Training log for a latestarter

[latestarter]

37 year old Male, 6'0" started at about 190 lbs with 15-17% bf, desk job

Past lifting experience:
One "serious" week of it for soccer in college. Coach didn't know anything, we went everyday for 2-3 hours a day doing like 15-20 different lifts. Could hardly move after that - wasn't a good experience. After that I have done a few curls and bench maybe once every year or so (American male standard lifting program). I always thought of myself as 'strong' - I guess we shall see.

Joint injuries (in case anyone has some wonderful advice):
Broke both ankles and numerous sprains (soccer)
Surgery on left knee, torn meniscous (wakeboarding)
Medial epicondylitis / Golfer's elbow on right elbow for past 2 years (racquetball and probably dirtbike)
Recurrent shoulder dislocation both shoulders (you name it)
Will lifting strengthen my joints?

Why:
It seems like I always have to train for something. For most of my life that was soccer. Now that I don't play anymore I need something to train for, something to reach for. I tried running but I hate it, always have. I figured I still want to be able to do fun activities with my kids when they are teenagers and older, and getting strong will probably allow that (I hope). I have a bunch of other hobbies and I figure this might help there as well.

Goals (lbs):
Squat: 333x5x3
Bench: 250x5x3
Dead: 393x5x3
Press: 150x5x3
Chins: +45x10x3
Weight: ~200

Why these numbers? I basically took my desired weight (198) and went to this table here and picked the advanced numbers (Elite? no I didn't want to seem cocky). Then adjusted them to 5 reps (did my own thing on chins). I figure if I can hit these numbers at about 200lbs then I should be doing pretty good (at least I should be harder to kill, right).

Here is my log and yes you will notice I am not doing the program correctly. Why you ask? Because if I followed the program exactly, then in 1 year I would be 250 lb's of solid muscle. Professional sports teams would all want me, and they would offer me contracts for hundreds of millions. After that, beautiful women would throw themselves at me night and day. Obviously this won't do. So I HAD to modify the program, plus I am probably smarter than the guys with 30 years of experience, since I have zero.

So far...

Progress 9-11-13.jpg

Missed press at 131, need to get smaller plates
Switched to pullups instead of chinups to see if it will help elbow

[latestarter]

9-11-13

Squat: 208x5x3
Bench: 197x5x2, 197x4x2
Rows: 153x5x3
Shrugs: 153x5x3

Felt a sharp pain in my right shoulder on the last rep of the second set for bench, only got 4 on the last set. Really sore this morning, hope it's nothing serious.

[Nick Klemetson]

Curious as to why your weights are all offset and increasing by 5.5 lbs each workout instead of 5. Is it your individual plates/bar?

Also, your chart is a little hard to decipher. Are you alternating squatting and deadlifting every workout?

[latestarter]

WorkoutNick,

I got a set of used plates for cheap, but they are in kg (10, 15, 20, etc) so the smallest jump is 5.5 lbs. I need to get some smaller plates because the jumps are getting to big for the press and bench. To make things a little more complicated my bar weighs 43 pounds also.

Yep - squat then deadlift.

[Nick Klemetson]

Gotcha. If listing in lbs is easier for you, then cool. But most people here understand how much 80kg, 100kg, 150kg is. Food for thought.

Is there a specific reason you're deadlifting every other workout? Eventually that will catch up with you. I know one of your intro paragraphs talk about modifying the program, but it's a little bit snarky and I'm not sure exactly what it means.

[latestarter]

I use pounds because the numbers are bigger, that way I don't feel like such a wuss.

Just wanted to get my deadlift up (and they seem to be helping my back problems), I might switch that in a while though.

[latestarter]

9-13-13

Deadlift: 257.5x5x3
Press: 120x5x3 (and 87x10x2 - shoulder still sore from other day)
Pullups: 35.75x5x3
LTE: 66x10x3

[latestarter]

9-16-13

Squat: 213.5x5x3
Bench: 25x5x3 (shoulder is still messed up)
Rows: 158.5x5x3
Shrugs: 158.5x5x3

[latestarter]

9-23-13

Deadlift: 263x5x3
Press: 122x5x3
Pullups: 38.5x5x3
LTE: 71.5x8x3

Went pretty good, still tired from dirtbike trip.

[latestarter]

9-25-13

Squat: 219x5x3
Bench: (shoulder is still messed up, sets of 25 reps)
Rows: 164x5x3
Shrugs: 164x5x3