Ryan Mac's SS mass gain log

[Stephen Brown]

I have a hard time believing that the second lap will be bad for your training. The crash however...


First the milk allergies, now the bike crashes. Being healthy is eating you up.

[ryan mac]

Originally Posted by Stephen Brown

I have a hard time believing that the second lap will be bad for your training. The crash however...


First the milk allergies, now the bike crashes. Being healthy is eating you up.

Hey brownie. Glad to see you over here.......bashing me.

You may in fact be right. I don't know for sure. But it has become apparent to me, that recovery is critical for gains. Particularly for us older lifters. I don't think riding my mountain bike, single speed at that, would be considered recovery between my workouts.

I am trying to increase weight with each workout. I need maximum strength to do so. I will continue to play around with the riding angle but I won't allow it to compromise my workouts. They are the focus at this time.

As far as the shoulder......it is already much better (lots of icing). Today was bench press and I had absolutely NO ill affects. Overhead is still quite painful. It's just a deep bruise to the lateral deltoid if I were a betting man.


Today's SS log
Squat: the weight felt on the light side, but the last couple of reps were difficult. No real threat of missing though
160x5x3

Bench Press: still going up in weight here. It's very heavy but I was still able to complete all reps. I will continue until I fail.
175x5x3

Strict PU's
BWx7x3

Back Ext:
BWx15x3

Super happy with this workout. Pleased that the heavy squat sets felt light enough on my back. Hopefully I can continue to go up for a while.

[ryan mac]

Still doing well with the sleep cycle. Up again at 6am for another workout.

Squat: feeling heavy, but manageable. Wonder how long i'll be able to go up
165x5x3

Press: soon to be stuck. Don't know if I'll be able to get all reps next time.
110x5x3

Dead: i'm just happy I can do this. I can probably keep going up...but it's an insane amount of weight for me.
285x5x1

Great workout. I'm really happy with the sleep cycle. I just need to sleep a little better. I assume it's because my body is still not used to it. I'll just keep plugging away.

Side note. The shoulder felt fine in the over head press. In fact, it's my chronically painful left shoulder that was noticeable. The right....although it's bruised and scratched all to hell....fells fine. Again, it was just a deep bruise.

[ryan mac]

Squat:
170x5x3

Bench Press:
180x4x2; 180x2x1

Clean:
145x5x3

Pleased with the Squat...I think I can go up a couple of more weeks. I knew the bench was ready for a stall. Need to work on the catch of the clean.

[ryan mac]

Today was a great workout. I hope to continue the trend. Exactly 1 month after my program began. I hope that it produces better recovery and increased strength.

Squat: I was happy to make all reps. I believe this can go up a few more times.
175x5x3

Press: I knew this would get stuck soon. I will try to get all reps next press workout. I'm still pleased with this weight.
115x5x2 - 115x4x1 -missed last rep in 3rd set

Dead: The dead still feels great. Again, it's heavy as hell, but I don't feel like i'm going to miss the reps. I reset my position after every rep. No more than 3 seconds between reps. With that in mind, I was able to complete all reps in a normal grip position.
290x5x1

I hope to continue to increase the weights. The eating is the hardest part. Yet, I know it is essential to maintain progress. I continue to add in more foods to try to reach my caloric goals.

[Gant Grimes]

Damn fine progress, Ryan!

[ryan mac]

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

Damn fine progress, Ryan!

Thanks. I appreciate the support.

[ryan mac]

This morning went really well. I have made a slight adjustment to my warm up sets, in order to limit their affect on my work sets. I was very focused on getting all reps on my back squat. I was expecting a major fight on the last reps of my work sets. I was pleasantly surprised.

Squat: really no threat of missing any reps. this seemed easier than my 175 work sets on Friday. I continue to gain weight and I had two recovery days. Impossible to say at this point which one made a difference or if it was some combination. I'm very happy with this progression. I'm optimistic that I will be able to increase in my future workouts.
180x5x3

Bench Press: well I missed some reps at this weight on Wednesday of last week. I kept the same weight, planning on getting all reps. I did. It will be interesting to see if I can continue to go up here as this was very heavy and the last rep was a battle
180x5x3

Power Clean: I continue to work on my form, which feels good at the lower weights. But when it gets heavy, I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. It's sloppy as all hell. I missed two reps, which I attribute to form issues. But I did each of those reps again so the work sets were complete
150x5x3

The challenge will be to see how the body handles the heavier weight, particularly the squat on a shorter rest period. I might move the workout to Thursday morning if I decide to ride on Tuesday night.

I started SS on Aug. 4th @ 182 to 183lbs. I weighed in yesterday at 197lbs. Things are going as good as I could expect.

[Allen Yeh]

The creatine won't have that dramatic of an effect right away.

Good progress. On the power cleans I've noticed I get sloppy as it gets heavy as well. The best thing I've done is lengthen my rest a little and make sure I get a good starting position before every lift rather than trying to rush each rep per set. A typical set will look like:

Setup the lift, pull, catch, stand up, drop the weight
reset the bar
Repeat.

It might take a few seconds longer but I'm rather do it the right way than try to rush my set along.

[ryan mac]

Originally Posted by Allen Yeh

The creatine won't have that dramatic of an effect right away.

Good progress. On the power cleans I've noticed I get sloppy as it gets heavy as well. The best thing I've done is lengthen my rest a little and make sure I get a good starting position before every lift rather than trying to rush each rep per set. A typical set will look like:

Setup the lift, pull, catch, stand up, drop the weight
reset the bar
Repeat.

It might take a few seconds longer but I'm rather do it the right way than try to rush my set along.

Good advice. I will certainly take it into consideration. Thanks.