by adding one more "meal" per day consisting of some frozen berries, oats, milk and whey.

[Sami]

Hello.

Just saw your log, we seem to be at about the same sort of level. I hope you have a lot of success with this. It must be even harder with your condition, and I'm surprised you've been able to gain weight like you have, that's fantastic. I've gained at about the same rate and there's nothing wrong with my colon, well done. I say that but since starting strength I'm shitting massive man-shits about 3 times a day. I hope this subsides. :D

Good luck. :)

[eof]

Well, the good thing is that basically the colon is just for waste treatment. It doesn't really absorb anything meaningful except some minerals and some vitamins. Basically it won't really affect training at all, but you need to make sure you've taken a dump before trying to squat. ;)

You seem to be progressing pretty well too. You were wondering about some gyms in London and if they have squat racks and at least Soho Gym in Borough has a squat rack and so does FitnessFirst at London Bridge. This might be a bit far away from your location though, but both are very close to London Bridge tube station.

[Sami]

Well, the good thing is that basically the colon is just for waste treatment. It doesn't really absorb anything meaningful except some minerals and some vitamins. Basically it won't really affect training at all, but you need to make sure you've taken a dump before trying to squat. ;)
This is universal. :D



You seem to be progressing pretty well too. You were wondering about some gyms in London and if they have squat racks and at least Soho Gym in Borough has a squat rack and so does FitnessFirst at London Bridge. This might be a bit far away from your location though, but both are very close to London Bridge tube station.
Yeah, those places are too far away from me. I've got my university gym, plus all the hospital gyms linked to my med school that I can use, but they're all in central London and it takes about an hour to get to. I'm trying to find a local one that I can pop down to during the summer.

[eof]

6/3/2009

Squat: 75kg, 5,5,5 - easy
Press: 30kg 5,5,5 - reset so this wasn't too hard
Row: 65kg - easy

6/5/2009

Squat: 77.5kg 5,5,5 - easy
Bench: 57.5kg 5,4,3 - second time missed reps, resetting to 52.5kg
Deadlift: 95kg 5 - I have very long legs, so the heavier squits starts to make it harder to DL.

6/7/2009

Squat: 80kg, 5,5,5 - 3rd set was easiest for some reason, but yeah still easy.
Press: 32.5kg, 5,5,5 - last rep in 4rd set was harder.
Row: 70kg, 5,5,5 - starting to feel heavy.

Starting with the 80kg squat, I now started to use a belt. It felt a lot easier with the belt, so I'm assuming I will still be able to add 2.5kg per session for some time to come. I will definitely celebrate the 100kg and I'm hoping to reach it without any missed reps in between. :)

[eof]

6/9/2009

Squat: 82.5kg 5,5,5 - easy though my bad aerobic fitness starts to show
Bench: 52.5kg 5,5,5 - this was a reset, so yeah easy
DL: 100kg 5 - this was pretty tough already

I noticed after my session that my belt had made nice marks in my stomach as some blood vessels seem to have burst under it during the squat. Normal, but looks cool nevertheless. :D

[eof]

6/11/2009

Squat: 85kg 5,5,5 - more oxygen would be great.
Press: 35kg 5,5,5 - hard, but my reset helped. It's time to order those microplates.
Row: 75kg 5,5,5 - last rep in 3rd set maybe 1cm from my stomach, so it wasn't a 100% complete rep.

My heart is just pounding like crazy and my lungs are trying to get in as max oxygen as possible, but it doesn't seem to be enough. I felt pretty dizzy after the 3rd set of the squat, but in terms of strength, I still don't have any problems getting up.

[eof]

6/14/2009

Squat: 87.5kg 5,5,5 - need more O2
Bench: 55kg, 5,5,4 - had no spotters on 5th rep in 3rd set, so had to roll it of my chest...
DL: 102.5kg 3 - couldn't even get one clean rep, so I gave up...

Seems like the heavy squats are making it harder and harder to complete the following lifts. My lower back is on fire and my upper back seems to lose its peak strength after having to carry the bar during the squats. However, my strength seems to constantly improve as strength has not been an issue with my squats compared to my aerobic fitness seems to be a bigger problem.

I have also been working on my research like crazy lately, so I have done my workout, including a 15 minute warm-up, in about 45 minutes. I might have to take it a bit slower and rest more between the lifts.

[WatsupHannity]

The fact that the workouts seem to get terribly hard is the point. Dealing with these heavy weights day in and day out, and having to progress on other heavy exercises after your heavy squats, is why this workout routine is effective. It's a physical and psychological drain, for sure, but keep at it and your body will be forced to adapt to all the stress. If you miss too often on a given exercise reset the weight down a bit and attack it again. And grab spotters!

You could also consider doing Crossfit a couple times a week to get your metabolic conditioning up. I did it for a couple months (have unfortunately lapsed lately); before then I was as you, huffing and puffing during all my heavy weightlifting. The change in my total fitness, including weightlifting, was dramatic.

[eof]

6/16/2009

Squat: 90kg 5,5,5 - this was surprisingly easy
Press: 37.5kg 5,5,3 - would have expected 4 reps in last set, but I was too optimistic
Power clean: tried to learn the technique.

So I dabbled with the power clean for the first time and my traps are really sore today. My technique probably sucks, because I tend to overextend my back when I catch the bar. I need to work on lifting it straight up instead of a bit back. I ended up doing sets with 40kg which was very easy and got the bar to almost fly over my head by being too enthusiastic on the jump. :D

[eof]

6/18/2009

Squat: 92.5kg 5,5,5 - getting really heavy
Bench: 55kg 5,5,4 - no damn progress, exactly the same as last time.
DL: 90kg 5 - reset easy

I don't know what the problem is with my bench, but it seems to have gone backwards, as I was able to bench this same weight a few weeks ago. I have been on metrodinazole (an antibiotic for my intestine which has some postoperative inflammation) for the past 3 weeks and google shows that it lowers serum testosterone, so that might be a reason. I would have assumed that my weakest link is still my nervous system, so I would assume that I don't need to gain muscle mass to progress at this level - I might be wrong though.

I got microplates yesterday, so I might try to reset to 53.5kg or should I try one more time with 55kg?

[eof]

6/20/2009

Squat: 95kg 5,5,5 - borderline failure on last rep, bar speed was reeaaally slow
Press: 37.5kg 5,5,4 - better than last time, resetting to 35kg
Power clean: had to skip.

My rotator cuff seems to have a problem. I seemed to have injured it during squatting, because my back wasn't tight enough causing the bar to slip down slightly. The end result was that it turned my shoulders back more than they could handle. This made it very painful to power clean, though I think it's a technique problem, as I am probably holding on to the bar for too long which is bad for the shoulders.

Now I have this nerve pain that starts at the shoulder and goes down my biceps... Hopefully it's OK before Monday.

[eof]

OK, another update. So I started to run again, as I noticed that my aerobic fitness is starting to be a problem. However, I've been unable to do anything that would put weight on my lower back as I managed to injure it doing deadlifts.

What happened was that during my 5th rep I lost concentration and let my back round a little. Immediately after the rep, I felt that something was wrong and my lower back was in such a pain that I was unable to get the plates of the bar. I don't have any numbness or tingling in my leg and I can actually run without pain in my back. If I keep my lower back curved and my muscles tight, it won't hurt, but if I relax it and let my back round, then it feels like someone would stab me on the right side of my spine just slightly above my ass. This is like a really sharp pain and it's been pretty much the same for a week now.

So I went to NHS to show my back. The doctor there told me it was a muscular injury and prescribed me some physical therapy i.e. no X-ray or MRI (I suppose you have to be almost dead to get an MRI at NHS). It'll be interesting to see what they say at the PT as I'm not entirely confident that my problem is muscular, but I can't really afford paying for an MRI at the moment as I'm not currently covered by my schools insurance after having been back at my home country on sick leave during spring and opted to not pay for it...