On weekends it'll be easy to spread out doing them more freely but on work-days I basically have to do them before 8 and after 17 cos between 8-17 I'll be in the office.
4 sets to start sounds good.
And yeah, I don't think doing 2 sets of 50% w a few mins break between will be that taxing.

5.1.2012

SS-Workout # 22

Warmup:

Solid 40 mins of plowing and shoveling snow, a good full-body workout in itself imo.

OHP:

3 x 5 x 41 kg / 91 lb

PC:

5 x 3 x 40 kg / 88 lb

Pull-ups:

3 / 3 / 4

Damn, apparently pull-ups are much harder than chins.
I guess it's the fact that, unlike in chins, I don't get to utilize the vast potential of my massive gunz.

A couple of videos from today.

Press:



PC:



As always, any critique/advice is very much appreciated.

7.1.2012

SS-workout #23

SQ:

3 x 5 x 65 kg / 143 lb

It was supposed to be 72.5 kg today but took some weight off to focus on form.
Dunno if it was any beneficial, need to watch the vids I recorded first.

BP:

2 x 5 x 54 kg / 119 lb
1 x 3 x 54 kg / 119 lb

****. Fail after fail w bench.
I think I need to re-watch Tate's So You Think You Can Bench -series. (and take longer breaks between sets)

DL:

1 x 5 x 90 kg / 199 lb

A couple of videos from yesterday:

Squat:



Deadlift:



As always, any critique/advice is very much appreciated.

Okay, starting next week, I'll be doing Greyskull LP.


Prolly need to drop a bit of weight from my current 3x5 worksets.
(not from squat cos I already did yesterday).
10% sound about right?

On press days I'll be doing BW-chins until I can do 2 x 10-12 (or maybe more?) and then start doing them weighted.

I'll be skipping Neck Harness and replace it w some ab/core-stuff (stuff that come to mind: planks, side planks, hanging leg raises, suit-case deadlifts + maybe something else?)
Maybe I'll buy a Neck Harness later, I dunno.

GTG-chins and pushups.
I'll start slow and low = 3 sets of 3 chins and 3 sets of 12 pushups thruout every day and go from there.

Iirc author says you should start out at a weight that gets you 10 reps or so on the last set. Use a 1rm calc and extrapolate. 2x10 is plenty, don't need more to add weight.

All right, most sources I found via quick googling seem to suggest 10RM to be about 85% of 5RM. (ballpark estimations)

For the first workout I'll cut 15% off of current 5RMS and see what happens.

Thx for all the input BTW.

Sounds good, and no prob. Always nice to give input to people who actually listen (surprisingly rare).

10.1.2012

GSLP-Workout #1

OHP
32.5 kg / 72 lb
5 / 5 / 12

BW-Chins
7 / 6

Squat
60 kg / 132 lb
5 / - / -

Warm-up went fine but the 1st work-set aggravated semi-srs pain in my left thigh so decided to play it safe and call it quits. Whatever I tweaked while plowing snow on last week's Monday hasn't apparently gotten 100% well yet. Disappointing but what can you do.

Planks
3 x 30s

Last week I ate around ~5800 kcals surplus.
Actually prolly less cos I think I'm burning much more calories biking now (-5C to -15C and snow-covered roads) compared to earlier (+5 to +15C and dry, clean asphalt) but whatever.

BW = 67.5 kg / 149 lb (+3.7 kg / 8lb )

Looks like I'm a tad behind my goal of putting on 0.5 kg (1 lb) per week but I blame holidays for that.

They're just not very explosive.

A couple of things that may help:

1) Try the drill where you start in the hang position (i.e. standing upright, arms/bar hanging down) and just jump in the air and do nothing with your arms. Jump pretty hard. You'll know when you're doing it right because you will feel the bar kind of "shudder" when it get to the top of it's path (which of course isn't big because your arms/hands prevent it from coming up because they are just hanging dead).

2) Stand with no bar and pretend you are trying to upper-cut someone in the face as hard as you can with your elbows.

Also, keep in mind that the power in the movement basically all comes from the extension of your hips. I think doing lots of hang-cleans is really good at reinforcing this.

If you haven't seen them, watch these videos "Clean how to video part one/two/three"

http://californiastrength.com/videos...egory/14/clean

I like the way he emphasises from the hang position you should bend at the knees a little and push the hips back. I think this "push the hips back" helps the lifter "feel" or visualise the fact that you are loading up your hamstrings (this you will certainly feel if you are inflexable - like all of us ) and also the fact that you are pushing your hips "back" makes you think more about bringing your hips forward, rather than just jumping (which is more what Rippetoe emphasies).

I like to think your hamstrings are like rubber bands that you are pulling back and then letting "snap" forward.

I hope that all makes sense.

Thx Snitch, need to check out the link before PC'ing today.

12.1.2012

GSLP-WO#2

BP:
45 kg (99 lb)
5 / 5 / 12

BB-Curls:
20 kg (45 lb)
12 / 14

DL:
Lots of HC's and PC's as warmup
10 x 75 kg (166 lb)

Side Planks:
3 x 30s both sides

Tell me if you guillotine your dick on PCs. I can't be the only one.

Hehe, not yet I haven't.
Multiple are the times I've hit my stomach or chest w the bar though.

14.1.2012

GSLP-WO#3

OHP:
34 kg (75 lb)
5 / 5 / 11

BW-Chins:
8 / 7

SQ:
60 kg (132 lb)
5 / 5 / 7

Leg raises:
Random sets of random reps, laying and hanging

17.1.2012

GSLP-WO#4

BP:
46.5 kg (103 lb)
5 / 5 / 12

BB-Curls:
21.5 kg (47 lb)
12 / 12

SQ:
62.5 kg (138 lb)
5 / 5 / 7

Planks:
1 x 40s
2 x 30s

Last week I ate ~3100 kcals per day which should equal ~700 kcals surplus/day.

BW = 67.7 kg / 149 lb (+ 3.9 kg / 8.6 lb)

19.1.2012

GSLP-WO#5

OHP:
35.5 kg (78 lb)
5 / 5 / 11

Reps #10 and #11 weren't pretty.

BW-chins:
9 / 7

DL:
1 x 10 x 77.5 kg (171 lb)

HC's and PC's as warmup, PC-form still sucks big time, basically using my hands way too much to rack the bar.

Side Planks:
3 x 35s

OP,

I'm on a very similar trajectory as you and am following this thread closely.

Do you feel you're plateau'ing very early at bench / overhead press like I am?
I've been stuck at 105 BP / 75 OHP now for like 4 sessions. I can do 5 x 2 and then on the third set just BARELY get by my last rep so have stayed at this weight.

Also, any reason you're doing extra reps on the last set? I definitely don't have the stamina for that yet.

He switched to a different program over his last 5 workouts.

How big are you z28 and how long have you been working out? I'm 5'11", 160 right now, started out pretty weak 3 months ago and have worked my way up to worksets of 62.5kg (137.8lbs) on bench and 45kg (99.2lbs) on OHP. I hadn't really failed any reps until just this weak, but I attribute that to getting a bit undisciplined in terms of eating all the food I'm supposed to and getting 8 hours of sleep. It's amazing how much different I feel from session to session depending on whether or not I've had 3500 calories or 2600 each day.

Skinny guys need to be super diligent with the eating to not stall. See pokerplyrx's (I think) log for an example of doing it fairly right.

Not really plateau'ing but struggling, yes. I did SS for 8 weeks and progressed 88 -> 119 w bench and 66 -> 91 w OHP. After a first few weeks I started adding only 1 kg / 2.2 lb to those lifts but still struggled esp. w bench - my form sucked and it still does but slowly getting better.
But like MF and SM already said, in the end, to really make progress it all pretty much comes down to eating and sleeping well.
How u doing w those two?

Like MF said, 5 WO's / 2 weeks ago I started doing GSLP instead of SS. Basically why I changed programs was because of all the biking I do I just couldn't squat 3x/week. Hell, even 2 times/week that I do now is v v hard cos it's winter here and daily biking in snow really murderes my poor legs.
GSLP is a bit more weighted towards upper body / hypertrophy I guess.
It uses a different rep-scheme, it's 2 x 5 + AMRAP ie. as many reps as possible on 3rd set.
Starting GSLP, I shaved 15% off of my SS-weights of that time. In retrospect 15% was prolly a bit too much seeing that after adding 3lbs twice I'm still doing 11-12 reps on the 3rd set of OHP. However, that won't last long for sure so whatever.
Anyhoo, I really like GSLP, banging out reps on 3rd set is a totally different challenge. Also bro-side of me likes doing curls too
All my lifts are weak but relatively speaking I think squat is by far my weakest lift and I have to admit that it's my least favotite lift to do, too.
I think next workout I'm going to try doing HBBS to see if they feel more natural/comfortable. For some reason LBBS just don't feel right, prolly just form-issues though...

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Everyone's least favorite lift is always their weakest lift, heh.