JacobOfTX's training log

[JacobOfTX]

Quick background: Most of my life, I have been relatively sedentary. Outside of a few periods in my life where I was rather athletic, such as a couple seasons of cross country in high school, I have always struggled with obesity. In fact, even when I ran 5 miles a day in cross country for months on end, and still barely ate anything, I still couldn't even get below about 20% bodyfat.

Obesity doesn't really run in my family, so I have always wondered if my body's propensity to put on fat so easily is the result of the fact that I have been heavily medicated on antidepressants most of my life. In fact, I gained about 40 pounds of pure fat when I first switched from another medication to Zoloft several years ago, but it was the only medication that seemed to help me. But thanks to Starting Strength (strength training does wonders for major depression), I've now been off anti-depressants for about a month now, and feeling better than I ever did when I was on them.

I have never considered myself much of an athlete. I fall into the fat nerd category, writing software since I was 12 (which I do as a living now). My favorite hobbies have always been reading, video games, and watching TV. The only sports I ever past the age of six was cross country, and some martial arts training in high school and college which I honestly didn't take too seriously. I had tried strength training before, but didn't know what I was doing in the gym, so didn't see any results, so got discouraged and quit.

I have been doing the Starting Strength program on and off for about three years (mostly off). It's been difficult to build up the self discipline needed to stick with the three workouts a week. The program itself has helped me build up that self discipline though, and so I've been doing the program four months solid now, barely ever missing a workout.

I started Starting Strength because I had heard all about the amazing physical and mental benefits of strength training, and how it's one of the best ways to get in shape, especially for someone who struggles with obesity.

I am 30, 5'11".

My stats three years ago:
Weight: 240 lbs.
Waist: 42"
Estimate of BF %: 35-40%

Max weights at 5 reps in pounds when I first started (and most of these were with poor form, too):
Squat: 125
Bench Press: 95
Deadlift: 85
Overhead press: 55
Powerclean: 45

Over the course of about three years, doing workouts on average I'd say 3 times a month rather than three times a week like I'm supposed to, I got up to about this:

Squat: 265
Bench Press: 225
Deadlift: 225 (couldn't ever go past this without my lower back killing me)
Overhead press: 135
Powerclean: 135

Now, after about four months of doing my three workouts a week and really trying my best (again, these are 5 rep max):

Weight: 245 lbs
Waist: 37-38"
Body fat estimate: About 30%
Squat: 325
Bench Press: 275
Deadlift: 345
Overhead Press: 160
Powerclean: 150

Compared to three years ago, I have a massive chest and shoulders. My legs feel like oak trees now. I do wish I had some bigger arms, but I'll address that when I finish out my linear gains.

I was able to fix form problems I had been having with my squats and deadlifts. The biggest problem was that I was lifting in jogging shoes. This caused me to lean forward too much when doing squats and deadlifts. I since switched to lifting barefoot, and while I haven't experienced any lower back pain since lifting barefoot, I've noticed pain in my knees instead. I have some proper weight lifting shoes on the way.
I have also been doing my squats and bench presses on a very cushioned foam surface. Having done some reading here, I see that this is not very advisable, since much of the force generated by my body gets dissipated by the foam, and not transferred into lifting the bar.
I also adopted a bit of a wider stance for my squats - this seemed to help alleviate lower back pain as well.
Finally, with deadlifts, I changed a few things. I have had to be VERY careful with deadlifts, as despite the fact that I keep my back as straight as possible, and my chest out as much as possible when doing deadlifts, I have on two occasions injured my lower back to the point where I couldn't lift for weeks. Making sure I lean back while I do the lift, keeping the bar on my shins (I use a towel around the bar to minimize scrapes and bruises), and ditching the jogging shoes has pretty much prevented any lower back pain.
Another injury I had was tearing both of my rotator cuffs while squatting. This happened to me at the very beginning of Starting Strength. My shoulders are very inflexible. I was able to prevent this from happening again by doing the Diesel Crew shoulder rehab program. So every workout now, I typically spend 5-10 minutes warming up my shoulders and stretching them before I even touch a bar.

One minor point of concern I have is when doing overhead presses. Note that I have ALWAYS had this issue with my left shoulder blade, for as long as I can remember, whenever lifting anything above my head, even as a teenager 15 years ago. When overhead pressing, I feel a sharp pain in my left shoulder blade. I am able to minimize the pain by not doing the full range of motion. I usually stop just before my elbows lock, then I take the bar back down.

I've also found a great pre-workout meal that works best for me, after months of experimenting: a cup of oats, two scoops of whey (which is about 50g protein), and a nice big cup of coffee (alternatively just eat coffee beans). I don't take any supplements outside of a multivitamin, fish oil, and tumeric (does wonders for knee pain in the mornings). I have been thinking of starting creatine, but I've been making plenty of gains without it - although sometimes I do have difficulty with the 5th rep of bench presses or overhead presses.

GOAL: finish up my linear gains right now. I am a fairly big guy, so hopefully when I exhaust my linear gains I can, at 5 reps, bench press over 300 pounds, squat over 400 pounds, and deadlift over 500 pounds. After exhausting my linear gains, I'd like to cut my bodyfat down to a reasonable level like 20%. Some folks over at bb.com told me to go ahead and cut down to 10% right now, and then finish up my linear gains after I get there. But 10% BF seems ridiculous and almost unobtainable for someone like me who couldn't even get below 20% BF running 5 miles a day, and eating clean (couldn't have been eating more than 2500 calories a day as I was on a pretty strict diet) when I was a teenager. I'd be happy with 20% BF, but don't want to interrupt my linear gains right now. Then after getting down to 20% BF, I'll probably do the Advanced Novice program while also doing some extra work to build up the muscles in my arm more.

My goal every workout: I'm being very careful with adding weight so as to avoid injury and maintain proper form. I usually increase my squat and bench press by about 5 pounds every other workout (so effectively 2.5 pounds per workout), although I have had to reset my bench presses a few times already. Deadlift I increase 5 pounds per workout now - even though the lift seems easy, I'm still terrified of injuring my lower back again, so I'm being overly cautious. Overhead press and powerclean I will increase by 5 pounds once every 2-3 workouts. I might be able to make faster gains if I ate more, but I'm hesitant to eat 4k calories a day because I'm already overweight. When I first starting doing SS and ate 4-5k calories a day, I ballooned up to 270 pounds. I'd rather progress more slowly while keeping my bodyfat levels under control. If I had to guess, I'm probably eating about 2500-3000 calories a day right now.

Hopefully I can use this topic to help keep track of my progress and maybe get a few pointers along the way.

[Sean Herbison]

Sounds like you're pretty spot-on with what you're doing. Just two things I'll address.

One minor point of concern I have is when doing overhead presses... I usually stop just before my elbows lock, then I take the bar back down.

Partial range is never ideal, so see if you can get some help with this. Personally, I don't know what to tell you, but others on here are more knowledgeable in this area, and may be able to help you out.

I have been thinking of starting creatine, but I've been making plenty of gains without it.

I'd go ahead and add it in. It's cheap, and it's been proven to work for a good portion of the population. Worst that happens is you don't respond and you're out twenty bucks.

Keep up the good work.

[JacobOfTX]

Haven't had an update for a while, and there's a reason for it - my work schedule was insane for a few weeks, to the point where I only had time to work out once or twice a week if that. After that, my shoulder problems I had mentioned previously really started to become more of an issue. It was at a point where I couldn't even do more than 10 pushups without my shoulder killing me. I can't even do many every day tasks without shoulder pain. I finally was able to see an orthopedist since getting health insurance this year, and after doing x-rays, the orthopedist said I have an issue with a bone in my shoulder that is protruding outwards too much and pinching surrounding tissue, causing shoulder bursitis. He gave me some shoulder rehab exercises to do daily, but most of them I've already been doing, so I don't expect that the shoulder rehab exercises will help much. He said if the shoulder rehab program doesn't work, that my only option is surgery or to quit lifting. I'm not sure about surgery, though - for one I don't know if my insurance would cover it, and secondly I'm not sure how functional my shoulder would be afterwards. I've heard horror stories on other boards of guys who had this same kind of shoulder surgery, and they were never able to regain all the strength in that shoulder. To make matters worse, I also have stubborn tennis elbow on that same arm that's been there for about a year, but that's really only preventing me from going heavy on non critical exercises like arm curls. Joint issues in my family are pretty widespread, unfortunately. Pretty much every member of my family has developed some sort of joint problems in their life, but so far I'm lucky enough to have avoided major ones like Rheumatoid Arthritis - my sister and aunt have crippling RA.
My wife's family is telling me to quit lifting (they are anti-exercise in general unless it's basically walking), while my family also advised me to quit lifting, but they never supported it in the first place - they are all very cardio-centric - my family is a family of skinny bicyclists and joggers. It's frustrating, because nobody seems to understand that weight lifting is the only way I've been able to get my depression under control, and it's also the only thing keeping me sane in the midst of all my work related stress.
I'm going to diligently do the shoulder rehab exercises daily and see if they help, while going very easy on bench presses and overhead presses. Bench presses under 225 pounds or overhead presses under 135 don't seem to aggravate my shoulder much. Even though that weight is very light for me now, I'll stick with that weight and gradually increase if I can avoid further shoulder pain. At least I can trade off by going heavy on squats and deadlifts.

[Sean Herbison]

Maybe ask Callador about the shoulder issues. I don't know if his has the same cause, but he's dealing with his pretty successfully.