Joined a gym yesterday and went in today to do my first SS workout.

I'm 5'9", 155 lbs. The gym provides free fitness testing with signup (weight, body fat%, measurements, etc) so I should know more accurate numbers soon. Never done any serious workouts cuz I get bored and gyms scared me. I was good at basketball and liked that but had issues getting conditioned cuz my blood pressure doesn't go up with exercise unless I take pains to eat a lot of salt. Go figure.

Mainly doing this because I'm tired of being tired, and while I've gotten myself down and maintained to a size 2, I'm definitely skinny fat. And I don't like that.

Onto the log!

Warmed up with 4 minutes on an elliptical and then stretching.

Squat:
45x5x3
55x5x1
65x5x1
75x5x3

Bench Press:
45x5x3
55x5x3

Dead Lift:
95x5x2
100x5x1
105x5x1
110x5x1

Felt pretty good about the squats. I could really tell when my form was off and when it was right(er) since it just felt so much better.

Bench Press was tough. The hardest part was just keeping the bar steady. It wanted to wobble all over the place.

Dead Lift was both easier and harder than I expected. Technically, I'm sure I'm horrible. The explanation of the lift has so many things to keep track of and putting it all into motion is really tough. I know that feedback on future videos will be very helpful here, and I will be watching videos of other people to try and grok this exercise. It was easier in that I was able to lift more than I expected. w00t.

Overall, pretty good. I also got to try out an assisted chin up machine which was entertaining. I can't do a full BW one so I've been doing negatives at home, but I didn't need a ton of assistance to get up, just that little push so hopefully I'm not that far away from being able to do full chinups if I keep practicing my negatives and kips at home.

Scared of attempting the press and the power clean on Monday, I will have to watch a lot of videos before then. My boyfriend already said, and I quote, "I think you might die if you tried to do the power clean." Cuz I'm clumsy.

it's really not, though. Wayyy simpler than the squat, which has a bunch of minor things that are all pretty important, and when you focus on one you lose track of another. Once you get the form down it's pretty damn easy to repeat. The set up out of SS is like a 5 step process:

1. stand close to the bar in the stance you would use to do a standing vertical jump, bar over midfoot, < inch from the shins
2. bend at hips to grab the bar, grip so thumbs are just outside of the legs
3. bend at knees until they touch the bar
4. Straighten out your back into extension. Use the "big chest" cue.
5. pull.

press really isn't scary. even if you fail with it overhead, survival instincts would take over so you'd dump it in front of you. You're not gonna drop the bar on your head.

Those are fairly solid numbers for a first time female lifter at your bodyweight and height.

Yeah I definitely noticed this when I was watching Euro. He was having trouble keeping his knees from wanting to go in on the drive up, but then he'd be focusing on that he'd forget to go deep enough. Definitely a lot to keep track of, but I felt like I got the feel of it easier when I was doing it right. The deadlift I still don't have the feel for.

I guess when I was deadlifting I was thinking too much about doing all the extensions in the right order. It really is just easier to just pull the damn thing up.

More worried about the power clean then the press. Throwing something heavy quickly onto my shoulders seems like a recipe for a flattened Erika. I'm kinda clumsy.

I have to say, I felt ok leaving the gym, but then when I had to get up and go out like half an hour later, that's when I felt it all in my legs. Oof.

some advise DL'ing every workout for a week or two before working in PCs, just to get a little stronger and ingrain the more important lift. PCs will take a couple weeks of screwing up and dealing with frustration. I'm 9mo's in and I'm still mediocre at it.

The bench press wobble is funny, think it happens to most novices the first couple of workouts. It quickly goes away though. You might also want to check out our beloved mod SmileyEH's advice on improving the pullup.

Yeah the SmileyEH thread is what inspired me to work on my pullups.

This.

These would be numbers I might expect from someone just starting if they had a coach that could help them right away, not someone new and going my themselves. Maybe. Good stuff.

And like I tell everyone, record your form and get form checks uploaded, it is very useful for being successful on this program.

Looking forward to following another good SS thread.

Yeah your PCs are just going to suck for a while. Mine are still pretty awful, but I've never hurt myself doing them (unless you count wear and tear on your shins, which is somewhat inevitable). And I'm not particularly athletic or coordinated at all.

I'd saw rows>PCs for you.

Why?

Yeah why?

I think for tomorrow I may just do deadlifts, but practice doing hang power cleans with the empty bar to get the rack movement down. Any objections? Alternative suggestions? Man up and just do them?

i'd definitely go with this plan. you're gonna be deadlifting every workout for a while anyway, so should give you enough time to make the first couple of PC workouts not COMPLETELY awkward. even still, they're well worth the initial awkwardness imo - the one thing i regret about when i started an ss-ish routine was that i was too lazy to even try picking up cleans and just opted for rows

I just think a row would better suit a females goals which are probably more related to aesthetics than athletic performance. They're also easier to learn which might lead to more compliance.

Hm. PCs are fun and def worth learning. They also look super sexy. Having an explosive movement excercise in the program is a good thing too. Try them out. Kepp deadliftin a lot to maximize your strength gains though.