Hello, I am new to the forum and I have some interesting questions to ask, at least for me and I hope that someone will help me, because I am committed to training and I want to progress. Generally I am novice and my numbers are not so high although I started to go to gym 9-10 months ago, I made mistakes and I did not know much about the linear progression and strength programming.
So I am here to learn and hopefully improve myself, I was reading about the starting strength program and I understood many things, however some are still unclear to me.
My numbers :
Bench : 65 kg - 143.3 pounds for 4 repetitions
Overhead press : 32,5 kg - 71.65 pounds for 4 repetitions
Deadlift - recently started and had 2 sessions, feeling pretty good - 55 kg did for 3 sets of 5 repetitions
Squat : Able to do with just my body - unable to do with bar on my back - no enough depth - so I did not do them
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Dips - 26,5 kg for 5 reps
Pull ups - 5 repetitions - body weight
I mixed up many things, trained more often and did not involve linear progression on right way also did not have enough rest between the sets
My questions :
1. Because I am unable to do the squat how should I train deadlift, should I do more sets, like I did 3 sets of 5 ?
2. How should I warm up for deadlift, if my working set would be 60 kg next time, should I do 1 or 2 sets with 40 kg before ?
3. Should I do lunges for example instead of squat, as substitute ?
4. What is the most optimal time to rest between sets of deadlift and also other lifts like bech press and overhead press 5 or 7 minutes ?
5. Until now I did not have access to the fractional weights and no gym had them in my area so I decided to purchase them, should I now go from 65 kg bench press to 52 kg bench press for example and work my way up adding 2 kg and than 1,5 kg and than 1 kg, because I thing that I can still benefit from the linear progression ?
6. How do I exactly know the lenght of phase 1 and 2 (asking because of deadlift and power clean now ) because there was written 1-3 weeks for phase 1 and phase 2 several weeks to several months ?
7. During the phase 2 do I still workout 3 days and do I alternate each day with deadlift and power clean ? For example : A - Deadlift B- Powerclean A - Deadlift other week - A : Power clean B: Deadlift A: Power Clean and so on ?
Thanks for the polite answers.
Thank you for the answer Mark, although I hoped that someone would answer me questions here.
The questions are answered in the book. Sometimes you have to find the answers for yourself, instead of asking people to do the work for you. If that is your habit, you will not get very far using this program.
I did not want to be provocative nor to insult anyone, I really do not want someone to do my work as well otherwise I would not start training anyway. I will try hard to succeed with this program, especially because I think that I can still benefit a lot using linear progression regarding my upper body lifts and deadlift. You did a lot of help with your youtube videos and I am tahnkful for that.
read the book(s),
it's all in the book(s),
invest in yourself.
1. Read and study the book.
2. Find a Starting Strength Coach and book a few sessions. They'll get you squatting properly, and help you fix technique problems in your other lifts as well.
3. Rinse and repeat.
4. Profit.
Thank you for advice, unfortunately I am not in USA to be able to find SS coach, however regarding the other lifts I am pretty much sure about my form, regarding the squat however I need practice and stretches. I think my dorsiflexion is not so big and maybe I have tightness in my hips.
So, you're not going to read the book?
Actually I already found the book (SS 3rd edition), and I am going to read chapter 2 especially and also chapter 8, everything else except part with power clean I think I do not need, I can just see a bit if there is something interesting.
My press, deadlift and bench press feel fine and I think the form is okay. Like I said before I did not start training in order to lose my time, I eat a lot, spend a lot of my time on training, cooking, watching videos and I want to see results.
Also, I know that I can squat, if I can do it with my body I should also be able with a barbell. Actually I can squat even with a barbell probably but I need to take ultra wide sumo stance but I feel uncomfortable on that way between my legs close to the hips, and I have no intention to hurt them.