Getting Huge

[topfen]

Hi folks!

I am a former martial arts and kettlebell guy in my late 20s and I got into barbell lifting only a few months ago. Because I am fairly tall and I got into shotokan at a young age being big and strong was never that important to me but a car accident and problems getting back into KBs and martial arts forced me to sign up at a gym in order to stay active. Well, after a few months of cardio and screwing around I felt good enough to give barbells a try and because there is no one around who can coach the lifts I bought Starting Strength and started to lurk the forums.

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I am mostly screwing around but I don't know anyone who is into lifting and enjoy reading lifting forums. So I might as well start a log. My routine is a simple powerlifting plan I found online and although it is not really for a novice like me it's what I started with and I kinda like it. I do the incline bench press instead of a flat bench press because a rib that I broke during the car accident bothers me with the regular bench.

Basic template:
Day 1: heavy squat, light incline bench, chin ups
Day 2: light bench, chin ups, deadlift
Day 3: light squat, heavy bench, chin ups

16 Periodization:
3 weeks of 10s w. deload wk
3 weeks of 8s w. deload wk
3 weeks of 6s w. deload wk
3 weeks of 5s w. deload wk
3 weeks of 3s w. peak
1 week for PR

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Todays workout:
Week 6(deload), day 2
Bench: 37,5kgx8, 42,5kgx8, 47,5kgx8, 37,5kgx8
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4
Deadlift: 80kgx8, 85kgx8, 90kgx8, 80kgx8

[topfen]

Early morning workout

Week 6(deload), day 3
Squat: 52,5kgx8, 57,5kgx8, 62,5kgx8, 52,5kgx8
Bench: 47,5kgx8, 52,5kgx8, 57,5kgx8, 47,5kgx8
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4

[Les]

Welcome aboard!

Your periodization plan looks pretty similar to one I ran for a while. I hope it works well for you. One thing you could try with incline is setting yourself up in power rack with an adjustable bench to change the angle a little. If you get it closer to flat, you can move more weight, but maybe keeping a little of the angle (even 10-20 degrees) will still help with rib.

[topfen]

Welcome aboard!

Your periodization plan looks pretty similar to one I ran for a while. I hope it works well for you. One thing you could try with incline is setting yourself up in power rack with an adjustable bench to change the angle a little. If you get it closer to flat, you can move more weight, but maybe keeping a little of the angle (even 10-20 degrees) will still help with rib.

Hi Les, thanks for dropping in!

Yeah, as far as I know the plan I use is a very basic powerlifting cycle and I assume very similiar ones have been used for a long time. And thanks for the tip with the power rack. I think I could do a very shallow incline this way without bothering my rib.

[topfen]

Week 7, Day 1
Squat: 80x6, 85x6, 90x6, 80x6x3
Bench: 47,5x6, 52,5x6, 57,5x6, 47,5x6x3
Chin Ups: 4, 4, 4, 3, 3, 3

Today kinda sucked. Went on a short hiking trip over the weekend and had really poor sleep and could feel how my injured back started to get tighter and tighter. And of course i was too lazy to do my pt stuff.
Squats were no problem, bench felt a little tight but on my second set of chin ups i started to feel how things started to get worse. Well, what can you do. Finished anyways and now the area i injured hurts :/

[topfen]

Ok, i am back on track! 1extra day of rest, some wiggling around and a few long, easy walks and the issues cleared up.

I repeated last workout because i wanted to know if one of the lifts was the culprit but i felt fine. Well, not entirely. I really struggled to stay tight in the hole and keep my back from rounding. I would upload the video but i am on potato internet for the near future. Never had that problem before and i am not sure if the stretching or doing heavy squat day twice are to blame. Really surprised me. Double and tripple checked the bar maths but every thing looked ok.

Week 7, day 1, repeat
Squat: 80x6, 85x6, 90x6, 80x6x3; back rounding!
Bench: 47,5x6, 52,5x6, 57,5x6, 47,5x6x3
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3

[topfen]

Week 7, day 2
Bench: 45x6, 50x6, 55x6, 45x6x3
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3
Deadlift: 100x6, 105x6, 110x6, 100x6x3

Uneventfull workout. Did some calf raises between my deadlift sets for some extra gainzzz

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Week 7, day 3
Squat: 65x6, 70x6, 75x6, 65x6x3
Bench: 57,5x6, 62,5x6, 67,5x6, 57,5x6x3
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3

My back started to act up again yesterday night and I got less than 4 hours of sleep but workout went OK-ish thanks to energy drinks. But bench felt heavy as hell and I really hope that sleep won't become a bigger issue in the future .

[topfen]

Week 8, day 1
Squat: 82,5x6, 87,5x6, 92,5x6, 82,5x6x3
Bench: 50x6, 55x6, 60x6, 50x6x3
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3

Did some extra arm work with the bros at the cable-thingy. Was good fun

[topfen]

Week 8, day 2
Bench: 47,5x6, 52,5x6, 57,5x6, 47,5x6x3
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 3, 3
Deadlift: 102,5x6, 107,5x6, 112,5x6, 102,5x6x3

Puh, took me 90 minutes to complete. Ate lots of chinese food about 1 hour before my workout and felt really sluggish because of that.

[topfen]

Week 8, day 3
Squat: 67,5x6, 72,5x6, 76,5x6, 67,5x6x3
Bench: 60x6, 65x6, 70x6, 60x6x3
Chins: 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3

Bench felt reeeeal heavy again and I used a bar that wanted to role in my hand (never had that before, maybe someone bent it?). My forearms were fried and I went real easy on chins.

[Wilhelm]

Ok, i am back on track! 1extra day of rest, some wiggling around and a few long, easy walks and the issues cleared up.

Walks are so good. They make me feel less old in the morning.
We've been blessed with a very sunny and unusually mild fall up here. But i'll probably be out there in the snow soon enough.

Hope you're all mended up soon.

[topfen]

Ok, i am back on track! 1extra day of rest, some wiggling around and a few long, easy walks and the issues cleared up.

Walks are so good. They make me feel less old in the morning.
We've been blessed with a very sunny and unusually mild fall up here. But i'll probably be out there in the snow soon enough.

Hope you're all mended up soon.

Hi Wilhelm and thank you! Sadly I live in a big city and my walks probably aren't as enjoyable as yours in Northern Maine. But I am also a big fan of walks. I start to feel depressed when I don't get enough movement and walking makes me feel great all around.

If you have the opportunity to try cross country skiing you should give it a go. I grew up in rural Upper Austria so it was very easy to get into it (learned it in grade school and you could borrow cheap equipment very easily) but it is a relatively easy and very affordable activity that doesn't beat you up and allows you to be outside and enjoy the winter months.

[topfen]

Week 9, day 1 (deload)
Squat: 72,5x6, 77,5x6, 82,5x6, 72,5x6
Bench: 42,5x6, 47,5x6, 52,5x6, 42,5x6
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Good short workout. Tried a belt (cheap tapered one, haven't managed to find a 3in belt) for my top set on squat and it made a big difference. Very Nice

[topfen]

Week 9, day 2 (deload)

Bench: 40x6, 45x6, 50x6, 40x6
Chins: 4, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Really tired at this point
Deadlift: 92,5x6, 97,5x6, 102,5x6 ... needed a loooong break ... 92,5x6 ... completely wiped out after this ...

Man, today sucked. Felt fine at first but once i started to move I started to feel how little energy I actually have. Only had to work on monday due to holidays and partied a bit too much the last two days. Lots of dancing and alcohol on halloween and a get-together with the old gang lasted even longer and ended with a 5k walk back home and the GF needed a piggy back ride for the last km uphill.

[topfen]

Gym is closed due to vandalism?! I think we had a full moon tonight, so maybe some roid head went nuts. Couldn't see any damage from the outside and I hope they can fix things in a timely manner. Don't know if I should just skip day 3 of the deload week if they are closed over the weekend. Maybe do some ab wheel and calisthenics instead.

[topfen]

Week 10, day 1
Squat: 85x5, 90x5, 95x5(belt), 85x5x2
Bench: 50x5, 55x5, 60x5, 50x5x2
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 3

Skipped the third day of week 9 (deload) because the gym was closed over the weekend. Week 10 looks fine, started to use a belt as needed.

[topfen]

Week 10, day 2

Bench: 45x5, 50x5, 55x5, 45x5x2
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Deadlift: 107,5x5, 112,5x5, 117,5x5 (belt), 107,5x5x2(belt)

Good sleep, plenty of carbs and a can of energy dring made for a great workout. (last week was shamefull )

I played around with deadlift grips and I have to say the staggered grip makes it easier to get tight and pull with confidence. No idea why. I can hold on to my top weight with double overhand, but breaking the bar off the floor is much harder. Same with hook grip.

[topfen]

Week 10, day 3
Squat: 72,5x5, 77,5x5, 82,5x5, 72,5x5x2
Bench: 62,5x5, 67,5x5, 72,5x5 (different bar), 62,5x5x2
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

I will try to pay more attention to the barbells I am using. My gym has about 8 full length barbells and only 2 or 3 aren't beat up and some of them make the lifts a lot harder. Today I started my bench workout with a bar that was really hard to hold. Switched bars and the top set felt easier than the first work set...

[topfen]

Week 11, day 1 (deload)
Squat: 87,5x5, 92,5x5, 97,5x5
Bench: 52,5x5, 57,5x5, 62,5x5
Chins: 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Interesting workout with only 3 work sets. Maybe I am getting ahead of myself and I should finish my cycle before I start to think about alternatives. It's easy to follow the spreadsheet and I really like that I only do 2 lifts (chins) per workout, but this training plan is definitely too advanced for a novice like me.