3 months -- Thanks!

[aager]

Started SS in late June, having never really done barbell work aside from bench press before, but on-and-off gym attendance for nearly 20 years (most of it isolation stuff, 'cause I didn't know better).

Anyway.

Starting weights:

Squat: 95 lbs. (had never squatted before)
Press: 60 lbs. (had pressed, but seated, and I always sucked at it)
Power Clean: 45 lbs. (empty bar; never did this before)
Bench: 95 lbs. (plenty of benching in the past, with decent form even, but none for a while)
Deadlift: 95 lbs. (had never deadlifted before)

I took the "start low, go up small, keep progression going" approach: 10 lbs for squats and deads, 5 on everything else. Eased up on squats a few weeks back to 5 lbs/week.

Current weights @ 3x5:
Squat: 240 lbs.
Press: 100 lbs. (argh, still sucks!)
Power Clean: 115 lbs. (5x3)
Bench: 155 lbs.
Deadlift: 235 lbs.

Me = 6', 230 lbs., a bit tubby in the middle.
Now = still tubby, same weight, bigger shoulders and arms, WAY more confident under heavier weights, and I know that deads and squats can keep going up for a while. Power cleans are moving along surprisingly well. Press is irritatingly slow, but oh well. Bench is moving into PR territory soon, which is quite cool.

Almost all of these lifts are easier now, since I've added tons of milk and food and quite worrying about my midsection. Will deal with that later.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I like your attitude. Glad we could help.

[tate]

Coach,
I have a nearly identical experience to the poster above, and also wanted to personally thank you for Starting Strength. I come from a background of long, slow distance running until I stumbled upon crossfit, which I quickly realized was a better approach to all-around fitness. It also made me realize how weak I was, so I bought SS in order to become a better crossfitter in the long-term, and at some point I'll go back to crossfitting full time.
Anyway, I am 31 years old, 6'2", started at 176 in mid-July (now 185):

My improvements for 3x5 are as follows:
Squat: 85 to 200#
Bench Press: 120 to 172.5# (baseball bat weights a great idea!)
DL: 185 to 290# (Long arms/legs and short torso)
Press: 80 to 105#
PC: 85# to 145#

I've reset the squat and press once each, but I'm still making linear progress. So, thank you very much for SS and your time on this forum, which has been very helpful in answering my questions (the search function works well!).

[Tiburon]

Current weights @ 3x5:
Deadlift: 235 lbs.


Are you doing deadlifts x5x3 or x5x1? Throw an extra 40 pounds on there and do just one set of five next time.

[aager]

Are you doing deadlifts x5x3 or x5x1? Throw an extra 40 pounds on there and do just one set of five next time.

Woops, deads are x5x1.

Planning on giving some max weights a shot in the next two weeks, to see what I can really haul around.