questions from skinny novice

[kuse]

I joined a nearby gym yesterday. Will begin SS tomorrow.

I am 29 Y/O male
5'8
117 LB

My only previous training experience was in my first 2 yrs of college baseball. We were assigned a routine that was actually somewhat similar to SS. Same general principals; multi joint lifts, low volume, liner progression, below parallel squats etc.
The problem is I believed in the whole squats fuck your knees thing, plus i think had a bit of the bro mentality. Bottom line I did a year of the upper body lifts and nothing else.

As for why I am 117 Lbs at 5'8. Fast metabolism combined with perpetual undereating. I have no idea how to estimate my calorie intake on average because it can vary considerably from day to day. like 1000-4500

I am a decent athlete 28.5 vert even with the 75 lb squat.

my goal is to gain a lot of strength in a short time. I dont have specific numbers in mind. I dont intend to ever do any advanced strength programs or competitions. I just want to reach a point where much of the easy progression is stalled, and then maintain from there.
Also I dont care how fat I get (if it is even possible)


My friend has a squat rack/home gym
I tested squats, bench and press on 5 reps at one set

Bench: 155
Press: 115
Squat: 75

The press and bench were done with ease while I struggled mightily on the squats. I was certainly aware that I was not in proportion but i am shocked at the extent of the difference.

I have read many posts in forums by people who started or are starting SS, asking if they can make various adaptations to the SS routine. Inevitably the answer is always "NO. Just fucking do it as is" or something to that effect.
Given my unique circumstances would I not be better off with only Squats, Deadlifts, Powercleans until my lower half catches up a bit?

In terms of nutrition my thinking is eat everything i can all the time. Someone suggested to me that was stupid and i instead should increase intake 500 kcal/wk
Any thoughts please?

How long usually until progression slows to the point that gains are slow/impossible on SS?

Other than creatine and weight gainer any worthwhile supplements?



I will start a log after my first week let everyone know how its going.
Please i dont want to be so fucking skinny. its not good

[Tom Campitelli]

Yeah, 117 is very light for 5'8" dude. However, you have the right idea here. Eat and train. Don't worry about your upper body lifts being out of proportion. That will right itself in time. Keep benching and pressing and make them go up, too. If you are near a Starting Strength coach, look them up and get a session to over the lifts to make sure things look good. You are in the enviable position of getting to eat a lot of food. If you need to, count your macros for a few days to get an idea of what it takes to consume 2500 calories and at least 150 grams of protein. That is not nearly enough to make you big, but given that you claim to eat as little as 1,000 calories a day, getting some consistency going would be good. Then, you will go up from there. Milk will be your friend here, too.