The Soapbox

I enjoy airing out my thoughts in text. So that's what I'm going to do. So far I've done more or less 22 workouts of Starting Strength, and my PRs so far have been:

Exercise    Start > Current

SQUAT      3x90kgx5 > 3x110kgx5 

BENCH      3x75kgx5 > 82.5kgx6

DEADLIFT     N/A      > 125kgx5

ROW         3x75kgx5 > 82.5kgx8   

PRESS       60kgx4    > 62.5kgx5

DIP         +27.5kgx5 > 2x+25kgx5 (counting this as a PR because I'm almost 6kg               heavier than I was when I set the previous PR)

Good progress so far, and I'm on my way to my major goals of:

Deadlift 140kgx5

Squat 120kgx5

Bench 90kgx5

I envisage I will reach the bench goal first, then the deadlift, then the squat. After I make those goals I may stay on Starting Strength until the gains well and truly run out, but to be honest I would be happier just reaching the goals and then maybe going for some maxes and doing my own thing for a while. When I say doing my own thing, I mean doing some things I feel I've lost from doing 3x5 on SS:

1. Get back into doing higher volume work with bench to get some much-needed size into my chest

2. Start front squatting again, I may do that once I reach 120kgx5 anyway though

3. Get back to being a pull up monkey and a dip fanatic. I need to set up my pull up bar and then get back to doing heavy triples with each exercise again soon.

4. Not do so many sets of 5 with deadlifts. I can tell that once you stall on sets of 5 with deads, it's a better idea to mix up sets of 5 with triples, doubles and singles. And I don't mean singles as in form breaking down kind of stuff, I more mean a tough single that allows me to maintain good form.

5. Start doing some form of training for the classical Olympic lifts. I will probably just get tips from oldmate Mitch on this, probably just doing sessions with the bar and doing stuff like power cleans, muscle snatches and overhead squats to try and retrain my neural pathways. 

6. Start tweaking my exercise list to look good while being strong. I specifically did SS because I'm quite sick of being weak, but once I reach my goals I think I will have sufficiently earned my set of curls at the end of a workout. I want to get some size on my lateral delts, lats and traps (as well as arms of course). My thinking is that soon enough I can have my cake and eat it too by being relatively strong and working on my weak points aesthetically.

So really what I'm saying is that I love the strength gains from Starting Strength, but that comes from sacrificing variety. I kind of miss supersetting pull ups and dips and running between the dip station and pull up bar with 20kg between my legs (or stuff like it). It will be great to reach my goals, which should be coming in the next two months for the squat at the very most. Onwards and upwards!

Essentially what I'm getting at is that I love