steve, starting from scratch

[sgtroyer]

I did day 1 of SS today. I've messed around with weights a few times before, but never for any sustained period of time, so never made any progress. I'm determined this time will be different.

Me: Male, 36yr, 5'11, 131lb.

Believe it or not, 131lb is kind of a lot for me. I'm typically more like 125. I'm pretty skinny. Which, with any luck, is getting ready to change. I'll never be huge, but normal would be nice.

I don't have any real concrete goals so far other than to stick with the plan for awhile, eat as much as I can, and see what happens. I spent the spring doing some running, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. I'm probably going to cut out the running while I'm doing the early SS progression, and then gradually add some back in a few months.

I did some form practice on the lifts at home with a cheap barbell, but I don't have any sort of rack or bench, so I was limited in what I could do. I joined a gym the other day and this morning was my first time doing the lifts "for real"

Here's where I ended up:

Squat: 95x5 3 sets
Press: 65x5 3 sets (I wrote down 55, but I'm pretty sure I had 5's on there, so I'm calling it 65).
DL: 145x5 3 sets (I forgot to do just a single set)

The squat felt fine, could've probably gone heavier, but I didn't want to overdo it. I didn't video these, but when I videoed myself at home I didn't have much trouble getting below parallel. I'll take a video someday soon here to make sure it's still okay.

The press felt not-bad on the first rep, and really hard on the last. I very nearly couldn't complete the 5th rep on the 3rd set. I could get it up above my head, but then locking out was tough. Definitely some room for improvement here.

Deadlift felt okay. I knew from videoing earlier that I had trouble keeping my lower back straight, and someone else in the gym mentioned I was letting it round this morning, so I need to work on that. But I was happy with the weight I was able to manage. Just need to make sure the form is okay.

So far, pretty fun. Can't wait to go back.

[Keith]

great start!

I put on about 50lbs doing SS but it took me a little while to really learn how to eat. unless you have real health issues I wouldnt worry about eating clean. Lots of protein and lots and lots of dirty carbs (I have a quart of milk at night with 6-10 half cooked chocolate chip cookies. I used to have a whole pie at night with a quart of milk... just changing it up a bit)

[sgtroyer]

Second day:

Weight: 131.5 (yeah, yeah, half a pound is in the noise, don't care. I'm counting it.)

Squat: 105x5x3
Bench Press: 75x5x3
DL: 155x5
Chin-ups: 5

Was hoping for a little more on the bench press, but that was definitely all I had, last rep was a little sketchy. I'll just progress slowly from there.

I threw in the chinups at the end because, well, just because. Why not.

[sgtroyer]

Third day:

Squat: 115x5x3, so far so good.
Press: 60x5, 60x5, 60x4.
DL: 165x5

Apparently I should've trusted my notes on the press, must have been 55 after all. After warming up I tried for 70 and only got a single rep. Down to 65, only got two more. Down to 60, pretty good but couldn't manage the last rep of the third set. So, 60 again next time. Weird thing, I ended up on my toes (literally, on tiptoe) at the end of a couple of reps. Clearly not getting the bar back far enough at lockout and my balance is coming forward. Plenty to work on here.

Deadlift went up, but I didn't really feel like my lower back was as straight as it should have been. Should have videoed it. Next time I'll go up just 5 lbs and take a video to make sure I'm straight.

Didn't have a BW today since I wasn't at home this morning when I normally weigh myself. We'll see tomorrow.

Edit: weighed myself this morning, 134 lbs. Progress!

[Dave Paauwe]

Hey Steve, welcome. Looks like you are doing pretty well to start off. I think if you enjoy running, you should still do it, maybe just not as much. I know that's kind of blasphemy around here, but I consider lifting a means to an end and for getting better at what you enjoy. Anyhow, hopefully the lifting will stimulate your appetite and make you want to eat. I know it did for me, although I was not exactly light to begin with.

[sgtroyer]

Yeah, I'll probably start running again soon. I stopped partially because I was starting the SS program, but also because my knee had started hurting. I was pretty sure too much running, too fast, too soon was to blame, so I figured I'd lay off that for a couple of weeks and let the knee settle down. The alternate theory was that something was wrong with my squat technique (from some beginning squatting at home over the last month) that was causing the pain. I didn't think this was the case, but I figured I'd cut out one variable and see whether the pain stuck around or went away. So far the knee has been feeling better even though I'm squatting heavier, so that makes me suspect it was probably the running after all.

I dunno if the lifting is stimulating much appetite so far or not. I've been trying to eat more often as a way of increasing the calories without feeling like I have to stuff myself sick. So far so good.

[Jugrock]

Nice start, and welcome. I've continued running/cycling while doing SS, and while it may have slowed my progress, I'm still improving and I still enjoy running. We're not too dissimilar in starting stats, I've just been at it for about 6 months.

[sgtroyer]

week 2 day 1

BW: 136.5

SQ: 125x5x3 (videoed the last two sets, wasn't getting as deep as I thought, need to work on that.)
BP: 80x5x3
DL: 170x5 (videoed this too, back control pretty good on the 1st rep but went downhill as I got tired. I may try skipping the deadlift on the next workout and see if I do better with more rest.)

Plus 4 pullups and 5 chinups at the end.

All in all, feels like good progress, but there are certainly things to work on. Maybe I'll start trying to learn the power clean to substitute for the deadlift.

[carson]

Eat!!!!!!

[sgtroyer]

What, gaining a pound a day isn't good enough? I was pleased to even see that much gain. Some people will never be satisfied.

Edit: for some reason my smiley at the end isn't showing up. Just to be clear, my response is tongue in cheek. Humor on the internet is hard.