Road to Superstrength

[laxx]

After finishing university in the summer, I stopped training seriously, but have been back to the gym regularly for the past couple of months and have made some good strength gains, and thought I should start to log my training in the new year.
So hopefully you will all be able to come here, and watch me become superstrong in the next year

[allan5790]

Good luck with the journal.

Why not give us an idea of how you have been training then and how you plan to train going forward?

[laxx]

Quote

Good luck with the journal.

Why not give us an idea of how you have been training then and how you plan to train going forward?

Thanks.

I have not been keeping an exact track of my workouts so far but they have been roughly:

Squat (5x5 or 3 reps)
Bench or Press (5x5 or 3 reps)
BOR or Pullups or Deadlift (5x5)

So kind of based it off stronglifts 5x5 with a few changes, training 3 times per week.
I plan on doing something similar, but with adding in some heavy deadlifts, as it seems to have been working so far

[laxx]

Weight: 68.0kg


Deadlift

70kgx2x5
90kgx5
110kgx3
120kgx3
125kgx3
130kgx3
132.5kgx2 (missed last rep)

Press

Bar x8
30kgx5
37.5kgx6x6

WG Pullups

Bw x5,5,4,3,2


Didn't get home after new year in Edinburgh until the early hours, and was quite tired today so kept it short. Quite pleased with deadlifts, previous best was 120kgx3, but think I rushed into 132.5kg after 130kg went up relatively easily.

[laxx]

Squat

Bar x2x10
60kg x5
70kg x4
80kg x3
90kg x3

Press

Bar x2x8
30kg x6
40kg x3
42.5kg x5x5

Goodmorning

Bar x10
40kg x3x8

Incline DB Press

40lbs x10
50lbs x5x5

Hang Clean

40kg x1
50kg x1
60kg x1

Power Clean

60kg x1
65kg x1
70kg x1
75kg x1

BB Holds

120kg x5s x3
110kg x5s
80kg x10s x4

Dips

Bw x8
+35lbs x5x5


Started my first working set of squats only to get a sharp pain in the top of my quad as soon as I got to parallel. Probably should have stopped after the first rep as the pain got worse. Really messed my session up, and now can't bodyweight squat without pain. If it doesn't clear up soon, I will have to be looking for alternative exercises to squats.

Rest of the session went well though.

[laxx]

Deadlift

60kg x2x5
80kg x5
100kg x3
120kg x3x3

Press

Bar x2x8
30kg x5
40kg x3
47.5kg x4x4

Close Grip Pullups

Bw x3x3
+30lbs x3x3

BOR

Bar x6
40kg x5
50kg x5x5

Hanging Leg Raise

4x10

[laxx]

Weight: 66.8kg


Hang Clean

Bar x10
30kg x5
40kg x5

Power Clean

60kg x1
70kg x8x1

Press

Bar x2x5
30kg x5
40kg x5
50kg x3
52.5kg x3
55kg x2

Hammer Grip Pullups

Bw x10,7,5

RDL

60kg x5
70kg x5
80kg x3x5

Ate way too much just before going to the gym, and felt as if I was going to be sick at times
Disappointed with press, thought I should be able to get 55kg x3. Power cleans flew up, all at least to shoulder height, though technique still needs some work.
Used hook grip on hang cleans, and on first set of RDL before my grip started to go.

[Monkfish]

Top lifts for your bodyweight bud!

As for the quad pain, I used to get something similar, after stretching/warming up try a few sets of explosive jumps before you lift. Squat, touch the floor with your hands and then explode up and get your hands as high as you can five or six times.

I found this stopped my quads hurting when I got to the bottom of a squat and started to press back up out of the hole.

Good luck with the journal, looking back at old workouts and seeing how far you've come is really motivating

[laxx]

Quote

Top lifts for your bodyweight bud!

As for the quad pain, I used to get something similar, after stretching/warming up try a few sets of explosive jumps before you lift. Squat, touch the floor with your hands and then explode up and get your hands as high as you can five or six times.

I found this stopped my quads hurting when I got to the bottom of a squat and started to press back up out of the hole.

Good luck with the journal, looking back at old workouts and seeing how far you've come is really motivating

Thanks. I still have a way to go until I am happy with my lifts.

Quad still hurts when I put any load on at depth, so will try the squat jumps. A bit more explosive power won't do any harm either

[Monkfish]

Exactly, it primes you for what you're trying to do in the weighted squat perfectly. Someone here suggested doing them before deadlifts too and I've felt the same effect.

Gets you into the habit of lifting explosively, which can only be a good thing for raising the bar-weight