Strength in Interesting Places

[The_observer86]

Congrats on Smolov Jr. completion and PR! You just benched PRIDE 93 KG GRAN PRIX! The entire tournament!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Congrats on Smolov Jr. completion and PR! You just benched PRIDE 93 KG GRAN PRIX! The entire tournament!

Since I like the sound of that, I shall not question its logic!

 

[trial]

Hey JauntyAngle, just wanted to thank you for the direction you provided a month ago when I set up my log. Starting Strength is straightforward and the 3 days a week push me without taking away too much from everyday life.

I am taking your advice to put my non SS movements at the end of the workout in order to complete the required movements before I tire out.

I am doing a strict low-carb + low-cal 3-4 days a week. Then as low-carb as I can do the rest of the days. It is the only way I've found to finally drop below 300. I eat 2-3 times a day and try to eat less than an estimated 1200 calories 3-4 days a week. I actually have more energy then when I was gorging and consuming 3-4000 cals a day.
Example day:
AM 2-3eggs scrambled 1tablespoon of olive oil
Lunch 1 can of tuna with 1/2 tablespoon of mayo
Dinner 1 cup of shredded pork with some parm cheese on top with hot sauce
All the black coffee, water, and unsweet green or regular tea I can drink


Thanks again JA and good luck on your workouts as well.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Hey JauntyAngle, just wanted to thank you for the direction you provided a month ago when I set up my log. Starting Strength is straightforward and the 3 days a week push me without taking away too much from everyday life.

I am taking your advice to put my non SS movements at the end of the workout in order to complete the required movements before I tire out.

I am doing a strict low-carb + low-cal 3-4 days a week. Then as low-carb as I can do the rest of the days. It is the only way I've found to finally drop below 300. I eat 2-3 times a day and try to eat less than an estimated 1200 calories 3-4 days a week. I actually have more energy then when I was gorging and consuming 3-4000 cals a day.
Example day:
AM 2-3eggs scrambled 1tablespoon of olive oil
Lunch 1 can of tuna with 1/2 tablespoon of mayo
Dinner 1 cup of shredded pork with some parm cheese on top with hot sauce
All the black coffee, water, and unsweet green or regular tea I can drink


Thanks again JA and good luck on your workouts as well.

I'm happy to have been able to help, and I am glad you are enjoying SS.

I'm not that familiar with the details, but as I understand it, if you're eating low carb, normally you don't count calories. You eat as much as you would normally eat, but only meat, salads, vegetables, nuts. If you are counting calories, you can have carbs too. Have you posted your diet on the Diet & Supplement forum? There are a lot of people there who can give you good advice on this (much better than I can).

 

[JauntyAngle]

Jaunty's T3 Squat Programme

So, new programme! This programme is going to keep me going for a few months, until I am ready to start 5/3/1. So this is sort of my intermediate programme. It means I won't be doing Madcow/Bill Starr (the awesomeness of Bill Starr notwithstanding). The plan to stick with modified SS is also in the bin, which means as of Monday, I am done with SS (or my version of it). The main objective of the T3 programme is to get my squat up, although of course there should be some gains with all my other lifts.

I plan to start this on Monday. Today I will probably do 3x10 squats, to try to get used to higher volume and cut down in the inevitable DOMS after the first 5x10 workout.

Not completely sure about the assistance- this might still change.


1. Exercises

Monday: T3 squats, Bench & BOR or Press & weighted chins (alternating)
Wednesday: Deadlift, Bench & BOR or Press & weighted chins (alternating)
Friday: T3 squats, Bench & BOR or Press & weighted chins (alternating)

Optional assistance- weighted dips on press day, barbell hip thrusts on bench day


2. Sets, Reps and Progression

Squats- T3 system, meaning cycling through 5x10, 5x5 and 5x3, trying to beat the total tonnage form the last time you did the same set of lifts, in the same time
Deadlift- 1x5 linear progression
Bench, Press & BOR- 3x5 linear progression, if I start stalling while still making progress on squats, I may switch up to 5x3 for a while
Assistance 3x10 linear progression

 

[MIDMOBOX]

you ever find out the Thai legal question I had?

 

[JauntyAngle]

you ever find out the Thai legal question I had?

No- I'll try to find out when I am back next.

 

[MIDMOBOX]

One of the the things in this picture doesn't belong

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul, Week 4, Workout Three: The Last Ever Awesomeness Day

Quite a big one...

Warmup Yoga- sun salutation B X3, C2 rower- 2 mins
Squats 98kg x5, x5, x5; 65 kg x10, x10, x10
Press 52kg x5, x5, x5; 25kgx10 (seated/z-press)
Bent-Over Row 73kg x5, x5, x5
Dips +8kg x9, x9, x9
Barbell bicep curls 37kg x10, x10, x10

Notes
- Wore a belt for the squats for the first time in ages; decided I liked it. Will keep it for top sets. Added 3x10 today in preparation for starting T3. Hopefully, only will only get mild DOMS from this, and in turn will only get mild DOMS from 5x10 on Monday
- Press was easier than Monday. Instead of a normal backoff, I did z-press style, except rather than have my legs out in front of me, I was cross legged with my butt on a thick rubber plate (allowing me to keep my lower back straight easily)
- Dips were not much easier than Monday
- Curls- because every time you go a week without curls, it makes Baby Jesus cry.

 

[SlaveToTheDark]

congrats on the pr man!!!

but why do you take such small increments? why not just jump 5-10 kg...

 

[JauntyAngle]

congrats on the pr man!!!

but why do you take such small increments? why not just jump 5-10 kg...

Well, if I'd gone for 10kg I would have failed for sure. If I'd gone for 5kg I probably would have done it, but I don't like doing the roll of shame and didn't have a spotter, so wanted to stay well within myself.

In a few weeks' time I'll have a new member of my team coming, who likes to work out and can spot me. Having him around will allow me to go for it a bit more.

 

[KnuckleSangwich]

Well, if I'd gone for 10kg I would have failed for sure. If I'd gone for 5kg I probably would have done it, but I don't like doing the roll of shame and didn't have a spotter, so wanted to stay well within myself.

In a few weeks' time I'll have a new member of my team coming, who likes to work out and can spot me. Having him around will allow me to go for it a bit more.

Except when he turns out to be this guy.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Except when he turns out to be this guy.

Well, I know the guy who's coming already, and he isn't that guy. So unless the guy from the poster somehow abducts my guy and comes here to take his place without me noticing, I *should* be okay.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Note on Power Cleans

Forgot to mention... when I was doing my presses today (including my warmups), I was power cleaning the bar to my shoulders. Even though the weight was very light, they felt really good, for the following reason.

I recently acquired a couple of videos on Oly Lifting by Jim Schmitz, who was, apparently, the coach of the US olympic weightlifting team in '80 and '88. The videos are terrible in production value, but already I got some great stuff. It looks like the first part of the programme is all introductory stuff, like teaching how to front squat and overhead squat. But before that, he has an exercise he calls 'clean deadlift shrug', where he has you do a really slow deadlift (with a clean grip, I guess) and as you finish, come up on to your toes and shrug as the bar as high as you can. Done with a really light weight. Obviously, this is to ingrain the feeling of triple extension.

One thing that I picked up was that when you are cleaning, power cleaning, you squeeze the bar off the floor really slowly, then accelerate when the bar hits knee level, leading to the explosion when the bar is higher (which will be the jump/shrug/throw forward elbows). He was really emphasizing 'squeeze-accelerate-explode'. So, anyway, I was trying to implement this today and as a result my power cleans felt much more explosive, and better overall.

I'll be working through these videos, and reporting more good stuff as I find it. Although since I only Power Clean, it will probably only be about clean technique.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Been sick the last few days, and so no conditioning work. Today is the first day of the T3 workout, but in the meantime...

A reminder about the best supplement of all for strength and weight gain:

And a reminder not to neglect dumbell work as part of your programme:

 

[calvus]

Awesome stuff, Jaunty - congrats on the PRs!

 

[JauntyAngle]

Terrible picture. One of the girls has nail varnish, and one doesn't. I can't stand such sloppy attention to detail.

Okay... really just wanted an excuse to quote it, so it could appear again in my log.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Kabul: Jaunty's T3 Squat Programme- Week One, Day One

Warmup
Sun Salutation A x3
Sun Salutation B x3

Squats
20kg x5, x5
40kg x3, x3
60kg x2, x2
70kg x1, x1
80kg x10
77kg x10
72kg x10
68kg x10
65kg x10
Timed Total Tonnage: 3.62 tonnes in 21 minutes

Bench
20kg x5, x5
40kg x3, x3
55kg x2, x2
70kg x1, x1
80kg x5, x5, x5

Bent Over Row
40kg x3, x3
50 kg x2, x2
60kg x1, x1
74 kg x5, x5, x5

Notes
- Wow! 5x10 was exhausting. Even though I didn't set them to be absolutely all-out, and I was never in danger of failing any of the sets, these destroyed me. I was like a zombie all the way through the rest of the workout, and I am still wiped out. Doesn't help that I have been sick the last three days, and didn't eat that much today. Took a couple of videos, will post later.
- Benching wasn't great. 80kg felt light to unrack and for the first few reps, but I was starting to tire a little by the 4th and 5th. Which makes sense. I haven't been doing the SS LP for ages, and with Smolov Jr my sets of 5 and and 6 were at lighter weights. I am pretty sure the stamina will come back, although it might have been better to have started a kilo or two lower. An easier, lower start seems to really help you to get good progression with LP.

 

[JauntyAngle]

Some of today's offering to Squartr:

 

[dinpappa]

Nice offerings! Squatr is pleased!