Hi I’m Matt and I have lifting A.D.D and after doing Rippetoe’s Starting Strength for a while I needed to make a change. Sounds lame but I was just bored doing the same routine over and over again. I’ve had Mike Mejia’s/John Berardi’s “Scrawny to Brawny” book for a while, and even purchased the extra programs that accompany the book. Anyway I figured I couldn’t really go wrong with that.
So here goes. . .
Initial Weigh-in:
164.4 lbs
17.5% BF (from a scale, I know its not accurate but it’ll have to work for now. I’m contemplating purchasing calipers)
Here was today’s session.
Phase II-Workout A-1
Front Squat
105x5/5/5/5/5
Incline Bench
95x5/5 105x5/5/5
Bulgarian Split Squat
20(each) x8/6
One Arm Row (elbow out)
20x8/8
Comments:
Pretty good, I haven’t done Front Squats or Incline in a very long time, so this was more of a “refresher” day to groove the movement.
Unilateral work always kicks my ass!
Ironically the diet plan that goes along with the book, and extra phases are anything but low-carb. JB who is known for his P+C and P+F meals really opened up my eyes with some of the meal combinations. But hey he is the expert, and this shows that carbs are indeed need for growth.
Supplement plan will be simple: Surge, Metabolic Drive, Fish Oil/Flameout, Superfood, Creatine. All food supps.
The prescribed form was with my elbow out, which was different than what I’ve done before. Like I said my I’ll be upping my weight in every exercise that I did today.
I don’t think my supp. bill is that bad at all. . . Its not like I’m living off supplements, I am eating real food.
Very pleased with this. Intensity and focus where there in bounds today. To keep it short and sweet, everything felt right and I’ll increase across the board come next Friday.
Sucks that my front squat and incline are the same. But the front squats were hard. Not sure what that means, besides that I’m weak!
Assistance work was good. Bulgarian split squats are challenging just to keep your balance. The rows felt good. I’m expecting another bout of DOMS tomorrow.
didn’t nail all 25 reps on my chins but I’m still getting stronger because I’ve already gained a few pounds. I should have it by next week because I was half way up on my final rep.
HCP’s absolutely get my heart pounding, not to mention they smoke my grip too. Pleased I nailed all the reps.
Assistance work was good, will increase on those next time.
Speaking of my weight gain. . . I stepped on the scale yesterday and it said 170. I wonder if this is an intial weight gain burst, or if I need to turn down the calories ever so slightly. Or maybe some high intensity cardio? I’d really like to not go any higher on the body-fat percentage because even though I’m a twig its somewhat high. Okay I’m rambling again. . . .
Thanks to anybody that drops in and checks out my updates!
I’m getting into this BIG TIME! It just goes to show that I’ve been severely under-eating, even while doing Rippetoe. I’ve pretty much followed the diet from the book, and my energy levels have been through the roof.
I’m anxious to see what I’ll weigh in at on Monday. I will then continue this every two week weigh-in schedule, and assess my progress from there.
So far so good, but I realize I’ve got a long way to go.
Matt, it’s been awhile and I was wondering where you were, but then I stumbled across this post. I’m glad to see you’re doing s2b. I also have the book, but didn’t start the program yet. Good luck and let me know how it goes!!
As for me, I’m still training, but as of late I’ve been mainly focusing on my wife as our baby is due any day now. For the first couple weeks, I’m going to stick with bodyweight exercises, but after that, I want to get back to a serious program. I’m thinking of going for Rippetoe one more time to really increase my main lifts, and then I was also thinking of starting the s2b program.
I was wondering, did you do the first 4 weeks of the program where you simply do corrective exercises to improve your mobility and weaknesses?
One last thing, I also purchased Berardi’s Precision Nutrition system which comes with a cookbook as well. I HIGHLY recommend it! It is filled with great advice and delicious recipes!!!
Hey Tonino! It has been a while, and I remembered that you were approaching a busy time period for ya with a little one on the way.
I’ve held off on buying PN simply because I’ve got S2B, and a copy of the Gourmet Nutrition cookbook. My question is how much above and beyond am I missing out on by not having the complete kit?
Also to answer your question I did not do the “corrective” phase from the book. I’ve been doing drills from Magnificent Mobility for some time now, and feel that I’m in pretty good working order. If you’ve been doing the same you could maybe get by by doing just a week or two to be honest with ya.
I’ll just keep it short and sweet. . . this was good!
Weighed in at 167 this morning, so up 3 lbs in two weeks. . sounds about right to me. Although I do need to adhere to my diet a little better (i.e. getting calories), at least for the last couple days.
[quote]slimsaw00 wrote:
I’ve held off on buying PN simply because I’ve got S2B, and a copy of the Gourmet Nutrition cookbook. My question is how much above and beyond am I missing out on by not having the complete kit?
-Matt[/quote]
As long as you have Gourmet Nutrition, you should be good for now. PN basically lays out the fundamentals, many of which I’m sure you’ve seen already.
It comes with a nice Individualization guide and Measurement guide, helping you to tweak a program and measure progress. But again, my favorite part was Gourmet Nutrition and you have that already!!
Slight hiccup in my schedule, and didn’t make it Wednesday. That will not be the norm.
Workout was good.
I’ve had a problem with my appetite the last few days and I can’t figure it out. When I started following the diet laid out in the book, I was full but I could put down the food. Now I’m just struggling to eat. I haven’t been waking up that hungry, I have trouble putting down my Surge, it just doesn’t make sense?
Anybody who reads this have any thoughts/suggestions? I know that eating is the key to making gains. Thanks in advance.
just an update, I finished phase II last week. . . it was just too nice to sit at the computer last week; and was busy with work and family stuff due to the 4th.
Anyway started Phase III today. Weighed in this morning at 171 lbs, nice!
1st time ever doing wave loading, it was pretty cool. Bench was a PR, and next time I do deads it will be a PR as well. Its a shame this phase is only 4 weeks as I really like lifting at low reps. Oh well, I guess I’ll just BUST ASS! to reap as much benefit as I can from it.
Weight is up, and I’ve begun to do some HIIT and extra mobility work on off days.