Happy PR Friday — post your PR’s and training updates to comments. Also, recap your entire year of training. Did you get better? Did you learn anything? Did you have fun?
There’ll be a Christmas related post, but otherwise enjoy the holiday and we’ll catch ya back here next week.
Reading what other people have accomplished this year and my own accomplishments seem lame by comparison.
This year I did:
Bench: 85-97.5
Squat: 120-170
OHP 55-72.5
deadlift 150-180.
Most people with similar progress have only seemed to ran SS for like 6 months. Well done guys!
I hit a really sad PR on my military press Friday…
150×5
Its a start, I largely ignored the press this past year. Its not a contested lift for me, but I need bigger and stronger shoulders.
This year had some ups and downs for me. I started focusing on Olympic lifting about this time last year. I dropped heavy deadlifts and started high bar squatting. Olympic lifts improved a bit. Snatch went from around 80 kg to 92 kg, C&J from 120 kg to 135 kg, peaking around July. Then in October I tore a ligament in my left elbow dropping an awkward snatch behind me. Surgery was 8 weeks ago, and since then I’ve been getting my front squat back up using straps. Still can’t backsquat or do heavy overhead work. I hit a post-surgery front squat PR of 270 lb x 3 x 3 two days ago, and hopefully will keep this climbing up to 315, which is about where I was pre-injury.
My best PR of the year might be improved body composition, I’ve added in conditioning and tried to make some changes to my diet, and I’m starting to see some results. My goals for the upcoming year are 150 C&J, and 110 snatch.
Over the course of this year I dislocated 4 ribs, tore my IT band and tore every ligament in my ankle….obviously progress was next to non-existent. I guess I’m pleased that I at least didn’t lose strength.
Squat: 190 – 215lb
Deadlift: 210 – 245lb
Bench: 115-115lb (I hate benching)
Weight: 136-139lb
2012 was a year of learning more than accomplishment. Mostly learning how to not go about training… The years bests for me:
Bs 360×5. Bp 210×5, 240×1. Mp 140×5. Dl 415×3. Cljk 215. Snatch 150.
2013:
1. Stick to MY fucking goals and stop trying to keep up with the jones’s (ie those following competitive crossfit programming of the outlaw kind).
2. Cljk 225. Snatch bodyweight. Dl more than i have before (maybe 450?). Back squat 405. Bp 265. Mp more than i weigh.
3. Condition wisely. Stop wrecking my strength programming.
4. Obtain some jackage along the way.
Thanks justin for this awesome site and books.
I had been dicking around on a 5/3/1 program for a while earlier in the year when I should have been using a straight LP-style strength program and getting my numbers up. Anyway, switched to modified SS approach end of summer (July/August) @ ~185lb, 6’4″, 34yo.
Squat-270lbx5/1
Bench-220×5/1
Press-120×5/1
DL-300×5/1
A few weeks into SS, I jacked up my lower spine. Like hands going numb-can’t rotate my torso-shooting pains in my legs jacked up. Took several weeks off and came back – reset the squat to empty bar, bench to 135lb, DL to 135 and press to 90. Made 15-20lb jumps until I got close to my old numbers then decreased the jumps to smaller increments. I tweaked my inner elbow with the hands-too-close-together grip on the bar during low-bar squats a little over a month ago… took a couple of weeks off to get it back to normal. Been back at it for about 3 weeks now. Here’s what I hit this week:
Squat-325lbx5/3
Bench-230×5/3
Press-137.5×5/3
DL-345×5/1
Up to 225lbs, still 6′ 4″ and still 34yo. Next week, I’ll switch the squats/DL over to TM-style programming and continue driving my bench and press with LP while I can. If I was a few years younger I’d keep pushing the squats but I’m 34… not 24. Trying to stay injury free in 2013.
Love the site, Justin.
Had to bounce back from a torn PCL this year, but I managed to do so and still hit some PRs:
Press 225
Bench 330
Back squat 435 (last week of Smolov base mesocycle; starting intensity cycle on Monday)
Deadlift 500
Also competed in a highlander comp in Wichita Falls this fall. It was fun. Hope to do some strongman comps this year, as well as get back into Highland games now that the knee feels solid.
This year had ups and downs but on the whole I made more progress and learned more than any training year prior.
PR’s (all gym lifts):
Squat – 365 (+65 since 2012)
Bench – 290 (+25 since 2012)
Deadlift – 380 (+30 since 2012)
Lots of minor injuries to deal with throughout the year which slowed progress, the worst of which were back issues in Feb-March and a bad neck issue around July, but as a result I got smarter about mobility / perhab work and improved leaps and bounds by being more dedicated to that stuff.
The single best thing I did for my training this year was starting to train at a powerlifting gym with a coach who knows his stuff. I had never had true, quality instruction and having someone teach me good technique and write a program for me has made a massive difference in my progress. Makes me very excited for 2013, which will be the year of my first PL meet.