The truth!

Cycle into work 20 mins


Decided to see what my 1RM is on the Deadlift:

Deadlift
Warmup - 20x8, 50x5, 80x4
Work - 100x2, 110x1, 120x1, 130x1, 140x1, 145 (FAIL), 145x1
100x3x3

Seated DB Curls
10x10, 12.5x10x2, x6


Cycle home from work 20 mins

Hey joker - thanks for stopping by!

My aim is to gain functional strength alright, but not necessarily bulk. I'm not aiming to be able to power-lift 3x my bodyweight (although I would like to hit 2x, still a long way off!).

I've been training on and off in gyms for a few years, admittedly a lot of that has been cardio type stuff - punchbags/skipping - boxing type stuff, but over the last couple of years I was trying to focus more on becoming stronger, hence I got more into weight-lifting. I was playing football regularly, and wanted the strength to add to my game. I'm now 30, so my serious football days are kind of behind me I think, but back to the subject.

I was reading a bit on how to gain functional strength, and compound lifts seemed to be the way to go, rather than a lot of isolated stuff which I was doing and to be honest not seeing a whole lot of results with. So I came across the Starting Strength program and decided to give it a go - I'd been doing Squats / Deadlifts once a week anyway but thought I needed to go back to the start and learn the lifts properly. Like most people I'd say - I never got coached on how to perform compound type lifts properly, and you'll know if you've read the book that the level of detail that he goes into on each lift is great, especially for a beginner like myself.

I'm eating a little more than before, but not a huge amount more, because I don't care what anyone on the fitness forum says I don't think it's healthy for your body to drastically pile on weight over a short period of time in order to bulk up and build muscle. So I suppose I fall into the 2nd category there - I'd like to build lean muscle mass. This requires a bit more patience, as it's harder to do.

Anyway, back to watching football here - 1 all in the Czech Vs Portugal game. Hope I've answered your questions - I'm still a beginner so I mightn't be the best person to be asking for advice!

Oops - that may have been a mistaken exaggeration on my part. I thought that Elite powerlifters would be above 3x their bodyweight for the deadlift.

Sorry, bit of confusion, I'm not too up on powerlifting to be honest, but yea I did mean 3x bodyweight for a single lift.

After rereading my original post (the reply to pvt.joker), it was probably a bad example for what I was trying to get across. He asked:

Is your goal to gain strength and mass (which seems to me what rippetoe is aiming to teach) or to gain lean mass and muscle?

I was trying to explain that my goal was somewhere between the two. I want to build functional strength, but with lean muscle mass rather than 'bulking up'.

Yea I kind of now realise it was a bit of a ridiculous example to use, I mean bulking up doesn't necessarily mean you are going to be able to perform a lift like that, and I realise you'd have to put in a serious amount of training to be able to do it. It's something I'm never going to have to worry about anyway, can't see myself getting anywhere near that - I weigh 82Kgs and my 1RM is currently 145Kgs!

Cheers for the encouragement!

I understand now what you mean, in that powerlifting is a sport - I meant for each individual lift.

3x my bodyweight is not really on my radar at all though.

Malteaser! wrote: »

Don't write yourself off by saying you'll never be able to do it, just put it in the long-term goal box!!

ha ha - I like it, ok you win - it goes in my long-term goal box!

btw congratulations on what you've achieved - keep up the good work!

Cycle into work 20 mins


Workout B

Squat
Warmup - 20x8, 40x6, 60x4
Work - 92.5x4, x3x2 (all I could manage, effects of yesterdays DL 1RM prob)

Press
Warmup - 20x8, 30x6
Work - 37.5x4 (Left shoulder is just not right. Will rest it over the weekend and if no improvement I'll see the physio)

Power Clean
Warmup - 20x8, 40x6, 50x5
Work - 55x5x5

Chins
x8x3, x6x2

Abs workout


Cycle home from work 20 mins

I came across this before - I'm going to start using these kind of exercises - have you any opinion?

Again thanks for the tips.

Are you saying do parallel bar dips instead of bench on every other sessions - just till the shoulder improves?

Gym
1 hour cardio + stretching - skipping / punch bags / ab workout

Football - 1 hour evening astro game

Cycle into work 20 mins


Gym
1 hour cardio + stretching - skipping / punch bags


Cycle home from work 20 mins


Football - 1 hour evening astro game

Cycle into work 20 mins


Workout B

Power Clean
Warmup - 20x8, 40x5
Work - 50x5x5

Squat
Warmup - 20x8, 40x5, 60x4
Work - 90x2, 80x2

Press
Warmup - 20x8, 30x6
Work - 35x4


Abs workout


Cycle home from work 20 mins

Couldn't face the cycle into work today - the DOMS in my quads are fairly bad after the Squats on Monday then playing football on them yesterday. Drove into work instead.

Went round to the gym there, looked in my bag and I'd left half my gear behind. That's probably only the 2nd time it's happened to me in all my years training. Took it as a sign though, the DOMS being what they were, and just left it.

I feel a good bit better today physically though than I have in a couple of weeks, ok the DOMS are there but it's a good feeling in a way. I'm getting back into the routine after a fortnight's lapse, which feels good.