77.5kg ohp for 5 paused at the bottom. I think that's better than 80 paused at the top. Getting close to that bodyweight single.

Had a session with the only starting strength coach in the UK today. Absolutely brilliant.

Went to the gym for the first time in over 6 weeks on Tuesday.  I'm still sore but I do love the feeling of DOMS.  It's good to be back!

Will try tonight but might still be too sore to train heavy.

I was walking funny during the school run. I bet others thought I was weird. I made it look like I had a unique swagger.

For what it's worth - I'd suggest continuing linear progression if you can get 1 set of 5. I stalled for a really, really long time at 67.5kg just because I couldn't get the last rep of the third set. Even considered 65kg my 5 rep max. I wish I'd cracked on instead of deloading and working my way back up, and I never got any higher until I changed away from starting strength (which was years later).

If you want to stick with 3 sets then consider push pressing the final sets you can't get. Otherwise just deload your last 2 sets by 5kg or something, and then do some additional sets stepping down the weight. Volume also seems to be super effective.

OHP is one of those exercises that it's really hard to recover from between sets, so three sets at working weight might be holding you back from where you really are.

That a strict OHP? Very impressive number.

Did 10 rounds every 45 seconds of Power Clean and Front Squat on Tuesday. Start at 90kg and finished at 100kg. Was happy with that.

Did a Hero workout then yesterday, goosed after it.

7 Rounds for time:

- 7HSPUs
- 7 Thrusters @50kg
- 7 knees to elbow
- 7 DL @100kg
- 7 Burpees
- 7 KB Swings @32kg
- 7 pull-ups

Yeah, every 45s a power clean and front front squat.

Knight wrote:

Thanks - super helpful. I feel pretty good about getting 66 tomorrow for 3x5. We’ll see. But yeah maybe a 1x5 work set is a good shout. Do you recommend working up to that with a couple of 5 rep sets at a lower weight? Or just warmups as normal?

Just go for it after warm ups, but make sure you've primed your muscles with a couple of singles/doubles at 5/10kg less. Just to make sure your CNS knows it's about to put some work in.

100kg power clean is beastly. Snatches/Cleans etc always look super impressive too. It's one thing to go and lift heavy weight, but there's just something about decent looking olympic (ish) lifts.

Failed my 3x5 effort at 56 so just jumped to 57 for 1x5 next time I went. Went up nice and easy so gonna see how the one heavy set goes for a while. Thanks for the tip voices!

58kg for 1x5 was more of a grind but also went up. I need to work out the lower weight volume sets, have been doing that a bit (a set at 50 for higher reps, a set for high reps at 40) but not quite sure what specifically I should do. Probably need to read up on programming a bit. Up till now it’s all just been linear 3x5 adding weight next workout (as long as I completed all the reps the previous one).

The OLY lifts are so impressive. I don’t have the body awareness/ patience to learn them. Very cool when you see em done IRL though.

hylian_elf wrote:

New PB at gym always feels so good! Cleaned 70kg over the weekend and hit it again fairly easily just now. 72.5kg would be body weight and current aim, but missed it twice at the weekend.  Now if I could just jerk that weight too…!

Nice one Som, always feels good to get a PB!

Just add 2.5kg next workout every time you hit at least one rep. The actual program has different weights depending on how many reps you get, so if you want to follow it to a t you can Google it. It also gives the drop sets as percentages.

2.5kg is a big jump for ohp so I'd just stick with that.

voices wrote:

Nailed 92.5 for a single, so went for 95. Got that too. Probably just a hair under body weight given how much my calves have been killing during my runs. Edit: overhead press

good lord

I'm squeaking into 70 OHP for 5 rep target and managing 4, 5 is eluding me. My ageing body you know.