I’ve been a member here for almost 2 years now. I’ve never bothered with a log, as I’ve always just kept track of things at home in my notebook. My goals have changed a lot over the last few months. So I figured, new goals, new tracking method.
I’m putting this in the Strongman/OL/PL forum because my main goal right now is to gain strength. I’m sure at some point in the future I’ll try to lose fat again. But for right now, I just want to add weight to the bar. I’m hoping some of you can help me out with that. I think a lot of the time I get too caught up in where I should be and don’t pay attention to where I actually am.
I started out last year at 245 lbs, 6’-2”, and nothing stellar in terms of PRs. In November I had managed to drop to 212 lbs, still 6’-2” (damn those generic brand heightening pills!!). At that point, I decided I want to start lifting heavier. So I began trying to gain weight (ha, it wasn’t very hard for me).
PR and get some good new PR lifts.
In particular, I want to see my squat go up. It really should be up around 5x250 right now I think, but my max when I finished Starting Strength the first time was about 5x190. I’m also very focused on my Deadlift going up. It’s got to be my favorite lift.
I'm gonna do SS for about 4-6 weeks until I start to plateau again. Then I'll switch back to MHPT for the next 6 weeks of the Hypertrophy program.
I know I'm going to gain weight on this. I know some of it will be fat. But I really want to put on some muscle. I've already proven to myself that I can lose fat. Let’s see if I can accomplish a different goal.
If I continue to gain 2 lbs per week, I'll be at around 245 lbs on March 23. At that point, if I want to, I can start cutting to shed some of the fat and have plenty of time to get my RIPT BEACH BOD in shape.
I've never tried to gain weight before. This is weird for me and something that I'm just going to have to figure out along the way. I would like to have a more reliable way to measure my progress. The little handheld BF tester I have is pretty crappy. Hopefully I'll see big progress on my lift numbers and it will encourage me to keep going. If my lifts don't go up, but the scale does, I'm gonna lose my motivation.
My current PR (best guesses on some, as I’ve not ever really tested a 1RM).
Squat – 5x190
Deadlift – 2x310 or 5x285
Bench – 5x190
Pullups - 3xBW
Chinups – 5xBW
Press – 5x110
I'm going to switch to Rippetoe's Starting Strength layout next week, M/W/F. This week I'm finishing the first 6 weeks of Men's Health Power Training - Hypertrophy.
I'm going to switch to Rippetoe's Starting Strength layout next week, M/W/F. This week I'm finishing the first 6 weeks of Men's Health Power Training - Hypertrophy.
You think 2lbs per week gain is too much?
Rippetoe's program is great.
if you want to keep fat gain to a minimum, 2lbs/week is going to be hard to keep up without assistance.
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The workout last night was pretty good. I'm not going to post the details, as the MHPT has lots of different lifts and rep amounts.
The notable lift was 6x180 on the neutral grip pulldowns. I can do a couple of pullups/chinups but not enough to hit the prescribed rep numbers. So it was nice to see the weight on the pulley approaching my bodyweight. Maybe next time I come through this routine I'll be able to use BW.
Weight was down a little this morning. Maybe its some of the Christmas funk being worked out of the system.
Glaring weakness of the numbers aside, here's where I finished out with Starting Strength 5 months ago.
Squat 5x193
Deadlift 5x280
Press 5x110
Bench 5x190
Bent over Row 5x160 (instead of power clean)
Here's what I plan on starting with.
Squat 5x160 - Going up 5lbs per day, that'll give me 7 workouts (about 2 weeks) till I start moving into heavier weights.
Deadlift 5x250 - Going up 10 lbs each time (deadlift is every other workout) I'll start moving into new weights the same time as squats do.
Bench - 5x170 - Going up 5 lbs each time
Press - 5x90 - 5lbs each time
Power cleans - Not sure where I'll start on these, I'll think on it this weekend.
Anyone see any issues with these starting weights? I don't want to go too heavy straight off and sabotage myself, but I don't want it to take 4 or more weeks just to get back to where I was.
When I peaked out before, I was pretty depressed about it. I wasn't sure why I couldn't keep adding weight to the bar, and I tried a bunch of different stuff that didn't help much.
I'm starting to think that my weight loss last year was more of a drain on my strength gains than I originally thought. I was in a calorie deficit for about 10 months and lost 33 lbs. Maybe I was overly optimistic to try and accomplish both goals at the same time.
Deadlifts and Bench were easy, as I had been doing this much in the last few weeks on the MHPT program.
I've been doing front squats for the last 4 weeks, so back squats felt weird. I could tell my shoulders had tightened back up, as my position on the bar was different than I remember.
Squats seemed a little easier today than on Monday, I think. I have a really hard time catching the cleans. I can take a clean grip on a front squat, but only with about 2 fingers. Since I don't have rubber weights I can't just dump after I clean it up. So I have to try and keep a decent grip on the bar, which makes the catch very akward.
Still can't tell if squats are getting easier. But I can definitely tell that I've got some of the best depth I've ever had. I'd be getting 4 whites for how low I am going.
My squats still feel pretty strong. I'd like it if I were faster on the way up, but I just don't have much power out of the hole.
I had a 1.11 lb chicken breast with some stuffing in it. I planned on cooking it, eating half for dinner, then taking the other half for lunch today. Well, I ate the whole thing last night. I was starving. I tallied up my calories for the day, and I figured I was at 3500-3700. And I was still half a pound down when I weighed in this morning.
I think I'm going to start doubling up on meat at dinner time.
I think the 5x190 ties my best on the squats. I thought I had done 193 before, but couldn't find it in my logs when I looked. Either way, Wednesday will start the new PRs for squats.
I've pulled 4x295 before with a mixed grip. Had to start using the mixed grip around 270 for that cycle. So I was excited yesterday when I got 5x280 with a double-overhand. And it felt easy.
Didn't have anything on Chinups today. Felt weak from the very first one.
I was able to find in my log where I had done 5x193 squats before. Still, this was a 2lb PR. More importantly, they will all be personal records from here on out. I feel like I should be able to go for a few more weeks making gains this way. I'm hoping to hit 250 before I start to slow down.
I need to work on wrist/arm flexibility more for catching purposes. I'm not going to be able to keep adding weight to the power clean if I don't improve my catch. It's very sloppy.
Squats still feel really good. They are difficult, but I remember how hard I struggled with them last time on this program. 5x190 felt almost impossible. Now it's just hard.
Hands were sweaty on the Deadlift. I had to regrip on the 3rd rep, then go to mixed grip on the 5th. Might have to start doing mixed grip from here on out.
My right quad right above my knee was sore after squatting. Nothing unbearable, just felt weird.
Press felt pretty easy today, this matched my previous PR. I'm certain that I can break it next time.
Sets of 5 are getting crazy hard on the Power Clean. I don't know if I can keep increasing the weight on these. Form gets pretty bad on the last couple reps of each set.
I've gained exactly 1/2 lb per week for the last 3 weeks. I like the way this is going.
I've known this from reading SS, but have never really done it until now. I picked a point out on the floor in front of me to keep my focus on while squatting/deadlifting. It really helped. I think I've not done it before on squats because my rack is against the wall. So I would pick a spot on the wall and at the bottom it would make my head move up/back a little bit.
I went to mixed grip yesterday with the rubber pads. The 300 felt damn good, I'm certain I can go up next time.
Taking tomorrow off as I'm headed to a wedding/Tunica for the weekend. Back at it on Monday.
The power cleans are giving me a difficult time now because I can't let the weight down under control. I can't just dump it, as the bar and weights aren't meant for it. But I lose my good grip on it when I catch it.
The Presses were very hard today. I'm disappointed by that. I wanted to add a good 20 lbs to it overall. Maybe it's just from this past weekend and Friday off. But that's not really a good sign, cause I'm taking off Wednesday night this week for my wife's Birthday party.
Deadlift
5x130
3x160
1x200
1x230
5x310 PR
1x310 (just for the fun of it)
Chinups
7xBW
4xBW (2)
3xBW
2xBW
Decline Alternating Sit ups
20xBW (2)
18xBW
Planks
60s front
30s sides/rear
Everything was hella heavy tonight. I've got no power out of the hole when squatting. Is there a different type of squat that I can do to work on this?
It was taking to long to get my bench up past what I knew I was capable of. So I jumped it up 15lbs. Previous best was 5x193, so I was very happy with 200. I can still increase a bit on this, I'm sure.
11-18-08 I was able to deadlift 2x310 and it was incredibly difficult. Tonight, the first few reps flew off the floor. 5th rep was a battle, but that's ok.
I've peaked out on Starting Strength for this run. Squats were ultra-heavy today and my knees were coming in a lot. I'm gonna back off for the rest of this week and start a new program on Monday.
This has been a good run though. This is the 6th week. I've added 30lbs to my squat, 20lbs to my deadlift, and 10lbs to my press. I'll go heavy on bench on Wednesday, I know I can add another 5 lbs. That will make a 10 lb increase on bench.
I need to go to something with 8-12 reps I think. I've been doing sets of 5 for what seems like 6 months. I've made good progress, but I need something new.
I was ultra sore today. Hamstrings were very tight. I'm certain that it's from the RDL's on Monday. I backed off on the squats so that I could go heavier on the Deadlift. It worked, I just didn't make 5 reps. But I'll take the 3, I'm pretty happy with it. I was very happy about the bench.
I can tell that I'm done with SS for now. I was pretty burned out last night and unmotivated. I'm very sore and feel beat up. This was quite noticeable while I was foamrolling. Particularly my legs. My ankles and toes are sore, I assume from the power clean.
I'm taking Friday and next week off as far as planned lifting goes. I might do some random stuff next week. Maybe try a max on something. The week after that will be the start of a new program. Some different exercises and some higher reps. I'm looking forward to something in the 8-12 rep range.
Current PR:
Squat - 5x225 (+35lbs)
Bench - 5x210 (+20lbs)
Deadlift - 3x320 or 5x310 (+25lbs)
Power Clean - 5x140
Press - 5x120 (+10lbs)
Chinups - 7xBW (+2 reps)
Just did some fun stuff today. Tried out the reverse hypers on my bench, I think I'll do them next week with this new program. Going to do a couple more things on Wednesday just for fun. I'll take Friday off this week, and start anew next week.
Reverse Hyperextensions
12xBW (3)
I tried to hold a small dumbbell between my feet for these, but it kept slipping out. I'll try something different next time.
This was brutal. I haven't done this kind of volume in months. I was breathing heavy after the second set of 12 squats. And I was out of breathe for the rest of the workout. That was even with 2 minutes between sets.
I'm definitely going to see some results from this program.
Me = More Stronger
. Keep at it and those gains won't stop anytime soon 
Linear Mode
