My Plan for Starting Out

Bigger Stronger Leaner Beginners
1

I’ve been reading the articles and forum here on T-Nation for several months now and I just recently decided to make an account and post. I’m a freshman in college who just turned 18. I’m 5’10", 165 pounds, with low enough body fat to see my abs. My frame is pretty narrow, so I’d be an ectomorph I think.

Before winter break, I was doing three-way, push/pull/legs split. However, I spent too much time pressing. So now my bench press, while not impressive, is out of proportion to my other lifts, and I haven’t done any overhead pressing. Dumb mistake. It’s been three weeks off now for winter break (I don’t really have access to a gym when I’m home, I’ve been doing what I can with bodyweight exercises though). I bought and read Mark Ripptoe’s Starting Strength and Practical Programming over the break.

When I get back to college, I’m going to start Mark Ripptoe’s Starting Strength routine. I think that my bench will stall pretty quickly, but the other lifts that I’ve neglected will move up and they’ll be more in proportion to my bench. After each workout, I was thinking about doing some face pulls/bentover lateral raises and cable external rotations to try to get my shoulders from hunching over.

When all my lifts are evened out a bit more, I was planning on moving on to the Madcow 5x5 routine. Does this seem like a decent plan? At the moment, I want to establish a strength base and gain some weight. Increasing my lifts would be my primary goal for now though. In the long run, I want to be a lean 200ish pounds, as strong as I can be for that bodyweight.

In terms of diet, my school has three very good meals a day. Breakfast is a lot of eggs, fruit, and yogurt. Lunch is usually a sandwich, pasta, a salad, and whatever the main meat entree is. Dinner is usually the same as lunch. I drink a couple cups of milk with each meal. In between meals, I make these pretty horrendous shakes that I found here on T-Nation. They’re a mixture of milk, cottage cheese, kefir, fruit, instant oatmeal, and protein powder. Each is about 700-800 calories, with around 50 grams of protein.

There’s one that is heavy in carbs (about 70) and another thats heavy in fat (40ish I think). I have one between breakfast and lunch (the carb one), and another before bed (the fat one). Between lunch and dinner I work out and have a during- and post-workout shake with about 50g of whey and 75g of carbs.

I know I don’t really measure any portions besides the post-workout shake, but I have no control over what’s for lunch and dinner. Before break, I gained about 10 pounds (I don’t know if it was lean or not, my abs stayed visible though) over 2 months just cramming food into my face. The food is all clean though. I don’t drink soda or eat dessert, candy, or fast food. This has worked so far, so I figure I would stick with it. Also, I’ll have to start conditioning for rugby soon, and weight gain will be even harder with the cardio and practice several times a week.

I take a multivitamin, fish oil, and vitamin C (so I don’t get sick) daily as well.

That was a long introduction. Does this seem like a solid plan for establishing a strength and size base? Here are my PRs so far:

Back Squat - 215x5
Standard Deadlift - 265x5
Flat Bench Press - 200x5
Incline Bench Press - 180x5
Overhead Barbell Row - 145x5
Pullups - 2 sets of 7 reps and 1 set of 6 reps with bodyweight

Again, I’m 5’10", 165lbs, low bodyfat.

2

It’s always a good choice to begin with Mark’s Starting Strength.

Good luck.

3

I concur.

Sounds like a good plan. Diet sounds good also. Just don’t forget the basics.

Good luck!

4

Thanks guys. I can’t wait to get back to college so I can begin.

5

The routine and diet look great. You’ve obviously done your research:) The only thing I would suggest is maybe adding weight to the pullups and doing 3 x 5.

The reason being that you may find it easier to progress strength-wise with weighted pullups compared to bodyweight only with higher reps.

But that’s entirely up to you - just do what works best.

P.S. Are you doing both flat bench and incline bench in the same workout? If so, that might work against you once your poundages start moving up.

6

[quote]roybot wrote:

P.S. Are you doing both flat bench and incline bench in the same workout? If so, that might work against you once your poundages move up.[/quote]
Not if he’s doing starting strength. Good advice about the pull-ups, I believe Rip has them set up as 2x8, but I personally saw better progress doing a 3x5 scheme with them.

7

[quote]ninjaboy wrote:

Not if he’s doing starting strength. Good advice about the pull-ups, I believe Rip has them set up as 2x8, but I personally saw better progress doing a 3x5 scheme with them.
[/quote]

Sure. I know SS recommends only one bench variation per session, but the OP listed flat bench and incline bench in his list of PRs. I wanted to know if he intended to include both in his workouts.

It’s really just overkill in the setup he’s planning to use.

8

It looked to me like he was just listing his PRs. I could be wrong. If he is doing both, I agree that it’s overkill.

9

Sorry I wasn’t clear. That was just a list of PRs. I haven’t done any overhead presses before, so I don’t have a number.

Doing 3x5 with pull-ups sounds like it’ll be easier to progress in. I feel like I’m cheating on the last rep of sets to try to beat my last record when I increase reps. Plus, pullups with weight sounds pretty badass…

Another quick question about progression. Ripptoe suggests moving up smaller movements like the bench press and overhead press in smaller than 5lb increments. My gym has a set of weights that lets you put on weight as specific as half a pound. Should I increase the weight in 5lb increments until I can’t anymore, then move to 2 or 3lb increments? Or should I just start with smaller increments so that my body can adapt slower.

This would probably be with benching mostly, because I spent too much time on the bench before, so it’s closer to the level where I can’t make steady progress each workout for several weeks. Just wondering if it’s better to get back to my PR as fast as possible or if it’s better to take it slow and maybe get a few more weeks of progress.

10

[quote]Enkiduu wrote:
Sorry I wasn’t clear. That was just a list of PRs. I haven’t done any overhead presses before, so I don’t have a number.

[/quote]

That’s cool. I just wanted some clarification in case you were planning on using two bench variations per session.

Regarding the increments, It would be best to follow Rippetoe’s recommendations. Your lifts are liable to stall out far quicker if you go with the larger increments in weight.

Smaller increments = more room for progression.

P.S. Otep has a thread dedicated to Starting Strength that should be very useful to you. Here is the link:

http://www.T-Nation.com/free_online_forum/sports_body_training_performance_bodybuilding_beginner/starting_strength_the_guide

11

[quote]Enkiduu wrote:
Should I increase the weight in 5lb increments until I can’t anymore, then move to 2 or 3lb increments? Or should I just start with smaller increments so that my body can adapt slower?[/quote]

I would stick with the 5lb increments, especially with your lift numbers. I’ve got a guy I’m helping out, and he started with the bar on all three big lifts, and he can handle 5lb increases. For you, it’s a much smaller percentage increase, so you should be fine.

12

I will see how I feel each workout during my warm-ups. If I don’t think I can make a big jump, I’ll make it smaller. With that being said, here is my plan for progressing:

I’m going to shoot for a 5lb jump in my squat each workout at the beginning (15lbs a week). As I progress I’ll shoot for 10lbs a week (so 3 to 4lbs each workout).

For my overhead press, I’ll start the cycle lighter than I am able to do, and then make 5lb jumps until I feel like smaller jumps are necessary.

The deadlift confuses me a little, since it’s only for one set, once a week. I remember progressing well in the deadlift once I started doing it regularly before, so I think I’ll shoot for a 10lb progression each week.

For my bench press, I’ll start lighter like with the overhead press, then once I’m within 10 pounds of my previous max for 3x5 (200lbs), I’ll make 2 or 3 pounds jumps.

For pull-ups, I’ll add 5lbs until I feel myself stalling, then I’ll use smaller increments.

I have a quick question about pull-ups. When I do them, I try to keep my chest up and my shoulders back, without any swinging. It’s my understanding that this is the correct form.

My problem is with the last couple reps of the set, when sometimes my chest collapses and my shoulders round, which for some reason helps me finish the rep. I’m doing my best to keep my chest up and shoulders back, but I was wondering if there is anything I can do to help keep the proper form, besides just doing them more.

I was thinking I could do less reps per set, but more sets, with the same weight, so that I don’t get the point each set where I tend to collapse my chest and round my shoulders. So maybe 5x3 or 4x4.

I don’t have this problem when I do pull-ups with my palms facing each other, so could I just do those instead?

13

If your shoulders do have a noticeable “hunch” then it’s ok to do some reverse flies and/or face pulls (with external rotation) after your workouts. They won’t hurt your progress and will help your shoulders out.

You can also do your part while not in the gym and practice perfect posture.

Other then that; eat big and lift bigger man! Game on!

14

Sounds like you’ve done your homework and are ready to smash some weights. Your plan is good, stick with it.

15

Enkiduu,
You could try swapping pull ups with chin ups. I find chins to be more stable than pull ups. That should help prevent your form from breaking down.

16

chin ups and pull ups work different primary muscles.

his setup is solid for a beginner. no need to nit-pick.

good like “brah” lol

17

It’s not ‘nit-picking’. He is planning on doing a basic strength building / hypertrophy routine, so making a simple substitution like the one I suggested isn’t going to upset things at this point.

The reason I recommended doing chin ups is that they offer more stability because of the bicep involvement. The extra stability means it is easier to learn correct form.

Increased stability also means that he can handle more weight at an earlier stage. Doing chins with weight attached will eliminate swing, and keep the OP’s body moving through the correct plane of motion, which is the same in a chin as in a pull up.

When he goes back to pull ups, his form will have improved.

If the OP is doing pull ups from the start, he is more likely to swing, and that is going to work against him if he is trying to get the form down.

I’m talking about the best approach to learning the form of a movement he is unfamiliar with, not which exercise is the best choice for isolating the lats.