Justin's SS Log

[Wroathe]

Hi there! I've been doing this for a few weeks now and I decided I'm going to start posting my progress just to keep myself accountable. I'm an untrained rank novice who, up until now, has been doing my best to stay out of the gym.

Over the last 8 months I lost over 30 pounds by running my fat ass off on the treadmill and now I've been turning my attention more to the weight room. I would describe my body type as having disproportionately long and thin arms, long and large legs, and a shorter core.

My Stats:
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 203lbs.
Age: 20

My current lifts (in lbs):
Squat: 155x3x5
Bench: 105x3x5
Dead Lift: 235x1x5
Press: 80x3x5
Power Clean: 95x5x3

Today was Squats, Bench, and Deadlifts. I got 9 hours of sleep and have been eating well over the last couple days.
Squats: 5 5 5 155lbs
Bench: 5 5 5 105lbs
Dead Lifts: 5 235lbs

Some thoughts:
Squats have been going up steadily, Dead Lifts have been easy for me and I continue to pile on the weight, Bench is making me sad inside and I need to do something about these scrawny arms.

[Wroathe]

Gym was closed early tonight for no apparent reason. Unfortunately I have to move my next workout to tomorrow.

[PVC]

Are you sure you can only bench 105? I hardly believe this would be the case.

[Wroathe]

Are you sure you can only bench 105? I hardly believe this would be the case.

Unless you know something I don't know about the bench press. I've been following the form described in the book.

I've got long and somewhat measly arms. I'll post pictures later. Problem is I can bench a lot more than that for one rep but I usually fatigue extremely rapidly. I described this problem to Mark and he said, "The way you know every time that your lifting too much is if you can't lift it."

I'm still somewhat new and so I might just have bad form.

[Wroathe]

Today was Squats, Press, and Power Cleans. Eating and sleeping have been good over the last few days.
Squats: 5 5 4 160lbs
Press: 5 5 5 85lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 100lbs

Thoughts:
Squat form got worse when I went up 5lbs. I'm still haven't problem holding myself in thoracic and lumbar extension. When I get to the bottom of the rep I round my back and then wind up doing a weird forward lean thing to get it back up.

Press was good. Probably my strongest lift form-wise.

Power Cleans continue to feel awkward. I tend to pull early and rack with elbows low.

[Wroathe]

Today was Squats, Bench, and Cleans. Spring break means plenty of time to sleep and eat.
Squats: 5 5 5 160lbs
Bench: 5 5 5 120lbs
Deads: 5 245lbs

Thoughts:
Turns out I'm pretty good at picking shit up off the ground.

I was mis-calculating how much I was benching PVC. Turns out 45+35+35=115. My bad.
Barely got the last rep with an added 5lbs on the bench.

Kept the bar lower on my back for squats and it helped alot with balance issues I've been having. No more good-mornings for me.

[Wroathe]

Today was Squats, Press, and Cleans. Sleep and Eating have both been good. I should say that I'm not doing GOMAD. I've been buying Whole milk and drinking ~1/3 of a gallon a day and eating a lot of high protein meals. Perhaps I'd be gaining faster if I was doing GOMAD but my budget doesn't allow for that.

Squats: 5 5 5 165lbs
Press: 5 5 5 90lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 95lbs

Thoughts:
Clean form is still sloppy. I'm having a hard time getting past that mental leap of actually jumping with a barbell.

Press and Squats felt light today. May need to go up a little more.

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deads. Wasn't able to get great sleep the first night between the last workout and this one. Neighbors were outside being drunk/loud. Made up for it in Milk consumption though.

Squats: 5 5 5 175lbs
Bench: 5 4 3 125lbs
Deads: 5 255lbs

Thoughts:
I'm a little reluctant to say 5 on Deads. I couldn't lock out at the top because my grip was slipping and my gym doesn't have bumper plates. I don't have any qualms about ruining the floor but dropping weights on a hard surface can be obnoxious for other lifters.

I hate bench. I hate bench a lot.

Squats moving up nicely.

[Wroathe]

Today was Squats, Press, and Cleans. Didn't sleep great the first night but the second night was pretty good. Eating has been good too.
Squats: 5 - 5 - 5 - 185lbs - PR
Press: 5 - 5 - 5 - 90lbs
Cleans: 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 120lbs - PR

I had some kid try and tell me I'm doing the power clean wrong and that I should be doing the full squat clean instead. It was funny because he started super narrow and almost did the splits on the landing and he let the bar roll off the tips of his fingers onto his shoulders. Kid was pro.

Squats continue to move along nicely. Bad form on a couple of them but overall I'm getting the hang of it.

Decided I'd let my press sink in a little more and I kept the weight the same.

[Danish Viking]

Hilarious descriptions of the workouts. Love the kid schooling you on cleans. Just smile and nod and keep doing what you're doing.

Your bench doesnt seem that far off in my opinion. 125 bench compared to 175 squats is quite decent really - a higher ratio than I usually have (you are about 3/4, I'm usually 2/3).

Only way to get better at cleans is to do them. We've all learned that the hard way. Cleaning the same as you bench is pretty nice too, by the way.

Anyway - from where I'm sitting things are looking good. Just drink your milk and remember patience+persistence=progress.

[Wroathe]

Sorry, haven't posted for a couple days - been busy with school and life.

I'll do my last two workouts in one post.

The workout before last was squats, bench, and deads. I didn't get very good sleep and I barely made 3000 calories a day. As a result I screwed up my knee in the middle of squats.

Squats: 3 1 190lbs PR attempt...\
Bench: 5 5 5 120lbs
Deadlifts: 5 255lbs

Not much progress and a shitty day in squats.

Thanks for the reply Sir Viking. I'm gonna keep pushing along. Hopefully my arms get the message.

Last workout was Squats, Press, and Cleans. Sleep and eating were both much better.
I kicked squats back to 185lbs just to get a little bit more acquainted with that weight.
Squats: 5 5 5 185lbs
Press: 5 5 5 95lbs PR
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 120lbs

PR on Press. Yay.

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deads

Squats: 5 5 5 190lbs
Bench: 5 5 4 125lbs
Deadlifts: 5 265lbs

Two PRs. As per Mark's recommendation in the book my training partner and I have been mounting the hooks on the other side of the squat rack during squats so that we don't face the mirrors (that my gym has covering every wall).

My buddy went for a PR attempt of 225lbs today.

During our sets we had this bulky looking football player kid staring at us from across the room. On my buddies fifth rep of his second set he just collapsed without any prior warning (the first four were perfect, deep, and powerful). It caught me off guard but I got my hands under the barbell and helped him up.

This prompted Mr. Football to come across the room and say something like, "The mirrors are there for a reason. You should use them and take my advice because I'm going to be doing this professionally."

We just smiled and nodded and went back to what we were doing. That visibly pissed off the kid so I could hear him whispering to his buddy about newb lifters.

Something tells me that if I was squatting 350lbs that would shut this kid up.

PS. He then proceeded to go over and pyramid reps on the bench. Kid was pro.

[Wroathe]

Squats, press, and cleans. Sleeping and eating have been great over the past three days.

Squats: 5 5 5 200lbs PR
Press: 5 4 3 95 lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 120lbs

So I figured out why Rip says it's best to just do the program. I tried doing 3x5 Barbell Curls and 3x5 dips the day before the workout. My arms were still soar coming into this workout. Press wound up being fail.

Squats were a big PR for me. Yay. On to two wheels I go!

I tried asking my weight training teacher for help on cleans. He wasn't much help, turns out no one really shows these football players at my school how to lift. They just tell them to, "Get the barbell on your shoulders".

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deadlift day. Excellent sleep and eating. Fail workout.
Squat: 5 4 4 205lbs
Bench: 4 4 4 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 275lbs PR

I tried going up on squats despite a really difficult PR last workout. I'm still doing hybrid good-mornings and I think I need to cut back a bit to see if I can fix that problem.

Bench press is starting to piss me off. Anyone have any tips? I'll see if I can post a video eventually.

PR on Deadlift. Although for the last two reps I had to use an alternate grip. My back says, "This is easy" and my grip has been saying, "OMGWHATTHEFUCKOARAGAHAGA!"

[Wroathe]

So I've been overthinking my lifting lately and convincing myself that I can't do things.
Squat: 5 5 5 205lbs
Press: 3 95lbs 4 90lbs
Clean: 3 3 3 3 3 125lbs

So a few things on this. I'm not sure if I should call what looks like a really difficult good-morning a squat. By anyone's standards what I was doing couldn't be considered a squat.

Secondly, Press has been a disaster. I was making nice progress and I got 3 sets of 5 at 95lbs a few weeks ago but I haven't been able to do that much weight since. I don't know if I'm just overthinking my lifts or what the problem is. Out of frustration I just said fuck it on the last set.

And my cleans are a big pile of what the fuck. When I get time I'm going to grab a barbell and just go over the form until I literally can't bring myself to jump again.

/endrant

On a seperate topic I did feel slightly redeemed when the football player next to me said he was going to do 6 reps @385lbs on squats then he proceeded to do what could only be considered quarter squats. Seriously, on one rep I swear all he did was unlock his knees and hips then stand back up again and grunt really loudly.

All situations like do is reinforce the fact that, because I've read a book on how to do the exercise properly, I already know more than some people who have spent every day in the gym for the past three years.

On a final note, as summer moves In I'm going to start keeping a log of my calorie and protein intake and using that to get a general feeling of what I need to take in food-wise to keep making gains.

My question is this: Have any of you hit mental walls that you've had to overcome in your lifting careers? If so, how did you overcome them?

[Wroathe]

Squats, Bench, and Deads. Workout went much better this time.
Squat: 5 5 5 205lbs
Bench: 5 5 5 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 280lbs

I could probably stand to go up on Deadlifts. I've decided that I'm going to use an alternate grip and then train grip in my spare time rather than trying to train it using double overhand on Deads. I have yet to really dig deep to get a deadlift off the ground so I think it's time to throw some real weight on the bar.

Squats and Bench felt solid today. Pain free and everything (whether that's a good thing or not will reveal itself next workout).

[Danish Viking]

My question is this: Have any of you hit mental walls that you've had to overcome in your lifting careers? If so, how did you overcome them?

Sure - mine have mostly been caused by pain in joints and such. Usually backing off and taking some Ibuprofen helps in those cases.

With your stall, I'm wondering how your weightgain is going? Gaining a few pounds in short order usually does wonders for my progression.

[Wroathe]

Yesterday was Squats, Press, and Cleans.
Squats: 5 5 5 210lbs
Press: 5 5 5 90lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 125lbs

Squats and Press went well. I de-loaded on press a bit and now they're going up smoothly.

I'm hesitant to ask for coaching on cleans because most of these college coach types don't know what the fuck their talking about.

Hey Viking! I'm up to 208lbs right now. I'm not especially trying for weight gain. I've been fat or overweight most of my adult life and I'm somewhat concerned about aesthetics now. I'm hoping to use strength training both as a means for becoming a useful human being AND eventually to look good (I'm focusing more on the strength right now though and I've been eating enough to facilitate gains).

The last couple of workouts have been really good so far. Got past the mental block. I may have just been overdoing it.

[Wroathe]

Today was Squats, Bench, and Deadlifts
Squat: 5 5 1 220lbs PR fail
Bench: 5 5 4 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 295lbs PR

I think I may have done the first two sets of squats too quickly... I had to take a longer break after the second set and because of that I ended up putting too much thought into it. Fucked up my knee a bit.

Bench was sloppy.

Deadlift is an odd situation for me. I have atrocious form, which I know is dangerous, but part of that stems from the fact that I have really long legs. I could hardly bend my knees down far enough to get the bar in my hands and because of that I wound up letting my back bend. Surprisingly enough though I have no problem toughing out these lifts. I don't even have any back pain O.o

[Danish Viking]

Deadlift is an odd situation for me. I have atrocious form, which I know is dangerous, but part of that stems from the fact that I have really long legs. I could hardly bend my knees down far enough to get the bar in my hands and because of that I wound up letting my back bend. Surprisingly enough though I have no problem toughing out these lifts. I don't even have any back pain O.o

Just dont go all Diesel Weasel on them. Deadlifts can seriously wreck things, if done with sloppy form.

If you really have anthropometry issues, you might try Sumo-style, as recommended in the book for people with your specific issue.

[Wroathe]

Just dont go all Diesel Weasel on them. Deadlifts can seriously wreck things, if done with sloppy form.

If you really have anthropometry issues, you might try Sumo-style, as recommended in the book for people with your specific issue.


Thanks. I might give that a try.

Although I can and have done a standard deadlift with a straight back. It depends in large part what shape my knees are in after squats that day.

I'm not sure exactly how much I'm rounding my back. My training partner is pretty much fail at feedback, I can't wait until I have the money to afford a home gym. I'll try and post a video in the early summer coming here.

[Wroathe]

It's been a while since I posted. I postponed working out for the duration of finals week and a little before and after. Back into the swing of things now and I've borrowed a flip camera from my campus so that I can record and criticize my own form (which by the way is worse than I thought it was).

Pretty rough first workout after 3 weeks hiatus. The first set of squats was absolutely brutal and my hamstrings gave out on the 2nd rep of the second set (after reducing weight).

Squats: 5 2 210lbs first set 185lbs second set
Bench: 5 5 5 125lbs
Deadlift: 5 265lbs

Even though it was a fail workout it felt good to get back in the gym.

[Wroathe]

Squats: 5 5 2 190lbs
Press: 5 5 5 90lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 115lbs

Squats were painful, Press was good, and Cleans were sloppy and awkward.

I haven't really been going for weight gain. I'm someone who can gain weight easily and lose weight with some level of difficulty. The challenge for me has been to try and get stronger while getting leaner and staying at a similar weight.

[Wroathe]

My last workout was good...

Squats: 5 5 5 190lbs
Bench: 5 3 3 130lbs
Deadlift: 5 285lbs

I'm excited to be back :)

Bench is something I'm going to have to keep struggling with...

[Wroathe]

Squats: 5 5 5 195lbs
Press: 5 3 5 95lbs
Cleans: 3 3 3 3 3 125lbs

Squats were slow but good.

I need to do something about these scrawny arms.