So I stayed up all night reading about nutrition and have been reading all day as well. I guess I need to buy Lyle's GFD as well but at $40 it's out of my price range.

He does make good points re: Insulin and carb hate that makes up much of what Taubes and others seem to preach(though I barely picked up the book).

Basically I'm gonna try to cut out all junk and processed stuff as best I can and mainly try tweaking my calories to a deficit and making sure I get enough protein.

I will attempt to bring my camera into the gym for the first time tomorrow, so if they don't kick me out I should finally get some vids up tomorrow or thur(if I have time to upload, etc.)

Hit the gym today after a decent layoff.

Warm-up: 5 mins on bike.

I realize this isn't optimal, but it will be my warm-up until I get a foam roller(soon) and get Maximum Strength(or any free alternatives available now, links?)

Squat
3x5@95

Bench
3x5@75

DL
1x5@140

I recorded my Squat and Deadlift. Unfortunately some dbag took it upon himself to clean the whole gym, grabbing everyone else's stuff, while I was DLing, and he walked into the vid, but there's still some clean reps to look at. I feel like I'm doing something wrong on the DL but can't quite pin it down, which is where you guys come in. The place that the bench was set up, there wasn't a good area to place the cam this time as all the other benches were being used. Maybe next time.

Have some things to take care of, so videos will be up later tonight.

If I do not post the vids by 12 noon pacific tomorrow I will ship $50 on FTP to the first person to post.

Videos!

Second set of squats

Third set

Deadlift set

Having the guy walk towards my camera kinda broke my concentration too. Also the plate aren't round so they land weird and therefore I have to reset my feet on some sets.

Decided your log would be a better place for it.

ugh epic fail. forgot to copy before I deleted. Redo:

squats - not bad sir, not bad at all. You have a weird hitch at the start which is caused by breaking at your knees first. Hips and knees should break at the same time, though some prefer to break at the hips slightly before the knees. Both are better than breaking at the knees first. You have a bit of a buttwink going on at the bottom, but that will probably clear itself up as the weight goes up and you get more mobile. From this angle, can't tell if your knees are staying out over your toes. They are shooting forward a tad at the bottom, but that might just be because of your buttwink.

Deadlifts - look very good on the way up. Way down just remember should be the same thing in reverse.

overall very solid and you should progress nicely.

Thanks for the tips.

Next time I'm gonna try to get a diagonal/behind angle for both. This time around the gym was somewhat crowded and some guys were working out behind me so I couldn't place the camera there.

I also plan on getting some weightlifting shoes(waiting on Do-Wins to come off backorder) so hopefully that will help with the knees moving at the bottom.

These are the two things that I was thinking. Back looks good esp on DL, much better than most beginners.

those are some of the best beginner deadlifts i have ever seen, great set up lumbar extension. squats look good, like the other guys said you have some butt wink but w/e it will probably go away on its own. keep at it this time and don't be a p***y, ez game.

Diet was super craptastic yesterday.

Breakfast- Oatmeal w/ milk, sliced banana and protein powder
PWO- 2 McDoubles(1 no bun)
Dinner- Couple chunks of meatloaf, pinto beans
Later that night- BK Big Fish, small fries

Today, so far 3 egg scramble w/ tomatoes, onions and green peppers and glass of milk
Later on I'll probably have 1/4 rotisserie chicken and salad
tonight hopefully stick to maybe a can of tuna and some fruit or somethin, maybe protein powder

Gotta get my diet in order.

Thanks for the feedback on the lifts. kpc, I definitely need to man up and do it. Third time's a charm, hopefully.

2/11/10

Squat
3x5x105

Press
3x5x65

DL
1x5x155

PWO meal of the new Domino's Pizza and beer lmao so terrible but I just moved into a new place and haven't been to the store yet. Might go tomorrow and stock up on decent food. Although I don't think I'm gonna start out cutting immediately. I might just eat whatever for a month and see what happens.

I'd like to get a nice 2:3:4:5 ratio before the year ends, like 160:240:320:400 as 1RM might be kinda hard to do tho since I'm short so I'd have to be a beast or a fat ass.

Vids in the morning.

Got sick last week. I was in NO condition to work out at all. Great timing obv with me just starting back. Oh well.

I'm uploading the videos from the last workout now. Will probably just go ahead and increase the poundages but I will see how things go during warm-ups first.

Edit: Youtube comment from my squat video "Keep your chest out and look up put the bar higher up it seems like your leaning to far forward" meh...

Skwat Set 1

Skwat Set 2

Press Set 1

Press Set 2

Deadlift

Sick calf work goin on in the DL vid lol

Also all sets are sets 2 and 3 not 1 and 2

press grip might be too wide. your forearms need to be vertical, meaning your elbows need to get forward under the bar. leaning back a little (keep glutes and abs tight) will help.

could mess with narrowing your squat stance. otherwise they look great. just keep trying to keep your lower back tight and extended on the way down and your wink will decrease a lot.

hump the bar in the deadlifts

Thanks for the input. I've always wondered about my stance in squats and the right width, because it seems like I have pretty broad shoulders. I'll shorten it a bit.

You're probably right on the press. It's my worst exercise too so I probably have lots to improve on.

Hopefully I can get a chance to record my bench. Suggested angles?

came to post the same stuff miles said. only thing I'd add is you could also play with bringing your toes in a touch. they look to be ~45 degrees out. Try ~30 and see how it feels.

After like a month off I went again today, no vids though because I was rushing out the house and forgot the camera.

Squat
3x5x115

Bench
3x5x75

Deadlift
1x5x160

TBH I had some personal issues going on the last month and didn't get in the gym. But no more excuses now. I picked up Cressey's book MS for the stretching stuff and purchased a foam roller, seems to be helping my knee slightly already although it's too early to say. I also ordered some Rogue Do-Wins and chalk and they should arrive tomorrow or Friday. Can't wait for that.

Kinda funny, 4 or 5 of my cousins/friends have all started P90x together this month. They keep talking about it and even tried to get me to join them. I'm pretty motivated to do SS to the T and just blow their "progress" out of the water. I should try to get one of them to do a log here lol.

Your squat grip looked really wide in those earlier vids. I guess it doesn't matter if you're not having problems with the bar staying stable.

Yeah I'm def working on shoulder flexibility right now, inching my hands closer and closer to my shoulders with each set. Should be good in a few more workouts. But yeah I'm pretty good at keeping my back tight and the bar stable so that hasn't been an issue on any sets.

Went to Target and picked up an Iron Gym Workout Bar today. Gonna GTG pull-ups. As soon as I tried it this morning I couldn't get 1 pull-up(it was very early in the morning) so I did some negatives. As the day went on I did a couple reps every hour or so. Just now I completed 2 reps with kipping. Not sure I should be progressing that fast in one day. Maybe I was just too tired earlier.

Anyway that's gonna be a part of my routine everyday until I can get multiple reps with multiple sets, in which case I'll probably add them as part of my programming at the gym.

Don't worry, that sounds normal and it's just your body getting warmed up to the movement. Even if it were weird that is no reason to hold yourself back. Go at it.

iron gym is a great investment. you will be doing multiple reps+sets in no time doing what you are doing. get some reps in when you are at the gym using the gravitron or some negatives there also.

I have no idea how to use that pull-up machine thing lol. Tried it once and it felt like the platform was just pulling me up. Will def get some negatives in.

I think I need to work on pull-up form though. I feel it in my arms when I do the exercise, not my back. Is this correct?

you should be feeling it in both. narrow grip palms facing you uses arms the most, wide grip palms away from you uses them the least. the former are probably a little better but its no biggie either way really.

Yea I'm wondering if I mostly feel it in my arms now because they're weaker compared to my back.

Haven't done any chins yet since pull-ups are supposed to be harder, but I should probably start doing both.

Def seems like my body was like "wtf are you trying to do?" and now it's like "oh, ok, that's what you were doing." lol

I was waiting for UPS to bring my Do-Wins before I hit the gym today but I'm getting antsy, might just head out.

Mon 3/29

Squat
3x5x125

Press
3x5x70

DL
1x5x170

WL shoes did wonders on squat, but I went barefoot for the DL. Not sure if they should be used for those?

I screwed up. Today was supposed to be a Wed workout, not Fri, but I ended up doing the Press. I deliberately repeated weight at squat and DL because I'm going to Vegas tomorrow and I was gonna squeeze in a workout in the am but didn't want to be too fatigued.

Squat
3x5x125

Press
3x5x75

DL
1x5x170

Vids coming up later. Hopefully the Do-Wins helped some of the issues I had last time I posted vids.