If your hand placement is exactly like your profile pic … then you need to bring your hands out more. Are you squatting low bar?[/quote]
Yes I am trying to squat low bar. It was recommended by the book for some reason, so I just go with it.
-Zep[/quote]
I would go with what feels more comfortable … which doesn’t seem like it is[/quote]
Im just gonna power through it for a couple more workouts before I switch. I am willing to put up with it fo now. I am still working on getting videos of my squat form up.
I am starting to have hip pain at the bottom of my squat too. This program feels like its beating me up some days haha.
B workout
squat 3x5 @ 210
press 3x5 @ 110
clean 5x3 @ 110
lateral raise 3x10 @ 25 (still progressing I think)
face pulls 3x5 @ 100 (felt like good reps)
curls 3x7 @ 73.4 (weighed the bar at 13.4 lbs. WTF?)
Hip and elbow pain. A bit of pain in my left index finger (grip?). Cleans felt real heavy today. I think my weight might be getting heavier than my poor form will allow, but im not sure.
Stretch, foam roll, ice. Make sure you are warm, and muscles primed before you tackle the weight. Your elbow pain might be from improper clean technique …?
Lateral raises are very difficult [for me] to progress with. Using super strict, nearly straight arm form - even more difficult. Just focus on the muscle being worked, less about the weight being used. That could go for all isolation exercises.
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
Stretch, foam roll, ice. Make sure you are warm, and muscles primed before you tackle the weight. Your elbow pain might be from improper clean technique …?
Lateral raises are very difficult [for me] to progress with. Using super strict, nearly straight arm form - even more difficult. Just focus on the muscle being worked, less about the weight being used. That could go for all isolation exercises.
[/quote]
Cleans could be affecting my elbows, and I have been looking into foam rolling and trying to find a good stretching routine that wasnt designed for housewives. I should start to pay more attention to warmups, Ill admit that much.
With respect to the lateral raises I have been running all my isolation exercies the same. Step 1: Cheat to 7 reps with intensity and pauses if needed. Step 2: work up to 10 not so strict reps with pauses if necessary. Step 3: get 10 smooth reps with no pause and in good form. Step 4: increase weight and start over at step 1.
Ive been riding the line between “you have to use good form to see results” and “if youre not cheating your not trying.” I guess its not your typical way of making progress using “cheating” but it seems to work and is allowing me to work out pretty hard in 3 sets. I seem to be getting a decent swell from it immediately after my workout.
Also, there was a livespill on online form checks from Wendler.
Cleans could be affecting my elbows, and I have been looking into foam rolling and trying to find a good stretching routine that wasnt designed for housewives. I should start to pay more attention to warmups, Ill admit that much.[/quote]
I’m not telling you to switch, but I think I did barbell rows instead. Not saying you should switch, but heavy cleans might be a little too technical for you right now …? Perhaps do bb rows and 3-5 sets of light cleans.
Great plan. Really. This ^ concept can be foreign to a lot people. I’m glad you’re not one of them!
Yep, it is a fine line. Just make sure you’re still feeling your muscles work and not just slinging weight around. Sometimes it’s good to just move heavy weight with a slight disregard to form.
You’re doing good, this all just takes time. It’s simple, but not easy.
I missed the gym on the day of June 24th, but I will still be awake for the time the gym opens today, so I am going to count it as making it on time, kinda. I want to continue making progress, and I dont think it would be good for me to miss as I am hitting what I consider to be a pretty critical time in my training (starting to come near previous bests on bench press for example) and I dont want to stall out or prolong what doesnt need to be strung out.
I want to video my squat as I am curious myself as to what my form looks like now.
Cleans could be affecting my elbows, and I have been looking into foam rolling and trying to find a good stretching routine that wasnt designed for housewives. I should start to pay more attention to warmups, Ill admit that much.[/quote]
I’m not telling you to switch, but I think I did barbell rows instead. Not saying you should switch, but heavy cleans might be a little too technical for you right now …? Perhaps do bb rows and 3-5 sets of light cleans.
Great plan. Really. This ^ concept can be foreign to a lot people. I’m glad you’re not one of them!
Yep, it is a fine line. Just make sure you’re still feeling your muscles work and not just slinging weight around. Sometimes it’s good to just move heavy weight with a slight disregard to form.
You’re doing good, this all just takes time. It’s simple, but not easy.
[/quote]
I was just asking myself the other day exactly what the hell I was doing cleans for haha. I want to be BIG, not an oly lifter. I think I will keep them for now though, but as soon as I change programs, I think they are as good as gone.
BODYWEIGHT: 177.4 (I LOST WEIGHT!!! A LOT OF IT TOO. Seriously fuck me for not eating well.)
SUMMARY: In 32 sets, I did 96 reps (I hate math. Do correct me if I am wrong.)
NOTES: There were no half reps counted. If my chin didnt clear the bar, or I didnt go to a dead hang inbetween reps, it wasnt counted. Also, the time of the start post is incorrect because I edited it part of the way through.
A workout
Squat 3x5 @ 215 (just ugly sets)
bench 3x5 @ 185 (tied pr)
deads 1x5 @ 215 (grip was hard to keep but I did do like a hundred pullups earlier in the day)
pushdowns 3x10 (pretty smooth reps) @ 120
Weighed in at the gym at 181. I dont know what the hell is going on.
I just got back from the gym. It is 7:50 AM (The time stamp on these posts if F***'d up). I am tired as hell, and hungry. Rough day with the squatting. I am seriously considering a deload or at least stalling my weights. I have come to realize that this is not a race, and as much as I would love to force progress, it is not worth hurting my back. I actually had one rep where my back felt/looked a lot more horizontal than it should have been (my head was still up though so the weight wasnt going to roll off, and I wasnt off balance). I am starting to have pain in my hips at the bottom of my squat and when bench pressing (odd).
My schedule is all off and it is not helping anything. I am going to try to stay up until 10 pm so that I can reset my sleep schedule (finally). I am just all kinds of messed up today. Also eventhough I had some time off, the pain has come back to my elbows while squatting.
Starting to feel a bit beat up.
I feel that I have to start stretching and foam rollling or Im going to regret it sooner or later.
[quote]Zeppelin0731 wrote:
A workout
Squat 3x5 @ 215 (just ugly sets)
bench 3x5 @ 185 (tied pr)
deads 1x5 @ 215 (grip was hard to keep but I did do like a hundred pullups earlier in the day)
pushdowns 3x10 (pretty smooth reps) @ 120[/quote]
Remember ^ you’re not always going to hit home runs. The bad thing about SS is that you’re “forced” into using weight that you might not physically or mentally be ready for that day. The good thing about SS is that you’re “forced” into using weight that you might not physically or mentally be ready for that day. I’ve had PR days when I felt like absolute garbage. Not all the time, but it does happen.
My weight fluctuates like this as well. Weigh yourself once per week. Helps you become less obsessive
Take your own advice below.
[quote]My schedule is all off and it is not helping anything. I am going to try to stay up until 10 pm so that I can reset my sleep schedule (finally). I am just all kinds of messed up today. Also eventhough I had some time off, the pain has come back to my elbows while squatting.
Starting to feel a bit beat up.
I feel that I have to start stretching and foam rollling or Im going to regret it sooner or later.
-Zep[/quote]
I’m not saying you need to jump ship, but you should check out Bill Starr 5x5. Solid program that has a more sensible progression.
[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
I’m not saying you need to jump ship, but you should check out Bill Starr 5x5. Solid program that has a more sensible progression.
[/quote]
I have considered jumping ship, but I dont like it when things beat me. I am going to go the 8 weeks at least (24 workouts total whichever comes last).
5x5 seems the way to go though when transferring off of this program. Ill look into it more later on tonight. Also I want to add dips somewhere in my next program with the intent to eventually start weighting them.
I did a few pullups today while stretching my back as it was sore. My elbow was popping and I had some minor discomfort. My elbow is having shooting pains as I write this. I am going to schedule a doctors appointment tomorrow. I am not going to stop lifting, but at the same time I realize that elbow pain will mean that I will have to stop if it gets serious. I never had elbow pain until I started squatting (note style: low bar) regularly.
I am going to push squatting until 225, then halt all of my lifts there for the sake of correcting form until I see fit to progress. I am also considering switching to paused front squats to allow elbows to heal and stuff, but I also am considering other options as well (still working on grip).
I have jet lag (my circadian rhythm is totally off), and I have the sleep schedule of a person living in Sydney Australia (not really that close to Ohio). I tried to correct it yesterday and failed. I actually thought 6/29 was thursday and that I should go lift, because I thought I had a full day of rest inbetween. I lifted on tuesday morning (6/28). 6/29 was wednesday. I dont really want to squat tired. I really want to change my schedule.
I am going to change the rules of the universe. I will define days as being separated by 8 hour bouts of sleep (aka I am going to take 5 hour energies and stay up again today and will take over the counter sleeping meds at 9 PM EST. I will not be lifting until friday if all goes according to plan).
Sleeping during the day also complicates eating well. (Breakfast does not exist right now and I think breakfast is very important due to its protein heavy nature.)
This is not working, and I am getting tired of this. Its time to start being disciplined.
Woke up at noon today (progress), and fell back asleep at 3 in my favorite chair (relapse).
I woke up after the gym was closed. I have decided to do a deload and continue SS. Some company stopped over and they hadnt seen me for almost a year. They couldnt believe how different I looked. I didnt think I changed all that much, but I am really happy that I am making noticeable progress. My elbows are feeling better (pretty sure I have tennis elbow now and I made a doctors appointment) so that is a plus.
Squat going from 215 down to 200 (I am gonig to try to do these paused)
bench going from 185 down to 180 (I didnt feel like 185 was all that hard so Im just gonna stall it for a bit)
Deads going from 215 down to 200 (these didnt stall at all im just following squat)
cleans and overhead press staying at 110 until I think I can improve.
I expect to continue progressing on all isolation lifts.
I am getting really busy right now though so Ill just continue this at a later time.
Got up at noon. I am tired as hell, but my family has decided to help keep me occupied. I have decided to deload my ohp and cleans as well from 110 to 105.
I have come to realize that being disciplined with your sleep cycle can make or break your progress as if it is off then it complicates everything.
B workout
squats 220x5 (got a vid of some ugly reps under too much weight) 220x3 (ugly) 205x3 (distracted and then ugly so I stopped)
press 115x5 115x5 115x4
clean 5x3 @ 115
lateral raise 3x10 (harder than last time distracted and poor rest periods)
face pull I have no clue (different weitght stack and setup)
curls 3x7 @ 75 (felt real heavy)
So…I decided to bring a spotter to film and help out because I was going to try to not deload. Big mistake to try to rely on this person to help me. Apparently “let me know when I break parallel” means, “stand there with your hands in your pockets looking at the figure model while I get crushed.” I hate to say it, but I have grown to like lifting alone.
The video isnt good. The guy didnt follow my directions at all, he just did whatever he wanted. Ill post it soon though, and Ill try to get another one.
