Illwerral's Rippetoe Log

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
21

Alrighty! I missed a post for my previous workout, but I certainly didn’t miss the workout (just fell asleep as soon as I got home!).

So, here’s Tuesday’s amazing workout, which was done solo as my partner was sick. I started with the bench press, going for 190 and I was absolutely shaking. I couldn’t get the adrenaline out of my system, I did my first set and I felt like I was going crazy. I think it was either the weight (coming close to 200, it’s huge!) or the fact that I didn’t have a spot but I could hardly contain myself when I nailed my second set. I only pulled off 4 for my last set, but I’m still going to try 195 next time because I think I didn’t get enough rest.

Next up was my squat, 235 for 5 each time! Nothing really special here, just some extremely gut busting work.

I went for my deadlift, 355 for 5, and I only managed 2 reps and my body just refused to do more even with less weight. Oddly enough, going into my deadlift my back was already sore, and I can’t help but wonder if it’s my squat? Is it possible to get a sore back doing squats? I’m about 6’ tall, and I keep my back straight (although apparently I angle it forward (not bent)).

So I was really pleased, mainly because that was I believe that repping 190 for said configuration was a PR on the bench press.

So, Tuesday:

Bench Press: 190x5, 190x5, 190x4
Squat: 235x5, 235x5, 235x5
Deadlift: 355x2, 345x0 <-disgrace!

Aaaaaaan today! This was a reasonable day for me, I took a lot of energy/agression to the gym and had a great time owning these lifts! I started in on squats, but I was working in with someone (I can’t believe how popular squats are becoming over here!). I hit 240 for 5, and for the second set only took 4. Since my last set I could do 5, I attribute my second set’s underperformance to lack of rest (I was feeling pressured to get to work…I hate working in with people!).

I moved into the military press, and this time I did my full sets with 110 (although my very last rep, I just couldn’t lock my right arm although I could lock the left; I must have looked like an idiot…).

I’m feeling good about my bent over BB rows as well, they’re coming up quick and hopefully will meet up with my bench press soon. I hit my sets at 165 for 5 for all three.

So, Thursday:

Squat: 240x5, 240x4, 240x5
Military Press: 110x5, 110x5, 110x4.5
Bent over BB Row: 165x5, 165x5, 165x5

Time to rest up and eat lots so that by Sunday I’m fresh for week 3!

22

That’s going to happen. Although your back shouldn’t be sore from squatting. I hope you mean tight. Slight difference.

I understand the mental barrier with bench. Just don’t think about it. It’s only 5 more lbs than before. It worked for me. I did 250 on Monday.

When this happened to me, I put the bar down and rested for 10-20 seconds and tried again. If it still didn’t go up, I would push-press the rep so that I still got it in.

23

Oh, nice job on the deadlift. I really mean it. I know you didn’t get all the reps, but you got two solid reps. My deadlift must really suck. I need to work on that. I should be doing a lot more for my bodyweight.

24

Dude, thanks for the pointer on the back with respect to squats. I that my back was tight going in to the deadlift session, and then I warmed up too much (it consisted of repping out 135, 225, and then pulling 275 or 295 as well; I think I should have called it quits on the warmup after 225).

Just about your deadlift…it’s definately not about bodyweight as much as some people think; one guy I know was 260 and deadlifting high 100s! I attribute my deadlift’s strength (compared to the rest of my lifts) to having grown up doing real physical work outside/around the house; apparently this is less common in the city…

On another note, today I’ve randomly decided that I’m going to start doing cardio. I’ve started eating more to make sure my body is able to handle the demands of Rippetoe, and I’ve gained 8 or 9 pounds pretty shortly. Now that didn’t translate into anything visible, however it’s a step in the wrong direction as I’d like to see some abs at the beach this summer (my own dammit!). I’m gonna go do some reading and post what I come up with and end up doing.

25

Well, I think I’ve found something to occupy myself with on my nonlift days! Based on results I’ve heard about and reading I’ve done on the web, I decided to start doing a “high intensity” cardio workout for my off days except Saturday (gotta let the body rest too!). I settled on this initial configuration for a test run:

Warm-up:
2 min brisk walk
30 second 25% effort run
2 min brisk walk
20 second 50% effort run
2 min brisk walk
15 second 90% effort run
3 min brisk walk

Workout:
10 second max effort sprint
1 min brisk walk
repeat 2 more times

By the time my workout was done I was sweating and breathing heavy, so that’s a good sign. I used to detest running (as well as any other gym cardio, I used to be a mountain biker now that’s fun cardio!); I haven’t actually run much for a while, certainly not since I started squatting. My legs feel explosive compared to before!

I’m going to work on endurance, dropping down the rest intervals and adding work intervals, but goddamn it if weight lifting hasn’t helped out my running; I’d even go so far as saying that was almost an enjoyable session!

26

Doing cardio is perfect. From what I’ve read, eating a caloric excess is highly recommended when doing Rippetoe. A good balance would be doing cardio several days a week. Take a walk on your off days. Nothing too strenuous.

Generally speaking, I agree. I grew up in farm country/back woods. We heated with wood. All winter was spent cutting and moving wood. That definitely helped with my shoulder growth in the early years.

27

Alright… I’ve been a little busy, and again missed a couple posts. I didn’t actually hit up the cardio yesterday like I had planned, but I might go tomorrow. Anyway two days ago… lifting:

I hit 195x5 on the bench press for three sets, except the last rep of the last set I needed a little spot. Moved on to squats and did the hardest three sets I’ve done in quite a while… but I got all five for three sets. I dropped my attempted deadlift to 345 (previous workout, failed after 355x2, workout before that nailed 335x5), and nailed it for five reps; I’ll be advancing on my deadlift and bench for sure (the 200lb mark on bench next, sweet!).

Bench: 195x5, 195x5, 195x4.5
Squat: 245x5, 245x5, 245x5
Deadlift: 345x5

And today. Today today today. I just wasn’t in it today… I had a beer this evening not too long before my workout and in retrospect it was probably a terrible idea. I tried 250 on the squat, got in all my sets for full reps but it felt rather heavy, the reps were slow, and I broke form 3 times (last rep 2nd set, last 2 reps final set). Bad bad time on those squats, I’ll be redoing 250 on my next workout; I’m hoping to nail it.

My military press continues to progress slowly, I managed full reps on the first set but lost a rep on each successive set, getting 3 on my last set. I’ll be doing it again at 115 (today’s weight) next time.

Barbell rows, which I did 175 on this time, went reasonable. They went better than the other two lifts at least, got all my reps in and I think my form was ok; they were just really tough so I think I’ll only add five pounds for my next workout.

Squat: 250x5, 250x5, 250x5 <–broke form 3x
Military Press: 115x5, 115x4, 115x3
BB Row: 175x5, 175x5, 175x5

I’m going to start eating more, just to make sure my body is recovering fully. I also hope to have my focus and “feeling” back for Thursday’s workout.

28

Beer is so much better after a workout than before it.

Good job so far. Keep the weight increments low and you’ll continue to make progress.

Stu

29

Stu- thanks for the compliment… and as for the beer I’ve gotten some strange responses from people but I’m trying to cut back on the drinking (not that I’m an alcoholic!). It’s just that in engineering school… well… that’s what people like to do I guess. And personally I’d rather not drink an elixer of carbs and estrogen regularily so it’ll be a social adjustment but a worthwhile one.

On to today’s workout! I’ll preface by saying I went to bed at 3:30 this morning and woke up at 11am… I’m trying to get back on top of my sleep schedule but goddammit if seven classes in a semester makes that tough.

So first up was bench press, planned weight was 200lbs. I got my first set in at 200lbs for 4.5 reps (spotted on last rep), and decided to try 200 again for the second set but only got 3 reps in, then quickly dropped to 195 and did another rep. My last set I dropped to 195, did three reps and quickly dropped to 190 for another rep. Very poor showing if I do say so myself, but I hope to do better next Tuesday via better sleep habits.

Next up was the squat, and as I planned I loaded up 250 again to give it a second shot. This time the weight still felt heavy and the reps were still tough but I kept form and got 250x5 for three sets completely. I’ll be going up to 255 on Sunday, and I’ll be sure to eat and sleep as best I can to promote proper recovery until then.

Last exercise was deadlift, I warmed up with 225 (which were done with a double overhand grip to get some extra grip work in) for a bit and proceeded to load 355 for my set. Some dude barbell shrugging 205 took the liberty of letting me know I ought to watch myself, because you can fuck yourself up with heavy deadlifts (apparently a buddy of his managed to do that lifting ~600 with perfect form). So I saw that he had a solid point, and agreed that I should maybe join him in the 205 club for a bit. We went to Starbucks afterwards, and had a wonderful post workout frappucino.

Anyway, back to the deadlift part of things, I had 355 on the bar and was thinking about my last set of 355 and barely getting two reps and said “fuck it! I can do this!”, I grabbed the bar and pulled that sucker for five reps. It was actually really intense for me, even though I’m still working up to my old deadlift numbers. I actually felt the knurling on the bar deforming the flesh on my hands, but I just didn’t care. I did make the mistake of regripping the bar right before my last rep… I managed to clean a callus off my finger with that smooth move. I think that I really needed this workout to counterbalance my last workout… I really had the feeling again despite my poor bench pressing.

Anyway that’s all for now… tommorrow night I’ll probably hit up some cardio again, and this time I’m going to try continuing with it for all my off days.

30

Well, I didn’t actually end up doing cardio on Friday but I’m gonna do start Monday.

As for today’s workout, it was an awesome day! I nailed my lifts, and I felt like I was really there mentally. I decided to throw in pull ups because I know that although I’ve gained a lot of strength I’m still weak in proportion to my bodyweight. It’s time to address that fact directly.

Squat: 255x5 255x5 255x5
Military Press: 115x5 115x5 115x5
BB Row: 180x5 180x5 180x5
Pull up: 2

Based on how the weight felt on each exercise, I’ll be progressing each by 5lb.

31

Alright, I’ve decided on the perfect cardio… it’s going to kick my ass for sure! I’m going to do burpees, starting for sets of 1 minute and increasing. I did a quick set of 1 min just now, and I totaled 10 reps. I was panting, and I can feel it in my chest and legs as well thanks to the push up and squat on each rep. I think I’ll do three sets, start in at 1 min/set and work up. This starts in earnest tommorrow morning, and continues on all non-training days except Saturday. May God have mercy on my soul :stuck_out_tongue:

32

Alright! Yesterday I didn’t have time to post due to school work, but I did do my cardio in the morning. Three sets at one minute each doing burpees, I got 12 the first time and 11 on the subsequent 2 sets. I’m not sure if my abs have been killing my because of those, the pullups I’ve added, or my squats, but damn they hurt! Plus, the burpees really had me panting and my muscles feeling dead by the end of the set; I think once I get my set time up a bit I’m going to reap some real benefits from these bad boys.

Today was a workout day, and I tried my bench at 200 again. I hit 5 the first set, and then 4 on the two subsequent sets. I’m pretty sure I should take another workout at 200 to master that weight before bringing it up to 205. Regardless, it’s an excellent feeling to bench what I was squatting two months ago.

Squats were ok for the most part today, I was doing 260 and hit five reps for both my first and last set. My second set only saw 4 reps, but for some reason I lost my footing a bit on the second set and I didn’t really recover from it so I racked the weight after 4 reps. I’ll be doing 265 next workout.

Once again, my deadlift goes up ten pounds! I pulled 365 for 5 reps today, and I am pretty sure I’ll lick 375 on my next workout. This program is really making this lift move for me like I wanted it to.

Recap:

Bench: 200x5, 200x4, 200x4
Squat: 260x5, 260x4, 260x5
Deadlift: 365x5

I didn’t workout with my regular partner today so I got some random dude to spot me on my benches. We got chatting about programs and I described this Rippetoe program a bit and the numbers are actually really satisfying when I stop and reflect on them. I started on Feb 24, less than a month ago and this is what’s happened:

Bench: 185 for below the 5x3 → nailing 195, working on 200

Squat: 215 for 5x3 to 260 for 5x3

Deadlift: 315 for 5 to 365 for 5

Military Press: 105 for 5x3 to 115 for 5x3 ← I haven’t progressed this lift in a few months!

BB Row: 145 for 5x3 to 180 for 5x3

Despite days like today, where I didn’t make 200 on the bench this time or last, I’m making progress. I know that in a few weeks I’ll be repping 225, and that’s what I can count on.

Anyway, that’s enough ego stroking for now!

33

Well, here’s the workout for Thursday. I’ll preface by saying that I stayed up till 1 doing school work, then got up late meaning:

breakfast- 930am
lunch- 1130am
-class till ~8-
supper-9pm
workout-930pm

I started with squats, and I squeezed out my first two sets at 265 for 5, but I only did 3 on my last set. These were quite difficult, and I think it’s because of the way I’ve been treating myself the past day or two. I’ll recover over the long weekend, and dominate 265 on Sunday.

The military press was reasonable, I figured a 5 pound jump would be too much to handle the first time so unsurprisingly I had to push press my last rep on the first set. Oddly I nailed 5 the second set, but then only hit 3.5 the last set. I push pressed the remaining reps on the last set. I’ll take care of 120 on my next workout.

On the barbell row I thought I’d take it up 10 pounds to 190 but after the first set I knocked it down to 185 because I was compromising form. I got 3 sets of 5 however.

Recap:

Squat: 265x5 265x5 265x3
Military press: 120x4.5+1push press 120x5 120x3.5 + 1.5push press
BB row: 190x5 185x5 185x5

It feels strange to say but I’m actually starting to get intimidated by the weight that I’m squatting. I don’t think I was expecting to start approaching 300 as quickly as I have. I guess I’ll just have to man up and get past it, since it seems that a fellow my weight (220) should be squatting around 440 minimum. I guess it really is a mental game…

Anyway, it’s bedtime!

34

Alright! Today’s workout went pretty well in my opinion considering the fact I went rock climbing yesterday (which, by the way is highly recommended!) and went to bed late. I nailed 200 on the bench for my first two sets, and only needed a small spot on the last rep of the last set. I’m going to see what I can do with 205 come thursday!

I redid 265 on the squat, and it felt lot better this time. I got all my reps, and I’m looking forward to doing 270 next time.

On my deadlift, my body just refused to pick the weight up on the last rep so I only got 375x4 reps in. This doesn’t bother me, and I’m going to address it simply by adding only 5 pounds for the next session.

Recap:

Bench: 200x5 200x5 200x4.5
Squat: 265x5 265x5 265x5
Deadlift: 375x4

Anyway, not much more to say today, it was a good workout overall!

35

Wow, today was an excellent workout. Staying at 265 for squat two days ago was an awesome idea, because doing 270 today was actually easier than 265 the first time around. I got my 270x5 for three sets today, they were gut busting but I didn’t really stall and I didn’t skimp on the reps!

Military press felt great today, I was owning 120 in the first two sets which was a great change from getting my ass kicked by it like last time. I didn’t rest up enough before my last set, so I’ll say I did 4.5 reps (half a last rep plus push press kinda make 0.5?). I’ll be hitting 125 on Sunday!

Barbell row is kind of the black sheep of all my exercises since it rarely gives me trouble or anything extra to say at all really. Same with today… I brought it up ten pounds and pulled 195x5 for three sets. At the beginning of this coming week, my row and my bench press will have converged; I am pretty stoked about this because it’s one more measure of the fact that I’m building a balanced arsenel of strong muscles and not just honing a few “beach muscles” or something.

I’m also up to 3.5 pullups. Once I reach 5 I’ll leave it at that and start up a second set, working my way to 3 sets of five like every other exercise. Once I’m there, even though it’s gonna look ridiculous, I’ll get a 2.5lb plate and start pulling with that on. Pretty soon I’ll be pulling with a couple 45s chained to my midsection!

So, the short of it:

Squat: 270x5, 270x5, 270x5
Military Press: 120x5 120x5 120x4.5
BB Row: 195x5 195x5 195x5
Pullups: 3.5

That’s all for now!