Oh the heavy shame!

Squats 1x5 245, 1x4 245, and I went down in the squat rack. I went all the way down on my 4th rep of the second set, and I guess I stayed down a little too long, and I tried to forge ahead and get up but it just wouldn't happen, and I collapsed in the rack. Very embarrassing, but I didn't hurt myself so that was good. I decided not to squat anymore for the day after that.

Bench 1x5 195, 1x4 195, 1x3 195 I'm a serious pussy today, I don't know why. Maybe carry over shame from the squatting fiasco?

Deadlift 1x4 235, couldn't get that 5th rep.

I'm pretty upset with how everything went down today, including me in the squat rack. But whatever, I think some of it was, I only took one day off before working out again. Usually I take 2+, maybe that had something to do with it. Anyway, I'm not quitting, but I'm discouraged with today's workout.

**** happens man.

It's how you deal with aforementioned **** that matters.

If you never have to bail on a squat then you aren't trying hard enough. That's why they have pins.

Yeah, I know you can't just go up in weight all the time without facing some adversity. I'm fine with it and I'm looking forward to getting back in there and pushing forward.

You're closing in on intermediate soon anyway, so expect more **** the closer you get. Unless your name is kc/miles and you're eating a small village each day.

Ran for 40 minutes today after work. Kinda want to go run tomorrow morning before work too, gonna try to do that (I tried today and failed to get out of bed).

When do I hit intermediate Soulman?

It's not a set point and is dependent on how much you're willing to stuff your face, age etc. Whenever you either can't recover enough to increase weights, or when you recover properly but can't manage an increase.

You might want to switch to squatting light in the middle of the week to get the most out of linear gains (since this will mean you're adding 10 lbs/week as opposed to 5 lbs/week on an intermediate program). I switched to this scheme now after hitting 260 lbs squat worksets. On the other hand, you have guys like kidcolin and milesdyson who lol at 260. I hope to get to 300 before switching.

Fail on the morning run today.

Well, my goals haven't changed. I'm still most concerned with losing body fat as opposed to squatting 5000000 lbs. I definitely am enjoying SS and the compound lifts I'm doing and the increasing weight is cool too, but it's not the most important thing to me. I'm wondering if I should start doing a cutting phase or whatever...or instead just increasing my cardio/running.

Unfortunately I've abandoned my diet, and to really attack my goal diet is probably the most important thing. This realization is depressing.

If that's your main goal, I think you'd be fine starting to cut now.

So Soulman, what are the logistics of cutting? Should I start Lyle McDonald's Rapid Fat Loss program, or something a little more long term? What kinds of workouts should I then be doing as far as SS goes?

I don't think RFL is what you need to be doing, its extremely restrictive and would require a ton a willpower to stick to long enough to hit your goal. If you did do it, I would only do it for a couple weeks before starting a more moderate plan (I guess after doing RFL, a measly 1000 cal deficit would seem like eating a ton). Just start with a reasonable deficit and go from there. If you use dailyplate (or any of the others) you can tell it your goals (lose 2lb/week or whatever) and it will set your target calories. The most important thing is (at least initially) to log you calories, so you know what you are eating and where you can make the easiest cuts.

Also, I would recommend getting a copy of "The Flexible Guide to Dieting". Its a pretty quick read and will hit all the most important things you need to worry about.

Yeah like Nottom said, a more moderate approach is preferable, especially for keeping strength gains. Find your maintenance calories, set a deficit (say 20-25%), do SS twice a week with 3x3 or 2x5 instead of 3x5 (3x1 or RDLs for DLs), add one day of HIIT/metcons if you feel like it. And read the flexible guide, it's very good.

So I was gone all weekend in California, and my buddy down there who I went to visit is a PT, and he put me through a workout this morning. It was strenuous, but it wasn't squatting 200+ lbs.

Starting some calorie counting tomorrow, hopefully after a run.

So I should be doing the same weight that I've been doing on my SS routine, but only three sets of three reps? Should I try to increase weight going 3x3, or just stay where I am?

What are metcons? I'm guessing that HIIT is high impact interval training, is that correct?

I ran for 30 minutes this morning before work...would have been 40 min, but I had a massive dump running out of me.

Same weight, increase if you can (you probably can't). Reset if things get too ****ty and work up.

Metcons = metabolic conditioning, commonly used for doing high intensity work with weights, like the crossfit stuff. Check kyle's later log entries for some examples.

HIIT = high intensity interval training. Le google will reveal all. I'm gonna use biking, since I like that. Running works too, whatever you prefer.

1st day of 3x3s

Squats 3x3 235

Press 1x3 115 1x1 115 1x3 105 I thought that since I was only doing three reps, I could do 115 no problem, first set went fine, but I barely got one rep on the second set so I dropped to 105. Next workout I may try 3 sets of 110

Assisted chinups 3x5 85! A new record for me. Felt good too.

4x25 swiss ball crunches

Squats 3x3 235

Bench 3x3 195

DL 1x3 235

Lame "trainer" that works at my gym gave me a talking to for dropping the barbell on the ground between each of my deadlift reps. Not a fan. Go do something helpful dicktaster.

I've been in the "cutting phase" for about 6 weeks now. I simply continued doing SS with the normal 3x5 sets/reps scheme. I'm not sure why you'd switch to 3x3. I'm just trying to maintain the same level of strength so I've been increasing the weight when/where I can and resetting when I fail. There has been a lot of resetting and none of my lifts have progressed significantly since I started cutting - YMMV.

And yeah, diet is king while cutting weight. In the small rocks/big rocks analogy, it's the mountain.

Because cutting is mostly about maintaining strength and getting adequately recovered, which most people can't do if weights are heavy and the deficit is decent. If you can do 3x5 with heavy weights and recover properly I hate you.

As someone who started SS while cutting, you can go for a while without reducing the workload if you start out as a fattie. Once you reach that point, then you can reduce the volume but there is no reason to cut back until you start struggling to complete workouts.

So when I start struggling, that's when I should start thinking about 3x3? Because that last workout when I failed my squats, then couldn't get my bench or deadlift really, that was the first real struggling. So the immediate answer for that probably shouldn't have been go down to 3x3 right away, maybe a reset was in order.

What do I do to reset, and what weights do I go down to?

Should I reset all my exercises, or just the ones that I'm stalling on?

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wi...nd_Progressing

Ran for 40 minutes in preparation for weigh day tomorrow. I might also try to run tomorrow before the weigh in tomorrow too. We'll see how I feel in the morning.