A College Guy's Rippetoe Experience

Training Logs
21

13 October 2009

Lifts (Day 14):

Pullups: 1 x 7 x bodyweight, 1 x 5 x bodyweight, 1 x 3 x bodyweight
Squat: 2 x 5 x 235, 1 x 1 x 235
Military Press: 3 x 5 x 85

Comments: Pullups were good today. I was experimenting with low-bar position on the squat, couldn’t figure it out, and went back to high bar, only to be tired out and get stuck in the bottom on the 1st rep of my last set. its fine though, as i need to solidify my form. ive started to notice that my knees are not keeping on the outward track, minimizing my hip drive. My military press went well, though, so i can up that next week.

22

15 October 2009

Lifts (Day 15):

Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 180, 1 x 4 x 180, 1 x 3 x 180
Squat: 3 x 5 x 235
Deadlift: 1 x 5 x 265

Comments: Bench press was fine. considering it took me 11 days to get from this point on 175 to this point on 180, hopefully i can do better this time. squat was fine. deadlift was tough. this was the first time i almost didnt get all 5.

23

18 October 2009

Vital Stats:

Height: 6’1
Weight: 189
Age: 19

Lifts (Day 16):

Squat: 2 x 5 x 245, 1 x 2 x 245
Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 180, 1 x 4 x 180, 1 x 3 x 180
Deadlift: 1 x 5 x 275

Comments:

Squat was ok. I just gave out on the last set. I should be able to get my full reps next workout or the next after that though. Bench press wasnt that good, as i didnt improve from last workout. i should be fine for next workout though; i didnt warm up or take long enough rest periods this workout. deadlift was good. my form was bad on my 4th rep, but i pushed through it and did my 5th with good form.

bad week for weight gained. over the past week and a half ive lost a pound. i think i know why: i havent been giving myself enough time to eat. theres only so much food you can eat in 15 minutes. if i am more responsible from here on out, i should be fine without having to supplement my diet.

24

Glad to see Starting Strength working for you. As you can tell, it takes a long time to get results but you are going about it the right way.

Are you wearing a belt on squats? Your squat weight looks a little high compared to your deadlift at this level. I have met many people who believe they are going deep enough on their squats and claim all the way down but in fact it is not low enough. Just saying for your height, your squat poundage looks more advanced compared to your deadlift.

25

im going to parallel, but not atg. i check my form in the mirror, so i know im going to parallel. i think the difference is due to the fact that ive trained the squat some before this program, so yes, it is more advanced. that, plus the fact that i still havent found my limit on the deadlift, as im still going up every workout.

but no, i dont wear a belt.

26

20 October 2009

Lifts (Day 17):

Squat: 2 x 5 x 245, 1 x 3 x 245
Military Press: 3 x 5 x 90
Pullups: 1 x 7 x bodyweight, 1 x 5 x bodyweight, 1 x 2 x bodyweight

Comments: Squat is okay. Only 1 more rep since last workout. I started fencing practice last week, so thats 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. I think thats cutting into my recovery. Military press was good. Pullups are still sub-par.

I will be buying extra milk today to supplement my diet from the dining hall. Im 189.5. I’m going to shoot for an extra half gallon of milk a day to get some growth and hopefully knock my weights up some.

27

23 October 2009

Lifts (Day 18):

Squat: 2 x 5 x 245, 1 x 4 x 245
Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 185, 1 x 4 x 185, 1 x 2 x 185
Pullups: 1 x 7 x bodyweight, 1 x 4 x bodyweight, 1 x 2 x bodyweight

Comments: Meh. That’s all, really. Meh. Not great, not terrible. Weight is going back up, which is good.

28

25 October 2009

Vital Stats:
Height: 6’1
Weight: 192
Age: 19

Lifts (Day 19):

Squat: 3 x 5 x 245
Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 185, 2 x 4 x 185
Deadlift: 1 x 4 x 285

Comments: Pretty good workout. Finally finished this weight with the squats. Made progress by one rep on the bench press, so thats not too bad. I finally found my limit on the deadlift. Granted, this isnt with the opposing hands grip, just double over-hand, so I may switch that next workout. Depends on how much I want to train my grip at the expense of progression. I do a pretty grip-important sport (fencing) so thats something to keep in mind.

Seems like the milk has started pushing my weight back up. Thats good. I havent decided if I’m going to stop at 200 or 205. Ill probably just finish out my two months of GOMAD and then start cutting at whatever weight I happen to be at. I’m pretty satisfied so far. My fat gain hasn’t been bad at all.

29

28 October 2009

Lifts (Day 20):

Squat: 3 x 5 x 250
Military Press: 1 x 5 x 95, 1 x 4 x 95, 1 x 2 x 95
Chinups: 8, 4, 2

Comments: Squat wasnt too bad today. my depth was good, but im not so sure about my form. i dont think my knees are on the track and i have a tendency to push through hard reps with my legs and upper body separately, instead of as a unit. military press and chinups were fine.

30

15 November 2009

Vital Stats:
Height: 6’1
Weight: 191
Age: 19

Lifts (Day 19):

Squat: 3 x 5 x 225
Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 185, 1 x 4 x 185, 1 x 6 x 155, 1 x 5 x 155
Deadlift: 1 x 4 x 285

Comments: Ive been busy with real life lately, so im trying to get acclimated to the gym again. In about a week or two ill start cutting.

31

17 November 2009

Lifts (Day 20):

Bench Press: 1 x 10 x 155, 1 x 8 x 155, 1 x 5 x 155
Chinups: 6, 5, 4
Leg Press: 2 x 5 x 400 (18); 1 x 5 x 400 (16)

Comments: I’m changing track a bit to shock my muscles a bit, doing a bit more traditional hypertrophy workout where i’ll up weights when i aim to do sets of 10 before moving up weights, but will move up 5 lbs when I hit 25 total reps. chinups are progressing slowly, mostly because my weight gain is effectively raising the resistance, so maintenance is really improvement. squat stations were busy, so i used the leg press. i think its ok, but if i do it again, i would make it closer to me. squats are still much better though. i will say that the leg press gives you more concrete measures of when the rep is done, like the bench press. i may eventually do box squats.

32

19 November 2009

Lifts (Day 21):

Bench Press: 1 x 10 x 155, 1 x 7 x 155, 1 x 7 x 155
Squat: 3 x 5 x 235
Thick-Grip Barbell Curls: 2 x 6 x +20, 1 x 3 x +20

Comments: Bench press suffered a bit due to not taking a long enough rest for the second set. Squat was pretty good actually, especially considering all the practice ive had. 235 felt fairly light, and i only had to take a breather for the last rep of the last set. I tried thick-grips today for the first time, and i really liked them, so i think i might incorporate them occasionally.

33

23 November 2009

Lifts (Day 22):

Bench Press: 1 x 10 x 160, 1 x 7 x 160, 1 x 6 x 160
Squat: 3 x 5 x 245
Thick-Grip Barbell Curls: 1 x 7 x 75, 1 x 6 x 75, 1 x 3 x 75

Comments: bench press was pretty good, as i went up 5 lbs and only lost one rep. my form was a bit off on my first set though. squat was pretty difficult due to me smacking the supports at the bottom. the first two sets were quite good, but form suffered a bit on the last few reps of the last set (not quite as deep, knees went in a bit), so i may keep it the same next workout and work on form. thick grips were pretty good again today, i only did 3 reps on the last set because the gym was closing and so i only got about a 30 second rest period. i start transitioning to cutting tomorrow, so thats good. hopefully i can maintain these numbers.

34

Stats At the Beginning of Cutting:

Age: 19
Height: 6’1
Weight: 193
Abdomen: 33 or 33.5
Bodyfat Percentage: 13.5 - 14.17 %

Goal by December 18:
Weight: 187
Abdomen: 32

Current 1-Rep Max Lifts:
Bench Press: 213
Squat: 276
Deadlift: 311
Thick-Grip Barbell Curls: 90
Military Press: 107
Pullups: 7

35

25 November 2009

Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 185, 1 x 4 x 185, 1 x 3 x 185
Chinup: 8, 6, 4

36

1 December 2009

Age: 19
Height: 6’1
Weight: 189

Lifts (Day 23):

Squat: 1 x 5 x 265, 1 x 3 x 265, 1 x 2 x 265
Bench Press: 1 x 5 x 180, 1 x 4 x 180, 1 x 3 x 180
Chinups: 8, 3, 2
Oblique Tilts: 1 x 10 x 65, 1 x 8 x 65, 1 x 4 x 65

Comments: Thanksgiving break was last week, and i had to be here since it wasnt worth flying home for just a few days. so i lost some weight, as you can see, because the dining halls were closed and food intake dropped a lot, but it should slow from here on out.

37

6 December 2009

Age: 19
Height: 6’1
Weight: 189

Lifts (Day 24):

Bench Press: 2 x 5 x 180, 1 x 4 x 180
Dumbbell Curl and Press: 1 x 6 x 35, 2 x 4 x 35
Miscellaneous Ab Work (Weighted Incline Crunches, Oblique Tilts)

Comments: I worked out on thursday, but had a really bad workout. felt too embarrassed to put it up here, lol. i need to cut back my diet more. other than that, everything’s good.

38

19 January 2010

Age: 19
Height: 6’1
Weight: 181

Lifts (Day 25):

Bench Press: 2 x 10 x 135, 1 x 7 x 135
Curl and Press: 2 x 10 x 25, 1 x 7 x 25
Ab Work

Comments: I cut down before Christmas break, and then went on vacation to bulgaria and hungary, where the food is bad, so i lost some weight. no matter. im still 6 pounds ahead of where i was last semester, and this semester is longer for me. this semester im going to be switching to a more traditional upper body/lower body split, training with semi-volume. my ankle is messed up at the moment, so im not going to do lower body workouts for a bit, but will probably start them next week. this workout was light because i was trying to get back in the groove.

Goals by May 1, 2010:
Weight: 200
Bench: 3 x 10 x 175
Squat: 3 x 10 x 265
Deadlift: 1 x 10 x 285

39

22 September 2010

Age: 20
Height: 6’1
Weight: 179

Cardio (Day 1):

Stationary Bike

Distance: 6.31 miles (was around 70 rpm on average)
Time: 35 minutes
Average MPH: 10.8
Resistance: ranged from 1-15, average around 8-ish
Heartrate: ranged from 105-165, average around 130-ish

Goals:

By October 29 (1 month and 1 week from today):
Time: 30 minutes
Distance: 6 miles
Resistance: 15
Heartrate: Below 160 (80% of max) without having to adjust anything

Comments: I’m currently coming off of a long break for various reasons. For one thing, due to my shifting my diet so radically and so quickly this time last year, I’ve developed a fissure in my colon (my crap has blood in it). I’ve been to the gastrologist, who has prescribed me various things, which worked for as long as I was on them (as I was very diligent), but as soon as I went off of them, it came back. I have an appointment October 5 with another gastrologist who I’m going to ask to give me something stronger (a glycerin cream).

Because of this, I can’t bulk yet (more food → more crap → aggravated fissure), so I’m going to do some heartrate-targeted cardio until probably late October, when I’ll start bulking and lifting again and slow down on my cardio. I think the cardio will help me with my fencing, as I’m usually one of the first guys on the team to run short of breath. It will also help me restore my general level of fitness. At my summer job I worked a lot (75-80 hours a week), so my fitness kind of fell by the wayside as I ate a lot of junk food, ate at weird times or skipped meals, and didn’t exercise at all.

I’m going to do biking because I can read while doing it, and that’s my main problem with cardio: it’s boring. So running isn’t really an option for me. Swimming takes too much prep time. Right now I’m trying to figure out how often I should do biking since right now I’m doing some fairly intense conditioning work for 1 hour (probably 40 minutes actual exercise, as opposed to warming up and streteching), 4 times a week as part of the fencing pre-season.

If you guys have advice, I’d really appreciate it. Especially on setting cardio goals, as while I’ve had good luck finding realistic benchmarks for increasing size/lifts in a certain timeframe, I haven’t really found anything on cardio. So my goals are just ballpark ideas, since I might way overshoot or way underperform because I have no idea how fast I’m supposed to be improving.

40

That blows man, Ive never heard of such a thing happening. Im just glad to hear your not giving up, and plan to get back to it.