Hah! damn now that I remember it, last cycle around weeks 4-7 I got light headed after deadlifts pretty much every week. School is really slowing down and I'm getting lots more sleep and eating better. I'll probably be missing 1 or 2 workouts next week cause I'm moving for a while and I'll need to find a new gym. I'm thinking I'll just be sticking to some high quality whey+creatine and I'll add in a good multivitamin and fish oil. I looked into some preworkout supplements like Gaspari Superpump but I don't like the side effects I'm reading that a lot of these things have and I've never been a fan of caffeine.

I'm not so sure if I should mix my whey with milk or water. Milk would be kinda nice just because it's got extra protein, calcium, and calories which are good for my goals. But from what I've read it takes a lot longer to get into your body and it's not so good as an immediately post workout thing. Obviously it's not too good pre either, since milk bloats me up a bit. I'm thinking I'll mix with water pre and post, and do milk in the mornings and right before bed. On a good day I try to get in a shake right when I wake up, pre and post workout, and immediately before bed, but I forget 1 or 2 very often.

Week 4, Day 3, Shoulders+Traps

Warmups were overhead press, 12xbar, 4x65, 2x75, 1x95. Also did just 3 warmup sets for barbell shrugs, forgot what weight I used.

Standing overhead press: 5x100, 5x105
Powercleans: 6x115, 6x120
Barbell Shrugs: 5x200, 4x200
Seated Military Press: 6x120, 5x125

Really satisfied with the way shoulders and traps day goes now. I think this will be the final draft of what I'm going to do for this day for the remainder of the cycle. I really just don't feel the side raises very much and they kinda make weird popping noises in my shoulders. They're isolation exercises mostly anyway, ****'em.

I decided to take a rest day today, mostly because I have a compulsory workout at 8 in the morning on Thursday and there is no way in **** I'm doing back in the morning, so I put off chest day for that morning workout so I can do back on Friday afternoon. It's the last 8 o clock workout I have to do and then I plan on doing every workout in the afternoon or evening where I can have a meal 2 hours prior and give 100%, I just can't do that most of the time in the morning and I reckon I'm way more prone to injury working out in the morning as well, especially on more sensitive lifts like squats and deads.

Week 4, Day 4, Chest+tris

Warmups were flat press, 12xbar, 7x105, 4x115, 2x135, 1x145

Flat barbell bench press: 6x165, 5x165 with a forced rep at the end
Weighted Dips: 6x bw+45, 6x bw+45
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 6x55, 5x60
Skull crushers: 6x70, 5x70
Close Grip Flat Barbell Bench Press: 6x105, 5x115

Today was a morning workout, I decided to back off the weight on dips and try doing them a little differently, leaning forward more than I did usually, and keep the form 100% perfect. I went very deep on each rep and it felt great.

Week 4, Day 5, Back+Biceps

Warmups were deadlifts, 7x135, 4x155, 2x185, 1x205

Deadlifts: 5x235, 5x235, 4x240
Bent Over Barbell Rows: 6x120, 4x125
Seated Cable Rows: 6x120, 5x120
Curl Bar Curls: 6x90, 2x100 (failed hard), 4x90
Pullups: 12xbw

Today I made some progression on deadlifts which was nice, I was grunting and yelling like an ******* throughout all 3 sets though, I kinda felt bad for the rest of the gym. My form wasn't even close to perfect on barbell rows today, I'm dropping the weight to work on it next week. This cycle is the first time I've done them so I should probably focus on keeping the form strict. Overall a pretty intense and energetic workout. Also, yesterday the gym was closed for a staff appreciation party or some bull****, so I was forced to take a rest day. **** the staff, they just host lame ass group "exercise" that women go to to feel better about themselves and gossip and **** without actually putting in any effort or exercising. I committed a cardinal sin against the program, went out drinking and stayed up all night on the rest day.

I got lightheaded during warmups, but I was ok during the work sets. I'm considering doing a starting strength program after this cycle. I'm not sure my body can really handle 3 solid cycles in a row, even with the week off. Some of the people on bodybuilding.com seem to bridge their max-ot cycle with other stuff, like DC training, but DC definitely seems way too advanced for me. Does anyone know if there's any way I can do starting strength but get in the gym 5 days a week instead of only 3? I'd lose my mind with only 3.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been rather busy with my finals week at school and then moving. I did shoulders and chest and didn't make an entree for either day. I'll be back in the gym either tomorrow or sunday though.

Week 5, Day 1, Back

****ing finally back in the game. LA Fitness are a bunch of ****in *******s and have no v bar attatchment at a multimillion dollar facility. There are also 2 squat racks and infinity elipticals and treadmills. The price was outrageous as well, thankfully I play poker. I'm only here for 8 weeks before I move back up to college and go back to my university's gym, which rules comparatively. LA fitness also have the most transparent sales tactics imaginable, it really is comical they get away with charging so much.

Warmups were deadlifts, 7x135, 4x165, 2x185, 1x205
Deadlifts: 4x235 (accidentally was using overhand grip, lol), 5x245, 3x250
Low Cable Rows, straight bar only: 6x135, 5x145, 4x150
Bent over Barbell Rows: 6x125, 6x125
lat pulldowns: 6x130
straight bar curls: 5x95, 4x100

La fitness does not have adjustable curl bars, they spend the huge amount of money we give them on more treadmills, yoga instructors, and ab machines for fat douchebags. Also there are no 35s, like many posters have noted in the general gym observations thread. Anyway, the workout went fairly well, my lifts on lat pulldown and low cable row didn't spike up or anything, I just had to guess on the weight before since it wasn't labeled at my school gym. I botched the first set of deadlifts just a little bit by using a double overhand grip for some strange reason. I didn't even try to get in a 4th rep with 250 on deadlift which was a little disappointing. I'll get it next week though, it's pretty easy to add on 5 lbs a week with deadlifts still.

Since I had an involuntary week off, I'll probably stretch this one out to week 12 or 13 before taking my scheduled week off. Guess I shouldn't be too worried about overtraining now.

That's what you should be using, lol.

**** 35's anyway.

I haven't managed to use overhand grip for at least 10 weeks now. When my deadlift went up to around 205 or so my grip gave out way before my lats, traps, hams etc were even close to failure. I'm doing a left hand underhanded and right hand overhanded grip, just for clarification, not some crazy double underhand chicanery. Wrist straps would be a little silly, obviously, but I may invest in some chalk and see about going back to double overhand grip if there's a particularly convincing reason why it's superior. I checked the ss wiki page on deadlift and it said alternating grip was fine, if you have some other reason why I need to double overhand, feel free to enlighten me. Although I know I shouldn't be worried about specific body parts at my beginning/intermediate level my forearms have always been rather small and I wouldn't mind reducing the weight a little bit but using double overhand grip if it's significantly better for forearm development.

Week 5, day 2, shoulders+traps

Warmups were standing overhead press, 12xbar, 4x65, 2x75, 1x95. Also did warmups for shrugs, 10x135, 4x185, 2x195

Standing overhead press: 6x100, 5x105
Powercleans: 6x120, 4x125
Barbell Shrugs: 5x225, 4x225 (no idea how/why these spiked up so much, did 1 set at 205 and it felt super light so I counted it as a warmup)
Seated Military Press: 6x120, 6x125

I swapped shoulders with legs to give myself a day between dls and squats/sldls. Today only took me like 35 minutes and it was really a breeze. Also I weighed in at 154 today, making gains! LA fitness is super crowded, but there are a lot of good looking girls in there, more than at my college's gym, oddly. Also most of the crowding isn't over the freeweights section so it's not really a huge problem. I need to buy a dipping belt, I've always used the ones provided by my school gym. Anyone know the best place to get one at an inexpensive price? I can order online, they have a weighted dip hammer strength machine I can use for next chest day until I get the belt.

A) Double overhand grip allows symmetry when pulling. With a mixed grip, one arm is necessarily further away from the body than the other (cuz the hand is closer on the underhand side). This can lead to the bar twisting slightly, the stress on the low back unequal, etc etc.
B) Double overhand is also HARDER to do, so it therefore works the grip more. Whenever possible, use double overhand grip, and only switch once your grip starts to slip. I often do 2-3 reps of my workset with double overhand then switch to mixed when my grip slips. You need as much grip work as you can handle, and probably more since it is extremely limiting your DL performance.
C) Useful things: grippers, static holds, farmer's walks, fat bar work, pinch grip work.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try doing double overhand for the first few reps of the set until it slips and then switch over. I've never seen this done or heard this before, sounds like a very good idea though. Also I'm going to do all warmup sets with double overhand.

Why is your military press so much more aren't they basically the same lift? If anything I thought your OHP should be more.

If you are going to use a mixed grip, alternate which ones are over and under every set in order to avoid muscle imbalance and all that.

I don't know about you guys, but I can't deadlift 300 pounds for a few reps when I am using a double overhand grip. If you can do it, then I salute you. If you can't, I think it is a little silly to let your deadlifting progress stagnate because you refuse to use a mixed grip.

I don't think he should limit his DL because of his grip either, but he's not doing his grip any good by completely avoiding double overhand lifting.

I'm a little puzzled by this myself. I'm not using any momentum during standing, and I only started doing standing this cycle, have been doing seated for much longer.

Week 5, Day 3, Legs
Warmups were squats, 12xbar, 6x115, 4x135, 2x155, 1x175

Squats: 6x190, 6x190, 6x190, 5x190
Stiff Legged Deadlifts: 4x185, 5x185
Leg Press: 6x430, 4x435

I made some changes to leg day for more squats and less other stuff. It was super quick today and I got done in under 40 minutes, which was great with how crowded and sweaty it was in the gym when I got there today.
Also I'm going to get started with GOMAD pretty soon. Milk has not been a major part of my diet for several years though, so I'm starting pretty slowly and not jumping straight into a gallon of whole milk a day. Drank half a gallon of 2% throughout the day in addition to normal meals today. I read about it in the starting strength wiki and apparently Rippetoe says it's better than steroids for newer/younger trainees like myself. It's supposed to be a short term thing also, I'll do it for around 8 weeks.

I had my shoulder day today. I usually do standing OHP, but I decided to see how seated would go.
Last wo I did standing OHP:
6x150
6x150
5x150

Today:
4x150 (seated, my goal was 6, but it was way harder)
5x150 (standing, couldn't get the 6th one)
I skipped breakfast and ate some crappy food for lunch and didn't warm up like usually do, so that might have had something to do with my ****ty wo, but seated was much tougher than standing for me.

Week 5, Day 4, Chest+tris

I took yesterday off as you can see. Warmups were flat press: 12xbar, 6x95, 4x115, 2x135, 1x145

Flat bench press: 6x160, 5x165
Decline Bench Press, 6x165, 6x165
Incline dumbbell bench press, 6x55s, 6x60s
Close grip bench press (hands not like super close or touching as I was doing previously, but closer grip than regular press): 5x135, 4x135
Hammer Strength machine dips: 6x150, 6x150

Using the hammer strength instead of a dipping belt was unavoidable unfortunately, I'm going to have mine for next week though hopefully. I don't know if I used the machine correctly and I'm not sure how much it weighs with any plates added to it, but I definitely prefer old school dips. If not I'll probably sub in some other exercise, I just don't trust hammer strength/smith machine chicanery. I'm not sure why incline and decline press were both so much better than flat press, I think I took too little time between warmup sets for flat press.

I'm starting the gallon of whole milk per day thing tomorrow, I'll probably do it for only 4-6 weeks. Somebody worked it out and it adds up to around 2.5k calories for the whole gallon. Hopefully in addition to my regular diet I can squeeze in 4k calories a day which should be more than enough to grow substantially. I'm fresh out of protein powder and creatine and I won't have any until my bodybuilding.com order gets here, which also has my dipping belt.

Warmups were standing overhead press, 12xbar, 4x65, 2x75, 1x95. Shrugs, 10x135, 4x185, 2x195

Standing overhead press: 6x105, 6x105
Powercleans: 6x120, 4x125
Barbell Shrugs: 6x225, 4x225
Seated dumbbell shoulder press: 6x50s, 4x55s

I had a little mixup with this week's routine order, but after having swapped legs and traps, this week was double trap week and next will be double legs. Today I was super lethargic in the gym, it got up to 102 and the heat was really bothering me. I guess it's better than where I live 10 months out of the year where we often get snow in mid april/early may. Trips through blizzards to the gym are not fun. I felt like a slug and I don't think I went up to potential today. There is also only 1 military press and some guy was using it so I just used dumbbells instead cause I wanted to gtfo of the gym cause I was tired. Tomorrow is going to be one of the only rest days I find myself actually looking forward to.

Week 6, Day 1, Legs
Did warmups for squats and sldl, same weight as last time for squats. SLDL was just 3 sets, bar, 135, 165
Squats: 6x195, 6x200, 4x205
Stiff Legged Deadlifts: 6x185,4x190
Leg Press: 5x435, 5x440

Today felt really crappy. I was very unmotivated and sluggish. Maybe it's from all this heavy dairy I've been consuming. I think I'll try and keep it to a minimum preworkout and load up on it after I'm done because the energy was just not there today. I wanted to do one more set of squats but some poor guy had been waiting on me since I started warmups and I wasn't feeling at 100% anyway so I just let him have the rack. I'll weigh in tomorrow, I'd sure I've gained a decent bit of weight having had so much of a better diet here at my mom's house and with the gallon of milk a day, even if training hasn't gone as well as I'd have liked. My goal weight for end of summer was 160, I'm guessing I'll be reaching that far sooner than end of summer if I keep up with GOMAD for a few more weeks. Long term I'd like to get up to 170 and keep my body fat where it is now or lower. (I'll get it checked later this week)

The dipping belt still isn't here so I guess I'll do machine dips again tomorrow or maybe sub in db flat press.

Week 6, Day 2, Chest+tris

Warmups were decline press, 12xbar, 6x95, 4x115, 2x135, 1x155

Decline press: 6x165, 6x170
Flat barbell press: 6x160, 4x165
Dumbbell incline press: 6x60, 6x60
Dumbbell flat press: 6x65, 5x70
Close grip flat press: 6x145
Close grip decline press: 5x140
Skull crushers: 6x70, 5x75

Today went absolutely amazing and I had a lot of energy. I had a really good breakfast in the morning with my dad at a restaurant called The Good Egg. We went for a hike afterword in the morning and it gave my day a good jumpstart I guess. I probably did a little too much at the gym and should have cut out some sets, but I got through it very easily. I had to start with decline today because the flat benches were in use. I'm pretty sure that even if I did the normal order, my decline press would be better than flat press. Just curious, is this normal? Hopefully the dipping belt will be here by next time, dips are my favorite chest/triceps exercise and I've found I just don't like machine dips.

I'd like to hit 250 for at least 5 reps next back day, just cause it's an arbitrary number that ends in 0. If I feel up to it, I'll give 255 a try. I may have to take one of my rest days tomorrow, my hams are really dying from the sldls yesterday and I'm off creatine at the moment and I'm definitely noticing much slower recovery.

Week 6, Day 3, Back

Warmups were deadlifts for 7x135, 5x155, 3x185, 1x205. Also did 2 warmup sets for bent over barbell rows, 10xbar, 4x115

Deadlifts: 5x250, 5x250, 4x250
Barbell rows: 6x130, 5x135
Seated cable row: 6x150, 6x150
curl bar curls: 6x95, 5x100
Pullups: 16xbw, 11xbw

Today was pretty good. I didn't go for 255 cause I was too damn tired after sets one and two. The gym was really empty today as always at this point in the week. Seems like it's always packed monday and gets progressively less busy as the week continues for obvious reasons, but it's far more drastic at a commercial fitness center than my college gym, which I'm really missing by the way. I need to change the way I warmup for deadlifts and probably increase the weight of warmup sets as well as add in one more light set for 10-12 at the beginning at like 115 or something. I did all warmups with double overhand and did all work sets starting with double overhand and switching when my grip was slipping. I had to do the last 2 reps for both of the first 2 sets with alternating. The last set though I managed to get through all 4 with just double overhand.

Somebody tell me about static holds for training grip strength, I'm too damn cool to look it up.

I was wondering the same thing as I was reading your post. We don't have a decline press, so I'm not sure, but I would think flat bench should be mroe than decline.

I think the ROM may be slightly shorter.

Week 6, Day 4, Traps+Shoulders

Powercleans: 3x130, 3x130, 3x130, 3x130
Standing overhead press: 6x105, 4x110
Barbell Shrugs: 5x230, 5x230
Seated Military press: 6x125, 5x125

I still did warmups for powercleans, standing press, and shrugs. Today was nice and empty and my energy was about average. I'm definitely glad I included powercleans in this routine, my traps feel a lot stronger and even look bigger after only a few weeks. My weight is up to 157.6 now, which I presume is from gomad chicanery and easily taking in 4.5k+ calories/day since I moved. I've also been off creatine for 3 weeks which should have dropped my weight a little bit from the loss of water. I do plan to go back on it however. I've definitely put on a lot of weight in a short time but my strength gain doesn't seem quite proportional. I'm sure plenty of this weight is fat because so much of my calories are coming from whole milk, and I don't think it's humanly possible to gain that much muscle in such a short time. My right forearm is feeling a little sore, I think I may have dropped the weight a little awkwardly during cleans and now it hurts a little bit to tense it.