Alright let’s start with a little background. Back in 2008 went from being kind of a gym rat to crossfit. Did that for three years where I learned about power lifting and oly lifting. After year three got tired of crossfit because I wasn’t really seeing any more gains, so I switched to Olympic lifting. Trained for two months and then competed in a meet. While I broke my C&J PR by 6kg I exacerbated a tear in my hip’s labrum.
Took roughly a year off from lifting heavy while I got prolotherapy for the tear. Hip is like 90% back to normal, Doc says Oly lifting probably isn’t a good idea until it completely heals, but powerlifting is ok for now. So that’s where I’m currently at. I’m pretty weak, so doing starting strength. From what I understand that’s used until I can’t get linear progressions anymore, and then it’s 5/3/1.
Ultimately my goal is to look good naked. Right now with the hip issues the idea of squatting 700# is more wearisome then awesome sounding. Of course I feel like I’m such a noob it’ll take a while for me to have to make a choice between strength and looks.
My diet has mostly been paleo and have seen good results, but right now am experimenting with having more carbs post workout, which has led me to try out things like pie and cereal post workout. I am also following intermittent fasting, as prescribed by Martin Berkhan on leangains.com. Have been doing IF for about six weeks and have seen some nice body recomposition, still weighing about 180# though, @ 6’2" that’s pretty light, so I’d still like to put on more muscle.
Am starting a log here to keep track of stuff, also would really, really appreciate help here because I really don’t know how many carbs I should take in (am trying to eat 200g of whole protein a day) and once I stop seeing linear gains I’m really not sure how to implement 5/3/1. Will post some pictures shortly. Again any help/advice greatly appreciated.
The back, hope this all works.
Currently this is the program that I’m following:
Monday: Squat, Bench or Press, Weighted pull ups
Wednesday: Squat, Press or Bench, Deadlifts
Friday: Squat, Bench or Press, bodyweight rows
For Squat I warm up to a work set of 3 sets of 5 reps, increasing by 5 pounds each time currently at 190#
For Press or Bench (I alternate these so it depends on the day) I do the same thing, for bench am up to 140#, press is at 95#
For Weighted pull ups are I increase the weight by 5 pounds but decrease the reps by 2, so week one 1 I did 3 sets of 10 pull ups with five pounds, then on week two I did 3 sets of 8 pull ups with ten pounds, and week three I did 3 sets of 6 pull ups with fifteen pounds. Now that I’m down to six reps I’m resetting to 3 sets of ten with ten pounds, and keep going like that.
For Deadlifts I warm up to only 1 set of five reps, am currently at 200#. Have hurt myself a couple of times on this lift so am trying to be perfect with the straight back.
For bodyweight rows this is more of volume since I can’t increase weight. Week 1 I did a total of 30 reps (3 sets of 10) then did 42 (2 sets of 10, 2 sets of 8, and a set of six) then did 50 (2 sets of ten, 3 sets of 8, and a set of six reps)
…If there is anything I can improve upon please someone let me know. From what I understand once I hit a ceiling (can’t finish the workset) I reset back to like 80% of what I could do, then start over again. I’m not sure how many times I can keep doing that though, are there any guidelines for that?
You look really sad in your first picture. I’d work on that first. I used to look angry in all my pictures. I’ve improved that by 47 % over the last 8 1/2 months. And welcome 
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
You look really sad in your first picture. I’d work on that first. I used to look angry in all my pictures. I’ve improved that by 47 % over the last 8 1/2 months. And welcome :)[/quote]
Maybe he’s sad because of all girlie hair shaping crap on the counter…
So Dude, why aren’t you just doing 5/3/1 or SS to begin with? Did I miss that in your post?
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
You look really sad in your first picture. I’d work on that first. I used to look angry in all my pictures. I’ve improved that by 47 % over the last 8 1/2 months. And welcome :)[/quote]
Maybe he’s sad because of all girlie hair shaping crap on the counter…
So Dude, why aren’t you just doing 5/3/1 or SS to begin with? Did I miss that in your post?
[/quote]
He’s sad 'cause he lost 3 years of his life doing crossfit… 
OP, what were your previous PRs and where are they at now??
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
You look really sad in your first picture. I’d work on that first. I used to look angry in all my pictures. I’ve improved that by 47 % over the last 8 1/2 months. And welcome :)[/quote]
Maybe he’s sad because of all girlie hair shaping crap on the counter…
So Dude, why aren’t you just doing 5/3/1 or SS to begin with? Did I miss that in your post?
[/quote]
he did say he’s doing starting strength to begin with, and then potentially switching to 5 3 1 later. right above where he started talking about IF and diet stuff.
Meadow I actually am doing SS, about a month into it right now. …That’s actually the “guest” bathroom, which quickly became my wife’s styling center.
Iron Raven: Have absolutely no idea what my 1 rep maxes are right now, in figuring out what weight to start at I did 5 reps of increasing weight and when I struggled with a rep I lowered the weight by like 20%, I had a good friend help me out figure out where I should start. That said about a year ago my snatch PR was 75 KG and my C&J was 100kg, could clean 110Kg and front squat like 115KG. Overhead squat (did this for shits) was like 90 kg.
[quote]Iron Raven wrote:
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
You look really sad in your first picture. I’d work on that first. I used to look angry in all my pictures. I’ve improved that by 47 % over the last 8 1/2 months. And welcome :)[/quote]
Maybe he’s sad because of all girlie hair shaping crap on the counter…
So Dude, why aren’t you just doing 5/3/1 or SS to begin with? Did I miss that in your post?
[/quote]
He’s sad 'cause he lost 3 years of his life doing crossfit…
OP, what were your previous PRs and where are they at now??
[/quote]
Yeah I’m not really gonna hate on the first two years of crossfit because I learned so much about diet, power lifting, Oly lifting, and most importantly for my own situation mobility. The last year was kind of a waste though, but the gym had an Oly lift program so I switched to that and really, really enjoyed it.
For anyone who cares here’s the lift where I really injured my hip as well as broke my PR by like 6 KG:
Sorry, missed the SS part. Was thinking about CF.
Is there a video not showing?
[quote]strangemeadow wrote:
Sorry, missed the SS part. Was thinking about CF.
Is there a video not showing?[/quote]
I can see the video, although the format made the video go sideways from portrait to landscape. Sry I new to this internetz 
Just in case, here are all of my attempts at the meet (sure hope this works):
I know my snatch form is busted, really goes downhill above 70kg.
My best front squat is 275 lbs… I can’t even overhead squat an empty bar without falling over. That shit makes me crazy.
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
My best front squat is 275 lbs… I can’t even overhead squat an empty bar without falling over. That shit makes me crazy.[/quote]
I love front squat and overhead squat because with my mobility I can put up way higher numbers than dudes who are stronger than me. It helps that I don’t have all that muscle getting in the way of my flexibility
My shoulder flexibility is the limiting factor on overhead squats. I can’t get the feel of how it’s supposed to work. Granted, I haven’t tried it much. I at least use a clean grip on the front squats
Had a good day at the gym, nothing super special going on, still making linear gains:
Squat: (195 x 5) x 3
Bench: (145 x 5) x 3
Deadlift: 205 x 5
Was humbled a bit today as I was surrounded by guys benching much, much more than me, but whatev gotta start somewhere.
Felt like I really figured out how to engage my abs the whole time when I deadlift. Have the tendency to relax the abs and let the back/hips do the work. That didn’t happen today, think it happened because I adjusted my starting position, raised the hips a little more. For the next 10-20 min, engaging my abs as I walked to the car felt like a lot more work. Pretty happy with this, as I’ve hurt my lower back a couple times on the deadlift. Was really looking forward to the PWO meal. I know people on SS tend to stall out first because they’re not eating enough. With the IF I’m trying to take in like 70% of my calories right after I lift. It’s actually kind of fun.
Here’s what I had for breakfast after working out fasted (minus 9g of branch chain amino acids before lifting)
pre-gamed with some kambucha
1# of liver with some onions
1/4 gluten free pie
bowel of cereal
It was delicious. Generally I keep paleo but was convinced to buy the pie (I cave pretty easily) also trying out cereal as a new source of carbs, not sure if this will be something I’ll do again. I still prefer sweet potatoes to cereal.
Lucky Charms are paleo. Also fried chicken. #indisputablefacts
[quote]flipcollar wrote:
Lucky Charms are paleo. Also fried chicken. #indisputablefacts[/quote]
QFT!
Sadly, that pwo meal was really about the only thing I had yesterday, stomach was feeling all kinds of upset with me. I think it was more the cereal than anything else, so won’t buy another box and try this again to see what happens. Kind of bummed because I only got in about 150g of protein, but I have a nice pwo meal planned for tomorrow’s workout.
Abs are quite sore, and my hammies are feeling a bit of it as well. This is the first time I’ve felt anything after a workout, so looks like the weight I’m pushing is starting to be a bit of a challenge.
…Am driving up to NY this weekend for a friends wedding, will be gone from Friday night to like Tuesday Morning. So far I haven’t figured out how I can get a workout in on Monday, and it’s really driving me nuts. I haven’t missed a workout in over two months, and just now I’m thinking I’m getting somewhere.
If I don’t make the workout, what should I do? I’m thinking I’ll do the workouts on Tuesday, Thursday, and then Saturday and return to my MWF routine the next week.
Am excited for the meal I have planned to break my fast today, Berkhan recommends your first meal on non-workout days be huge, so I’m thinking a tuna steak with some eggs or some grass-fed hamburgers. Maybe some chicken.
