No progress for 10 years... until now

[optomisticmind]

I have always had an infatuation with strength and envied those stronger than me. I have busted my ass "exercising" for the better part of the last 12 years. Unfortunately, I have very little to show for my effort.

I have made all the mistakes: training to failure, "confusing" my muscles, program hopping, drinking every night in college, majoring in the minors, buying supplements, etc. Rather than recognize the failure of these techniques, I doubled down on them.

That ends now. Rip's no-nonsense approach has allowed me to see that there are objective ways of judging progress in the gym. I want to be big, strong, and athletic.

I am following Practical Programming 3rd Edition and this is my journey:

• Age = 29
• Height = 6'0"
• BW = 178

• Squat = 235 x 5 x 3
• Bench = 146 x 5 x 3
• Press = 102 x 5 x 3
• Dead = 255 x 5 x 1
• Power Clean = 125 x 3 x 5

PS - I was a high level lacrosse player until I was 27 and have done the Texas method once before.

[carson]

Welcome to the Gold Standard. What is your height. These are good starting weights. Let's see where the journey takes you.

[optomisticmind]

Welcome to the Gold Standard. What is your height. These are good starting weights. Let's see where the journey takes you.

Thank you for the support. I have updated my height in the post and am interested in any suggestions people have for logs to follow.

[Agilic]

Better to find SS late than never. In my experience, I would recommend erring way on the light side for starting weights. I'm sure that you will be told that gaining 30 or 40 lbs would serve you well. Best of luck and I will try to drop in as often as possible to see how you do.

[carson]

Add on about 30 pounds to your body and you will be able to sustain advances in your weight. Don't be surprised if you gain a good deal more weight than that as you gain strength.

[Scotch-Wegian]

Superstuffeddud follow him, for entertainment

Thank you for the support. I have updated my height in the post and am interested in any suggestions people have for logs to follow.

[optomisticmind]

Add on about 30 pounds to your body and you will be able to sustain advances in your weight. Don't be surprised if you gain a good deal more weight than that as you gain strength.

I am actually hopeful to add some BW. I have always been "thin" and struggled to gain weight. I did GOMAD for 8 weeks and got up to 205 but was really fat and bloated. That freaked me out, so I cut the milk and lost all but ~5 lbs over the next 3 weeks. This time around, I am starting with 1/2 GOMAD and will see how things go.

[carson]

I am actually hopeful to add some BW. I have always been "thin" and struggled to gain weight. I did GOMAD for 8 weeks and got up to 205 but was really fat and bloated. That freaked me out, so I cut the milk and lost all but ~5 lbs over the next 3 weeks. This time around, I am starting with 1/2 GOMAD and will see how things go.

If you gain weight slowly as you gain strength you will be thicker but you won't be bloated. I began at 210 and lost 6 inches from my waist and gained much in thighs, chest, back, arms, etc. and after one year I weighed 210 but was much stronger than when I started. Eat hearty and trained consistently using the SS method, get to a SS coach from time to time and you should gain weight and muscle.

[optomisticmind]

[Introduced light squat on day 2]

Squat*: 235 x 5 x 1
Bench**: 147 x 5 x 3
Clean**: 135 x 3 x 5

BW: 180
Sleep***: 8.0 hours


*I plan to do a reset rather than adding in the light day. If i stall again, I will reduce the intensity to the stated 5x2 @ 80% of day 1

**Both the bench and clean felt really good. I have been focusing on squeezing the bar as hard as possible and feel more and more stable on the bench. I used to clean a lot in football and lacrosse, but haven't cleaned seriously since then. I think (and hope), some of my muscle memory is coming back.

***Sleep has been inconsistent, so I am going to start tracking that too.

[optomisticmind]

Here is the last set of 5 from my squat session a few days ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_lB...ature=youtu.be


let me know what you think