Oh, also, thx a lot for the comments, both of ya.

Wider grip if necessary, yes. Raising your elbows a bit more is also good.

You can try to raise your toes next time, at least for the warm-up sets - that should teach you how to stay on your heels.

Rip's DL setup is good to follow. And cross-post in the form check thread to get max exposure.

^All righty, will try picking up my toes next time and check out the link.
I already did x-post the vids in form check-thread, but thx for reminding.

23.11.2011

Food:

~2950 kcals / 180g of protein

All right, I think it's time for me to give some thought to nutrition or more specifically decide how to feed myself.

I weighed myself today - 64 kg / 141 lb

I have no idea really, but my initial thought is that ~ 80kg / 177lb might be a reasonable body weight goal for a shortie (5'9") like me.

I also think that a reasonable rate to up my bodyweight is right in the neighborhood of 0,5kg / 1lb per week.
Acquiring weight at that rate would mean that I need to eat a ~3500 kcals surplus per week or on avg a 500 kcals surplus per day.
At that rate it'd take ~32 weeks or 7,5 months to get to 80kg / 177lb.

According to my calculations my calories out average ~2500 kcals per day, so that in mind from now on I'm gonna target ~3000 kcals in per day.

Obviously as my bw increases I need to up my calories gradually to keep getting in that daily ~500 kcals surplus but for now I'm gonna use that 3000 kcals per day as a starting point and see what happens.

I don't think that getting in enough protein will be a problem at all for me - I just naturally happen to like to eat protein-rich stuff.

Other stuff:
Without paying attention to anything else but overall cals and protein my macros seem to land on 30/40/30 (p/c/f)
I try to get in ~30 grams of fiber every day and that is easily achieved seeing that I eat a ****load of whole-grain-rye-bread every day.
I try to get in 500 grams of fruit and veggies every day
I try to favor polyunsaturated/monounsaturated fats but not gonna go crazy about it
AFAIK eating-freq doesn't mean ****, only overall cals do, but I eat every 2-3 hours just cos I like to eat often.

Supplements:

Multivitamin - I take one tab every morning with my breakfast
Fish Oil - I take two caps every morning with my breakfast and two caps every night with my before-bed-meal
PWO-shake - protein from whey-powder and carbs from maltodextrin-powder

Looks good. 80 in 7-8 months will prob have you being somewhere in the 17-20% BF range FWIW, although it's fairly useless to speculate right now - your plan is good anyway. I'd get more fish oil though - see http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/nutrition/qa-2.html. Basically 8-10 caps of standard size every day (you need to check out the EPA/DHA content though).

Apparently the fish oil caps I eat have much more EPA/DHA than 'standard' ones.
The label on my fish-oil bottle says not to exceed 2 capsules per day so that's what I've been taking forever.
However, a few months back I read this http://www.acaloriecounter.com/diet/fish-oil/
and as a result I started taking 4 caps per day, which equals ~2 grams of EPA/DHA. I also eat salmon at least weekly so I think my diet + 4 caps of fish-oil I take now is good.

Re: BF; Yeah, I reckon there's a lot of variance in how ppl respond to putting on weight.
But whatever my BF-% end up being, I don't care, my plan#1 right now is to look like a man first (instead of my current looks of an underweight teenager).
And then after aqcuiring some muscle mass (and fat), drop the possible excessive fat by just eating less (and continue lifting).

Note to self: recharge the ****ing camera battery every now and then!
So no vids this time.

24.11.2011

SS-workout #5

SQ:

2 x 5 x 20
1 x 5 x 27,5
1 x 3 x 37,5
1 x 2 x 42,5
3 x 5 x 45kg/99lb

BP:

2 x 5 x 20
1 x 5 x 27,5
1 x 3 x 35
1 x 2 x 42,5
3 x 5 x 45kg/99lb

DL:

1 x 5 x 60
1 x 4 x 65
1 x 3 x 70
1 x 2 x 75
1 x 5 x 77,5kg/171lb

For some reason everything felt a bit weird/off/bad and I'm sure at least squat form wasn't any better than last time, actually mighta been worse.
I got everything done, but I dunno. Might simply be lack of sleep, been averaging 7- hours per night lately - time to start going bed early!

Food:

3100 kcals / 220 g of protein

I have no idea how applicable this really is http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLi...hStandards.htm

But, just out of curiosity I checked out the standard 1RM weights for an un-trained 140lb dude.
Below is a comparison of standard 1RM's (left) and my latest worksets (5 RM's) (right):

Squat -> 96lb / 99lb
Press -> 65lb / 66lb
Bench -> 103,5lb / 99lb
Deadlift -> 119,5lb / 171lb
Cleans -> 69lb / N/A

My current 5RM's are pretty much in line with the standard starting 1RM's except for my DL which is way above.
Just makes me wonder if my starting weight for DL was too high??

Anyhoo, yesterday while struggling with my Squat- and DL-form, I got an idea that maybe I should not add weight at all until I really get the form nailed down, to me it seems like getting form 100% down is much more important than adding weight at this point.

Anyone?

No point worrying about standards, but if the DL is already getting heavy then resetting it will probably be a good idea. Same with the squat, but from the last vid it didn't look particularly heavy for you. Part of the learning process is learning to deal with lifting near your max.

I'm not particularly worried per se - my DL just seems to be kind of an anomaly compared to my other lifts. I'm sure they'll continue being doable (at least if adding only 2,5kg between workouts) but they do feel heavier than my other lifts - relatively speaking.
So, not going to reset them - just wondered if it would be wise to do yesterday's weight tomorrow and put 100% focus on correct form.
Just one odd-ball form-focus workout w/o adding weight, that's the idea.
But 2,5kg more or less, doesn't matter much. Meh.

Correct, it wasn't, just for the same reason as for DL I thought to maybe not add weight tomorrow.

Yes, that's exactly what I want to do, just also want really, really badly get that mother****ing form(s) nailed down first.

25.11.2011

Food:

3000 kcals / 210 g of protein

26.11.2011

SS-workout #6

After all, I decided to add weight to all lifts.

SQ:

2 x 5 x 20
1 x 5 x 30
1 x 3 x 40
1 x 2 x 45
3 x 5 x 47,5kg/105lb

Re-watched the Squat-part of the SS-dvd before the workout so I had high hopes prior warm-up.
Haven't watched my vids yet but Im' pretty sure my form still sucked big time

OHP:

2 x 5 x 20
1 x 5 x 22,5
1 x 3 x 27,5
1 x 2 x 30
3 x 5 x 32,5kg/72lb

Pressing felt good.

DL:

1 x 5 x 60
1 x 3 x 67,5
1 x 2 x 75
1 x 1 x 77,5
1 x 5 x 80kg/177lb

DL felt prett-ay heavy, I hope I didn't fail completely form-wise.

Food:

3500 kcals (burp) / 230 g of protein

I'll post vids tomorrow.

Videos from yesterdays SS-workout #6:

Squat (47,5kg/105lb):

workset2 -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT_FR4sxnO0

OHP (32,5kg/72lb):

workset2 -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YEj8hLC1sU

DL (80kg/177lb):

workset1 -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkF7_fWyus8

As usual, any critique/advice truly appreciated!

My own thoughts on the videos:

Squat.

Bar position might still be too high, I tried to place it under the top of the shoulder blades, but I dunno, maybe I should try to take a bit wider grip to really get it there - apparently my shoulders aren't too flexible.
Knees travel forward and heels rise. I tried to sit back instead of down but I guess I failed. I wonder if wearing shoes that have a bit of heel would help with that.

OHP:

Form was Ok-ish I guess, 4th rep was a bit funky.
I have a hard time trying to get the bar to rest on the deltoids. Shoulder inflexibility is to be blamed I guess.

DL:

Horrible, much worse than in my 75kg video. Rounded back and ****.
I tried to follow Rip's advice (1-4 below) but watching the video I notice that if I'm not really lowering my hips it seems like my scapulas end up being way forward to the bar instead of over it.

"1. Take your stance, feet a little closer than you think it needs to be and with your toes out more than you like. Your shins should be about one inch from the bar, no more. This places the bar over the mid-foot (not the mid-instep).

2. Take your grip on the bar, leaving your hips up. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

3. Drop your knees forward and out until your shins touch the bar. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR.

4. Hard part: squeeze your chest up as hard as you can. DO NOT MOVE THE BAR. This establishes a "wave" of extension that goes all the way down to the lumbar, and sets the back angle from the top down. DO NOT LOWER YOUR HIPS - LIFT THE CHEST TO SET THE BACK ANGLE."