CThomas's log

[CThomas]

Male, 187cm (just under 6'2"), 25 years old.

Been doing the SS novice program since late December, but it's been a very patchy due to travel and generally being slack. Starting a log to create a sense of accountability.

PRs:

Squat 130kg 3s x 5r
DL 160kg 1s x 5r
Bench 80kg 3s x 5r
Press 55kg 3s x 5r
Chinups 9,7,7

Bodyweight : ~84kg -> ~94kg (had a six-pack at 82kg, now abs barely visible, love handles developing)

My bench, press, dips, pullups are at little girl numbers due to a busted left AC joint. Getting prolotherapy for this, and it seems to be working very well.

I don't PC either because my inflexible wrists and long forearms land the bar right on my AC joint with the shoulder width grip I am used to (this is partly how I hurt my AC joint). I could take a wider grip, but I feel like it is just not worth the risk of a mistake at the moment. Have PC'ed 80kg for a few singles before SS. I'll get back to this when my AC joint feels better.

Last two sessions I attempted to squat 132.5, and got 4,4,4 and 5,4,4 (I'm blaming poor sleep and hot, humid weather). Tore something in my ribs by letting my knees track in too much, and I've taken the last couple of weeks off due to this and travel. I'm resetting to allow a two week run-up back to my old work sets.


Goals

Have healthy shoulders.

Squat 200kg, DL 250kg, Press 100kg, Bench 150kg for singles ASAP.

Long term, I'd like to learn the Olympic lifts and total at least 250kg. I'd also like to get into MMA and fight a bit before I get too old.


Current Programming

A: Squat, Bench, DL, Face pulls (light)
B: Squat, Press, Chinup/Pullup, weighted situps

I'll add dips to the A workout when I feel my shoulders are ready. Right now they're not.

Occasionally do some TGUs and ring work to help my shoulder along, but this only when time allows.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 40 x 5; 60 x 3; 80 x 2; 100 x 1; 115 x 5; 115 x 5; 115 x 5

No belt. Not as easy as they should have been. Actually GM'ed last rep of second set. Need to shove knees out more. Still failing on this.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 3; 50 x 2; 60 x 1; 62.5 x 5; 62.5 x 5; 62.5 x 5

A little hard and unsteady, but at least the AC joint wasn't inflamed after. Feeling early signs of tendonitis in my left front deltoid, and something around where my left supraspinatus inserts.

Face pulls: "35" x 3 x 5

Easy. Felt my AC joint during these though.

DL: 60 x 5; 100 x 3; 140 x 1; 145 x 5

Not bad, but should have been easier. Double OH on all sets but work set. Mixed grip on work set. Need to mix up Shaf's phantom chalk so I can switch to hook grip.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 40 x 5; 60 x 3; 80 x 2; 100 x 1; 117.5 x 5; 117.5 x 5; 117.5 x 5

Wore belt, but had to wear it very high to avoid edge pushing into ribs. Ribs sore during and after, but tolerable. Haven't been sleeping or eating very well, and squats left me exhausted. Knees stayed out. Came up on my toes a bit. Weight went up easy enough though.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 35 x 2; 40 x 5; 40 x 5; 40 x 5

Front left delt felt quite sore during warmups, but once it was warm it was painless. Otherwise effortless.

PC: 40kg and 60kg for singles, both from hang and from floor

Wrist stretching has worked some. Can catch the bar in a rack on my front delts with a grip three-four inches wider than press grip. Everything else was shit - hips not extending fully, elbows not fast enough and knees not re-bending. Sprained right wrist after ~10 reps with 60kg.

Pullups/Chinups: 2 pullups + 6 chinups (one set)

Intercostal muscle doesn't like the stretch of a pullups. Chinups a bit better but still stretch it.

Roman Chair Situps Me +15kg x 10r x 2s

I was getting a lot of layback in the press a while back, think my abs are weak. Adding these in to head that off when I do start pressing again. Careful not to hyperextend.

Left AC joint bump is back. Clavicle seems to have risen one or two mm. Not sure if this is from sleeping in an odd position, or from re-introducing pressing. Occasional dull ache. Need more prolotherapy.

Front deltoid tendonitis pain is persistent, and I'm getting shooting pains in my right pec near the middle of my sternum. I may be pushing the bench a bit too hard after a very long layoff.

I need to gain more weight. Bodyweight at 94kg. Essentially static since late January, although I've lost some fat.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 40 x 5; 60 x 3; 80 x 2; +belt; 100 x 1; 120 x 5; 120 x 5; 120 x 5

Knees tracked in a bit on a couple of reps. Otherwise easy.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 10; 40 x 25

Have a slight tear in my right pec. It's healing pretty quickly, but took it easy. As if benching 60kg wasn't embarassing enough, it was enough weight to tear a muscle!

Left front delt tendon feeling better, but still sore.

Face pulls: "40" x 3 x 5

AC joint felt good through these.

DL: 60 x 5; 100 x 3; 140 x 1; 150 x 5

Double OH on all sets but work set. Mixed grip on work set. Easy. Felt slight pull on left AC joint despite left arm being supinated.

Need to sleep more. Last few nights I've tossed and turned a lot. Getting lots of food though - lots of solid food and GOMAD.

[CThomas]

Missed session 11-Mar and couldn't make up due to car trouble. Moving to MWF for a while due to some planned heavy drinking on Saturdays. Still tired from last Saturday.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 5; 45 x 5; 45 x 5

Started with these as squat rack was busy. Lots of layback on very last rep. Rest was easy. Need to focus more on keeping abs tight. Deltoid and pec pains did not present at all.

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 125 x 5; 125 x 3

Loaded 125kg instead of 122.5kg by accident. Squats were easy until I let out a ripper fart at the bottom of rep 4 on my second set. It came as such a shock that I relaxed my hammies completely, and then tweaked my right knee as I dumped the bar on pins. Embarassing. Still, on the basis of reps being easy and not being in PR territory, I am going to up the weight next workout. Knee feels fine today.

Pullups/Chinups: 12 sets of 2 pullups

Intercostal muscle is fine, AC joint a bit sore on these. Feels like I'm doing weighted pullups. I lose shoulder activation at the bottom after a couple of reps, hence the many sets to get some volume.

Got to the gym late, so this was all I could do.

Bodyweight sitting at 97kg in the morning. Abs nearly invisible again, and my Inzer level belt is very tight on its current setting.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; +belt; 100 x 2; 120 x 1 127.5 x 5; 127.5 x 5; 127.5 x 5

Bar speed a bit slow on last set, and GM'ed the last rep. Otherwise a good session.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 65 x 5; 65 x 5; 65 x 5

AC joint sore during these. Clavicle has risen again, although soreness much reduced overnight.

DL: 60 x 5; 100 x 3; 140 x 1; 150 x 5

Loaded 150kg instead of 155kg by accident. Easy.

[CThomas]

SQ: 20 x 10; 20 x 5; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 130 x 5; 130 x 5

Got booted out of the gym. I thought I had another half hour till it closed - I was wrong. Crap.

[CThomas]

Back to Tue-Thu-Sun. Been mildly sick - fever, slight cough, not sleeping well at all. Decided to go for it anyway. Loaded up on creatine for the first time and that made a huge difference.

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 130 x 5; 130 x 5; 130 x 5

Solid reps, no issues. Felt much better recovered between sets despite being extremely tired going into the gym. Love creatine.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 1; 47.5 x 5; 47.5 x 5; 4.7 x 5

AC joint was sore while pressing the bar, but fine on all other sets. Very last rep paused for abit close to lockout - my triceps are weak.

Pullups/Chinups: 2 sets of 2 chinups

Couldn't grip the bar for very long - my right wrist hurts where I sprained it on cleans a while ago. I went home and found I couldn't even close my CoC #T halfway - it hurts where my thumb meets my forearm. I sprained the wrist a while ago and it doesn't hurt at all when not loaded, so this a bit worrying.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; +belt; 100 x 2; 120 x 1 132.5 x 5; 132.5 x 5; 132.5 x 5 (PR)

Solid reps. Pretty decent bar speed all the way to the end.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 67.5 x 5; 67.5 x 5; 67.5 x 5

Easy, fast reps. AC joint was fairly sore during the sets. It is completely painless today morning, however. Need another dose of prolotherapy soon, but my preferred doctor seems to be away.

DL: 160 x 5

No warmups. Ugly. Got greedy and decided to equal my previous PR. Back was a bit rounded, and I think I stopped just short of lockout. Traps were really struggling with the weight. Right hand had trouble gripping the bar supinated, but managed OK pronated.

Weighing in at 99.5kg last few mornings. Going to cut the milk down for a while because the last couple of kilograms feel like they were mostly lard.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 135 x 5; 135 x 5; 135 x 5 (not a PR due to insufficient depth)

Reps have been feeling much too easy lately. Took video for the first time in over a month (when I tried 132.5). Depth was about two inches below parallel then, but it is now two inches above parallel. Fuck. I've been gauging depth on the basis of how much stretch I feel, and I've lost flexibility. Took video of second and third sets. Second set was bad, third was better, but still high. Did a single after and hit correct depth. Will repeat this weight to correct depth. Damn. I was really looking forward to three plates by the end of the week.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 1; 50 x 5; 50 x 5; 50 x 4

AC joint was sore while pressing the bar, but fine on all other sets. Form was shit in every way. Need to go back to 45kg and focus on form. Time to re-read the press chapter in SSBBT.

After the presses the left side of the back of my neck and my left trapezius were in bad pain. Pain still there today morning. Can turn my neck to the right, but can't articulate in any other way when I'm in pain. Massaging trigger points on trapezius brings complete but temporary relief. Will continue to self massage and see if it goes away.

[CThomas]

Missed workout 30-Mar due to social committments.

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; +belt; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 135 x 5; 135 x 5; 135 x 5 (PR)

Depth was good, and although it was much harder than the last workout, I still feel like I have plenty in me. Squatting to just below parallel feels like squatting ATG used to. Very last rep felt pretty ugly, but didn't look too bad in the replay.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 70 x 5; 70 x 5; 70 x 5

AC joint didn't feel too bad on any of the sets. Feel like I have some way to go before I have to start microloading. A bit disheartening to be making good progress in the bench while my press goes the other way. It wasn't long ago that situation was the other way around.

Face pulls: '35' x 5r x 3s

Skipped the deadlift as I'm pretty sure I have some sort of injury to my left trapezius. Did 3 sets of 10 standing presses with 7.5kg DBs, really concentrating on shrugging at the top. Still have failry limited ROM in my neck, but the pain in the trapezius is feeling more localised. I've got two spots of pain - one in the middle of trap near my spine (too lazy to look up exactly where) and another just above my supraspinatus near my acromion.

Milk is out, solid food had taken its place. Loving not being bloated. Bodyweight holding steady at 98-99kg in the mornings.

[CThomas]

Over the last three weeks I've been feeling pretty strange. Three visits to the gym in the first week and I failed spectacularly on all exercises every time. Completely lost motivation after this and developed a serious case of firbomangina. Just recovering.

[CThomas]

Still feeling rather odd. Not sure what this is, but I just don't feel pumped up like I used to.

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 135 x 4; 130 x 5; 130 x 4

Thought I might only have to repeat my last PR. Too hard. Resetting to 130. Reps were hard and unsteady. This is my third go at 130, and each time I've reset it hasn't been because of a stall. Pretty frustrating.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 1; 50 x 5; 50 x 5; 50 x 5

Still fairly light so no reset here. A little bit too much layback on fianl reps.

Pullups: 5, 5, 4

These are starting to feel better.


Didn't eat all that much over the last three weeks, but bodyweight remained stable at 98.0 to 98.5kg. Seemed to lose some fat. Upping the eating again, weighed in at 99.7kg this morning.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; +belt; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 132.5 x 5; 132.5 x 5; 132.5 x 5

Depth and form were good, but reps were slow. 5 hours of sleep the night prior will do that.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 72.5 x 5; 72.5 x 5; 72.5 x 5

Easy. Felt some pressure in my AC joint, but not what I would characterise as pain.

Left anterior tibialis tendon is quite inflamed, and I can't get into a pulling position for a DL. I've noticed this coming on for a couple of weeks and did nothing other than try to stretch my ankle. Someday I will learn that stretching is the wrong response to tendonitis. I think I've been tying my left boot too tight. Right boot has broken laces and I can't tie it nearly as tight.

Bodyweight just under 101kg. Been drinking milk again for a week. The extra weight feels like all midsection flab. Belt is very tight again.

[CThomas]

Gym closed Friday to Monday!

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 135 x 1; 135 x 1; 135 x 1 (no belt)

My ankle is getting worse. Not so sure it is the tibialis anterior tendon anymore. When my knee moves over my toes it really hurts something in that area. Squats used to be painful only in flat soled shoes, but now they're painful in Oly shoes as well. Walking with a limp now, and I won't be squatting or dealifitng for a while.

Tried singles to see if I could find a sweet spot that didn't hurt. Couldn't find one. The beltless squat felt like I got a really good bounce though. Much easier than the belted squats. Must experiment with this when I can.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 1; 52.5 x 5; 52.5 x 5; 52.5 x 5

Easy. Started reps at the top and bounced off my armpits for the first time. Felt great.

Chinups: 5, 5, 4

The plan is going to be for me to just bench, press and do pullups for a while. If I can row I will work on conditioning while my ankle heals. Gotta see a podiatrist.

[CThomas]

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 77.5 x 5; 77.5 x 5; 77.5 x 5

Whoops, missed a step. Starting to get challeging, but bar speed was good on all reps. AC joint completely painless here, although pushups still hurt a fair bit. I'll take what I can get.

Face Pulls: '50' x 5 x 3

Row 1000m @ 2:05 average pace. This would have been a warmup once upon a time.

Left ankle still quite restricted in ROM. Had to row with shortened strokes.

[CThomas]

Back from a 3+ week vacation with no training at all. Lost 5kg eating about 3000 cals a day. Weighing 96kg.

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; +belt; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 125 x 5; 125 x 4; 125 x 3

Travelling. Food and sleep not up to par and it showed.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 70 x 5; 70 x 5; 70 x 5

AC joint is feeling fairly separated and slightly painful. Reps were hard but never in danger of failing.

DL: 100 x 5; 140 x 1; 150 x 3

Felt a sharp pain in my diaphragm while getting the 4th rep off the ground so called it a day.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 110 x 1; 120 x 5; 120 x 5; 120 x 5

Solid reps, no issues. Food is still patchy and I felt a little dizzy as a result.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 1; 50 x 5; 50 x 3; 50 x 4

Found it hard to stay balanced. Form sucked.

Pullups: 6, 4, 3

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 5; 80 x 3; +belt; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 125 x 5; 125 x 5; 125 x 5

Very last rep was slow. Still need to eat more.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 75 x 5; 75 x 5; 75 x 5

AC joint is feeling fairly separated and slightly painful. Reps were hard but never in danger of failing.

Ran out of time for the DL.

[CThomas]

SQ: Bar x 10; 60 x 4; 80 x 3; 100 x 2; 120 x 1; 130 x 5; 130 x 5; 130 x 5

Good reps except for last rep of last two sets which were slow. If I ever see 130 on the bar again while doing SS I think I will shoot myself.

SP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 30 x 4; 40 x 2; 45 x 1; 50 x 5; 50 x 5; 50 x 5

Easy.

"Hammer" grip chinups: 6, 4, 4

Shitty gym does not have a straight pullup bar, just those Hammer Strength squat racks.

Messed around with 60kg power cleans trying to get my form down, and messed up my right wrist. A bit uncoordinated with both the second pull and the catch.

[CThomas]

Only had 20 minutes to squeeze a workout into, so I thought I'd work on my bench press. Warmed with 2 min row @ 1:48.

BP: Bar x 10; Bar x 5; 40 x 5; 50 x 3; 60 x 1; 80 x 5; 80 x 3; 80 x 5

Cramp in my upper back on the second set. Reps were a grind but never felt like failing.

Pullups: 6, 5, 3

Still fatiguing fast with the pullups/chinups.