After years of a terrifyingly sedentary life (brought on by a combination of serious illness [10%] and a lazy disposition [90%]) I decided I needed to get back into the basement and work on becoming stronger. My history of weight training consists of 4 years of farting around randomly in the gym while an undergraduate, followed by a year of “serious” training in my early 30s. I ran the starting strength program for much of that year and even made a trip to visit “Rip” for a day of coaching (for which he would not take any compensation) on the lifts. During that year I got stronger. Illness gave me the initial excuse to abandon training but really I’ve just been lazy. Since Starting Strength worked for me before, I am doing that again.
As you will see from my starting weights, years of doing nothing made me weak as a giant toddler. All my interests are bookish (history, opera, biology, classical lit) and my work is white collar so when I do not exercise my body really goes to pot.
I was tempted to wait until I had a bit more time under my belt before posting a training log but I figured the whole point of one was to track from point a to z.
I am 38, 5’11 and 252. My bodyfat % is hippopotamus.
Here are my first 6 workouts from my excel spreadsheet:
11/26/2013
Squat 45
Bench 45
Dead 135
11/28
Squat 55
S. Press 45
Clean 45
11/30
Squat 65
Bench 55
Dead 145
12/3
Squat 75
Press 55
Clean 55
12/5
Squat 85
Bench 65
Dead 155
12/7
Squat 95
Press 65
Clean 65
I started too low on bench (and probably everything else). Still below where I should have started likely. I hate cleans. I hate cleans like a corpulent flounder would hate a stairmaster. They’re pazzo.
Tomorrow is workout # 7. See you the day after that!
Stop listening to Mozart and you will transform into a heman.
Seriously, welcome to the board. you might want to add more journal detail to your postings here. Reps/sets/rest period. Are you sticking to a bare bones program, or might you also do other exercises over the course of your training week?
Did you mention body size and age? those are also relevant.
I started too low on bench (and probably everything else).
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Don’t worry about where you started. Just keep slowly adding weight and it adds up quickly if you stay consistent and never quit. Just like water dripping in a bucket it just keeps filing up.
Congrats on getting started (it is far and away both the hardest and easiest part), your starting weights mean nothing, that is why they are referred to as “starting weights”, just keep chugging along and everything will progress quite nicely. Welcome aboard.
Thanks for the kind words everyone. I’m doing the vanilla Starting Strength.
Workouts are Tue, Thu & Sat and alternate between Workout A and Workout B
A being Squats (3x5), Bench (3x5) and Deadlift (1x5)
B being Squats (3x5), OH Press (3x5) and Power Cleans (5x3)
My plan is to do this for one month before adding any additional exercise so it becomes habit. Once I’m in the habit of doing this 3x per week I think I will do recumbent bike for light tick-tock maintenance and switch that over to walking in the spring when the snow goes away. In the summer I usually get out kayaking 2-3x per week.
Last night’s workout was accompanied by much of the first act of Rossini’s delightful La Cenerentola (with adorable Lena Belkina as Angelina aka Cinderella). Everything went very well training wise.
Dec 10, 2013
Squat 3x5 @ 105
Bench 3x5 @ 85
Dead 1x5 @ 165
For motivation I hereby give myself one Barry Horowitz (aka: a pat on the back - for those of you who weren’t pro 'rasslin fans back in the early 90s) for breaking the century mark on the squat.
Welcome, great username there! We were running low on Canadians, I thought Edmontonians were going to take over at one stage. Delete the word ‘lazy’ from your vocabulary, its just all about habits. You’re getting back into things and logging here is great motivation.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
At last - someone with decent musical tastes. The stuff they blast over the gym’s speakers inevitably make my eyes bleed.[/quote]
Nothing wrong with ear bleeding techno though right? I’m partial to a certain pieces of Beethoven and Mozart (I know typical eh) myself, mainly because I’m in love with the sound of a bassoon.
[quote]minimaltechno wrote:
Welcome, great username there! We were running low on Canadians, I thought Edmontonians were going to take over at one stage. Delete the word ‘lazy’ from your vocabulary, its just all about habits. You’re getting back into things and logging here is great motivation.
[quote]cavalier wrote:
At last - someone with decent musical tastes. The stuff they blast over the gym’s speakers inevitably make my eyes bleed.[/quote]
Nothing wrong with ear bleeding techno though right? I’m partial to a certain pieces of Beethoven and Mozart (I know typical eh) myself, mainly because I’m in love with the sound of a bassoon. [/quote]
Thanks to you both. I used to listen to a lot of Euro metal so I know all about bleeding ears. I’ve mellowed in my dotage lol.