Here's a video of last nights squats: video

My guess from watching it is that my knees are tracking too far forward, which is probably why they feel a bit strained today.

Also here's my deadlifts: video

These still need a lot of work as far as extending my back, really need to get started with Magnificent Mobility.

You can add dextrose (corn sugar) to your preWO protein shake. It is generally cheapest from homebrewing stores (I get 5lb bags for $4.00).

Oatmeal, Wheat Pasta, Milk, Fruit, whatever

As for shakes, I usually make my pwo shakes with milk and add a banana, some peanut butter, and a scoop of oats. Ends up with about 66g Prot and 64g Carb (and 25g fat)

Squats:
- Bar is too high
- Squishy shoes
- Knees track forward
- Stance too wide, point toes out more
- No hip drive
- Don't dive to the bottom, you're losing tension in your hams particularly
- Before 1st rep: big breath, tighten the **** out of your back/abs. Small gulp of air between reps, stay tight.


DL: doesn't look too bad, your back is ok imo. You're lifting a tad too much with your back off the floor and your butt is too low (you can see the bar moving towards you going up), but not bad.

Doesn't Rip say that the knees are supposed to go a little bit past the toes? From the vid it doesn't seem like the knees are going out too far. It also seems like you are going well below parallel when it's not necessary, but it might just be the height of the camera that makes it seem that way.

Also, I can't seem to find where Rip recommends deadlifting every workout in the beginning of the program. Was this mentioned in SS or PP?

You're right, the knees don't look too bad. Gotta see it from the side to be sure.

DL every workout first couple of weeks is in PPST 2nd ed only.

Day 9 - 6/5/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x85
1x3x125
1x2x165
3x5x205 (+10lbs)

Bench:
1x5x45
1x5x75
1x3x95
1x2x115
3x5x145 (+10lbs)

Rows:
(Finding workset)
3x5x125

Workout felt great. I made a pre-workout shake with Oats, Milk and Strawberries, essentially what Nottom recommended and I felt great energy wise. Squats I made a point to stay a lot more in control on my way down and I definitely felt a low more work in my hamstrings and worked on my hip drive. Think my knees were going a bit forward, so I'll have to work on that some more on Monday. These almost felt easy today, was awesome.

Bench wasn't too shabby, progressing nicely.

Rows I think I'll definitely need to work on but I don't think they were too bad.

Now I'm confused.

It isn't necessary? Shouldn't you go down as far as possible as long as your form is good (back still in extension)? Makes it a more difficult, and I'm guessing better, exercise.

Just saw your log, looks like we're taking the same exact approach to SS and nutrition, i.e. maintenance or slightly below.

Are you going to adjust how fast you add on weights, or are you going to ramp it up until you can't or you stall? I cut my rate in half cause I figured my body is gonna have a much tougher time putting on muscle if I'm eating less, and I'm wondering if it's the right thing to do.

GL and gogogo!

I plan to stick with the recommended progression i.e. 10lbs on everything, 15 on deadlifts. And once I start struggling getting 3x5 for those increments, I'll probably tone it down. Once Summer's over I also plan to start eating for gains as opposed to maintenance. So I basically aiming to have my newbie gains carry me for most of the summer, and then start eating more to carry on my progression in the fall and winter.

I'm not positive if this is a good approach or not, but its the current plan.

Day 10 - 6/7/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x95
1x3x135
1x2x175
3x5x215 (+10lbs)

Press:
1x5x45
1x5x60
1x3x75
1x2x90
3x5x110 (+10lbs)

Deadlifts:
1x5x135
1x5x175
1x3x215
1x2x255
1x5x290 (+15lbs)

Squats again felt really easy today. Going down in control has made a huge difference difficulty wise. Which seems super obvious why it would now, but can't believe I didn't figure out on my own (Thanks, Soulman.)

Press felt really heavy today. Got all 5 reps on all 3 sets but the last rep of each was a big struggle. Might have one more +10 in me, but will probably need to drop to 5lb increments soon.

Deadlift was also really heavy, but definitely wasn't close to not being able to get the weight up, got 3 reps in overhand before having to switch to alternate grip which I was happy about.

Overall another really good workout, the Protein/Oats/Milk/Fruit shake pre-workout has made a noticeably big difference in my energy level throughout the work out, so thanks again for the suggestion.

Looking forward to Wednesday.

Day 11 - 6/9/2010

Squats:
3x5x225 (+10lbs)

Trying to work on getting the bar lower, had some stability issues with it, which you can probably see a bit in the video, think I need to work on bringing my hands in a bit to tighten up my shoulders. My knees could probably still come out a bit more on the way down, and I need to work more on my hip drive. But I feel like they're coming along...slowly.

A positive was that it again felt pretty easy this week, and I think my depth is still good.

Bench:
3x5x155 (+10lbs)

Was fine, starting to get heavy, but that's expected. Probably have another week or two of 10lb increments then will most likely have to scale back.

Rows:
3x5x125

These need work, think I need to get my butt up a bit higher at the start, using 45's as opposed to 35's will probably help with that, and need to work on not cheating a bit on reps.

Here's a few videos:
Squats:
Set 1, Set 2, Set 3

Rows:
Set 2

lol upside down vids. anyway you are going to fall eventually if you continue unracking like that. stand up with the weight before walking it back and between reps. otherwise your squat is decent, but the video quality makes it hard to check depth.

rows you're in a squat position. your shins should be pretty much vertical in the setup.

lol, yeah my gym buddy is pretty fail with a camera.

Will start standing up first, I noticed that I look off balance in pretty much all my vids un-racking.

EDIT: I also love how the video cuts out about a rep short each set. Ah well.

Day 12 - 6/11/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x95
1x3x145
1x2x195
3x5x235 (+10lbs)

Press:
1x5x45
1x5x65
1x3x85
1x2x105
5/5/3x120 (+10lbs)

DL's:
1x5x135
1x5x185
1x3x235
1x2x275
1x5x305 (+15lbs)

Squats are definitely starting to feel heavy again, but I think I've got another few 10lb increments in me at least.

Press was heavy as hell. But I think part of the problem with my 3rd set fail was just not taking a long enough break. I think I'll stay at 120 on Wednesday and then just go up 5lbs from there on out.

DL's were heavy as expected, but doable. Probably have one or two more 15lb jumps, then I'll have to scale it back a bit. Overall it was a good workout, aside from the one failed set at the press.

Planning on starting a bit of a deficit this week and cleaning up my diet. Focusing on upping my protein and cutting out a lot of unneeded calories. Would I be better off scaling my lift increments down a bit during my diet? Nothing extreme diet wise, just a 25% or so deficit a day to shave a few pounds for the summer months.

Day 13 - 6/14/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x95
1x3x145
1x2x195
3x5x245 (+10lbs)

Bench:
1x5x45
1x5x75
1x3x105
1x2x135
3x5x165 (+10lbs)

Rows:
1x5x45
1x5x65
1x3x85
1x2x105
3x5x135 (+10lbs)


Everything pretty much felt great. Squats were heavy as usual, but Bench and Rows were pretty easy.

Food for the day was:
1,835 calories.
171g protein
47g of fat
181g of carbs

Day 14 - 6/16/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x105
1x3x155
1x2x205
3x5x255 (+10lbs)

Press:
1x5x45
1x5x65
1x3x85
1x2x105
3x5x120

Deadlifts:
1x5x135
1x5x185
1x3x235
1x2x275
1x5x320 (+15lbs)

Squats felt good, heavy, but good.

Press was still heavy as hell, but I got all 5 on all my sets, so I was pleased about that, definitely going to just do 5lbs jumps from here on out for it now though.

Deadlifts were also heavy as hell, but felt great to get all 5 in. Think I'll probably be good for another 15lb jump on Monday, but probably will need to tone it down a bit after that.

F the diet, going to keep at maintenance till I start stalling, then move to a bit of a surplus.

Gonna get hyooooge. And then cut, but hey. I'll be huge for a bit. A relative huge that is.

Really bored at work this morning, and realized it had been about a month since I started SS, so I wanted to look at my lifts.

Squats: 125lbs -> 255lbs (130lb increase)
Bench: 105lbs -> 165lbs (60lb increase)
Press: 75lbs -> 120lbs (45lb increase)
Deadlift: 165lbs -> 320lbs (155lb increase)

I probably started off a little light, but still:

Sickly awesome progress man. Already stronger than me in the DL and close on everything else, lol.

Yeah, your pace is amazing. Although I'm eating well I still had to slow down at around 2/3 your level. Congrats on the progress.

Thanks guys.

I'm really happy about it, also really excited about the fact that I have yet to stall with just a maintenance diet.

I keep thinking each workout will be the one where I'll stall, but not yet!

Day 15 - 6/18/2010

Squats:
1x5x45
1x5x105
1x3x165
1x2x215
3x5x265 (+10lbs)

Bench:
1x5x45
1x5x85
1x3x115
1x2x145
3x5x175 (+10lbs)

Rows:
1x5x45
1x5x75
1x3x95
1x2x115
3x5x145 (+10lbs)

Squats were again heavy, but very do-able.

Bench is definitely getting very heavy, going to try for 185 on Wednesday, but may need to just go to 5lb jumps from here on in.

Rows felt good, but I think I cheated on a few reps, going to stay at this weight on Wednesday and work on form.

Here's some video's:

Rows

Squats

Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

Squats - look very good. Looks like you might be losing some tension going down very fast, but they look solid.

Rows - Back should be horizontal. Barbell should be a bit further back at the bottom, like 2 inches or so.


Again, very impressed with your progress - I'm sure your athletic background is helping.