starting strength gym
Page 1 of 10 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 100

Thread: hewmon's huffing and puffing - Starting Strength Log

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
    Posts
    76

    Default hewmon's huffing and puffing - Starting Strength Log

    • starting strength seminar april 2024
    • starting strength seminar jume 2024
    • starting strength seminar august 2024
    Aug 3, 2022

    Very first workout on the Starting Strength program.

    A bit about me. I'm a 6'2", 190 lbs, 52 year old male. I'm in decent shape, as I've been working out regularly for the past year between 4 to 5 times per week except when I'm sick. Previously my workouts consisted of waking up at 5 am and doing a 24 form simplified tai chi routine, 15 min HIIT split workout (upper body day, core day, lower body day) of mixed bodyweight and dumbbell exercises (sets of 30 secs of exercise 10 secs rest), and 30 min of fairly intense stationary bike cardio, and a full body stretch. Prior to the past year of exercise, I was at 210 lbs. So, I've lost probably in the range of 25 lbs fat and gained between 5 to 10 lbs of muscle in the past year - probably closer to 5 than 10.

    I have some previous experience with free weights weight training, having mucked about with a number of different programs earlier in my life. But I've done nothing consistently, partly due to injury, partly due to laziness, partly due to work stress and over work. I did the above past year of exercise to get myself back into shape prior to attempting to get back into real strength training, because I wanted build up my confidence by first taking it really really easy to start and slowly adding harder work. To give you an idea, I started by just doing the tai chi, which takes about 7 minutes. It took me about a month to memorize all the moves. Then I started with the stationary bike cardio at 5 min, and worked my way up to an hour by adding 5 min per week. Then dropped it to 30 min per session, but added 10 min of the HIIT, and then bumped that up to 12 min and then up to 15 min.

    But now I've decided to really go for Starting Strength, because of recommendations (such as from Wendler of 5-3-1 fame), and I've got the SS Android app. I'll be doing my best to follow Mark's program to the letter. I figure the hardest part will be eating enough food (especially with inflation... thanks Joe), but I do have a bit of a hack for that which I hope will work. Instead of a gallon of milk, since I need to stick to a low carb diet, I'll be doing a 3/4 of a quart of heavy cream per day (about 2550 calories just on its own). Protein will be primarily from whey isolate - I do a smoothie with the whey, heavy cream, unsweetened chocolate, and peanut butter that works out to about 1525 calories each with 49 g of protein. Three of those a day covers almost 4600 calories and 147 g of protein. The rest of my regular diet will be my regular healthy eating that includes meat, nuts, dairy, lots of veggies, some fruit; but no alcohol or caffeine. I don't have problem with others drinking - I just function better without it. I am hoping I don't expand into a tub of lard, and I am banking on the Starting Strength program keeping that from happening.

    For my novice period, as advised by the program, I will be ditching the cardio and stretching (unless my hamstrings really start to tighten up again, because when they are tight they cause me spinal problems). It will be the 3 times per week that Mark recommends. I will stick to the app progression (10 lbs squat/dead, 5 lbs press/bench) for now.

    Today being my first day I was at the gym a little before its 6am opening - I basically did just the exercise patterns with the barbell (squat, press, deadlift) mostly to practice getting the forms right. It went very, very easily, so I loaded the bar with 2x45 lbs plates and tried a 135 lbs deadlift. No problem. The workout went like this:

    Squat: warmup 3x3, workout 3x5 @ 45 lbs
    Press: warmup 3x3, workout 3x5 @ 45 lbs
    Deadlift: warmup 3x3, workout 3x5 @ 45 lbs + 2x1 @ 135 lbs

    Why the extra for the deadlift? Well everything went so easily, I wanted to practice my form on deads with the proper height, and the gym doesn't have any light training plates.

    For my next workout I will follow the app, but I may still add a few deads at 135 lbs to practice my deadlift form since I didn't find that weight difficult.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    1,912

    Default

    Welcome, hewmon. There's a whole bunch of us 50+ lifters here that, like you, have spent a lot of time doing other things until starting this path in our late 40's or early 50's.

    At 52, don't feel that you need to adhere to the GOMAD concept, even if you're using heavy cream. Robert Santana talks about that here. If you were 145lbs, that might be a different story. And eventually you'll find that low carb won't quite cut it. That has happened to most of us who came into this eating that way. You'll have to start adding in carbs as the weights get heavy. There's really just no way around it. Check out the Nutrition & Recovery forum for plenty of threads on that; plus, Robert is the moderator, so he can answer any questions you might have.

    Stick to the program. It works!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    New Jersey
    Posts
    5,471

    Default

    another 50+ here, don't worry too much about the heavy cream lol and you made a good call on the deads, sq i'm sure you'll be adding 10# a session for a good while look forward to seeing your progression

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
    Posts
    76

    Default

    Thanks for the info. I will try ultrafiltered milk as a substitute for at least one of the heavy cream smoothies to introduce some carbs, especially before my workouts. I will tone down on my caloric intake if it's looking like too much. I should mention, I've always been one of those skinny guys most of my life, especially when active. Even when I have not been active (like when I was recovering from a serious injury) I still stay relatively thin, although skinny fat in that case - likely because all the fat sits around my organs instead of my belly. I am fairly sure the biggest missing piece in the past when I was weight training was eating enough. That and possibly too much cardio - although I've never done a huge amount of cardio. I will also cautiously up my carb intake if it feels like I'm getting too fatigued or stalling. I just have to be careful there, because of a family history of type 2 diabetes.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
    Posts
    76

    Default

    Thanks. Yeah, it was just so easy that I had to try the deads. That said I'm not in a rush. I was partially paralyzed in the past by a spinal injury, so I try to be careful and not rush. It's just that I've found strength training is the best protection against re-injury. Hell, everything works better when I'm stronger.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
    Posts
    76

    Default

    Aug 5, 2022

    Second workout, same routine. I like to get to the gym just before opening to be first on the equipment, as there is only one power cage where I can do everything. I have to work after my workout, so being efficient is important. So far it hasn't gotten too busy at 6am, although I had a chatty cathy start up a conversation today. Luckily it didn't take up too much time. It will be interesting to see what Sunday is like, because they open at 8am. Hopefully, there will be a lot of late sleepers.

    I had some light muscle soreness in my low back and legs the day after my first workout. It had mostly faded by today. Pre-workout I had a pint of ultrafiltered milk, then finished off the 2 quarts carton after the workout.

    I won't detail the warmup sets since the app doesn't show those sets once a workout is submitted. Again, extremely easy, barely broke a sweat. And again I "cheated" a bit by doing some 135 lbs deads. I mostly just focused on form and the cues that Rip talks about.

    Squat: 3x5 @ 55 lbs
    Bench Press: 3x5 @ 50 lbs
    Deadlift: 1x5 @ 55 lbs + 3x1 @ 135 lbs

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    1,912

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by hewmon View Post
    And again I "cheated" a bit by doing some 135 lbs deads. I mostly just focused on form and the cues that Rip talks about.

    Squat: 3x5 @ 55 lbs
    Bench Press: 3x5 @ 50 lbs
    Deadlift: 1x5 @ 55 lbs + 3x1 @ 135 lbs
    Don't think you're cheating with the 135's. If anything, you're cheating yourself with the 55's.

    Straight from the Blue Book: "So 55 pounds or lighter [for the deadlift] will be the starting weight for some people, 40 kilos (88 pounds) will work for most women and lighter-bodyweight novices, and 135 pounds will work for athletes and more experienced trainees" (pg 103). Believe it or not, you fit the latter group, considering your activities before you started.

    I have no experience with the app, so I don't know how it starts people out, but it sure seems that if those are the numbers that it's giving you, it's having you start too light in at least the squat and deadlift. And while it's nice to rationalize it with "I'm learning the technique" (I know, because I did it too), you're better served learning the technique under a load that actually just starts to make you work for it, which is how the Blue Book gets a trainee started.

    Keep at it, and the DOMS will soon disappear.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
    Posts
    76

    Default

    Yeah I've been thinking of jumping up to 135 lbs myself on Sunday, for the squat and deads.

    I wanted to get a sense of my muscle reaction. Right after the first workout, it felt like I had been shot with adrenaline. I think that was just my nervous system waking up to having to recruit more muscle for the kind of weight it hadn't had to deal with for quite a while. Today there was none of that.

    Also given the amount of extra food I'm consuming, it would probably be a good idea to give my body a bit of a challenge, especially since I've given up on the cardio at least until I'm done the novice training.

    Sunday will be a good day to experiment a bit with the heavier weight, including for the presses; because I won't be worrying about having to get to work on time.

    Thanks.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    1,912

    Default

    For your squat, that 135lbs might be too much. It may not be. But follow the procedures in the Blue Book to find out (pg 27). Then use that weight to reset your app (if it allows).

    And really, that's the same process for each of the lifts, although with different jumps.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Aug 2022
    Posts
    76

    Default

    starting strength coach development program
    Thanks, yeah I had a hard time locating the exact procedure because I have the kindle version of the book. I am hoping early Sunday won't be too busy, because I'll probably need some extra time to set my squat, press and deads real baselines.
    Last edited by hewmon; 08-06-2022 at 12:47 PM.

Page 1 of 10 123 ... LastLast

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •