Yeah I'm no longer doing that georgia tech thing. I got a gym membership while i was still in belgium and i went to the trainer guy and told him what i wanted and what my goals were, and he gave me a workout, so i've been doing that now.

I will check out your log

Not sure why you would say I am looking for shortcuts and not working hard? I'm paying way more attention to what I eat than I ever have in my life, going to the gym and working 3 out of 4 days for the past 3 weeks. I know its not alot but for me its something I'm quite proud and happy with.

It is true i go in and out of motivation, and to be honest I've had problems with depression and have trouble with motivation for just about everything in life. Yes, I have failed before, but I am quite motivated and trying to turn alot around in my life, which so far have been fairly successful. > 1 month tobacco free, getting on the right track education wise. Even if it is just 3 weeks, already when I have my day break I WANT go to to the gym, and I'm pumped about the next day So yeah, hopefully my motivation will stick this time, I feel I'm actually doing the best I can for once!

I agree that Starting Strength is a great program for beginners and suited to your goals, it will teach you the fundamental lifts needed to grow and get stronger. It will also get you into a routine of lifting 3x a week so even in the periods when you got no motivation to go, you should just stick to the progression plan and keep pushing through the times.

Personally I think Allpros beginners routine is slightly more suited to your needs as you are cutting: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=147447933

That being said, Starting Strength is definitely a solid program.

Unless that workout your belgian personal trainer gave you has a progression model and says specifically how much weight/how many reps you will add every day/week/cycle, then the routine really won't be as solid as Starting Strength or Allpros beginners routine.

EDIT: YO you can check out my log too lol! it's on bb.com though, bout to start cutting january 5th! http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=147501933

Yeah it probably isn't as good, I'll check out the SS thing.

Todays workout was meh. I hadn't slept much the past couple days, and today wasn't feeling super hot so hadn't eaten much, and i didn't go until 9-10 pm. Hopefully get some good sleep and tomorrow will be better

Did run 2 miles for the first time though!

I'm sorry if my post came across as a "downer"....its definitely cool that you've made some early progress and are on the right path. Getting in here and starting a log is a huge first step

I guess I get a little frustrated with new posters sometimes because I feel as if I know pretty much exactly what they need to be doing to optimally meet their goals(as do a number of other posters around here), yet I'll see things like multiple posters say "Take a few hours to read and fully understand the FAQ, read SS, start doing SS" and then the poster will come back and post "Well I decided to do this workout plan that my trainer/friend/teammate gave me which isn't SS at all, and I didn't really spend much time reading the FAQ....but I think this will work fine."

I was pretty stubborn at first. If you search for it, you'll even find an old thread I started about "why do I really need to work out my legs?" in which I come across as a total idiot. And I wish I had just shut up, listened, and learned much sooner.....so I'm trying to help others do just that.

K so looks like you wanna check SS out. Good idea imo it's a great program and I did it myself when I started lifting, I'll provide a link with most the info you require: http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showthread.php?t=998224

I'd just follow the generic template for 2 weeks without adding any accessory movements at first. If after those 2 weeks you wanna add a couple sets for arms/abs/calves or whatever, then you can do that, but for the 1st 2 weeks stick to the program at least and add accessory movements SLOWLY! Also, even though you're cutting now, I don't see any reason why you can't make good progressive strength gains for at least 3 months without stalling provided you start with a correct weight and your form is correct.

There's written info on proper form and everything else you need. But I think a few videos could help too.

Bench Press form: 5 part video series, but basically, grip bar hard, tuck shoulder blades back, chest out, drive through heels for leg drive, tuck elbows in and don't flare them out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHx1gYTA-Rw

Squat form: There's a bunch of different variations... pick one you like, if you're unsure of which one you prefer come back and ask... Always keep back tight and go parallel or lower though. I'll link 2 variations you will prefer though. 1st will be powersquat 5 part video series, 2nd will be rippetoes squat form.
Elitefts So you think you can squat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ME8gEN54Ao
Rippetoes squat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kawBY5p29fQ and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yha2XAc2qu8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i60dzS84n8

Deadlift form: quick video on deadlift form, you prolly wanna start with conventional deadlifts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp8Sx9dX9LM


Press form: keep legs locked, forearms always perpendicular to ground, back tight, chest out, hips tensed out, as bar goes up push head forward to keep balance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJFjYyA40ss and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyDNlSqDqAs

Should be a bunch of good info there for you to check out... GL bro. Log your workouts and def ask any questions on form/exercises or whatever.

@assani thanks for explaining, I guess that does all make sense, and I appreciate you taking the time to help out a noob like me.

its true I hadn't started SS despite multiple people telling me to, choosing instead to do the workout my uncle taught me when I'd never lifted weights a couple years back. (I laughed on the top thread xpt sent where it says "wisdom from uncle")... then for a little bit the offseason workout of basketball friend. Then the one of personal trainer.

To be honest I wasn't ignoring/thinking those were better, there was 2 main reasons I hadn't started it.

1) The exercises are intimidating. The only ones there I'm confident is is Bench, and Squat I had to learn the form for my training class when I was studying physical therapy, but never did with serious weight. I've had 3 knee surgeries, (although have started using the squat "machine" at the gym with the shoulder pads kind of thing.... (gay i know!) ) I'm not an expert but smart enough to know how important form is in alot of those exercises and since I work out by myself and don't have a spotter/someone to tell me when I'm wrong. It's alot and didn't know where to start

2) trainer in Belgium had told me that best to lose weight would be 4 sets of 10 of exercises. From reading a bit right now seems maybe thats not true so yeah.

I probably should sack up and do it to be honest just didn't know how to start on my own, so stuck to things i knew and was comfortable with (but to clarify I never said/thought that "my ideas were better")

trainers are generally horrible....its really easy to get certified, and a lot of them are clueless as a result.

Doing air squats, pushups, pullups* is great for a beginner. That alone coupled with jogging could get you in great shape. Everyone is intimidated by heavy barbell lifting at first, but like anything, its a learnable skill. Read the book, watch videos, start with super light weights so you can concentrate on form, and most importantly take videos of yourself and post them here in order to get feedback. I think you will be blown away by how quickly you can make progress doing SS, and once you learn the proper form, the actual routine is very straightforward, simple, and can be done in about 3 hours per week(not including stretching/foam rolling/mobility work which you should probably be doing at home in addition).

My advice would be to order the book. While its on its way get on a decent air squat/pushup/jogging routine. Once the book arrives then read through it, and then you're ready to begin SS. Do SS for at least a month and then re-evaluate. My guess is that your results will be so good that you'll want to do it for a few more months, but if after a month you want to start making alterations then you can do so.

Once you have a decent strength base(usually after ~3 months of doing SS) you can go in many different directions...can try to continue to get stronger, can focus on sports, can focus on maintaining strength while dropping bodyweight/fat, etc. Having a good strength base will make everything easier though, so I'd recommend doing that first.


*If you can't do a full pullup yet, stand on a box and give yourself a jump boost and do them, then go down as slowly as possible...work up to doing full range of motion pullups

^^^
Everything he said is correct Alex. Cutting weight and bulking up really only comes down to nutrition, work out programs shouldn't necessarily change simply because you're cutting or bulking.

As he mentioned, the absolute best way to do this would be to order the book, but I know reading a book and ordering can cost time and money, but it's definitely a good longterm (lifetime) investment if you're serious about this.

Doing the big compound movements such as squats and deadlifts at first sure as hell is intimidating, hell even now after 3 years of lifting I can get intimidated by squats and deadlifts when I go for new Personal Records, I don't think I'll ever not be intimidated by them, but you gotta beat that intimidation man (that's one of the reasons weight lifting naturally increases confidence, because you can't be a pussy when you're trying to push up some heavy ass weight lol). But it's just something you gotta do if you wanna get stronger/bigger. Also the only way to improve in form with them, is to actually do them and work on improving form. As mentioned, just start with really light weights and work on form before actually making progress in strength. Also as he mentioned, one of THE BEST ways to check your form, is to record videos of yourself lifting and ask for what to change etc, you'll quickly improve in form and thus quickly improve in strength. Also you really don't need a spotter for any of those exercises but the bench press (even bench, you won't need one if you're using a power rack), like I'm not exactly sure how you'd spot a deadlift or OHP, and no need for a spotter on squats if you're in a squat or power rack.

If you really don't want to order the book though for monetary reasons or whatever, then at least make sure to read the SS FAQ thread in its entirety I linked to you in my above post.

Great thing about SS is that it only requires 3 hours in the gym a week, and just by doing that in like 6 months you'll have doubled or tripled (or more) your strength.

I'm going to say the same thing I said in YTF's log: it's too bad you don't know anyone close by who has gone through SS and has learned complex barbell lifts already.

http://www.amazon.com/Starting-Stren...rting+strength

Ok I guess I'll order this, actually maybe will see if they have it at the library first.

@yugo I wasn't going to just be like yo, wanna come teach me all this ****? as a noob in this forum

where do you work out? have a lifetime membership by any chance?

Yesterday's workout was kind of inbetween again. I need to be sleeping normal regular hours as well as normal eating times (just for me personally, or i get all out of whack)

My knee was bugging me while running yesterday. I have been pushing it pretty hard on legs. Run 2 days, then work out legs, 1 day break than start over. Today was supposed to be legs and shoulders, but decided to take a break for today and the weekend. Will try to ride the stationary bike we have here at home for 40 mins-hour /day (light) just to make sure i'm burning some calories.

Talked to my dad, he played college baseball and football and was in shape and had gained a ton of weight, after a doctors appointment where he got some news about how it was damaging his health, he lost 20 lbs in the 2 months leading up to my moms birthday as a "present" Then has been working out and losing weight slower since then. He used to lift seriously in high school/college, so I had asked him if he wanted to lift with me the past couple weeks but 5-6 days a week was too much for him. I asked him about SS and he's interested, So i think we'll be starting that!

No lifetime - I guess I'm too cheap? lol

I workout at Eden Prairie Community Center. Now that I go there it's hard to rationalize paying more for Lifetime. If you ever want to come lift, that could work well. I really *should* belong to Lifetime (or really somewhere better) and then lift sometimes at the Plymouth branch....but I don't. Apparently if I had a Lifetime membership I could ball all over b/c that's where ppl actually play bball.

Cha lives in Blaine and has a gym in his basement that is better than whatever crap you have at your lifetime I'm sure () but I don't workout there too often b/c...well, it's all the way in Blaine, lol.

Generally for SS I'd recommend paying a lot of attention to form - it's what will help keep you from getting injured AND with good technique you'll be stronger in the long run. So it's just a really good idea. I have pretty crap kinesthetic ability (being able to be aware of what my body is doing when I'm doing it) but it seems you're maybe quite athletic which might help a lot.

Your legs hurt? You mean they're sore or is it the joints? Running can actually hurt the joints in the legs if you're a heavier guy. If that's the case stick to stuff that doesn't hurt your joints when doing cardio such as swimming, cycling, rowing, elliptical and stuff.

Also, you need to remember that cardio will only really burn calories while you actually do it where-as weight training will increase your metabolism in general simply by 1. adding muscle and 2. your muscle will be constantly be broken down and then repairing so your metabolism will literally be increased while you sleep when you weight train. You may wanna check out this vid by Layne Norton btw showing the importance of metabolism, he even goes so far as to state how there's been showing that low-intensity cardio has been linked with lowering metabolism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHHzie6XRGk he stresses how high intensity cardio doesn't mess up low metabolism as much

Thought that was relevant since you're losing weight and you def don't wanna **** up your metabolism.

Finally, here's some info you may want for your diet in general and also specifically pertaining to fat loss.
Fat loss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=FvCjYk0cd_Y
IIFYM explained and how he (and I too) do it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=yoB01gFD7ZQ

As for SS, yeah make sure you focus on form. Is your dad in shape now? If he's strong then SS won't actually be of much use to him as it's intended for someone who cannot bench 200+, squat 300+ and deadlift 350+ and get an individual to those numbers.

After knee surgeries, when I don't run for awhile, takes a couple weeks to get back into it and am occasionally a bit sore/swollen, take a few days off when that happens, will probably happen 1-2 more times and then if i stay active should be fine (fingers crossed).


"As for SS, yeah make sure you focus on form. Is your dad in shape now? If he's strong then SS won't actually be of much use to him as it's intended for someone who cannot bench 200+, squat 300+ and deadlift 350+ and get an individual to those numbers."

Do you mean max, like 1 rep? or 3x5 that. He said he could 1 rep all of those probably, but wouldn't feel too great about it. He's not really in shape anymore (relatively, he used to be a beast) and arthritis from playing football. But he said he'll stick with this to help me out/teach me. and if its not enough for him he'll just kind of do his own thing.

Tomorrow morning heading first time. Think will be doing little to no weight just working on learning the exercises and form. No reason to rush into this.

Friday night had eaten some crap during the day, but was just going to have a small healthy salad for dinner or something to top off calories, but ended up having a nice steak dinner with dad. ended up being at around 2300 calories for the day. meh

Then saturday ate fine. But at about 9pm best friend hit me up he was back in the cities for the weekend. so we went out, 13 beers give or take, with a couple cocktails and a couple whiskys, so that ****ed me pretty hard. Yesterdya and today ate between 1700-1800

SS is for anyone who hasn't lifted in a long time or is a true beginner. There is no reason not to start with it though...just check out downtown's log. He's basically doing SS after being injured for a long time and he lifts a lot more than all of those numbers.

It's when you start to stall and can't make 5lbs or 10lbs jumps each 2-3 workouts where it likely makes sense to move from SS to an "intermediate" program. But even running SS for a month or two seems fine. It seems like it'd always be a good place to start in terms of lifting programming.

yeah if your dad hasn't lifted in a while I guess he could do SS until he stops making linear progress.

Keep trying to hit your numbers in regards to nutrition. And good idea hitting the gym with little to no weight just to focus on good form. Ask any questions here after if you're not sure on form and stuff.

GL!

Ok, cool. He's into it i think likes teaching and spending the time together. He used to be into lifting alot in high school/college. He keeps telling me lifting stories now and went to get a picture of him of his PR of squatting 1x3 at 530.

So just did the first time. Went fairly well i think.


W1D1

Squat- air squats
- 1x5- the bar
- 3x5- 90

Bench- 1x10- 90
- 1x5- 145
- 2x5- 155

DL- 3x5- 90

Ab machine 2x20- 50 (just because arguing who could do more )

Tomorrow will go shoot around maybe play a bit of basketball with my brother, and then run i think. Will lift second time on friday.

Think my legs are going to take quite awhile. From almost 3 years ago I would do the legpress 450 (+ if the machine weighs something) 3x8... and now the past couple weeks i got up to about 140 (doing 3x15 for a warm up) ... (yeah leg press sucks i know, just saying for how weak my legs now are)

Is this workout alot more "exhausting" that what i was doing before (one body part 4x10).

Might be just that I woke up early, but i've felt dead and ridiculously hungry all day.


Breakfast (6 am before lifting)
-drinkable yogurt- 70 cal
-Fiber one bar- 140 cal

Protein shake on way home from workout- 130 cal

Snack (9 am)-
-2 rice cakes with cottage cheese and hot sauce- 168 cal

Lunch (12:30 pm)
-2 fried eggs on rice cakes with canadian bacon disc and hot sauce-285

snack (4pm)
-Puppy chow- 208 calories

Dinner (7pm) Tacos- 793


Total 1794 calories.


weighed 218.6 this morning

I'm looking to eat 1520 calories (+how many calories i burn exercising. Anybody have any idea an estimate (obviously) cant give exact number how many calories are burned during SS?

LOL, ya SS is pretty intense. You're working out your entire body 3x a week rather than 1x a week and every exercise you do will actually help towards your goals right now so yeah I could definitely see how it may be more exhausting atm, your muscles aren't advanced enough to take extra stimulation from more isolation movements yet and right now this is how your strength and muscles will best respond to weight training (it may and probably will change as time goes on though and you become more advanced and your muscles will require more stimulation of course).

Prolly burn around 500kcal per hour at your weight through weightlifting. But also you need to realize that after weight lifting your metabolism will stay raised up as your muscle fibers are being broken down and then as you give them time to rest and heal up your body is in overdrive just repairing them so your metabolism actually naturally rises just by weight lifting. So you should really account for that metabolic boost too from weight lifting...

But tbh, you really should just pick a number and stick to it. If you're not losing weight at around 1-2 lbs a week, then decrease calories a bit, it's really that simple. How long you been counting calories for? After a while of counting calories you'll have a pretty good idea of how your own metabolism works and how much you need to eat to gain/lose weight.

this is a bit random for me to ask, but are you sure its 90 and not 95? Assuming a normal 45lb bar, 95 would be a 25lb plate on each side, whereas 90 would be two 10s and a 2.5.

edit: Or maybe you aren't counting the bar?

I would advise to set your caloric goals without worrying about the amount you'll be burning off through exercise because that amount will change drastically each day.

Thats probably a good idea, the exercise calories would be hard to measure/estimate anyways. I think I'll start around 1800 a day for a week or 2 and see how that goes. I'll be lifting 3 times a week and running or basketball (cardio) probably at least 3 days a week now that brothers home. How does 1800 sound?

And yes, I was talking to an irl friend and realized I might have accidently put 90 instead of 95. Figured no one would notice and 5lbs doesnt make a huge difference. But you caught me

1800 is great.

Your current workout plan is fine. I think you'll be able to recover from SS even while doing cardio on off days at first. However, if you keep making progression on your lifts then once the weights get challenging you're going to need to be taking rest days in between SS. I'd advise:

First 2-4 weeks: Do as planned

Next 4-8 weeks: Just do SS, focus on mobility work(foam rolling, lacrosse ball rolling, active stretching, using bosu ball) on off days

After you have a decent strength base: Re-evaluate, you can then start focusing on more sport-specific stuff and doing stuff that you enjoy(some people find they like lifting so much that they want to continue on with an intermediate barbell lifting program, but no biggie if thats not for you- you can just do 1-2 days/week of lifting for maintenance and then focus on stuff you enjoy on other days)

Go for 1800 is you feel that is a reasonable number for you. Increase kcals if you lose weight too fast, decrease kcals if you don't lose weight. Try keep activity level roughly the same week through week, eg. don't do 5 cardio sessions 1 week and then 0 the next, having +- 1 or 2 cardio sessions shouldn't make too much of difference though.

Also, if you do ever go over that 1800 (whether it be because you binge drink one night, or you get some cravings and eat a lot of extra food one night like you did when getting steak that one night) then make sure you record it, no need to be super accurate with this stuff, but an estimate will be good as these are added calories to your overall intake which may explain either why you're not losing weight or why maybe you should increase your caloric goals slightly.

Don't know at all what the mobility work is, will have to google most of that .

Yesterday just under 2k calories and today about 1700.

Yesterday no activity, today I went to go do this jumpshot conditioning thing my brother and i used to do since he just got back into town. Were about halfway through it and with us there was 10 people between the 2 courts. So asked if we wanted to play. Haven't played any type of full court game in almost 2 years since last time i tore my acl (first week of january, 2011). Have played some 3 on 3, 4 on 4 halfcourt stuff, but usulaly where 2-3 people don't even know all the rules, was just goofing around. This wasn't super serious pick up game, but for me was still big deal. STarted guarding a kid just coming back from mano, so he wasn't 100% but was quick, so ended up taking this older mexican guy (everyones between like 17-24ish except this dude) who didn't do much.

I sucked, but had a couple alright plays mostly on defense but felt absolutely great. I was beat and super tired tonight, but was completely worth it . Tomorrow morning heading in at 6 for the second day of SS.


This morning weighed in at 219.0