Some data pre and post Rippetoe cert

[Larry Thiel]

Rip,

I wanted to give you some data regarding the effects your cert has had on my strength.


Pre Rippetoe cert in Montclair, N.J.

33/M/225lbs/6 foot, trying to get to 200 lbs and get really lean and fast like the cool kids.

Squat: 225X3X5
Press: 115X3X5
Deadlift: 375X3X5
Bench: 185X3X5
Power clean: 165X3X5

It took a while for me to get my act together so I have been doing strength for the last eleven weeks. I have to admit that I am not doing starting strength because of my personal goals, so my numbers are probably not what they could be if we were doing pure Starting Strength.

Current vitals:
34/M/235lbs/6 foot, trying to get to 240 and not sure if 3500 calories a day will support my gains?

Squat: 310X3X5
Press: 160X3X5
Deadlift: 375X3X5
Bench: 240X3X5
Power Clean: 200X3X5

My wife is wondering if I am trying to become a professional viking. All I really care about is lowering my 7 handicap, and putting pounds on my back squat. She keeps asking me how a bigger back squat will help me standing over a four foot putt. I tell her it sure as shit can't hurt.

I hit a hundred balls a day and it is physically demanding. Last season it was hard for me to recover from my strength workouts and keep good form on my game. Can you offer any advice as to how to handle the spring strength training? We are contemplating a less intense strength program that will maintain during the season and then get on pure Starting strength in the fall. Do you think we are flawed in this thinking? I know trying to program around the game of golf is weird. But the game is one of the only sports I can still play at a fairly high level and get my competitive juices flowing.

Any thoughts you may have about programming during the golf season would help



Keep up the good work.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You have a golf season? And why hasn't your deadlift gone up? Dammit Larry, you're making both of us look bad.

[juicysweet]

Deadlift: 375X3X5

Power Clean: 200X3X5

The above may be part of the problem.

I'd guess he's meaning 3 sets of 5 with the deadlift and 3 sets of 5 with the clean. Both are way off the program.

[Larry Thiel]

Coach,

At the cert I performed a set of 375X5 that you watched and the only thing that came out of your mouth was......"ugly." I had to tear down my deadlift and rebuild it with proper technique. I am struggling most with the deadlift becuase I am strong enough to lift relatively heavy weights with what is highly regarded as bad form. I have been stretching the hell out of my hamgstings so that I can get into a proper set up position and keep a flat back throughout the pull. Needless to say, this lift is progressing slower than the others.

Also,

In the Northeast, due to coldness, I have a defined season. I ramp up in April and shut it down in October. I would still pull out at left gaurd and block linebackers if I could, but after my retirement from these types of things, I had to resort to a gentlemans game.

[kthxbai]

3500 Calories at 6', 230 lbs? I was eating that while I was 6'1, 140 and still battling anorexic tendencies.

[GianMilano]

You could try not hitting a hundred balls a day. As a 7 handicap, you're only hitting 40-45 balls in a round. Why so much range time? Work on your short game.

[Mark Rippetoe]

This is getting pretty golfy.

[GianMilano]

This is getting pretty golfy.

My bad.

Larry, what exactly was wrong with your deadlift? I'm pretty new to the game, but it seems to me that even really good lifters have complaints about form breakdown on maximum efforts. Gary Gibson recently had a thread in which he had video of himself squatting 395 pounds, and he was concerned about some form breakdown. I think his back angle was increasing on the way up.

I'm wondering at what point it's okay to ease up on form strictness in favor of just crushing the lift. Like you say, you can pull big but with shoddy form. Obviously you have to avoid injury as much as possible. I don't know. I did power cleans yesterday and was pretty dejected afterwards, but I think I've become too focused on form. There's a balance somewhere.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You can let up on strictness a little once you're strong enough to not get hurt when you do with a big weight. If let up at light weights you'll never get all the components strong.