Disadvantages of Starting Strength

DAMNNNNNNNNN · 5 days

ahem crocs.

DAMNNNNNNNNN · 5 days

My understanding is there's a tradeoff between strength gains and fat loss. Eat over maintenance, and you'll gain strength, but also some fat. Eat below maintenance, and you'll lose fat, but your strength gains will slow down. It is in theory possible to do both, but you need to track your diet very closely, so it's probably easier to just focus on strength gains for a few months, then "cut" for a while.

eric_twinge · 7 days

Love handles are most likely going to be the last to go. Keep going, there's not much else you can do!

MaximumAbsorbency · 8 days

Hah... Congrats guys! It's been a long time coming :)

weakjuice · 9 days

I might not explain this too well, but there can be a big difference between not being happy with your body as opposed to badly wanting a different body. The first is vague and based on guilt, the second is specific (get strong enough to do X and be fucking amazing) and based on greed and selfishness. Greed is always stronger than guilt.

Just something to think about for your own goals, it might not make much sense until you actually experience it. Also, if you want to "lose those last few pounds", then /r/fitness may be a better place for you.

pl47 · 11 days

As others mentioned, your bar position is probably wrong - the arms and wrists shouldn't support any of the bar's weight. Watch this video:

http://www.allthingsgym.com/2011/10/mark-rippetoe-on-squat-bar-position.html

inmate2 · 12 days

How many of those complaining use an iPhone? Just throwing that out there.

neuromonkey · 13 days

TL;DR: Nikon D700 camera, Nikon 24-70mm lens.

freshthrowaway1 · 14 days

If you're anything like me, you're in decent shape at 24, but that will start to change very quickly in your late 20s if you're completely sedentary. Better get a head start on that now. You're already thinking about fitness, which is good - if you put it off and only start when you really need it, you'll wish you'd started sooner.

Others have offered a lot of positive motivation - here's some negative motivation. I really think there's some baseline level of fitness that everyone without disabilities - regardless of age or gender - should be able to meet. Everyone should be able to pull up their own body weight, or run (or at least jog) a mile, for example. Falling below that (pretty low) threshold is just pathetic, but most of us do. Look at a fit, healthy, well-fed animal in the wild, and an obese, depressed, lethargic animal in captivity. Which one would you rather be?

And yeah, it definitely helps with being lethargic. I'm tired after my workouts, and sometimes the next day - but that's only my muscles, my mind is a lot more alert. Getting enough quality sleep also helps a lot, and working out helps me sleep better.

dubyaohohdee · 15 days

I keep hurting myself at the gym - after my workout.

Couple weeks ago I was pulling my socks off while standing next to the locker - one of them wasn't coming off, so I pulled harder until it suddenly did. I ended up punching the locker, hard. Cut my knuckles pretty bad, and my finger joint still hasn't fully recovered.

Last week I elbowed the shampoo dispenser in the shower. Again, hard. Managed to get the corner right in the soft bit of my elbow joint. Hurt like a mofo, had to ice it when I got home, and I couldn't bend my elbow - I was afraid it'd make me miss my next workout, but thankfully it was fine the next day.

Gyms are a dangerous place.

eric_twinge · 15 days

What's the big deal about oats? As in, "squatz and oatz". Is it just a meme?

purrp · 15 days

I do them last (as per SS), but going through the motion with lower weights is very helpful for me, especially since I'm still learning form. That's more what I meant by warmup.

shankems2000 · 15 days

Change programs, and/or choose a more specific and measurable goal, and a program where you can see some improvement every week. Popular suggestions seem to be programs like Starting Strength, Convict Conditioning, Naked Warrior, etc. See the FAQ.

If you're doing the same thing for 3 months and not seeing any improvement, then of course you'll get bored.

Edit: Starting Strength also has something to say about that in the Programming section. If you train your body to do 12 supersets, then you'll train it to do 12 supersets... there's no reason why it would adapt beyond what you ask it to do. You have to keep increasing either weight or number of reps, depending on your goal.

purrp · 15 days

I haven't used the spreadsheet, I'll give that a shot.

Thanks for the advice!

menuitem · 16 days

First time's the hardest, isn't it? Also strangely anticlimactic when it turns out to be pretty straightforward :)

purrp · 16 days

I just started last week, so I only deadlifted 3 times so far. Been going up 5kg per session, so I'm happy with that, I'm not in a rush (29/m, but pretty weak back and legs, so I don't want to do anything stupid).

What would you recommend for the warm-up sets for deadlifts? For example my last squat was 45x5x2, 65x5x1, 85x5x1, 105x3x1, 115x5x3. Should I stack enough plates to start deadlift warmups at 45 with an empty bar, or should I just start at 65 or 95?

purrp · 16 days

Yeah, I did test - my starting weight was 40kg (again, with the plastic plates and the thin bar).

cnydude · 16 days

See this thread:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Fitness/comments/ona9l/totally_confused_about_protein_shakes_just_want/

TL;DR: yes. Double rich chocolate.

r-w-x · 18 days

You are now aware that horse's mane is trees.

CeRipH · 22 days

He put it in his mouth.

menuitem · 22 days

I have a Fitocracy account and a couple other Android apps... I might be crazy or old-fashioned, but writing on paper is a lot more satisfying than punching buttons on my phone. It's a lot faster, too :)

menuitem · 23 days

Nothing impressive, but I finally manned up and started SS. I've been derping around at the gym on random machines and exercises since October, in large part because I was intimidated to start free weights by myself.

Read the book, got a notebook to write everything down, sucked it up, and got started on Monday. My form is probably far from perfect, but I'm forcing myself to keep the weight reasonable, focus on form, and keep improving. So far so good!

Best part? Even though it's only a 20-30min workout, it's much more intense than an hour+ on Hammer machines. Feels great!

DEMAG · 25 days

Life is too short

Spends life on Reddit talking about MW3

TrueWarrior · 1 month

Sparta.

purrp

TROPHY CASE

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