Reset, Reboot, and Reload

Bigger Stronger Leaner Over 35 Lifter
1

Starting 5/3/1 essentially as a beginner. I was pseudo-training a year ago but didn’t stick with it. The idea is this log creates some accountability to NOT QUIT. I’m weak as shit and too tubby on top of everything.

Since I’m inexperienced and do not have much work capacity the assistance lifts will be somewhat minimized, but I have no doubt that issue will be remedied. Sure, I can start with something lighter with lower volume, but I can’t be a crushed idiot doing that, right?

The sad working maxes (in pounds, not kilos)…
Military Press: 110
Deadlift: 240
Bench Press: 125
Squat: 195

I’ll post this week’s results when I get some sleep. Look forward to input and feedback.

2

Welcome. Your lifts aren’t “weak” and/or “sad,” they’re just reflective of your relative newness to lifting. Everyone had to start somewhere, and very few of us started with lifts that would be considered ‘strong.’ And compared to some of the behemoths around here, some of us still aren’t all that strong. (Referring to myself here.)

If you don’t mind sharing: Age, height, weight? Lifting history? Any particular weightlifting/physique goals?

As for a log creating accountability: If only it were that easy. The fact is, T-Nation is littered with logs started with the best of intentions, and then abandoned as their creators returned to a life of Domino’s and Duck Dynasty. The point being, you are going to have to nurture that inner spark that motivated you to start lifting in the first place. At the end of the day, that’s what will get you through the rough patches on the road to bettering yourself. Good luck, and again, welcome.

3

Thanks for the welcome, EyeDentist. I agree wholeheartedly on the elephant grave of training logs, but that’s why we don’t usually go past page two of a category.

Since you asked, here are my stats and goals (which I meant to put in early this morning, but hey, I was up until 3am upgrading and fixing a server).

Age: 37
Weight: ~300lbs - My scale screams EE most mornings which means I’m above 300 but itself reads heavy by about 2lbs. Need a new scale.

Lifting history: Not a lot. I’ve been fascinated by lifting, and for the last few years, powerlifting. I have a few months under my belt from around a year to two years ago. Eventually it would be awesome to get into strongman trainging/competing provided I get to that stage of strength without it killing me.

Goals: Compete in powerlifting and hopefully strongman. I’d say get down to 250lbs but realistically get the body fat down to below 15% from my current 35%. I need to suck it up and get a DEXA done to be sure.
First of the on-the-bar goals will be 2pps, 3pps, and 4pps for the bench/OHP, squat, and DL respectively. Other strength goals will be to get one bloody pull-up without resistance bands. I’m using my two heaviest resistance bands and I can’t quite lock out one pull-up.

Methods: Going 5/3/1 as close as I can to Wendler’s book. As I mentioned before I don’t have the work capacity to conform to the base plan yet. Cardio will be walking for the first cycle with some DB farmer’s carries here and there.

4

Quick synopsis of the first week:
Warm-ups. I started with jumping jacks on days one and two, but the fool me did them in the garage with Chucks on. Death on the ankles and arch, I tell ye. Cutting that out or being smart and moving it to the lawn.

Day 1: 20130811
Military
barx5, 55x5 | 65x3
75x5, 85x5, 95x10

CGBP
60,75,90x10
No other assistance work.

Day 2: 20130813
Deads
100x5, 120x5, 145x3
160x5, 180x5, 205x5

Front Squat
barx10, 65x10, 85x10. These killed my wrists. Need to go cross-arm next time

Side raises. 50x10,10,10 each side

Day 3: 20130815
Bench
55x5, 65x5, 75x5
85x5, 95x5, 110x12

G.M.
barx10, 10. I needed the ham stretch here but they were seizing up by the end.
Scapula pull-down. BWx10,10 on pull-up bar. Working on activating the lats.

Day 4: 20130816
Squat
90x5, 100x5, 120x3
130x5, 150x5, 170x6 - My form was crap, it’s possible I’m starting too heavy but it only points out I really need to strengthen my back and abs.

Incline BP
55x10, 70x10, 80x10

Squat: 3x10 with the bar to practice form. Going to have to do something like this everyday with just the bar to grease the groove.

5

Welcome! Only one way to go with your lifts from here, and that’s up!

A bit off the way, are you a programmer or work with databases? The “20130811” caught my eye :wink:

6

@minimaltechno. Haha, got me. I guess I’m best described as sysadmin, but we do a lot of everything - networking, desktops, phones, fax servers, script-style programming, and the occasional SQL query. I found early on that sorting files and directories with time stamps works best as YYYYMMDD so lists are predictable when looking for chronological sanity.

7

[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
Welcome. Your lifts aren’t “weak” and/or “sad,” they’re just reflective of your relative newness to lifting. Everyone had to start somewhere, and very few of us started with lifts that would be considered ‘strong.’ And compared to some of the behemoths around here, some of us still aren’t all that strong. (Referring to myself here.)

If you don’t mind sharing: Age, height, weight? Lifting history? Any particular weightlifting/physique goals?

As for a log creating accountability: If only it were that easy. The fact is, T-Nation is littered with logs started with the best of intentions, and then abandoned as their creators returned to a life of Domino’s and Duck Dynasty. The point being, you are going to have to nurture that inner spark that motivated you to start lifting in the first place. At the end of the day, that’s what will get you through the rough patches on the road to bettering yourself. Good luck, and again, welcome.[/quote]

This is pretty much what I tell my wife when she becomes discouraged about her level of fitness. There’s where you are and where you want to be; there is no “Where you ought to be” in this endeavor. The effort is to close the gap between “are” and “want to be” and not to quit until there is no gap.

People’s priorities differ around exercise and physical fitness which is why there’s no “ought to be.” Often one is better served by picking nearer term targets, train themselves to put the effort in until they accomplish the target and pick the next near term target. After a while, with consistency, the person finds themselves far beyond what they would have thought themselves capable of at the beginning.

Says the guy who isn’t currently training…

8

Welcome. I wish you luck on the powerlifting goal.

9

[quote]Crushed_Idiot wrote:
The sad working maxes (in pounds, not kilos)…
Military Press: 110
Deadlift: 240
Bench Press: 125
Squat: 195

I’ll post this week’s results when I get some sleep. Look forward to input and feedback.[/quote].

Hey Crushed,

Welcome aboard man! As Eyedentist mentioned, these numbers are just a starting point and are not sad. I’m glad you posted them, so you now have a point of reference to measure your gains. Starting and 300lb mark, my guess is that you’ll sky rocket past these numbers if you set some reasonable goals and stick with the 5/3/1 program. It won’t take long to get the momentum going.

Personally, I wouldn’t obsess about weight and BF percentages as you’re getting started. However, it is important to be cognisant of what you’re putting into your body and doing your best to “eat clean”, as this will aid you in both your strength gains and weight control. When people try to loose weight and gain muscle at the same time, they generally take eating minimally to an extreme and starve their bodies from the calories they need. The result of this is being too tired to lift, failing to lift what you could last week, loss of motivation for either goal and eventually quitting on both. I speak from experience. If you’re eating quality food, you can eat plenty and loose weight while your lifts jump. Lifting weights burns tons of calories, so weight loss is a by product of lifting.

Since your focus is on powerlifting, I would encourage you to post your 1RM goals for bench, deads and squats, for which you believe is doable, say by the end of the year. Keep them reasonable. The 35 and older crowd has a lot of strong lifters who are happy to answer questions. It’s a good idea to leverage the site. I’m looking forward to watching your progress.

10

[quote]Crushed_Idiot wrote:
Squat
90x5, 100x5, 120x3
130x5, 150x5, 170x6 - My form was crap, it’s possible I’m starting too heavy but it only points out I really need to strengthen my back and abs. [/quote]

You could try dropping it down to the 120/130 range and working in volume for a few weeks. Work towards 3 sets of 10 then drop 20 pounds and do 2 sets of 8. Focus on keeping your chest up. Following up with some Good Mornings will help as well.

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@DaCharmingAlbino - I agree on all your points. The self-deprecating attitude needs to go and a combination of realism and optimism needs to flourish

@Wiex - I don’t intend to obsess about wt/bf but I do want to track the numbers from the start nor do I intend to cut back the food intake for the first cycle. On the diet side I don’t want to upset what I’m currently used to by too much, so I’m keeping it the same as before but add more protein as my hunger dictates and really try to listen to what my body wants, whether it be animal or vegetable. I did hint at my first set of PL goals with bench@225, squat@315, and DL@405, OHP would be nice @225 but let’s shoot for 175. As for dropping my squat numbers it’s probably a good idea but I’m stubborn and want to see through this first cycle at the current numbers. I will be doing extra squatting at low weight to help form plus the GMs and ab work which I didn’t do much of this first week.

@kpsnap - Thanks for the welcome.

Later today - Militaries in week two. First, a bit of breakfast then a brunch I have to go to.

12

[quote]Crushed_Idiot wrote:
“The idea is this log creates some accountability to NOT QUIT. I’m weak as shit and too tubby on top of everything.”

Welcome Crushed,

The accountability will really fall back to you. The log is only a place to scribe information, but you’ll ultimately need to keep yourself accountable to move forward towards your goals.

“Weak” not really. Your numbers are pretty decent for a beginner, which I’m one myself. “tubby”, lets just say I’m jealous your so light!

As others have mentioned, use this log to document your goals, and daily/weekly lifting activity. You’ll find that all of the regulars in the 35 and over forum are extremely supportive and you’ll get some sound advise.

Are you working out at home or a gym?

Keep working out, and log your progress. I look forward to following your progress.

13

Hi, Crushed. Wow, you reached those levels after only a year of training? That’s way better than I did. It took me decades to lift that much. No, really . . . it did. On bench alone, it took about 10 years to go from 95 lbs to 115. Seriously. Anyway, don’t feel sorry for yourself, there’s always someone who had it worse.

X2 on what Wiex says, keep protein up. Remember, it’s not fattening. Keep carbs reasonable. You should feel healthy and the pounds should come off.

14

Thanks Urbanman & Cavalier.

@Urbanman - I’m a garage goer. I picked up a squat stand that doubles for benching, an incline bench, men’s and women’s olympic bars with about 500lbs of plates, plus a dip stand for cheap. I’ve cobbled together something to practice pull-ups with a few bands, and a lat pull-down with pulleys from home depot. Damn they’re squeaky. Plus some powerblocks for dumbbell work. Anyway, I have enough that I can remain self-sufficient for the foreseeable future.
I do need some kind of platform in the garage for the equipment because the concrete sucks, but it needs to be completely watertight as I get a lot of water in the garage from spring melting and heavy rains. It doesn’t help the concrete cracked so water can come up from under the pad.

@Cavalier - Technically I’ve been on and off since 2010 with most of it off. I think when I started my bench was around 110-115. If we’re talking about training as an adult I did a few stints on the body for life program in 2004-2005 where I did get a bit of strength (at the time my wife said I had keyboard arms since I’m in I.T. My forearms were bigger than my arms, it’s a bit more balanced.)

Alright. Enough dilly-dallying. Time for overhead pressing.

15

20130818 - Week 2 Day 1 - Military Press

Hip and shoulder mobility warm-ups with YWTL on incline bench (bit of rotator cuff and deltoids)
Military
barx10, 55x5, 70x3
80x3, 90x3, 100x9

Squat
90x8, 105x8, 120x6

Pull down
50x10, 75x10, 75x10

Rear Fly
10x10, 15x10

Bat Wings
15x10, 25x10

Plank
35, 25, 23 seconds

I put my grip much much wider on the squat and guess what, my right elbow isn’t complaining at me! I felt good throughout and did a bit more than I planned, but I ain’t complaining.

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Welcome. Good luck on your goals.

17

Thanks Hawk.

Had a post WO shake and for supper some nice free range Angus burgers from Costco. Happy happy. Followed by a hot bath with epsom salts - then work called and I had to call that short, dammit.

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[quote]Crushed_Idiot wrote:
Thanks Urbanman & Cavalier.

@Urbanman - I’m a garage goer. I picked up a squat stand that doubles for benching, an incline bench, men’s and women’s olympic bars with about 500lbs of plates, plus a dip stand for cheap. I’ve cobbled together something to practice pull-ups with a few bands, and a lat pull-down with pulleys from home depot. Damn they’re squeaky. Plus some powerblocks for dumbbell work. Anyway, I have enough that I can remain self-sufficient for the foreseeable future.

Very cool sounds like you’ve got a pretty decent start on a gym. I had a full free weight set up with power cage, and three bars for squat, bench, and deads in my old garage. We moved earlier this year and the cage had to go do to space constraints. I liked the convenience of working out from home.

19

[quote]Crushed_Idiot wrote:
20130818 - Week 2 Day 1 - Military Press

I put my grip much much wider on the squat and guess what, my right elbow isn’t complaining at me! I felt good throughout and did a bit more than I planned, but I ain’t complaining.[/quote]

See, already learning all the tricks! Every workout is an adventure! Congratulations on starting, and remember as long as you never stop, you’re always going forward.

20

Yep knew it, only in IT… YYYYMMDD, sometimes YYYYMMDDHHMMSS.
What sort of hip mobility are you doing?