[tooosh]

Well after trying SS with a better but still meh diet, I did a massive reset and fixed it some time ago, basically starting the program from scratch. My stats as of now:

Weight: 60kg
Squat: 80kg
Bench: 50kg
OHP: 32.5kg
Deadlift: 120kg
BB row: 50kg

3000-3100cals/day, 170-200g protein/day, 1 gallon water/day.

I'm literally only making this blog so you guys hold me accountable for missing weight targets. I need people to tell me the "had a heavy night out" excuse is getting old.

[tooosh]

Workout today (squat, ohp, deadlift) was fine, nothing more to say...

[tooosh]

Yesterday,
Squat: 82.5, 5, 5, 4
Bench 52.5 5, 5, 3
Row 52.5 5, 5, 5

May have to repeat the squat and bench weights. My diet was rubbish since I was in London for almost all of the day before. It's not easy eating 3000+ calories in London on a budget, probably only hit about 2000

[tooosh]

Today,
Squat: 82.5 5, 5, 5
OHP: 35 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 125 3.5

Failed lockout on deadlift on the fourth rep. Will definitely need to do that again. Squatting was OK, made all the reps but my form deteriorated in the last set apparently. Gonna have to play it safe next time on 85.
Given how much I hate OHP, it was pretty good to me today

[Smack]

Did you have any videos of your deadlift? Often failure at lockout is due to poor form from off the floor, which is caused by a weakness on that part of the lift.

Regarding the squat, keep at it. Form will deteriorate slightly when at your limits, and also when you're not adequately rested. Make sure your rest periods are long enough - I like about 5 minutes, sometimes more.

[tooosh]

(Original post by Smack)
Did you have any videos of your deadlift? Often failure at lockout is due to poor form from off the floor, which is caused by a weakness on that part of the lift.

Regarding the squat, keep at it. Form will deteriorate slightly when at your limits, and also when you're not adequately rested. Make sure your rest periods are long enough - I like about 5 minutes, sometimes more.

I actually got a lot better at the bottom over easter since my plates at home aren't oly regulation size, they're probably about half as wide so I had to drop the weight a lot to keep form. Unfortunately uni gym has strict (and enforced) rules on "recording equipment" but I think you're right about having less power off the floor. Well I'll try 125 again next time, see what happens.

[tooosh]

Well today was a horribly long day...
Squat: 80kg 5, 5, 5
Bench: 50kg 5, 5, 5
Row: 55kg 5, 5, 5

Literally didn't have any energy for any more weight, on the plus side the my form was consistent. Felt a bit better near the end.

[tooosh]

I must've pulled my front delt yesterday shopping or something, my right front delt hurts like hell when I raise my arm (from the shoulder, not elbow). If it feels any better I'll probably go to the gym later and sub OHP for rotator cuff exercises or something. Just something to kill time between squat and deadlift really.

[tooosh]

Went gym in the end, didn't up OHP weight though. Looking back I could have, my delt felt better as soon as I pushed up the bar for the first rep, which is weird.

Squat: 82.5kg 5, 5, 5
OHP: 35kg 5, 5, 5
Deadlift: 125kg 4

Time for a reset on the deadlift I think...

[tooosh]

Squat: 85kg 5, 5, 5 -not as super hard as squats usually are. Realised I wasn't really bouncing of my hammies in the hole, doing that makes it so much easier!
Bench: 52.5kg 5, 3, 5 -wtf?
Row: 57.5kg

Feel a stall on the row coming up.
da*** is going on with my bench? Happened with 50kg as well, the 1st was moderately hard, 2nd was really hard and 3rd set was easy?

Fairly heavy night last night as well, but I downed a 2L bottle of water before bed so it wasn't so bad.

Found out today our barbells suck. One weighs 20kg, the other 21kg and the other 22.5kg.

[tooosh]

Missed a day for coursework reasons, back in the game.
Since our uni gym bars are crap and different, all weights will assume the bar is 20kg but I'll say which bar it was.

21kg bar:
Squat: 87.5kg 5, 5, 4 - easier than 85 was, but I need to rework my bar positioning since it was digging into a spinal erector I think. Maybe hold it a bit higher. Couldn't finish the last rep for this, not strength reasons so 90kg next session!
OHP: 37.5kg 1, 35kg 5, 5 - I hate this exercise.
Deadlift: 115kg 5 - nothing to say here, it is a reset after all

[tooosh]

21kg bar:
Squat: 90kg 5, 5, 5 - fine. 1.5bw
Bench: 52.5kg 5, 5, 4 - time for a reset I think...
Row: 60kg 5, 5, 5 - sloppy form for about half of it though. I don't like how you can still get the bar up with terrible form without realising it on the row.

[tooosh]

22.5kg bar:
Squat: 92.5kg 5, 5, 4 - may be nearing a reset. Felt lower back round and fell too far forward on the 4th rep, didn't go for a 5th. Will probably try going for 95kg but conservative on form.
OHP: 37.5kg 2, 35kg 2, 5, 3 -
Deadlift: 120kg - s'alright.

I think my hips are about to explode.

I'm going to change the program a bit to lengthen it out linear gains, instead of ABArestBABrest etc, ABrestABrest, where B is deadlift day. What do you think?

[tooosh]

Terrible session today. Breakfast was rubbish, needed to rush to the gym since it fills up around 4 and you can never get a bench.

21kg bar:
Squat: 95kg 5, 5, 3 - not too bad on the strength front but I was really tired by the end. Will be going for 97.5kg.
Bench: 50kg 5, 5, 3 - reset. Again, not hard but tired quickly.
Row: 55kg 5, 5, 5 - reset. Fine.

[el.cheese]

you seem to be resetting a lot, and making lots of excuses. your upper body lifts have not really gone up in 3 weeks?
also, what type of rows are you doing?

keep at it

[tooosh]

(Original post by el.cheese)
you seem to be resetting a lot, and making lots of excuses. your upper body lifts have not really gone up in 3 weeks?
also, what type of rows are you doing?

keep at it

Yeah I know. Row went up 10kg but form was absolutely awful, lower back rounding everywhere so I dropped it. Just bent over bb rows, about 35-40 degrees from the floor.

I reckon it's a calorie thing, if I'm not eating enough to gain weight then I'm probably not recovering properly. Everything I've read says 3000cal is firmly in bulking region for my height and weight though, and I have a fairly sedentary lifestyle...
Taking one of my meals out and 1/2GOMAD puts me at 3500cals, so we'll see.

[tooosh]

22.5kg bar:
Squat: 97.5kg 5, 5, 3
OHP: 37.5kg 5, 35kg 5, 5
Deadlift: 125kg 2.5

...
I'm now almost 1000cals over average maintenance for my height and weight and have been for a few days. I have no idea what I could be doing wrong, except form which I thought I'd fixed ages ago. Time to go crawl youtube.

[Slick Fosbury]

Hows your OHP form? I think its more about a tight core than anything. The entire length of your body is a long way to transfer force over (Not sure if thats how it works lol) so you lose a lot of strength if you're loose. Squeeze glutes till they're rock solid and your abs should tense too along with your legs. Keep it very very tight.


Personal opinion: Too many people do SS bench/OHP till they go blue in the face. Take what works from the programme ie squats and DLs then try something else for the rest. At an absolute minimum add weighted dips.

[tooosh]

(Original post by Slick Fosbury)
Hows your OHP form? I think its more about a tight core than anything. The entire length of your body is a long way to transfer force over (Not sure if thats how it works lol) so you lose a lot of strength if you're loose. Squeeze glutes till they're rock solid and your abs should tense too along with your legs. Keep it very very tight.


Personal opinion: Too many people do SS bench/OHP till they go blue in the face. Take what works from the programme ie squats and DLs then try something else for the rest. At an absolute minimum add weighted dips.

OHP form was poor on the 37.5kg set, only because it was too heavy to stabilise properly, and good on the other sets. I did a lot of form work for OHP. I think part of the problem is relatively long arms, but there's nothing I can do about that. What would you recommend I do for pressing?

[Slick Fosbury]

(Original post by tooosh)
OHP form was poor on the 37.5kg set, only because it was too heavy to stabilise properly, and good on the other sets. I did a lot of form work for OHP. I think part of the problem is relatively long arms, but there's nothing I can do about that. What would you recommend I do for pressing?

Aye I have long arms too, makes lock out a pain in the arse, it's just an issue of tricep strength I think.

I found they both started moving quickly when I started doing weighted dips, also maybe add in some back off sets CGBP because you don't get enough volume in when you do 3x5 bench and fail a lot of the reps. Like after you've failed 3x5 at 55kg do 2x10 close grip bench press with 45kg or something.

Also another thing that helped me was psyching myself up before bench reps. It feels gay but it works, when you constantly miss reps you condition yourself to miss reps which becomes a destructive cycle.

Just so you know though, I'm by no means strong or experienced, just faced the exact same problems as you and overcame it somewhat.