I'm starting to train again after a little time off and I thought this time around it would be nice to track my progress with a log. In brief, I'm 6'2, 240, and want to max out linear progression on my lifts and get better at jumping.

Background

From September-December last year, I did 3 days a week alternating squat/press/deadlift and squat/bench/pullups, and drank on average a GOMAD (sometimes more, sometimes less). I took the progression slowly but I still made decent progress in most lifts. I learned a lot by lurking around here but posted pretty minimally. The changes in my worksets in that semester were:

Squat: 155->295
Deadlift: 175->335
Press: 95->132.5
Bench: 135->200
Pullups: Bodyweight x 5/4/4 -> Bodyweight x 7/6/6. Best day was BW x 8/7/7 at 237lbs

Over these few months my weight went from around 210 to 240lbs, and I gained a fair amount of fat. I eventually realized that I hadn't planned out my calorie consumption very well: I was drinking tons of milk and eating excessive amounts even early in the program, when my body didn't need all that energy for recovery. For now, I'm going to continue to eat everything in sight and drink lots of milk, but once I stall in the squat a few times I'll start working on fat loss/strength maintenance.

I stopped lifting in December because of finals, and ended up taking about a month off due to travel, gym closures and general Christmas stuff. No real good excuses, but it's in the past now. I'll likely stop again in April when school is wrapping up.

Goals/Program

My main goal is to exhaust linear progression on the lifts I was doing last fall. I feel like I have a fair ways to go still, having only stalled on the press. I'm also going to be starting the novice plyometric program from the vertical jump bible, with two sessions a week, and I will keep this thread up to date about both lifting and plyometric training. I know everyone tends to discourage people from doing other stuff while doing a heavy SS-ish program, but I've always seemed to recover quickly and I'll be eating plenty (sleeping enough might be harder, though). If I start feeling like I can't recover adequately for the weight training program I'll cut back on the plyometrics.

I want to be able to dunk a basketball by the end of the year. I can currently grab the rim, and I think this goal is very attainable given my height and current levels of excess fat. I know some people will criticize doing pullups instead of cleaning, especially given that I want to jump higher, but I'm going to finish what I'm doing before starting O-lifting type work.

I also want to close my #2 captains of crush gripper this year but I'm not going to be working on this very seriously. After a few beers I've got within a millimeter or two of closing it so this shouldn't be very hard.

Here are the most recent videos I've posted:

Squat 2x5x275
DL 2x265, 5x315
Press 5x130

And, because I know you guys are all suckers for pictures of shirtless men, here are a few that I took before I started lifting in September.

[Nudes removed per prime directive]

Here are my worksets from the first two sessions of the year (Tues/Fri last week). I dropped everything back 10% or so except for the press, which I was in the middle of resetting when I stopped training in December.

Squat: 3x5x265lbs
Press: 3x5x115
DL: 5x300

Squat: 3x5x270
Bench:3x5x180
Pullups: 7/6/6 x BW (242)

Just finished my first VJB workout. These exercises probably don't mean anything to most people but I'll post what I did anyway.

Slalom jump: 3x50 (per leg)

I'm assuming (from the name) that slalom jumps are supposed to be back and forth from left to right rather than forward and backward, but I've seen a few videos where they're done forward/backward. Anyone know for sure?

Star jump 3x10

Power skipping (lol) 3x30 yards

Side to side box jump ~18 inches 3x8

Single leg step-up jump 3x8 (per leg)

Low squat ankle jump 3x30


I'm definitely tired (the low squat ankle jump kicked my ass) but I don't feel like this program will interfere very much with recovery unless the intensity ramps up a lot.

Monday:

Squat 2x275, 3x275, 2x5x275

Press 2x5x120, 1x7x115
Very frustrating, I was up to 132.5 before I reset and it seems like I have lost a lot of strength. The last rep at 120 took a full 10 seconds, no exaggeration. After that I thought there was no way I would finish another set of 5, but given that I managed 7 at 115 I think I might have pulled it off. This is the first time I've ever dropped down in weight during a workout before failing a rep. I'm going to go for 122.5 next time and hopefully microload my way back to where I was before.

DL 5x310
These felt good, double overhanded all five. There was a little chalk left on the bar from the previous guy so that might have helped. Need to get some chalk for myself, I think I could probably double over around 360 with chalk right now if I could lift that much. Will go up another 10lbs next time.



I forgot I was going to the gym when I got dressed this morning, and wore boxers instead of briefs. On the second rep of the first squat workset I exploded my boxers. The damage is pretty catastrophic. I had to rerack the bar to make sure it wasn't my outer shorts that had ruptured, but I did the next three squats right away.

Just finished second VJB session. It was identical to the first, will be more volume next week. Felt easier. Time for bed, gym tomorrow.

You have a lot of similar goals to me, so I'll be watching your progress!

Good day at the gym.

Squats: 3x5x280
Bench: 3x5x185
Pullups: 8/7/6 x BW(243)

First set of squats was really easy, but the last rep of set 3 was the closest I've ever been to failing a squat. I think I got overconfident and didn't wait long enough between sets. Bench felt identical to last time. Pullups felt good today, maybe I will actually make progress on them this year!

Bonus aftermath from the last time I squatted:

Horrible failure this weekend, birthday party on Friday and I slept till 4pm Saturday, gym closes at 3. Sunday I just bitched out and stayed home and did nothing.

Back on track today though.

Squat 3x5x285
First and second sets were pretty easy, last two reps of 3rd set were very hard. Still need to rest a little longer between sets I think.

Press 3x5x122.5
These were quite easy and very satisfying after the ****tiness of the last press session.

DL 5x320
Hard but got them up. 4 double overhand, 1 mixed.

Gonna do a VJB session tomorrow.

lol i lied. week from hell. haven't got to bed before 5am yet, have to wake up in a few hours. all this school **** is not helping with the training.

on the plus side, got a doorway pullup bar for my birthday so hopefully i can become less pullup-pitiful by banging out one or two every time i pass the bathroom.

Damn. Didn't get to sleep until 5am on any night last week, got a total of maybe 12 hours of sleep in four nights and then predictably got sick. Felt better yesterday, did a VJB workout last night and went to the gym today.

VJB: quite a bit more volume in "week 2" than the first two sessions. I actually had some DOMS today. Not exercising in a week probably contributed too.

Slalom jump: 4x50 (per leg)
Star jump 4x8
Power skipping 4x30 yards
Side to side box jump ~18 inches 4x8
Single leg step-up jump 4x8 (per leg)
Low squat ankle jump 4x30

Today's workout:

Squat: 3x5x290
Decided I had been a pussy to not come last week despite retarded amounts of homework, so I wasn't going to be a pussy when it came to adding weight. This was quite hard, but I'm drinking a GOM right now and will get a decent amount of sleep tonight. I'm beginning to suspect my depth isn't quite there anymore so I'm going to record my squats as soon as I remember to bring my camera.

Bench: 3x5x190. Easy.

Pullups: 7/6/5 x BW(246).
I was hoping for ridiculous pullup improvements today, given that I've been constantly hammering out singles/doubles at home. One thing I've noticed is that using a thumbs-over grip makes it way easier to actually get my chin over the bar. I used to have a lot of trouble with the end of each rep, and didn't really know what it felt like to get my head well above the bar until I tried this grip. Today's pullups were definitely higher than usual, so I'm hoping the decrease in volume was a result of doing more work over a larger range of motion rather than a pure decrease in strength.

Did you do the test at the beginning of the vjb program? Are you testing every week as well? If so, post numbers. I'll post mine too in my log. I'm doing week 1 day 1 of the beginner plyo program along with my own strength training.

I didn't bother with the test, I just thought I could figure out my starting vertical pretty well given I could get the rim + a couple of inches initially. That's at a run, but one reason I started the plyometric program in the first place is that my running and standing jumps are very similar now. Before I started SS and gained 40 pounds my running 1-foot takeoff jump was way higher than my jump from a standstill.

I think recording actual numbers could be interesting though, and it'd definitely give a better idea of the effectiveness of the program over a few months. Quite honestly though, I don't think I'll have results dramatic enough to see much of a change week to week. I'll try a test tomorrow and next Thursday and then decide whether to keep doing them weekly.

Cool to hear you're doing a similar program, I'll keep an eye on your log.

Tested my standing vertical today. 20 +/- 1 inches. Pretty unimpressive, but I'm heavy these days. Should be interesting to see how it changes over the course of the VJB program.

I'm pretty sure mine is like 18 inches or so. Will test it soon by marking a wall with my fingers.

Good session today.

Squat: 3x5x295
Very hard. I'm really hoping I can get to 3 plates before stalling. Time to eat and sleep a lot. Felt some minor pain in my elbow after 2nd/3rd sets, in the past this has happened when my grip is too narrow, but I used my regular grip today. I'll see if it comes back and try to adjust if necessary. Depth felt better today, I think I cut rep 2 of the last set a little shallow but other than that the squats felt good and deep.

Press: 3x5x125
First set I tried breathing at the top again. I suck at it, I need time at the bottom to think about aiming for my nose and tightening stomach/legs etc simultaneously, if I don't have that time it just all goes to ****. Nearly failed second set but third set was easy somehow.

Deadlift: 5x325 double overhand
Surprisingly easy today. May have had some lumbar rounding on the second rep but I think I fixed it after that.

Cool, so we'll be starting from roughly the same place. My method of measuring felt really inexact so I think I'm going to measure monthly instead of weekly to avoid discouraging myself haha.