I started the starting strength program last week and decided to start a log so I can keep track of my progress, stay motivated, and get feedback for you all you awesome dudes.

Background
23yo, 165lbs and go to a large public university that likes to lose to horrible MAC schools in football. I don't remember how much I weighed after high school but it was in the 150-155 range I think. I had a body fat% of 6-7% throughout high school and am probably in the 10-12% range right now although that's only a guesstimate.
I'm skinny ish but in decent shape and probably stronger than most out of shape dudes 20 lbs heavier than me. Was an exceptional athlete in HS, played soccer, basketball, and ran middle distances in track. In college I've played various intramurals although over the past year or so I haven't done as much of that.
Over the summer I decided to train for the mile and see if I could run sub 5 mins. I did in it in six weeks ship it. I also started focusing on eating healthy more this past year.

I've lifted weights regularly before but never seriously and always seem to stay on track for a couple weeks then miss a couple of workouts and stop all together.

Goals
-Continue to eat relatively healthy and learn to cook a few more meals.
-Get stronger and put on some muscle but not freakishly huge muscle. I'm not interested in walking down the street in a tshirt and having people think OMG THAT GUY SPENDS 5 HORUS A DAY IN TEH GYM.
-Maybe put on 10-20lbs of muscle over a few months.
-Look good nekked ldo


Good things I do
-Eat healthy ish (see diet stuff below)
-Drink a lot of water throughout the day
-Was doing a bunch of pushups and situps regularly until starting SS
-Get decent amount of sleep each night, 6-8 hrs, more on the weekends

Bad things I do
-drink a lot of natty light on friday and saturday nights. I also have a fondness for whiskey and will mix it with diet coke on occasion.
-don't count calories
-I cheat about 4-5 meals a week, mostly on the weekend when I'll get late night munchies burgers and cheese fries. Tailgate hotdogs and burgers on saturdays and snack on a bag of doritos on the side. that **** is crack.

Diet
A typical daily diet goes something like this (the cheat stuff above is usually added to this most of the time and not substituted),
-1-2 eggs scrambled with a little bit of milk on wheat toast and a bowl of oatmeal with raisins for breakfast.
-one banana, orange, and apple throughout the day
-i'll nom on spinach and carrots when I get hungry
-protein shake that alternates b/t frozen berries/banana/chocolate whey protein powder/milk and whey/100% nat. peanut butter/banana/milk
-chicken breast and frozen veggies (corn/carrots/green beans/peas) with a glass of milk for dinner
-other nights I'll eat spaghetti. I use whole wheat noodles with spaghetti sauce, sometimes I'll get the roasted garlic or basil flavors (yum!). I add a pound of ground beef to the can of sauce and throw it in the fridge for leftovers
-another dinner I have is salmon fillets, usually 3 meals every two weeks or so
-peanut butter on a slice of toast for a snake sometimes
-a handful of almonds daily
-once or twice a week get a slice of pizza on the way home from class

I can't think of anything else atm.


Workout
So I've done two workouts so far (Thursday and Monday). I was extremely sore friday-sunday so I took a couple days off. This is completely standard (the soreness) imo, been there before.

Thursday- Workout A
Squat: 205x3x5
- I used to squat close to 300 back in high school (yeah brah!) so I started out with warm ups set of 135 and 185 and then stuck with 205 since the fifth rep wasn't super easy.

Bench: 145x2x5, 155x1x5
-I was never good at bench but I think doing tons of pushups has helped me in this. I have a friend with a bench in his basement and I did a rep at 185 and then 200 a couple of weeks ago when I was hammered and thought it was a good idea. the 155 set wasn't easy but not a huge struggle.

Deadlift: 185x1x5
-Don't have a ton of experience with the deadlift. Did it sparingly in HS. It wasn't particularly challenging but a did a few warmup sets (forgot to write them down) and was feeling tired after 185. I've read that the deadlift weight should be more than the squat so I plan on adding 15lbs for the next workout.

Accessory stuff:
I like doing situps and crunch so I did some incline crunches, stopping when my back was parallel to the floor for a couple of seconds before going back up.
-incline crunches, 1x10 no weight, 1x5 10lb weight behind head
-also did a set of 30 reverse crunches at the end. I've been doing these for a couple of months I like the results on my abs. I read that they were more effective than regular crunches at working the oblique ab muscles.

-bicep curls (manly man woo): 8x25lbs one and at a time
-hammer curls: 8x25lbs same time, alternating


Monday- Workout B
Squat: 135x1x4
185x1x4
205x3x5
-Didn't want to increase weight since my thighs were still a little sore. Will add 10lbs next workout. Also, I'm not sure if my grip and bar position is correct. I try to pop my shoulders up and hold the bar there but my lower neck/upper back (where the spine kinda sticks out) gets pretty sore.

Press (standing overhead):
45x1x2
65x1x4
85x1x5
80x2x5
-I had never done a press before without a machine so I tried to take it easy and work on my form. The 85lb set was a little shaky so I dropped 5lbs. I'm a fan of this lift.

Pendlay rows:
90x1x5
95x2x5
-Again complete noob to this lift. Focused on form and tried to keep my ass visible just above my back line in the mirror in front of me. Might have put a bit too much strain on my neck trying to keep my head up tho. But overall my form was good with the only movement in my body coming from my arms.

Accesory:
reverse inclines crunches: 10w/ 10lb weight, 4w/20lbs
bicep curls, one hand at a time: 8x30 each
hammer curls, same time alternating: 8x30
30 reverse situps

WOO!
I feel pretty good today and not very sore so I plan on getting in workouts tomorrow and Friday. All thoughts, comments, and suggestions welcome.

I might just start using a pad to take care of the squat problem. I'm not going to stop drinking on the weekends. It's just too much fun and I need that outlet after a week of school. I am a fast drinking tho and will rack up 7-8 beers pretty quickly so I'll work on drinking slower and see how that goes. I'm pretty good about eating during the week so I'm not too worried about the cheats on the weekend. I'm definitely not trying to cut.

One Question I do have is what sort of warmup should I be doing for the main workout? How should I add weight before doing my 3x5? This is the biggest thing I'm unsure about. Thanks!



cliff notes tl;dr: I has a flavor and its a SS log

In SS Rippetoe advises doing a few sets with the empty bar and then doing 3 or 4 warmup sets. You should increase the weight and decrease the reps. If you need to increase the weight 160 lbs over 4 increases then simply divide 160/4 and your jumps will be for 40 lbs.

For instance the squats at 205 could be handled

45*2*5
85*1*5
125*1*4
165*1*3
205*3*5

The bar position on the squats that Rippetoe advocates is different from the Olympic position. I advise watching the videos on Rip's message board as the bar position was much lower than I thought it would be.

No. Take care of the bar problem by using a narrow grip and keeping it low on your back on top of the wad of muscles that should pop up when you have your shoulder blades bunched together, not by using a pussy-pad.