Hi, this will be my SS log.

First let me write something about my habits concerning exercise and food. Afterwards I will have some questions. Obviously it would be great if anyone could help me with those.

Well, I'm 31 years old and right now I am at 99kg (218lb) and 1.80 (which should be 5.9 and likely won't change...). I used to be pretty active in my early twenties especially running and soccer. After finishing a marathon in 2003 my job took over so much time, that I stopped working out afterwards and tried to get into it again from time to time, but never managed to break 6 weeks in a row of coherent physical activity.

This summer I was at around 108kg(238lb) and finally got my lazy ass self motivated enough to start a running program (short intervals) again. I joined a gym four weeks ago. Basically this decision was motivated by not wanting to run around in the dark and using the treadmill there instead. I intend to quit that again in the summer, but I started one of those circle machine training programs they give you there, but before you start throwing abuses at me: I moved to a Starting Strength program yesterday, because I felt like giving it a shot after all I've read around here.

Actually I didn't start the original Starting Strength program, as I feel a little intimidated by the power clean (and my arms just don't seem to be flexible enough for it now anyway). So I started the Pracitcal Programming Novice Program.

So here is the log for my first attempt at the gym:

Went to squat rack and started squatting with air and then the bar. Finished one set each which didn't seem to easy (I had pracitced air squats at home...). Hope I did them right. Increased the weight after having trouble finding the smaller plates and finally arrived at 50kg (110lb) where I did my three sets. I felt comfortable squatting that, but thw place the bar touched my upper back started to become a little uncomfortable there so I thought I would leave some room for improvement.

Squat: 3 sets 50kg (110lb)

Same for the bench press. I finished at 37.5kg (82.5lb). Have noone to spot me, but felt pretty safe during those...

Bench press: 3 sets 37.5 kg (82.5lb)

Now the problems began. I knew that I absolutely couldn't do a pull-up. I have never been able to do one even when I weight close to 70kg/160lb, so tried jumping pull-ups. Even with those I was only able to manage to get my humerus to parallel to the ground. I did 3 sets of 3 of those pathetic half-pullups and did some extra cardio afterwards.

Pull-ups: 3x3 (half)

Cardio: 24 minutes on the treadmill.

This is where my first question comes in (don't worry, this will be over soon...)

Question 1: I read the assisted pull-ups thread, and someone there mentioned jumping ones (that's why I tried) and that you should use resistance the whole way down to get the whole range of motion unfortunatley I can't do this, as I don't even get the whole way up jumping. Should I get something higher to jump from or is it better to make those "lying-down" pull-ups?

Question 2: My main goal is to improve my running performance and lose weight on the way. So right now I intend to do 3 days of the modified SS and 4 days of running, mainly 3 days after the weights (24-30 minutes) and one longer run on the weekends (right now 40 minutes, but slowly progressing to 60 and maybe beyond). Is it okay to do this or should I cut down on one of the exercise parts?

Might have some more questions in the future, but that's it for now. Looking forward to going to the gym tomorrow to try the deadlift.


tldr: I run, started SS and am pathetic at pull-ups. Now I have 2 questions, maybe more coming.

From my own experience, 4 days running is too much, at least while you're beginning SS. I'd cut it down to 2 or 3 days. Concentrate on SS for the first 1 or 2 months. Then gradually add more running and see how your body handles it.

Take a closer look at "Practical Programming". He explains why running long slow distance will detract from your strength training and vice/versa. There will always be a trade off involved. And it'll be a personal choice to where you draw the line. But since you're just starting SS, I would suggest concentrating on that for a while.

Jumping chins, is how I learned. Try to find a shorter bar. Jumping off of something else may be dangerous. Be careful.

once you get better at chin ups, your back will hurt less when doing back squats, as the extra back muscle will be like some armour.

There are a lot of easy gains to make in strength for you. I would at least make a decent run of it with the full SS schedule, and ease the running in gradually, but that's just me and my preferences.

If you want to focus more on running, you might be able to progress on a 1 on, 2 off lifting schedule, so perhaps try that. It won't align neatly with a week but that's not really important.

Okay, so yesterday was day two. Did some quick bike warm-up and then the warm up sets for the squats. Felt a little heavier than the first time, but was still able to put the extra weight on. Tried to concentrate on form, but am probalby horrible.

Squat: 3 sets 55kg (121lb)

Unracked and pressed three empty sets trying to focus on differents aspects of form (as per SS 2nd edition). Already felt quiet heavy but was able to put more weight on twice. Seems kind of pathetic, but I already had difficulties there. Kept moving my head to the side, even though I tried to stop that. Maybe it's because my right arm is stronger and I tried to use that more...

Press: 3 sets 25 kg (55lb)

Then I started deadlifting. I had some problems with racking and unracking, but managed to proceed to

Deadlift: 1 set 65 kg (143lb)

Afterwards did some cardio. As I want to listen to you cautioning me, but still want to get some running into the program I just ran slower (13:00 min/mile) than usually.

Cardio: 24 minutes on the treadmill.

Right now (18 hours after workout) I feel better than after the first workout. No soreness in the legs at all. My elbows hurt a little, especially when I stretch them. Otherwise I am fine.
So here come my questions:

Question 3: As mentioned above I want to incorparate your advice, but don't want to cut out running too much. I will run slower. I will improve the time on the treadmill by 1 minute/week (instead of 2 as originally planned). I won't run hills in the next weeks and if my legs feel too horrible, I'll just walk for the rest of the time. If my legs get too sore (especially knees), I won't run at all after the next workout and only walk for half an hour. How do you like that program?

Question 4: (really dumb). How do you rack and unrack for the deadlift? It seems really stupid to do that on the ground, but I also feel stupid to block the power rack (only one in my gym) to do that.

Question 5: The bar is already preety heavy for a warmup set for the press. Should I use one of the smaller bars (10kg) they have at the gym to do the press? (and possibly the deadlift as I can put bigger plates on the bar, making it easier to lift from a higher position)

I will try the adive from a link posted in the "assisted pullup" thread an jump as high as I can with the pull-up (and chin-ups), hold that for ten seconds (as long as I can more likely) and do three sets of three of those. I'll do this for 4-6 weeks an then reevaluate.

You don't rack or unrack it. You start every rep from the floor. You should actually put it down completely after every rep. Of course you can carry a bar somewhere else and put on the plates there, because you don't actually need the power rack for this excercise. Follow the link for a video about setting up the bar for a deadlift correctly: http://media.crossfit.com/cf-video/C...dliftSetup.wmv
Here are some more videos about the power lifts, incl. the deadlift: http://www.crossfit.com/cf-info/excercise.html#Power

As for the running: You might try HIIT, i.e. High Intensity Interval Training. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-in...erval_training That should save you some time and AFAIK it's great for conditioning too.

Okay, maybe my wording was a little of there. I didn't want to ask how to unrack the bar, but how to put the plates on the bar in the first place. Without help that's a little tough on the ground. I managed to do it, but I guess next time I will try to use the short hubs for the plates not in use in one of the benches. I will have to clear them first and put the plates that are there somewhere else. They are like one and a half feet of the ground and that way I can load the bar (maybe a better word) and then lift it up from there and then put it on the ground in front of that.

I guess I won't go for HIIT, because ultimately I want to go for the long haul in running again. The weight training is just something additional I wanted to try. Thanks for the hint and the vids anyway.

you can use one of the big plates on each side (putting those on the bar should be easy) and then use smaller plates for the rest of the weight. As long as you aren't lifting very high weights, the "wasted space" on the bar doesn't really matter.

The good news is 1.8 meters is 5' 11". That means you're allowed to be about 10 lbs heavier than you thought.

4. I do the loading/unloading of the bar on the ground, just to spare myself from having to do the extra lifting to and from the rack. Pretty cumbersome process with the 45 pound plates.

5. I had this problem at first too. I would either use the smaller bars or do low rep warm up sets with the bar.

Whatever you do don't tire yourself out with warmup sets. When I started I did something like 45x5, 55x5, 65x2, 75x5x3 which makes the warmups way too fatiguing relative to the workset imo.

Also regarding your comment about squats, I wouldn't worry at all about starting to have difficulty at 120 pounds or whatever it was. Some people have started much lower than that on squats.

So it did change

No, honestly thank you for that. I had figured this out myself. The conversion site I used gave me 5.9 and the explanation below was so horrible, that I thought the things behind the . were the inches, when in fact they were fractions of a foot.

Can't edit the OP anymore, but thank you for reminding me and bringing it to people's attention.

What do you mean exactly by "big plates" here? As the biggest plates in my gym are 20 kg this would mean warming up with 60kg or fifty if I use the smaller bar. It is just stupid for the warm-up.

So here's what I will do next wednesday for the deadlift:

Do two sets of five with the empty bar (20kg), which I can put on some wooden blocks they have there, even though this probably isn't the intended purpose. That way the bar is a little lower than it should be. Then I will put two 20kg plates on the small bar, do a set of three (from the ground...) and one set of 2 for 60kg before I get to my workset with 70kg.

Question 6: How do you like that deadlift setup?

So update (even though noone seems to be reading...)

I haven't been able to use my computer the last days, so here it goes:

On Sunday I did my "long" run of 39 minutes. It was almost exactly 5k. So as you can see I stuck to my plan of running slowly. Running outside in 2°C is awesome.

Sunday: 39 minutes cardio

Monday went to the gym and did the following:

There was a guy in the squat rack with a bench, doing seated presses. He said I could work in, but it looked like a lot of trouble with unracking the bar for my warmup set and lowering the safety bars and getting the bench out of the station, so I decided to start with bench. I did one extra warm-up set there, to balance it being my first exercise. Got to 40kg, which felt really easy. After the first set I immediately thought about putting on some extra weight (I didn't) and after the third set I considered doing a 5kg jump for my next workout (still thinking about it).

Bench: 40kg (88lbs)

Nothing special about the squat:

Squat: 60kg (132lbs)

Now I went to the chin-ups which were a diaster again. Tried to jump as high as I could and stay there for 10 seconds, doing 3 sets of three of those. I was able to manage the 10 seconds on the first jump, but afterwards my form degraded rapidly. On the last rep I could barely hold my position for 1 second...

Chin-ups (jumping): (10s,x,x), (x,x,x) (x,x,x)
I decided to use this system to log any possible development here...

Question 7: Any more good advice on the chin-ups?

I forgot to mention that I did 2

Cardio: 25 minutes on the treadmill (slow)

too.

Had a bad headache this morning, so I ended up not going to work. Even though I do feel better by now, I won't go to the gym, as I don't want to meet any of my students there...

Will finish this week on Thursday and Saturday...

What Starting Strength program are you on? You have changed the order of the excercises from the "original" program. But I'm not sure. So are you substituting chin-ups for power cleans? If so, you might want to try bent over rowing until you can get decent form for your chin ups. Alternatively you could just stick to you chin-ups and try to crawl forward every time. I like the latter option better, tbh.

I'm doing the Practical Programming Novice Programm, which basically changes the deadlift/power clean schedule to chin-ups/deadlifts/pull-ups. I will try to stick to this until christmas and then see if I have made any progress.
Unfortunately my form is so bad, that I feel embarassed to do those in the gym. I've thought about doing them at home after I'm back from the gym...

lol. most "experts" in your gym will most likely show awful form on their 103 sets of biceps curls. so eff it.

Also you could do them at home with kettlebells.

My Thursday workout:

Squats went pretty nice. The work set was the first time I really felt that the front of my leg was taking a heavy load. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong with my form here, or if it's just the impact of rising weight. Finished all three sets. I intend to do raise 5kg next workout and see where I can go from there...

Squat: 3 sets 60kg (143lbs)

Started the press with the small bar and then upgraded to the olympic one. My form seemed better, no tilting of the head this time. I have a feeling this is going to increase slowly...


Press: 3 sets 27,5 kg (61lbs)

Switched bars for the deadlift too. Did my warmups with 5*30kg, 3*50kg, 2*60kg. I think my form is okay. I was able to check my backposisition in a side mirror before I started the sets. I didn't do this on the work set as I felt it would distract me too much.

Deadlift: 1 set 70kg (154lbs)

Afterwards I did my running program. Felt great at the time. My knees felt very slightly bad afterwards and this morning. It didn't really hurt, I was just exhausted. I intend to do my run after the workout tomorrow, but skip the long run this weekend, as my "late Wednesday" left me short one day of the weekend...

Cardio: 25 minutes on the treadmill (13:00min/mile)

This is really fun. Looking forward to tomorrows workout!

What do you mean no head tilting during the press? My head definitely moves to get out of the way of the bar. You want the bar going as straight up and down as possible, so your torso angle will change throughout the movement too.

Sorry, I referred to my first go at the press and at the heaviest weight my head tilted to the right (my stronger arm presumably) all the time, even though I tried to stop this.

This time I didn't have the problem at all...

Update for today's workout:

Bench: 3 sets 45kg (99lbs.)
The barbell could have gone up more straight, but still felt pretty good. Think about doing another 5kg jump. Probalby only if I have somone to spot me...


Squat: 3 sets 70kg (154lbs.)
Feel the use of the front of my legs intensly by now.
Question: Is this a sign of bad form (forgetting the hip drive) or just normal for progressing in weight?

Pull-ups (Jumping): (10,10,x) (x,x,x) (x,x,x)
Again terrible. 10 here means I was able to hold the position for ten seconds. Almost made it on the first one of the second set but still pathetic...

Have thought about only doing chin-ups, as it will be easier to spot progress this way. It's just frustrating...
Question: Should I just do chin-ups?

Didn't run today, as I didn't feel too well overall after the workout. My muscles were okay, but my girlfriend has a severe cold and I felt a light dizziness. So I called it a day and decided I will go running tomorrow morning if I fell well.

Went running on Sunday.
Cardio: 25 minutes running

On Monday I had my next SS session. Squats are getting more difficult, but I still managaed. Question: Can someone answer the question from the previous post?

Squat: 3 sets 75kg (165lbs.)

Press: 3 sets 30kg (66lbs.)

I still feel embarassed to do the chin-ups. So I ordered a pull-up bar for my home. As long as it takes to arrive I will try the "assisted pull-up machine". It only has those declined "horns" and two parallel bars sticking out, so I could do chin-ups (This is only for one week. Next week I will do jumping chin-ups at home).

"Parallel bar pull-ups" 40kg assistance: 3 sets (5,4,4)

Oh, and the treadmill of course:

Cardio: 26 minutes running (13:00/mile)

I noticed you did bench first. Always start with squats.

And doing just chins is a perfectly good idea since they're a tad easier and you just need some productive work. I'd work up to 5 consecutive chins and then consider mixing pullups and chins.