Starting Strength Seminar

I spent the week before last at a Starting Strength Seminar in Wichita Falls, Texas. I met Rip. He likes guns and whiskey.

The Starting Strength Seminar must be one of the best products in the fitness industry for aspiring strength coaches or just aspiring strength athletes. I cannot compare it to other seminars because I haven't gone to any, but it's hard to imagine any of them would be nearly as valuable. The information and practical skills we were taught could have easily been the subject matter of a full college level course, and it was all cogently presented with refined pedagogy. More than that, Rip and his colleagues are just good, fun people.

My training has been progressing okay. Pretty much everything is going well except for power cleans, which is odd since they have never really been a goat for me in the past. Given the fluctuations in my sleep and diet lately (I'm in the middle of moving), I suspect that the power clean problems will pass when I get food and sleep dialed in. Here's what I was up to last week:

7-19-2010

Squat: 230X5X3
Press: 150X5X3
Deadlift: 275X5X3

7-21-2010
Squat: 235X5X3
Prowler: 4X25m at 90 lbs

7-23-2010
Squat: 240X5X3
Bench: 205X5X3 (PR)
Power Clean: 5 X 3 X suck
Prowler: 2X25m at 180 lbs

Here's a video of most of this training:

7-7-2010

Not the greatest day in the gym. Squats were even softer in the bottom than usual. Presses were okay. Layback was a bit excessive on the last couple reps but they went up. Whatever, I was tired. I'll be in Wichita Falls for the next week so we'll see how that experience cleans things up.

Squat: 195X5X3
Press: 140X5X3



And here is a recent meal:

2 lbs of ground bison
4 pieces of bacon



Okay, it was two meals... out of 5.

Training 4-5-2010

Work-sets only

Squat: 190X5X3
Bench Press: 200X5X3
Power Clean: 170X4X3

Chins / Dips: 8/6, 4/4, 5/4

4_2_2010

Training:

Work-sets only

Squat: 185X5X3
Press: 135X5X3
Deadlift:275X5X3

I have been working hard to improve my flexibility and and squat technique. This unfortunately means pretty light weight. My last time around I worked up to a squat of 275X5X3. They were of course pretty ugly and several inches high. Even so, 185 feels pretty light... yet it is still pretty much at the limit of what I can handle with good technique. It would be nice if my ego had an off switch.



These squats look AMAZING compared to what I was letting myself get away with before. There are, however, still some obvious problems. Most notably, my knees collapse a bit in the bottom, which is connected to the more general problem of losing tightness in the bottom. I need to improve flexibility so that my knees more naturally track out over my feet through the entire range of motion and I need to stop being such a sissy and try real hard to stay tight all the way down. In addition to this technique issue, it looks like a couple reps might be a little bit high. I believe this was on accident and does not represent a systematic flaw. I will, however, be paying very close attention to depth as I progress.

The presses looked pretty good. The grip is a bit wider than I am used to but it felt pretty good. My major problem is excessive layback under heavy load, which I think I did a decent job at avoiding on these sets.

The deadlifts look okay. I don't like lifting barefoot but the heel on my weightlifting shoes makes my back angle essentially horizontal if I wear them. I need to find some flat soled lifting shoes. I have mixed feelings about the belt. I feel like it gets in the way of taking full breaths. Maybe I'll try opening it up a notch. Aside from that, I just need to be patient in my start position and really be careful to squeeze my chest up on every rep.

Nutrition:

I've been eating well but drinking too much. I guess that's what I get for living with two ex-frat guys. I'm getting about 4000 calories and between 200-300 grams of protein per day. The weights are still light enough that I don't need to be putting away a gallon of milk a day to facilitate recovery but it might very well get there. Eating is so important to this type of training and I bet that I will need to get my calories up to 6000 per day with 300 g or more of protein. This is just my intuition of course. I'll ask John Schaeffer about it when I meet him at the upcoming Starting Strength Seminar at the Wichita Falls Athletic Club!!!