After doinking around in the gym for the past 6 months and only making modest strength gains, I’ve decided to commit to finishing Starting Strength and ‘squeezing’ out any last novice gains I have left. I plan on doing The Bridge after I can no longer progress on SS.
My starting stats:
26yo Male
5’7
150lbs
~15% BF
Current 1RMs:
Deadlift: 360lbs (tested)
Squat: 315lbs (estimated) [275 for 1 set of 5 best performed]
Bench: 200lbs (estimated) [170 for 1 set of 5 best performed]
Week 1
Weekly calorie intake goal: 2535cals / day (165g protein, 300g carbs, 75g fat) as suggested by Jordan Feigenbaum’s To Be a Beast. I plan on gaining weight to drive my linear strength gains.
Day 1
Squat: 240x5x3 (first time using a belt in awhile, took some getting use to)
Bench: 155x5x3
Power Cleans: 65x3x5 (first time ever doing them, starting low to learn technique)
Chin ups: 11, 10, 8 reps w/ body weight
Week 1 - Day 3 Squat 250x5x3 Bench 165x5x3 (Went through the book’s teachings for how to bench and it helped a lot - the grip, foot placement, and staring at the ceiling cues let me easily jump 10lbs) Power Cleans 95x3x5 (Second time ever doing them, feeling more comfortable with technique, need to work on landing bar directly on my delts) Chins 3 sets of 8, 8 ,8 w/ bodyweight (each rep starting from dead hang this time)
Bodyweight: 148.8lbs …oops, dropped a bit. I will begin increasing my daily calorie intake as I’m failing to gain any weight this first week.
Week 2 - Day 1 Squat 255x5x3 (Felt even easier than 250, been recording all my sets and improving my form) Press 110x5x3 Everything felt great, last set was maybe RPE 8.5 Deadlift 295x5x1 Challenging, but around RPE 8 - 8.5 Chins 3 sets of 8, 8, 8 w/ +5lbs
Week 2 - Day 2 Squat 260x5x3 (Didn’t feel so great, felt much heavier than 255) Bench 170x5x3 (Pretty hard, last set was RPE 10, going to increment by 2.5lbs now) Power Clean 115x3x5 (Hard to tell if I’m doing it correctly, but it doesn’t feel too bad) Chins 3 sets of 8, 8, 8 w/ +10lbs Bodyweight: 150.4lbs (Halloween candy gonna get me fat haha)
Week 2 - Day 3 Squat 265x5x3 Getting very strenuous, but I feel confident I can continue progressing Press 112.5x5x3 Last set was RPE 9.5 but I got the job done. I fear stalling out soon Deadlift 305x5x1 RPE 9, definitely had one more in the tank still Chins 3 sets of 8, 8, 8 w/ +12.5lbs Bodyweight: 150.2lbs
Notes:
Felt really hungry immediately after squats and chugged a glass of orange juice before press. Really need to start eating more and making shoving good food down my mouth a priority.
Week 3 - Day 1 Squat 270x5x3
Changed up my form a bit. A little narrower stance with feet pointed out more, and held the bar about 3 inches wider. Really helped a lot, today didn’t feel as hard as 265. Really excited about my progress on squats. Here’s a (terrible quality) vid of my 3rd set of 270, felt really hard but the bar speed looks good.
Bench175 for 5, 5, 4
Got cocky and went for 175. Lost tightness on the last set and really grinded out the 4th rep and utterly failed the 5th. Oops.
Power Clean 125x3x5
Really don’t think my form is all that great, could probably use a coach.
Chins + 15lbs for 3 sets of 8
Boy are my lats on fire, great exercise.
Squat 280x5x2, 280x4
Felt a lot of pain in my inner right knee (medial) after the first set and stupidly kept pushing. After the 3rd set my knee was absolutely throbbing. Never had any previous knee pain in my life. Not quite sure what went wrong, I assume my form was way off. Going to take a light squat day and make sure my knee is okay and good to go.
Bench 175x5, 175x3, 175x2
Huge regression from last week. Weight felt really heavy. Form felt way off, so sloppy. I suppose a de-load is in order.
Power Clean 115x3x5
Chinups +20lbs for 3 sets of 8 Bodyweight: 151.6lbs
Oh boy, didn’t even want to write this one, so I’m a bit late on it. Was starting to feel pretty sick beginning in the morning. Thought I’d be okay enough to lift. Turns out I was more sick than I thought as I had absolutely no strength in me. Woke up the next morning almost bed-ridden. Sick + knee issue, great training setback.
Squat 225x5
Worked up to one set of 225 and right knee started to throb again.
Press 117.5x1
Got one rep and had absolutely no strength.
Squat 285x5x3
RPE felt high, but I got it done with no knee pain at all. Here’s a video of the 3rd set:
Bench 175x5x2, 175x4
Took one more crack at 175, still failed it. Gonna deload and work back up. If I plateau at 175 again, I think I’m done the SSLP for my upper body.
Power Clean 125x3x5
I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing, but I’m managing to clean it, sloppily.
Chins 3 sets of 8, 7, 7 with + 22.5lbs Bodyweight: 150.8lbs
Ahhh, I need to eat more food.
So I’ve started the Bridge 2.0 today. Pretty hyped for it, looking forward to to increased volume to finally increase my pressing strength. Been stuck at an e1RM bench of 205 for almost 6 months now.
My plan is to gain 5 - 8lbs in bodyweight during the 8 week run of the program.
Uhhhh. So 265 warm up felt harder than expected but was less than RPE 7. Loaded 300 on the bar which was my planned theoretical RPE 7. It was the heaviest thing ever, felt like RPE 10. I didn’t film it, so I thought I was just being a baby, and loaded 315, my planned RPE 8. Couldn’t do a single Rep. Not one. Rested another 5 mins and still, not a single Rep. Dropped to 275, not a single Rep. I took it as a sign body did not want to deadlift today - maybe I’m still fried from rack pulls? I wouldn’t think so, who knows. I’ll rest up and try again next time.
Floor Press
145x5 @ 7
150x5 @ 8
157.5x5 @ 9
Never done these before so I have no reference to know if I did good or bad or not. Form felt more awkward than I expected but I overall felt good.
Beltless Squats
210x10 @ 7
225x10 @ 8
235x10 @ 9
So I think I was being a baby for pause squats. Cuz I did the same weight today for twice the reps.
Last week 275 was RPE 7, and 315 was RPE 9. Overshot RPE 7 today and 295 felt heavy af. Regression from last week. Probably started too heavy and overestimated my ability to adapt to the sudden increase in pulling volume. Gotta drop my ego and reduce the intensity and focus on tonnage.
Oops! 350 was my theoretical 1 @ 8, ended up being a griiiiind. Deadlifts have been in a rut lately. I’m hoping I adapt to the increased volume soon and the numbers go back up. Dropping my ego here and staying true to the prescribed RPE so I don’t overdo it.
Overshot my single. 325 should have been theoretical 1 @ 8 but didn’t go too smoothly. Still new to singles so I’m hoping it’s just a matter of learning on to execute them properly.
Felt better than last week, but still don’t feel like I’m at full strength on my pulls yet. Looks like I’m starting to adjust to the volume a bit though.
Was feeling a little weaker on warmups, so I repeated my last week’s single. I’m trying to learn to not grind reps and stay true to RPE 8 and stay at sustainable intensities.
