Squats

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x80
• 1x3x125
• 1x2x165
• 3x5x210 (work)

Today’s work reinforced that it was good to do the major reset. I continue to tweak and solidify my form. Chest up was key, but one thing I found I was paying more attention to was my foot positioning: the width apart, and the angle of my feet. When I walk the bar out, my feet are closer together so I have to fully reset them before I squat. I wasn’t quite getting things where they should be and then always end up adjusting as I go along. I worked to get it right from the onset. After I was done with my sets, I stood in front of a mirror, put myself into my position, then looked at myself in the mirror. My heels were perhaps a hair over shoulder width apart, and my feet were angled out more than I thought they should be… but actually when I looked at them from another angle, they were at a good 30 degree angle. Point was, I was more comfortable here, less stress on my hip and knee joints. With everything happier, well, I’m happier.

But as well, that foot position coupled with “chest up” really worked my adductors and posterior chain more… which is good, because obviously everything else I’ve been doing has been because those are weaker parts of my whole and so my quads were compensating. Yesterday I did watch Matt Wenning’s “So You Think You Can Squat” series and that put some good thoughts in my head. Anyways, I got the 3×5 but my bar speed was very slow. Next workout I’m going to keep my weights the same, keep focusing on form, but work to get the bar speed up to a “normal” speed.

Bench Press

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x75
• 1x3x105
• 1x2x135
• 3x5x155 (work)

As well, I continue to work on form here. I’m getting the hang of putting my feet back and pressing my heels down so that I get a full body drive from the legs up, but I’m still far from mastery of the technique… still feels weird to me, but every time I bench I get a little better and more aware of doing things right.

I am not sure how much longer I can keep up 5# jumps, but I wouldn’t be surprised if before the end of the month I dropped down to 2.5# jumps. I don’t want form to go to crap here all for the sake of weight.

Deadlift

• 2x5x95 (warmup)
• 1x5x125
• 1x2x175
• 1x5x210 (work)

Whoops! I slipped up and did 5 @ 125 instead of 3. No big deal.

This is starting to feel heavy, but not “oh God I can’t do this!” heavy. I do think that either next or certainly the subsequent deadlift session is going to need to go to a mixed grip on the work set. Until now it’s been exclusively double-overhand grip, and likely I’ll continue that for all the warmup sets, only using mixed for the actual work set.

I do think I can continue 15# jumps here, but again, that’s not going to last much longer.

Gear

I had another change of gear today. The only athletic type shoes I own is a pair of Nike Free, which I bought years ago due to Kuk Sool because they offered protection to the feet while allowing a lot of movement. I used them to lift because they’re what I had. As I read about what shoes to wear when lifting, running shoes or anything that has a lot of cushion in the heel is bad because that creates a lot of give and an unstable base under the bar — makes sense. Wrestling shoes or dedicated lifting shoes are best, but the other recommendation tends to be the good old Converse Chuck Taylor. They are basic, simple, flat soled, and not a lot of cushion to them. You see a lot of powerlifters using them. The Free’s were starting to tear and come apart on me, so I opted to buy a set of Chucks. Wore them today. Not sure I noticed any real difference other than they don’t look as fruity as the Free’s. 😉

Diet

I’ve put on about 15-20# since I started this SS-inspired program about 6 weeks ago. It’s lifting, it’s eating. Trouble is, I really can’t afford to get bigger, at least, due to fat. There’s no question I have some fat gain, but there’s also a fair deal of muscle gain — both are evident. The issue becomes my clothing. I’m starting to push to the edge of what my clothing can handle, and there’s no way at this stage that I’m going to start buying a whole new wardrobe.

But I know what I’ve been doing, and it’s been consuming too many calories overall. I’ve been very focused on whatever it took to maximize my strength gains, and that worked. But now, I gotta trim back. I need to keep the strength and muscle gains up, but shed fat. I weigh about 240# now (6’3″ tall), and using the US Army bodyfat method I’m around 20% BF, maybe 20-25% is a better range to say. So, if I could shed down to 200#, that’d be cool. That’s actually been a goal of mine for some time (remember the up-day-down-day thing I was doing?). Of course, it’s hard to say how that’ll play out as I’m building muscle too, but I still think 200# a reasonable target. Exactly where my weight ends up isn’t as big as issue as the overall body composition improving.

Given that, I need to drop my protein intake down to 180-200 grams a day (i.e. 1 gram per pound of lean bodyweight). I know I’ve been overdoing it here, on purpose. Trouble is, I started to get bad about carbs too… I shouldn’t have, thus here I am taking in too many calories in a day; I was good about this at first and actually lost a little weight, but then I got consumed by building bigger strength numbers — let’s hear it for that ego again *sigh*. So the big thing is to scale back protein intake and strive for 0 carbs in a day — that won’t happen, but if I target that it’ll help guide my choices and habits. I reset my squat, this is a reset of my diet. 🙂

Commentary

I still feel I’m doing alright. I’m getting better with my form in every way, but still a long way to go. I am slowing down, but I have to expect that will happen. With the diet change, my gains may slow and I may get pushed onto an intermediate-level program a little sooner than expected. It’ll be what it’ll be.

Bottom line: I continue to enjoy the journey.

My change-up was a good thing.

Squats

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x80
• 1x3x120
• 1x2x160
• 3x5x205 (work)

In the prior workout I was doing 230# work sets, but my form went to crap — not good. I opted to do a major reset, drop 10% (rounding down, be conservative), and work to fix my form. While there may be a lot of things to fix, I wanted to pick just one or two things so as to not overload myself. The two cues I set for myself were: 1. chest up, 2. abs tight. I focused on those, reminding myself of them when I got under the bar, again after I walked out before I did my first rep, and then resetting and checking myself between each rep. I didn’t focus on moving the weight or getting the rep, I focused on good form, especially the 2 cues.

Yes, things were better. Tougher no question, and I really felt it on my thigh adductors, which tells me I was doing more to include my posterior chain — all good improvement. So, it was a smart move to drop the weight and pick up the form. Remember: the body doesn’t know how much weight you’re lifting, just that there’s a stress. The poundage, the reps, those numbers are only known to the ego. Better to have the right form.

I will progress from here in 5# increments.

Press

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x55
• 1x3x70
• 1x2x85
• 3x5x100 (work)

Nice round number. 🙂 I could tell my bar speed was slowing down on these tho, not always getting the full push through of my head and the shrug at the end. So, I think this is another time to slow down. I’m going to drop down to 2.5# increases, so I’m happy I bought those fractional plates ahead of time. Again, I worked on cues like “chest up” to fix form.

Chin-ups

• 1x10xbw
• 1x8xbw
• 1x7xbw

What happened here? I didn’t feel as strong for some reason, but I noticed I was being stricter on these too… I guess my brain got into a “strictness” groove and it just carried over here. Not going to complain.

Commentary

Not the toughest, most demanding physical workout I’ve had, but it took a lot more mentally because I had to be very into what I was doing, keeping focused on fixing my form, constantly reminding myself of my cues. I do think it paid off, and long-term this will have been a wise move to reset and move on.

I do think things are starting to slow down, but that’s expected. While I know I need to focus on the now, I am starting to think down the line about exactly what I’m wanting for a more long-term program. The Wendler 5/3/1 is appealing to me because it continues to focus on strength, throws in some mass building and balance, is straightforward and logical, and I also think it’ll be something that I may be able to better recover from. We’ll see… much to research and consider.

During the last few reps of a true 20RM squat, just do what Jesus tells you.

– Mark Rippetoe

I wasn’t doing 20RM squats, but I think Jesus was talking to me today.

Squats

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x90
• 1x3x135
• 1x2x180
• 3x5x230 (work)

This was the toughest work set so far. The bar speed was slow. A time or two I had to take two breaths before the next rep. Last rep of each set involved a good involuntary yell. I almost didn’t get rep 15 out… around rep 12 I thought “Lord, am I going to make it? should I give up now? hell no! keep going… if you can’t do it, then you won’t do it, but until that point, keep doing it.”.

It felt good to accomplish it, but holy crap….

There were two guys in the gym that were watching me: the owner, and another guy that’s certainly the strongest guy I’ve met in the gym. They offered some observations about my form going to shit during the work sets. I didn’t agree with 100% of what they said, but there’s no question some of the things they said jived with things I myself observed and felt. Biggest things? 1. my abs were NOT tight, 2. my chest was not up. Now, before this workout I was wondering to myself if I had been going low enough, hitting parallel, so I think that was more on my mind than anything else. I know when I got under the bar I would cue myself to tighten my abs, but once the bar started moving all I cared about was moving the weight and getting the reps. Form went to hell.

After thinking about it, I’m going to do a full reset on squats. Is this the right time to reset like this? Well, in reading the Rippetoe tomes I don’t think this merits a full reset… I think I would just forge ahead, either keeping the weight the same for the next workout or microloading (e.g. going up 2.5# instead of 5#). It’s probably too early for a reset. But, I don’t care. The program is a little biased towards young guys, and while I’m not old, I’m not young either. I don’t need to risk injury… better to lift today and tomorrow than just today. Plus, going to less weight will help me get my form in order. I know I’ve been chasing the weight numbers because hey… it feeds my ego like it’s never been fed before. I’ve never done this before, never moved weights like this, and with all the other crapola in my life, having something good like this is wanted and needed. But, ego is starting to take over. I have to remind myself of Henry Rollins:

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I’m old enough to know to learn from the wisdom of others. No, my ego didn’t want to hear what the 2 guys in the gym were telling me, but it’s what I needed to hear. When I thought about all my possible options, I think that a full reset, dropping 10% (25# in this case), and working my way back up with a greater emphasis on the form points that I’m not hitting (chest up, abs tight) is what is needed.

Oh, and the belt… wore it lower today, that felt better. I also think I should tighten it up one more notch… it’ll be really tight when I’m standing around, but when I’m under the bar it’ll be just right. As it was, tight when I stand around lead to being a little too loose when I was under the bar.

Bench Press

• 2x5x45 (warmup)
• 1x5x75
• 1x3x105
• 1x2x135
• 3x5x150 (work)

Put more of the Dave Tate “So You Think You Can Bench” series into play. Had the feet further back, rolled the bar to the front of the pegs, pushed into my heels as I pressed, squeezed the bar. I wasn’t perfect with it, but it was better. I can feel the difference the “whole body” and pressing with the legs makes. A long ways to go before I really get it, but this is a start. Also, I was doing better at remembering to squeeze my grip really hard… made my wrists a lot happier.

Pull-ups

• 1x12xbw
• 1x9xbw
• 1x8xbw

I admit, I’m getting tired of doing these reverse/inverted rows. I really want to move to actual pull-/chin-ups. Today I thought, “maybe I’ll just work my way to 10 reps across” and see how that goes… then move on. But no no no. I said I have to get to 3×15 before I move on, and I need to stick to my plan. I still am getting stronger, because reps are going up… and hey, bodyweight is going up too. So if both weight and reps are increasing, I am getting stronger. Just forge on. I’ll be there soon enough.

Commentary

Today was a humbling experience.

It was good for me.

On the one hand, it was nice to have the ego stroke of moving big weights and setting more PR’s. But on the other, it was a time to be humbled and realize that I need to slow down, back up, fix some problems, and from there I can progress. It’s a long-term journey, not a sprint (probably the only way I’ll allow “marathon” to be used in my exercise regimen is here as a metaphor). I have to remember, I’m not doing this for the ego stroke, for a competition, or for anything other than trying to be strong, useful, and healthy… it’s really for my health and well-being. Injury will not help my physical, mental, nor emotional well-being. A little humility will allow my ego to be fed for much longer. 😉