Zenons training log (strength/power)

[Zenon]

well, have been laying low for a big part of the last year but decided to seriously train for strength now. Prior to me laying low i was more of a curlmonkey/guy who didn't know better, doing bench presses, curls, crunches, some bodyweight stuff.
I'm regularly (every to every other day) training on the heavy bag (usually for 30 minutes straight or more if i feel like it) and also do some rope-skipping for conditioning.

So for the big part of last year all i basically did was, besides hitting the bag, curls with 13kg dumbbells (3x10), diamond push-ups (2-3x 17-20) and crunches (3x25-30). So i'm not completely unfit but far from being trained.

starting this log to keep track of progress, get some input on what i could do better strength-wise and to have a little more reason to really go through with it

<b>Stats:</b>

age: 22 (23 next month)
weight: 55kg (121lbs) meh i'm such a lightwight, but i've always been thin/light, it's in my family
height: 173cm (5' 8")

<b>Diet:</b>

100% WPI whey protein 30-50g following training (with milk)
Muesli with Swiss Ovomaltine mixed in the milk (original swiss ovomaltine doesn't contain sugar) for breakfast, so lots of calcium and other good stuff
something with meat and vegetables for lunch
And usually wholegrain bread with meat & cheese for dinner, thought i often cook real stuff for dinner, too.
Drinking lots of water and eating fruit throughout the day.
So i guess it's sort of healthy.

I decided to follow the Starr 5x5, in addition to the bag work and other cardio stuff so

<b>Program:</b>
Monday (Perform them in this order)

1) Bench Press - 35kg ( 41 1rm - 36)

2) Squats - 30kg (38 1rm - 34)

3) Dynamic rows

Wednesday (Perform them in this order)

1) Military Press

2) Deadlifts - 35kg (45 1rm - 40)

3) Squats

4) Pull-ups

Friday (Perform them in this order)

1) Bench Press

2) Squat

3) Dynamic Rows

The values behind the exercises are: <what i do now>kg (<what i should be able to do for 1 rm> 1rm - <what i should be able to do for 5 reps> )
the "what i should be able...." stuff is from Weightlifting Performance Standards so those are my first target values. i took the values for my weight for an untrained individual. Meh it's depressing having to train to achieve "untrained individual" status :icon_chee

<b>Goals:</b>
Well, getting stronger, having more power, increasing all those lifts to a point where they are reasonable, meaning:
Deadlift 100kg
Squat 85 - 90kg
Bench 65-70 kg

I started last monday, felt pretty sore the day after, on wednesday there still was some soreness left but i had an appointment with a friend at the gym and thought, what the heck, i'll continue and worked through the workout.
had no problem getting through with the workout, except for the last set of squats which was just 4 instead of 5 reps.
well, thursday i really regret it, never had such intense muscle soreness in my life, was a little hard walking straight so on friday i still felt very sore, so i decided to skip that workout, don't want to risk overtraining.
Yesterday they soreness was back to a level I'm used to after an intense workout, today it's okay again, but as the gym is closed today, i'll continue with the 5x5 tomorrow with the usual monday routine

 

[Zenon]

<b>Mon. 2.June</b>

1) Bench Press - 35kg 5x5 (wanted more but there were only those db's available at the time in my "weight range" next ones would have been 45...)

2) Squats - 30kg 5x5 (i tried 32.5 but it was quite hard so i thought i'll go with 30 again and develop some core strength before moving higher. Barely made the last rep of the last set, so wasn't a bad descicion)

3) Dynamic rows 30kg 4x5 was quite exhausted... should have slept more than 4 hours this night ...

gotta go earlier next time, 5 o'clock in the evening is a shitty time, the gym was crawling with curl monkeys and people doing bench presses in the squat rack (despite there being 6 other benches around)

 

[takeahnase]

Good luck man, I started around your weight. Actually, I'm not that much heavier now, but I did get a little bit stronger.

 

[Zenon]

thanks for the support. Well i guess i'll make quite some noob gains in the next few months.

What's your weight at now? And do you have a training log? Would be interesting to read.

 

[Zenon]

meh forgot to do an update.

So was training normally on wednesday with the usual weight, nothing special there, though i felt i'm finally getting the hang of it.

Yesterday i went up 2.5 kg on all weight (would 5kg steps be better?), so 37.5 bench, 32.5 squat and 32.5 deadlift.

Funny thing today when i was grocery shopping, i picked up the bag with a lot of milk and other heavy stuff up and it felt so light/easy to lift, so i put it down again to double check everything i bought was there, and the (goodlooking) cashier girl gave me those really strange looks like i was some freak or something Guess there are some downsides to training *lol*

 

[takeahnase]

thanks for the support. Well i guess i'll make quite some noob gains in the next few months.

What's your weight at now? And do you have a training log? Would be interesting to read.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f49/olympic-lifting-2008-a-705598/

I haven't been training much last couple of weeks, was a bit burnt out and had an injury. My current weight is between 71 and 74 kg. I've been trying to get higher, but I suck at eating.

 

[Zenon]

good luck with getting the weight up

so been at my parents place in the mountain last week, small village with like 30 inhabitants.
Well, i was only training with logs, no idea how much they weighted

But for your convenience, some pics:

View from the house

The place itself

Part of the garden.

love training near the the river that's like 20m away from the house, love the view

well, will train normally tomorrow and go back to my parents place on tuesday for another 4 days

Hope you enjoy the pics

 

[bad_coupon]

Neat.


2,5 kg increase at your body weight is fine. If you really want to go faster, 5kg increase is still fine for squats and deadlifts (I wouldn't do that). Leave the rest as is.


What language do you normally use?

 

[Zenon]

I'm swiss, so (swiss-)german. but i also speak french. Why do you ask?

 

[bad_coupon]

I'm learning a couple of languages and can use a native speaker sometimes.

 

[Zenon]

if you're learning german theres a "Deutsche user hier rein" thread in the "Sprechen ze jive" section

 

[bad_coupon]

I'll check it out.

 

[Zenon]

hmm an update is overdue. been at my parents place again last week. found this neat steel pole, fit 4 bricks to it (was roughly 43 kg), was a perfect barbell for training

so today it was regular training at the gym (though it was the first time I saw someone else actually using the squatrack for squats).

But i was wondering, when you guys count the weight you're lifting, do you count the bar as well?

If so, i would be at 36kg bench, 42.5kg squat & deadlift.


I decided to buy myself a weightlifting bench + barbell for hometraining, i'm sick of the small gym with only 1 squat rack and i don't want to spend an assload of money on another gym.
Primus 100 Weight Bench - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums for more info

 

[bad_coupon]

But i was wondering, when you guys count the weight you're lifting, do you count the bar as well?

Yes. Also, a standard oly bar weighs (in most cases) around 20 kg. I don't know what you use, though.

 

[bad_coupon]

I decided to buy myself a weightlifting bench + barbell for hometraining, i'm sick of the small gym with only 1 squat rack and i don't want to spend an assload of money on another gym.
Primus 100 Weight Bench - Sherdog Mixed Martial Arts Forums for more info

Most people here would agree you'd be better off with a squat rack or a power rack unless you can unrack the bar for squatting off of this thing.

 

[Zenon]

well you can put the stand up to 1.70m (high enough for me) so i think i could use it to unrack the barbell. but i'll definitely check if i can easily unrack the bar when i look at it at the shop

And all the squat-racks i've seen so far are 900$+ which is way too much for me.

Hmm don't know how much the bar at the gym weights, gotta take a scale with me next time. I guessed it was 10kg.

And for the dead-lifts i use a w-shaped bad (the kind that you use for curls), as the gym lacks a normal straight one. And the Squat rack is actually more of a power-rack with guide-rails for the bar (so it can only move strictly vertical) and some stuff attached to the bar to fix it in place, which makes it sort of difficult to tell the weight, too. (just one more reason to get my own barbell)

 

[bad_coupon]

Height's not the only issue. When you unrack a bb for, say, heavy squatting you will have to support it with your body. The way it looks on the picture implies there's a thick steel rod where your legs would normally go.

The issue of rack prices has been tackled a couple of times on this board - people managed to make racks out of wood and metal, buy used ones or find some nice deals on the web - do a little search on home gyms and rack prices if you want more details.

Where I'm from it's insanely hard to find a good deal on a complete power/squat rack but there's a cheap alternative:

 

[Zenon]

thanks for the input

I just found this:

Promotional offer Sportsworld weight bench X-475 - www.sport-tiedje.co.uk - The Fitness Specialists!
Seems very decent, and even though it's a little more than i intended to spend, i guess it won't be easy to find a cheaper and better option that fullfills all my needs

And better to spend a little extra instead of having healthissues later on or not being able to use it.
And the barbell-bar is already included

Buying a used one doesn't seem to be an option, there's like 3 benches in my local ebay, all 600+ euros for the bench only

 

[Zenon]

well, my client hasn't paid yet, so no money for poor me (wanted to buy it yesterday) and coincidentally my gym closed yesterday for cleaning work. will be closed the next 2-3 weeks. this sucks...

Now i'm left with 15kg dumbbells to train at home, so there won't be any gains the next 2-3 weeks. unless i find a way to make those db's heavier. might have some more weightplates lying around somewhere.

Hum, gotta find a gf whose around 42-45 kg

 

[Zenon]

well it's been some time. 3 weeks no gym, holidays and then i had a nerve stuck in my back, which sort of hurt and couldn't train for a week or so (well I could have, but i deemed it better not to)

But i'm back started training again last friday (up until then i just tried my best with those dumbbells).
Gut my Bench + rack and everythign else for my little homegym and I have to say, I love it. training at home has to be one of the best things ever.

Anyways, progress:

I'm at 43kg benchpress,
45 kg squats,
48kg deadlift (Yay, i'll soon be able to use those 20kg weights :icon_chee ),
33kg military press.

So even though i couldn't really train for over a month, i made some progress. Hope I can keep it up.