The more I think about it and read other people's logs I feel like I'm stalling way too early on squats. Maybe I'm just being paranoid.

Read my log, it will make u feel good about ur squats.

hahaha I weigh a hundred pounds more than you!

Today was a rough one. I was planning on doing my warm up squats and seeing how I was feeling. I decided to drop down to 215. **** was wayyyyy heavy. I got it done and bar speed was better.

Ohp was a struggle but I got through it. Cleaning the bar from the floor takes a ton out of me.

Then I practiced power cleans at a lower weight of 75. Felt better but the video will tell.

Squats 3x5x215
Ohp 3x5x115 (pr)
Power cleans 5x3x75

I'll post video when I get home from work

Press - check out my power lol to get the bar off the ground so bad.



Power Clean - I think I just need to rack the bar more. These still feel unnatural.

I highly recommend it. I've been doing IF really casually for a few weeks. Have only lost a few lbs due to my half-assery but it's really improved how I feel daily, especially on lifting days when I feel like I've got extra fuel in the tank.

Plus, my coworkers are obsessed with eating timely meals so they're blown away by the fact I have to be careful to not forget to eat once my window opens. Hunger has become completely non-existant! No small feat when you weigh 255lb lol. :-)

Well here's a different one. Did 220 on squats today, going forward with 5lb jumps seemed to make the most sense. Form was good, and bar speed was better but still a bit slow. Banged them out and didn't feel too ****ty.

Bench was next did really well the first two sets. Last set I asked for a spotter, why did I do that? I unracked the bar ****ty and it must have thrown me off, because I failed on my fourth rep. He had to troll me and say "let's count that one" f you buddy.

Then I started to warm up deadlifts, the warm ups felt heavy as crap. 255 which was my final warm up felt like a work set. I loaded up 305 and that **** didn't leave the ground. Discouraged, I racked the weights and went home.

squats 220x3x5 (pr)
bench 145x2x5 *fail*
deadlift 305x0 *fail*

I don't really know what to do. I got 8 hours of sleep last night, have been eating at a deficit of around 2300 on off days, that's the only thing I could think of.

Reset and try to work up again. If you fail again, realize that you won't make progress on a deficit forever and prioritize.

Well my priorities are getting stronger first and then getting leaner second. I guess Ill try 295 on friday and see what happens.

Should I just eat everything in sight and just focus on protien?

If your focus is on getting stronger first, you'll have to eat a bit more. I wouldn't eat everything in sight though. If you're currently on a deficit, try eating at maintenance. After that, it's basically your own choice how far you want to push linear gains. If you want to push it to the max, you have to eat like a horse at the tail end. If not, then you can eat less but progress will stop sooner. If I were you I wouldn't go crazy with the eating since I don't think the little extra strength gain is worth the significant increase in body fat which is likely. It's just gonna be a bitch to get that extra flab of afterwards, and looking a year or two ahead it'll take longer to achieve your goals.

I'd focus on eating mostly "healthy" food, i.e. lots of meat, fish and complex carbs (although some pasta and stuff shouldn't be off limits at all). That way you won't go bananas on food that puts you far into surplus territory like e.g. sugary treats, ice cream, potato chips etc. And yeah, focus on protein. Obviously easier to eat enough protein at maintenance+ so you don't need to obsess as much as on a deficit.

pretty pumped up. Finally got 225 on squats! My bar speed was awesome and they were the best squats I've done since the beginning of january. Failed on OHP but I'm not shocked, I'm actually surprised I made it to the third set without failing, I wanted to get them done bad, just didn't have it in me. I have officially given up on power cleans after reading over the section on them in SS. My forearms are pretty long and it feels super awkward/painful to rack the bar. Feedback on this would be nice. So I did pendlay rows and they felt good. Pretty pumped still about the 225.


Squats 3x5x225 (WR!)
Ohp 2x5x120
Pendlay Rows 3x5x135

You can do stretches and work on getting into the rack position if you want it - it's definitely possibly for basically anyone to achieve. Of course, if you need an excuse (like me) it's pretty handy

I go back and forth. I just feel so awkward doing them.

I agree with Soulman. Get used to the rack position.

Hang cleans are pretty awesome.

I always sweat my ass off doing them; they work your whole body like crazy!

One thing that helps with comfort- widen your grip just a bit. When you're in the rack position, your hands should be outside your shoulders, not on top of them. It made a difference for me, anyways.

So I suggest that you try hang cleans. When you're feeling good enough with them, then you should feel confident enough to try power cleans again. I've done hang cleans a few times, and I think I'll be ready for power cleans after a few more hangs.

Good job on your overall progress!

I'd be down to still try power cleans but I feel like all my lifts are progressing way past the poundage I'm able to do with pcs? Won't these be a problem if I spend every other workout practicing these?

that press video is hilarious and awesome all rolled into one

sick you got 5x115, especially with the power lol clean to start

I know. I got it up like a ****** and I'm thinking no way this goes up for five.

maybe thats why I didn't get 120 yesterday. Because I actually cleaned the bar correctly.

meh if you got 2x5x120 you didn't fail

you're closing in on intermediate standards for the press so you might want to switch the programming up from just a standard 3x5 every 4-5 days.

really? i thought i had a long way to go. What do you suggest?

your 1rm is probably ~140

I think the best way to increase the press is to increase volume, whether that's more reps throughout the workout, or more times pressing throughout the week.

So if I wanted to increase reps, what would I shoot for. Like 110 for ten reps? Totally clueless at this aspect of training.

Nah, he means increase your volume per week, not reps per set.

If anything, you should be doing singles to work on your start off the chest because you're bouncing your reps like a mfer in that 115x5 vid.

you could do reverse pryamid stuff like

115x5
105x7
95x10

or just do a back off set after 3x5x115, you'd then do a set to failure at a certain percentage, or leave one rep in the tank if you find that going to failure wrecks you for future workouts.

You could throw in accessory work like DB presses, dips, pushups, etc...

I will say some of this is lolbroscience (anecdotal evidence) that has worked for me...