deadpunkdave's training log

[deadpunkdave]

First off, hello to everyone as I'm new to the stronglifts forum and many thanks for all the great training advice from Mehdi.

I've already completed 2 8 week stints of the 5x5 beginner program and had previously done a fair amount of weight lifting as training for rugby. That training was very much based on developing power, as you might expect, but I no longer play rugby and my body shape has changed considerably ( I used to be a prop - the fat guy at the front) so I went looking for a more complete training program. Having gone through the typical noobie's experience of men's health workouts etc., I found stronglifts and it really did what it said on the tin, I had amazing strength gains - at the end of the second 8 weeks of the program I was squating 125kg for 5x5 while weighing 87kg myself, not bad for someone still very much an amateur.

My training was interrupted by exams (I'm a physics student) and a month of pretty unhealthy living has gone by in a snap. This week I decided to do something about it and to help me stay the course I've started this training log.

This log actually begins after the first 2 training sessions and it is my intention to stay on the 5x5 beginner program for as long as I can increase the weight of my squat without failing to complete sets (using Mehdi's rule of failing 3 sessions in a row before considering it a stall). After this, I should be approaching 1.5xbody weight squats for 5x5 and I'll be starting on the 9 week 5x5 advanced program. I'll almost certainly need a week off after that but depending on progress, I'm considering a Smolov attempt after that. Ambitious I know, but I like to aim high.

My current stats are
Height: 181 cm / 5' 11''
Weight: 93kg / 205lbs ( I'm in that awkward area between very muscley and a bit fat, but a month of pizza and beer will do that )

The first two training sessions then (designed to ease me back into the program):

Monday 16th June

Squat: 5x5 @ 100kg
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 80kg
Inverted Rows: 5 sets @ bodyweight with feet elevated - 10 reps, 8, 8, 5, 5
Weighted Dips: 3x5 @ B-W + 15kg

You'll notice the inverted rows rather than barbell rows, basically because they're an old favourite of mine and I'd just read Mehdi's blog article on them.

Wednesday 18th June

Squat: 5x5 @ 102.5kg
Overhead Press: 5x5 @ 40kg
Deadlift: 2x5 @ 90kg
Pull-ups: 3xFailure - 6 reps, 5r, 5r

Really enjoyed these 2 workouts, found everything pretty easy going with one obvious exception: pull-ups. Most definitely my Achilles' heel and always have been, hopefully I can up those numbers significantly over the next month.

Thanks for reading this marathon first post and I'll see you guys around.

[mjh]

welcome Dave. I'm sure sl5x5 will be very productive for you.
Where are you from?

[deadpunkdave]

Hi and thanks.
I'm from the U.K., going to university in Guildford, Surrey and living at home in Kent outside of term time

[deadpunkdave]

Today's Session didn't go so great, I'm coming down with what will hopefully just be a cold so I struggled on the last couple of reps of the last set of everything and didn't manage to finish my last set of weighted dips, though I am reaching the limit of how much weight I can add on those. Also, I feel my dip technique may be a bit off as I seem to be putting pressure on the area around my sternum and getting some discomfort there, which has never happened before while dipping. Looks like I may well have to drop some weight from my dips next week and work on technique.

5x5 session Friday 20th June:

Squat: 5x5 @ 105kg
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 82.5kg
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 60kg
Dips: 5 reps, 5 reps, 3 reps @ Bodyweight+17.5kg

Also, it's finally dawned on me that I need to radically improve my (student) diet if I'm going to keep adding weight to my squat, I'm just not getting the nutrients I need for proper recovery at the moment. I'm going back on protein shakes with a dose of creatine in them as well, I've found them helpful in the past and my protein intake needs upping anyway.

[deadpunkdave]

Apologies for the absence, I've been moving house over the last week and my training and logging have been interrupted, just as seemingly everything else has. So again an XXXL post I'm afraid, I managed to get in 2 training sessions last week and a another today without having to drop or not add weight due the gap. I'm feeling very strong in all my lifts except the dreaded pull-ups which are quite frankly a demoralising struggle at the moment and have been since I put on a fair amount of weight last month. I'm going to try and use the 'greasing the groove' technique of a set of pull-ups first thing in the morning and last thing at night everyday until I'm at least cranking out 10 good ones in a set, hopefully twice that number (20 is just a couple more than my previous best). Anyway, here's the last 3 training sessions;

Tuesday 24th June:

Squat: 5x5 @ 107.5 kg
OHP: 5x5 @ 42.5 kg
Deadlift: 2x5 @ 92.5 kg
Pull-ups: 6,4,3,3 @ bodyweight

Thursday 26th June:

Squat: 5x5 @ 110kg
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 85kg
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 62.5kg
Dips: 5 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps @ Bodyweight+17.5kg

Today, Wednesday 2nd July:

Squat: 5x5 @ 112.5 kg
OHP: 5x5 @ 45 kg
Deadlift: 2x5 @ 95 kg
Pull-ups: 5 reps, 4reps @ bodyweight

I was so pissed at my pull-up performance I just quit the gym there and then... not smart, not helpful and not making me feel good. Time to start greasing that groove, got a pull-up bar where I just moved back to (back in with the parents I'm afraid).

[deadpunkdave]

Had an excellent training session yesterday, though for some reason my grip nearly failed me on the bench, hence not finishing the final rep. Felt extremely strong in my squat:

Squat: 5x5 @ 115kg
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 87.5kg
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 65kg
Dips: 5 reps, 5 reps, 4 reps @ Bodyweight+18kg

Actually had to go up half a kilo on the dips as I'm using a new gym which doesn't have a belt and chain for adding weight that way, had to grip a dumbbell with my feet instead. Now that I think about it, the belt and chain weighed a whole lot more than half a kilo anyway ;(

[Mouse]

Good numbers Dave
Keep up the good work.

[deadpunkdave]

Cheers Mouse, love the sig. btw.
Had to switch to doing Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday this week but no biggy. Again, poor pull-up performance but it's just got to be worked at. Blasted through my squats again, deadlifts were easy but OHP involved a little cheating... I placed one foot about 6 inches in front of the other and in the last set this definitely resulted in using my legs in a push press motion. next time, I'll just do the sets with normal technique and if I fail, I fail, gotta deload some time. Anyway, today went like this (following a 5 mile walk to the gym, damned English buses!):

Squat: 5x5 @ 117.5 kg
OHP: 5x5 @ 47.5 kg
Deadlift: 2x5 @ 97.5 kg
Pull-ups: 6,5,3 @ bodyweight

After reading Mehdi's blog on deadlift grip I really improved it today, didn't realise how wide I had been gripping the bar previously, just because I was planting my feet too wide. The new grip seemed to make things easier, although I was still buzzing from the squats so hard to tell.

[Coop87]

hey man, congrats on getting back in the gym. Keep up those pullups, you'll only get better over time.

[deadpunkdave]

Thanks for the support Coop, really getting into the swing of things now. Went to the gym again today but just did some core exercises like Turkish Get Ups and leg raises followed by a few of the mobility exercises Mehdi has blogged about, particularly the hip mobility ones. I know the 5x5 doesn't need any additional ab work really but I need to making losing fat more of a priority and I'll be damned if I'm sitting on a bike for 30 minutes. I'll look into HIIT but as I've cut carbs out of my diet that could get a little tricky in terms of fatigue. Already noticing good improvement in how I look and more importantly feel though, I was definitely on a slippery slope before I got back into the gym.

[deadpunkdave]

Another 5x5 today, starting to find the squats more challenging but I did have pretty poor preparation today in terms of sleep and nutrition:

Squat: 5x5 @ 120kg
Bench Press: 4x5, 1x3 @ 90kg
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 65kg
Dips: 3x5 @ Bodyweight+20kg

Forgot to take my notepad to the gym. Doh! I did my barbell rows at the same weight I did them on Friday. It's amazing how much easier that made them as well, blasted through them today even though I was thinking last week that I might have to de-load soon. Failed on my last set of bench press and tbh I've been stopping an inch above actually touching my chest on those for a while now. I'm thinking it's time for a hard de-load right down to 60 kg so I can work on getting proper form back, then maybe put the weight back on a bit quicker than 2.5 kilos a session. Also, the lack of a weight belt for adding weight to dips is seriously peeing me off now. I'm having to grip a dumbbell with my feet and I know for a fact that its made the exercise much easier than when I was using a belt. This is most likely down to unintentionally using my legs to lift the weight rather than my arms. Since my gym doesn't have a belt set up for this I might have to buy my own.

Better defined goals:

I just weighed myself and the number was 89.9 kg (197.8lbs). From looking at me it's obvious that I need to lose some body fat, probably in the region of half a stone to a stone and a half (3.2-9.6 kg) [sorry, I'll stop jumping around units of weight soon :p]. As I'll be putting on muscle as well I don't expect to actually lose that much weight so I'm shooting for a bodyweight of 83kg. That's mid-term though, give it a month and half and I think I'll be there.
I don't care if I miss that number by a country mile [see how I've moved on to distance so slickly] so long as I lose the fatty appearance. Having 83kg as my goal weight allows me to better define where I want to get to with my squat. I said in my first post that I hope to get close to a 1.5 x BW squat for 5x5 and then start the stronglifts advanced program. Since losing fat has also been one of my goals however, I never fixed a number on this. Time for that to change.
My primary goal is now to squat 135kg for 5x5. This is short term, this is what I'm fixing in my head every time I don't feel like going to the gym. This should be above a 1.5BW squat by the time I achieve it since I should continue to lose fat. If I don't fail a set between now and 135kg then it will take me 6 sessions, just 2 weeks, to get there. Seems bloody daunting now I've laid it out for myself but it's gonna get done.

[deadpunkdave]

Another very positive session in the gym today. Still not having much joy with my pull-ups but it sort of makes sense really. As the rest of the work-out gets harder I become that much more tired towards the end of the session. Anyhow, squats are my main focus for now and they're still going extremely well so I'm happy

Squats: 5x5 @ 122.5kg
Over Head Press: 5x5 @ 50kg
Deadlifts: 2x5 @ 100kg
Pull-ups: 6,4,4

Much better OHP technique today though I'm still not getting my elbows pointing forward, they're still pretty much pointed at the floor throughout. :/

[deadpunkdave]

Suffered a bit of a set back in my plans due to work being crazily busy over the last week, so I've only managed 2 sessions since my last post. I've had to deload on my bench press to work on technique and next session I'll be deloading on the OHP as I just can't lift the weight now.

Tuesday 15th July:

Squat: 5x5 @ 125kg
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 70kg
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 67.5kg

Skipped dips and did some TGUs as the gym was so busy.

Monday 21st July:

Squats: 5x5 @ 127.5kg
Over Head Press: 5, 4, 3, fail @ 52.5kg
Deadlifts: 1x5 @ 102.5kg
Pull-ups: 6 - was so tired at this point I just stopped

A number of failures there but my squat numbers are still going up and I'm willing to sacrifice completing sets of other exercises for the moment

[deadpunkdave]

OKish session today, my squats were not always breaking parallel so I'll have to work on that next session:

Squat: 5x5 @ 130kg
Bench Press: 5x5 @ 72.5kg
Barbell Row: 5x5 @ 70kg
Dips: 1x16 @ bodyweight

Need to get a belt and chain in order to do weighted dips properly.