Tom's Training Log

Training Logs
1

I’m restarting my log here, where it belongs. Old log can be found here: http://www.T-Nation.com/tmagnum/readTopic.do?id=2090015

5-4
Workout A

Weight: 175.2

Squat: 5x5@155
BP: 5x5@120
BB Rows: 5x5@75
Dips: 5x5@20

I’m finally getting comfortable with my squat form. I think the key to keeping my low back from feeling too worked is to really brace my core (duh, right?) by holding my breath. I just wish I could hold it through all five reps without feeling like I’m dying. The first three sets felt great, the fourth was OK, and the fifth was just plain bad.

Bench felt pretty good, I managed to keep my shoulder blades tight against the bench on all of my sets except the last. Staring at the ceiling instead of the bar makes a huge difference in how easy the weight feels.

Rows felt pretty good, I’ll probably add another 10 pounds next time.

Dips were hard today. I’m confident I broke parallel on all my reps, though.

I think I see why Rippetoe uses 3 sets for beginners instead of 5 sets: my form tends to form deteriorate noticeably on the last set or two.

2

Oops. Looks like the admins already moved my old log to the Training Logs forum… oh well. I’m going to keep this thread and let the other one die off, I’m not going to be doing 5x5 forever anyway.

3

Forgot to mention the best part of being at the gym today: getting to see a guy doing lat pulldowns with straps.

It makes sense, though, there are lots of powerlifters with no hands, right??

4

5-6
Workout B

Weight: 174.6

Squat: 5x5@165
Press: 5x5@80
DL: 1x5@205
Pull-ups: 4/3/3

For some reason, the armband that I use to hold my MP3 player causes shoulder pain on the press.

I regressed on pull-ups today. I’m not happy about that at all.

5

5-8
Workout A

Weight 174.4

Squat 5x5@175
Bench: 5/5/5/5/4@125
BB Rows: 5x5@85
Dips: 5/5/5/5/4@25

Did squats with my bodyweight again, only this time I felt a lot stronger. I’m definitely good for 10 more pounds next time.

I have two brothers, two and four years younger than I am. The youngest plays hockey for his high school team, and is over 6’. I told him about Stronglifts 5x5 shortly after I started, and he decided to follow the program too. His goal is to get bigger and stronger so that he can “knock the fuck out of people” (his words).

The point is, he can squat 210, which is why I’m going to bust my ass until I catch up with him. I’m really proud of him, he’s 16 and is displaying more sense with regards to lifting and eating than most people my age.

My MP3 player ran out of battery right as I got to the gym today, I had it in all day at the lab so I wouldn’t have to deal with anyone. Fortunately I ran into a friend from high school as I was finishing up my squats, he was benching, so I just worked in with him. My form on the bench felt totally off today. I’ll get 5x5 next time for sure.

I did rows while he did some shoulder stuff, I’m starting to like the rows, after reading what Rippetoe says about them in Starting Strength, they make a lot more sense. I will add another 10 pounds next workout.

He worked in while I did dips, I can’t believe I didn’t make 5x5, I felt so strong on the first set. I guess benching just wore me out. Next workout…

6

My pecs and upper back are sore today… awesome!

7

5-12
Workout B

Weight: 177.8

Started my new job today. Had to work out at 530pm, which was a terrible, terrible mistake. The gym was crawling with morons. When I got there, 2/3 power racks had people curling in them.

Squat: 5x5@185
Press: 4/3/3@80
DL: 1x5@215
Chins: 6/6/4

Terrible workout. I’m not sure why.

Squats felt really easy, which makes me wonder if I hit depth. I will be doing 185 again on Wednesday and making sure I get at least to parallel.

Press was a total failure. Deads felt really heavy, and I regressed on chins. Piss.

8

Sorry for posting late, this is Wendesdays workout, my internet has been flaky.

I forgot my MP3 player again, that makes the gym so much more miserable.

5-14
Workout A

Weight: 176.8

Squat: 5x5@185
BP: 5x5@125
BB Row: 5x5@95
Dips: 5/5/5/5/3@25

I’m excited that I will soon be benching a whole plate… my upper body strength is really lacking.

9

5-16
Workout B

Weight: 177.4

Squat: 5x5@190
Press: 5/4@80, 4@70, 5/5@65
DL: 5@225
Pull-ups: 3/3/3

I like that my squat is going up again. I must beat my little brother, he can squat 210, last I heard.

Failed miserably on press again, it’s my left shoulder that keeps giving out. Form felt totally off as well. I’m going to try 80 one more time and see what happens.

Deadlift felt fairly easy, two plates is a big step for me. I used a rubber bumper plate today, and it made all the difference in getting the bar positioned correctly on the 2nd through 5th reps: before I felt like I was just doing 5 singles because it took so long to reposition.

I intentionally did 3x3 pull-ups instead of 3xf, since I keep regressing. I’ll try to add one rep to each set next time.

10

I’m going to be making some changes.

First, I’m changing my diet from a 3800kcal low-carb diet that followed Berardi’s P+F/P+C meal combinations to a 3400kcal moderate-carb diet that totally ignores Berardi’s meal combos. This is one reason my weight jumped up suddenly.

Second, I’m going to be lifting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after work instead of Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday in the early afternoon.

Third, I’m going to either drop down to three sets and stay with the Stronglifts workouts or just go to Rippetoe’s Starting Strength. I have a couple reasons for this:

  1. 5x5 takes too damn long: the gym closes early in the summer and it’s busy as hell right after work. It hasn’t happened yet, but one of these days I’m going to run out of time because too many jackasses were curling in the power racks.

  2. Rippetoe uses 3x5, Rippetoe is God (I’m joking… but not really)

  3. I think I’m going to be able to up the weight faster without sets four and five: most of my failures have been on the last set, and I feel like my form really suffers on the last two anyway. I think this is why Rippetoe uses three sets.

I would love to hear any thoughts.

11

Give it a go. Rippetoes is nice, and you don’t do alot of volume but you have to increase weights every workout. But you can do something that “thedudeabides” that has a log here did, he increased the load with only 2,5 pounds per time. It will take longer to stall.

Good luck with rippetoes.

12

5-19
Workout A

Weight: 176.8 (drank a lot of coffee this morning…)

Squat:
45x5x2
95x4
115x3
135x2
155x1
195x5x3

Bench:
45x5
95x3
130x5/4/3

BB Row:
100x5x3

Dips:
+25x5x3

My bench sucks. I feel like my upper body is extremely weak in general, or maybe it’s just my chest. I keep losing back tightness by the end of the set, I guess I’m using my serratus anterior to finish the motion.

I can’t decide if it would be more productive to keep trying for 130 or to go back down to 115 and improve my form.

13

5-21
Workout B

Weight: 178.0

Squat
45x5x2
95x5
135x5
175x2
200x5x3

Press
45x5x2
55x5
70x3
80x4
70x5

Deadlift
135x5
185x5
235x5

Chinups
BWx5x3

My form on the press is total garbage. I’ll go back to 70 on Monday and add 2.5lbs per workout.

My lower back felt really worked. I’m glad that I’m only doing one set of deadlifts.

14

Sorry for being gone so long, I moved to a new house and was without internet for more than a week.

Several posts follow:

5-23
Workout A

Weight: 178.0

Squat
45x5
95x5
135x5
175x2
205x5x3

Bench
45x5x2
85x5
115x2
130x5x3

BB Row
45x5 (from hang)
95x5
105x5x3

Dips
BWx5
+30x5x3

5-26
No workout

I took a day off, moving wore me out. Instead of lifting, I played frisbee golf and then swam. I will be swimming on my off days for the rest of the summer, as I now live next to the pool.

5-28
Workout B

Weight: 175.6

My weight is down, probably because of the swimming Monday and Tuesday, and the frisbee golf, which mainly entails walking around in the woods, sweating profusely, looking for lost fribees.

Squat
45x5x2
95x5
135x3
185x2x2
210x5x3

Press
45x5x2
60x3
70x5x3

DL
135x5
185x5
225x2
245x5

Pullups
BWx4/4/3

Glutes felt especially inactive today, I even had trouble feeling them on the deadlift… weird.

One of the directors of my university’s gym told me I had to wear shoes while deadlifting, even though I was putting them back on anyway every time I moved from the bar. I tried to be accomodating and pull with my athletic shoes, but it felt completely wrong, so I just moved to the other side of the gym behind some incline benches and continued my workout.

5-30
Workout A

Squat
45x5x2
95x5
135x3
185x2x2
215x5x3

Bench
45x5x2
95x5
115x3
135x5x3

BB Row
45x5
95x5
110x5x3

Dips
BWx5
+35x5x2
+35x4

Next time I get to use the 15kg bumper plates on the BB Row. This is oddly exciting.

I got a pair of Vibram FiveFingers today. They’re amazing, my feet are sore in places I didn’t even know could hurt.

6-2
Workout B

Weight: 180.0

Finally back to 180. I need to eat more, though I will probably cut back on some carbs, I don’t really feel that great after high carb meals.

Squat
45x5x2
95x5
135x3
185x2
220x5x3

Press
45x5x2
65x3
72.5x5x3

Deadlift
135x5
185x5
225x2
255x4

Chins
BWx6x2
BWx5

Wore my FiveFingers again today, I will be wearing them to train from now on. In fact, I will probably be wearing nothing else from now on, after my feet get used to them. I can go for about two hours before all the little muscles in my feet get really sore… though I did wear them for 45 holes of frisbee golf this weekend, so that might have something to do with it too.

I nearly failed on squats, but I managed to get the last rep out. It felt like the bar was barely moving at all.

Today is the first time I’ve ever failed on deadlifts. The first set felt incredibly easy, but my grip gave just short of lockout on the fifth rep and I had to drop it. I need to work on keeping my shoulders back, they tend to round forward at lockout, which is probably not good.

I need to do chin-ups and pullups more frequently if I’m going to get to 10. There was a bar in one of the doorways when I moved in, but I think my roommate took it down. I will have to find it.

15

6-4
Workout A

Weight: 179.2

Squat
45x5x2
95x5
135x3
185x2
225x5x3

Bench
45x5x2
95x5
115x3
140x5x3

BB Row
45x5
95x3
115x5x3

Dips
+35x5x3

A good day. Two plates is a big step for me. My next goal is three.

I cut out the warmup for dips, those muscles are probably plenty warm from benching anyway.

I had another encounter with gym personnel regarding footwear. I told the guy that they were closed toe, so I was following the rules. He smiled and said I was fine.

I like that lifting weights has made me a more confident, assertive person.

16

Sorry for the late post, I hope no one thinks my lack of punctuality reflects a laxity in my training, there are just so many things I’d rather do than be in front of my computer (frisbee golf comes to mind).

6-6
Workout B

Weight: 179.2

Squat
45x5x2
95x5
135x4
185x3
205x2
230x5x3

Press
45x5x2
65x3
75x5x3

Deadlift
135x5
185x3
225x2
255x5

Pull-ups
BWx4/4/4
BW slow eccentric only x 4

Right before 205x2, one of the Johnson Center minions came over and told me I had to change my shoes or leave. I argued with him and he claimed to have spoken to the facilities director. I said I would call her myself on Monday, and changed into my chucks.

I can’t believe they’re going to this much trouble to hassle me about my shoes, they’re my feet, so it really should be my choice… especially since I had to sign a waiver (“…all activities are voluntary and at the participant’s own risk…”) and pay an extra $20 on top of three years of activities fees to use the place for the summer.

I guess Chucks are fine, but I like my FiveFingers a lot better.

I need to find some chalk for pulling, my hands get all sweaty and the bar starts slipping. I really don’t want to switch to a mixed grip at 255…

17

I talked to the facilities director today… I can’t wear my FiveFingers. Apparently their main concern is the mess it will make if I crush my toes and bleed all over the gym. I offered to clean up after myself, but she didn’t go for it.

I did, however, get her to agree that curling in the squat rack is just laziness, so she’s going to see about putting up some signs. At least she knew what Olympic lifts were, that was a lot more than I expected given the caliber of the typical gym minion.

In fact, they may even be getting a platform, so I won’t have to steal bars from the bench press and deadlift in the corner by the fire doors.

I’m going to be ordering a rack from EliteFTS soon, so my gym woes will be over, but it takes 6-8 weeks to assemble and ship…

6-9
Workout A

Weight: 180.8

Squat
45x5
115x4
155x3
205x2
235x5x3

Bench
45x5
95x4
115x3
145x5/4
135x4

BB Row
45x5x2
95x3
120x5x3

Dips
+40x5x3

I struggled on squats, and made some weird noises towards the end of my last set… I assume they were weird anyway, I had Muse up way too loud, but people were staring at me.

It freaks me out that I’ve only ever seen one person in my gym full squat more weight that I did today.

I HATE benching on Mondays. We have five (!!) flat bench press benches in our gym, and somehow they’re ALL occupied when I need to bench. I ended up taking the shitty bench that was apparently constructed for people with 12’ wingspans. I really struggled on both sets because I lost the tightness in my back just getting the damn bar off of the uprights. Even a liftoff didn’t help, my arms just aren’t long enough to use that bench. I shouldn’t have been so impatient, but I always cut it so close to closing time that I didn’t want to wait.

I had a choice today of either three plates or one dumbbell when I was doing dips… I took the dumbbell… it looked like I was trying to fuck it when I was fastening the weight belt.

18

6-11
Workout B

Weight: 181.6

Weight is up, I’ve been eating extra stuff at random throughout the day, I will be modifying my diet in a more structured way in the next week or so.

I don’t want to type my warmup sets anymore, so I won’t

Squat
240x5/5/2

Press
77.5x5x3

DL
265x2

Chins
BWx6/6/5
BW eccentric x 4

I just lost it on squats. For some reason I loosened up at the bottom of the third rep and wasn’t able to feel my right glute at all. I need to do more glute activation work as a warmup.

As far as deadlifts, my grip started to go on the second rep, and I couldn’t move the weight at all on the third rep, I was so worn out from squatting. I need to brace my abs a lot more for these.

19

6-13
Workout B

Weight: 185.4

…because it’s perfectly normal to gain four pounds in two days. I mean, I know this can happen with water weight fluctuations and all that, but I’ve just never had it happen to me before.

Maybe it was the half donut I ate this morning. Maybe I could write a book about the Donut Bulking diet and sell it on bodybuilding.com.

Squat
240x2

Bench
145x4

I think I can safely say that this is the worst session I have ever had. I gave it up after failing on the first set of the first two exercises, since I was clearly fatigued. I think I haven’t been sleeping enough this week.

The thing is, I might have been able to finish the first set of squats, but I started to turn rep 3 into a good morning, so I went back down and tried to squat it and failed.

I may have been able to get that fifth rep on the bench too, but, like an idiot, I didn’t think I needed a spotter for my first set, and I didn’t particularly want to get pinned to the bench. By biggest problem on the bench is scapular stability: my back just doesn’t stay tight enough. I think I’m going to start getting liftoffs and spots for all my sets, having someone watching will probably motivate me enough to make all my reps.

Instead of completely wussing out, I did a bunch of stuff for my glutes and scapular stability, including:

supine sridges
single leg supine bridges
birddogs

wall slides
shoulder dislocations

planks
side bridges

Starting tomorrow, I have a new 4000kcal diet plan. I want to hit at least 200lbs, then drop some fat (I’m naturally pretty lean, so this won’t be dificult) and re-evaluate.

20

6-16
Workout B

Weight: 183.2

New diet started yesterday. I definitely recommend picking up a copy of Gourmet Nutrition… it’s got some great recipes.

Squat
225x5/5/3

Press
80x5x3

DL
265x3

Pullups
BXx5/4/3

I paid close attention to form on squats today, I was cheating to get to 240. Next session I’ll get 225x5x3.

Grip gave out on deads, again.