Starting out. Now I have questions!

britzzie

I started with NROLFW but found the focus of SL to be more my cup of tea. After Session 5, I'm at 5X5 of each: SQ@80lbs, BP@55lbs, BR@75lbs, OHP@50lbs, and DL@95lbs. I've been able to add weight and complete my sets each time, but feel like I'm at the end of newb gains, as I am starting to have to really push and feel spent after. So here are my questions:

1. Recommended reading?

2. Best place to look for form videos?

3. I've also been doing C25k. I had been up to a 5k but started focusing elsewhere and lost my endurance. I wogged yesterday morning and lifted this morning and felt like lack of recovery was maybe responsible for some of my struggle. I don't want to quit running. Suggestions?

4. I'm a bit confused about how warm-up sets should go. I've read a couple articles but am still struggling... I use a 10lb bar not an Oly bar.

5. I workout at home. Alone. With a squat rack. How bad is this? Suggestions for staying safe?

6. I've now seen lots of suggestions to work on form before adding any weight. Should I stop where I'm at and work on form?

Sorry to be so needy. There's just so much information out there and so much of it is loaded with jargon that I don't understand (yet)!

Feel free to ask followup questions or just post helpful links. Thanks, all! :flowerforyou:

chubby_checkers

Check out the stickies. Tameko did a really good job explaining everything so it's understandable.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/940795-useful-links-videos-calculators-articles-etc
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/560459-stronglifts-5x5-summary
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/887158-faq-read-the-summary-then-me

Leadfoot_Lewis

1. Starting Strength. It's the Bible of Barbell reading IMO.

2. You Tube, Stronglifts, Bodybuilding.com

3. Best to do Cardio and Lifting on separate days. If I do both in one day I do one very early in the day and the other late in the day. How well you recover has to do with a lot of things - diet, sleep, age, etc. IMO too much cardio is counterproductive to gaining strength/muscle unless you're eating/sleeping for it.

4. If you have a smart phone, download Starting Strength's warm up app. It's great and will take the guess work out of warm up weights.

5. This is my exact setup & I've had no issues whatsoever. A Power Rack is really what you want for safety, but some of us (like me) don't have the room for one.

6. Yes

britzzie

Shame on me for forgetting to read the stickies.... Next time I roll my eyes at a "Should I eat back my exercise calories?" post, I'll think twice. :blushing:

Thanks, Leadfoot. Didn't realize there even was a SL warm-up app. I use the regular one and love it.

bumblebums

I started with NROLFW but found the focus of SL to be more my cup of tea. After Session 5, I'm at 5X5 of each: SQ@80lbs, BP@55lbs, BR@75lbs, OHP@50lbs, and DL@95lbs. I've been able to add weight and complete my sets each time, but feel like I'm at the end of newb gains, as I am starting to have to really push and feel spent after. So here are my questions:

1. Recommended reading?

In addition to Starting Strength, I would also recommend getting the Practical Programming book. It discusses things like how to get unstuck when you reach a plateau, and how to diagnose the need to switch from linear programming to an intermediate programming. And many other useful things that you never thought you needed to know, but do.

4. I'm a bit confused about how warm-up sets should go. I've read a couple articles but am still struggling... I use a 10lb bar not an Oly bar.

Starting Strength discusses warm-up structure. There is a formula to it--basically, assuming an Olympic bar as your first warm-up set, you would take the difference between the work weight (the one you do in multiple sets) and the bar and divide it in half, and put that weight on the bar. Then the next weight is half of that. The next--half of the previous one. You use fewer reps per set the closer you get to your work set. Example:

Bar weighs 45 lb
Work set is 225 lb

First two warm-ups: 45x5x2 (45 lb, 5 sets, 2 reps)
Second warm-up: 135x5
Third warm-up: 180x3
Fourth warm-up: 200x1

Calculate your own as needed.

5. I workout at home. Alone. With a squat rack. How bad is this? Suggestions for staying safe?

Does your squat rack have catches in case you need to bail? Are the catch pins at a height where they will catch the bar before it falls on your face or neck and crushes you in case you drop it during the bench press? If the answer is "no", I would say that you cannot work out at home safely. Not with the sorts of weights that will provide enough of a stimulus to cause an adaptation, anyway. But some people are less worried about this than I am.

6. I've now seen lots of suggestions to work on form before adding any weight. Should I stop where I'm at and work on form?

It depends. In general, yes, for a novice, form is pretty important to get right. You don't want bad habits to get entrenched. Get advice on your lifts early, film yourself (see the form videos sticky), and act as your own coach. But you can also get so hung up on form that you use it as an excuse to not add weight to the bar, which wastes noob gains. After all, you cannot lift really heavy weights with pristine form. Unless you get yourself a coach, though, I would err on the side of form in the early stages. Gains do come easily if you eat the right amount and allow yourself time for recovery.

DaniH826

3. I've also been doing C25k. I had been up to a 5k but started focusing elsewhere and lost my endurance. I wogged yesterday morning and lifted this morning and felt like lack of recovery was maybe responsible for some of my struggle. I don't want to quit running. Suggestions?

That really depends on your goals. I was making much better strength gains before I started worrying about adding cardio in. Once I did, my strength gains suffered. BUT ... my personal goal is functional strength, and I'm not at all worried about maximizing noobie gains and moving to an intermediate lifting program or hitting any specific numbers or whatever. My focus is overall fitness, and I'm happy with the strength basis I created for myself and am now taking my sweet time to increase it while also incorporating cardio and flexibility into the overall game plan.

Unless you're a triathlete or genetically gifted, you can't realistically expect to lift like Superwoman and run like The Flash. You're going to have to be okay with either choosing one over the other, or doing moderately well with both rather than really well with either. If your heart is in running, maybe consider lifting a couple times a week with a less aggressive approach (Stronglifts is a pretty aggressive program that seeks to maximize strength gains with minimum time investment, just FYI).

5. I workout at home. Alone. With a squat rack. How bad is this? Suggestions for staying safe?

It's fine. It's what I do. My suggestions to you would be to respect your limits, quit when your body says "no more", and practice the "roll of shame" with an empty bar (that's for bench presses -- look it up on Youtube) until you're comfortable with it and know how to get yourself out of a tight spot, should it happen.

Lifting isn't a safe sport. No sport is a safe sport, really. So the name of the game has to be risk mitigation, and you achieve that by focusing on proper form, being aware of your environment and respecting your own limits. I've been lifting happily in my garage for 6 months without any issues.

6. I've now seen lots of suggestions to work on form before adding any weight. Should I stop where I'm at and work on form?

Always choose form over weight increase, but don't be afraid to increase weight either. There's no such thing as perfect form anyway. So aim for "proper" form instead with respect to proper body mechanics as well as the laws of Physics, while allowing you to lift as heavy as your genetics and/or ambition allow without injuring yourself.

Hope that helps.