Big Lench's Big Log of Lifting Big Weights to get Big...er

[Big Lench]

Soooo I'm starting my new training program today and have decided to keep this log as a way of keeping me motivated and to monitor my progress, as well as a way of letting everyone know how my training is going.

OK. Now for a little bit more about me. I'm currently living at home and i will be doing my working out at home as well. I've never properly weight trained before, i have some dumbbells that i used to use on the odd occasion but never consistently and never with any real results.

I'm an avid basketball player and i want to get bigger and stronger and more explosive to improve at my sport. I'm just coming off an injury where I tore a load of the ligaments in my right ankle ( 2nd time its happened but this time was worse) and was out for 2 months. i've just started back playing 2 weeks ago so decided to start lifting to get back into even better shape than before.

My stats:

Age: 20
Height: 6ft 5in
Weight: 16st 7lbs (231lbs/ 105.5kg)

The program i will be following is Starting Strength which i have tweaked slightly to fit my needs so it will be:

Squat 3x5

Bench/ Press 3x5

Deadlift 1x5/ Power Clean 5x3/ Plyometrics

I will be doing this 3 days a week. most likely mon, weds, fri. Squatting every day, alternating bench and press each workout and doing deads, cleans and plyos once a week each. For the plyos i will be starting off basic and working up to more advanced ones as i go on. To start i will be doing:

ankle hops 3x20
Box Jumps 3x5
Shock jumps 3x5
vertical jumps 3x5

I am also planning on adding in some 40m sprints and core work which i will add in in a few weeks once i'm settled in to the routine. Alongside all this i have basketball training every wednesday and am currently playing in a summer league with games every thursday night.

Diet wise i'm not counting calories just eating good whole foods, protein high, carbs lowish and kept around workouts and training. I do want to still lose a bit more weight (i was 18st 8 not long ago) but i realize this will slow or halt my lifting progress but i shall see how things go and adjust accordingly.

Phew OK i think that's everything. ESSAY OVER.. for now

[dope540]

how about making a few sandbags to train with at home dude?

[Big Lench]

First lifting session seemed to go well. Ill try and get some videos up at some point for form checks at some point too.

Squat 70kg 3x5 seemed to go well, few wobbly reps here and there though.

Bench 50kg 3x5 probs could have gone 60kg, not sure why i didn't

Deadlift 120kg!! 1x5 Wow i was not expecting to lift that much on my first session! This could pose a problem though as i only have 150kg of plates so i may need to buy some more very soon..

[Big Lench]

I've made a Pretty good 12kg med ball already which cost me about 6-7 quid total and it held up well when i tested it by doing the swing it between your legs and then explode up n throw it over your head thing. and I've made My own flat bench and squat-bench rack which is what im using to train at home. Me and my dad are both pretty handy with wood so we have managed to knock up some pretty nice pieces of kit and save me some money . ill try and get pictures up in the next couple of days to show everyone.

[Big Lench]

Ouchie. Full body DOMS today. work was a struggle. but hey, at least i know its working

[karryann]

Quote

Ouchie. Full body DOMS today. work was a struggle. but hey, at least i know its working

DOMS= great training! Seriously, if you have DOMS then you obviously trained hard, I love that sort of pain

[Big Lench]

Todayyys workout:

Squat 75kg 3x5

Press 45kg 3x5

Power Clean 60kg 5x3

Squat technique seems to be getting better. and the press seemed good need to focus on keeping the bar close to my face and getting under in once its over my head. power clean went wel. My technique needs quite a bit of work but that will come with practice i think.

Also im struggling to keep my wrists out from under the bar on the squat. after a couple of reps the bar is moving back onto my fingers and my forearm moving under the bar slightly so the weight is bearing down on my wrists a bit instead of having it all on my back which is annoying. its hard to concentrate on keeping my hands in position when trying to no get squished by the bar.

I seemed to have a similar problem with the press and clean as i'm catching the bar with my hands and putting strain on my wrists as opposed to letting it just rack on the shoulders but i think this and the squat hand positioning may just come with practice and maiking sure i focus on doing it the right way until it is drilled in an my flexibility has improved a bit.

Also my grid foam roller arrived today so i shall be having countless hours of painful fun rolling around on that.

[MiniHulk]

Quote

DOMS= great training! Seriously, if you have DOMS then you obviously trained hard, I love that sort of pain

There are a few people that don't get DOMS no matter how much they push themselves, I don't know whether I consider that lucky or unlucky, lol.

[Big Lench]

Todays liftsss.

Squat 80kg 3x5

Bench 60kg 3x5

Plyometrics:
Ankle hops 3x30
box jumps (onto 26") 4x5
depth jumps (off 19" and 26") 2x5
vertical jumps holding ball (one dribble one step and then jump off 2 feet) 3x5

The DOMS seem to be easing off thankfully I had a game last night which we lost by 7 unfortunately but we did very well considering we have only been playing together for 2 weeks, some of our player are very inexperienced and the other team was very experienced and had 2 BBL players!

The hand grip/positioning on the squat seems to be improving, using a slightly wider grip has helped quite a bit and hopefully a bit more flexibilty will come with time. And the lifts seem to be going up nicely

Have seen a pretty big impact on my game already as i was throwing it down with 1 and 2 hands much easier than before. My fitness and endurance needs some work though but seeing as i've only recently started back training again i'm hoping that will slowly improve as i start to play more and add in some sprints and skipping to my training as i go on.

[Big Lench]

Today

Squat 85kg 3x5

press 50kg 3x5

Deadlift 130kg 1x1

No idea what happened on the DL fist rep was fine with no problems and form was good but on the second rep as i just got it off the floor i felt a tweak halfway up my back dead in the center so i put the bar down reset and went to go again but i could feel the tweak/ pain before i even got it off the floor so i abandoned the other 4 reps. Any ideas what it could be? hopefully just a minor muscle tweak.

Also another problem has arisen. After my game last thursday i noticed a far bit of pain in my left knee. the pain is on the outside of the knee towards the back. It can be sharp at times but often its not its just kind of there and annoying. Its not that painful when squatting but i can feel it and it seems to get worse a while after i finish exercising. after a bit of research i think it might be IT Band syndrome so i've been static stretching and foam rolling the fudge out of my IT bands which alleviates the pain pretty effectively but it comes back again shortly after. I'm just going to continue doing the same and begin icing it as well. Does anyone have any experience of ITBS? or know any effective ways of curing it?

Thanks