Hello H&F
I've been inconsistently going to gyms off and on for the last 3 years without really seeing any difference in my body.
Through browsing the forum over the last few weeks I saw a lot of SS recommendations. So I got the book, browsed the wiki and watched some form videos on youtube.

I'm 5'9" and currently 140 pounds, which is the heaviest I've been in my life (lol). My goals for this log/program are to gain muscle and build healthy exercise habits. Poker is completely sedentary and I'm not involved in any sports. so I think setting up a regular gym routine will be very important for my health in the next 5/10/20 years. Already starting to have back/neck/wrist pain from sitting at a computer all day and never moving.

GL man, hope this goes well for you!

What is your program gonna look like? Will you be following the SS guideline of 3 1 hour sessions, mon/Wed/Fri? Whats your diet gonna look like?

I'm sure you have a general idea about all this, but setting it out in black and white can be a big motivator, and gives you something tangible you can reference and stick to.

I'd suggest GSLP instead of SS, and I'd suggest figuring out your TDEE and setting some kind of reasonably broad caloric targets so you can gain muscle/lose fat/recomp or whatever, depending on what your goal is.

Good luck OP. I think getting into lifting weights is a great idea.

Monte, why do you recommend GSLP over SS?

I'm no Monte but I like throwing wild guesses around so here we go:

because squatting 3 times a week is no fun?

because doing nothing but 5's is kinda boring?

because monstrous legs coupled with a nonmatching upperbody looks funny?

That doesn't mean SS isn't a solid place for newbies to start from.
Just that if you care about aesthetics at all, don't stay too long on it AND don't eat at a too big of a calorie surplus while on it.
Use it as a mean to establish a decent strength base, is all.

Anyway, OP you're 140lbs because of your diet, not because of your gym routine.

1.) Define your goal
2.) Form a workout and diet plan that'll make you reach your goal
3.) Execute the plan the best you can
4.) ???
5.) Profit

I'd personally start doing GSLP while eating at a small surplus and see what happens.
Alternate bulk and cut cycles for a couple of years while doing your best with progressive overload and you could be a lean and mean 165 lb'er in 2017.

I think it's a good idea to go with what seems to be a pretty common advice on here, to start with SS and do squats and DL every workout for a while. Not just to ripe some easy gains but to get the form down. Then transition into GSLP. At least that's what I did and if like me, you're new to lifting, I think it's a good thing you've got just 4 lifts to focus on at the start.

3/10/15

10 minutes treadmill warmup

Squats
1x5 empty bar
1x5 +5kg
1x5 +10kg
1x5 +15kg
3x5 +20kg (easy, should of went higher)

Bench
1x5 empty bar
1x5 +5kg
1x5 +10kg
1x5 +15kg
3x5 +20kg (not easy, probably staying here and working on form)

Deadlift
1x5 empty bar
1x5 +5kg
1x5 +10kg
1x5 +15kg
1x5 +20kg (not hard, but feels weird since they don't have bumper plates)

Thanks!
T/W/S, about one hour sounds right. Until I get a scale I'm mostly guessing about what my diet consists of protein/carb/fat wise. But for the most part I eat a lot of chicken/fish and rice.

Looking for a scale atm so I can do this. Not sure what targets to aim for in terms of protein/carb/fat. I see a lot of different advice online. Until I get a scale I'm just trying to eat a lot.

I do care about aesthetics, but I'm not too concerned with it for now. I figure that's something that will come eventually. "Use it as a mean to establish a decent strength base, is all." Is basically my goal with the SS program.

I don't think I know enough about weightlifting atm to set more specific goals than "gain muscle and exercise regularly." I don't know what #s are realistic goals for weights/my bodyweight yet.



I appreciate all of the responses, I tried to record some squats but my old ipod lags pretty bad so I have 4 6 second videos of my feet.

Yeah, getting into the habit of exercising regularily and eating somewhat reasonably is HUGE and guaranteed to make you feel healthier and better about your physical ability and appearance.

You can use this calculator to figure out your TDEE -> http://www.1percentedge.com/ifcalc/

It could be a good idea to start with eating around TDEE for a few weeks.
And then up the calories to TDEE + 200-300 kcals or thereabouts.
No need to be too anal about it, though, you could start eating at a small surplus right away if you so wish. The surplus could be bigger. Or smaller.
Or you could eat around maintenance until you're coming close to stalling with your lifts.
Small rocks.

The most important thing is making the gym an internal part of your life and be somewhat conscious of your diet - how much energy you're getting in, or how much of it is protein, etc.


Setting up a diet, these are reasonable guidelines IMO:
Minimum of 2 grams of protein per a kg of BW.
Minimum of 1 gram** of fat per a kg of BW.
The rest can be whatever.

So, let's say your TDEE is 2200 kcals.
IE, for you it'd be like:
130+ g of protein = 520+ kcals
65+ g of fat = 585+ kcals

2200 - 520 -585 ~1100 kcals.
The remaining 1100 kcals which is left after you have ensured the sufficient protein and fat intake could be whatever, all carbs, more protein, more fat, some combination of all three macronutrients, etc.
Whatever.

Combine that with trying to get in a decent amount of fiber as well and you're golden diet-wise.
Fish oil + multivitamin if you're not eating a bunch of fatty fish and veggies/fruit.

**could use 0.8 instead of 1. Doesn't matter much.

Also, getting your squat/DL/bench/OHP -form down pat is HUGE.
Formcheck videos are a really good idea.

Post them in your log or in the forum Formcheck-sticky.

Thanks for the detailed response Pummi, I read that a few times through.

Thursday 3/12/2015

10 min treadmill WU

Squats
3x5 Bar
1x5 30kg
1x5 40kg
3x5 50kg Vid 1

DB OHP (nowhere in gym to do a barbell OHP)
1x5 10kg DB's
3x5 12.5kg DB's (staying here to work on form) Vid 2

DL
2x5 bar
1x3 10kg
1x2 15kg
1x5 25kg

DL vids
vid 3
Vid 4

Protein/Fat/Carbs
157g/62g/187g
2,055 calories

was hungover and out running errands during the day so didn't get to eat too much.

I take fish oil and the optimen multi, but I usually only take 1-2 a day. Having to piss neon instantly and multiple times after I take one makes me like 3x a day is a lot. Am I missing out by averaging 1.5x instead of 3?

Squats: You need to keep your core tighter. Take a deep breath and embrace your core before each rep, a bit like you would do before getting punched in the stomach. Now you're too loose and you good-morning the squat, which means that your hips shoot up before the bar starts moving from out of the hole. Stance width and foot angle look pretty good to me, but it's a bit hard to tell from this angle.

DL: Seems like those weights are way too light for you. I think you'd be able to do 60kg without problem (fwiw I started squatting at 40kg and DL at 60kg and it looks like you're stronger than I was). At this weight it's hard to give much feedback, it looks awkward and I think it's partly because the light weight allows you to perform the lift in way you're not supposed to be able to.

Anyway, whether you add weight or not, I think the main problem is that you sit back/down way too much. This also results in your shoulders being behind the bar at the initiation of the lift when you'd want them to be just slightly in front of the bar. It's also why your knees are getting in the way of your bar path.

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I'll try to implement it tomorrow.
The DL weights are very light, SS recommends adding up to 10kg per workout in the beginning anyways so I'll go for 60 tomorrow.

No problem. There are posters itf that will be able to give you more detailed/better advice but I'm confident those are some good pointers to get you started. Keep posting vids and I'm sure others will chime in as well, glgl

fixed some errors in yesterdays post

Friday 4/13/2015
Protein/Fat/Carbs
215g/104g/214g
2,795 calories

4/14

Bench is very light, not sure why it felt shaky last time. I tried to keep my back and core tight this time which may have made a big difference.
I felt the deadlifts in my back this time in the warmup sets. Feels good, makes me think i'm doing the exercise more correctly now.
And for the squats, they didn't feel too heavy when I was doing them. But for some hours after getting home I felt very sluggish, like all of the blood in my body was in my legs.
Good workout

squat Vid
2x5 20kg (bar)
1x5 25kg
1x3 35kg
1x2 50kg
3x5 60kg

Bench Vid
3x5 20kg
1x3 30kg
1x2 35kg
3x5 40kg

DL Vid
2x5 25
1x3 35
1x2 50
1x5 60kg

Squats: Huge improvements. You could get a bit tighter but other than that I don't have much to remark on tbh. Hopefully someone else can chime in with some more detailed advice but I'd say for a beginner that looks really good.

BP: Looks a lot like when I started benching. You don't flare your elbows so that's good, but it looks like you're just not set up properly (not tight enough, shoulders not properly squeezed together etc). I recommend you to watch the So You Think You Can Bench series, it helped me out a ton.

DL: I'm getting the feeling that you're still sitting too far back/down and that your shoulders are behind the bar. Here's a good DL setup instruction:

In 4, it looks like you're setting up your back angle (a "proud" chest) by lowering your hips. I think the only reason you can do this without hip rise is because the weights are still light. If you look at the 3rd rep at 60kg your hips do shoot up before the bar leaves the ground (that's what's called hip rise) but you force them back down again. I think your hips were moving into a better position before you forced them back down.

Try to work on the above setup, add weights according to your plans and keep posting vids.

4/14 squats look real good.

Nick's form advice on bench and DL's is spot on IMO.
Just keep on grinding and good things will happen.

Not 100% sure but I think pissing neon is due to excessive intake of vitamin B (well, some of them, there's a bunch of different vitamin B's) and has nothing to do with fish oil.
Lyle's supplements rec is good -> http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...s-part-1.html/
I take 6 fish oil capsules a day (unless I'm eating salmon that day) which translates to a combined 2.4 grams of EPA and DHA.

3/17

The first three gym days didn't seem that hard, but ever since the day after the first workout i've been super run down, culminating with being slightly feverish last night. But luckily I woke up fine and started the second week off today!
The entire workout today felt off, didn't feel stable in squats. Deadlifts felt weird, but I focused as much as I could on the advice.

Squat Vid
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 25 kgs
1x3 37.5 kgs
1x2 50 kgs
3x5 65 kgs

Db press Vid
2x5 2.5 kgs
1x5 7.5 kgs
1x2 10 kgs
3x5 12.5 kgs

Deadlift Vid
2x5 25 kgs
1x3 36 kgs
1x2 55 kgs
1x5 65 kgs

Reread that quote before starting deadlifts today. I also watched the benching series, assuming the only change I should make is not having such a crazy arch?

Thanks for the advice, I worded it badly- meant to say that I take both suplements, but don't do the full 3 a day multi's because of neon. Definitely haven't been taking as much fish oil as is recommended there either (usually 2 capsules).

Squats: Still looking good. Minor nit picks: I still think you can get a bit tighter; at least in a few reps (mostly set 2 iirc) the bar and your upper back continues the movement downwards at the turning point when you're in the hole. I would also recommend not facing a mirror and focusing your eyes on the floor 1-2m in front of you. I can tell you do that for a few reps but mirrors tend to be distracting.

Deadlift: Huge improvement, it shows that you're working on form and are making big progress. Minor nit pick: On the way down the bar travels around your knees and you might be able to avoid that by not bending your knees until the bar has moved past them, i.e. bend you back first. I know pummi and a few others have the bar travel around the knees on the way down so probably no a big deal either way.

DB press: I don't do them myself so I don't really know, seems like most people around here do BB OHP. You back looks a bit hyper extended to me.

Overall: Looking good, just add weight and keep making progress. Wrt BP, you want an arched back and if you experiment with it I think you'll find you like it.

Started to notice this, I can feel a slight back twinge when it happens.

Thanks for the tip, tried to hit that in this workout.


First gym day where I really didn't want to go to the gym, felt exhausted. Went anyways but ended up getting stuck outside for a couple hours afterwards due to bus/taxi ****ups and had to walk 40 minutes back home. Got a fever last night because of that but luckily it's passed now.
lol at how bad this gym routine is kicking my ass when I'm not even experiencing much muscle soreness.

10 min treadmill WU

Squats
2x5 20 kgs
1x5 26 kgs
1x3 40 kgs
1x2 55 kgs
3x5 70 kgs



idk where i could film from, but trying to follow the "so you think you can bench" instruction left my neck/lower back in pain from doing a slight arch.
Bench
3x5 20 kgs
1x3 30 kgs
1x2 40 kgs
3x5 45 kgs

Deadlift
2x5 25 kgs
1x3 36 kgs
1x2 55 kgs
1x5 70 kgs

gl OP

I started in a similar spot as you and gained 25lbs in 6 months and drastically increased my lifts.

looks like you're on the right track

your squat looks like you're just doing the motion with your legs. really tighten your core and take a deep breath and jam your chest out before you come down. this will help you mainly for heavier weights but helps get the form down now.

DL looks pretty good imo

my nutritional advice: eat like a mother****er. I would still cut out garbage (chips, chocolate bars, candy, pop, beer). but srsly don't ever stop eating. I mean unless you're going for a really slow bulk. also count calories. it's important to get into this habit. use myfitnesspal or a spreadsheet. be a nit about it.

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm averaging about 2300 calories a day atm in meat/rice/beans. Hard to avg over that but I'm trying to get it higher.