Lifting More at the Shore
I ramble, so I'll start with the tldr: have done Starting Strength twice in the past, haven’t touched a weight in about 2 years, but invested heavily in a garage set-up so that I can take training seriously for the long-term
I am very excited to join these forums and start a log. I hope to learn from all of you and in turn share any knowledge that I currently have plus any that I acquire, with others.
Background: 26 year old male. 6’0” 195 lbs. I was an athlete for almost my entire life. Played almost every sport at one point or another but my main organized sports ended up being soccer and tennis. I played 1 semester of D1 college tennis before being forced to “retire” due to back issues. I saw multiple PT’s, orthopedic doctors, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, etc. A lot of things gave minor temporary relief, but all that one of these “experts” needed to say was, “get your damn back stronger”. I resigned myself to the fact that I would be living with back pain for the rest of my life, but a few years later, I came across starting strength. Some squats and deadlifts later, boom, back never hurt again. Also had the option to play collegiate soccer or basketball, so it’s kind of sad to think what I might have been able to do had I known about strength training back then. I was always very skilled, but lacked adequate strength/speed to compete at the highest levels.
I’ve had basically two runs through starting strength (haven’t touched a weight in just over 2 years due to life, etc.) and never really made it past the advanced novice stage. Max sets of 5 to the best of my memory were approximately 330 for DL, 230 for squat, 175 for bench, and 115 for press. I was probably up around 210 lb when I did those. Not impressive, I know. I am convinced that my body never developed properly due to the fact I was a bagel, French fry, pizza kind of vegetarian throughout my entire youth. A few years ago during my 2nd go around with SS was when I finally began eating better, including chicken and fish.
I’ve been itching like crazy to get back under the bar, but haven’t been able to make it work logistically, until I finally wore my wife down to the point of surprising me with a squat rack for my first Father’s Day. It’s one of the Rogue ones that can fold into the wall, so we still have 2 car garage access when I am not training. It’s been installed, and I am just waiting on the rest of my gear to arrive (Rogue Ohio Power Bar, Rogue flat bench, spotter arms, and 375 lb in Troy VTX Olympic Weights, which I found off-color 9% off on adamantbarbell.com including free shipping on orders over $400) and I will begin Starting Strength instantly.
Goals: Get strong, healthy, and functional again. I don’t want my body to hurt, or my back to ache when I get out of bed in the morning. I don’t plan on ever competing in a meet, and I’m not trying to become the biggest or strongest guy on the planet, but I want to have a reasonable amount of strength to the point where if our boat gets stuck on a sandbar (yes, I live at the beach), I can easily hop off and push it off by myself. If I play in another basketball league with coworkers, I want to be the strongest guy on the court. I don’t want my son to feel so heavy when I lift him in the air. I also want to be a good example for him as he grows and possibly gets into athletics.
I think a cool goal for me might be a 1,000 lb big 4 total (shouldn’t be too difficult), or a 500 lb deadlift (400 lb shorter term), or a 185lb (45+25 looks pretty bad-ass overhead) press. Looking at my squat #, you can see that I was always a weak squatter so I hope I can get that figured out and maybe eventually do 3 plates for a set of 5.
But for right now, like I said, I’m just going to run Starting Strength through linear gains and more than likely an advanced novice program and then see where I want to go from there. Maybe keep trying to get stronger, maybe maintain and incorporate HIIT, not really sure at this point.
Right now, I don’t mind if I end up gaining a few lbs as long as I am getting stronger in the process. It’s easy enough to cut at some point if I want to.
Diet/Recovery: Was never really a huge fan of protein powder, so I’m going to try to go without it and see how it goes. I’m planning on cleaning up my diet to the point where it looks something like this:
Breakfast – Double or triple egg and cheese on whole wheat toast + glass of whole milk
Lunch – Wildcard. Might be pizza, might be pierogis, maybe a turkey and cheese sandwich, sometimes a salad loaded with greens, veggies, and some protein. Would like to try to incorporate some veggies into it as much as possible, and possibly another glass of whole milk
Dinner – We have $1 house salads at work for employees (lettuce + cukes + tomato + carrots), so I’m thinking I’ll buy chicken breasts in bulk and grill/bake them, and bring about 1 lb to work with me to eat with the salad. That should be like half my daily value of protein right there. I work late, so I’ll have another glass of whole milk when I get home before I go to bed.
Snacks – not going to buy any more junk for the house, I’m thinking my snacks will strictly be low sodium mixed nuts (cashews, almonds, Brazilian, pistachios, etc.) and the occasional peanut butter toast w/ turkey bacon (yum)
I know right now that my sleep may be far from ideal. I work 4 nights a week until midnight or 1am, and often am up with our son at 5 or 6 am. I usually try to grab a nap at some point if this is the case, but it doesn’t always happen, and it’s still not the same as sleeping straight through the night in terms of recovery I don’t think. When my wife goes back to work in September, I will be up minimum M-F at 5:30-6am with him.
Getting stronger will definitely take top priority for right now (at least through linear gains), but if a coworker wants to play tennis, or the wife wants to go paddle boarding, or I hear about a pick-up basketball game, I’m not going to not do those things in the name of recovery.
Plan of action: Get rolling. Soon as I’m all set up, I will post my first workout with initial weights, and will update after each and every one. I have had my form checked in the past, and while I am no expert, I believe I was pretty adequate in all 4 lifts. However, I plan on getting videos posted early and often considering the 2 year layoff will likely have me pretty rusty. I do have videos of all my lifts from about 4 years ago if anyone is interested.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time, and any and all input/questions/encouragement is appreciated. I am in this for the long-term, and want this strength training journey to keep me going strong for the next 65 years or so.