Bal's Training Log

[Balraj]

Hey all,
2 weeks into the program and thought that I should make a training log so that I don't cheat myself out of reps, and been lurking around the forum before, so this seemed like a good idea.

Name: Bal
Gender: Male
Age: 16 yrs
Height: 5'9
BW: 55kg
B Fat: 9.1%

Background:
Been gyming last 1 and a half years, on and off, before discovering this. Was the usual circuits of any machine that seemed suitable with high reps, low volume. Run 1500m for my school, so always try to re-gain those burnt calories when practicing on Saturdays [found these don't affect my Monday squats because my legs are fairly strong already]. After picking up a dislocated left hip injury playing rugby, decided I needed to get my strength back, and thus found stronglifts.

Start of program (11.01.2010)
Squat: 40kg (pretty comfortable at this weight, didn't feel too taxing)
Bench: 30kg
OHP: 20kg (just bar)
Chin-ups: 12-10-10
Deadlift: 50kg

Wed - 27.01.2010 (Gained 2kg so far in BW)
Squat: 60kg -These 2 weeks been nailing down form and have it sorted now for the bigger weights Was surprised at how 60kg felt easy on the shoulders, definite improvement!
OHP: 27.5k (Got to 3x5, then failed. Am eating fairly well, so think its down over-arching back, [will work on that with abs tensed] or sleep. Will try again on Mon, hopefully better than today but feels a bit frustrating having failed so early on. However, this just makes me more motivated to nail it next time and its really helpful in self-assessing form)
Deadlift: 65kg (Felt good, kept form during lift and the 1x5 felt pretty solid with good form. Feeling excited now as I start to enter the higher numbers soon, for my age)
Chin-Ups: 17-11-10 (Time to move on to weighted
Prone bridges: 3x50sec. (Will see how one leg for x30 sec goes next time).

Discovered GOMAD into first week, so always to fit in a minimum of 3 pints a day. Some days it has been 2, but being fairly skinny, confident that rate will improve in a couple of days when I learn to be accustomed to heavy volumes of milk. Also liking the strange sense of modesty that you acquire when doing this program - theres no need for me to brag about the weights I'm lifting to friends, just get into the school gym, focussed, and then straight into squats. A very humbling experience.

[WhiteGorilla]

Good job on starting a log and on your weight gain. You'll see that your OHP will go up quickly once you gain some more weight. Just keep doing GOMAD if your not already.

[Berbatov]

Good work with chin-ups , you are light with low bodyfat and surely they are easier . Just make sure you do them full range of motion , without moving the legs . I am really weak at those and with cheating i get like 9-10 reps at most on first set , shoulder wide grip .

[Balraj]

@WG: Thanks for the advice and inspiration! Yeah I just need to keep piling on those calories I guess

@Berbatov: Thanks, yeah I have a decent strength:weight ratio so they're not too bad for me. Well as long as you make sure to squeeze out those last couple of reps and you're satisfied with the effort you're putting into chin-ups, its upwards from here.

[Balraj]

Fri 29.01.2010
Squat: 62.5kg
Bench: 40kg
Inverted Rows: 16-14-10
Push-Ups: 16-10-8
Reverse Crunch 30-22-10

Squats 5x5: Felt the burn this time, form only dropped for last 2 on last set, so overall pleased about that. Looking forward to 70 in a week.
Bench 5x5: Realised the wonders of holding the bar tightly. 40kg felt like a breeze compared to last bench session.
Invert. Rows: 16 with good form on first set, will add some weights next time.
Push-ups: 16 with 2.5kg weight on my back for first set. See how 5kg goes next time.
R-Crunches: Felt like doing these to failure, no counter-weight. Moving on to D-Flags next time.

Body fat: Up to 11.53% from 9% at start, along with muscle. Encouraging signs.

[Balraj]

Went for a 10k run today, doesn't usually affect my squats on Monday so seemed fine.
...and then I pulled my Achilles tendon seems like injury-fever has hit me as well.
See how the squats go tomorrow, its recovering pretty well so far though so should still be on for the 65kg squat.

[Balraj]

Mon 1.2.10

Squat: 65kg
OHP: 27.5kg
Deadlift: 70kg
Pull-ups: 10/7/4
Prone Bridges: 3x30sec - One leg

Squats: 5x5, 65kg, YESSSS, discovered the elusive bounce in the hole Seemed really easy as I kept everything tight and just paced through those squats. Tendon didn't give me any grief and 70kg shouldn't be a problem.
OHP: 5/3/4/3/0 (27.5kg killed me off again, 2nd failure. Just didn't have enough arm strength I guess, as form seemed pretty consistent)
Deadlift: 1x8, 70kg. Really pleased how I grinded out the +3 extra reps
Pull-ups: Not as good as my chin-ups, but will keep working on these, watch this space!
Prones: Seemed easy, so threw in a couple of dragon flag supersets. I'm guessing Ab-wheel rollouts when I get bored of flags.
--Bal--

[Balraj]

Wed 03.02.10
Squat: 67.5kg
Bench: 42.5kg
Inverted Rows: 12-10-10 (2.5kg)
Push-Ups: 12-12-12 (3.25kg)
Dragon Flags: 3x1min hold

Squats 5x5: Hamstrings were pretty tight for these, still went below parallel though.
Bench 5x5: This was a struggle, had a little back pain, but mostly went by the third set. Fifth set was so difficult, but I got there eventually.
Invert. Rows: Speeded through these
Push-ups: Knackered for the first time at this stage, as kept a chain of 12 for the 3 sets. Yowch.
Drag Flags: Felt the nice type of burn on the abs. Think I'll superset with TGU's on Fri or Mon: Boom.

[Balraj]

Fri 05.02.10
Squat: 70kg PR
OHP: 27.5kg
Deadlift: 75kg
Chins: 15/6/3
Dragon Flags: 10/10
TGUs: 10 / 2.5kg kettle

Squats 5x5: PR, and went further below parallel here than 67.5. Satisfied with 70kg
OHP: Yes form on 5th set was a tad shaky BUT FINALLY NAILED THAT 27.5KG on third attempt! Mootherrfuckeerr.
Deadlift: Took longer than normal, but not stalling anytime soon --> 1x8 on this
Chins: So tired after extra DL work, wasn't up to my best.
Drag Flags/TGUs: Can't wait for that DOMS

[Balraj]

Mon 08.02.10
Squat: 72.5kg
Bench: 45kg
Invert rows (5kg plate): 10/6/6
Push-ups (5kg plate): 10/10/7
Dragon Flags: 2x1min hold + 2 ab wheel rollouts.

Squats: 5x5. Bit of a struggle today, first set felt rough, but got better afterwards. Ironically on either side had to put on biggest plate (25kg) and smallest (1.25kg)
Bench: No problems here.
Invert rows: Getting tough now, pretty effective counter-weight.
Push-Ups: Fine.
Ab work: Didn't realise how hard rollouts were exactly!

-Bal-

[Balraj]

Wed 10.02.10 - Breaking Point
Squat: 75kg
OHP: 27.5kg
Deadlifts: 80kg --Failed--
Ran out of time for: Pull-Ups, Prone Bridges

Squats: Reached a new level of difficulty (Almost 1.5xBW), so had to warrior through these. Didn't feel like doing them from 1st set, but battled on anyway. It was a struggle today getting mentally prepared. 5x5.

OHP: Much easier than last time, increasing as normal next time Yes!

Deadlifts: This fucker outdid me today (1/5 achieved). 80kg felt so heavy compared to 75, it became my 1RM instead of 5RM today. Probably because I didn't sleep well last night and I forgot to eat before the workout. Hopefully next time this will be sorted.

Time was tight today so had to skip the assistance exercises, but not too worried as the main lifts were decent. Revision for exams now, and reckon a 4 day break can't hurt.

-Bal-

[Balraj]

Just wanted to conquer the DL thing today,
So did a quick DL workout aannnddddd:

3x40
3x60
80/80/80/85/85

BOOM

[Balraj]

Fri 12.02.10 - Realisation

Can I get a Deellooooaddddddd - Realised that my squat form wasn't up to scratch in terms of getting depth, and my bench could also do with some work, soo didn't let ego get in the way and:

Squat: 50kg - Hit all the depth.
Bench: 40kg - Held at lockout, felt good.
I-Rows: As normal: 9/7/7
Push-Ups: 12/10/7
Dragon Flags: 3x8

Notes:
Saw a guy squatting 120kg, for 1/4 ROM and then he moves to the Smith Machine for 1/2 squat ROM haha.

So now I'm Deadlifting 85kg and Squatting 50kg. Just the way it goes, over time the squat will catch up.
-Bal-

[Balraj]

Mon 15.02.10

Squat: 52.5kg 5x5
OHP: 30kg 3x5, 2x0
Deadlift: 80kg 1x5
Prone Bridges: One leg - 30sec/30sec/1min
K-AWR: Could only manage 5 this time.
Diamond Push-Ups: 4/4/Died

Didn't realise that I was meant to do Chin-Ups before the ab-work, didn't bring my Stronglifts sheet with me
Squat was good, got all the depth there, except when I got into the hole, my left tibialis anterior was hurting a bit.
Any reccomendations for exercises to strengthen this, or will it just come in time?

OHP: 3x5 done, then just couldn't do it, haha. Sometimes its harder for me to clean it first, then press it.

Deadlift: Yeessss, 80kg done. 5th rep had a bit of lower back pain though even though I kept a big chest and back tight. Hmm.

Then just all the ab-work was brutal

[Balraj]

16/02/10
Lats. Hurting. All the time.

Success!