starting strength gym
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 19 of 19

Thread: Early stall - should I be eating more?

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2022
    Location
    Portland
    Posts
    14

    Default

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
    • starting strength seminar jume 2024
    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    Quote Originally Posted by CommanderFun View Post
    A lot of those numbers are actually fairly high for a month of novice work and being underweight.
    I'm a novice to this type of program, but I have been lifting weight pretty regularly since 2013. i finished engineering school and was completely untrained - that is when I added 20lbs.

    Quote Originally Posted by CommanderFun View Post
    If you really have that build of a short torso and long arms, your deadlift probably has the potential to fly out ahead of your squat quite a bit.
    Yes definitely. I'm 6'6" and wearing pants 31x38. I look like a scissor lift squatting. You should have seen how bad my squat was before I learned the low bar position. A set of 5 at 135 was difficult to complete. In that case my deadlift was more than 2x my squat. So I have a history of training, but with such a bad squat and no improvement in sight, it was difficult to find motivation to train the squat at all.

    Quote Originally Posted by CommanderFun View Post
    Did your starting weights all basically come out to hard but with 2 or so more reps left, or did you try to get as high of a 5 rep set as you could right out of the gate? That's what I did my first time doing this, I was overeager to get started lifting. Early stalls resulted.
    I was doing a pretty popular bodybuilding program from someone else that had "periodization". Basically I was doing the following rotation:

    week1: 12-15 reps
    week2: 9-11 reps
    week3: 6-8 reps
    week4: 3-5 reps

    Although you are supposed to increase the weight each period from the prior (week4 increase from the prior week 4), It was difficult to make much progress in actual increases when you are increasing the weight every 4 weeks. I also wasn't super focused on grinding out the 3-5 reps. In my mind it was harder and heavier than week 3, and that gave me permission to not push it. So I was in the middle of this rotation when I found Starting Strength, and I just did my first week of Starting Strength when I got to week 4. I think that may have allowed me to start at a heavier load than someone who wasn't training at all. If you did all the lifts at 6-8 reps week 3, you have a pretty good idea of how much weight you can add and still do 5.

    The program I was using worked well for getting bigger. When I found it, I went from 185 to 205 in 3 months, but I was eating a ton. But that was years ago and I was still going through the lifting program without eating much and more just maintaining.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Phoenix, AZ
    Posts
    4,613

    Default

    Any program that incrementally adds weight will get you bigger. We have our bias here but the two reasons most programs like that don't work is because A) the lifter is not adding weight and B) the lifter is performing the lifts incorrectly. I followed periodized programs in the past and made strides on my squat, chin-up, and bench press strength because I kept adding weight even when it was scary. Problem is I couldn't get past a certain point because I was performing the lifts incorrectly. Learning these methods allowed me to go much further and I started training more muscles by pressing and deadlifting consistently.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Jan 2021
    Posts
    99

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    Lebron James isn't strong, has good muscle insertions, naturally low bodyfat, does hours of endurance activity as a function of his sport, and is a professional basketball player with a standing vertical jump greater than 40 inches. Holding yourself to this standard is not productive if your goal is to build muscle and get stronger working with far fewer resources than he has.
    I remembered this thread talking about how people want to be like LeBron James, then I stumbled upon what he actually does for "training".

    Lebron James Workout (2020) - Gym Motivation - YouTube

    This pretty much tells us that LeBron James was simply born with what he has, because all of this bullshit is not doing anything to build strength. I know that people hold him up as one of the greatest basketball players, but all I see now after watching his exercise routine is a waste of potential. Look at the cringe worthy squats several minutes in. Imagine if with the genetics that he was gifted with, someone actually had him run a linear progression on the main barbell lifts and he trained the Olympic lifts too, and nothing else. It would be like the difference between Mark McGuire in his rookie season, versus where he ended up when he was taking drugs and smashing all kinds of records along the way, but in the case of LeBron James it could be accomplished without any drugs. Imagine how much better of a player he would be if he added 30 to 50 pounds of muscle mass in no time at all, since he has the genetics with that 40 inch vertical jump to do it no problem.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Phoenix, AZ
    Posts
    4,613

    Default

    I am pretty sure he added muscle mass years back. Whether he did it through training or with chemicals is a mystery.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    May 2021
    Posts
    20

    Default

    I know that I need to eat more and you almost certainly do too. I am 6' 4" and about 210. I have not gained weight for at least six months, but I don't eat enough. If a 1/4 pound hamburger patty is 21 grams of protein, I should be eating the equivalent of at least ten burger patties a day. Plus a lot of vegetables to go with all that meat. The only meal where I will hit requirement is dinner. When you live in hotels and eat in restaurants it is tough. One recent starting strength podcast guest mentioned that he brings a bunch of pre cooked meals with him on airplane trips. I will have to do the same. Perhaps you will as well.

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Phoenix, AZ
    Posts
    4,613

    Default

    Traveling is really a function of effort. You can get all that you need out of any convenience store if you take the time. Between beef jerky, milk, cereal, and the wide assortment of protein bars and peanut butter you should have no issue. A grocery store is preferred but I wanted to highlight what can be done with the last resort scenario on the road. I've been at this a while now, it's always doable if you make it a priority.

  7. #17
    Join Date
    May 2021
    Posts
    20

    Default

    Thanks Robert. I did not mean to derail this into a travel thread. Since the op and I are about same size, we have about the same nutrition needs. He is almost certainly not eating enough. It seems easy when we think of grams. A gram is just a cc of water right? Easy peasy to eat 250 grams. Ummm. That's 35 eggs a day or 13 cans of chunk lite tuna. When I run the numbers with actual food the dedication required becomes clear. One travel trick I have learned is to order two dinners and take one back to the hotel for next mornings breakfast. Your convenience store idea helps. Beef jerky is expensive but it is dense and supplements as a snack during the day. I can bake several sweet potato wrapped in paper towels in a hotel microwave for snacks. I'm not sure about most cereal. Special K is about 6 gram protein per cup so about 40 cups a day. That's gotta be a couple of boxes of the stuff. Lunch is always an issue. Did anyone ever really get a lunch hour? For some reason two sixteen ounce tbones per day seems a lot more doable than 35 eggs... I find that the shear amount of food required makes me lapse into the see food diet. When I am eating everything in sight I feel like I am eating a lot when in reality my nutrition does not hit the requirement. The scale and the barbell don't lie.

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Posts
    765

    Default

    Robert, whenever I look at jerky, the ingredient list is a mile long and loaded with sugar. How do you navigate that when you pick jerky?

    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Santana View Post
    Traveling is really a function of effort. You can get all that you need out of any convenience store if you take the time. Between beef jerky, milk, cereal, and the wide assortment of protein bars and peanut butter you should have no issue. A grocery store is preferred but I wanted to highlight what can be done with the last resort scenario on the road. I've been at this a while now, it's always doable if you make it a priority.

  9. #19
    Join Date
    Aug 2013
    Location
    Phoenix, AZ
    Posts
    4,613

    Default

    starting strength coach development program
    Quote Originally Posted by RayK View Post
    Thanks Robert. I did not mean to derail this into a travel thread. Since the op and I are about same size, we have about the same nutrition needs. He is almost certainly not eating enough. It seems easy when we think of grams. A gram is just a cc of water right? Easy peasy to eat 250 grams. Ummm. That's 35 eggs a day or 13 cans of chunk lite tuna. When I run the numbers with actual food the dedication required becomes clear. One travel trick I have learned is to order two dinners and take one back to the hotel for next mornings breakfast. Your convenience store idea helps. Beef jerky is expensive but it is dense and supplements as a snack during the day. I can bake several sweet potato wrapped in paper towels in a hotel microwave for snacks. I'm not sure about most cereal. Special K is about 6 gram protein per cup so about 40 cups a day. That's gotta be a couple of boxes of the stuff. Lunch is always an issue. Did anyone ever really get a lunch hour? For some reason two sixteen ounce tbones per day seems a lot more doable than 35 eggs... I find that the shear amount of food required makes me lapse into the see food diet. When I am eating everything in sight I feel like I am eating a lot when in reality my nutrition does not hit the requirement. The scale and the barbell don't lie.
    The see-food diet morphs into a high fat diet because fat is the path of least resistance towards higher calories. Unfortunately, it's not a great fuel source for training and pisses you off when it bumps your waistline up.

    Quote Originally Posted by mpalios View Post
    Robert, whenever I look at jerky, the ingredient list is a mile long and loaded with sugar. How do you navigate that when you pick jerky?
    Gotta make an executive decision. When options are limited you pick the best of the worst.

Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •