Goal: Gain muscle and strength, decrease bf%, and look amazing.

Background info: I'm currently 6' 2", 192lbs and unsure about my bf%. Probably 15%? maybe 13%? Not sure, never been tested. At some point I may post some super hot pics. Anyways, like a lot of people on here, I was once fat, then started running a lot after college. I lost about 100lbs, got down to about 175 and then got interested in lifting. I was instantly hooked and for the most part gave up running. That was about 7 years ago and I haven't seen much in the way of results over the last 3-4 years. I'd say that over the last year I've had some results from a cleaner diet, but not a lot of results in terms of increased strength. I haven't ever had a great disciplined lifting regiment but now I hopefully do with Starting Strength.

Nutrition: I eat really well for the most part. I'm currently trying to target about 3000 calories and 200g protein every day. I find it hard to eat so much because I generally eat meals that are like chicken, broccoli, sweet potatoes. Or tuna, rice and asparagus. I dislike fried food and probably don't eat enough fat in general. For the last year or more I've been eating around 2400 calories, of which about 10% from fat, 30% protein, and 60% carbs. Not great. It should probably be more like 3000, 20, 40, 40 or so if I want to be above maintenance.

Lifts: Currently starting SS for the first time. I've been only using a smith machine + an assortment of free weights and a cable machine about 5x/wk in my apartment's gym for the last 3 years and I finally joined a real gym this week. I'm currently in love with barbells and really excited to be starting SS. I'll be following the generic SS plan of Squats/Press/DL 3x a week. On the other days I'll plan to either take the day off or do ancillary stuff. Maybe later on I'll do some rowing for cardio if I want to cut down, maybe not. That's not really too important for now. I like working shoulders too and would like bigger, broader shoulders. I think mine are good now but that sounds appealing.

So, that's about it. I plan to update this log after my workouts and hopefully I can move up in weight, see results, get better form and all that stuff with your guys' help. Thanks for reading and all comments are appreciated!

Let's do this!! Gogogo!

Also, if you want, post nudes for bf % estimates (the avg of Soulman & Loco & maybe Country Roads is usually spot on).

And, definitely post videos in the check forum as you work on your form. You've been lifting for a while and seems you will continue for a really long time, so you may as well set yourself up long-term rather than rushing along to make maybe slightly faster gains.

ty! Yeah, I will try and get some good starting pics posted sometime soon.

Form check videos are a great idea and I hope I can take some soon. Better to start out with good form than to be building on bad form.

Feb 12:

Today is my first day of my new gym, so it's my first day of SS and first day using barbells in a long, long time. Super pumped. Not really sure what weights to be starting out at so I'm going to go slow.

Squats:
1x10x45
1x5x95
1x5x135
1x5x175
1x5x205
2x5x225
1x5x245

Not bad. Next time my first workset will be 235

OH Press:
1x5x45
1x5x65
1x5x95
1x5x105
1x5x95

I think my workset start is 95

DL:
1x5x135
1x5x175
3x5x225

Today was amazing. I absolutely every bit of it

Your squat numbers are very good for only using machines and not having touched barbells in a while. I skimped on squatting (heavy) for ~3 months and I went from 3x5 315 worksets all the way down to 235 .

nice location. gl gl

Can't be bad if you're starting off on SS with a 245lb squat.

Gl man, keep that fire burning! You're infinitely more likely to succeed if you love what you're doing.

ty guys! Yeah, I've done a fair amount of smith squats over the last few years but it was nothing terribly regular but it was always with heavy weights. Granted, it was still on a smith machine and I was only going down until I touch the bench, so while it wasn't completely worthless it wasn't exactly amazing for me.

Feb 13:

I didn't want to take a day off from the gym so instead of SS I just did some random things while learning where everything is at my gym. pullups, t-bar rows, machine rows and 100 knee raises in a captain's chair.

Feb 14:

I was really pumped for today's workout but it was going to be tough. It's Valentine's day but luckily the Mrs. was going to be at work a little late which gave me time not only to gym but also prepare the dinner I had planned. As I anticipated the gym is much less crowded today that the past 2 days.

Squats (just going to list worksets):
1x5x235
2x5x245

DL:
3x5x235

Bench Press:
3x5x205

My squats are feeling great and I love them with barbells. It's pretty incredible how different a full-squat-as-far-down-as-you-can-go is when compared to the ridiculously terrible smith-squats-to-the-bench that I was doing before.

My DL seems bad, especially compared to what I see others doing in the gym. Most guys my size or smaller are DLing ~315 so I have something to strive for. Hopefully this is more because I haven't really ever done regular DLs. I have a lot of work to make up but hopefully can increase each week.

Bench: eh, this will get better. I haven't been benching much recently so there are some gains to be made here.

for the record, SS deadlifts re usually only one set of five, rather than three.

I like that you seem stronger than I am already (or will be in a couple of weeks). Awesomesauce.

So you dropped like 80# of fat and kept it off for 7 years. That's rarefied air. Nicely done.

I'd suggest starting a little lower on the weights and spend time working on form. You obviously have the strength in your major muscles, but it is good to let the little guys that the Smith machine doesn't work a chance to catch up. 5 or 10# bumps'll have you back pushing/pulling heavy in no time.

Thanks! Like Syndrome's plan from his log, I will probably be bumping up the weight slowly. And yeah, I feel the burn today in some muscles that I didn't used to use. My hip flexors are sore today and I am looking forward to a couple days off. I assume they're sore due to squatting so low compared to the half-squat-to-bench that I was doing before.

But not yet strong, like ox.

Oh damn. I must have missed that somewhere. brb rereading.

3 felt pretty good, though, but my grip was really sliding on the last reps. I have straps that I was going to bring the next time.

I think it's better to use chalk, switch to mixed grip or both before you start using straps. I think a lot of gyms ban regular chalk, but there's some liquid version that's usually OK. Your grip strength should catch up if you give it a chance, but it won't if you use the straps.

Yeah mine doesn't allow chalk so I should probably go to mixed grip. But yeah, I would hope it would catch up over time.

Taking 2 days off to recover somewhat. I plan to get in some SS reps tmw. Hip flexors have been pretty sore for the last couple days due to the deep squats. Lower back is a little sore still from DLs. It's great

Took some super hot before pics that I'm not too thrilled to post but whatever. I tried not to flex and just stand there normally so that hopefully it would be easier to recreate the same pics later.

Front:


Back:


Estimate bf%, weak areas, anything that needs work, pls.

I felt a little better yesterday afternoon so I ended up doing my SS routine yesterday.

Feb 16:

Squats:
3x5x245

OH Press:
2x5x95
1x8x95

DL:
1x5x235
1x5x255
1x5x275

Squats felt good, last rep in the last set was tough, probably could have done another one but didn't bother trying.

OH Presses are turrible. I really need to get my #s up.

Deadlifts are good. I used a mix grip and was really pleased with the last set. Hopefully form is okay at least....I'll need to try and take a video at some point for form check.

Feb 18:

Squats:
3x5x245

Bench Press:
3x5x205

DL:
1x5x235
1x5x255
1x5x285

Saw a dude next to me today who was pretty ripped but like 5' 8" 165lbs and he was DLed 445 twice. It was absurd. I'm new to DLs but I'd be pretty happy to be at 350 in 3-6 months. That's definitely a major goal of mine. I still want to get my bench up to 225+ and get my squats up, but DL is definitely my weak point.

When squatting do I really need to put my thumbs on top of the bar? It feels terribly awkward and puts a lot of pressure on my wrists. I think that if I had shorter forearms this wouldn't be a problem but mine may be long compared to most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2tyOLvArw0

Rip talks bar and hand position....

Yes, thumbless grip. Use the heel of your hand to hold the bar and keep your wrist straight inline with your forearms. Crank your elbows down so they are more under the bar, this should reduce strain on your wrists.

LRB has a good video:

Alright, I'll have to work on this some more then. I keep trying the thumbless grip but after my 4th or 5th set it really starts straining my wrists.

When I have some sound (at work atm) I'll watch the vids, thanks guys.

weird. Thumbless is largely supposed to be a cue to keep your forearms lined up so that it _doesn't_ hurt your wrists. It's OK to widen your arms so that your forearms can line up with the bar and take the pressure off your wrist, while you work on flexibility so that you can get into the more standard position.

Why are you doing so much volume on DLs? Rip wants you to do doubles and singles up for warmup, then 1x5 at your work weight.

I used to have wrist troubles with a thumb-grip, but they disappeared as soon as I switched to thumbless.