Hey, Noob here.
I got to reading T-Nation after reading about some techniques on metafilter.com. I am really enjoying this site, it’s a lot better for encouragement than Men’s Health.
I weighed 211 before lunch (ham sandwich) and have gone down from 220 in the last two weeks, with a plan to even out at 180 or so and then build back up. My workout consists of dead lifts, squats and the Stairmaster, though not in any real cycle.
I have been in the gym twice daily for the last five days, it’s my first week in and OF COURSE there is some joint pain, but I expected that and have been working out through the irritation. I haven’t been griping about it at work either.
What I am trying to do is really significantly add capacity to my lifting week on week to stay encouraged. On Monday, I started fresh in the gym with a bar with a 60 pound load on squats and lifts and have evened out my technique and managed to get to 110 today for two sets of eight reps for both squats and lifts.
My gym is on a college campus, so I am the only person there doing dead lifts and squats, so I can’t find anyone who can show me how to cleanly make the jump from squat → pull through → lift. I am getting great results from squats alone but want to also be able to get that thing over my goddamn head! I’ll be back in the gym tonight for one more session and will keep looking for answer.