Chancenstuff's Beginners Log

Training Training Logs
1

Hi All,

I have been training a few months, but with machines not freeweights, on a rotation method hitting each bodypart once a week.

I have decided to start off a new regime, based on the starting strength novice programe (no squat rack at my gym, so i will be doing front squats as they will be easier to dump if it goes wrong), which hopefully might bring better gains with me being a novice. Cos my previous training was machine based i am going to have to start pretty light as I don’t think my core and stabilizer muscles are very strong.

As its based on starting strength the no. sets & reps stay the same, whereas the amount of weight increases Every workout.

Prog will be as follows:

Monday
3 x 5 Front Squat
3 x 5 Bench/standing Press (alternate)
3 x 5 Weighted Chin-Ups
1 x 8-16 Weighted Dips / DB Upright Rows (alternate)
3 sets of ab work & reverse hypers

Wednesday
3 x 5 Front Squats
3 x 5 Bench/standing Press (alternate)
1 x 5 Deadlifts
1 x 8-16 Weighted Dips / DB Upright Rows (alternate)
1 x 6-12 Leg Curls (thrown in as Front Squats are so quad dominant, bit more ham work)
3 sets of ab work & reverse Hypers

Friday
3 x 5 Front Squats
3 x 5 Bench/Standing press (alternate)
3 x 5 Weighted Pull-Ups
1 x 8-16 Weighted Dips / DB Upright Rows
3 sets of ab work & reverse Hypers

Its important to not start heavy with the starting strength method anyway, as you add weight every workout. But as stated i am pretty cautious cos i think my core and stabilizers are weak, in particular i have never really squatted or deadlifted before.

so here is weight for 1st workout today (monday)

Fronts Squats 40kg x 3 x 5
Bench Press 35kg x 3 x 5
Chin-ups BW +3.75kg x 3 x 5
Dips BW + 1.25 kg x 8
abs & Reverse hypers

I am hoping this log will help to motivate me - if anyone reads it then i hope its not too boring for you!

Just to add - I am a 5’10" male, approx 175lb, mid thirties. Always been a slim build, even when i have trained in the past, but with a lot of eating i have managed to add 15lbs over the last few months or so.

2

Todays workout:

Front Squat 45kg x 3 x 5
Standing Press 10kg x 3 x 5
Deadlifts 50kg x 1 x 5
DB Upright Rows 10kg x 10
Leg Curls 10 reps
3 sets of ab work & reverse hypers

3

Fridays workout

Front Squat 50kg x 3 x 5
Bench Press 40kg x 3 x 5
Pull-ups BW x 8
Dips BW +1.25kg x 10
3 sets of ab work & reverse hypers

Had a real shock today with only being able to do 8 pull-ups at body weight. The rules of the programme are you have to be able to do more than 15 bodyweight pull-ups in a set before you advance on to weighted pull-ups in 3 sets of 5 like the other exercises.

I have only done chin-ups really over the last few months (can definitely do 16 of those in a single set) and hadn’t realised how much harder pull-ups would be. Also i have put on a stone (14 pounds) in weight over the last few months which i hadn’t taken into account. Also the bar was angled downwards at the side were i was gripping it - maybe this is harder than a straight bar? May well take me quite a while to double up to 16 pull ups.

Following the first week of this prog i have decided to make an alteration, i will be doing leg curls on the Monday and Friday, but not on the Wednesday. I think i need to even up the quad dominant front squats those days, but wednesday is probs ok cos i do the deadlifts. Might throw in a set or two of calf raises instead on Wednesday.

4

Fridays workout

Front Squat 50kg x 3 x 5
Bench Press 40kg x 3 x 5
Pull-ups BW x 8
Dips BW +1.25kg x 10
3 sets of ab work & reverse hypers

Had a real shock today with only being able to do 8 pull-ups at body weight. The rules of the programme are you have to be able to do more than 15 bodyweight pull-ups in a set before you advance on to weighted pull-ups in 3 sets of 5 like the other exercises.

I have only done chin-ups really over the last few months (can definitely do 16 of those in a single set) and hadn’t realised how much harder pull-ups would be. Also i have put on a stone (14 pounds) in weight over the last few months which i hadn’t taken into account. Also the bar was angled downwards at the side were i was gripping it - maybe this is harder than a straight bar? May well take me quite a while to double up to 16 pull ups.

Following the first week of this prog i have decided to make an alteration, i will be doing leg curls on the Monday and Friday, but not on the Wednesday. I think i need to even up the quad dominant front squats those days, but wednesday is probs ok cos i do the deadlifts. Might throw in a set or two of calf raises instead on Wednesday.

5

Todays workout:
Front Squat 55kg x 3 x 5
DB Standing press 12kg x 3 x 5
chin-ups BW+5kg x 3 x 5
Leg Curls ‘70’ x 1 x 11
Upright Rows 10kg x 1 x 12
3 sets of ab work & reverse hypers

I also did a set of Dips at BW+1.25kg for 11 reps before i did the Upright Rows - i forgot i wasn’t doing Dips this workout! Doh. They are only done on workout days that include bench press, i do upright rows on Standing Press days. Nevermind.

Front squats were getting hard today. I am resting 3 minutes between sets of front squats, don’t really want to increase that, but as i don’t have any safety bars i really don’t wanna fail in the middle of a squat, anyway hopefully it won’t be an issue for a few more workouts yet.

6

Todays workout:

Front Squat 60kg x 3 x 5
Bench Press 45kg X 3 x 5
Deadlifts 60kg x 1 x 5
Dips BW + 1.25kg x 11
3 sets of ab work and reverse Hypers

With only doing a deadlift once a week it is going to fall behind my front squat pretty rapidly, even if i increment it by 10kg each week. Assuming my Front Squat keep on going up anyway.

7

OK, so had real problems last week.

First of all last Fridays (29th October) workout:

Front Squat 65kg x 3 x 5
Standing Press 25kg x 3 x 5 (i have realised that i will have to use barbell to ensure smooth progression, using dumbells the jumps are going to be too big)
Pull-ups BW x 8, BW x 6, BW x 4

Leg Curls 70 x 11
DB Upright Rows 12kg x 8
no time for ab work or reverse hypers.

As was going away on a brief holiday my eating and resting were for shit that weekend.

The following week, due to extreme work pressures, no workout on Monday. On wednesay, due to work again, i was in a hotel so used the machines as best as i could for some benefit. Tried to concentrate on Chest press, overhead press, Lat Pulldown etc machines that as least had some carryover to waht i’m doing. Again due to work Fridays workout was missed too.

Hopefully the work situation will improve next week and i can get back on my program. However, due to a whole week already being wasted i am intending to back off a bit on the weight for front squat, will probably do 55kg or 60kg. possibly the same with the others.

Also, after reaading Rippetoe’s articles on here today i may add curls and possibly a tricep exercise, at least to Fridays workout anyway.

8

Todays workout:

Front Squats 55kg x 3 x 5 (glad dropped to 55k as these were still quite tough)
Bench press 45kg x 3 x 5
Chin ups BW + 3.75kg x 3 x 5
leg curls 70 x 11
Dips BW x 12
3 sets of ab work

need to get eating big again as think i may have lost some weight even with just 1 week off from training and eating properly

9

Todays workout:

Standing Press Bar 30kg x 3 x 5
Front Squat 60kg x 3 x 5
Deadlift 60kg x 1 x 5

Db Upright Rows 12kg x 8
3 sets of ab work

Late out from work today cos so busy and that meant i couldn’t get on the 1 and only olympic barbell at the gym, so did standing press until it became available. I have been lucky that this hasn’t really happened so far till now.
Having such a crappy gym is gonna be a real problem soon, only having 1 olympic bar and not having a squat rack when i get up to weights were i might fail etc

I used the weight i had done previously with the deadlift cos that was 2 weeks ago that i did it last seeing as i missed a whole week of working out. To be honest though it was fine and i could have done more really.
Forgot to do calf raises as further assistance work

10

Fridays workout:
Front Squat 62.5kg x 3 x 5
Bench Press 50kg x 3 x 5
pull-ups BW x 10; BW x 7; BW x 6

Leg Curls 70 x 11
Dips BW x 13
3 sets of ab work

I also practised with EZ bar curls and tricep extension bar, so that i can add it to my Friday workouts from now on. Wanted to gauge what weight i should be starting with.

11

Mondays workout

Front Squat 65kg x 3 x 5
standing press 32.5kg x 3 x 5
chin-ups BW +5kg x 3 x 5

Leg Curls 70 x 12
Dips BW + 1.25kg x 11
3 sets of ab work, 1 set reverse hypers
(Oops, forgot I do upright DB rows on days i do standing press, not Dips, have to try and remember next time)

12

Wednesday workout

Front Squat 67.5kg x 3 x 5
Bench 52.5kg x 3 x 5
deadlift 70kg x 1 x 5

Dips BW + 1.25kg x 11
Calf Raises 95 x 10 (remembered them this time)
3 sets of ab work, 2 sets reverse hypers

Will probably fall back again from the above weights cos i will miss friday and monday workouts due to going on a stag weekend abroad.