I’ve been lurking on here and training on and off for more years than I want to admit. I’ve started, and fallen off more than a few programs. But it struck me last week that time is not waiting and it’s about damn time I got serious. I’ll be 37 in a month and I’m in the worst shape of my life.
So I figured some goals and a training log would be a good way to kick myself into gear. I’ll be 40 in three years, so I thought why not set some goals to hit by then.
Here they are (I’m 6’4", ~220 lbs):
DL: 440 lbs (2x bw)
Back Squat: 385 (1.75x bw)
Front Squat: 330 (1.5x bw)
Bench Press: 330 (1.5x bw)
Power Clean: 275 (1.25x bw)
Press: 220 (1x bw)
Pull-ups: 20 strict, unweighted
Dips: 40 strict, unweighted
And a few conditioning goals:
5k run: 21.75 min (ran a 29:30 this year)
500m swim: 7 min
I would post my current numbers, but I’ve been out of the weight room for so long I don’t know what they are any more. My previous DL PR is 310, for the record. Happy to take any abuse about how unrealistic these goals are from where I’m starting.
I have a feeling I have a pretty tough road ahead of me if I want to hit those, but there’s no point aiming low. My short-term goal, though, is to work out consistently three days a week every week for the rest of this year.
I’m going to start out doing Starting Strength, just the original basic program, as of tomorrow morning.
I should also take some measurements; I’ll post those when I do.
Advice / abuse welcome.
OK, first workout – just working up to my starting numbers for SS.
I rode (bike) 1.5 miles to the gym, then worked up to:
Squat: 135
Bench: 125
Deadlift: 165
Also did 2x1min front planks and 3x10 crunches on a ball.
Then rode 5.5 miles to work, and 4 miles home at the end of the day.
Food was:
breakfast: bowl of flaxseed granola
good work man, all that biking plus working out has to be hard on the legs.
your goals look solid too, and definitely attainable if you stick with it. Good luck, i’ll be following
Yeah, my quads are sore today…
I bike ~9 miles a day during the week. Hoping that doesn’t impact my training goals too much, but I don’t really have a choice. My wife needs the car to take our boys to preschool, and I’m too cheap to buy a second car to drive such a short distance.
yeah I bet…and biking is awesome gpp anyway
it might take a while for your body to get used to it but as long as you eat well and get sleep and whatnot i dont see why it would hurt
Today:
Squat: 3x5 145
Worked up to starting weights:
Press: 95
Power Clean: 105
Had to cut it a little short to get to work in time for a meeting, so no abs. 
Friday’s workout:
Squat 3x5 155
Bench 3x5 130
Deadlift 1x5 185
2x1 min planks
2x10 swiss ball crunches
10 miles biking
Today’s workout:
Squat 3x5 165
Press 3x5 100
Power Clean 5x3 110
2x1min planks
2x12 swiss ball crunches
biked to work as usual
Everything is going up fine, I guess that’s expected this early in SS. Looking forward to getting more weight on the bar though. I remember from last time I did this how quickly the first increments go up. This time I’m going to stick with it past that point, though.
nice work so far man, i’m sure your numbers will keep flying up
Thanks, originalchuck… as long as I keep at it.
Missed my workout last Wednesday – overslept – so I went in Thursday instead, which meant I missed one workout last week.
workout:
Squat: 3x5 175
Bench: 3x5 135
Deadlift: 1x5 205
2x1min planks
3x12 crunches
Today’s workout:
Squat 3x5 185
Press 3x5 105
Power Clean 5x3 115
2x1min planks
3x12 crunches
Plugging away… I can see a 2-plate squat in the distance now.
good work on the squat man. do you do any mobility work or anything or are you blessed with good flexibility? my low back really rounds when im in the hole and its been harder to correct than i was anticipating.
Wednesday’s workout:
Squat: 3x5 195
Bench: 3x5 140
Deadlift: 1x5 225
I missed today’s workout through bad planning, so I’ll get it in sometime tomorrow.
@originalchuck – I think it’s a combination of both. You know the stretch where you sit on your ass with the soles of your feet together, and push your knees out with your elbows? I can put my knees down to the ground on that one and always have been able to. So that’s part of it, but that’s not all the flexibility you need in the squat; I still have trouble keeping upright in the hole with my feet out where they should be, but I’m not bad.
I do foam roller work every workout and some of Cressey’s active warmup drills, and I did pilates for a year or so after a back injury, so I think I gained some mobility there. My hamstrings are still tight as fuck, though.
I’ve found the Starting Strength progression, where you start off quite a bit lower than you can really do, and work up, has been a pretty good mobility program too. The warm-up with just the bar is a great way to get down into position and feel it out, find out where you’re tight, and stretch it out a bit. Key is not to try to go to heavy before you feel totally comfortable with your technique, and use the lower weight period to work on technique.
Friday’s workout, done on Saturday:
Squat: 3x5 205
Press: 3,2,1 115
Power Clean: 5x3 125
Turns out I’m a dumbass and wrote down the wrong weight for the press. Should have been doing 110, and obviously from the reps I did I wasn’t ready for 115. I’ll back off to 110 for the next press workout.
Monday’s workout
Squat: 3x5 215
Bench: 3x5 145
Deadlift: 1x5 245
2x1min front planks
3x15 Dr. McGill crunches
some foam roller work and stretches
Damn. I tweaked my back somehow on Monday – got the same spasms and pain in my lower back and tingling in my right leg I had after my injury. I don’t know if it was during the workout, nothing specific went wrong, but it might be a heavy workout plus bad seating position at work.
Then had two sick kids and a sick wife on Wednesday, and my kids wanted me to stay home Friday morning so they could give me my birthday cards (I usually get home after they’re in bed). Which amounts to a week with no workout.
I’ll get back in the gym tomorrow, and if the back feels OK I’ll pick up where I left off Monday. If not I’ll skip the lower-back intensive exercises and do some upper body pulling and pushing.
damn im sorry about the back injury man that really sucks. Good luck getting back in there.
And thank you for the info, im definitely gonna start that stretch and doing more work actually getting under the bar.
OK, back in yesterday for a modified workout for no back stress:
Press: 3x5 105
Bench: 3x5 145
Pull-ups: 3 sets to failure (7,5,3)
And have been doing my back exercises from PT pretty religiously since last week, so I’m starting to feel better. Still a little tingling on the right leg but no pain, which is pretty much back to normal.
I’ll try my normal workout again tomorrow and see how it goes.
Today, back to the SS progression. So far the back feels fine. I kept it mostly to the same weights as I did in the last full workout because of the week off and my back issue.
Squat: 3x5 215
Bench: 3x5 150
Deadlift: 1x5 245
Catching up; didn’t get a chance to post over the weekend.
Last Friday:
Squat: 3x5 225
Press: 3x5 110
Power Clean: 5x3 125