Chris Salvato's Log

[Chris Salvato]

I'll post up my training for today tomorrow afternoon -- i just wanted to respond

Originally Posted by Chris H Laing

I'll definitely be watching your log because you and I have some similiar goals, like a full rom HSPU, and OAC. Im doing SS right now and as soon as I'm done I'll be starting a hybrid of my own. Mine is a little more gymnastic based though.

Definitely interested to see what kind of training you do for the HSPU and OAC.

I actually got a full ROM HSPU single after completing SS linear progression and doing only about 2 weeks of negatives (and some Jerk work...but I am not sure if that even helped at all...)

The negatives were on a box, not parallettes, and I can't do the HSPU with full ROM on parallettes. I am going to start taking my Parallettes into the gym to do full ROM negatives on parallettes with concentric single and doubles on boxes for the time being.

OAC is going to be a long hard road...but in the short term, just assisted negatives has made me see huge gains in weighted pullups. Since I know you are interested in that goal in particular, I will be sure to be more detailed when I post up about what I am doing exactly.

Full ROM HSPU just came a whole lot easier than I expected, and I am planning on crossing it off my list once I can get a set of 5 down

Originally Posted by Steven Low

He's more or less doing what I tell him. Har har.


Oh... hi Chris.

You're a jerk. It's pretty much true, though :P

I can't help it that you always point me in the right direction hah, i would be kind of dumb to ignore advice that always works...

[Chris H Laing]

Originally Posted by Steven Low

He's more or less doing what I tell him. Har har.


Oh... hi Chris.

Oh... hi steven

And yea steven essentially made my program for me, so you know its quality.

Also a question about when you did SS...did you ever get sick of it?
I'm so tired of just squats (and all the other junk). I missed one day that I should have been going for 185 lbs for squat, and came in today and couldnt even do 175 for all 3 sets. The bar kept slipping down my back the first, the second was ok, and the third was miserable because my form was all over the place. This pissed me off as you can imagine.
My goal is to get up to 225 lbs for the squat, and then I'm quitting SS, but after today I feel like i wanna start the program steven made for me just because I dread going to the gym now. Any thoughts, being someone who made some good progress doing SS?
Steven if you read this feel free to chime in as well, your thoughts are always appreciated

[Chris Salvato]

Originally Posted by Chris H Laing

Oh... hi steven
Also a question about when you did SS...did you ever get sick of it?
I'm so tired of just squats (and all the other junk). I missed one day that I should have been going for 185 lbs for squat, and came in today and couldnt even do 175 for all 3 sets. The bar kept slipping down my back the first, the second was ok, and the third was miserable because my form was all over the place. This pissed me off as you can imagine.
My goal is to get up to 225 lbs for the squat, and then I'm quitting SS, but after today I feel like i wanna start the program steven made for me just because I dread going to the gym now. Any thoughts, being someone who made some good progress doing SS?
Steven if you read this feel free to chime in as well, your thoughts are always appreciated

SS is a sickening routine. Why? Cuz its fucking hard.

How long have you been on the program? Your squat numbers still have a ways to go, if you ask me...I haven't seen many people experience a loss of linear progression shy of 290#...unless of course your BW is under 150...in which case your Stren-to-Weight would be terrific close to 300.

There were a lot of "setbacks" though in my linear progression -- particularly because I had to teach myself form and fix my form through analyzing my own videos and having people (like Steve...) critique my form via the internet. It is very hard because u know if you have a coach there, it would be fixed in 3 seconds. You need to have a will of steel, imho.

Your form WILL be all over the place if you teach yourself...you just need to be as on-top-of-it as possible. You will have bad days in the squat rack....if you think it is bad now, just wait until you get to weights 250+....that is when you will see the drawbacks of getting poor sleep and diet...I would miss only an hour or 2 of sleep at that point in the program and my squats would suffer greatly.

I am just concerned with your goal of 225#. Why so low? What is your age, height and weight? Are you female? You should be able to blast right by 225 without a problem if you are a male who weighs more than 120. As I said above, most people I have seen with BW over 150 have soared right up to 300 -- its a short, but difficult, road.


8/28/2008: No fast. Work day.

Warmup
Burg x2

Rowers taken...no rowing..

P. Snatch
45x3
90x2
111x1
121x1
-------
131x4x3

Did these very strong. I decided to put explosive work first since what I am doing with HSPU and MU is more strength work as opposed to skill work. I hit my knees on some reps which means I am pulling early, and I still jump forward a bit. Next time I will do higher volume with lower weight (111) and a few heavier sets with 131 as I continue to learn proper form here...

Muscle Ups
Concentrics: 5x1

First few reps still somewhat sloppy... ie legs were flailing around while I fought through the transition. However, on the last few reps I locked my ankles together and started with an L-sit and that made them look and feel a whole lot more solid.

Negatives: 1x3

Wanted to do 2 sets but I still have a bad tear on my wrist which pinches like hell on the eccentric of a muscle up. It causes me to just fall and everything to fail coming down. Hopefully when this heals I can do MUs a bit more cleaning...eccentric and concentric.

Dips
3xF-1 (Shooting for 15)

1 - 12
2 - 12
3 - 10

While I didn't improve my overall count, I am seeing improvement on the consistency between reps. Will shoot for 15 again next time...and with the extra days off (since i did dips by accident on Friday...) I am confident I will hit at least one set of 15.

WOD
4 Rounds for Time:
250m Row
5 One Handed DB Snatch - 60#

7:28

I wanted to do thrusters, but the first thruster was damn near impossible so I decided to just do snatches...in the interest of time. And I must say, it was fucking difficult. I feel it really helped with my snatch form though, got me used to throwing the weight UP instead of OUT. I switched armed each Round.

[Chris H Laing]

Originally Posted by Chris Salvato

How long have you been on the program? Your squat numbers still have a ways to go, if you ask me...I haven't seen many people experience a loss of linear progression shy of 290#...unless of course your BW is under 150...in which case your Stren-to-Weight would be terrific close to 300.

I've only been on it for a month, but its already getting boring. Also my bodyweight is under 150, or maybe right at 150 now, which is one reason I started SS.

There were a lot of "setbacks" though in my linear progression -- particularly because I had to teach myself form and fix my form through analyzing my own videos and having people (like Steve...) critique my form via the internet. It is very hard because u know if you have a coach there, it would be fixed in 3 seconds. You need to have a will of steel, imho.

I think I might be experiencing some setbacks then. Maybe the weight is getting heavy enough now that form actually matters.

I am just concerned with your goal of 225#. Why so low? What is your age, height and weight? Are you female? You should be able to blast right by 225 without a problem if you are a male who weighs more than 120. As I said above, most people I have seen with BW over 150 have soared right up to 300 -- its a short, but difficult, road.

Thats not my absolute end all goal, thats just what I want to be at when I switch to the program steven made for me( that and at least a 315 deadlift). The new program still has a good amount of heavy lifting, but also involves a lot of gymnastic strength moves which is what I'm really interested in. And no I'm not a female

I guess I just need to suck it up and stop being a bitch about it. Thanks for the pep talk. It was just what I needed.

[Chris Salvato]

Originally Posted by Chris H Laing

I've only been on it for a month, but its already getting boring. Also my bodyweight is under 150, or maybe right at 150 now, which is one reason I started SS.



I think I might be experiencing some setbacks then. Maybe the weight is getting heavy enough now that form actually matters.





Thats not my absolute end all goal, thats just what I want to be at when I switch to the program steven made for me( that and at least a 315 deadlift). The new program still has a good amount of heavy lifting, but also involves a lot of gymnastic strength moves which is what I'm really interested in. And no I'm not a female

I guess I just need to suck it up and stop being a bitch about it. Thanks for the pep talk. It was just what I needed.

One month is WAY too short to start thinking about changing...

One thing that I should stress about the program is that it gets fun. VERY fun. The fun comes when you start shocking yourself. I remember once I put 275 on the squat rack by ACCIDENT and got it up for 2 reps until I realized I made a mistake and failed on my 3rd rep. Then less than 2 weeks later I did 275x3x5. That's when it gets really fun. New things are always frustrating and boring. Wait until you get to be like a bull and people start staring at you in the gym for moving heavy things around unlike anyone else there.

In retrospect, I didn't have a decent handle proper form until maybe about the end of the 2nd month in. Even by my 4th month in I was still learning new things about form on ALL my lifts.

I never meant to imply that you were girlie in some way, just 225 is a very very very modest goal for someone of your size.

Its a learning experience. Enjoy the journey. You will be a lot stronger (mentally and physically) because of it and you will be a lot better at moving heavy things in your life...which is never bad.

The real take-home-point here is that until you max out linear progression on the core lifts, you will ALWAYS be short changing yourself on your core lifts and secondary goals. The core lifts cause the most [good] damage to your body, hands down and every other lift will benefit by doing these lifts heavy. If you wait to progress to a more advanced program, you will benefit more greatly from it...IMHO anyway.

[Chris Salvato]

btw...225 was my goal too...it was funny how quickly i approached 315 (3 plates) after I hit 225 :P

[Chris Salvato]

10/29/2008: 16.5 Hour Fast.

Work day...

Warmup
C2 Rower - 2:35 ; 646 m; 42 cal
Burg x 1

Hang Power Clean
111x3
131x2
155x1
---------
175x5x3

Most reps were good but this was a LOT more of a struggle than I had anticipated. I think I stumbled on the PERFECT weight to start this on. I had some reps where I jumped forward a bit, but only a few. Overall it went really well.

HSPU
Concentric Attempts (Parallettes): 3 Attempts.

2 were half reps then I fell forward towards my stomach away from the wall. The second attempt I actually got it up but with a shit-ton of arching. Overall, this is progress, and I am happy...but need to continue doing negatives.

Negatives (Parallettes): 3x3

Went well, 3 sets at this volume still seems ideal. I speed up substantially on the last set and usually feel like I am "losing it" on the last rep of each set -- but it is still pretty well controlled.

I got the urge to try pistols. A goal deep in my heart that has been hidden for a while was 5 pistols in a row. I did these no problem between sets of negatives...but only with my right since my left still has this shitty tendinitis issue...

DL
135x5
185x3
225x3
275x1
305x1
----------
335x3

Was thinking about a fourth rep...probably COULD have done it...but I dont think risking failure on a lift like the DL is worthwhile. I will continue to progress 10# and go for 3 reps next time, as well...I don't want to push 4 reps yet...I feel it might be smarter to progress in weight with lower weights then regress back and work on higher volumes.

OAC
2x3 Negatives without touching down

Wanted to do this for 3 sets but 3 solid OAC Negatives in a row is a LOT more taxing than 2...like...a LOT. I still feel that the lower overall volume was more than made up for with the higher intensity of greater reps per volume...though i did hit failure on one of my 2AC concentrics :P

Cooldown
None - had to get home to make it to the movies.

[Chris H Laing]

Originally Posted by Chris Salvato

btw...225 was my goal too...it was funny how quickly i approached 315 (3 plates) after I hit 225 :P

Haha, whenever I feel like quitting SS before I should, Ima come here, complain to you, and you can tell me to stop crying and go drink my milk

Also, do you bring paralettes to your gym, or does your gym have them?

[Chris Salvato]

Originally Posted by Chris H Laing

Haha, whenever I feel like quitting SS before I should, Ima come here, complain to you, and you can tell me to stop crying and go drink my milk

Also, do you bring paralettes to your gym, or does your gym have them?

Hah....thats fine with me man...another good motivational/funny resource is the SS wiki with quotes from Rip:
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Quotes

As far as parallettes...no my gym doesn't have them. My gym is a pretty standard globo gym with 20,000 square feet of machines and a lack of a real good chinup bar. They have only 1 squat rack...but thank god they have a lifting platform and bumper plates...this kind of sets it apart from any other non-crossfit gym I have been to...

Everyone there thinks I am weird or a showoff. I make lots of noise (you kind of have to when you go for big heavy cleans...especially the first time), I bring in Rings and parallettes, I do my chinup bars on the support bars for the basketball hoops since they let me hang fully and are much thicker (better for grip, obviously), I do splits and handstands...even split to HS Press...

Needless to say, i'm quite the attraction for most people there...and they let it show. I guess you need to be the kind of person that this doesn't bother -- or you need to feed off it. Lately i just feel like a rockstar :P

[Chris H Laing]

Originally Posted by Chris Salvato

Needless to say, i'm quite the attraction for most people there...and they let it show. I guess you need to be the kind of person that this doesn't bother -- or you need to feed off it. Lately i just feel like a rockstar :P

I love the looks people used to give me when I was following the wod! I used to have people come up to me after i sprawled on the ground after a wod asking me if I was ok, if I needed an ambulance, that sorta thing.

I was just wondering how big are your parallettes, because mine are definitely to big to bring into the gym.