Patrick's training log

[patrick]

yo people, patrick here. i've just joined a gym and have started 5x5 today. was fun. but a bit about me first.
im 22
5'11"
154 pounds i dunno what my body fat is, about near 20%

i've been the to gym a few times since i joined, just a to get a feel of the place and what i can do. so today was my first attempt at 5x5 and it went well.

Squat 55kg/121 lbs but with a lot of room to do more, i went easy cos my back felt funny earlier today.
Bench 50kg/110lbs
Bent Over row 50kg/110lbs
Dips 8,7,7 which was better than i expected cos i can do about 1 chin up.

anyway, as of goals i want to be able to sqaut 1.5x my body weight, be able to do 10 pull ups and just not be so weedy oh and strengthen my back cos i have back pains every now and again so have heard weight training can really help. so technique is really important to me. goals are where i get stuck though, really have no idea what to set for myself, really have no real idea what i should be aiming for. so any suggestions anyone?

oh yeah, i also cycle about 8 miles a day on average to my girlfriends house and the gym is 2 away so ive been getting a bit outside of the gym.

[patrick]

so had had a few days rest because i hurt my shoulder. i dunno how i did it, feel like a trapped nerve maybe. did it hours after being at the gym, was just sitting here.

anyway, this is from my workout yesterday.
i did about 2x5 of everything with less weight

Sqauts 5x5 55kg
Overhead press 5x5 40kg
Deadlift 1x5 70kg
Pulls ups 3x10 on the pullup assist machine, used 30kg

then did some cable cross stuff for my chest cos the left side of my chest has always been smaller then my right, thought the extra might help me work on evening things out. then just did some core workout.

all feels really good. my back felt tense all day, good tense like it's been working.
more tomorrow!

[patrick]

also...

really love this workout and site. doing sqauts, there was some dude next to me doing the same, only going down no were near enough, basically a 1/4 of the way. seems to be people all over the place using really bad form. and id be doing the same i guess if i hadn't read everything on here, its really good to know ur doing stuff right even if im not lifting very much right now.

[KIB]

Yeah, this program really opens your eyes to what's going on around you in the gym, huh? You'll see a lot of weirdness, especially as you gain more and more experience doing SL5x5. Congrats on the good start. Looking forward to more.

[patrick]

another good one today, got worse at dips though dunno why that was.

Squats 5x5 60kg/132 lbs
Bench 55554 52.5kg/115.5lbs
Barbell row 5x5 45kg/99 lbs
dips 8, 5,2,1,1
deadlift 1x5 70kg/154 lbs

squats are feeling good, im sure i can do a lot more. (have always had pretty big legs) but im taking it slow cos it's not one i want to fuck up. bench is a PR apart from the missed rep at the end, will work with the same weight and try and do a few more next time instead. my barbell rows doesn't feel too hard, lifting it seems alright but getting it all the way to my chest is. think it's more of a flexibility issue so that's something im going to practice, more even lower the weight again. and i dunno what happened with dips, they're something i've always been able to do, unlike pull ups. tried a few more times but got stuck at 1. when i joined the gym, the guy doing my induction made me a workout. involved doing pull ups then fore arm pull downs on a cable machine as a super set, did that with my dips last time and i actually did more. gonna try that again.

also, chucked in a deadlift just cos i like it. dunno why, really seems fun. and about lifting bodyweight on that one too. sweet.