johnnyfantastic's training journal

[JohnnyFantastic]

time for some goal setting!
i'd like to continue with starting strength until the beginning of december (which is 13.5 weeks away).

i'm 156lbs right now, roughly 16% bf. my goal is to reach 165 lbs by december with the same (or lower) bf %.

my targets for lifts are:
squats: 225 (currently 175)
bench press: 175 (currently 142.5)
deadlifts: 270 (currently 190)
military press: 120 (currently 97.5)
pendlay rows: 140 (currently 105)
chins: body weight + 20 (currently bw + 5)
dips: body weight + 20 (currently bw + 2.5)

i think these are pretty tough but fair goals to achieve... i just gotta keep eating right and the gains should come.

[JohnnyFantastic]

8/28/2007: workout A
squats: 175x3x5
bench press: 142.5x3x5
deadlifts: 190x1x5
dips: 2x8 (bw + 2.5)

[JohnnyFantastic]

8/31/2007: workout B
squats: 180x3x5
military press: 95x3x5
pendlay rows: 110x3x5
chins: 2x8 (bw + 5)

military press wasn't great... i'll try 97.5 next workout, see how it goes

[badblood909]

Great progress on the squats dude, keep it up!

It's been several weeks, how do you feel about the low volume, strength/power workouts compared to high-volume stuff?

[JohnnyFantastic]

thanks!

i've never done a low volume strength workout before so it's been an education for me! when i started on it i had some reservations about not doing any direct arm work, about wondering if i could consistently go up in weight every workout, if i would gain back fat instead of muscle without the volume...

my arms have stayed as big as before (i had them disproportionately large from my previous high-volume workouts which place a lot of emphasis on arms). the rest of my body has caught up nicely however.

my core feels so much stronger now than it ever has - for the first time i feel like i'm doing things right and gaining a solid foundation of muscle to build on later. i've never done as many squats as i'm doing now, and i'm close to PRs on each exercise which is great.

i find with the low volume i can really focus on form and getting my head into giving everything i have every single workout. that's tougher for me with a high volume approach because i tend to tire out mentally and physically.

surprisingly the eating has been one of the most difficult aspects of this program for me - eating 2500 clean calories per day is difficult for me physically... and mentally it's a challenge since i've been on a caloric deficit for so long. but, i'm doing my best to get all those calories in every day.

i'm really looking forward to seeing just how close to my goals i can get in the next 3 months or so. after that i'm going to start cutting again, and i'll re-evaluate whether or not to go back to a higher volume workout or stick with this (or some modification of it).

i'm going to start doing some HIIT a couple of times a week to keep my cardio up, but not to lose weight. i'll just eat an extra meal on my HIIT days.

all in all, i feel amazing and i'm starting to look pretty good too! thanks to everyone for their input, this program is really giving me the gains i've been looking for

[JohnnyFantastic]

9/04/2007: workout A
squats: 185x3x5
bench press: 145x3x5
deadlifts: 205x1x5
dips: 2x8 (bw + 5)

i almost stalled out on my last few reps in squats - i'll try to rest up and eat well and go for 190 next workout, but i may have to start going up by 2.5 lbs soon instead of 5

deadlifts felt great, i'll keep going up by 10lbs

[JohnnyFantastic]

9/6/2007: workout B
squats: 190x3x5
military press: 97.5x3x5
pendlay rows: 115x3x5
chins: 2x8 (bw + 7.5)

squats were tough but i made all my reps, so up to 195 next workout. military press felt great, no problems with 97.5 so up to 100 next workout. i slept really well and ate really well prior to this one so that gave me a huge boost.

[JohnnyFantastic]

9/07/2007: workout A
squats: 195x3x5
bench press: 147.5x3x5
deadlifts: 215x1x5
dips: 2x8 (bw + 7.5)

[JohnnyFantastic]

9/10/2007: workout B
squats: 200x3x5
military press: 100x3x5
pendlay rows: 120x3x5
chins: 1x8, 1x7 (bw + 10)

i missed my last rep on chins - i'm not sure if i'll stay at bw + 10lbs or move up to bw + 12.5 lbs next workout. squats felt good

[JohnnyFantastic]

9/12/2007: workout A
squats: 205x3x5
bench press: 150x3x5
deadlifts: 225x1x5
dips: 2x8 (bw + 10)

good news yesterday - measured my body fat again and i was at 14.5% (down from about 16% a month ago). and i've gained about 7 lbs since then - so that's roughly 8 lbs of muscle (and 1 lb of fat lost) if i've done my calculations correctly. that sounds reasonable to me... i'm definitely thicker everywhere.