SS Workout Journal - Critique Please

[ngolsen]

Round 1, 25 Oct 2010 - 16 November 2010 - All was completed on Smith Machine (see profile pics for my home gym). I didnt have a free BB at the time. Was very much a newbie to weights, done some before but mostly machines.

Squat - 60kg(132)->125kg(275)
Bench - 70kg(154)->95kg(209) (starting to fail last rep on last set)
Press - 50kg(110)->70kg(154)
Dead - 60kg(132)->125kg(275)
Row - 60kg(132)->87.5kg(192.5)

Moved House...

Round 2, 1 Jan 2011 - 25 Jan 2011 (present)

Squat - 100kg(220)->145kg(319)
Bench - 80kg(176)->95kg(209)
Press - 50kg(110)->72.5kg(159.5)
Dead - 110kg(242)->140kg(308)
Row - 70kg(154)->82.5kg(181.5)

Link to my log on BodyBlog on my profile (post count isnt high enough)

Video's to come...

I'd really appreciate any feedback. I want to do this right. I am feeling so good from doing this and I want to reap the full advantages of this.

[ngolsen]

Starting Jan 1

1 - Sat Jan 1 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 100/220
Press - 3x5 @ 50/110
Row - 3x5 @ 70/154

2 - Wed Jan 5 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 110/242
Bench - 3x5 @ 80/176
Dead - 1x5 @ 110/243

3 - Fri Jan 7 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 115/253
Press - 3x5 @ 70/154
Row - Power outage, did not train

4 - Thur 13 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 120/264
Bench - 3x5 @ 85/187
Dead - 1x5 @ 120/264

5 - Sat 15 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 125/275
Press - 3x5 @ 65/143
Row - 3x5 @ 75/165

6 - Tues 18 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 130/286
Bench - 3x5 @ 90/198
Dead - 1x5 @ 130/286

7 - Thurs 20 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 135/297
Press - 3x5 @ 70/154
Row - 3x5 @ 80/176

8 - Sat 22 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 140/308
Bench - 3x5 @ 95/209
Dead - 1x5 @ 140/308

9 - Tues 25 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 145/319
Press - 3x5 @ 72.5/159.5
Row - 3x5 @ 82.5/181.5

Bought 2 more 20kg plates today so I can go past 147.5... probably will go down to 2.5kg increments for Squats now and stay at 10kg increments for Deadlifts (every 2nd workout).

[Kirra]

Please tell me that this was a big joke and that you are not doing SS on the smith machine?

[ngolsen]

Please tell me that this was a big joke and that you are not doing SS on the smith machine?

No, I was for the first round (Oct-Nov 2010) then I bought a 7" bar and am doing it free weight now (since Jan 1). Have to use what I have, and as I said all I had was a Smith in my home gym.

See pic attached.

[ngolsen]

Cant Post links yet but Youtube -> zAGYyRhYdzE - 3rd Set of 135kg/297lb Squat (Workout 7). Have worked on form a bit since then and bar sits a bit lower, and my back is more congruent with my hips (one doesnt lift before the other). Struggled a bit with the last rep. Will be investing in a belt shortly.

Last workout (145kg/319lb) was hard, so I think I'm going to come down to 2.5kg/5.5lb increments (on squats) per workout and have lower weight squats on the Deadlift workouts...

[ngolsen]

Workout 10 - 27 January 2011

Squat -

2x5 - 45kg/99lb
1x5 - 55kg/121lb
1x3 - 85kg/187lb
1x2 - 115kg/253lb
1x5 - 147.5kg/324.5lb

Bench -

2x5 - 45kg/99lb
1x5 - 45kg/99lb
1x3 - 65kg/143lb
1x2 - 85kg/187lb
3x5 - 97.5kg/214.5lb

Deadlift -

2x5 - 60kg/132lb
1x3 - 90kg/198lb
1x2 - 130kg/286lb
1x5 - 150kg/330lb

---

Happy I didnt do a full set of squats (deadlift night) and dropped the increment on bench to 2.5kg instead of 5kg and increments on deadlifts from 10kg to 5kg... I wouldnt have completed the set of deads and wouldnt have been happy with the form of the bench...

I'll have a crack at 147.5kg squats and 152.5kg dead next time... and keep them at those increments.... I think im close to a reset.... Any feedback would be really appeciated tho.

[EnfantTerrible]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to do 3x5 working sets of squats with every workout, including 'deadlift night' or am I mistaken?

Also, resetting at session 10 sounds like you started a little too heavy/increments have been too big. Some strong lifts there though!


Home set up looks pretty decent though, I wouldn't mind having that in my garage

[EnfantTerrible]

Just watched your video and I have a couple of points.

1. You don't need to walk that far away from the rack.

2. It looks to me that you're not going deep enough. I'm no expert but you want to be breaking parallel and in those squats you barely even go parallel. I will be interested to see if anyone else has an opinion on this as I could be wrong...

[ngolsen]

Just watched your video and I have a couple of points.

1. You don't need to walk that far away from the rack.

2. It looks to me that you're not going deep enough. I'm no expert but you want to be breaking parallel and in those squats you barely even go parallel. I will be interested to see if anyone else has an opinion on this as I could be wrong...

2 - I agree mate. Since then I've worked on technique a fair bit (i commented on it in an earlier post).

1 - Fair enough. Never thought about it, more just giving myself enough clearance.

And I had a 4 week break when I moved... This is actually my 2nd go at it (technically my 19 session). But you are right, increments have been too high IMO also.

[ngolsen]

I'm pretty sure you're supposed to do 3x5 working sets of squats with every workout, including 'deadlift night' or am I mistaken?

Also, resetting at session 10 sounds like you started a little too heavy/increments have been too big. Some strong lifts there though!


Home set up looks pretty decent though, I wouldn't mind having that in my garage

In the Dave76 Rippetoe Questions thread he mentions that Squats gets too heavy to increment 3x per week, so you go a lower weight on the deadlift nights or do lighter front squats to save your back for the deadlift.

[Kirra]

Cant Post links yet but Youtube -> zAGYyRhYdzE - 3rd Set of 135kg/297lb Squat (Workout 7). Have worked on form a bit since then and bar sits a bit lower, and my back is more congruent with my hips (one doesnt lift before the other). Struggled a bit with the last rep. Will be investing in a belt shortly.

Last workout (145kg/319lb) was hard, so I think I'm going to come down to 2.5kg/5.5lb increments (on squats) per workout and have lower weight squats on the Deadlift workouts...

You haven't read the book have you?

You are doing high bar squats, and they are not deep enough.

[ngolsen]

You haven't read the book have you?

You are doing high bar squats, and they are not deep enough.

Yes I have read the book... Shoulder flexibility doesn't allow me to go lower, but I'm working on it... And I'll post another vid soon... That one is nearly 2 weeks old. Prior to this I'd pretty much never done weights before, only MA from age 6-25 and the last 5 of those was 3-4 hours per day 7 days a week. Never touched a weight, only bodyweight stuff... Not possible to keep up after a 4 year break (kids) and an accumulating bf% (35 and growing)

[Kirra]

Oh hey btw, have you read this?

http://startingstrength.com/articles...n_rippetoe.pdf

There is some info in there on what to do as an overweight trainee.

[ngolsen]

No, I don't recognize it. I'm on my way into work and will read it at work today. Thanks for the info, really appreciate it.

[ngolsen]

Thanks Kirra... Good to hear it re-iterated. Gotta love Ripp's sense of humour

[mattbru]

Will be following bro... it's a sick program. But yeah i'm with enfant. Better to start at excessively low weights then weights that are too heavy... even if it means a few boring weeks of easy lifts. Overall looks good though bro.

[ngolsen]

Read back through my SS again and I'm going to do a mini-reset and swap the rows for cleans. It'll be better in the long run.

I dont have bumper plates nor a platform, but I am getting the stuff to build one that allows me to use my non-bumper rubber plates with damaging.

9 - Tues 25 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 145/319
Press - 3x5 @ 72.5/159.5
Row - 3x5 @ 82.5/181.5

So tonight will be

11 - Sunday 30 Jan 2011

Squat - 3x5 @ 125kg/275lb
Press - 3x5 @ 75kg/165lb
Clean - 5x3 @ 60kg/132lb (40% of Deadlift PB - aiming for this to increase to 50% of DL quickly and by the end to be able to do at least 120kg PC's). I am starting lighter than I think necessary for PC due to a wrist inflexibility and that I want to weight to strong enough to cause my wrist to flex to rack properly but at the same time light enough to increment slowly.

Will report on how it went.

Took skinfolds, tape measures etc today.

Height 176cm
Weight 112.6kg
LBM - 73.69kg
BF - 38.91kg
BF% - 34.56%

[ngolsen]

Session 11 - Sunday 30 January 2011

-- Squat --

2x5 @ 20kg/44lb
1x5 @ 50kg/110lb
1x3 @ 75kg/165lb
1x2 @ 100kg/220lb
3x5 @ 125kg/275lb

-- Press --

2x5 @ 20kg/44lb
1x5 @ 40kg/88lb
1x3 @ 50kg/110lb
1x2 @ 60kg/132lb
1x5 @ 75kg/165lb
2x5 @ 60kg/132lb

-- Power Clean --

2x5 @ 20kg/44lb
1x5 @ 30kg/66lb
1x3 @ 40kg/88lb
1x2 @ 50kg/110lb
3x5 @ 50kg/110lb


-----------------

I used chalk tonight instead of gloves with wrist wrap. This caused hell on my clearly weak wrists for the presses (trouble racking properly) and the power clean was just excrutiating due to the inflexible wrists. So I'll work my way up in 2.5kg increments with the press and clean.

Definitely will be investing in some bumper plates in the very near future........

[cody333]

You are not going deep enough in your squat. As Rip says "correctly is deep, with hips dropping below level with the top of the patella"

Also, have you thought about a belt?

[ngolsen]

You are not going deep enough in your squat. As Rip says "correctly is deep, with hips dropping below level with the top of the patella"

Also, have you thought about a belt?

Belt ordered... And I've been stretching with 100kg on the bar to get to here... That is def past parralel cause it's activating the hamstring, which is why he says to go past parallel in the first place... What makes you think it's not? Maybe I need more stretching

[ngolsen]

Belt ordered... And I've been stretching with 100kg on the bar to get to here... That is def past parralel cause it's activating the hamstring, which is why he says to go past parallel in the first place... What makes you think it's not? Maybe I need more stretching

I had another look at the vids... I see what you mean I'll work on it more...

[cody333]

I had another look at the vids... I see what you mean I'll work on it more...

You are close, but not quite there. The angle is also not the greatest.

[ngolsen]

You are close, but not quite there. The angle is also not the greatest.

That's because of the high bar position due to shoulder flexibility... Working on it everyday. I'm a huge advocate and am trying to follow the program perfectly. With high bar there's a straighter back angle so it looks different at the bottom. I do agree that it's not low enough which pissed me off to no end. But unless you have perfect form "You're not doing the program"

[cody333]

That's because of the high bar position due to shoulder flexibility... Working on it everyday. I'm a huge advocate and am trying to follow the program perfectly. With high bar there's a straighter back angle so it looks different at the bottom. I do agree that it's not low enough which pissed me off to no end. But unless you have perfect form "You're not doing the program"

what looks different at the bottom?

[ngolsen]

what looks different at the bottom?

Back and hip angle.... Low bar position is 45 degrees high bar is more like 15-20 in relation to quads... He talks about it in the squat section of SS book

[Kirra]

Back and hip angle.... Low bar position is 45 degrees high bar is more like 15-20 in relation to quads... He talks about it in the squat section of SS book

You are still not squatting deep enough.

[ngolsen]

You are still not squatting deep enough.

We've just been discussing that. And I stated I'll try harder.. It's a flexibility issue, but it is getting better...

[Kirra]

Yup, I know. I've had issues with going deep while holding my lower back in extention too.

[zulander]

I feel you on the "not squatting low enough", I fractured my left ankle like three years ago and it never fully healed, so it's not as flexible as could be.

Also I know on deadlift days you "can" drop the squats to 1 set but I wouldn't recommend it, squats are the heart and soul of the program do all three sets as much as you can.

[ngolsen]

any comments on my press and clean form? It was my first PC night so I'm interested to know if im screwing it up