James39's Turning 40 Starting Strength Log

[James39]

I am 39 years old, 6’1” and 188#. My current weights are DL: 215; SQ: 185; BP: 155; PC: 95; OHP: 95. I was quite athletic up until about 11 years ago. Over the past 11 years I became horribly out of shape. I am doing this log to track my progress toward a comeback. Please feel free to provide comments and/or suggestions. I would really appreciate any and all guidance.

The Good Years: In high school and college I was a competitive track and field athlete. I won my NCAA Div. III regionals in the pentathlon (HH, LJ, SP, HJ, 1000) and had one of the top five Div. III scores nationally that year. My best individual event was the high jump at 6’ 7.5”.

After college I quit track and field and joined the Marine Corps. I did quite well in the endurance challenges and for my first several years I would regularly maximize the physical fitness test (20 dead hang pull ups; 80 full sit ups in 2 minutes; and 3 miles in less than 18:00) and endurance courses (long runs with packs, etc).

The Bad (Athletic) Years: Then I got married and my priorities changed. Then we had a child and my priorities changed even more. I also left the Marine Corps and entered a challenging and demanding office career. A close family member had serious medical problems and that changed my life even more.

Past Health History: For the past 11 years I rarely exercised at all. I have probably averaged 2 fast food or microwave meals per day. There were periods of 6+ months when I ate more than 90% of my meals from fast food restaurants. I would also eat bags and bags of candy and potato chips. I regularly “joked” with one of my co-workers that I ate green jelly beans instead of vegetables.

Fortunately (and amazingly), I never got really “fat.” I never weighed myself, but I guess my heaviest was roughly 200#. But, I was horribly out of shape. I could not walk ¼ mile without getting winded. I could not do a single pull up. I was so inflexible that I could not sit on the floor for more than 5 minutes (it was simply too uncomfortable). I could not even sit on the floor without putting my hands on the floor to support my torso. My joints would ache if I sat in any one position for more than a couple minutes. I could not “wrestle” with my young son. In order to build a puzzle with him on the carpet floor I would have to bring over a chair to sit in. Over the years I tried a few times to “get back in shape”, but it never worked. It simply hurt too much to run or was simply too inconvenient. About five years ago I bought a membership to a gym and went one time.

The Inspiration: This past summer I spent an inspiring day with one of my cousins. He is 10 years older than me, has three kids and a more demanding job. He too got horribly out of shape, but a couple years ago he simply decided to make a comeback and he did. He got into shape and eventually started competing competitively in tennis tournaments. I watched him win a local tournament. He gave me a new way of looking at things and addressed all the reasons why I was “justifying” my horrible situation. After that day I simply had no excuse anymore and I was very motivated. Three years ago he was much worse off than I am now so I knew there was simply no reason I could not do what he did. However, I had to do it in my own way.

The Goal: My goal is to compete competitively in 40+ masters track and field events (pentathlon and high jump) in 2014. I am determined to do it by being “smarter” than I was in college. Lifting and getting strong is clearly the key.

In September and October I went to the track and did some high jumping. I am embarrassed to even write here how poorly I did. I also pulled a hamstring and realized I need to be much more careful than I was in college. I eventually found results from 40+ masters events and see that everyone else has slipped quite a bit and if I get back in shape I could be quite competitive.

Weightlifting History: In high school and college I lifted weights, but my lifting was always secondary to my track work. I did a lot of plyometrics, sprints, lunges, technique work, etc. I always thought of lifting seriously in an off season, but I never wanted to change what was “working” for me.

For the three years after college I spent a lot of time in the gym. I was one of the guys who benched more than he squatted. I recall benching 225# six times. I could also fairly easily do 20 dead hang pull ups. I did not keep a log so I don't remember what my other weights were.

Recent History: In September of 2012 I bought a membership to my local gym (at a local college), started working out and doing research. The first month I lifted very light weights and basically just figured out my 10 rep maxes for each lift and very slowly progressed. I also bought Starting Strength and started reading. I had never done the deadlift or power clean (or squatted correctly) before so it took a while before I was able to work them into my preliminary workouts.

In October I started doing a basic form of the Starting Strength workout minus the power cleans. I progressed fairly well. Unfortunately, I took two trips and also caught the flu which set me back.

Working out has already changed my life. Thank you Rip and Starting Strength. I am much more flexible now. I can easily sit on the floor with my son. I rarely have joint pain. When I walk I feel strong. My pants are fitting much looser (I never realized that I was a bit fat around the waist). I have desires to eat healthy food. I never really knew what having hip muscles felt like. It feels good.

During the past week I got back on track with my workouts (after my trips and the flu). I recently incorporated the power clean into my workout. I have read all of Starting Strength (minus some of the ancillary exercise sections and the section on injuries) and I feel I am now ready to very seriously “do the program.”

My Workout: will consist of the standard Starting Strength workout plus one out of every four workouts I will do my assistance exercises (chin ups, Romanian deadlifts and calf raises). There is nothing in Starting Strength about calf raises, but I feel I should do them. Perhaps power cleans work the calves enough? I don’t know. For now, I am going to do them until I can figure out if I really need to do them or not.

My workout will look like this:

A:
Squat
Bench
Deadlift & Calf // Chin ups & RDLs

B:
Squat
Press
Power Clean

As mentioned above, my current weights are DL: 215; SQ: 185; BP: 155; PC: 95; OHP: 95. Based on my last few workouts, I feel like my squat is close to failure. I actually “failed” recently when I was coming back from the flu and tried to do 190. I was definitely weak because of the flu and I will have to see how that goes tonight when I re-try 190. The rest of my exercises feel challenging, but do-able, at current weights. I do wonder how much further I can really go. I have been deadlifting every workout so far so perhaps doing less deadlifting will help. I also have had only one good power clean workout (it took a long time to feel like my form was good enough to count) so that number seems quite low now.

Progress and Increments: I definitely need 1.25# weights. I ordered them online today. I will move to 2.5# increments in the squat when I get the weights. I will keep going with 5# increments in the bench and OHP until I get closer to failure. I will go up 10# or 15# in the deadlift until I get closer to failure. I will go up 5# in the power clean for a while just to make sure my form is good and I am progressing. I now feel that my form is acceptable or good with all of my lifts.

Nutrition: I have been doing pretty good with the eating and nutrition. Unfortunately I am lactose intolerant due to my historically horrible diet, but I have slowly worked up to a point where I can now comfortably drink two tall glasses of milk every day. I hope to continue to increase that. I also just purchased creatine and will likely try it for the next two months. I also have a protein mix that I will use after every workout. I have not counted my calories or grams too carefully, but based on my rough calculations I think I am doing about what is suggested. I am not going to beat myself up over food because I am getting what is recommended and my food history is so bad.

Additional Exercise: I usually don’t do too much real exercise other than lifting. I do often walk about a half a mile at lunch. I will likely go to the track at least once a week to do sprints and/or technique work.

Additional Needs: I need to read Starting Strength again. I need to buy a weight belt. I need to get wrist wraps for the deadlift (I have requested seatbelts from a mechanic friend). I need to buy shoes (I am now using Chuck Taylors). I need to figure out if I can somehow video my form. I need to figure out if I really need bumper plates (my gym does not have them and I really do not want to change gyms. I don't think I need them now).

Misc: I have had good luck using a log to track my progress in my other hobbies so I am hoping this log will keep me motivated and keep me consistent toward my long term goals.

I am definitely a novice and obviously still learning about real strength training. I would really appreciate any comments or suggestions from anyone who reads this log.

[Mark E. Hurling]

A budding geezling. Welcome to the flock.

[James39]

Thank you Mr. Hurling for welcoming me to the flock of geezers. It feels kind of strange to be considered a geezer, but I must face the facts as they are.

Today's workout went well. Unfortunately, the college wrestling team was working out when I got there and they were using both squat racks. I did bench and deadlift and still had to wait about 20 minutes for the squat rack.

Bench: 160x5x3
Deadlift: 225x5x1
Squat: 190x5x3
Calf: 135x10x3

Bench felt easy. I had a spotter, but really did not need him. Deadlift felt pretty good too. I felt like my grip was the weakest link. I also did round my back a bit I think. Squat was tough, but it felt good and I think I can still do more. I do feel a bit like I am staying bent over too long and doing a bit of a "good morning" at the end. I guess that is common from reading the board. I have not done calf raises for about a month and a half so I started light.

[Mark E. Hurling]

You can dispense with that Mr. BS and call me something else. Not that I'm offended. As you might have noted by scrolling down in The Elderly section, there is a whole geezer taxonomy. It goes like this.

40+ Geezling
50+ Geezoid
60+ Geezer
70+ Geezosaur
80+ Geezolith
90+ Geez!

So not to worry. You are not a geezer just quite yet. You have plenty of time to prepare for the complex to make the cut for Team Geezer.

[James39]

Today's weight was 189#. Today's workout:

Squat: 195x5x3
Press: 95x5x3
PC: 95x3x5

Squat kicked my butt. I almost did not get the last one. This was very close to a failure, but I kept my form so I am going to count it as a make. I feel it most in the hips. Next time out will be a good test of the system. If I make it I know for certain that I am really getting stronger with every single workout. For the first set I had to use the backup squat rack and I did not like it at all. It was not quite wide enough for me and I did not really feel safe in it. I hope it does not become a problem to get the good squat rack every time.

Press was harder than I thought it would be, but I still did the sets pretty easily.

Power Clean was fine. I am pleased enough with my form that I will start adding weight next time. My racking is not perfect, but it seems close enough. I think I just need more flexibility. I am beginning to really like power cleaning.

[James39]

Today's weight was 193#. Today's workout:

Squat 195x5x3
Bench 165x5x3
RDL 100x8x3
Chin BWx3x2, BWx2x1

I chose to stay at 195 in the squat because I have been very constipated the past few days and I was nervous how it would impact my lifting. I have never really been constipated before. Also, last time at 195 I almost failed. This time I did not have any problem. It certainly was not easy, but I am sure I could have done 200. The bench seemed fairly easy too. The system is definitely working.

One problem I have is that there is no place to do chin ups in the gym. I ended up using a square support bar on one of the squat racks. It will work, but it is not very comfortable on the hands and I cannot extend my legs all the way down.

I am definitely concerned about this constipation. I have not done anything new in the past few days except about a week ago I increased my milk intake and started creatine. I cannot believe it is either of those two things. Milk has always had the exact opposite effect on me and I used creatine in college and it did not effect me. I cannot find anything on creatine causing constipation. Oh well, if it goes on for a few more days I will worry. Hopefully I will be ready for Tuesday's workout.

[ColoWayno]

Do you take ZMA? It might help with sleep and recovery... and most importantly... that constipation. You should look it up.

[James39]

Thanks for the suggestion, ColoWayno. I had never heard of ZMA. I have looked at it and it does look like it might be a good possibility. I take a multivitamin by Optimum Nutrition and also fish oil (in addition to creatine and a protein drink after my workout). Thank god the constipation has cured itself.

[James39]

OK, this Starting Strength system is cool. It really works. I weighed in this morning at 197. Today's workout:

Squat 200x5x3
Press 100x5x3
PC 100x3x5

I just think it is so cool that I did 200 without any major problems. It certainly was not easy, but I feel I could have done 205 this time out. It is obvious that I am getting stronger. The press is getting tougher. A 5 pound jump is a lot for the press at this level. I still don't have my 1.25# weights yet, but should get them soon. I will keep going on 5# increments on the squat, but will likely move to 2.5 on the press pretty soon. Today's power clean was not hard, but I felt sloppy. Nothing horrible, but I was just not smooth. I note that my lifts seem better now that I am taking an extra warm up set on each exercise. I will keep it up.

I note that this past Sunday I went to the track and did a light workout. I tried jumping and even though I was thoroughly warmed up I really jarred my hips. I just feel fragile. I was discouraged that I really did not feel any better on the track than I did a couple months ago. Oh well. I am getting stronger and sooner or later things will come together.

[James39]

I love this workout. Today I weighed in at 197. Today's workout:

Squat 205x5x3
Bench 170x5x3
Deadlift 235x5x1

Everything felt pretty good. With the squat I feel I could have done 210. 205 felt easier than 200. I have noticed that on my first set I will get a foot cramp right when I take the bar off the rack. I also think doing more warm up sets is helping. I am going to keep going with 5# increments for a while. Bench was pretty good. Again, today was easier than last time even with more weight. I am tempted to do a 10# increment, but I won't. On the deadlift I used my wrist wraps for better grip. They worked great. 235 was tough, but I did not really have any problems with it. On everything I am doing more warm ups and I am also taking longer rest between sets. Both are helping. I skipped the calf raises (actually I forgot). I think I may skip the supporting lifts for a while.

I am interested to see what happens with my weight. I think the creatine has added some water weight, but I have been eating a ton also. I am still not able to drink as much milk as I would like, but I am working on it. I am now up to about four tall glasses a day. Unfortunately, I can only do one glass at a time and then I need to let it digest. If I do a glass of milk at lunch and have a slice of cheese on my sandwich it is too much lactose and I pay for it. Other than the milk I am doing the system by the book and it really works.