Cookeh's 6 Week Strength Training Log

Thanks man, yeah, progress is being made! Really want to nail my form down though, so think I'll be bullying people into recording sets a lot more now.
 
Week 6; Day 1 - Lower Body:

Bit of a deload today. Squats and dead as ever.

Squats: 60kg paused (8,8,5) 80kg paused (5,5,3). These were harder than I anticipated. Got a vid of one set from each to address form - will upload tomorrow.

Deads: 60kg paused (5,5,5,5,5). Got a few vids of these too to assess form - same story as with squats. I think I became more aware of my form and hipdrive so it improved over the sets.
 
I really like them. Open up my hips nicely. Plus the pain is gooooood.

Figured I'd try a set of 100kgs to prove to myself I could do it - pre-injury I kept stalling out at 95kgs. Managed three reps but could have done more methinks - didn't wanna push too far on a deload day. Nice confidence boost.
 
Tonnes of vids inc. Please pick apart everything about my form - wanna get it all nailed down properly. Apologies for camera angles, trying to record myself using a bench and a student card to support my phone isnt that easy!

60kgs Paused Squat

80kgs Paused Squat

100kg Squat Confidence Boost

60kgs Paused Deads
So, looks to me like I lift with my back until I become aware of it and then start to try and use hips more?

60kgs Deads Reps

Hips start off lower in this, still not convinced I have hip hinging/drive sorted at all. Would hip thrusts help in this regard? Similar movement?
 
Week 6; Day 2: Upper Body

Bench: 20(P)x12, 40(P)x10, 60x(3x8). Dropset: 50x8, 40x8, 30x12, 20x15
OHP: 20x12, 25x8, 27.5x8, 30x6
DB Row: 24x12, 24x10, 24x8, 24x6
Pullups: BWx4, BWx4, BWx3

Pump from the dropset was crazy good :cool: The pullups were disappointing but I was really fatigued (dropset maybe?) so it was just a struggle.

Sadly got dragged out and plied with God-awful Jagerbombs all night, so RIP gains :( I think I might incorporate dropsets into new program, if possible, it was a lot of fun and again...dat pump.
 
Squats looking good - maybe a bit more back tightness but otherwise nice.

Deadlifts... Sit back more and drive through your heels.
 
Gym is open! :D New program for the next six weeks, just a linear program - think I still have some 'newbie' gains left in me.

Week 1; Day 2: Control day. (Day 1 missed due to gym closure).

Squats (P) WU, 3x6 @ 60kg Five second pause is brutal, reasonably low weight as I've been out of the gym for a little while.
Deads (P) WU, 80kg x3, 90kg x3, 100kg x3 Three second pause, was trying to push through my heels more and sit further back into the start. Still need to work on my lowering of the weight as its still very much a SLDL.
Bench (P) WU, 3x6 @ 50kg Three second pause. This wasnt too bad, was expecting it to be harder and a lot more taxing. New benches allowed me to get my upper back tighter and I believe that helped.
DBSS (for lulz) WU, 3x6 @ 20kg. Figured I'd try these out, oh my...the pain is so good, not felt anything like this since I started lifting.
 
Disappointingly, I dont really have any DOMS today :( very slight DOMS in my glutes but it's minimal. Looks like more volume and more weight is required!
 
Numbers and form are looking very good Cookeh.

Whenever I hear the term drop sets being used, a quiver runs down my spine!

I stopped getting doms after my first week in the gym :(

I have to ask though - could paused squats and deadlifts be beneficial to my Stronglifts regiment?
 
Gamefreak501 said:
Numbers and form are looking very good Cookeh.

I have to ask though - could paused squats and deadlifts be beneficial to my Stronglifts regiment?
Click to expand...

If you're weak coming out of the bottom of the squat and if you hips raise up too quickly due to weak glutes, or if the bar is coming away from you in the deadlift then yes. You shouldn't replace your main movements though for pause variations and it's somewhat difficult to implement them into Stronglifts due to the way the program progresses without changing the structure of the program. If you were to introduce them you might have to introduce another training day and maybe alter the progression scheme if you were to implement the variations. Whilst that's easily done, it can also be easy to destroy the programming if done incorrectly.
 
To echo the above, they have their benefits and can be excellent at helping to really sort form out, especially coming out of the hole with regards to squats, also forces you to rely less on momentum - in theory strengthening your lift. I wouldn't add it to SL, though you might get away with doing them in your warmup sets. I would wait until you change programs to something a bit more intermediate level and then look at adding them :)
 
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