Deadlift: 67.5 kg

Today was the first time I completed a full Starting Strength workout, and the first time I made use of my 15 kg plates. I reached new highs in all three exercises. Today’s working sets:

• Squat: 60 kg × 5 reps × 3 sets
• Press: 22.5 kg × 5 reps × 3 sets
• Deadlift: 67.5 kg × 5 reps × 1 set

Surprisingly, the app gave me 25 kg × 5 reps in the warmup set for press (higher than the working set). Not sure if this is a bug or a feature. If it’s a feature it’s dumb, because 25 kg was more than I could do with good form.

I’m happy to have reached 60 kg in squat today. Squat is such a scary and uncomfortable exercise that I instinctively want to skip it, but in the Starting Strength method, you start every workout with 9 sets of squats.

Yesterday I rediscovered the StrongLifts routine on YouTube. It’s almost identical to Starting Strength. No aerobic warmups, a small set of compound movements, high weights low reps, and A and B workouts with 3 exercises 3 times a week. The only difference I can spot is the use of barbell rows and doing 5 working sets (instead of 3) on most exercises).

Mehti, the guy behind StrongLifts, has generously shared his A and B workouts in two videos, showing the full workouts including rest in between. This is precisely the kind of training I’m aspiring to do. I’ll stick to Starting Strength, since it’s more elaborate, but seeing actual footage of a full workout was very interesting.

Tomorrow I’ll go to work for the first time in more than a year, so from now on I’ll have to put my workouts in the early morning, or (next best) in the evenings.

Lots of sets

Today was my second attempt at following the Starting Strength method, using the app. I notice that the workouts are much longer than I’m used to. In today’s workout, I had 9 sets of squats, 9 sets of bench presses and 6 sets of deadlifts (most of these are warmup sets). I only finished the first two exercises, because I had an appointment to keep.

New personal bests for squat and bench press:

• Squat: 57.5 kg × 5 reps × 3 sets
• Bench press: 47.5 kg × 5 reps × 3 sets

I also did one working set of deadlifts at 65 kg, instead of the planned 70 kg. Even if I didn’t finish my deadlifts, this workout was my most intense so far in terms of total weight lifted. The new record is 3955 kg. Looking forward to get over 4000 very soon.

In the deadlifts I did today I practised the hook grip instead of the mixed grip which I’m used too. Mr Rippetoe has convinced me that the mixed grip is sub-optimal, at least for a novice like me. As the weights increase, I understand that there’s a risk of asymetrical development in the shoulders when using the mixed grip. The hook grip feels strange, but I think I can get used to it.

Deadlift: 65 kg

Today I increased the deadlift to 65 kg, which is a new best. But the new record comes with a reservation: I only did 5 reps rather than my normal 10, so the intensity and total weight was lower than last deadlift day. I let the Starting Strength app calculate my warmup weights, reps and sets, which are colored gray here:

• 40 kg × 5 reps × 2 sets
• 50 kg × 5 reps × 1 sets
• 55 kg × 3 reps × 1 sets
• 60 kg × 1 reps × 1 sets
• 65 kg × 5 reps × 3 sets

65 kg is the last weight before I get to use the cool and menacing 15 kg plates. I’ve tried to put this off for as long as I can. I did the same with the 10 kg plates, and will do with the 20 kg plates (if I ever get to 95 kg). It makes sense, because this way I get to practice the longest possible motion.

Then I did standing military press, which I will simply call press from now on. 20 kg seemed too heavy for me when I did 10 reps, but now when I’m only doing 5 reps, it felt easy. My technique has improved too.

• 20 kg × 3 reps × 4 sets
• 20 kg × 5 reps × 3 sets

Next week it’s time to see how my workouts will work out with my new work. This will be the biggest challenge yet. Motivation is still high as I write this, but if I’m going to workout in the evenings, I’m not sure I’ll have the energy needed.

Six weeks

Today I celebrate six weeks of continuous strength workouts. I’m not sure what my record is, but it’s certainly not more than two months.

I’ve also been told that the gains of the first six weeks are mainly in the nervous system, not in the muscles. I only have a vague idea about this, but I understand that strength is not only about having big muscles, but also about having muscle control. And in the first few weeks, most strength gains are in terms of muscle control. So if I continue from here, I should see some muscle gains too…

So, how far did I come in these six weeks? Can I point to any actual gains already? Well, I’ve gained some weight. This morning, my weight was 84.8 kg, which may be all time high. Some of the new mass is probably fat, but there’s definitely some muscle too.

In 2005, I stayed in St Petersburg over the summer. A number of weeks there, perhaps 3 or 4, I worked out at the local gym. I made some gains, and have always looked back at that time as my most muscular. But now I have regained all the muscle mass I ever gained, from that and every other attempt. So any gains from here will be new gains.

Plateau

After today’s squat workout, it’s clear that I’ve hit a plateau. Like last squat day, 8 days ago, I couldn’t increase weight. I’m still at 55 kg for 10 reps. Last squat day I had deadlifted the day before, but last time I did deadlift now was 4 days ago, so it’s not about being fatigued since last workout.

I start to buy into the idea that I’m doing too many reps. 10 may be too much. I may be too fatigued before I get to my working set. Here’s today’s progression:

• Practicing form with an empty bar
• 30 kg * 10
• 40 kg * 10
• 50 kg * 10
• 55 kg * 10
• 57.5 kg * 5

As I got to my new weight of 57.5 kg, I was already too tired to do anything useful. Also, having half the set left when you’re at rep 5 is psychologically taxing. Those “I can’t handle it” thoughts gets plenty of time to establish themselves during a 10 rep set. Knowing that I only got to do 5 reps would feel more managable. Maybe higher rep counts will lead to plateaus more quickly than lower rep counts?

As I’m writing this, I realize one thing that actually made it more difficult today: I tried to go deeper in my squats than before. Which is a good thing. At my level, form is more important than weight.

Studying the bench press

Today I’ve studied a couple of videos where Mark Rippetoe teaches the bench press. I also did bench myself today, but had no strength. I could only match last time’s 45 kg for 7 reps for 2 sets. After that I did standing military presses, also on the same old weight – 20 kg, which may actually be too much for the 10 reps I’m doing. Could it be that I had a few drinks yesterday?

I should keep studying both of these movements further with an empty bar. Also looking forward to get the Starting Strength book soon. But this time I’ll not get stuck in my old “I’ll just read this book before I begin” habit!

Playing with body fat

I have now recovered from the fact that I’m outside the healthy range on the body fat percentage scale. But what should I do about it? In my last episode, I wrote that the answer to my “obesity” is not to lose weight, but to gain muscle mass. After playing a bit with Excel, it turns out this is not entirely true. Losing fat is way more effective for me than building muscle. Not only because losing fat takes less time than building muscle, but because every kilo fat lost makes a bigger impact on the body fat percentage than every kilo muscle gained.

To drive home my point, let’s see a comparison. Here’s today’s measurement:

Now let’s say I spend 2-3 years building 5 kilos of lean muscle mass, with no change in body fat mass. That would only take me down to 24.5% body fat, which is within the “acceptable” range but uncomfortably close to “obese”.

Let’s say instead, I spend 6 months losing 5 kilos of fat mass, while retaining muscle mass. That would take me down to 21.3%!

So, judging by the body fat percentage scale, I should spend more time jogging and eating salads without dressing than lifting weights and eating meat. But here’s what I think: screw these numbers! A scale on which I’m judged “obese” is obviously not relevant to me. It’s muscle mass I need, first and foremost.

What would I like to achieve in the long run? This:

Not sure how realistic this is, but if I stick to the weights this time, maybe I can get there sooner or later?

I’m obese!

I made my first body composition measurement today, and it was a really eye-opening experience. From cheap plastic caliper measurements at home, I’ve estimated my body fat at 13%. But according to today’s bodpod measurement, it’s acctually 26% (25.98) – in the obese range for men!

Description	Female	Male
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Acceptable	25-30%	18-25%
Obese	31%+	26%+

Pretty scary. I was totally unprepared for the fact that I’m in the unhealthy range. My BMI has sometimes bordered to underweight (18), but I’m currently well within the normal range at 21,3.

I asked if my 26% fat percentage was surprising in any way, but no. We all know that weight itself or weight and height (BMI) are poor ways of estimating someone’s body fat. What I learned today is that you can’t even trust your mirror. You can look fat but have a low body fat percentage (like olympic weight lifters). And you can look scrawny but have a high body fat percentage (like me).

Of course, it’s not an abundance of fat that puts me in the obese range, but a lack of muscles. So the answer to my “obesity” is not to lose weight, but to gain muscle mass. When I’ve been at my scrawniest, I’ve probably been both underweight (on the BMI scale) and obese (on the body fat percentage scale). That should tell something about how useful these scales are by themselves.

I also learned that my basic metabolic rate is 1694 kcal/day, which is a fairly exact number I was told. My average total energy expenditure (taking my sedentary job into account) is 2168 kcal/day, but this number depends on the amount of activity of course. So I guess if I eat more than that number most days, I should put on weight.

Deadlift: 62.5 kg

After two days of rest, it was deadlift day. I increased to 62.5 kg (times 10), which is new personal best. The grip felt more solid than last time too. It’s time for the 15 kg weight plates soon. Getting serious…

As today’s complementary exercise, I did triceps extensions. After a long while at 13 kg I increased to 15 today. Triceps still feels very weak compared to biceps. I’m considering adding dips as a compound triceps/shoulder exercise, but I’m hearing conflicting messages about it. Some say it’s bad for the shoulders. Need to read more.

Starting Strength

Thursday and Friday have been well-deserved days off. Apart from a few short walks, my body has been resting. I’ve discovered Mark Rippetoe and his famous Starting Strength book (which I ordered, of course). I could listen all day to this man and his old school barbell testament.

The above video is from a series of videos produced by The Art of Manliness. It’s well worth checking out the other Starting Strength videos from the same series. Mark Rippetoe also has his own YouTube channel.