TimM's Starting Strength Log (Rippetoe)

[TimM]

Tuesday April 10:
Weight: 226.4 lbs.
Body Fat: 32.5%

Started today. My gym has four squat racks and four flat bench presses, none were in use at the time but it was not very busy this afternoon. For some reason in the last week they got rid of their one power rack, so I just did the bench presses with no spotter on the regular benches. Should be fine for now while I'm at low weights - and they are pretty low, at least I have room to move. My BF% is very high, I need to get this down. I used this Estimated Calorie Requirements (http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html) calculator and got a much lower number, some 500 calories less, when I used body fat instead of height.

Workout A:

5 minutes warm-up on recumbent bike.

Squat:
45 x 2 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 5
95 x 3 x 5

I need to work on form here, particularly balance and staying on heels. I thought I was having failure on some early reps of the work sets until I got back on the heels and it was fine. Knees were OK, some clicking and popping though since I'm old. Also need to get some flexibility in my arms and upper back as it was pretty painful to hold even the empty bar in position.

Bench Press:
45 x 2 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
95 x 3 x 5

Was OK except I should have done an 85 x 3 x 1 in there somewhere. I was going to do that with the 95 but it was hard enough so I made it the work set instead.

Deadlift:
45 x 2 x 5
95 x 1 x 5
135 x 1 x 3
165 x 1 x 5

I used the squat rack with and removed the pins for this, so that the unweighted bar would be off the floor. I'll probably just start at 95 next time and later 135, it's easy enough.

7 minutes HIIT (30 seconds "jog", 30 seconds "sprint") on recumbent bike. One minute to be added per week.

Now that I have some idea what my target weights will be, I will try to add and taper off my warm-up sets as recommended. I was in and out of the gym in less than one hour today. I won't bore you guys with updates every single workout, after Thursday when I do Workout B for the first time. My main concern is to get that BF% down and that's going to take time.

[kyleb]

Looks good man. Best of luck!

[Thremp]

Usually sets X reps is the typical lingo.

Good luck.

[TimM]

Thanks guys...

[ QUOTE ]
Usually sets X reps is the typical lingo.

[/ QUOTE ]

Doh, fixed now.

[Spellmen]

I might start my own log, but there are a ton of Rippletoe logs going on right now so this question is probably appropriate here. Right now even with the day of rest I'm typically still pretty sore from squats. It seems pretty stupid to do squats while I'm still sore, so will probably only do them Mon/Fri right now and add in Wednesday when my legs start getting stronger (pretty pitiful right now). Any suggestions on what to add until then? Currently doing military press, pendlay rows, and pullups

[TimM]

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=13263196&postcount=8

[Spellmen]

Ok, for some reason I thought it was strongly recommended not to lift through soreness

[skunkworks]

Spellmen, as long as it does not affect range of motion and does not impact performance greatly, you should lift through soreness. If your hamstrings and glutes are super sore and tight because you lifted too much too fast, then I would recommend you take it easy. Experience will help you determine when to push through it and when to ease up a bit.

If you're past the first month of working out where the soreness can be crippling, then I suggest finding ways to make it a light but productive day. For example, if my legs are beat up, I'll usually squat either a bit lighter than my normal work set (225 -> 205 for example) or I'll do 3 work sets ramping up (205 -> 215 -> 225). I prefer to ramp up because I rationalize to myself, "At least my body will have a better chance of remember what it feels like to do my normal work set."

Edit: Just wanted to add a little more info about why it might be a bad idea to lift when super sore. (I prefer to explain things rather than just assume everyone accepts it as canon.) It increases the risk of injury because:
1) Muscle fatigue can cause you to do stupid things to your form, thus injury.
2) Compromised range of motion can lead to bad form, thus injury.
3) Fatigued stabilizing muscles may not be able to support that much weight. (Ever notice you're more likely to sprain your ankle playing ball when you're tired? Yeah.)
4) Plenty of muscle pulls occur when pushing already-fatigued muscles past what they can give at the moment.
5) In general, injury are likely to occur when your muscles are cold, fatigued, or tight. We can control cold, and sometimes we can control tight, but we can't always control fatigued.

[Thremp]

Active recovery FTW

[theblackkeys]

[ QUOTE ]
Active recovery FTW

[/ QUOTE ]
go on...what are some things we can do to speed up recovery?

[Thremp]

theblackkeys,

Contrast baths, the feeder workouts post I made, stretching, anything to drive blood to the area on off days.

[cbloom]

BTW I was reading this :

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/69/
Grease the Groove for Strength: A Strength Training and Powerlifting article from Dragon Door Publications

and it made me sort of rethink my philosophy on how to work Rippetoe. You're doing a 3x5 three times a week. I realize now it's important to NOT go to failure. You're just trying to do pretty hard work, maybe around 80% of 1RM, so that you can do your sets clean, strain those muscles, but not go to failure. Not only will failure make it impossible to do good sets in the next workout, it might actually be counter productive to building strength.

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
BTW I was reading this :

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/69/
Grease the Groove for Strength: A Strength Training and Powerlifting article from Dragon Door Publications

and it made me sort of rethink my philosophy on how to work Rippetoe. You're doing a 3x5 three times a week. I realize now it's important to NOT go to failure. You're just trying to do pretty hard work, maybe around 80% of 1RM, so that you can do your sets clean, strain those muscles, but not go to failure. Not only will failure make it impossible to do good sets in the next workout, it might actually be counter productive to building strength.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks, I will check out the article...

Rippetoe says something similar, top of page 197:

"This type of training requires that all of the reps of each set be completed, since the program is based on lifting more weight each workout, not completing each workout faster."

Here he is referring to he amount of rest taken between sets, but it's clear that the goal is to complete all the reps, not to reach failure.

[Genesis]

Is this Ripptoe workout mainly for increasing your max rep? Or is it effective for bodybuilding too? I'm looking to add mass and definition, increasing the weight I lift would be more secondary. Would Ripptoe suffice for this?

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
Is this Ripptoe workout mainly for increasing your max rep? Or is it effective for bodybuilding too? I'm looking to add mass and definition, increasing the weight I lift would be more secondary. Would Ripptoe suffice for this?

[/ QUOTE ]

They are hyper correlated.

[CharlieDontSurf]

the most dangerous thing about the "newbie waddle" is that you must exercise care while transporting yourself from point A to point B using the method of mobility known as "walking". You must also be careful when sitting down onto a toilet to do your business, else you learn what "Potty Flop" means.

Take special care if you are anywhere near steps. These can truly be hazardous to your health. ----

wish i had read this before i nearly fell down a flight of stairs...thank god for the railing in the middle.

[Spellmen]

Well I started out with lower weight on the squat today, but by the third set added 10 to what I did Monday. On the last rep I broke form at the very bottom and must have tweaked my lower back on the way up /images/graemlins/frown.gif The first two sets did feel very good though, I didn't really notice the soreness after hitting the bike for a little and then doing 2 warmup sets

[skunkworks]

[ QUOTE ]
the most dangerous thing about the "newbie waddle" is that you must exercise care while transporting yourself from point A to point B using the method of mobility known as "walking". You must also be careful when sitting down onto a toilet to do your business, else you learn what "Potty Flop" means.

Take special care if you are anywhere near steps. These can truly be hazardous to your health. ----

wish i had read this before i nearly fell down a flight of stairs...thank god for the railing in the middle.

[/ QUOTE ]
ahahahahahahahahahhahahha I forgot about the joy of the toilet flop. Oh, and taking stairs one step at a time.

[CharlieDontSurf]

I'm going to have to do the bike afterwards for sure. I did my squat sat--the 3 set of deadlifts probably didn't help things--and my legs are still fed up. Not really sore but just super super tight. Hard enough doing a body squat let alone 100lbs. Gonna do rows/press/dips friday and hold off to start up on the squats again till sunday..unless things get dramatically better in the next day or two.

[skunkworks]

CDS - one set of deadlifts only. 3 and you'll end up flaming out quickly.

[CharlieDontSurf]

[ QUOTE ]
CDS - one set of deadlifts only. 3 and you'll end up flaming out quickly.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah i misread it originally.

[TimM]

Thursday April 12:
Weight: 224.2 lbs.
Body Fat: 32.5%

I was a bit sore last night for the first time in a while, so I definitely hit some areas the machines did not. In spite of the soreness, bowling was still good:

http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d153/timm66/20070411.jpg

I still can't hit a 700 series though. I shot 699 a few weeks ago. /images/graemlins/frown.gif


Workout B:

5 minutes warm-up on recumbent bike.

Squat:
45 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
95 x 1 x 2
105 x 3 x 5

Getting better at form with the squats, holding the bar with a lot less pain, no knee clicking.

Shoulder Press:
45 x 1 x 5
55 x 1 x 3
65 x 3 x 5

These were tough. I was struggling on the last set and I'm sure my form was not very good. I'm going to stay at 65 for one more session, considering this a trial session. I used to stall on these with the dumbbells too, but there I could only increase by a minimum of 5 lbs. per side.

Pendlay Row:
45 x 2 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
95 x 1 x 2
105 x 3 x 5

Same with the rows. I will keep the same weight for just one more session to make sure the form is good.

7 minutes HIIT (30 seconds "jog", 30 seconds "sprint") on recumbent bike.

I'll update in a few weeks, hopefully I'll be lifting more and will see a drop in the BF%.

[TimM]

I'm starting to get plate envy. Guys who don't look much bigger than me are putting up multiple pairs of red plates (45s) and I feel pretty weak in comparison.

My work sets so far:

Squat: 140
Bench: 115
Deads: 195
Press: 70
Rows: 115

Failed on last rep of last work set on the bench with no spotter and and had to roll the bar down my legs.

The Press at 70 is much too close to my 5RM and I'm going to roll it back to 60 and microload from there. More info here (http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?p=36653591&postcount=306). I ordered a set of these (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AD5UAC/), which are not much more than a good set of adjustable ankle weights.

I'm going to try to divide the warm-up sets a little evenly. I was going too close to my work set weight on my last warm-up set, and spacing them out more will reduce the total volume so that I have more left for the work sets.

[TimM]

6 weeks in:

Squat: 195 (these are getting tough but still able to add 5 lbs every workout)
Bench: 125 (having trouble getting the last couple reps of the third set)
Deads: 245 (going up 10 lbs. every "A" workout)
Press: 70 (I backed off to 60 and started microloading, going up in 2 lb. increments now)
Rows: 125 (maybe got too high here, have to check on the form)
HIIT: 12 minutes (going to 13 next time)

[theblackkeys]

wow good job dude.

[1C5]

good job!! how do you like the workout now that you have been with it for awhile?

a good workout like this is better than 99.9999999% of people in the gym do and we can see the results it causes.

most people in the gym look at the same and lift the same weights year after year with their subpar workouts with no direction or point. (end rant) /images/graemlins/grin.gif

[TimM]

Thanks guys. I do love the workout and wish I could do it every day. There's just something about knowing when you're doing something right, and seeing the progress it brings.

[1C5]

What are your warmpus for squats. BP, rows and deadlifts? (#of sets and reps)

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
What are your warmpus for squats. BP, rows and deadlifts? (#of sets and reps)

[/ QUOTE ]

OK my last two workouts were:


"A" - 5/17

5 Minutes recumbent bike warm-up

Squats:
45 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 5
115 x 1 x 3
150 x 1 x 2
190 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

Bench:
45 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
105 x 1 x 2
125 x 3 x 5/5/3 (work sets - missed last two reps)

Deads:
135 x 1 x 5
165 x 1 x 5
195 x 1 x 3
225 x 1 x 2
245 x 1 x 5 (work set)

12 Minutes recumbent bike HIIT (30 secs "jog", 30 secs "sprint")

"B" - 5/19

5 Minutes recumbent bike warm-up

Squats:
45 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 5
120 x 1 x 3
160 x 1 x 2
195 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

Press:
45 x 1 x 5
53 x 1 x 3
61 x 1 x 2
70 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

Rows:
45 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
105 x 1 x 2
120 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

12 Minutes recumbent bike HIIT (30 secs "jog", 30 secs "sprint")

I'm going to drop the rows all the way back to 85. I haven't been touching bar to body on every rep, so I want to start over and not count any reps that don't touch from now on. Tomorrow will be the third try at 125 on the bench, if I don't get all the reps I'm going to reset that one too, but not as far.

[TimM]

Finished week 8 today. Had a bit of a milestone, squatting two pairs of "red plates" (225 lbs total).

Making some changes:

The squat and deadlift have gotten very heavy very fast with no resets, while the upper body lifts are lagging and stalling. Also, I didn't like my form on the last few sets of squats. I felt like I was leaning forward just a bit and then lifting the weight with more with my back than my legs.

So I'm going to try to balance the workload a bit, and this will bring my program more in line with what is actually taught at Rippetoe's gym. (link) (http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showpost.php?p=34734211&postcount=18)

I'm going to reset the squat to 200 lbs, and only do back squats twice a week. Deadlifts will only be done once a week, with lighter front squats on that day. Rows will be done twice every week, for more upper body pulling. I'm hoping the reduced lower body workload will leave more in the tank for all of the upper body lifts. I still don't feel like I should be adding any of the accessory lifts yet. We will see how this goes. I'm hoping to get a couple more months out of this before switching to something with a slower, weekly progression.

The new program will look like this:

Week A:
Tuesday: Back Squat / Bench Press / Pendlay Row
Thursday: Front Squat / Military Press / Deadlift
Saturday: Back Squat / Bench Press / Pendlay Row

Week B:
Tuesday: Back Squat / Military Press / Pendlay Row
Thursday: Front Squat / Bench Press / Deadlift
Saturday: Back Squat / Military Press / Pendlay Row

Warmups and cardio as before, and all work sets 3x5 except deadlift (1x5). Still adding 5 lbs each workout, except military press (+2 lbs) and deadlift (+10 lbs).

Finally, there is diet. I have gained 4 lbs in the 8 weeks I've been on this program, and according to FitDay I've consumed an average of 3600 calories per day over this time. I'm going to try to stay in the 2800-3000 calorie per day range from now on.

[mike0292]

good job man, you're a couple weeks ahead of me I hope to match your progress.

[TimM]

Finished week 12 today. I'm getting to the point where I feel I need a slower progression and more recovery time, so I'll be switching to the "SF 5x5" next week: http://www.geocities.com/elitemadcow1/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm

I didn't quite get my calories down to the 2800-3000 range, I averaged 3260 per day over the last 4 weeks, and lost about 2 lbs. I'm going to continue trying to push this lower. Current weight 227.8. Also front squats didn't work well for me so I switched to lighter back squats on Thursdays.

Failed on a squat for the first time today, but the rack pins did their job and prevented me from having to drop the bar.


Last two workouts:

"A" - 6/28

5 Minutes recumbent bike warm-up

Light Squats:
45 x 1 x 5
75 x 1 x 5
105 x 1 x 3
135 x 1 x 2
165 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

Bench:
45 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
95 x 1 x 3
115 x 1 x 2
130 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

Deads:
135 x 1 x 5
175 x 1 x 5
225 x 1 x 3
265 x 1 x 2
305 x 1 x 4 (work set - failed on 5th rep, got 305x1x3 on 6/21)

15 Minutes recumbent bike HIIT (30 secs "jog", 30 secs "sprint")

"B" - 6/30

5 Minutes recumbent bike warm-up

Squats:
45 x 1 x 5
95 x 1 x 5
135 x 1 x 2
195 x 1 x 2
225 x 1 x 1
235 x 1 x 2 (work sets - failed on 3rd rep)
225 x 2 x 5

Press:
45 x 1 x 5
55 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 3
75 x 1 x 2
85 x 3 x 5 (work sets)

Pendlay Rows:
45 x 1 x 5
65 x 1 x 5
85 x 1 x 3
105 x 1 x 2
120 x 3 x 5 (work sets - still not always getting the full range on these)

15 Minutes recumbent bike HIIT (30 secs "jog", 30 secs "sprint")

[godofgamblers]

Just wondering, as I'm rather new to deadlifting and squatting, are those numbers the weight on each side or total for benching?

I max out at 180 on the bench (5 reps) and I can't dead more than like 170 without feeling my back about to burst. How is it possible for you to be benching 130 but deadlifting 300+?

[TimM]

[ QUOTE ]
Just wondering, as I'm rather new to deadlifting and squatting, are those numbers the weight on each side or total for benching?

I max out at 180 on the bench (5 reps) and I can't dead more than like 170 without feeling my back about to burst. How is it possible for you to be benching 130 but deadlifting 300+?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes they are all total weight. I'm not happy with my upper body strength, I just have to keep working on it.

What's your height and weight? I used to be 300 lbs., and at 230 I still have a 32% bodyfat so that probably contributed to the difference in upper and lower body strength. Also, are you using proper form for your deadlifts? See the links I posted here (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Number=10997258&page=0&vc=1 ). If you are new to deadlifting you should be able to systematically add weight. Remember I started much lower and added 10-20 lbs each week. Doing the same with squats will also help your deadlifts too.

[SmileyEH]

[ QUOTE ]
Just wondering, as I'm rather new to deadlifting and squatting, are those numbers the weight on each side or total for benching?

I max out at 180 on the bench (5 reps) and I can't dead more than like 170 without feeling my back about to burst. How is it possible for you to be benching 130 but deadlifting 300+?

[/ QUOTE ]

You'll be doing good in a few months.

[anklebreaker]

gog, you should be deadlifting a lot more than you bench. Check out a form and technique guide, and watch some videos. Legs + back > Chest + arms

tbk, check out this thread on active recovery. (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=9601858&an=&page=0&vc=1)

[godofgamblers]

Thanks a lot for the links, I think I've been bending a bit too much and putting too much stress on my lower back rather than distributing it evenly.