Tennisdude's Rippetoe Log

Training Training Logs
1

hello to all T-Nation readers.

background:
i am very much a beginner and have just started rippetoes starting strength program. i am currently 16 years old and play tennis as a serious sport. i currently weigh about 145-150lbs and around 10% body fat although i dont know how accurate internet testa are.

my goals:
atm i am just looking to get strong by following rippeoes until i no longer see gains. size is not my main goal as obviously i cant put on a ton of weight without sacrificing some agility and speed for tennis.

my diet:

i have recently purchased the precision nutrition program and will be following that as much as possible and will be starting a fitday log.

i decided to post my rippetoe experience on here as i know there are a lot of cool and knowledgable people on this forum and also people who have done this program before. Hopefully i didnt bore you too much with this long post. Look forward to hearing suggestions/advice

tennisdude

2

I don’t think there is much to say. You’ve chosen a fantastic weight training program, a fantastic nutrition guide, and you have a good attitude. Looking forward to seeing some great progress.

3

Thanks TheDude, it was after reading through your thread that idecided that this was what i was going to do.

4

Okay here is my first two rippetoe workouts from last week. Unfortunately i couldnt train on the friday because i had a tennis tournament fri-sun.

7/4 Monday

Squat 3x5 60kg
Bemch Press 3x5 35kg
Deadlift 3x5 65kg

Didnt try and go heavy as i was mainly focusing on developing the correct technique and my breathing patterns.

9/4 Wednesday

Squat 3x5 65kg
Press 3x5 25kg
Power Clean 1x5 20kg

Squat felt very good even if the some of the reps on set 3 were a struggle, i think was because i forgot to brace my core on reps 2&3 because 4 and 5 were nice and smoth with a braced core.

Press was okay ut i felt my technique was off as i hadnt practised it as much as the other exercises but ive just read and re-read the description in starting strength and i feel confident im doing it right now.

Power cleans i wasnt very comfortable with because there are many parts to the technique and it is hard for me to judge whether im doing it right without a coach with me and i dont think i could ever go that heavy because i dont have bumper plates and dont want to crack my floor.

Any suggestions on an alternative to the power clean, or any suggestions on the best way to self-teach yourself the correct techinque.

5

its hard to learn power cleans without a coach with just the barbell, i personally needed to add weight to “feel” it.

basically i think the difference between a power clean and a normal clean is that in a power clean you also use your arms and you try not to go very low when you try to get under the bar.

first position yourself above the bar in a very similar to the deadlift position, except your feet will have a wider stance(shoulder width). as for toes where to point, its not very important, but as a newbie point them outwards a bit.

put the weight on the front part of your feet but NOT on your toes, just behind your toes.your shoulders should be in front of the bar, your chest should be as up as possible and your back straight with a curve towards the good curve it can have ;). make sure your arms are fully extended when you pull.

now without leaning forward or backwards (hips rising too fast, or back rising too fast) make the first pull, till it passes your knees… this pull doesnt need to be as fast as possible. doing that as a newbie will probably just get your legs scratched and the barbell will fly towards random directions.

after it passes the knees extend your legs/hips/back as fast as possible while the bar is very close to your legs. make sure you dont hit your balls. it hurts. personally i think of these things: push feet into the floor. “push” my knees backwards. push my ass forward (just like sex), push my back backwards. meanwhile, your face should look forwards, not up or down. this is mostly so the bar doesnt move forward or backwards, and to not get injured.

the bar will eventually reach around waist level when you are full extended(remmeber that you must do the second pull and especially the push of the hips forward very fast), this way the bar will hit on your waist. while it does that, you must also shrug your shoulders, that gets the bar even higher, and also stand on your toes, that makes the bar go a bit higher. and since its a power clean use your arms too to get it up. dont think too much about your arms, they probably will be used naturally.

after that keep pulling with your arms and at some point you should be turning your elbows out and getting your body to squat under the bar.

oh and practice squatting under the bar. its basically the opposite of pulling the bar upwards… but also since your feet will be up from the pull this is what i think:push heels downwards till they touch the floor, push knees forward,push butt downards, push back forwards. the only exception is that you should also make sure when you get under the bar that your chest is up, otherwise your balance is off

practice parts of the power clean, its too hard to learn the whole movement all together… you need to think of like 50 things in just 2 seconds.

oh and try to push your abs out and keep your back tight

6

Thank you very much lordstorm that was a great post. I think i will keep the power clean in my workouts and just focus on developing the technique with a bit of weight on the bar, i know what you mean when you say you need weight to “feel” it because i tried practicing with a broomhandle and its completely different than with a bar + weights.

7

14/7 Monday

Squat 3x5 70kg (154 lbs)
Bench Press 3x5 40kg (88 lbs)
Deadlift 1x5 75kg (165 lbs)

I realise a lot of you guys arent from europe so i will post weights in pounds as well.

Today felt awesome. Set 3 of squats was tough but in a good way if you know what i mean and this was the same for the bench press. Deadlifts were pretty easy but i dont know if thats just because im only doing one set. I think i read some people were doing 3 sets of deadlifts instead of 1 and was wondering if anyone had thoughts on which you felt was better.

8

there isnt a point for a beginner to deadlift more.

also try doing 5 singles instead of 1*5 if you want. that helped me a lot, ive added like 70kgs almost to my deadlift this way in 4 months. either way you go though its fine for a beginner

9

ok thanks again for advice lordstorm88 i need everything i can get.

Also great work on your log i really enjoyed readingit and seeing what good progress you have made.

10

Okay heres todays workout.

16/4 Monday

Squat 2x5, 1x4 75kg (165 lbs)
Press 2x5 30kg (67 lbs) 1x5 27.5kg (61 lbs)
Hang Clean 3x5 25kg (54 lbs)

Squats were very tough on all three sets and i was so wiped out after the first two that i could only manage 4 reps on set 3. i think i will drop back to making 2.5kg jumps as this is what is recommended by rippetoe. I am happy to do this because i would rather make small consistent gains than get stuck trying to do too much too fast, as tempting as it may seem.

Press felt good for first 3 reps of each set but i quickly got tired and the last two were a struggle. Next time i do these ill just see if i can keep all 3 sets at 30kg without failing.

I decided to use a power clean on the first rep of each set and then do hang cleans after that because i dont have bumper plates. Technique is definitely improving and i think i will be making 2.5kg jumps from now on.

11

hey another tennis player. I played competitively here in the states till my shoulder crapped out and I mentally burned out. good luck with the program just make sure to keep your shoulder healthy by incorporating some scapular stability excercises every once and a while.

12

thanks for the support ravell. do You have any specific shoulder exercises that you used/would use when following a program like this, any help is much appreciated especially from you because you are a fellow tennis player. Are you still playing non-competitive or is shoulder too bad?

13

Todays workout sucked.

Squat 1x5 77.5kg 1x2 77.5kg 1x4 75kg

Bench Press 1x4 42.5kg (93 lbs)

Deadlift 1x5 85kg (187 lbs)

Squats were fine on first set, then the second set i just got knackered and couldnt move the weight, so i dropped down to 75kg and managed 4 reps before i was wiped out again and actually had to drop the bar behind me it was that tough.

Bench press sucked i couldnt even finish the first set, i had been playing tennis earlier in the day so my shoulders were a bit beat up from that so i might look to reschedule the workouts to days i dont have tennis or just train in the morning.

Deadlifts were fine as usual and i am pretty confident about moving up another 10kg the next time i do them.

14

Ya I play on my university’s club team, but nothing too serious. How far do you plan on taking the sport?

I would look at some upper back excercises like face pulls, seated dumbell cleans, rear delt raises, “blackburns” (search them on youtube i think joe defranco might have a good video of them), and external rotations. I would just stick with the program you’re on now unless your shoulder bothers you on your hard first serves and kick serves and such.

Once you’re done with this program though I would seriously give a look at Joe DeFranco’s Westside for skinny bastards program (just look at his website). Theres alot of variation in the program and it’s geared for strength. There’s also some variations he shows for athletes that are in-season (which is year round for us tennis players). hope that helps.

15

I would stick to the program as its written for the time being. If it says 3 sets of deadlift, then Im sure Mark Rippetoe had a reason for that.

16

Thanks for the advic ravell i was actually looking at westside’s program but decided i should build a basic level of strength first while i have more time to train as there arent very many tournaments here right now, but i think thats what i’ll move onto after this because it certainly seems to suit my goals.

Well im looking to go to an america next year to an academy and hopefully on to a university so i can continue playing as its hard to try and make it here in scotland.

Which university do you attend if you dont mind me asking?

17

Heres todays orkout which im glad to say went a lot better than fridays.

21/4

Squat 3x5 77.5kg (171 lbs)
Press 3x5 30kg (67 lbs)
Power Clean 1x5 30kg (67 lbs)

Squats felt good today after a much needed rest at the weekend.

Presses were a lot better today as i used a different breathing technique which helped a lot in regards to tiring too easily.

Had to cut workout short at the end as i had to travel to a tennis match so i only managed 1 set of cleans which felt better today as i used a bit more weight which forced me to really concentrate on technique

18

23/4

squat 2x5 80kg 1x2 80kg (176 lbs)
bench press 3x5 42.5kg (95 lbs)
deadlift 1x5 95kg (209 lbs)

squats were okay on the first two sets, bar speed was pretty slow and then on the third set it was just too tough so i think i am just going to attempt the same weight in my next workout.

Bench felt a lot better than last time and i felt like i could have gone heavier.

Deadlifts this was the first workout where deadlifts have been seroiusly tough and the last rep was quite a strruggle so i am going to drop down to 7.kg or 5kg jumps next week.

19

I am in the middle of a tennis tournament at the moment which i is why i did’nt train yesterday. I am going to change my 3rd workout of the week to a saturday next week as i wont have time to train before tennis practice on the friday and the last time i trained after tennis i felt WEAK.

On a side note i purchased Mike Boyle’s functional training for sports today just as another option to look at after rippetoe’s which i am going to do until may 18 as this is when my tournament season starts proper and i will need to lower my training volume.

20

Okay not been on in a while so this is a big update.

Last Monday i didnt have enough time to train so i decided to video my squat form just to make sure i was doing it right and guess what… it sucked balls. I always thought my squat form was good as i trained in front of a mirror but i guess i was just seeing what i wanted to see.

On wednesday i decided to spend a couple of hours nailing the technique and did a solid 15 minute dynamic warm-up before i lifted focusing on hamstrings and hip flexors, which i am going to do for all my workouts now as it definitely helped more than i thought it would.

After videoing my squats, re-reading the squat chapter in starting strength and watching a large portion of the squat rx series i think my squat form is certainly better than it was but i will post a video later and let you guys decide.