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Training Training Logs
1

Hey T-Nation whats going on. Newer poster here gettin more serious about gettin more jacked.

2011 Fall - Now Starting Strength Log

Background: I’ve done SS before. Haven’t really consistently worked out since last fall (2010), and I’m sure I lost a lot of strength since then until the beginning of this fall. PRs from then: (in 3x5) S 240, B 185 (with A LOT of spotter help), D 315, P 130.

General diet info:
-Up until 12/19: GOMAD and as much as I could eat.
-As of 12/19, started cutting. Dropped all carbs except for some PWO honey. Drink milk only post-HIIT. Eat mostly: Eggs, tuna/any meat, almonds/nuts, cheese. Use multivitamin and 3g fish oil.

Diet is certainly something I gotta pay more attention to. Need to find a better system to track my diet, and more easily buy/prepare healthy meals.

Weight change (bf % are done with a one-site caliper so they’re pretty inaccurate. Also, my scale is shitty lol):

9/1/11 200 @ 15%
12/19/11 230 @ 20-22% (Started cut here)
1/2/12 220 % 18-20%

Assistance:

-Did varying bench asst. work through all this (CGBP, pause CGBP, floor press, pause floor press, dips). This was huge for me. I know Rippetoe doesn’t want you to do much assistance work, but this is exactly what I needed. Last time I did SS I didn’t get far with bench, and I believe this helped me a lot.
-Pullups - did the twentypullups.com workout until 10/19 when I got to 20. Admittedly they weren’t the strictest of pullups at the end, but I still feel good about it.
-Abs (Sit-ups, bicycles, spread eagle sit-ups to work hip-flexors - I hear is great for sprint speed)

Here’s the order in which I do exercises:

Workout A

  1. Bench
  2. Squat
  3. Dead

Workout B

  1. Press
  2. Squat
  3. Row

=Prioritizing upper body over lower, not what Rippetoe says to do. He can kiss my ass.

Key:
HS = Hack Squat
S = Squat
FS = Front Squat
B = Bench
P = Press (these are seated, as I don’t have room do overhead in my basement.)
D = Deadlift
R = Row

‘A’ before date indicates Workout A, ‘B’ before date indicates Workout B, in case that’s not obvious.
First two workouts are a little weird (Hacksquat - didn’t build my squat rack yet. 65 lb. power clean - don’t remember why the fuck I did this).

All 3x5 unless otherwise noted with reduced reps in parenthesis.
‘Rules’:
-3x5 Complete, then add 5 lbs.
-12/15 reps complete, then add 2.5 (technically I had two 1.6 lb clamps I added to each side, so my micro-weight sum was about 3 lbs rather than 2.5)
-11 or less/15 reps, then stay same weight.

September 2011:
A 9/2/11: HS 185 / B 135 / D 185
B 9/5/11: S 145 / P 65 / PC 65
A 9/8/11: S 150 / B 140 / D 195
B 9/10/11: S 155 / P 75 / R 95
A 9/12/11: S 160 / B 145 / D 205
B 9/14/11: S 165 / P 85 / R 100
A 9/16/11: S 170 / B 150 / D 215
B 9/18/11: S 175 / P 95 / R 100
A 9/20/11: S 180 / B 155 / D 225
B 9/22/11: S 185 / P 100 / R 105
A 9/24/11: S 190 / B 160 / D 235
B 9/26/11: S 195 / P 105 / R 110
A 9/28/11: S 200 / B 165 / D 245

October 2011:
B 10/2/11: S 205 / P 110 / R 115
A 10/4/11: S 210 / B 170 / D 255
B 10/6/11: S 215 / P 115 / R 120
A 10/9/11: S 220 / B 175 / D 265
B 10/11/11: S 225 (Back in business!) / P 120 / R 125
A 10/13/11: S 230 / B 180 / D 275
B 10/15/11: S 235 / P 125 / R 130
A 10/17/11: S 240 / B 185 / D 285
B 10/19/11: S 245 / P 130 / R 135 (20 Pullups first time!)
A 10/21/11: S 250 / B 190 / D 295

November 2011

Goals for 2011 determined here:
225 FS for 5 reps - Made this one!
225 B for 5 reps - little too optimistic here
375 D for 5 reps - I wanted to make 3 plates and 2 25s my goal, which I thought was 375 - its actually 365. I made to 375 anyways no biggie
155 P for 3x5 - didn’t quite make it but was very close
160 R for 3x5 - did this easily, perhaps I set the bar a little low on this one lol

(Note switch to front squats here):
A 11/3/11: FS 135 / B 195 (5-5-4) / D 305
B 11/7/11: FS 140 / P 135! (PR here - first time doing the 3x5 with 45s) / R 135
A 11/9/11: FS 145 / B 198 (5-4-3) / D 315 (BAM BITCHES)
B 11/11/11: FS 150 / P 140 / R 145
A 11/15/11: FS 155 / B 200! (Did a full 3x5 w/ 200 after nearly failing 198. THE UNDERDOG IS VICTORIOUS)/ D 325
B 11/17/11: FS 160 / P 145 / R 150
A 11/19/11: FS 165 / B 205 (5-5-3) / D 335
B 11/21/11: FS 170 / P 150 (5-4-4) / R 155
A 11/23/11: FS 175 / B 208 (5-5-4) / D 345
B 11/25/11: FS 180 / P 153 (3-3-4) / R 160
A 11/28/11: FS 185 / B 210 (5-4-3) / D 355
B 11/30/11: FS 190 (5-5-4) / P 153 (3-4-3) / R 165

December 2011
A 12/2/11: FS 195 (5-5-4) / B 213 (4-3-0) (Depressing) / D 355 (Mistake here - just stupidly forgot to put on more weight)
B 12/5/11: FS 198 / P 153 (5-5-4) / R 170
A 12/7/11: FS 203 / B 213 (5-4-4) / D 365
B 12/9/11: FS 208 / P 155 (5-5-3) / R 175
A 12/12/11: FS 213 / B 215 (5-5-4) / D 375 (WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO)
B 12/14/11: FS 218 / P 155 (5-5-4) / R 180
A 12/16/11: FS 223 (4-4-4) / B 218 (5-3-2) / D 335

BEGIN CUT DIET (Reasoning: I’m at about 20-22% bf and kinda sick of it. I know I’ll prob catch some criticism for this. I’m trying to get down to 12-15% and do a cleaner bulk from there on.)

B 12/19/11: FS 225 (3-3-1) / P 155 (5-5-4) / R 185
A 12/21/11: FS 223 (4-2-0) / B 218 (4-1-0) / D 340
B 12/24/11: FS 225 (5-2-2) (Finally pulled off the 1x5. Quads are getting JACKED) / P 155 (5-5-4) (Failed this AGAIN. I know three of these in a row makes it look like a mental block, but I don’t think it was - I was trying hard for these the whole time.) / R 165 (Row form was getting shitty, so I figured I’d drop down)

A 12/27/11: FS 185 / B 195 (5-4-3) / D 345
B 12/30/11: FS 190/ P 140 / R 170
A 1/2/12: FS 195 / B 185 (Resetting to a place where I can actually do the fucking workout.) / D 350

This obvious strength drop at the end is worrying, I may be doing sthg wrong with this cut, but I’m not sure what it is.

I realize my accomplishments so far aren’t overwhelming within context the T-Nation forums, but I invite you to enjoy them with me and share the emotion insofar as they are my PRs and personal victories.

FUTYAH PLANZ:
-Keep cutting on down to 12-15% (I’m at 18-20 right now.), keep doin SS
-Then, turn the milk and the carbs back on and do another cycle of SS, hopefully get up to sthg like 250x3x5 FS, 225x3x5 B, and 405x1x5 D
-Try 5/3/1

2

Before doing any weight training aside from calisthenics

6’4
165 lbs.
Age 18 I think

3


Legs - taken 1/3

220lbs

4

Double Bi
(Don’t really know shit about proper poses and stuff)

5

Armpits. Smell my old spice

6

Damn look at that bicep vein

7


Press
3x5 145 lbs.
Final reps in last set were slow

Rows
3x5 175 lbs.
Shitty form.

Front Squats
200 lbs 5-3

Knocked it way down to 135 and did 10 reps. I hindsight I probably should have stayed at 200 lbs and tried to get more reps there - this was sorta dumb.

In sum: not a great day. This cut is attacking my BF but also my strength.
I plan to keep it going another week or two, but after that, carbs, milk and calories baby.

8

HIIT today:

-[1 minute burpess + 1 minute jump rope as “rest”] x 2

-30 sec rest

-[1 minute burpess + 1 minute jump rope as “rest”] x 2

Short but got me sweating buckets by the end. I have to find some different HIIT exercises to do. With front squats or burpees my quads are always shot (embarassingly) way before my cardiovascular system is.

9

“A” Workout today

Bench
190x3x5

Front Squat
3x5x200 - Come back! Don’t think I was in the right frame of mind on Weds. After completing 3 reps in the second set on Weds, I remember thinking I was gonna fail . . . and I did. Napoleon Hill at work.

Deadlift
1x5x355 - These were brutal. Barely made the last couple of reps.

Assistance Work:
Floor press
3x5x175

Pullups
(5-5-7)x(BW+15)

Made up this Curry Tuna Salad recipe for dinner:
2 cans (I think 6 oz each) Tuna, drained and flaked
8 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 cup diced onions
1/3 cup chopped celery
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon curry
Salt and pepper to taste

So damn good, and also really healthy. I would eat this every day if it weren’t for the mercury.

10

More HIIT today. 16 minutes total, done with a hodgepodge of exercises, a few of which were pulled from the Vertical Jump Bible reactive strength workouts. I’m trying to kill do birds with one stone by doing HIIT and VJB stuff at the same time.

Workout was continuous apart from ~5 sec breaks moving between exercises:

[Low squat ankle jumps, Broad jumps] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Broad jumps, Donkey Jumps] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Broad jumps, Donkey Jumps] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Broad jumps, Donkey Jumps] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Broad jumps, Donkey Jumps] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Burpees] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Burpees] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

[Burpees] - 1 minute
[Jump rope] - 1 minute

Felt like death near the end when my vision going red and I was super lightheaded. Mission accomplished.

Plan for next HIIT: Do 2 minutes of exercises that recruit larger muscle mass with greater intensity, then 1 minute jump rope as “rest”.
I want to stress my cardiovascular system and reach a higher heart rate more quickly. I’m gonna make it more like circuit training and less just calisthenics.

11

-“B” Workout.
-Started doing Martin Berkhan’s 16/8 Intermittent Fasting http://www.leangains.com/

4:30 Meal of 6 oz cheese, 1 serving yogurt, 1 scoop (24g) whey

5:30 Workout
Press 148lbs 5-5-3

Front Squat
205 lbs x 3 reps => The dieting in general is definitely slowing down the lifting.
185x2x5reps

Rows
180x3x5
Form getting shitty as this gets heavier

6:50 Post workout
-Tablespoon of honey
-50g whey

7:00 Meal
8 oz Ham
Salad
1 Litre milk
50g whey

Abs: 1 set of 8-10 heavy reps, one after each set of a compound exercise. Total 9 sets.

As inspired by this article: Abs on Trial

My diet for the last couple of weeks may seem capricious (and my training consequently weak), however, there is a method to my madness, or at least the very least some quantity of thought and purpose-driven action lol.

Plan to do IF for another couple of weeks. Then, reset all lifts on SS and do a quality clean bulk.

12

BACK IN THE GAME.

. . . and feeling pretty weak.

Weds 2/1
FS 155x3x5
B 155x3x5
D 225x1x5

Mon 2/6
FS 160x3x5
P 95x3x5
R 115x3x5

Mon 2/8
FS 165x3x5
B 165x3x5
D 245x1x5

Some lessons learned from my recent unfortunate cut:
-When cutting, do it very slowly, much slower than you want to.
-When bulking, don’t let yourself get fat, don’t go over 15% bf. Do HIIT, eat right.

-Cut sugar out of diet. I was eating way too many simple carbs last fall. Avoid: ice cream, cake, crackers (even if they are good with cheese), juice, white pasta, pancakes/waffles, shitty cereal, poptarts.

-Foods I plan to devour (Three qualities: 1. high protein 2. cheap 3. minimum preparation):
-Eggs
-Cheese
-Milk
-Walnuts/Almonds
-PB
-Ground beef/turkey
-Chicken
-Tuna

Goals: get strength maxes back by end of March with SS, switch to 5/3/1

13

‘Mon 2/8’ was supposed to be ‘Wed 2/8’

Sat 2/11
FS 170x3x5
P 105x3x5
R 125x3x5

Mon 2/13
FS 175x3x5
B 170x3x5
D 265x1x5

Not eating enough right now. Gonna make it more convenient to get the calories in. Currently keep a jar of PB in my room. Maybe I’ll move a mini-fridge in here too. Plan to take something with me (half gal milk/block of cheese/almonds)

Also, planning to add beans as a diet staple. Another cheap and tasty source of protein.

14

Weds 2/15 - B Workout
FS 180x3x5
P 110x3x5
R 130x3x5

Doing floor press as assistance on B workouts (days when not doing bench 3x5).

Have started keeping a bowl of almonds in my room, and bringing a jug of milk with me to finish while I’m on the computer or reading. Good strategy for getting the calories in - facilitate the environment of a fatty by always having food around.

Despite weight and strength loss in my recent cut, I don’t look like I’ve lost that much muscle. Maybe it’s just psychological, but it looks like I lost mostly just fat from the cut.

Really excited lifting these next few months. Within my sights are two major goals: (1) definitively crossing the 225 FS for reps barrier, and (2) benching 225 for the first time. Also, I look better than I ever have, and there is only room to grow from here. Pumped. WOOOOOOOOOOOOO

15

Fri 2/17 - A Workout
FS 180x3x5 (Accidentally redid 180. stupid)
B 175x3x5
D 275x3x5

16

Weds 2/15 - B Workout
FS 185x3x5
P 115x3x5
R 135x3x5

Assistance (i do assistance on every workout day, but usually don’t write about it on my posts):
-9 sets x 10 reps assorted ab exercises
-135x3x5 Pause Floor Press
-65x1x15 Barbell Curls