INTRO
Hey all. I thought I would join the forum and start a log to keep track of my progress. I am 25, 6’1 tall and weigh 73 KG (always been on the skinny side). Despite being a stranger to the gym I’ve always loved sport and am a naturally athletic guy (but not a naturally strong one). My main sport is fencing. I compete at a national standard and have a decent ranking, but my goal is to reach an international level. SS actually seems like the perfect base for S&C as squats and cleans are perfect exercises for fencing. My body seriously lacks strength in certain areas and has many muscle imbalances which are holding me back.
OBSTACLES:
Knee pain: Right now I have a very serious case of Chondromalacia patella in both of my knees. I’ve seen a physiotherapist, done the exercises and it’s only helped a little. This condition will no doubt slow my squatting progress down but I will aim to do what I can and keep up some light physiotherapy alongside it. If this fails to cure them my only remaining option surgery.
Fencing (Competitions & Training): Outside the gym I have 3 fencing sessions a week (although I am cutting down to two due to my knees – and whilst fencing I am resisting movement as you are always in a partial squat in fencing). I also have around 10 competitions a year but they are often concentrated meaning some months I have 2 in a row and other times I have a couple months off.
GOALS:
I’ve never properly squat or benched more than 40KG so I will start pretty much from the bar. One of my big goals is to increase my body weight to the ideal figure of 80-84KG. This means gaining 7-11KG of muscle. I’ve seen one elite fencer with PB’s of 165KG squat, 95KG bench press, 95KG cleans. Not too bad considering they really weren’t ‘a big guy’ (84KG). They also did a lot of clean and jerks/snatches which I’ll look into in the future. For now I’ll focus on just increasing my lifts.
N.B!
• I’m doing 5x5 not 3x5 at the moment since the weights are all very low.
• I can’t do cleans in my gym as there is no space to do it safely. At some point I will need to find a gym where I can do cleans. Till then I’m not 100% sure what extra exercise I could do.
• I still need to finish reading the SS book. I’m working my way through it now but don’t want to delay starting the program.
Start (12 October 2015):
Height: 6' 1 (185 cm)
Weight: 73 KG (162 lbs)
Squat: 30 kg ( 66 lbs)
Bench: 35 kg (77 lbs)
Deadlift: 40 kg (88 lbs)
Press: 20 kg (44 lbs)
Thanks for reading. I’ll post my progress weekly so expect something by the end of the week.