That's based on a 5rm -> 1rm calculation unless I screwed up.

Oops, looks like you are right. I guess I didn't take into account his expected 10lb weight gain.

Evening chaps. I want to do me some SS again but can't press or clean because of an injury, what should I replace them with for now? I was thinking of press>dynamic effort bench 8x3@50% and clean>clean pulls. I can't do incline bench so that's not possible.

You can row instead of clean.

Dips instead of press? Yeah its the other direction, but better than nothing.

Barbell row? Umm I really hate those, perhaps because I'm no good at them. But I'm half-good at one arm rows so I might continue to do them instead. But the gym's dumbells go up to 40kg and I'm already there with 40x5. I could instead do 3 x failure on them until I'm at 40x100 or the gym gets some 45's or heavier.

I think the reason I hate them is that the last 2" of the movement is much harder than the rest and there is no lockout where I can pause and congratulate myself for a moment.

A)
Squat 3x5
Bench 3x5 (warm up with press ups)
Chins 3x5

B)
Squat 3x5
Dips 3x5
Deadlift 1x5
Face pulls 2x8

That's all I have for now. What about assistance exercises? To be honest, I abhor doing isolation exercises so

Edit to add injury prevention stuff that I often forget.

Kroc rows instead of rows? Or look up Pendlay rows?

I'm supposed to begin Kroc rows by moving my shoulder upwards to generate momentum, is that right?

A)
Squat 3x5
Bench 3x5
Deadlift 1x5
Kroc Rows 3x5

B)
Squat 3x5
Dips 3x5 (If these do my shoulder in imagonnakillmyself)
Chins 3xF

Done and dusted!

Kroc rows are typically done with higher reps. 1-2 warm-up sets for 10, then a full out set for 20-40 reps. Youtube for form.

Can you already do a bunch of chinups in one set? If not, you need more sets of chins and don't go to failure.

Hi all, very first post in H&F. I read the FAQ and thought here would be a good place to ask about the appropriateness of an idea for a thread.

I am 30-yr-old, 6'2" guy who used to be decent at basketball (high-school varsity 2 years) and generally maintained decent health and fitness throughout college. Finished college @ 205 lbs and with what my untrained eye would call good muscle mass.

Fast forward through law school, a summer associateship where I was paid to eat and drink myself into oblivion for ten weeks, and more than three years in a big law firm working long hours sitting at a desk.

At the end of April of this year, I weighed 240 lbs. Gross. Rather than taking the bull by the horns on my own and believing that I could go from total noob to developing/managing my own workouts with SS or similar programs, I took the easy way out and joined a gym near my house and hired a trainer for 3x/wk 1-hr workouts.

Despite spending June in central Europe and Las Vegas, I am now at ~212 lbs, have some muscle definition again, and feel a ton more energetic, especially when I get the opportunity to play basketball/football/etc. with friends.

I think my trainer has been doing a really good job of managing my development and keeping me from hating my time at the gym, which had been a problem for me over the past five years when I was trying to make my own workouts because I am lazy and easily distracted when it comes to working out at the gym.

I have been using FitDay to track my diet. I feel like my diet could have a lot of room for improvement, so I was wondering if the H&F regs who read this thread think that a thread on helping to improve my diet would be at all interesting to them and other H&F regs. The way I see it working (although I'm certainly open to suggestions) is I would provide some background on my eating habits pre-April, what they've changed to present-day, some data from FitDay, and then I'd open the thread to suggestions and questions that would help the H&F regs provide suggestions.

So, H&F regs please let me know if there would be any interest in a "help me optimize my diet" thread. Thanks for taking the time to read what has ended up being a pretty long post.

Do it. Worst case is the thread will just die off. You might get some good advice and it might be good for other fatties trying to lose weight.

^^

this

I did 8,8 yesterday after doing some other back exercises, so my best is soomething like 10,8. Where do I start?

so i finally manned up and went to the gym

i read somewhere the bar is 45 pounds so i ended up at

squat 75
bench 65
deadlift 85

for starting weights (using the start with bar, add +10 until it feels like all you can do, do 2 more sets of 5 reps on the first two, not on the deadlift)

couple of questions:

they had a maxrack (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_LfOOlBZjuU...k_picture1.jpg) at the gym, i used it for deadlifts because it seemed like the most convenient place to do them. it felt kinda stupid though, if the bar can't go horizontally won't i lose out on a fairly big part of the movement (both power and stabilizing/core)? i guess i shouldn't be using it?

Don't use that abomination.

1) Congrats. It's all uphill from here... or downhill depending on how you look at it.

2) Don't be afraid to start a log. Post vids, etc.

3) What Soulman said, for the reasons you stated.

I'm sure this has been addressed before but I can't seem to find it. What's a good way to add KB exercises to a regular BB plan? And would it be detrimental for me to mix in KB work instead of continuing to grind SS? My primary goal is still fat loss cause I'm husky, but I do like lifting weights while I eat less. I've done SS for close to 3 months and everything but squats has stalled at least once. I haven't been able to keep progressing squats because I'm running enough to tire my legs and kill recovery. So far, max worksets are DL 325, BP 210, OHP 135, squat 210. Also if anyone could point me to a good beginner's set of exercises with KB's I'd appreciate it. Right now I'm just doing two handed swings and TGU.

^^ -- stated in regards to the maxrack.

So, I have been doing my benches, squats, and deadlifts in this thing. Pretty straightforward to move the deadlifts out of the rack. But how do I keep myself safe doing benches and squats if I generally find myself alone in the gym? And I definitely never have a gym buddy to spot me on my benches and getting one isn't really a possibility.

Sifmole,

is there a squat rack/power cage in your gym? If so, problem solved on the squat.

The bench: not a big deal. If you fail, you can just lower the bar to your stomach and roll it down. You'll probably feel a bit silly but whatever. Or you can place a bench in the power cage and place the pins just below your chest (once arched), if that's an option.

You can also ask randoms to spot you, but in a commercial USA USA USA gym the rate of failure seems like it's very high based on the anecdotes from posters in H&F.

Edit: I would also highly recommend you get the 'Starting Strength' book/DVD. Sounds like you're already doing something similar anyway, and this program is probably better than whatever you're doing currently. Also has great tips on form, which is very important to stay injury-free and lift more weight.

I've got a couple questions about hockey/baseball conditioning, and how to best achieve my goals.

I'm going in to hockey season now, as a goalie.
Goals:
1) Improve cardio. We're changing to 1.5 hours of ice time per night. Last year I was exhausted at the end of an hour.
2) Improve leg strength. I need my pushes to be more powerful so I can move across the net quicker.
3) Improve flexibility. I'm horribly inflexible for a normal person, let alone a goalie.

In the spring I'll be starting up in softball, possibly baseball again.
Goals:
1) Improve power on throw.
2) Improve power on swing.

I'm currently 6'2" 220lbs, and just started SS a week ago. Is there any exercises I can be doing to better achieve my goals?

How do you guys keep logs of your lifts and diets if you're up on your feet all day? Are there any good iPhone apps that can help me keep track of my lifts for SS, and/or one for diet when I'm mostly eating [well] outside? Or do you carry a notebook and pencil to the gym?

I carry a pen/pad. Why do you have your phone in the gym?

Used to carry a pen/paper. But I just remember it now (Only do like 3 lifts.)

Used www.dailyburn.com for tracking nutrition, but there are a lot of other sites as well.

I like playing Angry Birds in between sets