Road to Strong

[Powerliftinteen]

Hey there and welcome to my journal ( Road to Strong ). I have never done an online journal so I may be inconsistent day to day wise since my time as a teen is very limited as the end of the year is coming to a close. For the most part this is just a general place for me to collect my thoughts and track my meals and workouts. Anyone is welcome to comment and read obviously.

So a little about myself stats and lifting wise. I am 15 years old ( 16 in 2 months and 14 days, June 16th ), 71.5 in tall ( or 5 11.5 ft ) and I currently weigh around 280 pounds. I say around because it has been about a week since I have weighed myself due to general forgetfulness and spring break vacation. I am currently trying to cut down to around 210-225 for now. At 280 I am ~36% BF at around 220 pounds I will be around 25% BF. This is more short term goal. I am trying to get down to 240ish by August. I am currently trying to get around 2300 calories a day. My macros are around 205 grams of protein, 74 grams fat and 200 grams of carbs. These come out to around 2283 calroies, but I do chew some gum throughout the day and those 5 calories per stick add up thorough the day. I am trying to do Intermittent Fasting. The Hodgetwins are big advocates of IF and say that it really helped their cuts. I am trying to get around an 8 hour eating window but sometimes I go up to a 10 hour eating window. I usually eat from 10 AM EST to 6 PM EST or 8 PM EST. When summer hits I am going to shoot for a 6 hour eating window ( 12 AM to 5 PM EST ).

I am planning to enter some of Lexen Xtreme's meets coming later in the year. Lexen is actually very close to my current gym and they are having 3 meets this year. I will try to get into their Fall Classic and RPS XXX meets. Both are sanctioned by the RPS federation.

I am currently doing a self modified Starting Strength. My current lifts are 185x5 Bench, 265x5 Deadlift and 145x5 Squat. As you can see my lifts are all over the place. I have not been squatting for long and I am fairly bad at it. I am very good at the bench press as I have been doing it the most since it was very easy to learn. I am okay at the deadlift, I have recently pulled a back muscle ( 3-3.5 weeks ago ) and I recently re injured it during vacation. I have also injured something around my upper glutes and into my tailbone. I am having a MRI on it so that I can see what is wrong with it. It primarily hurts when standing up and when sitting. So it is hard to do Deadlift, Squat and do any back related movements. I am going to work around it for the rest of the month and try to get it fully healed 2-2.5 weeks from now. So here is my routine below:

Day A:

Squat 3x5 starting at around 72% ( 105 lbs ) current 5 rep max is 145 lbs

Spoto Press 3x5 starting at 73% ( 135 lbs ) current 5-6 rep max 185 lbs

Deadlift 2x5 starting at around 51% ( 135 lbs ) current 5 rem max is 265 lbs

T Bar Row 2x10 starting only at 45 lbs adding 5 lbs every workout

Glute Ham Raises 3x10 starting at body weight adding 5 lbs every workout

Day B:

Squat 3x5

Spoto Press 3x3 starting at 75% ( 160 lbs ) of current 1 rep max

Deadlift 1x3 starting at around 50% ( 150 lbs ) of current 1 rep max

Lat Pull 40 lbs adding 10 lbs every other workout

Glute Ham Raises

I just modified it with some more specified exercises and percentages for me and trying to work around my two injuries. I am going to keep up with most of the normal progression ( 5 lbs upper and lower ). I am going to officially start this on Tuesday. My split is going to be Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. This is more of an odd split but it works for me and helps me avoid the very busy days at my gym.

I am hoping to get some muscle built in my back and get my pulled muscle healed up very quickly.

My short term goals ( 3 months from now ) are:

To weigh around 250 pounds
Squat 200 for 5 EASY reps
Deadlift normal again and maybe have +20 pounds on my 5 rep and 1 rep maxes
Bench Press 210 for 5 reps Spoto Press 200 for 3 reps

Long Term Goals ( During first meet, October 29th, 6 months )

To weigh around 230 pounds
Squat 250 for 1 rep max
Deadlift 350 for 1 rep max
Bench Press 260 1 rep max

The Squat and Bench Press goals for the long term are VERY conservative.

Ok so I will be posting what I did today after this post

[Powerliftinteen]

Ok so I came home yesterday from a long trip home from Florida to Ohio. It took roughly 14 hours and I did not sleep the entire time. I got home around 11:30 AM EST. When I came home all I had was 2 servings of 2% milk and 5 cheeses sticks. About 600 calories and 48 grams of protein. At about 1:25 PM EST I fell asleep after being up for about 29 hours with a few minutes rest every once and awhile on the trip. I slept until about 1:50 AM EST and did not go back to sleep until about 6. I did eat a big spoon of peanut butter to get some calorie dense fat and protein. Woke up again at around 10:30 AM EST this morning. I did not get up and eat until 11:25ish and I had 1 serving of EAS Myoplex protein powder with 2 servings of 2% milk to get around 42 grams of protein. I only had a trial 1 serving of it. I do have quite a bit of Musclepham's 100% Combat Whey Protein powder. I am not one of those dumb kids who thinks it is magic. I have it because it is super easy to make that and get 25 grams from it and 16 from the milk. I also have some creatine monohydrate from MyProtein. It was very cheap and it will last me for a long time ( around 5 months or more ). So anyway I also had 3 eggs and 1 PBj for some calorie dense food. I then made a shake from the Combat Whey and added a serving of creatine. I then went to the gym. I started to feel my pulled muscle after my warm up set of squats. I did not hurt to the point I could not lift, it was more of a sharp nagging pain. I did bar ( 55 lbs ) for 6 reps, 85 lbs for 5 reps, then 105 for 5 reps, I then did a progress check of 145 lbs for a hard set of 5 RPE was 9.5. They didn't feel great and definatley took a bit of a toll. I did feel my back give some twinges of pain after.I then did my other 2 sets of 105. I then went over the bench and started my Spoto Presses ( essentially pause bench presses, it increases time under tension to recruit more muscle fibers and motor units ). I did bar ( 55 lbs ) for 9 reps, 105 for 5 reps, 145 lbs for 5 reps and 3 sets. They felt good. I then went on to deadlift... All of my reps after 75lbs for 5 felt like sh*t. After putting on 165 and getting 1 set of 5 reps I tried to go up to 195 to see how that felt. I got it to my shins and felt my back go up. I stopped. I tried it again and stopped. The last thing I want to do is pull my back again. So I stopped and drank some water and left. I got home and drank my shake and took a long hot shower and focused on getting some hot and cold water over my back. I got out and then started to type that post above^. In the middle of it I had some boneless skinless chicken. I am very bad at counting the calories and macros for meat. As I am typing this I am having 4 cheese sticks and a cliff bar to get 460 calories and 33 grams of protein. Yoou'll notice the only macro I really count is protein. I always do mental math on my dieting anyway and it has done somewhat well. I just don't have the time or energy to count everything and the myfitnesspal style apps eventually end up annoying me. I am also starting to get back into my routine of drinking ~2 gallons of water a day. At the end of it all I have got in ~176 grams of protein. I plan on getting 4 more servings of 1% milk for 32 grams of protein to end up with 210 grams of protein at the end of the day. And since milk is 80% Casein I will get around 25.6 grams of Casein protein before I go to bed. That will essentially "feed" my muscles overnight.

Thanks for reading !

[Powerliftinteen]

Well my cut has been going good so far, I am down to around 272.4 lbs as of this morning. My back is no longer extremely hurting me so Deadlifts on Tuesday might not be too bad. I am eager to get to the gym !

[Powerliftinteen]

Ok edit:

Day A:

Squat 4x5 starting at around 72% ( 105 lbs ) current 5 rep max is 145 lbs

Bench Press 5x5 starting at 73% ( 135 lbs ) current 5-6 rep max 185 lbs

Deadlift 2x5 starting at around 51% ( 135 lbs ) current 5 rem max is 265 lbs

T Bar Row 2x10 starting only at 45 lbs adding 5 lbs every workout

Glute Ham Raises 3x10 starting at body weight adding 5 lbs every workout

Day B:

Squat 5x5

Spoto Press 4x5 starting at 75% ( 160 lbs ) of current 1 rep max

Deadlift 1x3 starting at around 50% ( 150 lbs ) of current 1 rep max

Lat Pull 40 lbs adding 10 lbs every other workout

Glute Ham Raises

I forgot to change of the rep schmes a bit. I wanted more volume than what the SS program had as my bench is fairly intermediate already and I wanted to squat more to get the hand of it.

[hamzatm]

Looks like a solid plan bro, good luck! I'm sure you've heard this before but you have so much potential training from this age.

[Powerliftinteen]

Looks like a solid plan bro, good luck! I'm sure you've heard this before but you have so much potential training from this age.

Thanks bro ! If I would have done normal SS or SL I would have been bored out of my mind lol, so I decided to add in some back movements to help my bad back ( might hurt but oh well ) and glute ham raises because my hamstrings are weak.

[hamzatm]

Good idea. Now that you've got a plan I'd encourage you to stick with it for a good period of time and whether it works out or not in the end, you will have learnt a bit about yourself and what works for you. That's the important thing.

[Powerliftinteen]

Yea I plan to stick with it for around three months at least. Then maybe move to something like the Texas Method or Madcow

[young1wisdom]

Good on ya for starting so young - I wish I had. Don't "plan" on sticking on the program for "X" amount of time. That's the wrong mindset. Let your body tell you when its time to move onto something else. Wait until you've fully exhausted all of the gains from this program and then move onto something a bit different.

Good luck with the weight loss, you seem to be on the right track!

[Powerliftinteen]

Thanks man and thanks for the advice ! I'll definitely stick on for as long as possible !

[Powerliftinteen]

Day A:


Had to start with Bench Press because Squat Rack was occupied. Had to use a 55lb bar so I just went up to 145lbs. I pretty much used this time to try different grip lengths and foot positions. Found my usual was much nicer.
Warmup-
Bar ( 55 lbs )
95lbs

Working Sets-
145x5
145x5
145x5
145x5
145x5

Now on to Squats. These felt good for the first set or two, after the second set I felt them. Back started to act up as soon as I did warmups

Warmup-
Bar ( 55 lbs )
75 lbs

Working Sets-
105x5
105x5
105x5
105x5

Deadlifts. These felt marginal at best. Need to check my own form on this. My big stomach seems to get in the way a bit haha. Overall my back did hold up so that is good.

Warmup-
Bar ( 55 lbs )

Working Sets-
135x5
135x5

T-Bar rows felt good. Did well at full ROM and kept my hips down.

No Warmup

Working Sets-
45x10
45x10

Unfortuanatley my gym does not have a rest to glute ham raise, so I am going to plug in leg curls instead.

Today I am also going to open my eating window until about 9:30 unfortunately because I was not able to get enough protein or fats in. I always try to keep carbs low so they are not the issue. I wonder how this will effect my weight loss. So far today I have eaten around 166 grams of protein and around 30 grams of fat. I just plan on getting some PB and maybe some more milk in today.

My meals today have been:

Breakfast: Cliff Bar

Lunch: PBj, 2 cheese sticks

Post Workout: 1 scoop MusclePharm 100% Whey and 2 servings of milk with ~5 grams of creatine, one Gatorade fuel bar.

Before Dinner "Snack": Just over 3 cups of milk, 3 cheese sticks, 4 cups of yougurt

Calories- Around 2245 kcal
Protein- Around 175 grams
Fats- Around 60 grams
Carbs- Around 140

Will update when I get some more food

EDIT: I decided not to get it as I want to keep my fast going. School is really a pain with taking up more than half of my eating window and only being one meal haha

[Powerliftinteen]

Day B:

Squats: Today they felt nice and smooth for most of the sets. My back did get tight but it is not that big of an issue.

Warmup-
Bar ( 45lbs )x 10
65x5
95x3

Working Sets-
110x5
110x5
110x5
110x5
110x5

Spoto Press: I have a older injury in the shoulder that has been acting up since we do push ups everyday in ROTC and doing about 30 a day is not good for my shoulder. I felt it for sure during the sets but it was fine. Went a little too deep ( went lower than an inch ) on a few reps but most were on point.

Warmup-
Bar (55lbs)x5
115x8
145x5

Working Sets-
160x5
160x5
160x5
160x5

Deadlifts: They felt good, but I definitley feel weak. Used to be able to pull 265 for 5 but it feeld like that stregth is gone know after my back injury. My back did hurt through them and it sucked but not to the point of it being bad. Went up to 165 because I did not feel like fetching the 2.5lbs plates haha

Warmup-
Bar (45lbs)x3
75x5
135x5

Working Set-
165x3

Lat Pulldown: Did these slow and light to feel the muscle contractions. Probably too light but they were fine.

Working Sets-
40x10
40x10

Leg Curls: Messed up on these for a bit and then started to make the raising movement on them very very slow to keep that muscle under tension. Just did one big set as these were like a light cardio lift lol. I did between 40 and 60 reps, i lost track because I was more focusing on the msucle.

Working Set-
60x40-60

Eating Window is closed and I should be good on my protein and fat macros ( don't care about carbs, let them just fill in ) and hit my caloric range (2000-2400). Today was a good day just want this tailbone pain to go away and for my back to finally heal.

[Powerliftinteen]

Day A:

Squats: Starting off all the squats felt great. All but the very last rep on my last set did not feel the best, but was still ok.

Warmup-
Bar ( 55 lbs )
75 lbs

Working Sets-
115x5
115x5
115x5
115x5

Bench Press: These all felt good and light. Not bad, form was good.

Warmup-
Bar( 45 lbs )
95 lbs
135 lbs

Working Sets-
140x5
140x5
140x5
140x5
140x5

Deadlift: Well I ****ed up. I did my first set and they felt fine and then I felt like seeing where my strength was still at. So I tried 235 lbs and on the second rep my form messed up and I hurt my back just a tad bit. It is just tender no straining, should go back to normal in a few days.

Warmup-
Bar ( 55 lbs )
145 lbs

Worling Sets:
145x5
235x2

T Bar Row: These felt good my back didn't hurt that much. Full range of motion and went fast on these

50x10
50x10

Leg Curls: Don't count these for reps just go slow up and contract on the way down. Just use these at 60 lbs and just do these for a few minutes.

Got home took some ibuprofen and took a long hot shower for my back ( now I have an ice pack). Ate 3 chicken patty's from tyson and used some toasted wheat bread to make some sandwiches. Took my whey protein with 5 G of creatine. As I am typing this I am drinking my gallon of water. Today was alright.

[Powerliftinteen]

Well after looking in the mirror it does look like I have lost some fat ( thank god ) but also a bit of muscle in my upper trapezius muscle. I am thinking of adding in some quick and light dumbell shrugs just to keep them active as I used to train traps like it was a large muscle group. So I just might add a set of dumbell shrugs for 8 heavy reps at the end of my workout as my deadlifts are not nearly heavy enough to really activate them. I will most likely start at 35 lbs and work my way up every workout until I stall or my grip fails. With just one set a workout it most likely will not affect my other workouts.

[hamzatm]

You can throw in as much as you like. The tradeoff is you might progress strength a bit slower, but that's not a bad thing because you're building a bigger base. It will help in the long term.

[Powerliftinteen]

You can throw in as much as you like. The tradeoff is you might progress strength a bit slower, but that's not a bad thing because you're building a bigger base. It will help in the long term.

Yea well the thing is that I have always had naturally large trapezius muscles to begin with so adding in a little work to keep them large shouldn't hinder too much. They haven't gotten sore in a long time unless I go above 3 sets with heavy weight. I'll see how it affects me and adjust it or remove it accordingly. Thanks for the input though man !

[Powerliftinteen]

I can't really log today as my back started to hurt again as soon as I did my first warm up squat. I tried stretching and drinking some more water ( already had a gallon from 10 AM to 3:10 PM at school ) but that did not help. So I stopped and moved on to Spoto Press. Did my 170 lbs for 4 sets of 5 which was fine no issues. I decided to leave as even standing seemed to hurt my back. Just went home, had a hot shower and am now having a little ice pack on it. I will pick up on Thursday.

[Powerliftinteen]

Day A: kind of

So my back hurt again so I just kept to bench and shrugs. Hit a new max on Bench as I wanted to make up for all the tonnage that I am missing out on since my back is still tightend.

Bench:

Warmup-

55 lbs
105 lbs

Working Sets-

145x5
145x5
145x5
145x5
195x6

Dumbell Shrugs:

Warmup-

55 lbs

Working Sets-

65x10
65x10

[hamzatm]

I would have added more sets at the lighter weight rather than go for a new max on bench.

[Powerliftinteen]

Yea I just from like testing my max because I couldn't really do anything else. Didn't affect anything but did help me see that I can now hit 195 for a good 5 rep max

[Powerliftinteen]

So with giving my body a week to recover, I have started to get more serious on my fat loss plans. I am starting to do 3 sets of 100 jumping jacks each day ( strangely these do not hurt my back ), spread out of course. The reason for them being that I burn a ton of calories and do something active since I am out of the gym for a week. I have also seen the benefit of using Microsoft Excel for both tracking my current plan and starting a food log. This way I can keep track of my caloric intake and training meticulously. Just wanted to update whoever reads this. By Next Saturday I am hoping to be able to do everything again and have my back normal again.

[hamzatm]

How's it going bro? Recovered and smashing it?

[Powerliftinteen]

How's it going bro? Recovered and smashing it?

You could say that haha. I'm still on the road to recovery as the Doc said all I can do is wait for them to heal. I am starting PT soon so that should help. Only reason I have not been posting is I haven't been working out how I have wanted to ( had to replace Squats and Deads with leg press and leg curls until my back heals ) and can only really bench besides some odd assistance work.

[hamzatm]

Sounds good, you hit a hurdle and you're dealing with it with an intelligent plan. Starting at this age the one thing you have to your advantage is time. So many years in which to build solid progress, be consistent and you'll be so far ahead of the rest of us before you know it

[Powerliftinteen]

Sounds good, you hit a hurdle and you're dealing with it with an intelligent plan. Starting at this age the one thing you have to your advantage is time. So many years in which to build solid progress, be consistent and you'll be so far ahead of the rest of us before you know it

Yea thanks man !

[Powerliftinteen]

Wow this thread is old... rereading through this I saw how big of a dumbass I was.

I might as well restart this old thread as I hate seeing random old threads that never really end well. I am now doing Phrak's greyskull LP for my squat and deadlift and doing my 2nd cycle of Smolov Jr for my bench press. Currently I have added close to 180 lbs to my squat ( tested 1 rm is 320 with squat shoes, belt and wrist wraps ). It was a grinder but I completed the lift and not with horrid form either. Today I did 265x5 for two sets and that was ok, I did a set for 10 and it looked and felt like ****. I am not good at squat reps. Going to change the rep/set range to be more geared towards powerlifting as a whole ( maybe 2x2, 2x3 or 3x3 don't know yet but I'm done with going over 5 reps lol ). My deadlift has also done fairly well with the progression of greyskull. I have so far been able to add the 10 lbs each workout without stalling. My old set of 5 was 265 as a grinder, I can now get 305 for 10 reps, but I feel like death afterwards. My deadlift is kind of weird. My max is 345, but I can rep 305 for 10 and rep 225 for well over 25 reps. Both suggest my max should be near 400-410 give or take a few pounds. Obviously this means I have a weak point or two, thankfully I know what they are. My legs are larger than before but not as strong as they could be. I have a tendency to lean forward in the squat meaning my back is fairly strong ( correlates to deadlift ), but my quads are weak. I am trying to bring them up along with the rest of my posterior chain. My bench press has gone from 225x1 to 255x1 thanks to smolov jr. I responded really well to the program increasing my max 30lbs in 3 weeks. I have noticed that my left pec is smaller than my right pec, but I bench fairly narrow so my triceps are my primary movers. I have been using single hand hammer strength press with a long negative to increase TUT to help build a bit more muscle and strength. I will be more consistent with this moving forward.

[hamzatm]

Interesting stuff

[Powerliftinteen]

Wednesday 10/5

Deadlift

175x3

225x1

285x1

315x10

Bench

55x8

105x8

145x3

190x5x7

[Powerliftinteen]

10-12-2016

Long Pause Bench:
Sets 1 Reps 1 Load 185lb Intensity 72.5% RPE 6
Sets 1 Reps 1 Load 215lb Intensity 84.3% RPE 7
Sets 1 Reps 1 Load 225lb Intensity 88.2% RPE 9
Sets 1 Reps 1 Load 235lb Intensity 92.2% RPE 9.5

Bench Press
Sets 2 Reps 3 Load 225lb Intensity 88.2% RPE 9.5
Sets 1 Reps 2 Load 225lb Intensity 88.2% RPE 10
Sets 1 Reps 4 Load 205lb Intensity 80.4% RPE 9.5
Sets 1 Reps 6 Load 185lb Intensity 72.5% RPE 7.5

Close Grip Bench Press:
Sets 1 Reps 7 Load 155lb Intensity 60.8% RPE 9
Sets 1 Reps 10 Load 155lb Intensity 60.8% RPE 9.5
Sets 1 Reps 3 Load 185lb Intensity 72.5% RPE 9.5

Incline Hammer Strength:
Sets 1 Reps 12 Load 45lb RPE 8
Sets 1 Reps 12 Load 70lb RPE 9.5
Sets 1 Reps 8 Load 70lb RPE 10


Did 4 sets of chest flyes on a machine, did very slow reps ( ~4 ) and made sure i really felt it. Last set I just repped 115 for the last set.

[Powerliftinteen]

https://app.mystrengthbook.com/share...00bb31564a6738
10/13/16