From Weak 40 year old to Starting Strength Samurai
G-day there.
I'm a 42 year old Aussie male living in Tokyo. I've posted a few form checks here and spent probably too much time checking out other people's form but I've been learning a lot here so far and it's been a lot of fun. My wife laughs every time she comes in the room and Rip is on the screen talking again. Anyway, I was reading a few logs today and though this might be a way to keep me inspired and motivated to keep going.
I got into the gym last February when I was a skinny 59.3kg with no muscle on me, in a bad state mentally and physically. Not knowing any better, I bummed around on machines at the direction of the trainers in the gym and eventually worked out after doing some research that I needed a barbell to get strong and put on weight. I started a SSLP (actually a similar program to Starting Strength) from around June. I splurged and bought myself a squat rack, bar and some plates and now work out at home and love it. I've had to reset a few times due to injury, working on form etc., but have followed the program steadily and eaten like a horse to get to my new stats below. As I was a complete beginner with no experience and weak, I started all my lifts with just the 20kg bar.
Current Stats:
MALE
42 y.o.
179cm
81.8kg (22.5kg gain in 12 months)
SQUAT - 90kg 3x5
BENCH - 57.5kg 3x5
PRESS - 39.375kg 3x5
DEADLIFT - 90kg 1x5
I've gotten my squat to 90kg which I'm happy with but my form at that weight is pretty rough. I'm also pretty burned out mentally and physically from setting new PRs each week this last month. For those reasons, I've decided to reset and add a bit of variety to the squat in the form of HLM while aiming for steady gains, and giving a bit more volume to the deadlift which I think I can benefit from for a short while. Being 40 I feel like I could benefit from a bit of a light day. The bench and press I hope to get a bit more out of the NLP while micro-loading.
Anyway, it's good to be here and I'm thankful for the book, website and the community here which has inspired me to believe that I can actually get out there and become a stronger person all round.
Cheers.
Matt