Brian's strength log

[Brian Stone]

Sun Nov 22
Walked a few miles outside. Assorted pull-ups throughout the day.

Nov 23

Major DOMS today in the upper body. I attempted to gut it out with some presses and got nowhere.

45#x5, 75x5, 95x3, 120x2, 140x1, 115x5 (even struggled with this - pathetic)

Wasn't happening. Didn't squat b/c of knee pain, but I'm going to be working with a trainer w/ a lot of PL experience, so hopefully that will help me out in the squat department.

Row: 1616 in 6:53
Distance and time were arbitrary - I started light and worked hard after 1k until I burned out. Would like to get in more C2 time, but it's not a priority at present.



Won't get a chance to lift again until Friday (most likely). Training until that time will depend on what's available.

[Brian Stone]

With Thanksgiving and random colds behind me, I'm looking forward to re-establishing some consistency next week. These last 2 weeks of intermittent lifting have killed me, and my workouts have reflected that.

Fri Nov 27
Wasn't quite up to incorporating squats. Knees are getting there. Been icing whenever I can.

BP: 45#x5, 95x5, 135x4, 180x2, 200x4,3,4

DB Rows: (R/L) 55x5, 75x5, 100x3, 120x3, 130x5,5,5

Chins: 4,4
DB rows kill my grip, which was the sticking point on the chins.

Considering migrating to 5/3/1 from SS starting next week - will need to buy the e-book to get the specifics of the program down. This squat volume (and really heavy lift in general volume) is starting to wear me down - not sustainable.

[Brian Stone]

Sat Nov 28
Eliptical 35 mins

Eliptical catches a lot of crap but it suits me: low impact, medium intensity. Felt good to do a day of moderate cardio after so much hypertrophy. Will probably keep a day or so a week of this to keep fat under control.


PWO: Ice knee

[Brian Stone]

For reasons outlined previously, I'm ready to call SS a wrap and move onto a different program. By no means do I think I've exhausted linear progress on this program, and I think it's a great program, but for me personally it's not the program of choice.

Here's my progress, in roughly 8 weeks, but mostly less since I was sick the last 1.5 or so:

5RM's (9/30, in lbs)
Squat: 170
Bench: 155
Press: 115
DL: 215
Bodyweight: about 220

5RM's now (11/28)
Squat: 220
Bench: 195 (200x4)
Press: 140
DL: 300
Bodyweight: About 230

Monday I believe I'll start 5/3/1.

[Brian Stone]

Picked up the 5/3/1 eBook today. Will begin tomorrow with Squat day, since it's been a bit since I've done any of those.

Sun Nov 29
Walked a couple miles. Also had lots of beer and pizza while watching football on my ass.

[Brian Stone]

Mon Nov 30
First day of 5/3/1. Had to combine squat and press day, since I have a short week to work with.

Squat: worksets 155x5, 175x5, 200#x8
Felt great after these, surprisingly. I think scaling back the weight might have helped a lot. With the lower volume and load I'm hoping to get this to a healthy level and form.

Press: worksets: 95x5, 110x5, 125x8

Chins: 7,4,4,5

About 20 mins of mixed running / hill walks

[Brian Stone]

Tue Dec 1
Deadlift:
210#x5
245x5
275x9

Backoff: DL: 135x10,10,10

Incline Sit-ups: 15,15,12

Eliptical: High intensity - 10 mins

[Brian Stone]

Wed Dec 2
Bad cold (second back to back)
Got a bunch of rest. Iced knee. Did some inclined walking on the treadmill to get the blood flowing.

[Brian Stone]

Thu Dec 3
BP: 45#x5, 95x5, 135x5, 155x5, 175x10

DB Rows: (R/L) 55x5, 75x5, 90x5, 100x5, 110x14

Incline DB Press: 45x10, 55x10, 60x5, 65x4

Weight: 235 - woah! Not sure how that happened heh. Looks like I'm going to have to dial in, err, something.

[Brian Stone]

Mon Dec 7
Squat: 65#x5, 115x5
165x3
185x3
210x7
135x10, 10

Bulgarian Split Squat: 10 R/L, 10R/L

Glute Ham Raises: 10,10,7

BSS and GHR were pretty horrendous, but it's been a long time since I've done either and they absolutely thwarted me.

C2 Row for a few mins, but was pretty wiped out so not much there.