Hey, started stronglifts in the middle of November 2011. Earlier in 2011 I lost about 35ish pounds doing all sorts of stuff. Started with the 4 hour body and no exercise. Then I went to some kettlebell swings. Then I added insanity for a while, until I read the primal blueprint, which was extremely against "chronic cardio". So then I started doing some bodyweight exercises like pushups, assisted pullups, inverted rows, and planks.

A little more about me, I've been overweight my whole life. Played tons of sports as a young kid. Then I got into music in high school and sports took a backseat. I've always eaten awful. My senior year of high school I got motivated and lost around 40lbs in 4 months, doing only cardio and watching what I ate. That was in 2002.

Since then, I have moved from my hometown, gotten married and three weeks ago my wife and I had our first child together. I also gained all the weight back plus some, to get all the way to 255lb around the time I got married in august of 2010.

In march of 2011, we found out we were going to have a baby. For some reason this motivated me like no other and I started with all the above mentioned plans. I was able to get down to 234, and I stayed there for about two months. I really wanted to get stronger instead of getting "skinny". I say skinny in quotes because I will never be skinny, nor do I want to be.

I found strong lifts around October of 2011 and did a free week at a gym and I loved it. It took me around a month to get a membership and I've been hooked ever since.

The main reason I've started this log is to maintain accountability to do my workouts to the best of my abilities. Also, to post frequent workout videos to get tips on my form.

Some of my goals are to get stronger, obviously, but also to lose a lot of fat. I am, according to my escali scale around 28% bodyfat. I have not been able to get this number down past 26%.

Here's my stats from when I began and where I am now.
Nov 16th 2011
Height - 5' 11"
Weight - 240 lb
Squat - 95lb
Bench - 95lb
Row - 95lb
Press - 75lb
Dead - 125lb

Jan 5th 2012
Height - 5' 11"
Weight - 246.6
Squat - 190lb
Bench - 130lb
Row - 140lb
Press - 100lb
Dead - 225lb

I am going to post some videos from tonight's workout.
Squats - This is my third set at 195lb. I failed on the third rep of the fifth set and this is the first time I have ever failed on a squat. I have been trying to keep the bar low after re reading the strong lifts pdf and a success story mentioning doing low bar squats. They are a ton harder for me and this weight felt excessively heavy. I honestly feel like I should deload, but I don't really want to stray too far from the stronglifts plan.



Bench - I have struggled with these for a few workouts now, but I have read and watched some videos online and I finally started pinching my shoulder blades together (note the funny pull myself up and scoot forward thing I did in this video).



Row - I used to think I was awesome at these, looking at this video it is apparent I was wrong.

OH MY GOD SOMEONE WHO'S NOT DOING SS, QUICK LET'S FIX HIM!!


Eh...I mean, best of luck with your goals.

Squats:
- Your stance is way too wide
- Bar looks a tad too high
- Grip should be thumbless on LBBS
- Huuuuuuuuge breath before you squat, tighten the **** out of everything, then go back and knees ooooout (they're caving, partially because of wide stance)
- Post in form check thread if you haven't already


You embed here by doing [ youtube ] <watch code>, e.g. zq4YkQ7Rx3U [ / youtube]

Congratulations on the birth of your child!

Keep perfecting your form and increasing weight; the strength will come and the bf should lower.

The links aren't working for me. I'm using the 2+2 app fwiw.

I think I got the hang out the embedding. Everything I've read said it should work soon? Should I do SS? I'm obviously going to need to do something after stronglifts is done.

Thanks for the input. I posted on the form check thread and got passed over, I'll post again soon.

I don't know stronglifts very well, but afaik SS is preferred because people stall on stronglifts sooner. I.e. longer period with linear novice gains with SS.

Also the support material for SS, the book and DVD, is pretty much unbeatable.

Should what work soon? Don't get the question.

Where should I start to get into SS? The wiki? Or should I get the million dollar book.

The videos aren't working for me, but apparently they are working for you.

lol, for some reason I only noticed the squat vid.

You still got it wrong. This is what you posted:

[ youtube ]watch?v=zq4YkQ7Rx3U[ /youtube]


This is how it should be posted:

[ youtube ]zq4YkQ7Rx3U[ /youtube]


So:

The wiki mostly describes the program. That's like 1/100th of the book. The book goes into (excrutiating) detail on how to perform the lifts. The DVD is very useful for this as well, since it provides a visual presentation. It also takes way less time to get through, heh.

So yeah I'd get the book/DVD. Looking at your vids you still have quite a long way to go on the form side. I have no idea how form is described in the stronglifts material, watching a couple of youtube vids isn't enough unfortunately.

Honestly there is like nothing on form. I have a shaky-decent idea of what I'm doing but I routinely find myself checking the internet at the gym to make sure I'm doing it right.

Could I change my program right now, without a lot of hiccups. I obviously need help on form on every exercise. Could I do the switch just using the wiki until I get the program?

For sure, go right ahead.

You can also youtube rippetoe <bench/press/DL/squat> to see some of his stuff. There's also a few links on the wiki I believe. I'll take a look at your other vids later.

Yeah...your bench form is pretty bad. I'd either read the SS stuff on it or follow Dave Tate's "So you think you can bench?" series on youtube. A lot of stuff to watch, but it's very, very good. Several guys in H&F use this type of form and it's very good.

You can watch proper BB row (or more particularly, Pendlay Rows) form here: http://stronglifts.com/how-to-perfor...ect-technique/

What exactly is bad about my bench form. It's funny that you reference dave tate's videos cause he's the one I watched.

One thing on your bench is the bar path is all over the place

you are also way too far up the bench. when you look straight up at the ceiling before unracking, your line of sight should be slightly in front of the bar, not way behind it. (just looked this up in the SS book, wanted to make sure I wasn't giving you false info)

Really? Then you didn't pay too much attention...

- Legs should be further back
- You should be way, way tighter
- What the others said
- Better arch
- No leg drive

Well I watched it, didn't apply it as well as I thought apparently.

If I'm looking at correcting form for a specific exercise what percentage drop should I do in terms of poundage? I was thinking 10-20%

starting SS tomorrow. Excited, but dont know how heavy of weights to start with.

http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wi..._First_Workout

Your Google Fu is weak sir

I admit I didn't google it, but that was mostly because I knew someone as yourself (i.e. the only person who reads my log) might come along and offer better more precise advice.

I am personally offended by this remark.

:angry:

You're right. You're my other devoted fan who also congratulated me on the birth of my son. So consider this my formal apology and belated thank you for the congratulations.

No prob.

Good luck with the weight training. One good thing about starting out is that there's so much room for improvement!