Sab's OLAD Log

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

One Lift a Day program by Dan John
http://www.T-Nation.com/findArticle.do?article=04-034-training

The author says “You probably won’t even complete the whole month.” I like that. I will go a month or die trying.

Some of these exercises I’ve never even tried. I had to look up Military Press. I found an old textbook called Weight Training by Philip Rasch that shows me proper form, plus of course I read T-Nation at least an hour a day.

This is my first real training program. Right now, I’m just concentrating on surviving the first month. If I can do that, I stand a chance of actually growing.

Mon: Rows/Cleans? What am I missing?
Tue: Bench Press
Wed: Squats
Thu: Off
Fri: Military Press
Sat: Deadlift
Sun: Off

Started Tuesday.

Tue: Bench Press

120x5
140x5
140x5
160x5
140x5
120x5
90x5

10 quick pushups to exhaust. Those hurt, bad. I have decided to stick with explosive exhausting exercises, I have not felt such pain before but it is a good pain.

Wed: Squat

90x5
120x5
140x5
160x5
140x5
120x5
90x5

10 jumps to exhaust. This really burns the muscles when you jump after so many squats. I could hardly walk. Awesome.

Thu: Off

Fri: Military Press

~20 reps with empty bar to learn form.
90x5
90x5
120x5
120x5
120x5 (my wrists failed and I had to lower the weight)
90x5
90x5

10 dumbell press 30 lbs to exhaust. my wrists were just crippled after the barbell work, it was not good pain. I might need to get wrist wraps or find a different exercise that works the same muscle groups. any suggestions?)

Don’t let me quit. I need to do a month of this. I know the numbers suck. I know. That’s why I’m lifting, dammit.

I learned how to eat, I bought weights. I’ve got my fish oil, got my Surge, got a kitchen full of food and a dark, quiet bedroom. Now it’s time to gain. Be hard on me, I know you bastards know how to do that. Just don’t let me quit.

Oh, and let me be the first to laugh at the “Haha my grandma could go one month pressing 90 lbs, loser.” Thanks for the motivation, you just gave me another reason to improve: to shut you the hell up.

-Sab

2

Great nice choice of program simple and effective Ill be interested to see how you do.

3

I used to get a pain in my wrist when doing military presses. I don’t remember exactly what fixed it, but it had something to do with the way I was holding the bar.

Work on driving your squat numbers up. You should be able to squat significantly more than you bench.

4

Maybe do dumbbell snatches instead of cleans? It’s a pretty easy lift to learn and it’s very explosive and athletic. There are a few videos (I think Charles Staley has an article with dumbbell snatch videos in it) floating around.

It’s sort of like the front squat-- you can’t really do a dumbbell snatch wrong, because if you screw it up you won’t get the weight overhead, provided you’re using a challenging weight. It’d make a hell of an OLAD workout, I think.

5

Sat: Deadlift

120x5
140x5
160x5
180x5
140x5
170x5
190x5 (PR, yay)

I like the wave style better. I’m way more tired and I feel like I accomplished a lot more.

I went with sumo style to get more leg work, since my squats suck. I realized why: I have to clean the weight to my shoulders when i squat. So my max squat will be ultimately limited by my max clean.

I’ll look into building some sort of strong-ass squat rack to hold the weights. What height should it be, shoulder height or all-the-way-down height?

-Sab

6

Hi,

I believe one of the most important things in OLAD is a proper weight choice.

Your Tuesday’s choice :

Tue: Bench Press

120x5
140x5
140x5
160x5
140x5
120x5
90x5

is not the best one - you should start lighter, gradually build up to reach first peak in set 4, then do 2 easier sets and try to maximize wight again in set 7.

If 160 would be my 5 RM max I would do as follows (after warm up):

110x5
130x5
150x5
160x5
135x5
145x5
either 155x5, 160x5 or 165x5 (new PR) depending how you feel

If you haven’t done that already, visit this thread :

http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=721887

It is loaded with good info from good people :wink:
Good luck with your OLAD.

7

Monday: Bent Rows

120x5
140x6
140x5
150x5
120x5
150x5
160x5

These are a bitch. It’s like an upside-down bench press. Do they work the same muscle groups as the bench press? If so, I don’t want to waste my time doing two of the same upper body sets back to back in the week.

Ok, that was the end of the 7x5 week. ( I started on a Tuesday)

This week’s set: 6x3

Tuesday: Bench Press

120x3
160x3
180x3 (old 3 rep max)
180x3
180x3
190x3 (PR)

10 fast, clean pushups to exhaust.

Hell yes.

P.S. Raspberry Surge tastes…hmm.

-Sab

8

Wed: Squat

120x3
140x3
160x3
180x3
160x3
200x3 (PR)

10 jumps to exhaust

A girl I used to date called me before my set to tell me she just squatted 170…so now I have motivation. I built a rack, so I don’t need to clean the weight anymore. But these numbers have got to go higher, before I’m outlifted by a size 0 with big tits.

-Sab

9

Friday: Military Press

90x3
110x3
130x3
140x3 (PR)
150 (failed)
140x3
120x3

I had more in the tank, so what the hell.

120x3
90x3
60x2
60x2 (true failure)

That was fun.

-Sab

10

Saturday: deadlift

90x3
120x3
140x3
160x3
180x3
200x3

Monday: bent rows

90x3
115x3
130x3
140x3
150x3
160x3

Tuesday starts a new set, 5-3-2

Tuesday: bench press

140x5
180x3
200x2

-Sab

11

Well, crap. What happens when you get sick? I’ve had the flu since Wednesday, and it’s more or less taken its toll. I lost 9 pounds in 6 days. I’m back now, achy and shitty, but at least I’m eating real foods again.

So, what to do? Go back to where I left off? Start the program over again? I feel like an asshole for failing my month.

I searched, and found alot of articles about being sick, but they all said “fight through it”. None of them told me what to do when you just can’t train.

I’d like to start lifting heavy again. Help me out, tell me where to jump back in. Something in my heart tells me if I jump straight into week one, I will just end up sicker. Advice?

-Sab