Saukkis Training Log

[saukkis]

I'm 21 year old male from Finland. I've been lifting using Starting Strength since June. I've gone from 137 kg to 124 kg during that time (I'm 181cm tall). My lifting has two ultimate goals: 1st is to lose weight to 100kg. After I've achieved that - hopefully in December 31st 2010 - I aim to deadlift 2,5 x BW, squat 2 x BW, bench 1,5 x BW and powerclan 1 x BW. Those I plan to achieve + 10 months of my weight-loss goal. I don't think that those are unachievable: I might even do those when I'm down to 100 kg since now I deadlift 180 kg, squat 140 kg to parallel, bench 85 kg and power clean 60kg. I might plateau soon but I do have a lot of time still.

Oh yeah, I've decided to replace inverted rows with powercleans since I want to some day be able to do great Olympic lifts. I'm also thinking of taking up rugby to aid in weight-loss

PS. I use the metric system, so for example "5 x 5 x 80" 5 x 5 with 80 kg.

[saukkis]

21.9.2009 - 1ST DAY OF 5X5 STRONGLIFTS

SQUAT:
I decided to start from 80 kg even though my max is 140 kg. I feel my technique will benefit if I started from a low weight and did all sets with "perfect" technique.
4 x 40 (warmup)
3 x 50 (warmup)
2 x 70 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 80
Didn't really feel the strain but I think I did all with a great technique so I'm pleased.

BENCHPRESS

3 x 30 (warmup)
2 x 30 (warmup)
2 x 45 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 60
This I did feel. For some reason I have hard time bench-pressing even with correct technique. Meh, just means that I have to train harder.

POWERCLEAN

3 x 20 (warmup)
3 x 30 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 40
Learning the technique. Overall I'm quite pleased. I noticed I make hilarious sounds powercleaning.

PUSHUPS

5 / 8 / 7
What can I say, I'm fat. At least I was able to do these with a rigid frame and without keeping my knees on the ground.

REVERSE CRUNCH

12 / 12 / 12
Easy enough: I could do these with my legs straight. I did feel the burn afterwards though.


EDIT: Typos

[holvoetn]

Hi saukkis, Welcome

Very solid thinking to start with a lower weight.
It will allow you to iron out form issues early one and continue to progress a lot further.

BTW being fat is a lousy excuse for not being able to complete an exercise
Same as your own remark for bench, looks like you need to do more pushups
Both exercises are highly related so it might not be that surprising that your pushups did not go that well, especially not when you say the bench was difficult. Could be your triceps where still fatigued from the benching.

I'll be checking your progress from time to time, I am sure others will pop in as well.
This is part of the success of this site, it's wonderful community !

[saukkis]

I've decided that I'll be squatting every Monday and Friday and deadlifting every Wednesday regardless if I'm doing A or B workout. This way I can do more of my beloved DL and develop my lacking grip strength. I think 10 sets of squat a week is enough.

@ holvoetn
Haha yeah being fat is a bad excuse - at least I can do them so I shouldn't complain. I've noticed that my lower body strength develops much faster than my upper body. I'll probably start doing 3 x F pushups on my rest days too.

23.9.2009

DEADLIFT
1 x 4 x 55 (warmup)
1 x 4 x 75 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 95

No problems here, I adjusted my technique from the sumo to conventional since I'm now a bit more flexible and I can keep my heels on the floor even when using the conventional form.

OVERHEAD PRESS
1 x 5 X 20 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 25

I've always done seated dumbell press as my shoulder workout so I started from a low weight.

CHINUPS
5 / 10 / 4

These I had to do with hip-drive. I'll move on to normal chinups when I can do 15 / 15 / 15 of these.

PRONE BRIDGE
30s / 30s / 30s

I managed these surprisingly well. I still expect to be extremely sore tomorrow.

Since I didn't squat today I added calf raises and inverted rows on todays program

CALF RAISE
1 x 4 x 40
1 x 3 x 50
5 x 5 x 60

I've got calves of steel. They're about as flexible.

INVERTED ROWS
6 x 10 x 10

These I did with my knees bent. Will move on to the straight legged variation when I can do 15 / 15 / 15.

As post workout snack I drank 0,4 0% fat milk and ate a handful of nuts.

[KIB]

You have great strength to be doing chins this early with your body weight, saukkis! Very impressive!
How are the power cleans? I just started them after doing hang cleans for a couple of months. They're still tricky but when I do them right they just fly up.

[saukkis]

@KIB
I can maybe do one or two proper chinups without resorting to cheating :\

I've done hang cleans for about a month so I had a pretty smooth transition from it to PC. That plus I had a friend who's a gym teacher show me the technique so I didn't have to resort to videos. The only part I have trouble with is bringing the bar to my shoulders: my elbows never seem to come as high as they should. Maybe I have a yet another flexibility issue?

[saukkis]

28.9.2009
Couldn't work out on 25th as I caught the flu. Yesterday was the first day I didn't have a fever so I had a lot of energy in storage for today.

SQUAT
5 x 55 (warmup)
4 x 65 (warmup)
2 x 75 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 82 ½

Still easy. Did lose balance on the last rep in the 4th and 5th set for some mysterious reason.

BENCHPRESS
3 x 30 (warmup)
2 x 35 (warmup)
2 x 45 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 60

Good news and bad news. I had a friend teach me a proper benchpress technique which led to much easier reps. Apparently I was flaring my shoulders which led me to lose the much needed tightness in my back. The bad news was that my shoulder is acting up so I didn't dare to go to heavier weights.

BENT-OVER ROW
5 x 25 (warmup)
3 x 35 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 40

Since my shoulder was being an asshole I decided to replace it with BOR which doesn't stress the shoulders as much.

PUSH UPS
11 / 12 / 10

I don't know what I'm doing right but I need to continue with it. I improved my previous total of 20 with 13 reps totaling 33 reps. Feels good man.

REVERSE CRUNCH
12 / 12 / 12

45° LEG PRESS
5 x 5 x 190 + sled

I had a lot of energy left so I decided to do some leg presses. No drama here - my legs didn't even feel like rubber.

[KIB]

The shoulder didn't bother you on the push-ups? Interesting.
Keep up the good work, Saukkis.

[saukkis]

@KIB No it didn't. It only seems to bother me when I rotate it with speed. Slower and linear movements in front of my chest I can do without feeling any pain. If it continues to hurt I might have to go see a doctor.


30.9.2009

DEADLIFT
5 x 55 (warmup)
5 x 75 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 102 ½

I tore a callous in my palm yesterday so lifting was really painful. The weight felt really light because all my concentration was on my palm

PRESS
5 x 15 (warmup)
5 x 20 (warmup)
3 x 22½ (warmup)
5 x 5 x 27 ½

PULL-UPS
5 / 5 / 5

Did negatives today.

PRONE BRIDGES
30s / 30s / 30s

PUSH-UPS
10 / 8 / 9

I need to improve my chest so I added push-ups to my B workout.

[saukkis]

2.10.2009

SQUAT
5 x 65 (warmup)
4 x 75 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 85

The weight is still easy enough but I have a problem: What's the best way to improve shoulder flexibility? I have to hold the barbell just where the weights start and even then I feel some discomfort in my joints.

BENCHPRESS
5 x 35 (warmup)
3 x 45 (warmup)
2 x 55 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 62 ½

The last rep of the last set was a struggle. I think I'll soon plateau on my bench.

BENT-OVER ROW
5 x 25 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 42 ½

PUSH-UPS
12 / 14 / 12

Now totaling 38 reps. Steady improvement.

REVERSE CRUNCH
12 / 12 / 12

Still easy. I'll do all of the sets with my legs straight next time.


I didn't get DOMS anymore on Wednesday and on Thursday I started rugby. Now my right shoulder and wrist hurts because of getting knocked around but I'll toughen up - I think. I've lost 1,5 kg since last Friday and I'm finally starting to see my muscles under my fat. And to add to those I had no classes today and could sleep late.

Good week, I'd say.

[KIB]

Have you been doing Mehdi's shoulder dislocations for mobility? I still do them every workout, even after almost two years on SL 5x5. Look 'em up on the SL site.

[saukkis]

I'll look into it. Thanks.

[saukkis]

5.10.2009

DEADLIFT
5 x 60 (warmup)
5 x 80 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 110

My torn callous is still healing but it wasn't that bad today. Decided to go to 110 on instead of 105.

PRESS
5 x 15 (warmup)
5 x 25 (warmup)
5 x 5 x 30

This was hard. Really hard. I had to jerk the last two reps of the 5th set

CHINS
8 / 12 / 12

I'll start doing chins/pull-ups like this: I'll put a bench under me and rest my feet on it.

PRONE BRIDGES
30s / 30s / 30s

PUSH-UPS
13 /14 /12

FRONT SQUAT
5 x 15 (warmup)
5 x 30 (warmup)
3 x 5 x 50

Added front squats on my B workout so I'll squat the three times recommended in the book.

GRIP TRAINING

Plate pinch-hold
10s / 10s / 10s x 20

Barbell crush-hold
5s / 5s / 5s x 80

My grip is weak so I've added grip training to my B workout. Forearm training I've added to my A workout. I'll also start doing both barbell row and power-clean on my A workout.

[holvoetn]

Good decision on the chins, whatever makes you progress is what you need to do.

BTW you know you can have grip AND forearm training doing Farmer's Walk with dumbbells (or use the plates that have handles) ?
Preferably done AFTER deadlift

[KIB]

Good job on the chins. Anything that will keep you working on them is great.
Are you going to continue with 5x5 on the DL? You know the program says only 1x5 for DL, right?