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This post has been edited by fnoobcake: Jun 23 2021, 11:21 PM

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This post has been edited by fnoobcake: Jun 23 2021, 11:21 PM

Wow so inspiring! Will follow this thread closely!

Very good progress for 3 months bro!

Workout 28 (15th December 2015)

Back Squat 3 x 5 70kg
Back Squat 2 x 5 60kg
Bench Press 5 x 5 45kg
Barbell Row 5 x 5 35kg (switched over to bent over rows)
Pushups 3 x 10

Disappointing workout today. Was working in squats with another experienced lifter and got informed, more or less, that my low-bar squat form was downright terrible. My upper body was not tight, resulting in the bar slipping down my back. I was also using my lower back instead of proper hip drive to drive up - 2 things I noticed myself as the weights went up. Decided to deload down to 60.0 kg to rectify my form. Also decided to switch out the pendlay rows recommended in Stronglifts to bent-over barbell rows. I always had a bit of trouble of generating the explosive power required to lift the bar in Pendlays - I'll get the bent over row form down-pat before going back to Pendlay's.

Am I disappointed and demotivated? Yes, but strangely enough, I'm a bit relieved as well to hear my suspicions confirmed by another lifter - I've been training without a personal trainer and have always been unsure if my form is correct. I've always considered myself to have terrible physical awareness and coordination - I'll have to make up for that with grit and tenacity I guess. Upwards and onwards.

Basketball
30 power shots, 30 right-handed layups, 4x up down court dribbling, 300 stationary dribbles.
Next practice session : 10 left-handed layups, 6x full court dribbling, 300 stationary dribbles, 50 shots (left right), jumping and sprinting conditioning.

are you the guy from chi fitness atria?

Haha nope, is there somebody there doing the same exercises?

Just a quick update to the journal, my right shoulder is feeling some throbbing/shooting pains - so I did the worst thing, trying to self-diagnose via reading up on the internet and got confronted with horror stories of rotator cuff tears, shoulder tendonitis, bursitis, yada yada. I'm guessing the shoulder pain is a result of overuse of gym + basketball practice 4 days a week (my right arm is my shooting arm). My form on OHP (traps shrugged at top) & bench press (scapula retracted, elbows not flared) seems to be decent so I don't think those seem to be the problem.

Going to stop doing any upper body exercises for a week and deload back to lower weights (50% 5RM), a similar strategy I used for my squats during my groin injury. Hopefully this heals soon.

yea. he sounded as awkward as your post.

anyway, check out mobilitywod in youtube regarding ur shoulder.

Workout 29 (28 December 2015)


So I took a 2 week break to let the throbbing pain in my shoulder go away, plus my girlfriend was back in KL for the holiday season so I figured it was a good time to take some time off. Glad to say my shoulder doesn't hurt anymore and I"m back to lifting. Today was a special session - I decided to try a ghetto gym for the reasons below

a) To get advice and fix my form - the gym I went to was a dedicated powerlifting gym

b) I was looking for another gym - to be honest, I do NOT like my current gym - I find the poeple to be fairly unfriendly and are only willing to really help you if you pay for their lessons/consultations. I guess that's common for a commercial gyms, but even then I am skeptical of getting squatting advice from people who are squatting only their bodyweight after 2-3 years of training.

Happy to say I got a tonne of excellent advice from experienced powerlifters and got immediately corrected on what I was doing right/wrong.
Deloaded on all movements to fix my form.

Lifts
High bar squat (switch from low-bar) : 60 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets

Bench press : 35kg x 5 reps x 5 sets (Note : Possible cause of my prior shoulder pain, my previous form was lifting too high up my chest, causing a lot of stress on my shoulder)

Barbell rows : 35kg x 5 reps x 5 sets

I'm looking forward to my next session.

This post has been edited by fnoobcake: Dec 28 2015, 07:46 PM

Just got back from my workout - exciting session today as I got a tonne of advice on how to improve my form

Lifts
High bar squat : 45 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets [Massive deload to test out new form recommended by coach, controlled descent (3 counts) followed by explosive coming up. Previously was descending very rapidly and "bouncing" back up on my momentum. Supposed to be better for training my legs. A side note : my shoulder bones hurt cause my traps aren't developed enough yet to cushion the bar. Any recommendations for trap exercises to develop them quicker?

Overhead press : 30kg x 5 reps x 5 sets

Deadlift : 65 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets (Massive deloads once again to fix my form. Hips were too high, leg stance too wide, shoulder was shrugging, feet weren't fully planted on the floor) Felt sooo much better and I felt like I wasn't using my back as much as I was in my previous forms.

Joining this gym was an excellent excellent choice - even though I'm back to basically my starting weights, I'm feeling much more confident lifting. Leave the ego at home before stepping in to the gym.

Happy new year guys! Massively went over my calorie count (cutting now) during the holiday season with all the celebrations with my friends and family so now back to the disciplined routine.

Double post

This post has been edited by fnoobcake: Jan 2 2016, 05:11 PM

Workout 30 (4th January 2016)

Short and simple workout today, feels like I'm finally back on track with stronglifts program. Hopefully no more deloads to fix form!

High bar back squats : 47.5 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets (doing a controlled descent sucksss)
Bench Press : 37.5 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets
Barbell Row 37.5 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets


I'm happy to see my weight going down though - I'm estimating my BF % to be previously around ~24% ,and I've gone down from 71.0 kg to 68.4 kg (2.6 kg) in about 2 months ( about 0.4 kg/week) - without much cardio, but diet restriction (more lean meat, more protein, less carbs etc). Not having much problem with the diet though ,since I eat a lot of tasty food instead of bland steamed chicken breast etc. I guess I could add in some extra cheat meals if I try more cardio (basketball, cycling) but I always get lazy haha.

I'm targeting to get down to about 66 or 67kg before doing a nice slow bulk back up to 70 whilst maintaining leanness - current goal is to not look skinnyfat!

In addition, my revised target goals for 2016 :

1st August 2016 (10 months on Stronglifts)
Squats : 100 kg
Bench Press : 70 kg
Deadlift : 140 kg
Overhead Press : 50 kg
Barbell Row : 70kg

Chin up : 5 reps, unassisted
Pull ups : 3 reps, unassisted

Attainable goals, but still a bit challenging for me I guess. We'll see

Workout 31 (06 January 2016)


Good workout today.

High bar back squats : 50 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets - Controlled descent + paused at the bottom.
Overhead Press : 30 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets
Deadlift :70 kg x 5 reps x 5 sets

I'm thinking of slightly changing my workout from M,W,F Compound Lifts, to M,W,F, Saturday Conditioning (ala Crossfit style). Should help further with my cutting phase.

Current weight : 67.9 kg.

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This post has been edited by fnoobcake: Jun 23 2021, 11:25 PM

Workout 33 (15 January 2016)

Squats 57.5 kg x 5 reps x 4 sets
Squat 57.5 kg x 4 reps x 1 set (Last rep failure)

Bench Press 20.0 kg x 20 reps
Bench Press 30.0 kg x 5 sets x 5 reps

Barbell row 20.0 kg x 20 reps
Barbell Row 30.0 kg x 5 sets x 5 reps


Sooo.....I was informed my squat technique is better now BUT I have a tendency to tilt to one side when exploding up, especially at heavier weights. One of the experienced guys at my gym recommended for me to stop following the Stronglifts program and to focus on low weight high reps for about a month to get my body more used to the movements......for this session I agreed to but I'm still undecided...maybe I'll go for 2-4 weeks on this lower weight program and see whether it improves my form.

Use your 10 Rep Max for your 5x5 Squat and rest ~2 minute between sets. So you'll get to practice good form on the first 2~3 sets, get growth response on the 4th, 5th set and still stay inline with the program.

beginner friendly court? no such thing haha. just join in and play man, so long as you know how to defend and not slack off you're fine.

Hi fnoobcake, I'm considering starting this programme. Aside from the strength gains, how are the aesthetic gains?

Hello, where is this dedicated powerlifting gym that you go to? Sounds like a good gym to workout at

So..... 1 year of liting update (technically 1 year and 2 months but i had to take 2 months off training due to work)

Stats (5 sets x 5 reps)
Beginning (1st Workout) - 16th September 2015
Bodyweight : 73kg
Squats : 20kg (Empty bar)
Bench press : 20kg (Empty bar)
Deadlift : 40kg
Overhead Press : 15kg (Couldn't lift empty bar)
Barbell Row : 30kg


18 December 2016
5 X 5 max, deadlift is 1x5
Squat :97.5 KG
Bench press : 67.5 KG
Overhead press : 47.5 KG
Deadlift : 120kg
Barbell rows : 62.5kg
Body weight : 72.5 kg, 176cm

Was on stronglifts for about 5 months, followed by metallidcadpa PPL for next 7 months.

Too be honest, Im pretty ashamed by my results - very mediocre progress. I attribute it to the stress of moving to a new town for a new job, long hours at work and no prior athletic endeavours but quite frankly theyre all just excuses for bad case of fckarounditis. I'm looking to hit that 1,2,3,4 (OHP, bench, squat, deadlift) for reps of 5 by end of 2017 ( 2 years of liting experience).

Hey hey, don't be ashamed, slow progress is progress in and of itself. As long as you keep getting better than you were yesterday, that is reason enough to be proud man. Keep logging your training, it's always good to be able to look back where you've been every time you move on forward. Those are great goals you have there, I'm sure you could do it in a year; in fact I'm aiming for the same exact goals for next year, let's see who gets there first. Time to train harder and smarter and get back to the grind of training. Good luck!