Wrapping up Week 14

First off, I want to say that I'm writing this blog because I don't feel like doing homework right now. I just wanted to note that.

Last night we wrapped up Week 14 of Starting Strength. I'm going to give this workout a B+. Here's how it went down.

Squats were first, and I did 3x5 at 200 again. It still feels heavy. Much much heavier than 195. I'm not sure why I can't go much lower. I'm probably going to repeat it again on Monday, but I also might not (I'll get to that after the workout recap).

On shoulder press, we decided to go from lightest to heaviest to mix it up, so I was last. Instead I did my pullups (1x9, 1x8 and 1x7) and curls. Curls were troublesome. I did the first set at 85 lbs, and only managed 4 reps. My right forearm felt like it was about to snap off. This was only 5 lbs more than last week, but it hurt. And it didn't hurt my biceps; it hurt my forearms! I need to do some research, but I may need to find a better way to do curls than what I have been doing.

Shoulder press was last, and I did 3x5 at 120. Once again I used great form, no legs or back, and it felt good. This is finally starting to feel really heavy again. I think I'm repeating 120 on Wednesday before moving up, but I'm expecting to hit a wall on shoulder press soon. I really like that I've fixed the form; I'm noticing much more gains.

So two quick things going through the brain lately. First off, I think my arms are getting smaller. Everyone else says they're getting bigger, but I think they're smaller. After some examination, I'm seeing that I'm losing arm fat (ya, arm fat, who knew?) which is shrinking the arm overall, but it's also making them more defined. I still want them bigger, but they're starting to look good.

Second, I read an interesting article on strength gains the other day. It basically said that your body doesn't really start building muscle on a program like this until the 3rd set, which is where all of the gains come from. They suggest that 4-8 sets will mean you get way more growth. On that note, there's a program that's similar to Starting Strength called Stronglifts 5x5. They're very similar in lifts (in fact it has barbell rows in it, which I want to do!), but the big difference is everything is 5x5 instead of 3x5. With those two things in mind, I'm thinking of switching everything from 3x5 to 5x5. This would mean dropping about 10 lbs on most of my lifts to catch up, but I think I'm going to do it. I'm debating between starting Monday or two weeks from Monday. I'm leaning towards this Monday, especially since the week after I won't be able to lift at all (long story. I'll fill you in later).

So that's where I'm at. I'll keep you posted on the decisions. Still not sure about my right forearm, but it feels better now. Who knows....

Bring it!