Brian's Training Log

[bpd]

My name is Brian, I am a 43 year old male and live in England.
I am currently on the last training day of week 9 of the 5x5 program.   
Here are my current 5 x5 lifts

• Squats 70kg


• Bench  62.5gk


• Press 42.5kg


• Row 55kg


• Deadlift 90kg (1x5)

I am 1.79m tall and weigh 88kg.  Approximately 10kg is fat around my middle which I have put on in the last 5 years.  I am 43 years old.
I snapped my ACL in my knee just over 3 years ago playing football.  I have played a lot of sport over the last 30 years but little strength work.
My goals are to lose fat and gain strength, I do not wish to get much bigger.
My diet is poor, too much convenience food and although an increasing amount of protein - still not enough.  I am not a great meat or Dairy eater.
I would welcome advice / comments - particularly on squatting as I feel it is relatively weak compared to my other lits.  My 1 rep max is 85kg.  I guess if I dropped 10kg of fat and put this on the bar it would make the weight / differential more respectable.  I very much enjoy this exercise and I am able to full squats.  I do not currently have a rack and I am very consious of failure due to my knee problem and have be careful not to compensate with my good knee on the early sets.

[Mouse]

Brian
I'm in England also, do you belong a gym or workout at home?
Get your log up and running - you'll appreciate it in the long run - there's plenty of help on the forum too.

[bpd]

Mouse, I do not know what happened.  I got cut off only to resume typing for 15 minutes with my life story and then got lost the whole lot.  I will try and start againg.
I will finish week 9 of 5x5 programme tonight.
My 5x5 weights per set are:
Squats 70kg
Bench  62.5gk
Press 42.5kg
Row  
 

[bpd]

I managed to get cut off again.
Row 55kg
Deadlift 90kg (1x5)
I am 1.79m tall and weigh 88kg.  Approximately 10kg is fat around my middle which I have put on in the last 5 years.  I am 43 years old.
I snapped my ACL in my knee just over 3 years ago playing football.  I have played a lot of sport over the last 30 years but little strength work.
My goals are to lose fat and gain strength, I do not wish to get much bigger.
My diet is poor, too much convenience food and although an increasing amount of protein - still not enough.  I am not a great meat or Dairy eater.
I would welcome advice / comments - particularly on squatting as I feel it is relatively weak compared to my other lits.  My 1 rep max is 85kg.  I guess if I dropped 10kg of fat and put this on the bar it would make the weight / differential more respectable.  I very much enjoy this exercise and I am able to full squats.  I do not currently have a rack and I am very consious of failure due to my knee problem and have be careful not to compensate with my good knee on the early sets.
 

[Mehdi]

Brian from the comments. Welcome. Fixed your posts that were cut off.
Squats. I think you spent an extra week with the empty barbell to practice the technique. That and you started higher on the bench press/used higher increments. Don't worry about the squat being lower,  it will catch up if you keep working at it. Legs always stronger than upper-body.
How do you get the bar on your back without a rack? Steinborn lift? You train at home? How's the knee on the squats?
Try this one for protein intake: stronglifts.com/how-to-easily-get-1glbs-protein-daily-to-build-muscle/

[bpd]

Mouse,
I work out at home.  Thanks for the advice.  I will keep my training log going, I think it will be very motivational.
Mehdi,
You are right about the starting weights on the exercises.  I now have after 5 weeks a Marcy Squat rack.  It will suffice for now, it is too narrow, especially as I have tight shoulders and the pins are too far apart so I am taking the weight a little to high.  It does not have any catches if I fail.   My building at the bottom of my garden is exactly 80 inches tall so I am finding it hard to get a cage/rack that has this as its height as they are usually 82 inches tall.  I have some other pieces of kit in mind.  I have to do my presses in the garden!!  It is Winter at the moment so no one can see me.  I am not sure what I will do in the Spring when it is light.
I am a little cautious in the squat in the warm up stage as I feel my knee needs to settle.  I have already had minor surgery to repair the torn cartilage but fear I have torn it again when I tried to play squash again and had a heavy fall.  It sometimes clicks and or I get a very quick sharp pain which quickly goes.  I have been advised to have complete ACL reconstruction but I do not beleive that the operation outcome is guaranteed enough.  I will take a look a the shake, thanks.
I will keep persisting with the 5x5.  Thanks for the encouragement.
Brian
 

[Mehdi]

Brian,
For your knees. Make sure you squat correctly: knees out, no bouncing on knees at the bottom, push from heels etc. Also get into glute activation exercises, extensive hip mobility, etc. All of that helps.  The rest: squat to strength your leg muscles, they will help the weakened joint. You're doing good continue.
You could get squat stances, like weight lifters often use. Not the same as a power rack  in case something goes wrong, but a worst case solution.

[bpd]

Beginning of Week 10
Tonight  was the toughest training session by far. I managed all my sets and reps but had to take  longer rests
Squats 5x5 72.5kg
Press 5x5 45kg
Deadlift 5x40, 3x60, 1x80 & 5x95.
My legs feel like jelly after the squatting though I was pleased I finished all the sets/reps.  I am still tweaking my stance.  I tend to prefer a slightly narrower gap.  If I look down ( without the weight on my shoulders) the inside of my heels are slightly narrower than my shoulders.  I hope I recover sufficiently for Wednesday.
The press was very demanding also.  I find it helps if I alernate sets between a narrow grip - shoulder width to about another 4 inches apart.
The deadlifts were good, though the last set was challenging.  Unlike the Squat and Press I still feel there is a bit more to come before I am forced to deload.
Diet wise I am slowly getting more protein but probably only 80-90 grammes a day.   I have not lost any weight because of all the other poor foods I consume.  I would like to think I have probably lost some fat and gained some muscle.  I certainly feel a lot more taught.
 
 

[Mehdi]

get more protein brian: stronglifts.com/how-to-easily-get-1glbs-protein-daily-to-build-muscle/

[bpd]

I finished my workout about an hour ago.  I was not looking forward to it as I felt very tired and was dreading doing the squats as I only just got through it on Monday.  Amazingly I completed all my sets albeit that on the squats I took approximately 2 minute rests between sets and 3 breaths between some of the later reps.  Interestingly the hardest set was the second.  I believe I had done adequate warm ups.
Squat  5x20kg, 5x 30kg, 4x40kg, 2 x60kg followed by 5x5 x 75kg
Bench 5x50kg, 2x50kg followed by 5x65kg
Row 5x40kg, 2x50kg followed by 5x57.5kg
My only concern is that I have to go heavier on the squat on Friday.!!!    Bench felt ok, I alternated the grip width to help me complete my sets. 
Row felt strong.  I notice there is no mention on the site as to when people usually have to deload, and also is there a point where adding weight becomes likely to cause back injury?  What percentage of bodyweight is a novice likely to be able to safely achieve?
I am trying to eat more protein, still not consuming enough.
 

[Mehdi]

You only have to deload when you stall. Otherwise keep adding weight.
Bad technique/bad posture/lack of flexibility/ego/etc cause injuries. Weight lifting is safe. You can injure yourself with 50kg as much as with 200kg. Realize you will injure yourself sooner or later, it happens to all of us. But you're not going to die. When you injure yourself, it usually means you did somethign wrong/there's something wrong with your body (flexibility/posture/etc). Your responsibility to take a look at it.

[bpd]

I was primarily refering to the row.  Can anyone row what they bench?  At some point form must be lost surely?

[Mehdi]

I was primarily refering to the row.  Can anyone row what they bench?  At some point form must be lost surely?

I can row what I bench. (I don't bench, but I suppose my bench is what my row is).

[Mouse]

(1)Marcy Squat rack.................. too narrow, especially as I have tight shoulders and (2)the pins are too far apart so I am taking the weight a little to high. 

(1) Try these Brian - they'll work a treat for tight shoulders
 

http://stronglifts.com/shoulders-dislocations/
 
(2) Better, in my opinion, to rack the weight slightly lower - get right under it with straight back and bent knees to push it up and off the rack

[bpd]

Week 10 session 3.
Squat 5x75kg.
Press 5/5/5/4/3 x 47.5kg
Deadlift 5x 100kg
 
Thought I was not going to make it on the squat.  For the second session in a row I found the second set the hardest.  I am a little concerned about my form - I feel my knees may be in front of the end of my toes at the bottom of the squat.
Press.  The first stall on the programme so far.
Deadlift was  within my limits.  Kept my form strong.  Got my first 100kg. lift
I really feel like doing some variation on the squat, be it box or front squats for on of the three weekly sessions.  I have done a few light sets with the front squat and really liked the feel of it. 
Would it compromise my schedule if I incorparated it into my training?