I've decided to make a new log every 4 months with updates on progress and goals. Here is Part 1
Part 1 Cliffs (Long)
Part 1 Cliffs (Short)

I'm almost 24, 6' 1" at 220lbs and about 27% body fat.

Goals for the next 4 months:
Increase Squat work set from 230 to 300+
Increase Bench work set from 165 to 200+
Increase Deadlift work set from 275 to 400+
Increase Press work set from 115 to 150+
Increase PC work set from 155 to 200+

Maintain (or lose some) weight, but go from ~27% body fat to ~20% body fat.

Do some physical exercise 6x a week. Even if it's just some light swimming, running, or random metcon, I want get some kind of exercise in almost every day. I have some kettlebells and am generally looking to increase my cardiovascular capacity, without severely affecting my lifting progress.

Nutrition:
I'm going to pick 10 things to give up every month, usually high sugar/carb foods. December it's going to be Beer, Pasta, Donuts, Soda, French Fries, Bagels, Cereal, Energy Drinks, Chips, and Pretzels. I don't usually eat some of this stuff, but now it will be none.

I am also going to try and consume 300g of protein every day, and eat between 2500-3500 calories. I'll be doing my best to keep a digital food log at fitday, and try to just get a feel for how many calories I'm eating without keeping track.

I haven't been taking any supplements, but I am going to start now. I will be taking:
Fish Oil
Whey Protein Powder
Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine Hydrochloride
L-Glutamine
And possibly a pre workout energy blend, if I can find a good one, or have one recommended to me.

I also will be taking lots of video of my lifts. My form is still pretty mediocre on most of my lifts. One of my main goals will be to be fully confident in my form 4 months from now.

Other than that, I look forward to making some nice gains, cutting down on some body fat, and generally getting a lot stronger and looking better.

Wish me luck!

Making a new log seems unnecessary.

And then you will be perfect. Stay focussed my man!

gl sir

gl man.

Why are you taking two different forms of creatine btw?

oh yeah just saw that. lol

I don't think it's very common to take both forms of creatine, but I read a few reviews of people who did and had good results. Unless everyone thinks it's a terrible idea I'll probably do it for the next +4 months.

Alright just finished my work out today. I did half at the gym and half at my house. I did some dynamic stretching, and then 5 min on stationary bikes, followed by all warm up sets. And for work sets:

Squat:
235x3x5/5/FAIL

DB Bench:
60x3x5/4/4

Deadlift:
280x1x5


3x10 Jumping Pull Ups
3x10 Push Ups
Finished up with a jog around the block.

Notes:
Squast: Yuck. I'm losing all my lower back tightness at the bottom of the reps. I didn't realize it was so terrible. This was the first time I've ever failed a squat rep, and I'm sure it's for more than 1 reason. I'm not sure how to fix this lower back problem, however. Should I be doing less weight? Keep my chest up more? Any advice on this would be awesome.

DB Bench: Pretty sloppy here. This feels pretty foreign to my muscles, you can really tell. This is only my 2nd time trying a DB bench and I increased it by 10 pounds. I am hopefully going to buy a bench this weekend, and then go back to doing real bench press soon.

Deadlift: I thought my back was a lot better than it looks. It felt fine, but obv looks terrible. On that note, 280 was actually fairly easy, and I would consider this a minor victory because I've been sucking at DL so much recently. My form is pretty bad though.

And for my post workout meal:
1/2 pound shrimp with cocktail sauce, 1 banana, 1/2 cup pineapple, 1/4 cup macadamia nuts, and protein shake:

lol that was a good fail. You didn't seem too weak for the lifts except in the core (MIKE BOYLEEEE), but you just lost that good. Why'd your foot come off the floor? You had it, imo.

Your stance is too wide. Really actively blow those abs out. Helps you stay tight and rigid through the torso.

lololol i never noticed my foot come off the floor. I'm pretty sure it was just my body trying to balance. I def came up from the squat wayyy to far forward and basically lost my balance more than anything. I was going to finish my set but I was a little embarrassed at everyone looking at me.

And I was noticing my stance looked a little wide but wasn't sure. So, I'll try and keep my core even tighter, narrow my stance a little, really focus on keeping my lower back tight, and hopefully my squat will look better.

It seems to me that your bending your knees to early on the deadlift deload. Bend at waist/stick ass out until bar is below knees and then lower.

descent isn't as bad as the lift. Work on setting your back better. Chest up!

What is your maintenance cals/day Johnny? Mine is 3200ish I'm guessing, we are similar sizes.

Johnny,

you really need to fix that back on the DL, or you're risking back injury.

You're staring straight ahead at the start of the lift, which isn't helping your position any. And you're bending too soon at the knees on the descent, notice the bar path?

Definitely need to work on keeping your trunk tight -- this is why very soon in your squat workout, your hips start to outrun your chest. As you get more fatigued, it gets more pronounced. You are alternating between moving your hips up and your chest up. Everything needs to come up together.

I thought the first couple of reps were good and you seem to have a good grasp on hip drive, so try thinking "chest up" throughout the rep and see what it does for you.

Goddamnit will you fools just subscribe to the AARR hayachsdhacshacshhh

I wish I could fail that gracefully.

Not sure what maintenance is for me, BA. That sounds about right, it might be a little high. Starting mid week I'm going to really start researching a lot more, and probably just start eating a slight deficit.

Alright, I subscribed to AARR. In my defense I tried in once but my paypal account was scrwed up and they don't take CC if you have a paypal acct which is pretty stupid. Anyway, I got that taken care of so I have a lot of reading to do, and hopefully stop posting stupid nutrition plans, goals, etc.

Got a good workout in today. Well, it was a lot of work, the videos will reveal if it was good or not. Hooray for videos! Booooh, just saw that my camera really messed up, the vids kinda suck.

Squat Work Set:
240x3x5

Notes: Alright, I failed the last set of 235 last time, but I dun cur, I still upped it to 240 this time. I got a little gunshy and was afraid I would fail, and you can tell o some reps. My very last rep on my last work set was super teribad, but overall it looks like I have gotten rid of some of the lower back relaxing that I've been doing. I'm still doing something pretty wrong there, however. My lower back felt super agitated afterward, and I'm sure that's not a good sign. And wtf, it sure feels harder than it looks.


Press Work Set:
100x3x5

Notes: Well I actually tried 120 first, but I got 4 reps up somewhat easily and couldn't get the 5th one even close to over my head. So I decided to drop down to 100 for a reset and go up by 2.5 increments, especially now that I got my washers. This was my plan originally, but I couldn't help but see if by some miracle I could manage to do 120x3x5. Oh well.

Power Cleans Work Set:
160x4x3

Notes:Uhhh, I thought I did 5 sets, but I guess not. Hmmm. Anyway, last time I taped these my back was super awful. It still looks bad, but it's a lot better than it was last time. I'm really going to have to work on getting in extension. And I think that these are finally getting so heavy that I can't even do anything that resembles a power clean. Oh, I guess I failed the 3rd rep on the 2nd work set, too. Oh well, it's probably time for a reset on this, it's what I'm benching ffs.

And now, Vacation Time!!!! I'm headed to Reno tomorrow morning after I get off work. I'll be there for 3 days, and make no plans on keeping any part of my diet while I'm there, but I do plan on trying to do some sort of workout while I'm there, but I don't count on having anything available. GOGOGO run gooood!

Some stream of consciousness:

PC: quite a noticeable premature arm bend, consider reading

http://www.cathletics.com/articles/i...ty&shortyID=49

and use a hips lower starting position, the weight might be too heavy, your catching it with your elbows pointed down to the ground when they should be forward (I have the same problem, the last few workouts I've really focused on slamming my elbows forward and it has helped), your lower back seems rounded, maybe try keeping your feet closer together (about hip width read the article) at the beginning, yeah you're pulling with your arms a lot and the catch position is bad, the weight is probably too heavy

Hiya!!!

squat is weird. you do like a bouncing motion at the top before you pop into the descent. doesn't seem like it helps you at all. stance is still probably wide. if there's one thing to work on first, it's your knees. they never stop moving until the instant you hit the bottom (which is high on a lot of these). take a narrower stance and try to make your knees stop a third of the way down, and repost.

you lean too far back when you press. your grip looks okay but it's like you lean back to make the bar rest on your deltoids. look at this post: http://startingstrength.com/resource...0&postcount=10

Johnny,

you're sort of good morning some reps, at least the ones where form is breaking down. I would assume this to be the cause of your lower back pain.

You also need to keep elbows higher imo. This will help you feel more balanced (the back supporting the weight fully), as well as avoiding possible elbow/tricep/bicep tendinitis.

Alright, I slacked off a little, but I was on vacation so hey it's all good. Anyway, finally got back to the gym this morning, felt a little rusty.

Squat work set:
225x3x5

I dropped down a little since it's been a week since I squatted last, and because my form was sucking anyway. My first two reps on every set were really good, felt good, tight back, knees out, good depth, but after that, my form went pretty bad. The depth was still good, but I totally lost all tightness in my back, I could totally feel it. It's alright, just more to work on, and hopefully not go a week without squatting for a long time.

I messed around with some dumbbell bench press but I can't really count anything here. I def just moved around some heavy DBs and that's as close to a workout as I got with those.

And, last but not least, set s new PR:
Deadlift 345

I didn't do it really as a form check, but I think my back is still rounded, it's hard to tell. This actually wasn't as hard as thought it would be, maybe could have done 10 more, but I'll hold off on that for a while.

Oh well, not a great workout, but it was better than nothing.

i know some people don't worry too much about butt wink during squats, but after having a chiro show me with a spine model what is happening in the lower back when it is at different positions of tightness, it freaks me out to see me butt wink. i guess if you have no pain, fine. but i'd be careful because it seems that when butt wink happens, the lower back is no longer super-duper tight (thus leading to all kinds of potential pain), tho i could be wrong.

Yeah I agree, that's why I dropped my weight in squats today, I really want to try and get good form. I esp want to keep my lower back tight, I think it's my biggest weak point right now.

bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbox squatsssssssssssssssssssssssssssss