View Full Version : Sami's Starting Strength Experience
Hi guys, I started SS about 3 weeks ago. Here's a little bit about how it's going.
I'm about 5' 9" / 175cm and weighed 163 lbs / 74kg before going to the gym. I just started going to the gym last November, mainly just fucking around not knowing what I was doing. My goals were to gain weight and get stronger. From November to April I gained about 5lbs / 2.5kg and was a little stronger.
Then I found Starting Strength. :)
I have been following SS to the letter. Power cleans, big macs/whoppers, GOMAD etc. I think I may have slightly overdone the diet too early on. I started eating about 6000kcal on training days and 5000kcal on off days right from the very beginning, even before everything started getting heavy. In less than a month I've gone from 168 lbs / 76 kg to 179 / 81 kg. A lot of that has been fat! :D But I don't really mind. I am now to the point where all my lifts have surpassed my previous personal bests and I haven't stalled yet.
Once I get to around 85 kg in body weight I'll start to pay more attention to diet and see what works. I'd like to get to around 90kg but we'll see.
Before SS I had done a previous best of:
Squat: 80kg for 3 sets of 5. (that was very hard)
Bench Press: 50kg for 2 sets of 5
Deadlift: 70kg 3 sets of 6.
After dropping the weight and progressing according to SS:
Squat: 90kg 3 x 5 (not too difficult)
Bench Press: 60kg 3 x 5
Deadlift: 92.5kg 1 x 5
Power Clean: 50kg 3 x 5
OH Press: 37.5 kg 5 x 3
I have to take a little break from training for a week or so. I've got intense exams at the moment and I have to focus on that right now. After exams I will probably drop the weights by 5% and start again. I will be able to do SS much better as I will be getting more than 4-5 hours of sleep every night.
I have to find a local gym for the summer that has a squat rack. I've been going to the university gym but won't be able to during the summer holidays.
THE END
Well, I'm wrapping up my novice log now. Some info:
Squat: got to 150kg, but I'm stronger and lighter now and have done 137.5kg 3x5. Probably good for 155-160kg now, maybe.
Bench: got to 90kg, but I'm stronger now and have done 85kg x 5. Probably good for 95kg?
Deadlift: got to 170kg, but I'm stronger now and just did a very easy 165kg x 3. Probably good for 180-185kg?
OHP: have done 52.5kg x 2. Probably good for 55kg x 1.
Bodyweight: I got up to 93kg, but was fat. I'm now 85kg and am stronger than I was at 93kg.
I've had MANY stops and set-backs due to exams and life. But I've now got a home gym so training will be much more consistent from now on.
I'll probably do some 1RM tests here shortly to see how I've done on SS.
Oh a few other things.
I'm really glad I found SS and how it teaches good form. About 3 years ago I had a herniated disc from lifting a suitcase. I suffered from lower back pain and sciatica for about 2 years before it went away on it's own. This had me a little concerned about deadlifts in particular. In fact, before SS I was doing 60-70kg pulls with not so great form and again suffered some bad back pain. I couldn't stand up straight for almost 2 weeks! That's when I found this site and SS and started doing the Starr recovery method. It worked brilliantly and I've never had back pain from DL's so far.
I've made people around me a little concerned with my diet. I'm never seen without a bottle of milk. I consume more calories after sessions than most people do during the whole day. My friends haven't really seen anyone eat 4 double cheeseburgers or a triple whopper. It's kind of funny really.
Everything is bigger. My shirts are tighter. My watch is tighter. I have to get new boxers as my thighs barely fit and they don't stretch. Most of my jeans aren't fitting properly around my legs either. My gut has become a little bigger but I can live with that at the moment.
Must remember not to eat too much during this little off period. I'm hungry!
I think I'm going to do some clapping push ups and jump body weight squats until I can get back in the gym to maintain some strength.
Did 3 sets of 10 clapping push ups.
Emailed a local gym to ask if they have barbells and a squat rack and I got two replies. One person said they have a squat rack and bench press stations but no barbells. And another person, from the SAME gym, said they have barbells but no squat rack, just a Smith machine where "people do squats". What a joke. I think I'll still go for a walk in and see for myself what they have; they obviously don't really know.
I'm also about to order some fractional plates. My press is probably going to start stalling soon with 2.5kg increments. I found a UK company that sells 0.5kg plates for about ?11.00 EACH, so about $36.00 for a pair. Then I found a US company that sells them for about $1.72 for the pair! Even with the extra shipping costs, it'll be drastically lower. I'm going to also get a decent belt from them too as I've only got a really shitty cheap one at the moment.
The only problem is this US company wanted to charge over $100.00 for shipping to the UK!! Ridiculous. Luckily my family are all in Texas so I'm getting them to ship it there then my mom will USPS it to me here in London. It'll still come out cheaper than buying here, just will take longer.
One tip for anyone going to the White Cliffs of Dover in the UK; chalk! I know chalk isn't really expensive but the White Cliffs are all chalk and it's literally scattered all over the place and you can just pick chunks of it up off the ground. It's not 100% but it works great and doesn't cost anything. Worth considering if you're going there anyway. :D
This is getting frustrating. I phoned about 4 gyms within a 5 miles radius and none of them have a squat rack or Olympic bars. "We have a Smith machine so you can use that!" :mad:
After some digging, I may have come across what sounds like what I'm after. It's called "The Basement Gym". Apparently it is an underground (literally) gym that was built in a WW2 bunker under a multi story car park. Very old school supposedly. One of those places that you would never know about or find unless it was shown to you. You can barely find the door. The only thing is I heard it was mainly a bodybuilder's gym but I'm not too concerned so long as they've got decent equipment. LIKE A FUCKING SQUAT RACK!!!!!
After my exams I'm going to hunt it down. It sounds kinda cool.
While I'm at it, anyone in Buckinghamshire sort of area no any decent gyms?
Still haven't found a gym yet; haven't really been looking tbh. Really want to get back in the gym and it's only been a week! I won't be able to start back up again at least until the 15th! Might just re-start SS altogether.
God I want these exams to be over with. I want them to be over with almost more than I want to pass them. If I fail them I have to re-sit in August and I don't want to do that. :) It's 3:20 AM here and I'm studying! :(
One more exam left, then FREEDOM!!!!!!!!!!
And back to training. 2 weeks off and shitty diet has bound to have royally fucked up my lifts.
Still need to find a gym, Monday I go on the hunt.
WatsupHannity
06-13-2009, 08:04 PM
Wow you eat a lot bro! I experimented with different levels of bulking in the past, but I've personally found that once I go past a certain calorie level, basically no strength is gained and seemingly 100% of it gets turned into fat. This time I'm coming at it the other direction, picking a calorie level that gets me gaining 1-2 pounds a week, and increasing that carefully. But hey, there are many paths up the same mountain.
Also there are some cheapskate ways to make or obtain "microplates" that I myself am currently looking into... try this page: microloads (http://www.davedraper.com/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/4584/tp/1/). They might not be pretty or precise but they'll get the job done for what amounts to a few bucks, and save you the hassle of getting your family to ship the plates over. Give it some consideration.
Good luck!
Yeah, I'm almost positive I started eating too much too soon. But I kinda enjoyed and didn't get too heavy. The good thing was recovery was super fast and even after a month, nothing was feeling too heavy apart from the OHP, but I've been going up by 5lbs on that every time so it was no surprise.
I've taken about 2 weeks out but I'm free now so will be starting back 100% this week. I'll not go crazy on the eating until I start struggling with the weights.
I'll have a look at the microloads link, thanks.
Anyway, all my exams are finished and I'm off to find a gym today.
I found the "Basement Gym." It's more than I could have possibly imagined.
First, I drove right past it. The 2nd time around, I found the solitary red cast iron blast-proof door. Over the rusted iron door was written in black lettering; "The Basement Gym: Open Mon Wed Fri". That's it. No phone, no website, email or business hours. The door was unlocked (lucklily) so I opened the door.
It was pitch black and looked completely desolate. There was a stairway going down, and it looked like the cracked peeling paint was painted 50 years ago. I stumbled my way down and managed to make out a door way, but couldn't see into it at all. I took out my phone for the light, but it was still too dark. But I was able to see an electrical switch. It wasn't really a normal light switch, it was a heavy duty circuit breaker-style switch. Anyway, I hit the switch and all the lights came on.
I was rewarded with room after room of, old school, hardcore, black iron gym beauty. This place looked like it was straight out of the 1970's. There were loads of iron plates, barbells, dumbbells and several machines. There was writing on the wall, about different PB bench-presses: "Terry: 504lbs, George: 497lbs... etc".
At first I thought the place was abandoned, but I saw, scattered throughout, a few modern items to contrast the old relics.
Well, since there was no one there, I left a note stuffed in the 'light switch' and I await a response. If I don't hear anything, I may go by on Wed night and just find out what's going on over there.
Went to the Basement Gym the other day. Very cool place. Met 2 guys training there. One was pretty big bulked-up bodybuilder (I could tell he was a BBer from the skin tight synthetic t-shirt and gloves). The other guy was an ordinary little guy, oriental. Both seemed cool/nice though. They said the guy in charge will be there tomorrow and to come back then.
?20 a month and no admin/initial fee.
There only open from about 17:30-21:30 Mon-fri which is slightly annoying, but I wanted to train in the evenings anyway (perhaps 23:00 would be better), so it's not too bad.
They've only got one squat rack, not a cage though. That is a slight concern, but not major.
I found another gym around the corner, Shapers, that was ?40pm (no initial fees), and they have 2 proper power cages, and 3 Oly bars. It's a normal gym with squash, tennis, pool etc. Not really keen on it except it has cages, but it's twice the price and 1/100th as cool as the Basement Gym.
I'll start out at the Basement Gym, but if the bar starts rolling over the top of my fucking head on a regular occaison, or I get AIDS from a rapist bodybuilder, I may go to the normal gym.
That was on Wednesday. Just had a session last night (Thurs) at the basement gym, and so far, mixed feelings.
It was busier today, probably about 15 guys. No big powerbears, no big BBers, no big anyone really. Everyone was pretty much doing crunches and curls of some sort. One guy did leg presses. :|
I was the only guy on the squat rack. Someone had used it before; there was 25kg on the bar and the maxipad. :/
The place itself seems cool as fuck though, just the people so far... I'll give it a couple weeks and wait for the monsters to come.
I just don't want to be the biggest squatter there, because that would be sad. The thing, there are a lot of drawbacks with this place. Only open 5:30 to 9:00, no toilet, no anything! I had to piss outside behind some building in the bushes and got poison ivy on my ankles.
It doesn't have a power cage, even the squat rack is shit, it doesn't have vertical bars, it has two bars running at about 30 degrees from the wall to the floor. This means I can't simply take a one-step walk out, I have to take about 3-4 steps just to walk out, otherwise I hit the bars in the hole. There's a big fucking mirror in front of the rack which kind of fucks me up a bit (I'm not used to it). There are two bench press stations, none of which are the right height for me; the rack is either too high or too low (this is a minor thing).
One good thing is I don't really need chalk; all the rust from the plates seems to do the trick. But I do really like the iron plates, much better than the rubberised ones everywhere else. They're just fucking cool.
The one thing that really attracted me to this place, was the hope that I could train/learn with some big monsters. That would easily allow me to completely forget all that other shit. I just wouldn't give a fuck. But if I'm the biggest squatter amongst a bunch of broke bicep curlers...
The place down the road, Shapers, has two proper power cages, all the conveniences of a normal gym, but still isn't frilly.
Then again, maybe I'm just being a pussy.
All I know is that any place that has fucking stalactites growing from the ceiling has to be cool.
Anyway, as for the training, well I've had 3 weeks off so wasn't expecting much.
Squat: I left off at 90kg last time so I thought I'd try the same and it went up well.
Bench: Again, I left off at 60kg, but it felt pretty heavy this time. I managed to complete the first two sets, but failed the last rep of the last set. But that's because I didn't rest long enough before the set. They were closing at 9:00 and it was 9:05.
Deadlift: I had to stop after bench press because they closed so I didn't get to deadlift. Not happy about that. :mad:
Squat: 90kg 5, 5, 5
Bench Press: 60kg 5, 5, 4
Deadlift: n/a
I probably should've dropped the weight a little. :confused:
Hey Sami,
Great description of the Basement gym. Sorry the place isn't living up to the hype. Sounds like, in actuality, it's just a cheap place for people to work out, and the crustiness and the cold iron is just incidental to this cheapness. Still, I'd be curious to know who the owner was. Maybe he's a grizzled, powerlifting maniac who's waiting for a young Jedi to come along to instruct.
Probably not. And the place down the street has power racks.
Tor
Doubt it. He wouldn't have hand painted bodybuilders on the walls. :/
lol oh, shit. You didn't mention that first time around. Nevermind, then.
Goals: (for reps or 1RM, don't really care at the moment)
Bench Press: from 60kg (for reps) to --> 100kg
Squat: from 90kg (for reps) to --> 140kg
Deadlift: from 100kg (for reps) to --> 170kg
Is it possible in 6 months?
WatsupHannity
06-21-2009, 08:39 PM
It's possible, but I think you'd have to be quite genetically-fortunate. Maybe 12 months is a better goal. In any case, I don't know how useful long-term goals are with strength-training. What I mean is, it seems to me you follow your program, eat the meals, go after your weekly targets and workouts, and then the long-term stuff will fall where it falls. Just my 2 cents.
I don't think I'm genetically fortunate. But yeah, I agree with your view. It's not like once I get there I'm going to stop training, is it? I guess I mean, I'd like Starting Strength to get me to those weights before having to do a new training method/program. Anyway, we'll see.
Had a session today at my uni gym since I was in the area. I met up with some friends that are also doing SS and ended up skipping B day as they were all doing A and I wanted to train with them. Plus, the last A session was cut short and I wasn't able to do deadlifts so I wanted to try again. Anyway:
Squat: 92.5kg (PB + 2.5kg)
Bench: 60kg
Deadlift: 100kg (PB + 7.5kg)
I decided to redo 60kg for the bench since I missed the last rep of the last set last time. I probably didn't need to since I know why I failed the last rep (rest time cut drastically short). 60kg felt very easy so I probably should have just gone up to 62.5kg but nevermind, I wanted to nail it properly before going up again.
Deadlift felt strong, but heavy. It was the first time I pulled in over 3 weeks but I felt strong and decided to go up by 7.5kg and go for a PB. It paid off. All reps went up well. I chalked up and used a double overhand grip still. I shouldn't have a problem with double-overhand grip for a while yet. I'll switch to alt-grip when it gives me trouble.
Post workout I had a litre of chocolate milk followed by a triple Whopper. Then a pint of whole milk after that. Yum.
Weighed myself today after about 3 weeks. It's the first time I haven't gained weight, but then I haven't been eating big whilst not training.
Body Weight: 81kg
Giving the Basement Gym another go tonight. I wobbled a little during my first set of squats last session; I hope I have no accidents tonight without a cage.
Weird session today.
Squats felt strong, no drama.
OHP felt heavy and difficult. It's the first time to do presses in over ~3 weeks, and I did the same weight as I left off on, and it was hard.
Power cleans... urgh. I don't know what I was thinking. I left off at 50kg over 3 weeks ago and I thought my balls were a little bigger than they actually are so I tried 60kgs today. The first set went ok, but the second set was just dead.
Squat: 95kg 5, 5, 5
OHP: 37.5kg 5, 5, 5
Power Clean: 60kg 3, 1, 0, 0, 0
I had 1 litre of chocolate milk PWO, followed by 2 McD double cheese burgers. I'm having a little trouble tracking my calories. I've been eating lots of homecooked stuff and leftover mixes.
A day today.
Squat: 97.5kg (felt good)
Bench Press: 62.5kg (felt HEAVY, might start microloading very soon)
Deadlift: 105kg (felt good and heavy)
Woo hoo! 100kg squat on Monday!!
The basement gym has cool platforms I dragged out for the deadlift. They've got 0.5kg plates here but they're not for Oly bars. I might tie them onto the collars.
Squat: 100kg 5, 5, 5
OHP: 40kg 4, 37.5kg 5, 5
PC: 50kg 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Basement Gym floods when it rains. Nice.
It's so fucking humid that the everything 'sweats'. It's much cooler down there but you cannot get the condensation off of the barbells. I have to towel dry it and cover in chalk between sets.
I'll have to recalculate the weights since they're all saturated. Might add a 0.5 kg or more on the heavy lifts. ;)
Cleans were a fucking bitch, the most affected by the conditions. My feet almost slid out on the jump.
Oh the Basement Gym, how I love thee.
Also, I'm beginning to feel I am the biggest squatter there. The ONE big guy that I thought squats, doesn't. He sticks 15kg's on the Smith machine. At least he goes deep. But he said he had some back problem and that he wants to get back to squatting.
And, most of the barbells are bent. Half of them are completely covered in rust. And NONE of them spin properly.
Need some shin protection. I've bashed open my shin twice in the same place the last two sessions.
The Basement Gym just keeps getting better and better. What next, I feel compelled to ask? A deadly flesh-eating bacteria that dwells on the dumbbells? A gimp in the closet? Keep us posted.
The Basement Gym just keeps getting better and better. What next, I feel compelled to ask? A deadly flesh-eating bacteria that dwells on the dumbbells? A gimp in the closet? Keep us posted.
All the barbells have AIDS and/or cancer on them.
I suppose I could get tetanus from the rusty barbell that attacked my shins? I'll let you know how it pans out.
Squat: 102.5kg x 5, 5, 5
Bench: 65kg x 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 112.5kg x 5
Squat felt good.
Bench felt really good. The last session (62.5kg) felt much heavier and I thought I was going to have to start microloading but it went well today.
Deadlift... fuck me it felt heavy today. I went up 7.5kg from last time, maybe too much. I want to go up by 7.5kg for DL apart from the weeks where I pull twice and in that case will go up by 7.5kg on Mon and 5kg on Friday. Then on the next A day (the following Wed) I'll go up by 7.5kg again. I'll see how long I can do that. Also, this was the first time I had to use the alternate grip... from the 3rd rep onwards.
Oh yeah, and I used a plastic two litre bottle, cut the top and bottom off and one longitudinal cut so that it wraps around my shin. Worked great. It's only on my left leg for some reason. Anyway, hopefully it will fight AIDS from the barbells.
Don't forget, Sami, that it's actually going to be HIV you contract from the Basement Gym's barbells, and not full-blown AIDS. So, no reason to worry, really.
Glad to hear that someone is using the 2-liter soda bottle method. Been wondering about that one since Rip mentioned it awhile back. How's it work?
Tor
Don't forget, Sami, that it's actually going to be HIV you contract from the Basement Gym's barbells, and not full-blown AIDS. So, no reason to worry, really.
I think you are underestimating how hardcore this gym is... it just outright skips HIV and goes straight for AIDS!
Glad to hear that someone is using the 2-liter soda bottle method. Been wondering about that one since Rip mentioned it awhile back. How's it work?
Tor
It worked great so far. I've only tried once. I first had a scab last week from deadlifts, but it wasn't bad and didn't bleed really. But on Monday, it really opened up after power cleans and was bleeding all over the place. And all of this is through sweats too! I've got cleans again tonight so I'll let you know how it holds up. I've got really sharp bony shins for some reason. Nothing else on my is bony and my legs aren't really all that skinny, just the fronts of my shins feel sharp when you press them. Anyway, the plastic kept the scab from opening up again after deadlifts, so they must work pretty well.
I may not go to the Basement Gym today; it's been raining like a bitch overnight and this place takes DAYS to dry up. It was still flooded around the squat rack 3 days after it rained the last time.
I'm going to the regular gym, Shapers, the one with two proper power cages.
Nobody fucking squats at the Basement Gym, I am the biggest squatter there. Gay. There was some huge fucking guy there last time, kind of fat but in a powerbear sort of way. He just fucked around doing curls or some shit most of the time. He was sort of strong, but in a default fat guy kind of way. And he wore a lifting belt, THE ENTIRE FUCKING TIME. For everything. WTF? The one big guy I have talked to, that I thought squats and deadlifts, doesn't squat at all. He stuck 60kg on a Smith machine, but that's it. He says he wants to again, but had a back injury and is a little scared to do them.
Anyway, maybe Shapers is the cool gym where the strong guys train. Hopefully I'll find out.
gingerjester
07-03-2009, 07:32 AM
I read your posts with great amusement, many years ago i trained in a gym called Fitta Bodies in suffolk it was a basement bodybuilder gym under a snooker hall and had the "old school" feel - but in a good way unlike the scuba diving kit required place you are going to. One thing in common tough is that I train in a sports university gym now where they have several semi-pro atheletes and yet i never see anyone use squat rack to actually squat.
Squat: 105kg - 5, 5, 5
OHP: 40kg - 5, 5, 5
Power Clean: 55kg - 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Went to that normal gym, Shapers. I have to admit, it was nice. Nice in the sense that it had a bathroom, drinking fountains, and decent barbells.
I may change gyms.
Funnily though, two young guys were grunting out some 60kg partial squats; hardcore! Also some 50kg deadlifts that were a little interesting. Almost straight leg, round back and a wide grip with slightly bent elbows. :/
There some pretty big guys there though, one guy must have had over 20" arms, but his legs were my size.
No difference really in the quality of trainees but much nicer surroundings.
I can't wait to get back to my uni gym. The guys that squat regular squat nice and deep; most of them anyway. There's a competitive powerlifting 18 year old that was doing halting deadlifts with almost every 20kg plate in the place.
There are a lot of proper lifters there; OH squats, good mornings, squats, deadlifts, SLDL, Oly lifts etc.
There's one (big) guy that was squatting deep with over 150kg+ and coming up so hard the barbell was getting airtime off of his back.
AND IT'S FREE!
Tried playing tennis today. DOMS kicked my ass all over the court.
And my ears popped a little during deadlifts last week... is that common?
Squat: 107.5kg - 3, 105kg - 4, 105kg - 3
Bench Press: 67.5kg - 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 120kg - 5
Bench felt fine, only the last rep of last set went up a little slowly.
Deadlift felt good. Fucking heavy, but pretty good. It's the first time the bar speed went up a little slower than usual. The last 2 reps were an effort and were slower than the first 3. I also only managed the 1st rep with double OH grip. 2-5 were mixed grip.
Also, the plastic bottle shin guard failed horribly today. I looked down before the 4th rep and my socks were red. Lifted up my sweats and saw blood every where. To be fair, there was a rather protruding scab there, sticking about 2-3mm from the skin. But I'm going to have to think of something else until the scab comes off.
Squat was absolute shit today. Failed at 107.5kg. Dropped to 105kg which felt doable but then realised that I miss counted and actually only did 4 reps instead of 5; technically not a fail. Then on the 3rd set at 105kg I DID fail on the 4th rep! Depressing.
But I probably know why I struggled. It wasn't rest because I haven't squatted since Friday and it's now Tuesday. It may be sleep; I only got about 5+ hours last night. It could be diet, I'm not eating 5000-6000kcal at the moment. I did carb up before going to gym though. I think my mind was somewhere else. Today was results day for my university medical exams. I wasn't that confident during the exams and it's been on my mind for a while; especially today.
I purposely didn't check the results until after my session. Well, anyway I checked them and failed 3 out of 5 exams. I've got until mid-late August for resits. If I fail those, I get kicked out of medical school. I'm not going to be going to the gym until after exams, probably early September. It's been taking about 7-9 hours a week for the gym. What little time I've got when not studying will be spent with my wife and kids. After I get these out of the way I will start back up and blast my through training. I start back at school in October and it will be easier to fit in training then.
So for now, I'm taking a break.
To be continued...
That sucks, Sami. But why not scale back to a one day a week maintenance schedule? I'll bet that at one day a week you could come back at the end of the summer with very little loss of strength...
I was thinking of that actually. But at the moment, I'm so concerned with these exams that the gym isn't anywhere near the top of my priorities. But after a solid week or so of revision and I will probably be trying to crawl my back under the bar.
I need to drop the weight for my squats as I'm sure some form issues have crept up. A while ago I posted this: http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=5486
I've got this niggling pain in my left hip. I think it's related to squats. I don't think it's the muscle and I suspect it may be the tendon as it's just inferior to the bone (I think it's the superior iliac crest but not sure); basically just superior and lateral to the inguinal region.
It doesn't really hurt when walking around, but I feel something, like a 0.5-1 out of 10. I feel it a little when I squat, about a 2-3 out of 10. And mostly I feel it when I raise my left leg up, like when stepping up high, 3 out of 10 on the pain scale. It's also painful to the touch. I've tried massaging a little, but I don't think it's in the muscle, could be wrong.
It's not really painful and doesn't hold me back much at all. I feel it when I squat down without weight, but I don't remember feeling during heavy squats; it sort of goes away then. It has been there and been pretty constant for 3-4 weeks now. It hurts more after squats and kind of dwindles after a couple of days without squatting.
I just wanted to know if anyone knows that this is form related? I know a vid would help and I have to try and get one eventually. But has anyone got any experience with this and know of something that helps? I'm not too bothered at the moment, I just don't want to make it worse if I can fix it with form corrections.
And I also started getting a little knee pain in my right knee, just above patella in what I think is the quadriceps tendon. It has been very minor; a 1 out of 10 in the pain scale. It feels and looks like a small bruise and at first I thought I bumped it on something. But now it's also in my left knee in exactly the same place. You can actually see them as small very lightly coloured bruises.
I'm sure this is all form related as yesterday I also finally managed to get a video of my squats and lo and behold... Not going as deep as I thought was and my knees sometimes slid forward in the bottom.
I checked the video between warm up sets and realised I wasn't going quite to proper depth and then when I tried to go below parallel during my 107.5kg work set, of course I failed!
Also I've got a video of my 120kg deadlift and got a nice close up of the bloody shin for anyone that wants to see. :D I've got to youtube it first.
Another issue from yesterday, some weird back pain. It's fine standing and walking around but I feel it when doing a forced flexion at the hips (ie leaning forward). I feel it most when holding head still with my hands at my forehead and trying to lean and push against my hand. I'm getting a sharp pain in my mid-upper back. It's about a 4ish out of 10.
I'm pretty sure that was squat related too because I definitely felt when trying to slowly lower myself down on the bench to benchpress; it's the same sort of contraction as flexing forward at the hips/abdominals.
I also weighed myself in at 83.7kg yesterday. Wasn't a strict weigh-in as it was middle of the day and I'd had some oats and about 1.5L in liquids plus bathroom breaks. But still, I usually end up weighing myself around that same time and I've never weighed that much.
I wish I'd not eaten so much so soon. I don't think it was necessary and I did put on a lot of fat. It doesn't bother me too much but when I do need to start eating big again, I'm going to get even fatter probably. Oh well.
I had a similar pain, if you're talking about where I think you are. For me it was the pointy part at the front of the pelvis (the ASIS, I think). I'm pretty sure mine resulted from legpressing the weight, and it persisted for months until it finally went away. Solution: bounce off the hamstrings, not the knees
I had a similar pain, if you're talking about where I think you are. For me it was the pointy part at the front of the pelvis (the ASIS, I think). I'm pretty sure mine resulted from legpressing the weight, and it persisted for months until it finally went away. Solution: bounce off the hamstrings, not the knees
Yes, the ASIS is the surface landmark for what I'm referring to. Since it's just inferior to the ASIS, I'm thinking the pain is arising from the tendon for the origin of the sartorius muscle.
So hit the bottom and bounce out of the hole? I used to do this at lighter weight, 50-60kg. Should my calves hit the hamstrings? I suppose they'd have to really.
Yes, the ASIS is the surface landmark for what I'm referring to. Since it's just inferior to the ASIS, I'm thinking the pain is arising from the tendon for the origin of the sartorius muscle.
So hit the bottom and bounce out of the hole? I used to do this at lighter weight, 50-60kg. Should my calves hit the hamstrings? I suppose they'd have to really.
Depth wasn't what I was referring to. Give me a minute and I'll post some links to a couple of videos that I think should demonstrate what I'm talking about.
Okay, so first video (BAD):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D3cGDLM0RE
This is what we might call 'leg-pressing the weight,' which is to say that the back stays fairly upright and the quads do most of the work. Notice how my knees never stop moving forward as I descend.
Second video, a few months later (BETTER):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpVdQAdHbF8
Notice how the knees stay solid at the bottom while the hips continue to drop. What's happening here is that the hammies are stretching out, so that I can 'bounce' off of them at the bottom.
That help at all?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZUZUFfLF5Y
REALLY UGLY deadlifts!! Not that happy with them, though I did get the weight up. The fucking belt was digging in a lot, and in adjusting it I spent too long between reps I think. More like 5 singles. Also, I thing I brought my hips up too soon and was lifting with my back more at the beginning. THE BLOOD!
By the way, this was NOT at the Basement Gym! :D
That help at all?
Thank you. Yes it was helpful.
I need a proper belt. I've got one of those shitty cheap ones that are narrow in the front so I've turned it backwards. I have to keep explaining to people that try to correct me, "Isn't that backwards?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neU4wcvIlqA
Here's my shit squat. I'm not even getting good depth here. Anyway, when I get back to it after exams, I'll drop down to 90kg and get form rock solid.
I will video myself from now on when possible; it really helps.
I hate to say it but it looks like you're doing the classic 'leg-press' squat. I'm by no means an expert, so I'll explain what my reasoning is: if you watch closely you'll see that as you descend there is no point at which your knees stop moving forward. Likewise, at the bottom of the squat look at your knee angle and how acute it is. If you go through any of the squats that have been singled out as 'good' over in Rip's forum, you'll see a much more obtuse knee angle at the bottom.
Now, given this is a heavy weight and there will be some breakdown of form, but this is pretty fundamental. Try the TUBOW, try pushing your ass back more as you descend, feel your hamstrings STRETCH as you go down, lean over more... any one of these might work as a useful cue to 'engage your posterior chain'.
If you can do this I think you will automatically get a couple of more inches of depth and your 'hipdrive' will be much, much improved, as in, you will start to have a hipdrive. And your squat will go through the roof.
Tor
I agree with you, which is why I found your vids helpful.
I know my form has deteriorated as I used to really be quite mindful of my knees and how forward they went. I'm not sure how my hip-drive was though before. I just know now that the weight feels so heavy to me sometimes that I'm not even thinking about my knees. Mistake.
TUBOW will be employed.
Thank you.
Just to update on the weird pains.
The weird back pain stopped after about 2 days.
The hip-crease ASIS pain is fading.
The knees are still the same. I can feel them going up stairs. I might start taking stairs 3-steps at a time so that each leg starts at parallel. :D
You can also practice parallel squatting by only sitting in chairs that are three inches shorter than normal, by getting good hamstring stretch when going to the john, and by dropping into a deep squat stance whenever you strike a conversation with someone that will last more than a minute.
And I remembered something I wanted to say a while back. If you use your rest periods wisely, workout sessions can also become productive study sessions. I like to time my rest by reading two pages or writing one note card. This usually takes me about five minutes, so over the course of a typical SS workout I can read about 10-12 pages or write about 5 note cards. Something about working in the small time sections seems to help keep me focused as well, whenever I have to read something academic for an extended period of time my attention starts to wander.
Just a thought to keep you squatting.
Thanks for the advice. I've stopped training at the moment more than just for revision. It's also a little guilt. Guilt for failing the exams and putting my family through this. I still have to live life and spend time with the family and since I'm spending most of the day locked in my study/office, the little time I do have should be with them.
I failed one exam by 1%. 1 fucking percent. The others were only by about 8%. It just shows that EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS and I need to make the most of the time I have right now.
Anyway, since I'm not doing any training, I'll just keep a record of my weight.
Using my shitty bathroom scales, I was 82kg this morning (post 1+2/pre-food).
WatsupHannity
07-14-2009, 08:26 AM
Sounds like school has got to be your number-one priority at all costs. If that means putting off training, so be it. On the other hand, going to the gym even once a week as Tor suggested could keep your mood and endorphins higher, and let you blow off stress and steam. Whatever you decide to do, best of luck.
gingerjester
07-15-2009, 04:37 PM
Thanks for the input on the cleans - i'll give a wider grip a try.
On another note i read your log and best of luck with the exams. Not sure if you need anyone else's input but i find that i often pursue other goals when i have a major pressure hanging over me, while i was at university i "escaped" my exams pressure by playing more rugby, it didn't help my grades. So head in the books, weight training will still be around after.
It's funny how important everything ELSE becomes when it's time for exams. I finally realised how disorganised my office/study is; so I spent some time sorting everything out.
Then I noticed that my shed needed painting; the gutters needed cleaning; my itunes collection needed sorting; I'd like to jailbreak my iPhone (again); I needed to re-read Starting Strength; there are a lot of people wrong on the internet that I needed to correct... the list goes on.
I think I'm eating too much. I'm still 83kg.
Just under 81kg.
Going crazy; don't know how much more of this I can take.
Only two more weeks now...I'm going to stop going to the gym soon to focus more. Been ill so haven't been recently, I think tomorrow will be the last time. Doing the insulin lectures now, endocrinology is FUN!
Fuck endo. I only want to know about testosterone.
My job is so fucking unbelievable. I’ll try to sum it up by first telling you about the folks I work with:
First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.
The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career oppertunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I’m not sure she even showers, much less shaves her “womanly” parts. I think she might really want to be a man, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.
But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fucking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I’m sure after work. He probably hasn’t been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he’s only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960’s, and to make things worse, he brings his big fucking dog to work. Every fucking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it’s trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fucking day.
Anyway, I drive these fuckers around in my van and we solve mysteries and shit.
You really need to get on with some work if you want to keep going to the gym for free.
Gary Gibson
08-15-2009, 10:50 PM
My job is so fucking unbelievable. I?ll try to sum it up by first telling you about the folks I work with:
First, there is this supermodel wanna-be chick. Yeah, okay, she is pretty hot, but damn is she completely useless. The girl is constantly fixing her hair or putting on makeup. She is extremely self-centered and has never once considered the needs or wants of anyone but herself. She is as dumb as a box of rocks, and I still find it surprising that she has enough brain power to continue to breathe.
The next chick is completely the opposite. She might even be one of the smartest people on the planet. Her career oppertunities are endless, and yet she is here with us. She is a zero on a scale of 1 to 10. I?m not sure she even showers, much less shaves her ?womanly? parts. I think she might really want to be a man, because every time we drive by the hardware store, she moans like a cat in heat.
But the jewel of the crowd has got to be the fucking stoner. And this guy is more than just your average pothead. In fact, he is baked before he comes to work, during work, and I?m sure after work. He probably hasn?t been sober anytime in the last ten years, and he?s only 22. He dresses like a beatnik throwback from the 1960?s, and to make things worse, he brings his big fucking dog to work. Every fucking day I have to look at this huge Great Dane walk around half-stoned from the second-hand smoke. Hell, sometimes I even think it?s trying to talk with its constant bellowing. Also, both of them are constantly hungry, requiring multiple stops to McDonalds and Burger King, every single fucking day.
Anyway, I drive these fuckers around in my van and we solve mysteries and shit.
You had me going there for a little while. You, my friend, are high-larious.
K.Diesel
08-16-2009, 04:11 PM
Yeah, who knew Fred was into lifting? That scarf sure is misleading...
The scarf hides all my neck-tats. Gotta keep the clean image. ;)
I think I'm eating too much. I'm still 83kg.
O rly?
77.5kg today. :(
Sup.
So anyway, I'm completely de-trained now. Yay(!) :(
But I'm mainly back here to say that I passed all my re-sit exams!!! So, thankfully, now I don't have to commit suicide. I was worried about that, I didn't really want to commit suicide. Phew! I can put that off option until next year.
I've got a couple of weeks until I go back to uni. I've got a shit ton of stuff to do around the house and there's no point joining a gym for a short time.
(actually, the wife is still pissed I fucked up our whole summer holiday with my dumb-ass shenanigans and she won't let me fuck around at the gym with what little stress-free holiday time I have left, until I go back to school.)
But anyway, my weight has gone back up to 80kg with some healthy eating.
See you all in a few weeks. I'll be re-setting everything to scratch.
K.Diesel
09-15-2009, 04:18 PM
Congrats on your exams! Glad you won't purposefully be leaving the planet anytime. Can't afford to lose serious lifters.
Thanks. :D
Most of my buddies had resits too and they all passed as well. So now I don't need to find new training partners.
Well, finally... back to training. I wanted to just see where I am strength-wise so I decided to just do a few 1RMs singles:
Squat: 85kg (tried 90kg but didn't hit depth)
Bench: 70kg
Dead: 120kg
Press: 40kg
So yeah, definite strength loss. :(
Back to proper training session on Friday.
..and heavier than ever.
No, just fatter than ever. Lightweight.
Started first session very light to get back into things.
Squat: 3x5 60kg
OHP: 3x5 30Kg
PC: 5x3 50kg
Squat: 3x5 65kg
Bench: 3x5 50kg
Deadlift: 1x5 100kg
Everything was nice and light, nice and easy. Except the deadlift was a little harder than I would've liked but I'm sure that will come up with everything else.
Squat: 70kg 3x5
OHP: 32.5kg 3x5
PC: 52.5kg 1x3; 50kg 4x3
The power clean didn't feel good at 52.5kg yet. Caught it on my wrists once. Then on the last rep my left hand flew off and I caught the bar with my Adam's apple; cue coughing. So I lowered it back to 50kg and was okay. Still have a LOT of work to do with the power clean.
Squat: 72.5kg 3x5
Bench: 52.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 105kg 1x5
I know things are going well and easy; each session feels just as hard, if not easier than the previous, specifically the squat. I know it won't be for long though. :D
Recovery is not even close to being a problem yet, I'm not at all sore the next day. Not for long though. ;)
Squat: 75kg 3x5
Press: 35kg 3x5
PC: 50kg 5x3
Still feeling out the form for power clean at 50kg. Will go to 52.5kg next session. I caught every rep correctly. This time. Squat and press felt almost exactly as heavy as the last session; no increase in difficulty yet.
I did my next session today instead of taking a rest day. I won't be able to go tomorrow and thursday. And everything is still light so, meh.
Anyway.
Squat: 80kg 3x5 (busy gym and I was working in with a guy doing 80kg push presses and didn't want to keep swapping down to the scheduled 77.5kg)
Bench: 57.5 1x5 / 55 2x5 (forgot and put 57.5kg instead of 55kg)
Deadlift: 110kg 1x5
Everything felt nice and easy.
I decided to try a hook grip for my deadlifts today. Interesting. It didn't hurt much during the lifts; felt pretty good in fact. Though it was rather sore for about 10 minutes afterwards and they're still tingling hours later. Is this normal?
I know my deadlift form has a lot of room for improvement. I can do rep 3, it's really fucking heavy, then rep 4 goes up really easily, then rep 5 is about the same. I need to get my form consistently good. All in due time.
misspelledgeoff
10-21-2009, 04:46 PM
yup sounds like a form thing. happens to me on squats where my form is still shite. rep 1 is a beast, rep 3 is easy, etc, etc.
can you post a deadlift vid review?
I know my deadlift form has a lot of room for improvement. I can do rep 3, it's really fucking heavy, then rep 4 goes up really easily, then rep 5 is about the same. I need to get my form consistently good. All in due time.
Yeah, I've got a vid I did a few months ago at 120kg. 120kg was pretty hard for me at the time, and I know the form was pretty shit. More like 5 singles. That and I had a belt that was extremely uncomfortable. I'd like to know if my set-up was okay though?
I'm going to video myself again soon to see if I've improved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZUZUFfLF5Y
Oh, and hang around to the end of the vid for blood.
Squat: 82.5kg 3x5
OHP: 37.5kg 3x5
PC: 52.5 5x3
I will probably stall on the OHP fairly soon. I'm one session away from my PB for 40kg 3x5 and the last rep felt pretty heavy and was slow. Time to microload. I'm just gonna find some cheap girly wrist/ankle weights and stick them on the bar. Preferably pink.
Power Clean was hit and miss. Too many things that aren't happening automatically means I have to try to remember them all at the same time. Caught the bar on my wrist a couple of times. Hit my neck a few times. Pulled with my arms a few times. They still went up though. There were a couple of really good reps where the bar flew up, elbows flew forward and landed perfectly. So I'll keep at it.
Mr.City
10-22-2009, 07:54 PM
Sorry to hear about the problems with the cleans. I've been having the same problems as well.
What's annoying is that a guy I know that is at about the same strength as I am right now, yet his power clean is 225lbs for 2. He's only been doing them for about 2 months or so.
Oh, and he's 5'11" and weighs 150lbs. :mad:
EDIT: Actually he is 143lbs. :(
Bodyweight is about 84-85kg. I've seen 86.2 on the scales once in the middle of the day. Mostly fat. Not pretty.
When I first started training and eating loads, I was getting bigger but bodyfat looked about the same. Meaning I was just getting bigger equally everywhere. All the exams and time off fucked things up. I kept eating too much, even though my weight briefly dropped to 77kg, it quickly returned with vengeance without me ever lifting a weight. It's not looking good.
I really really don't want to try and lose weight right now. It's all on my gut and ass and I know it's going to stay there as long as I'm running SS. I just hope everything else gets bigger too.
On the good side, I'm almost 200lbs which means I am soon to become and adult male. Can't wait.
Got my new belt: http://www.zuluglove.com/powerlifting-belt--zulu-defcon---jet-black-22-p.asp ?39.99
http://www.zuluglove.com/ekmps/shops/zuluadmin1/images/zulublkdefcon5.jpg
Haven't lifted in it yet, gonna wait a little while. I was having a huge problem with deadlift/PC set-up as the old crap one hurt like a bitch and pinched in funny places. This one is very comfortable and doesn't pinch anywhere. Though I do have a larger gut which may help with that.
Squat: 85kg 3x5
Bench: 57.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 115kg 1x5
Everything felt really good. The last reps were getting slightly tough but still good bar speed. The deadlifts felt great. The last time I did 120kg it was a real effort and form wasn't great. The 115 felt fantastic today and the next session's 120kg is looking to be pretty easy.
Before restarting my training, I barely did an 85kg single for squat now I'm easilt repping it again. Also, I could only do 120kg for a single a few weeks ago, and now I should be blasting past that.
Also, last time I did these weights, I was wearing a belt. I haven't started using my new one yet so so far these are all belt-less.
Oh and I'm on a race with Babu (a member here) to a 60kg single OHP. He's doing 3x5 of 45-47.5 and I'm doing 3x5 of 40kg next session. He may win but dammit I'll try.
Squat: 87.5kg 3x5
OHP: 40kg 3x5
PC: n/a
Squat getting heavy, but no drama.
OHP was a struggle. 40kg is my PB for 3x5 and last time it took me 3 sessions and a small reset to complete 40kg 3x5. I'm pleased to have done it the first time. I definitely need to microload for the next pressing session on Monday.
Couldn't do power cleans, had to leave early. Never mind.
I'm going to do this Fridays session for squat 90kg and deadlift 120kg beltless and then start using my belt next week. 120kg deadlift will tie my last PB for 1x5 that I did with a belt.
Tipped the scales at 86kg today, but that wasn't a strict weigh-in. I did it in the middle of the day. Bought loads of 38" jeans today. :rolleyes:
I've been having and odd lower back twinge. Nothing too bad, but I'm not quite sure what it is. It does seem to tingle ever so slightly sometimes. It's always stiff in the morning and a little throughout the day. But it's about a 2-3 out of 10. I'm ever cautious of my herniated disc a few years ago, so I'll try to be careful. And I'll start wearing my belt.
misspelledgeoff
10-29-2009, 10:13 AM
Bought loads of 38" jeans today. :rolleyes:
welcome to the club.
Squat: 90kg 3x5
Bench: 60kg 3x5
Deadlift: 120kg 1x5
Squat was piss easy. Bench and deadlift involved a little more effort but no drama.
Still getting this funny back pain. It could be DOMS from the deadlift yesterday, but this morning was pretty stiff and pain went up to about a 4 out of 10.
I'm now approaching my previous PB lifts but this time without a belt. Except my squat is at 90kg instead of 105kg and bench is 60kg instead of 70kg, the deadlift and OHP is equal to my PB. I'll probably just use the belt for deadlift for now, and wait until squats feel heavy before using it for that.
Back pain is getting worse, and worryingly similar to when I had the herniated disc. I've had slight muscle injuries in lower back before, and though the muscle injury was more painful, the spinal injury can be much longer lasting and a potentially much worse prognosis.
If it doesn't improve this week, I'm going to get it checked out. But this being the UK and socialist medicine, getting an x-ray can take many weeks if not months before I get the results back. Maybe not everywhere, but the last time I got this looked at took almost 2 months from first GP visit to getting the report.
So anyway, my plan this time is to walk into A&E (ER) and tell them it's an "emergency". I'll say it just came on all of a sudden after lifting something heavy. I'll tell them about my previous injury, and also exaggerate the pain. In the A&E we get immediate digital CT scans there and then.
Squat: 92.5kg 3x5
OHP: 42.5kg x4; 40kg 2x5
PC: 55kg 3x5
Squat was pretty easy. Rep for 5 of set 2 was high, but that was a simple mistake. I made sure set 5 was well below parallel.
OHP was pretty much as expected. Only managed 4 reps at 42.5kg, then dropped to 40kg to finish out the session. Though in some good news, 40kg felt much easier this time than last time.
Power Clean, 55kg felt pretty damn light. Took really short 1 minute rests between sets. I still need to work a lot on form, and I will try to video myself next time. I suspect I'm pulling with my arms as my biceps were pretty sore today.
Back is still very iffy and and is definitely nerve related I suspect. I'm going to try and get it scanned tomorrow before my next session. I will be wearing a belt for my 125kg deadlifts, but not the squats. Funnily, my back feels GREAT during and after a session, but the evening, and in particular, the next day is not great. I've been limping a bit until it warms up. As long as it's not interfering with my training (which it's not), I will continue to lift through it.
Went to A&E (ER), they didn't give a fuck and sent me on my way. If it bothers me for too much longer I'll just make an appointment and get it imaged. Anyway, went straight from there to the gym.
Squat: 95kg 3x5 (no belt)
Bench: 62.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 125kg 1x5 (belt)
Squat is getting tough, I'm almost sticking at about the midway point. I'm stretch-reflexing out of the hole but getting the hips forward is the sticking point. But otherwise, not too much drama. Not every rep was completely consistant, so that's something to work on. I can feel my knees wanting to cave in and I have to think about shoving them out on the way up.
Bench, easy.
I decided to use the belt today for the deadlift. It felt like my face was going to explode on the first rep! 125kg wasn't too bad, but I'd have liked it to have been easier considering I was belted up today. It felt just a tiny bit easier than 120kg did without the belt.
Body weight around 87kg (~192lbs). Getting close to '70s Big, but it's a little too '00s Fat. Nevermind, the wife will just have to put up with it for a while.
Back is fucked. Constant sciatica. Can barely do up my socks and shoes on my right foot. But I can still squat 100kg, deadlift 130kg and press 42.5kg, so that's just what I'm going to do. :D
I've got a doctors appointment coming up and I'm going to push for an MRI and physio. In the meantime I'm going to foam roll and do hanging spinal decompressions. I'm wary of taking NSAIDs for too long, as I heard they can inhibit fibrous connective tissue regeneration; but I'm not 100% on that yet.
Squat: 97.5kg 3x5
OHP: 42.5kg 3x5
PC: 57.5kg 5x3
Squat felt pretty good. Still not using belt, but with all the back troubles, I'm now going to use every session.
I was surprised OHP to get all reps of 42.5kg, considering I only managed 4 reps last time at this weight. The last rep of the last set was going up at a snail's pace, but I got up eventually. REALLY need to microload now goddammit.
A mixed bag with the power cleans. I'm certain I'm pulling with my arms still. Some sets were great and went up easily, others were very ugly. The last set I missed one and couldn't get it to rack, but repeated the rep and got it easily. Caught a few on the wrists but nothing too bad, wrists feel fine. I was foam rolling between all sets.
There's a guy in the gym that squats 220kg (485lbs) and deadlifts around 285kg (~630lbs) at a body weight of 100kg (220lbs). Oh yeah, and he just turned 20 years old. Bastard. But he's a nice bastard.
Squat: 100kg 3x5
Bench: 65kg 3x5
Deadlift: na (130kg attmept)
Squat felt good; this was the first set of squats with my belt. Last time I was doing 100kg it was an epic struggle and I wasn't even hitting depth. Now, I'm going well below parallel, too low actually for low bar squat. Spectators claimed my face went purple.
Bench press felt good.
Deadlift... didn't want to risk my back. I pulled it and got almost to my knee, but it was going too slow and I didn't want to risk that sort of time under tension on my back.
Squat: 102.5kg 3x5
OHP: 45kg x3, 42.5kg x3, 42.5kg x5
Clean: 60kg 5x3
Squat is feeling really strong. I'm going too deep for some reps, but they still feel really strong and easy. I'm taking short 3 minute rests still. Last time I was at the this weight, I was really struggling and wasn't hitting depth.
OHP was as expected really. I lost focus on the second set after dropping back to 42.5kg. Last set was better.
Still trying to get consistent at power cleans. Some reps good, others ugly.
Back feels a little better.
Body weight 87kg. It's probably why square are easier, I've gained 5kg since the last time hit 102.5kg+.
Squat: 105kg 3x5
Bench: 67.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 130kg 1x2
Squat seems to be getting easier. I think my form is coming along nicely. That means I need to properly video it and get some feedback.
Bench felt good, I know my form is getting better here. All in all, I'm just really focusing on getting as tight as I can... then getting tighter. For all lifts. It really makes a difference.
Deadlifts could've gone better. I got two reps and could barely get the 3rd off the ground. I'll try 130kg one more time. But either way, I'm going to drop to 2.5k jumps instead of 5kg. I was hoping to at least get past 140kg before having to make smaller jumps. But then again, I've only been getting 5-6 hours every night for the past few weeks. Might be a factor. Oh, and I was having a very hard time keeping my back extended. This might be why I didn't go 100% on rep 3. I need to video myself to see exactly how rounded it is, at the moment I'm using someone else's eyes.
JC400
11-14-2009, 11:03 AM
Good log Sami very entertaining. As you are struggling with your back something I have been having issues with I quite literally feel your pain!
Watched your old deadlift video, not that I am an expert but it looks like you need to get a lot tighter in the set up position. If your set up wrong it aint going to get any better when you start pulling.
I always focus on squeezing my chest up. As long as your hips are not to low (Back is not to vertical) should make you feel like a coiled spring ready to explode up. Lower back should be extended yours looks a bit rounded. The start position should be hard to get in when correct because you are squeezing so much should help with power out of the hole as well.
Hope this helps a bit? Good luck!
Thanks JC.
Yeah, I cringe watching those vids now. I've been working on literally, exactly what you've just commented on. Even though I've only added about 10kg on the deadlift since that last lift, my form is much better than before. I'm not 100% sure what is the problem with them right now because there are so many factors going on at the moment (sleep/injury/form). The main thing I'm working on now with regards to form, is getting super tight, and then getting tighter.
I'm going to re-read SS on the deadlift and see what I can improve on. I'll also need to read the press chapter too, though I know I need to microload now.
Just ordered some 1kg wrist/ankle weights. Time to start microloading the press.
I will only be able to train twice this week. I'm off to eat meat now.
By the end of this week, all of my lifts will be back in the PR range. Deadlift, OHP and power clean already are.
Squat: 107.5kg 3x5
OHP: 45kg x1, 40kg x3, 40kg x5
Power Clean: 62kg 4x3, 1x2 (missed last rep of last set)
Squat seems to be getting easier. I'm loving it. This is pretty much a PR now. I've had 107.5kg on the bar before, but they were above parallel and I only managed 3 reps. On Thursday, 110kg will be the heaviest squat I've unracked. I have no worries about completing the sets.
OHP needs a big reset. I may reset to 38kg and work up to 42.5 by 1.5kg per session. Then go up by 1kg for a while, then 0.5kg. Today was worse than last time; disaster. I know it's a combination of big jumps (2.5kg) and poor sleep (<6hr).
Power cleans felt okay. Wore me out though and took me 5 attempts just to get 2 reps in the last set.
Even though my power cleans were a struggle towards the end, I think I'm pulling a little better now. My traps are a little sore, suggesting that I'm shrugging more now instead of pulling with my arms too much. My arms aren't sore at all.
I brought a camera but battery died. Anyway, all PRs tomorrow.
I saw 90kg on the scale tonight, before dinner. But I was at the vets and stepped on the big animal scale fully clothed in jeans/shoes/hoodie. Still, it was nice to see 90kg flash up.
Very close to an adult male now.
K.Diesel
11-18-2009, 09:46 PM
Sami, you beat me to 90kg - congratulations! You've done in a few months what I've been chasing for a few years. More inspiration for me to make a career change. :)
Sami, you beat me to 90kg - congratulations! You've done in a few months what I've been chasing for a few years. More inspiration for me to make a career change. :)
I wouldn't be too congratulatory, I've added more weight to my ass than I have to the bar! :D
I want to maintain a 200lbs bodyweight for a while, and hopefully my lifts will grow nicely at the bodyweight.
Yeah, so I weighed myself at the gym in light gym clothes and I'm back to 88kg. :D This is the longest I've been a given weight. One week at 88kg!
Squat: 110kg 3x5
Bench: 70kg 3x5
Deadlift: 130kg 1x5
Actually, I only did 4 reps in the first set of squats. I just miscounted. The other sets were fine. Definitely getting heavier now. Hopefully I can make it to 120kg without any drama.
Bench was pretty good. I might start microloading with 1kg or 1.5kg when I reach 75kg, but I'll see how it goes.
Deadlift. Finally got 130kg. I think it was more form related because I haven't really eaten much more (hence no weight gain), and I've only been getting 5 hours sleep a night. But I focused on my form a little more. I tightened up before getting down, then squeezed and pulled myself down with the bar. This built up some good recoil tension that helped me pull. I also did a more conserative warm up:
20kg x 8
60kg x 4
90kg x 2
110kg x 2
130kg x 5 (WS)
I video'd my squats and deadlifts. I got all my squats but messed up and didn't record my deadlift work set. I got a warmup double of 110kg. I'll try and get them up later.
JC400
11-19-2009, 08:03 AM
Good to see you are still moving up Sami, are these PR's your throwing up now?
Good to see you are still moving up Sami, are these PR's your throwing up now?
Yes, I forgot to mention. Every lift is now officially PR territory.
I am thinking about changing my deadlift jumps. Either I will switch to 2.5kg jumps for each session; OR I will start alternating deadlifts with powercleans so that I am only deadlifting once a week every week, instead three times every two weeks at the moment and keep the 5kg jumps per session.
At the moment, I'm increasing by 30kg per month. The first option will see my deadlift increase 15kg in a month. The second option will see my deadlift increase by 20kg in a month.
Or I could focus on the "out of gym" aspects and carry on trying to increase 5kg per session, so that I can carry on increasing by 30kg per month.
I'm not sure what to do yet.
Oh, and just for fun:
http://www.p2pnet.net/images/lal2.jpg
http://totallylookslike.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/the-burger-king-totally-looks-like-mel-gibson.jpg
http://totallylookslike.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/madonna-totally-looks-like-a-frog.jpg
http://4.media.tumblr.com/oaDQWwRAbfe82ltqKRDwegGro1_500.jpg
http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/11/6/128704610604378432.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_lJj15zBuJQE/Sb5ZWC6vxPI/AAAAAAAADeE/2nNS4BWVQes/s400/the-pope-totally-looks-like-a-frilled-lizard.jpg
http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2009/6/19/128898997873934085.jpg
I'll stop now.
I think my triceps are finally coming into play on the bench. Only now are they starting to get sore. I guess it took a while for my chest to catch up.
In my endeavour to tighten up in my lifts, I've been doing hella strong valsalvas. This has resulted in about 5 petechial haemorrhages on my face. Epic.
misspelledgeoff
11-19-2009, 04:47 PM
post pic's
In my endeavour to tighten up in my lifts, I've been doing hella strong valsalvas. This has resulted in about 5 petechial haemorrhages on my face. Epic.
I might have to. :D
I've got two very obvious ones right under my eyes (eye bag territory).
110kg Squat x 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU3jIE42t5w
110kg Deadlift x2 (warmup)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANvw3rce37o
misspelledgeoff
11-20-2009, 05:13 AM
good lifts. nice form
Thanks. Still some issues to fix, but they're better than last time. The deadlift was only a warm up double at 110kg. I've labelled the video wrong on youtube; need to fix that. My work set was 130kg.
misspelledgeoff
11-20-2009, 06:34 AM
now post a pic of your bloody eye bags. (not bloody the expletive, bloody the adjective--almost forgot you're a Brit)
I'm actually a Texan that now lives in London. :)
JC400
11-20-2009, 10:00 AM
You been in the UK long?
misspelledgeoff
11-20-2009, 02:46 PM
cool. i'm in tx now. emigrated from North Carolina about 7 years ago.
I'm actually a Texan that now lives in London. :)
One of my cousins lives/lived in Plano.
Smack
11-20-2009, 05:33 PM
That belt looks familiar. Almost like mine actually.
We do have the same belt btw. Ask me how I know.
Smack
11-20-2009, 06:04 PM
OK then: how do you know?
Smack
11-20-2009, 06:12 PM
Yeah I'm not fucking stupid. Hence why I came straight into this log.
I was starting to get worried.
Squat: 112.5kg 3x5
OHP: 37.5 kg 3x5
PC: 64.5kg 5x3 (using a 12kg barbell)
Squat: Easy.
OHP: I'm doing a reset on the press.
PC: Getting better. I've been using the shorter 12kg barbell and it's helping. It's got a great spin to it, whereas the big bars don't spin for shit. Form still has a long way to go. I failed 50kg during a warm up rep TWICE! But then the work sets went well. I mistakenly did 4 reps in the last set though.
My bodyweight has been stuck at 88kg for a couple of weeks now, need to step up the calories. I'm already eating about 4000kcal and that is probably my current maintenance.
After next week I'm changing up my routine slightly to the intermediate novice. So I'll be sticking PCs with the A session and alternating it with deadlifts. Then on B day I'll do Good Mornings and alternate Chins and Pullups.
112.5kg Squat x 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTkDCYYhl4Q
64.5kg Power Clean x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDlZTnSl3A
Pretty ugly really. Some definite pulling with the arms and my feet are all over the place.
JC400
11-23-2009, 07:38 AM
Nice for that guy to come and stand right in front of you as your squatting always helps :mad:
Yeah, he got some saliva spray on the back of his legs between reps. ;)
misspelledgeoff
11-23-2009, 08:07 AM
Squats looked good.
I actually thoguht the PC's looked good too. I could definitely tell you are getting hip extensions on the second pull. are you using a hook grip? switching to hook grip helped me when i felt i was pulling with my arms too much. that and moving my grip about 2" wider on each side.
112.5kg Squat x 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTkDCYYhl4Q
64.5kg Power Clean x 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDlZTnSl3A
Pretty ugly really. Some definite pulling with the arms and my feet are all over the place.
Thanks. Yeah, I'm using hook grip. A video'd 4 of the PC reps and that was probably the best set. I may play around with grip width too.
misspelledgeoff
11-23-2009, 10:42 AM
i have long monkey arms and widening the grip seemed like it gave me more time in the second pull. my hip extension was really pulling the bar up and didn't have to rely on the arms and traps as much in the third pull.
Smack
11-23-2009, 01:13 PM
Pretty ugly really.
The guy in the video or the lifting?
The guy in the video or the lifting?
Both. But I can only improve one. There is no linear progression for my face, unfortunately.
Eating going better. I've had a McD double sausage egg mcmuffin, 2 x 1/2 pounder kebab-shop cheeseburgers. 2 McD double cheeseburgers and 5 pints of whole milk. Probably top it off with some peanut butter tonight.
I'll add that shit up later.
Goddammit I'm going to be 90kg by Monday.
August West
11-23-2009, 05:08 PM
I've had a McD double sausage egg mcmuffin, 2 x 1/2 pounder kebab-shop cheeseburgers. 2 McD double cheeseburgers and 5 pints of whole milk. Probably top it off with some peanut butter tonight.
.
Yeah dogg, get some.
Urgh... note to self for future reference: Don't drink 2 pints of milk right before a 1/2 pound cheese burger. Have after, or maybe during, not before. I don't think my 2 pints + 2 McD double cheeseburgers had fully cleared from 4 hours ago.
That was a struggle. I need to lie down.
Still going to go for some peanut butter though. :D
WatsupHannity
11-23-2009, 07:05 PM
Dairy + Beef = Digestion problems, is what the women in my family always said... significant amounts of both is just asking for trouble...
misspelledgeoff
11-23-2009, 07:18 PM
Dairy + Beef
that's been my entire diet since wednesday of last week.
WatsupHannity
11-23-2009, 07:36 PM
:eek::eek:
misspelledgeoff
11-23-2009, 08:00 PM
:eek::eek:
good news: no stalling lifts
bad news: giving birth every couple of days--minus the epidural
I haven't had any digestion problems really. I was just really fucking full. I thank the gods everyday that I have no milk digestion problems. *phew*
Squat: 115kg 3x5
Bench: 72.5kg 2x5, 1x4 (missed final rep)
Deadlift: 135kg 1x5
Squat still pretty good. Having to take longer than 3 minute rests now, but other than that, no drama.
Bench press felt heavy. I think it must be form related, or I didn't rest enough between sets. I got decent sleep and food; I finally put weight on, 89kg.
Deadlift felt pretty good. Back wasn't quite as extended as I wanted but the place was swarming with people running around everwhere; fuckers. Kinda hard to concentrate. I video'd it but people got in the way.
Burgers and milk paid off; 88 to 89kg since Wednesday. Win. brb, catching my breath from the stairs.
Yeah, so neck is a bit fucked. I think I was pressing my head into the bench when bench pressing. It started immediately after the 2nd set. It was a heavy lift for me. :/
So I've got frozen peas on it, and I'm already on NSAIDs for my back injury (which is sort of getting better but definitely still there).
Definitely did something to my neck, but the icing it drastically improved it. Just a little stiff in the morning, but yesterday, I could barely turn my head to the left. Minor niggle which is almost resolved.
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm starting to get fucking sick of burgers. Need to change up the diet so I don't get sick and so that I can save some money. It's getting pretty expensive now.
In other news, I just had 6 fried eggs and 2 pints of milk.
I may have spoken too soon about my neck. It is significantly worse this morning. I don't know if I slept on it funny or it's just that my NSAIDs wore off (maybe both). But can barely go 2-3 minutes without it spasming very painfully. I'm walking around everywhere holding the left side of my neck. It's now been over 48 hours and I'm supposed to be heating it but I'm out now and don't have anything to heat it with. I may buy a 1/2 pounder and stick it on my neck.
Fuck.
I hope this improves in the next couple of hours; at least enough for me to squat. I probably will not press or power clean.
JC400
11-27-2009, 09:30 AM
Bad news on the neck mate, however it is balanced out with some good fried egg eating!
Check the position of your head next time you bench if your neck is extended (Head looking up to ceiling if you were standing up) the vertabrae will be pinching at the back of your neck. Only needs to happen a little bit to lead to problems. I used to have loads of neck problems not so much when benching but on things like chins and shoulder press till I sorted head position out. Feel more like chin is tucked in and pushed back a bit. Might help?
Thanks, I'll focus on that when I can get to the gym again. I abandoned today's session. It's just too much right now. I can barely hold it up on my own without it painfully spasm-ing. Pissed off about that because it means I won't be squatting 120kg on Monday.
I definitely wasn't looking upward like you described, but I don't think I tucked my chin in much. I think I was pushing the back of my head to hard into the bench or something. I've started alternating ice and heat, which feels good at the time but doesn't stop if from hurting like a bitch if I look the wrong way.
I don't know how my training is going to go from now until January. I start clinical attachments next week at some other hospital and they don't have a gym. I don't know what the hours are going to be like and when I'll be able to get to a gym. Plus I need any free time I've got to learn and revise all my term 1 material because I literally won't have time to learn it next term and exams are right after the 2nd term!
Since Monday could be my last regular session, I may go for a 1RM or just do 120kg anyway. But I'll definitely be deadlifting 140kg. That is of course if my neck is healed.
Bad times.
Heat seems to have helped my neck. Still sore, but no spasms. Looking forward to tearing shit up on Monday.
Squat: 120kg 3x5
Bench: 72.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 140kg 1x5
All PRs.
I got greedy and jumped from 115 on Wednesday to 120 today without doing 117.5 Friday. I'm a greedy pig. That's 265lbs and I don't feel any failure quite yet, but I don't want to speak too soon because it's getting pretty fucking heavy.
Bench felt better. This is a repeat weight of the last bench session. But tbf, I did try am ever so slightly wider grip this time. Still a long way to go for bench though.
Finally three plates for deadlift. I was a bit worried before hand because I was getting VERY lightheaded during my initial warmup pulls, but that cleared up before my work set. They weren't very pretty pulls at all. I realise now that I'm not really getting a good extended back, even in the initial set up. I mean, I'm trying hard and it feels like I am, but on the video, it's just about barely flat at first, and gets worse as the set goes on. Is that hamstrings? Anyway, they felt pretty heavy and I don't know how much longer I'll be able to pull every other session, I'll probably drop to once a week very soon. Three plates here is only 308lbs since we use 20kg plates; FUCK YOU METRIC SYSTEM!!!
Vids up later.
Body weight is still 89kg. MUST EAT MORE!
misspelledgeoff
11-30-2009, 09:44 AM
congrats on the PRs. great work!
Thanks Geoff, but it may be premature.
Squat: 122.5kg 3, 4, 4
OHP: 40kg 3x5
Power Clean: 67kg 0, 62kg 0
I knew today was not going to be good. I don't even think I had 1700kcal yesterday. Was doing hospital attachments for the first time and didn't really plan my food for the day very well. I was busy all damn day. I felt weak. I knew it was bad when I struggled with a 100kg warmup.
Come to think of it, that 5kg jump I took may have come back to bite me in the ass.
Greed was a bad choice.
misspelledgeoff
12-02-2009, 11:58 AM
well fock. yeah those choices have a tendency to come back around.
That was 8 consecutive weeks without a single missed squat rep, that I've now fucked over. Well, at least it's something I know I can relatively control. I've got a fridge at the hospital that will become the holder of milk. I must label my milk so those fuckers don't try to make coffee and cereal with it. I have to be up by 5:30AM each day so I need to sleep early (good luck with that).
I'll try 122.5kg again on Friday if I feel strong, or I may drop to 120kg and see how that goes.
Vids up tonight hopefully. Both of Monday's good PR lifts and today's failures (those are kinda funny).
Here's Monday's 140kg deadlift. Not pretty, and I struggle to even get my back fully extended, let alone keep extended throughout the set. Any tips would be appreciated. There's a little bit of dropping the knees forward once the bar gets past them on the way up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kquAip3X_I
Also, check out the douche "squatting" in the back ground. It's too funny. He also has the maxi-pad. :D
JC400
12-02-2009, 04:51 PM
Sami the last rep says it all (when you are most tired bad habits usually become most visible). You spend a couple of seconds making sure your feet are in the right position then bend down and lift without a split second to try to set you back correctly. I know you say you find it hard to do it but you are going to struggle if you don't even try mate ;)
Can you deadlift in front of a mirror? I know Rip does not like it but a good cue for getting the back set correctly is to try to make the chest visible from the front/in the mirror.
For what its worth my deadlift procedure is...
Get feet in position > Bend down to bar keeping legs straight (hips high)> flex knees to touch shins to bar > Take huge breath > Show chest to mirror > Bingo!
haha forgot to comment on the tool doing knee bends in the squat rack!
Thanks JC, yeah you're right. I need to focus on the inter-rep setups. The camera man didn't get my initial setup. And the last rep had that fucker stand right in front of me which threw me off a little (no excuse really).
I won't really be able to lift in front of a mirror. They have a mirror there but it's heavily obstructed with no room for me to pull, and it's 3 feet off the ground.
I pull again on Friday, would it be best to repeat or even drop the weight a little to work on form?
JC400
12-02-2009, 05:16 PM
Mate I feel your pain, feel sorry for the guy absolutely no idea what concentration it takes to push yourself through a heavy set! I had an idiot walk into the back of me as I was about to pull 400+ the other day, you could imagine my response!
With regards dropping the weight or repeating, my view is once form breaks down a bit it's too heavy. I know if i have 2+ deadlift workouts that are slow grinders I am going to stall if I keep going. So I will always drop to a weight where my reps feel quicker and build back up usually to a new high. But doing this will mess your linear progression up a bit. Maybe someone else has a view?
I also twinged my left elbow by trying to get a deep low bar position on my first warm up set. Bad idea. My elbow was cold and not stretched and it was throbbing for the rest of the session. I usually can't get a low bar position until the 2nd or 3rd warmup set, I don't what I was thinking trying to shove it down there so soon.
misspelledgeoff
12-02-2009, 08:00 PM
i love the dialogue you added!
fuck....YOU!! **gym floor shakes underneath snapperhead's feet**
Platus
12-02-2009, 09:31 PM
I took a look at your deadlifts: I think you may just need a partner to give you a good cue during your setup. I know that if no one is watching me I quickly let my upper back round over; I often have to remind myself to over-exaggerate my back extension, as what *feels* like proper extension is usually not textbook extension.
Okay, here was Monday's 120kg Squat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMXYYFnwuVQ
And here is Wednesday's 122.5kg squat FAIL. (amusing, kinda)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS2ye76gam8
msingh
12-03-2009, 08:12 AM
thanks for posting that 120kg video. i've just learned something very important. the way your body shakes under teh weight, that tells me you're not very well adapted to be squatting that sort of weight. i could so easily be just like you if I continue taking 2.5kg bumps but i think i'm gonna halve that, so my body is better able to handle the increases.
Was I shaking that much? I remember feeling that the 120kg went fairly well at the time. Do you mean my movement when standing in between reps? I wasn't shaking it's more just a bit of balancing movement, not shaking much. Don't get me wrong, it felt pretty fucking heavy.
I must have been adapted well enough to squat it that easily though. Everyone shakes under near maximal exertion, does this mean we are not adapted to do it?
msingh
12-03-2009, 08:21 AM
Was I shaking that much? I remember feeling that the 120kg went fairly well at the time. Do you mean my movement when standing in between reps? I wasn't shaking it's more just a bit of balancing movement, not shaking much. Don't get me wrong, it felt pretty fucking heavy.
It seemed liek you were shaking just standing up with the weight, your actual squat was solid, you've got strong hips and a good explosive ascent, which is great. The fact that it felt heavy though -- that's what i got from you shaking under the weight. Now dont get me wrong, i've squatted like that before -- it's just i'd rather avoid it because sometimes you get that cheat rep where you bounce out of the bottom and it can fuck up your back (speaking from experience). So now i'm happy to take smaller jumps just as long as there is linear progress i'm happy -- who cares if it costs me 2 weeks more of training? At least i'll have more in the tank for my bench and press which really do need a lot more work!!
Also regarding you edit -- nope, when i've been squatting recently i've been getting under the bar and finding the weight light, like light, but still going on to squat a so called 5RM. so it's definitely possible to do it this way -- ofcourse if you want to reach 135 sooner that's totally up to you dude, and i understand, i'm tempted to do the same thing.
Smack
12-03-2009, 09:09 AM
That 122.5 fail could have been extremely dangerous - set the spotter pins to the right height, and if worst comes to worst be prepared to dump the bar backwards rather than forwards.
msingh
12-03-2009, 09:13 AM
That 122.5 fail could have been extremely dangerous - set the spotter pins to the right height, and if worst comes to worst be prepared to dump the bar backwards rather than forwards.
Good point. Why should someone fail a set of squats while doing linear progression anyway?? It just shows you've been too greedy with the increments. Been there done that. Also realise when Rip prescribes 5lb jumps -- well 2.5 kg = 5.5 lb, which might not seem like much, but 5 lb is plenty challenging as it is, and we make it much harder for ourselves by attemping 5.5 lb. I reckon i could do well with 2kg bumps but haven't got 1kg plates.
August West
12-03-2009, 09:48 AM
That 122.5 fail could have been extremely dangerous -
Yeah what's with that spotter pin on the right popping off just when you needed it, that was kinda wild. The damn things only have one job to do and that's stay where they're put. Also the dude who walks into the frame around :09 is kind of classic, all 90's small, with unintentionally hilarious hand wave. The gym can be an odd habitat.
It's kinda hard to tell, but if I put the safety bars up to the next level, the bar hits them. That particular "cage" design has the bars hanging from hooks. The bars are strong and the hooks are 1/2" steel. The problem is they hang and swivel a bit. If I had set the bar down or dumped it back, it may have been better. But my problem was I got squashed so I leaned forward and the barbell rammed right into the front of the safety bars hitting the hooks causing the back of the safety bars to fly up and off the hooks. The left bar was barely on.
There is another rack with good solid immovable safety bars but the flooring is uneven with sunken holes. I need to tell the gym about that.
My last set I had two spotters either side. Though I knew after 4 hard reps that a 5th was not going to be possible so I racked it.
msingh - As I said previously, this is the first time that I really didn't feel strong going into the gym. It was also the first time I had barely eaten anything the day before, had literally been on my feet the entire day before and having only 4 hours sleep. Not only that, but it was the first time I'd deviated from the program by both making a 5kg jump AND skipping a B day session the Friday before. Factor all that in, and consider the fact that it is the very first time I've struggled with the squat, I don't think it has anything to do with 2.5kg jumps, yet.
I'm not saying that I can make it to 140kg on uninterrupted 2.5kg jumps, but given the evidence I've already stated in the earlier posts, you can't logically come to the conclusion that I'm not adapted to squat 122.5kg yet. To me, it seems deviating from the program led to failure. Who knew?
strongdaniel
12-03-2009, 09:48 PM
Here's Monday's 140kg deadlift. Not pretty, and I struggle to even get my back fully extended, let alone keep extended throughout the set. Any tips would be appreciated. There's a little bit of dropping the knees forward once the bar gets past them on the way up.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kquAip3X_I
Also, check out the douche "squatting" in the back ground. It's too funny. He also has the maxi-pad. :D
That 90's small douche needs to get slapped.
Sami, awesome effort on your lifts. You look like a driven animal.
I don't feel entirely qualified to comment on your form, but in my amateur eyes it looked a little dicey. The biggest thing I have to object to is the way you move around before starting your pull. By not repeating form the exact same way, I feel like you're inserting a random variable into the lift that doesn't need to be there.
msingh
12-03-2009, 09:50 PM
sami, you probably hate my contribution to your log but mark said if your hands leave the bar it's not a set... just FYI, so you did like 5 singles not a set of 5.
misspelledgeoff
12-03-2009, 10:15 PM
i thought for sure you had that 5th rep. the first four looked strong.
for what it's worth, i think you had some pretty major tail tuck in the first set. almost like you were letting your low back slack a bit to get extra depth. by the way, it's exactly what I did on my most recent squat fail. tucked my tail which destroyed my bounce and i got stuck in the hole.
i'll bet you 10 pounds sterling that if concentrate on keeping your low back in tight hyperextension you will get much more bounce and drive out of the hole and that 122.5 kg will be no sweat next workout.
PS, I've noticed your gym has a high concentration of skinny snapperheads.
Yeah, even the first time I watched the vid, I thought I could've had it. I think I just pussed out. Not good. I think had I not been in a cage, I'd have tried a little harder. Well, maybe I'll keep squatting in the shitty one, knowing the safety bars could likely fall on me, so that will be further encouragement to get the fucking bar up.
So I think yet another thing to work on would be, "Digging Deep" and not pussing out of it.
I also try to remember the tight back more as well; clearly my squat form is not nearly approaching natural enough.
Oh and yeah, the gym has a lot of ignorant skinny young guys. It's a university gym that offers free membership to students. But we also have a good range of decent lifters that know what they're doing. A good handful of guys doing the Olympic lifts and plenty of SS'ers. We've got one 20 year old squatting 220kg and deadlifting 275kg at a 100kg bodyweight.
misspelledgeoff
12-04-2009, 06:42 AM
i think your form is solid except for the tail tuck that has crept in. that's why it's helpful to post up videos, I think. different form habits have a way of creeping in when the weight gets heavy.
I also try to remember the tight back more as well; clearly my squat form is not nearly approaching natural enough.
Had to skip Friday's session. Monday's is not looking likely. Wednesday will happen but I may deload to 115kg on the squat, 70kg on the bench and maybe 130kg on the deadlift (I'll see how 130kg feels, but I would rather repeat 140kg).
I brought in 6 pints of milk, a jar of peanut butter and a 1lb of cheese for lunch at the hospital today.
misspelledgeoff
12-07-2009, 06:58 AM
what's the protocol breaking wind while on rounds? this could become important.
I brought in 6 pints of milk, a jar of peanut butter and a 1lb of cheese for lunch at the hospital today.
In most cases, it's "Blame the Med Students." But in my case, it will be "Blame the patient."
misspelledgeoff
12-07-2009, 07:10 AM
as long as your specific brand doesn't give you away, this sounds like a robust strategy.
JC400
12-07-2009, 07:11 AM
I brought in 6 pints of milk, a jar of peanut butter and a 1lb of cheese for lunch at the hospital today.
Basic and quite primitive I like it.
Need burgers. The supermarket next door sells microwaveable 1/4 pounder cheeseburgers for £1 each. I plan on having 4 a day.
Very busy today, not a lot of time to eat. I did manage 6 pints of milk, plus about a 1000+kcal worth of cheese and peanut butter. I plan on finishing the cheese tomorrow and getting through half the jar of peanut butter. Plus more milk and a few burgers hopefully.
Anyway, I did get into the gym tonight. I wasn't expecting much and was just doing a light deload just to maintain and keep things active.
Squat: 115kg 3x5
Bench: 70kg 3x5
Deadlift: 140kg 1x4
Squat felt okay. Trying to work on form a bit and keep all reps consistent. I went on my toes a few times and my knees dipped inwards briefly during the ascent.
Bench felt annoyingly heavy. I squirmed too much on the second set, but I tried to nail form on the third.
Deadlift felt great for reps 1-3. It went up fast and did them quickly. The 4th rep was harder to lockout, and the 5th rep got to my knees and my back started to round. I think I just wasn't in the mood for a grinder tonight. LONG day. But 140kg felt much easier than the last time. The video shows my back was in much better extension when setting up, and stayed fairly tight through the pull.
Can't wait for my lifts to start increasing again. I'll be back in the gym wednesday, but probably not friday.
Dead people keep taking my milk from the fridge here. Well, they will be dead...
Numbers look good Sami, hope I'm about there in 3 or 4 weeks.
DeepBlue
12-08-2009, 07:37 PM
Loving reading this so far. Awesome dedication to stick to this.
I look forwards to when I can post numbers like yours! :-)
It really won't take long you guys. Stick to it and follow it by the book. Mine are very mediocre lifts so far.
Squats: 117.5kg 3x5
OHP: n/a
PC: n/a
Once again I've tweaked my elbow during squats. This time to the point that I can barely contract my arm. Which isn't too bad, so long as I'm not curling anything. So I tried to press, which was okay until I got to 30kg and it was too painful at the bottom of the press when elbow is fully contracted. So I stopped there. I didn't even bother cleaning because I can barely get my arm to fully bend, let alone rotate my elbows fast enough to rack the barbell. I could barely even get the bar into the rack position.
So I bought a bag of frozen peas on the way home and have been icing so far. It's feeling better.
Last time this happened was on A day and those lifts don't bother the elbow much. B day is a problem for this.
Squats were kinda of heavy. I wish they felt lighter than they did; but they just weren't.
George Noble
12-09-2009, 05:15 PM
When I used to fuck up my elbows squatting I put knee wraps on them.
Tight-ish?
I just got some poundland neoprene elbow sleeves. I used them today but I think my elbow was still fucked from last time.
George Noble
12-09-2009, 07:00 PM
Pretty much as tight as they will go while being able to leave them on for the whole squat workout. So snug, rather than tight.
The poundland sleeves are good for keeping things warm but better material is needed for decent support and compression.
4 Basic Food Groups:
1) Milk Group
2) Cheese Group
3) Peanut Butter Group
4) Burger Group.
misspelledgeoff
12-10-2009, 08:55 AM
5 Basic Food Groups:
1) Milk Group
2) Cheese Group
3) Peanut Butter Group
4) Burger Group
5) Beer Group
Fixed.
Misspelt
Fixed.
Misspelt
Noted. ;) ......
Squat: 120kg 3x5
OHP: 40kg 3x5
Rack Clean: 60kg 5x3
Squats felt better today. Nice fast sets. I have two neoprene elbow sleeves so I put both on my sore left elbow. I focused on keeping my elbows up and tried a little wider grip. Seems to have helped a little. Still sore and I've got some weakness in flexion of my left arm. Chins are excluded for a while longer.
Had to be careful during the press. But it felt okay. I've got small weights to microload, but forgot to bring them. I'll do 41kg next time.
Because of my elbow, I did the cleans from a rack below the knee. It was ok, no missed reps at all, they all flew up. Caught a few
on my wrists, but only because I struggled to get my elbows under fast enough.
I almost wanted to kill someone. Someone took a 10kg plate when I was resting before set 3. They stuck it on an EZ bar and left it next to the cage. But I couldn't find who did it. Murder is a bad choice.
Not too bad considering I had 5 hours sleep and was on my feet all damn day. I think I'm getting used to the hospital setting.
Oh yes, and I'm now an adult male. 90.9kg = 200lbs. :D
Smack
12-11-2009, 02:34 PM
You're making me miss being 200lbs now, you cock.
But I still had abs if I flexed at 200lbs, do you? So ner.
You're making me miss being 200lbs now, you cock.
But I still had abs if I flexed at 200lbs, do you? So ner.
Not even close. :(
Squat: 122.5kg 3x5 PR
Bench: 72.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 145kg x0, 140kg x1
Back up to 122.5kg in the squat. These were deep and rather difficult. I went on my toes twice; once pretty badly on last rep of last set, almost lost it.
Bench felt great, this is equal to my PR, but the mini-reset helped a lot. Last time I had trouble keeping my ass on the bench, these sets went fast with 3 minute rests.
Deadlift. Shit. There are plenty of reasons I failed today. I had a big lunch (1800kcal) but didn't lift until 6:00pm and I didn't carb up. I PR'd in squat so this may have made things a little difficult. I'm getting some little twinges in and around my hips. I may have just pussed out.
This is the last week I'll be training until about the 8th of January. I need this holiday to obliterate all my first term med work. There's a LOT. So a three week break. When I come back I'll program my deload so that I'm back to my previous weights in a 2 week time frame. That might be a little conservative.
Bodyweight at 90kg so about 199lbs.
SerusMournstar
12-14-2009, 06:34 PM
Squat: 122.5kg 3x5 PR
Bench: 72.5kg 3x5
Deadlift: 145kg x0, 140kg x1
Back up to 122.5kg in the squat. These were deep and rather difficult. I went on my toes twice; once pretty badly on last rep of last set, almost lost it.
Bench felt great, this is equal to my PR, but the mini-reset helped a lot. Last time I had trouble keeping my ass on the bench, these sets went fast with 3 minute rests.
Deadlift. Shit. There are plenty of reasons I failed today. I had a big lunch (1800kcal) but didn't lift until 6:00pm and I didn't carb up. I PR'd in squat so this may have made things a little difficult. I'm getting some little twinges in and around my hips. I may have just pussed out.
This is the last week I'll be training until about the 8th of January. I need this holiday to obliterate all my first term med work. There's a LOT. So a three week break. When I come back I'll program my deload so that I'm back to my previous weights in a 2 week time frame. That might be a little conservative.
Bodyweight at 90kg so about 199lbs.
Enjoy the break, I know I plan too. Medical school is a lot of work.
Yeah, so I had to abandon today's session. I've got some new injury/niggle plus the continuing issue with my left elbow.
Yesterday I squeezed the hell little plastic packet to try and pop it. It was thick plastic and I was having to squeeze at near max effort to pop it. Well, it popped and all was well... for about 10 minutes. I then started getting some fairly intense throbbing around my left elbow and all throughout my upper arm. This lasted for over an hour. Felt really weak in that arm and it was trembling a little. But it felt better later on and almost 100% by today's session.
During warmups, I felt VERY stiff, EVERYWHERE today. I also noticed some weird pain and weakness in my right leg. It's starting around the glute area and radiating down the side of my thigh. I need to review my anatomy book to guess which muscles exactly are involved. The descent was fine and I was easily hitting depth but the top 1/3rd of the ascent was very painful and weak. 50kg felt heavy and 70kg was heavy and painful. I tried a rep at 90kg and it was like a work set. Shit.
While this is going on, my fucking elbow is blowing up again. I tried to press with an empty bar and that felt pretty good actually, so long as I came down slow and controlled. I worked up to 30kg and it was just getting too much again. I could do 2-3 reps and after that it was all over the place.
I probably need this time off. Heal up and come back fresh.
I'm still going to eat multiple burgers, because I just have to.
SerusMournstar
12-16-2009, 09:27 AM
Wow, sounds like you are pretty beat up, hopefully you will be in better shape after break. Good luck!
I'm sitting in the X-ray waiting room. I probably need an MRI but I can't get an MRI until I've had an x-ray first.
Come to think of it, I stopped taking my rather strongish NSAIDs yesterday, this may have something to do with it. I've been on them for a few weeks now and obviously nothing has resolved.
LOL, on strengthmill, any threads on the 3rd page were about 2 years old.
Anyway, I got snowed out of gym on friday. I may try to get in this week and test out a few 1RMs just for the hell of it. If not, this is my break until 11th of January. Hopefully by then I will be able to pass an exam.
In an attempt to keep what strength I've gained over the last couple of months, I'm going to stop shaving while I'm on this break.
George Noble
12-22-2009, 06:57 PM
You make good decisions.
Week 1 (ish):
I've never really grown out a beard before; never been very good at it. We'll see how this plays out. Only good things can come from this though.
http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=114&stc=1&d=1261748002
Smack
12-25-2009, 07:38 AM
That looks really really itchy. I hate being stubbly. The worst part for me being that it grows in very thickly very quickly. I have to shave every morning if I want to be smooth. Electric razors irritate my skin, but so does being stubbly. I hate it. I used to think it was cool to shave but it's really just a pest!
It's a little itchy, but not too bad right now. I hate electric razors; I've gotten 2 as gifts in the past and I just never use them.
My shit doesn't grow all that well; that's probably a week and half at least.
EDIT: I did shave my lip recently; my lady requires it. I may end up looking Amish.
misspelledgeoff
12-25-2009, 12:16 PM
Abe Lincoln look...sweet.
i can only grow a real beard on my throat and neck. not the most pleasant thing to look at.
It's a little itchy, but not too bad right now. I hate electric razors; I've gotten 2 as gifts in the past and I just never use them.
My shit doesn't grow all that well; that's probably a week and half at least.
EDIT: I did shave my lip recently; my lady requires it. I may end up looking Amish.
If it's big enough by the time you're back, your squat will EASILY get to 3 plates for sets. Keep at it!
To further preserve my strength, I've also switched to black coffee. I've never put sugar, always a little milk. No more.
I think with the beard and black coffee, it should help. What else should I be doing? I think my heavy music listening time has decreased a little. :(
Starting Beard:
Week 1:
http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=114&stc=1&d=1261748002
Week 2:
The picture is a bit shit this week. I've changed colour too. Not much fuller, just a little longer.
http://startingstrength.com/resources/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=120&stc=1&d=1262563911
misspelledgeoff
01-05-2010, 12:17 PM
when will we see the results of all your beard-growing and black-coffee drinking? ie, when are going to squat something?
Back in the gym on the 11th.
I was planning on doing a 2 week reset (back to previous weight in 2 weeks). But I might just try some 1RM to see what's left.
Which shall I do?
Mr.City
01-05-2010, 01:19 PM
Don't be silly. Follow the reset and ease back in.
misspelledgeoff
01-05-2010, 02:53 PM
Well, have you been bathing? If bathing = No then you should most definitely max. Else, reset your weights like a sensible, civilised doctor.
BTW, do you get to practice your palpation technique on your female cohorts? Just for the extra clinical experience, of course.
Back in the gym on the 11th.
I was planning on doing a 2 week reset (back to previous weight in 2 weeks). But I might just try some 1RM to see what's left.
Which shall I do?
Well, have you been bathing? If bathing = No then you should most definitely max. Else, reset your weights like a sensible, civilised docter.
BTW, do you get to practice your palpation technique on your female cohorts? Just for the extra clinical experience, of course.
Back in the gym on the 11th.
I was planning on doing a 2 week reset (back to previous weight in 2 weeks). But I might just try some 1RM to see what's left.
Which shall I do?
;)
That plus Living Anatomy. Gotta learn all the anatomical landmarks!
misspelledgeoff
01-05-2010, 05:54 PM
Bastard.
;)
That plus Living Anatomy. Gotta learn all the anatomical landmarks!
K.Diesel
01-06-2010, 10:13 PM
Reset and keep the beard and keep drinking coffee. They'll help you recover faster between sets and between sessions.
Thanks Kareem. I intend to keep the coffee black, and the face hairy.
The benefit of these two changes are two-fold; not only will they make me stronger, we all know that people with beards are also smarter and retain more information. I need this for my revision and upcoming exams. I mean look at these guys:
http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/images2/darwin.jpg
http://galeon.hispavista.com/callejon-diagon/img/dumbledore
http://www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/hst/scientific-identity/fullsize/SIL14-B5-06a.jpg
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/MMPH/240386~Cheech-And-Chong-Posters.jpg
All some of the most intelligent specimens the human race has to offer.
Nothing exciting.
Squat: 100kg 5x3
Bench: 60kg 5x3
Deadlift: 5x1
Hamstrings are tight as HELL from squat. I could barely get down into the start position for deadlift. But otherwise no drama.
Sore. So sore.
BTW, can my log be moved to SS now?
strongdaniel
01-12-2010, 08:47 PM
Welcome back Sami. Hope you crushed your exams. Good luck getting back into the game.
EDIT: oops
Can we not delete posts anymore?
Welcome back Sami. Hope you crushed your exams. Good luck getting back into the game.
Thanks.
Well, I don't have any exams until April, but I still had to do a lot of revision in my "holiday" so that I don't get behind when we start back or lernin again.
In Soviet Britain, exams crush YOU!
Anyway...
Squat: 105kg
OHP: 30kg
Rack Clean: 20kg, 30kg, 40kg, 50kg
Squat was easier than last time.
OHP was a joke, just easing in slowly.
Power Clean, I was going to do 50kg for everything but I was teaching a new guy the lifts so I kinda ran out of time. Those were pretty much my warm ups. They were rack-power cleans though; just below the knee.
Body weight up from 87kg on Monday to 89kg today. All water since I started eating big again on Monday.
Squat: 110kg
Bench: 65kg
Deadlift: 125kg
Squat and bench were very fast and easy, minimal rest between sets.
Deadlift is a little off. It wasn't that heavy, I'm just having a hard time keeping my back in extension. I think I've managed to get in extension in my set up, but I was using other people's eyes to tell me so not 100%. But they kept saying that my back would round during the pull, even though 125kg didn't feel particularly heavy. Apart from the 4th rep where, for some reason, I dropped my hips really low and tried to pull from there. A bit like deficit pull sort of. Anyway, the 4th ended up being a little grinder but the 5th was easy again. Just my back keeps rounding. I need to video it, but I may also drop the weight and work on keeping it extended throughout the pull.
And I'm back up to 90.7kg ~ 200lbs. :D
Squat: 115kg 5x3
OHP: 35kg 5x3
Rack Clean: 60kg 3x5
Squats were easy. Relatively short rests, focused on getting knees out and that helps with rebound. Forgot neoprene, left elbow a little sore; not helped by me smashing my funny bone before my last set.
OHP was easy.
Rack cleans were very easy too. Done from 2" below the knee.
Bodyweight down a little to 89kg, but that's due to fail eating this weekend.
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