DaveT's Training Log

[DaveT]

On Monday my second set of squats went something like this, with my internal commentary running:

Head up... 1... Head up, shoulders back... 2... Head up, shoulders back, wrists straight... 3... Head up, shoulders back, wrists straight, hips back first... 4... Head up, shoulders back, wrists straight, hips back first, curl toes up... 5... Head up, shoulders back, wrists straight, hips back first, curl toes up, push knees out... 6 6?!?! Hastily rack bar. Thinking so much, I completely forgot to stop at 5!

I've also realised that I'm only writing on here the point I have reached, rather than giving a fuller picture of my workouts (I have all the numbers in Excel), so I'm going to try and change that.

Squats
M - 65kg 5/6/5/5/5
W - 70kg 5x5
F - 65kg 5x5

I have been increasing by 5kg without too many problems up to now, but I did notice I lost a little form on Wed at 70kg in sets 4 and 5, so I decided to drop back to 65kg on Fri and try and find some 1.25kg plates over the weekend (I'm definitely going to need them for my OHP!), but have no luck so far. My gym's closed tonight (Mon) for its monthly clean, so I will be doing my workout tomorrow, which gives me one more day to look for plates, although I may try 70kg again and see how it goes.

Workout A
BP - 40kg 5x5

This is starting to feel heavy, so again another reason to get the 1.25kg plates. I feel 45kg and even 50kg will be fine, but after that I'm going to need to go up in smaller increments.

Inverted Rows - 15/11/6

I had an inverted epiphany after the second set! I have been allowing my arse to touch the floor after each rep and I think that I should be holding my body in a straight 'plank' during the whole exercise (Is this right?). When I tried doing this on the 3rd set, it was much harder. IRs at the next workout will be true, and therefore I realise my previous figures are somewhat inflated.

Reverse Crunches - 3x12

These are still getting my abs 'burning' by the end of the 3rd set. Not sure when I should switch to Flags... maybe when I don't feel the burn anymore.

Push Ups - 23/13/9

After answering someone's post on here, I realised that Mehdi advises weighted push ups once you reach 15 on your first set. I should be switching, but set myself a goal of being able to do 25, so I'm going to stick with it until then, and then do the weighted ones.

Workout B

OHP
M - 35kg 5x5
F - 40kg 5x5

Monday no problem, but I definitely found the 4th and 5th set really tough on Friday. The last couple of reps on these sets were not explosive pushes, but more a slow rise! I realise that I should probably have gone to 37.5kg, but again, wasn't prepared and didn't have the plates or anything else I could use for weight. I will stick with 40kg next workout and see how it goes. Will definitely need to go to 42.5kg after that as i won't make the jump to 45kg.

DLs
M - 70kg 2x5
F - 75kg 2x5

I made the decision this week to start doing these 2x5 for a couple of weeks, just to get more practice in, especially as I'm now using the 20kg plates and the bar is in a stable starting position (wish I had thought of this when I first reached 60kg). I'm sure that by the time I reach BW (95kg), I'll return to 1x5, but for the moment, the more I can practice form the better.

Prone Bridges
M - 3x35sec
F - 3x40sec

I'm increasing these by 5secs every two workouts. Don't find them particularly hard, but I'm going to keep increasing the time until I get to 60secs and then do some bridge variations.

Pull Ups (Mon) - 3,3,2,2 (10 total)
Chin Ups (Fri) - 5,3,3 (11 total)

Pretty pleased with the progress on both of these. Very happy to get that 3rd pull up. I think the elation must have got me pumped because then I did it again on the second set!

So I feel I'm at an important point in my progress, just because when I planned out this training in Excel, I did it for 12 weeks. So I feel I'm at a halfway point, as it were. I also feel that I'm at an important point as I'm close to my first stalls.

Weight: 93kg
Caliper Measurements
Chest - 15mm
Abdominal - 22mm
Thigh - 12mm
BF% - 16%

Glad to see the weight's still going up and the BF is going down! I've made the decision to cut the milk back to 1L of low fat milk a day.

There are two other things that I have noticed.

First, I'm pretty tall and therefore have created a bad posture, with rounded shoulders, as I'm always leaning down and forward to talk to people, or do things (washing up after dinner is a prime example!). I'm finding that after my training, it is uncomfortable to sit with bad posture and therefore I have become more aware of how I hold myself and think about by body posture a lot more. Again, it's a matter of developing the habit of sitting/standing in a different way, so that it then feels more natural to do this rather than slouch.

Second, I have definitely noticed some development in my shoulders and so have others. My girlfriend (who I'm sure knows much better than I do about the way my body looks) was commenting on my thighs and shoulders and said, "Michelangelo had his David, you can be mine." I was never doing this for her, but comments like that are a great motivator!

[markg]

Hi Dave,
I know how you feel about miscounting the squats. If my t/partner wasn't there I'd be lost. All that thinking can't be good for you!

You are right about needing to keep your body straight on the inv.rows.

With the push ups, could you try dips next instead? Mehdi does say that dips are better than push ups, as long as you don't have shoulder trouble with them. Check the How to do Dips post on the Blog page, left hand side.

I'm jealous of your pull up and chin numbers but doing at least 10 per workout should help me soon.

Good luck,
Mark

[DaveT]

@Mark
I already have a die that I turn after every set so that I know where I am as far as number of sets go. I didn't think I'd need help counting the reps too.
Dips would be a good challenge. At the moment, I just have this thing in my head about getting to 25 push ups. When I reach that goal, then maybe I'll switch. I see you're doing 5,3 for dips. Any reason you don't do a third set of 2, or 1,1 to make it up to 10 as with the chin/pull ups? I can see myself doing the 2,2,1,1,1,1,1,1 all over again! Oh well, got to entertain the other gym users, I guess.

[markg]

Hi Dave,
With the dips, I think if I'm honest I've been stopping at two sets cos my t/partner gets shoulder pain from them, even when doing partials. We have always done the same exercises and number of sets on everything. I switch to push ups after 2 sets. I should probably do a third set of dips next time and let my bro do the push ups in the meantime.
Cheers,
Mark

[DaveT]

Tough week. My gym closes on the second Monday of the month for a complete clean, and it was just as well as I came down with a fever on Mon night. Had already decided to Tu/Th/Sa workouts, so went ot the gym on Tue night, but still felt weak. Cold stayed with me all week, and I didn't help myself on Sat as I went to the gym after my weija (pronounced 'way-yah' and is the traditional Chinese company's end of year meal before Chinese New Year and involves a lot of food, wine, and red envelopes with money) the night before. Anyway, I made it through all the weight exercises, but the assistance exercises were particularly tough.

Couldn't find any 1.25kg plates, but bought some adjustable ankle weights instead. No one's going to complain about those being wrapped around the bar.

Squats
Tu - 70kg 5x5
Th - 72.5kg 5x5
Sa - 75kg 5x5

I decided to try 70kg again. No real problems. Lost a little bit of form on a couple of reps in the 1st set on Thu and the 4th set on Sat, as I still have my weight forward a bit and I need to be back on my heels more. Increasing by 2.5kg is barely noticeable compared to the 5kg increases before.

Workout A (Tue and Sat)

BP
Tu - 40kg 5x5
Sa - 42.5kg 5x5

IR
Tu - 11/9/8
Sa - 12/6/5

Now that I'm doing these properly, they are tougher, although I should see some improvement next week when I'm feeling 100% again.

Rev Crunches
Tu - 3x12
Sa - 3x12

Push Ups
Tu - 20/16/6
Sa - 22/12/11

Really felt that my body was weak on Tue when doing these. Sat was back to normal and probably would have been better had I not been hungover!

Workout B (Thu)

OHP
40kg 5x5

These were much better this time and I'm glad I stayed at 40kg. I'm wondering if I'm going to have to do each weight increase twice from now on. 42.5kg next week - just have to see how it goes...

DLs
80kg 2x5

Prone Bridges
3x40secs

Pull Ups
4/3/2/2

Really happy that I got a 4th pull up on the 1st set. Soon, I'll only need to do 3 sets to failure to get my 10 total!

I have the next 3 weeks off work as it is Chinese New Year, so as I have more time, I'm going to make the effort to get my camera down to the gym and check on my form. I think I'm ok, but the camera never lies.

[guru]

That's called commitment, and it can do you wonders.

I too, envy your pullup nos. Keep it up DaveT.

- Guru

[bluestreak]

Great job on the weight gain and strength stats thus far! Great to see another tall guy with big gains.

[DaveT]

@Guru
Cheers mate. I decided it was better for me to go and do something than mope around the house feeling crap.

@Bluestreak
Thanks. I was inspired by your GOMAD experience to increase my milk intake and it has worked wonders. I don't understand why people still doubt this...
Gains have been good so far, but I've reached the point where it's going to get tough from here on. Steadily onwards... no rush... got all year.

[DaveT]

This week every exercise had me breathing hard, which I enjoyed. It's a nice feeling when you've exercised hard - guess its the release of endorphines into the brain!

Squat
Mon - 77.5kg 5x5
Wed - 77.5kg 5x5
Fri - 80kg 5x5

I wasn't very happy with a couple of squats on Mon, so I decided to do 77.5kg again on Wed, even though I was busting a gut to do 80kg as this was my goal by 31st March. Got to do 80kg on Fri and you'd think I'd be overjoyed to reach my first goal. However, every silver lining has its cloud. I also took my camera to the gym on Fri and you can see the results in this post. As you can see, all is not well. What was it that I said last week...

I'm going to make the effort to get my camera down to the gym and check on my form. I think I'm ok, but the camera never lies.

I think I'm ok... yeah right? Oh well, back to the drawing board. I had already decided to deload my squat and DL, but having read some of the comments about my OHP, I think I need to work on that too.

Workout A

BP - 45kg 5x5

Starting to feel heavier, but I know 50kg will probably be my testing point. Better video that as well to check that I'm doing it right.

IRs - 12/9/7
Rev Crunch - 3x12
Push Ups - 24/12/11

Really tried hard for that 25th push up, but just couldn't quite make it. Next time...

Workout B

OHP
Mon - 42.5kg 5/5/5/5/4
Fri - 42.5kg 5x5

Didn't make it on Mon, but managed on Fri. However, it seems I need to work on form, so I'm going to deload and work up again.

DL
Mon - 85kg 2x5
Fri - 90kg 2x5

Again I need to work on form.

Prone Bridges - 3x45sec
Pull Ups - 5/3/3 (11 total)

Nice to be able to do 3xF on the pull ups finally.

So I feel a bit mixed about this week. Glad that I nailed the 42.5kg OHP second time around, nearly made 25 push ups and reached 3xF on the Pull Ups.
But this is all overshadowed by the realisation that my form is poor.
Next week my gym is closed for Chinese New Year and my girlfriend and I are going away. Time to take a rest and then start again. I have decided to start at 50kg on the squat, 60kg on the DL and 35kg on the OHP and work back up to it. Having watched Squat RX, I'm also going to do some bodyweight squats up against the wall, overhead squats with an empty bar (5kg) I have at home, and more hamstring stretches on my rest days. With some hard work, I should be able to get back to squatting 80kg by 31st March, but this time I'll be doing them properly!

[markg]

Hi Dave,
You've made some great progress already mate. That OHP weight is HARD. Well done for nailing it.

I know exactly what you mean about the form issues overshadowing the good news. I'm sure you will get it sorted before long. Things just SEEM to take a long time but the big picture is always ok if you have some patience.

Good luck and enjoy your holiday,
Mark.

[Vlad]

Hi Dave,

Congrats with impressive gains on the SL program! I am similar in build to you, but have just started. Will be following your logs with great interest.

Vlad

[guru]

Hi DaveT,

Did you finish your next session yet? How did it go? Did you deload? Damn interested mate, especially after seeing your videos. You need serious improvements, so a deload may be in order, but IMO 50 kg on squats is too much. You may like to check what I did yesterday with my squats (check my log).

See you build up the weights with greqat form.

- Guru

[guru]

Hey Davey,

Long time no see? Where are you man?

- Guru

[markg]

Don't panic guru, he did say he's going on holiday. Must be a long one! I'm sure Dave will be back in action before we know it...

[DaveT]

@Guru
Have no fear! I'm not a quitter! Just had a good nine days off.
You might be right that 50kg is too light, but at the moment I'm more concerned with getting my technique right rather than gaining muscle. If I don't get it right now, I won't ever gain any muscle because I won't be doing the exercise properly. I feel it is more important that I get my technique right (however long that may take) and I can add the weight later. I guessed that the first three months would all be about learning, making mistakes, and possibly even contain injuries (which it may well have done if I had not taped myself and seen how bad my squat was!). As I've said before, I'm in for the long haul. I've got goals set for the year, not the next 3 weeks! I remember reading one of Mehdi's posts where he said that he spent the first year gaining very little muscle, but a huge amount of knowledge. Lucky for us, all that knowledge is here, so hopefully it won't take us a year.

Adding to the knowledge, a package arrived from Amazon this morning with four books:

Mind - The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
Body - Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe and Lon Kilgore
Soul - Awareness by Anthony de Mello
Bank Account - Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Plenty of reading to do, and yes, I will be starting with the chapter on Squats by Rip!