My Starting Strength Journey

So I took 3 straight days off and I feel great. My hip had begun to bother me, so the rest was beneficial.

So I was reminded a valuable lesson during today’s session…..don’t drop the barbell on your toe. It happened while I was setting up to do my power cleans and the bar slipped from my hand as I was removing a plate on one side. The fat part of the bar landed right on the joint of my big toe. 

Other than that, everything was solid lifts. The squats are heavy, but encouraging. My previous 3 RM of back squats was 175, I did 3 sets of 5 just 5 pounds below that. I am just 10 pounds under my previous press 2 RM as well. I feel like I will blow by it.

• Back Squats: 3x5 @ 170#
• Press: 3x5 @ 85#
• Power Clean: 5x3 @ 110#

Not going to lie, today was a struggle. Besides my low back being quite sore all day, I felt very distracted during the workout.

Back Squats: 3x5 @ 165#
Bench Press: 3x5 @ 105#
Deadlift: 1x5 @ 205#

Jed gave me some good feedback during my deadlift warmup reminding me to push my hips posteriorly before bringing the weight down.

So today I arrived at CFD around 6:45 am. Why so early, you ask. Because Bridgette and I have DPAC tickets to see Memphis tonight. After about 15 minutes of stretching and waking warming up I got down to business. As I mentioned last time, the weights are now heavy and I even found myself grunting ever so slightly on the 3rd set of squats.

• Back Squats: 3x5 @ 160#
• Press: 3x5 @ 80# (new PR) and no I didn’t ring the cow bell
• Power Clean: 5x3 @ 105#

I even took a video of my power cleans. This is from my last set and when I watch it, my elbows look like they are very slow, but I feel I’ve made good progress popping my hips open and not donkey kicking. Thoughts/critiques/tips?

I rather enjoyed doing the morning workout and was surprised how many attended the 6:15 class. Once SS is finished, I may continue doing some strength work in the mornings and do a WOD in the evening.

It’s been a very busy weekend so I didn’t have time to run a post from Friday’s workout. So today’s post is brought to you by:

So I know I’ve been stating how the weights have been pretty easy so far…..well Friday, I was introduced to heavy. Most notably the squats are definitely more challenging and I find I need to focus on technique to help get them up.

Friday’s Workout:

• Squats: 3x5 @ 150#
• Press: 3x5 @ 75#
• Power Clean: 5x3 @ 100#

Sunday’s Workout:

• Squats: 3x5 @ 155#
• Bench Press: 3x5 @ 100#
• Deadlift: 1x5 @ 195#
• GHD Sit-Ups: 2x8 w/ 10#
• Ring Dips: 3 set of max reps: 5,5,3
• Dead Hang Pull-Ups: 3 sets of max reps: 5,4,3

I. am. weak. I won’t deny this. I haven’t done heavy lifting since high school (over 12 years). That is the purpose of me going through starting strength, to get stronger. So going into SS, I went back and forth about where to begin with my working sets. I’m now over 1/3 of the way into the program and am starting to wonder if I started too light (between 50-55% of my 1RM) on each lift. I say this because I am moving the weights fairly easily. Yes, they are becoming slightly more challenging, but nothing that requires much effort.  I had been doubting the effect that the workout was having, until I had a conversation with Dave and Ryan about the program. I told them I was bored, because it wasn’t challenging yet. Last night, I went into my notes from the WOD’s of 2011 to look a past lifts. i was unable to find any days with squat sets of 5, but the last time time I did squats in sets of 3, I was able to do 175. Today, I did sets of 5 at 145, with a fair amount of ease. I am confident I will be able to do 175 in sets of 5 when I get there, and that is why I’m doing SS…to get ripped stronger.

I’m really tempted, when I hit the halfway point, to post-pone 2 of my SS lifts and use them as midpoint tests to see if my 1RM has increased. What do you think?

Today’s workout:

• Back Squats: 3x5 @ 145#
• Bench Press: 3x5 @ 95#
• Deadlift: 1x5 @ 185#
• GHD Sit-Ups: 3x8 w/ 10#
• Ring Dips: 4x4

Being that math has never been my strong suit, I mistakenly did a warm-up set of deadlifts at 185….my working set weight. When I realized the error, I almost threw 10# on the bar to do deadlifts at 195. Probably should have done that, in hindsight. 

I am officially 1/3 of the way through starting strength. So far I’m really liking it although these first couple of weeks have been somewhat boring. Now on to today’s workout.

• Back Squats: 3x5 @ 140#’s
• Press: 3x5 @ 70#’s
• Power Clean: 5x3 @ 95#’s 

As I mentioned previously, power cleans have been extremely easy so I decided to skip 90#’s and moved up to 95. 

Now some inspiration:

Nothing like some squats to wake you up on a Saturday. Ok, fine, I was already wide awake by the time we got to the gym at 10 this morning. I was slightly disappointed that I wasn’t taking part in the general workout of attempting to establishing new a 1RM of back squats, press and deadlifts, BUT look forward to testing once the program is over.

Today’s workout was:

• Back Squats: 3x5 @ 135#’s
• Bench Press: 3x5 @ 90#’s
• Deadlifts: 1x5 @ 175#’s
• GHD Sit-Ups: 2x8 w/ 10#’s
• Dips: 3x4

After the workout Bridgette and I met with Coach Stew and he did biometric analysis on both of us. I am surprised to say that at 173#’s, only 12.6% of it is body fat. I somewhat expected to be over 15%. He did provide some good information about ways to make sure we are getting enough good fat into our system during the day. I will be trying coconut oil in my post workout protein shakes.

Finally, I’ll be rooting for my

A day late, again. So I woke up yesterday with my legs feeling heavy. On my way to work I stopped off at Wholefoods and purchased a Vita Coco Coconut Water. About an hour after drinking it, my legs felt like they had some life back in them. I suggest the Acai/pomegranate flavored one. 

Today was Workout B:

• Back Squats: 3x5 @ 130#’s
• Press: 3x5 @ 65#’s
• Power Clean: 5x3 @ 85#’s
• GHD Back Extensions: 3x8
• Dead Hang Pull-Ups: 3x4

I’ve definitely noticed that the squats and press are becoming more challenging, but still manageable. Power cleans almost feel too easy. 

Since I’ve been pretty lazy with doing short metcon’s afterwards, I decided to do a 21-15-9 of kettlebell swings and burpees. I got a big fat DNF. Halfway through my second round of burpees, my quads and hip flexors revolted. Since my goal is to gain strength, I shut it down so I don’t derail my progress through starting strength. 

So from here on out I may use post workout time to focus on developing a skill. One that continues to elude me, double unders. Being a pretty athletic guy, the fact that I can’t string these together pisses me off frustrates me to no end. I truly believe it’s my limitations with dancing that is holding me back.

Completely off topic, but I tried brussel sprouts for the first time the other night. I.am.a.fan. 

Sorry for the delayed post, yesterday was a pretty sh@tty day and when I got home I had no interest in doing much. Any-who this workout was fueled by the day’s frustrations. Unlike Sunday, my squats felt vibrant (if a squat can feel vibrant). 

• Squats: 3x5 @ 125#’s 
• Bench Press: 3x5 @ 85#’s
• Deadlift: 1x5 @ 165#’s
• GHD Sit-Ups: 3x8
• Ring Dips: 3x3

The bad news, is I haven’t been too motivated in doing any kind of METCON type work after my lifts. The good news, is that Stephen may be joining me during the week for lifts, maybe that will help give me a push to do a cash out METCON.

I promise videos are to come, if you guys promise to provide feedback.

Today was Day 4 of my Starting Strength program. The workout consisted of: 

• Back Squats: 3x5 - 120# 
• Press: 3x5 - 60#
• Power Clean: 5x3 - 80#

I also added:

• GHD Back Extensions: 2x8
• Dead Hang Pull-Ups: 3x4
• Sledgehammer Swings: 2x25 for each side (left & right) 

The weight is still pretty light, but for some reason squats seemed slow today. Even warm-up sets felt somewhat labored. Jed gave me a tip on Wednesday for presses by retracting my shoulder blades and “locking” them to sort of create a foundation to make the weight go up easier. I focused on this during my press sets and noticed a significant difference when I used that queue. 

I’m going to try to take some videos of a few of my lifts in the near future. Hopefully, some of my loyal readers (I’m using that term loosely) can provide some critique.

On a side note, I found out that Coach Paul will not be coaching at CFD any longer. Kind of saddened by this as I enjoyed his coaching style. I completely understand his reasons and wish him the best. I will still check his blog regularly and hope he makes some guest appearances at CFD.

Squat - 3x5 - 115
Bench Press - 3x5 - 80
Deadlift - 1x5 - 155
GHD Sit-Ups - 2x8 
Dips - 3x3 (dips)

Bridgette joined me for the workout. I felt pretty good today, but I’m assuming it’s because the weights are still fairly light. Although, I did wake up today and my legs felt somewhat dead. I’m going to keep track to see if this typically follows the deadlift day since I was sore on Tuesday as well. Initially, I was attributing it to typical soreness following the first workout after a 2 week layoff. 

With that said, I was planning on attending Paul’s endurance workout today, but decided against it. I am altering up my original plan of just doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday with Saturday & Sunday off. I now will be doing a true alternating day program, so Sunday will be Day 4.

Until Sunday…

Today’s workout is my first for workout B. It included:

Back Squat: 3x5 - 110 lbs.
Press: 3x5 - 55 lbs.
Power Clean: 5x3 - 75 lbs. 

I also added GHD Back Extensions (2x8) and Dead Hang Pullups (3x3) 

Since the weights are considerably light so far, my primary focus is form. So for the squats I focused on keeping back on my heels and not letting my knees buckle inward. In heavy squats, I have a habit of looking like this with my knees. For the power cleans, I am making a conscious effort in exploding with my hips and having quick elbows. 

For conditioning I did a 15-9-3 quick set of kettle bell swings and burpees: 2:36.

By this time next week I’m going to look like this….I just know it.

Hello and welcome to my blog I hope to use it to follow my starting strength program, but I’m sure it will evolve over time.

I entered 2012 with 3 fitness goals in mind:

1. Get stronger
2. Eat healthier
3. Cut body fat

I’m fairly confident #3 will come with successful completions of goals 1 & 2. So leading up to the New Year, I researched Mark Rippetoe’s Starting Strength program and decided to give it a shot. The premise is as follows:

8 weeks of alternating workouts 3 times a week (24 total workouts). 

Workout A:

Back Squats - 3x5
Bench Press - 3x5
Deadlift - 1x5

Workout B:

Back Squats - 3x5
Press - 3x5
Power Clean - 5x3

After some consultation with a few CDF coaches and athletes, I decided to begin the program using between 50-55% of my 1RM. Today, I did 105, 75, and 145 (respectively). Obviously, this was fairly easy, but my goal is to try and add 5 pounds each session. So Friday, I will do 115, 80 and 155 (10 lbs for deadlifts). I also added GHD sit-ups (2x8) and ring dips (3x3) to today’s workout. 

After completion of my SS workout, I decided to do a lighter conditioning workout. I went with a simple 21-15-9 set of kettle bell swings (44#) and box jumps (20 inches). Wow, I didn’t realize that not working out for 2 weeks due to the holidays and illness would suck so much. The box jumps wore me out, but I still completed in 3:54.

I’m looking forward to day 2.