On April 25 2011 01:44 Levistus wrote: hey guys. i've started starting strength but my main goal is to have a good looking chest and arms. the legs i'm sure i can get from the squats but what exercises can i add for my chest and arms? i don't really plan to get big and that strong just want to look muscular.
Everyone here is going to advocate sticking with SS and not adding anything.
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ:The_Program "If, however, you decide you're going to add a bunch of stuff to the program, chances are good you will screw it up. Why am I so confident? The fact that you would ask a question like this indicates that you lack experience with weight training because, if you were experienced, you wouldn't ask this question in the first place. You'd simply adjust it as your experience dictates."
Note that your beginner gains (I'm pretty sure you're still very novice from what I remember of your previous posts, but sorry if I mixed you up with another poster :x) will make your chest and arms look awesome pretty fast if you pay attention to your diet and keep pushing your squat/deadlift/bench numbers; bicep curls and extensive chest work on top of SS will most likely not give you results and burn you out if you are like most people at the gym.
Also, you can try the practical programming novice program that's in the above link. It essentially replaces powercleans with chinups and pullups.
I start again tomorrow. Hopefully I can make some gains, although I'm lifting very little atm, and it's quite tough. Probably should have ridiculous gains if I eat enough >.>
Thanks for all the feedback guys, it's greatly appreciated. I've been reading over what everyone said and doing more research on the paleo diet. I've come to the conclusion that although what I've been doing has worked, it's not optimal. I'm going to try to stick to the paleo diet, not just for a limited amount of time.
As far as working out I felt that SS exclusively would be best, until I saw the video from rayout's post. I'm curious about what you guys think about the exercising advocated in the video. It's essentially a high intensity workout for 10-15mins and you stop for about a week. The science seemed to back up what was said in the video. That would also mean that SS is not the correct way to workout.
For now I'm going to try to stick to the paleo diet and stick with the SS workout.
@vicariouscheese: I skimmed over the SS wiki and completely missed the part about how to know what weights to use on the first day. What I did was exactly what you thought and threw on random weights. I did the most I thought I could do while sticking to the 3x5 1x5 outline. It probably was too much and when I start up SS tomorrow I'll act as if it was my first time again and find out what the popper amount is that I should be lifting.
On January 10 2011 13:42 Fiercegore wrote: Name : Stiven Pronounced Steven Age: 19 || Height: 5'11" || Weight: 199lbs Starting Date: 1/3/11 || Goal Date: 5/25/11 Weight goals -- I want to lose 40lbs, I've always been overweight so I want to get myself to a respectable size by summer. Training goals -- Well, It's mostly cardio so basically I just want to be able to run 2 miles in 15 minutes. I think that's a good time. Nutrition goals -- Fruits obviously, and probably add more fiber to my diet. I don't eat too much junk food except pizza, so I want to stop eating that completely. Misc goals -- My friend passed away a few months ago, which is kind of why I'm trying to get healthier. He just had a bad heart since birth and he blamed caffeine for a lot of it. So I took a vow never to have caffeine, it's been about 8 months since I've had any and I don't plan on going back.
Woo 159lbs as of yesterday after my workout =) got my weight goal a month early, now I guess I should start doing some muscle workouts.
I've been gaining weight steadily during the last year (was at 74kg in august 2010; 80kg in march 2011). I started a month ago when I realised it was time to get rid of some fat (preferably before the summer).
Seth_ Age: 21|| Height: 5'9"/1m76 || Weight: 176lb/80kg (BMI = 25,8) Starting Date: 03/13/11 || Goal Date: 04/25/11 Weight goals -- Lose 4 kg / 9 lbs (original goal was 5kg, but it was a bit too strict) Training goals -- Run more often (>= 1/week) Nutrition goals -- Less fries, soda, chips and candy... Misc goals -- Don't give up when I seem to not lose anymore weight.
I set some big goals, I didn't have to lose the full 9 lb, but I wanted to see good progress.
So... Training goal: achieved (I didn't do much during the first two weeks but I averaged 2/week over the 5 weeks) Nutrition goal: achieved (only ate fastfood twice or trice, cut down some soda in favor of water and severely cut down chips and candy) Misc goal: didn't lose any weight in week 3 or 4 but I didn't give up and lost 1 more kilo in the last week)
Right now I weigh 77.5 kg (171lb) Didn't lose all the weight I would have hoped, but it was certainly successful.
New goals:
Seth_ Age: 21|| Height: 5'9"/1m76 || Weight: 171lb/77.5kg (BMI = 25) Starting Date: 04/25/11 || Goal Date: 05/22/11 Weight goals -- Lose 2.5 kg / 5.5 lb (This time I will want to get that goal of 75 kg/165lb ) Training goals -- Keep up the 1 or 2 times a week of running (will be hard with school) Nutrition goals -- Less fries, soda, chips and candy... Misc goals -- Don't give up when I seem to not lose anymore weight.
Can someone explain to me why there are no grains at all in the shopping lists? I mean, for as long as I can remember, "bread, cereal, rice, pasta" was the foundation of the food pyramid and was supposed to be the most consumed foods, and now we aren't supposed to eat any? Don't many people eat carbs also to have energy for a work out or run?
Hey guys, a bit random but I highly, highly recommend this book: 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back. I don't suffer from back pain (knock on wood), but it gives passive exercises you can do to improve your posture, teaching you how to sit, how to stand and how to sleep. It also has some amazing photographs of poorer and less developed cultures that haven't "forgotten" how to move and stand, and the difference between their posture and that of nearly everyone else in the world is absolutely incredible.
There is so much harm that can be caused by poor posture (and I'd bet money nearly anyone reading this has poor posture), from the obvious muscle pain and skeletal damage to things you might not immediately associate like RSI, carpal tunnel and even digestive issues. This book is definitely worth adding to your fitness library.
On April 25 2011 07:32 jdseemoreglass wrote: Can someone explain to me why there are no grains at all in the shopping lists? I mean, for as long as I can remember, "bread, cereal, rice, pasta" was the foundation of the food pyramid and was supposed to be the most consumed foods, and now we aren't supposed to eat any? Don't many people eat carbs also to have energy for a work out or run?
Here's a good summary: Paleo Diet. A lot of people on here--myself included--will tell you that if you're buying grass-fed meat and wild-caught fish there's no reason to buy lean protein either.
In a nutshell, grains are inflammatory, cause leaky gut and other digestive issues and are generally just detrimental for human life. They are a recent development in terms of the human time line and we have not evolved to process them properly from a biological standpoint.
The dietary recommendations around here will typically tell you to avoid:
1) Grains/gluten 2) Vegetable oils and other sources of Omega-6 fatty acids 3) Fructose
Most of your carbs should come from vegetables and starches like sweet potatoes or yucca root, but realistically you don't need too many. If you're overweight, the fewer the better.
Just wondering if organic whole milk has a better nutrional value in comparison to homogeniseret stuff? In terms of musclebuilding.
ALso can't wait till I get this goddamn bachelor done, then I can focus purely on working out and trying out paleo as my diet. Been to LAN half the week and now I'm at the parents for the holidays.
I've already cut grains pretty effectively, whitebread won't be too hard even though making a fibre toast with meat sure was a nice solution for extra calories!
On April 25 2011 05:35 Zafrumi wrote: Activate beast mode and fuck shit up, sjarl! Make us proud
Exactly what I...think I did.
Struggled a bit with 195 in the warmup but got it solidly. Then unlocked beast mode, pumped up to the max, rip at the bar but when I'm passing my knees the bar slips (palms got wet after I chalked them TT) out of my hands
Something snaps in my head, I wasn't going to give up after all the preparation I had put into it, so I literally crush the chalk in my hand and grind out the second rep of 210kg!
Looking back it may have been redlighted in a meet but I don't care, I got it!
On April 25 2011 01:44 Levistus wrote: hey guys. i've started starting strength but my main goal is to have a good looking chest and arms. the legs i'm sure i can get from the squats but what exercises can i add for my chest and arms? i don't really plan to get big and that strong just want to look muscular.
SS has a lot of direct arm work. If those are your goals, do bent over rows instead of powercleans, do chinups and dips after your main workouts, and you can throw in some curls/triceps after the SS workout.
On April 25 2011 06:15 DimmuKlok wrote: Thanks for all the feedback guys, it's greatly appreciated. I've been reading over what everyone said and doing more research on the paleo diet. I've come to the conclusion that although what I've been doing has worked, it's not optimal. I'm going to try to stick to the paleo diet, not just for a limited amount of time.
As far as working out I felt that SS exclusively would be best, until I saw the video from rayout's post. I'm curious about what you guys think about the exercising advocated in the video. It's essentially a high intensity workout for 10-15mins and you stop for about a week. The science seemed to back up what was said in the video. That would also mean that SS is not the correct way to workout.
For now I'm going to try to stick to the paleo diet and stick with the SS workout.
@vicariouscheese: I skimmed over the SS wiki and completely missed the part about how to know what weights to use on the first day. What I did was exactly what you thought and threw on random weights. I did the most I thought I could do while sticking to the 3x5 1x5 outline. It probably was too much and when I start up SS tomorrow I'll act as if it was my first time again and find out what the popper amount is that I should be lifting.
I watched the whole 98minutes of the video, too. Was surely interesting for me and I guess I learned quite something about how the human body works.
Regarding the exercise protocol... basically he said you do 5machines (leg press, press, bench, row and sth) for 1 set to total muscle fatigue, where each set lasts like 2 minutes and is done painfully slowly. I remember that I trained like this for a couple of weeks back in 2001 during high school, (my gym tried to enforce this as the only way to use the machines)... so that idea is not particularly new. So they say that they "found" the magic number of days you have to rest... so basically you do this like every 7-8 days, and then it is optimal. But I actually don't really understand how they came to this conclusion based on their science. Noteworthy is also that he talks about the training in the sense of general physical conditioning and not about being strong or building muscle and such.
I would wait for eshlow to comment on this, since he is way more knowledgeable in that regard, and I am pretty sure he will have something to say about that. But if you wanna have my opinion: General phyisical conditioning probably does not occur in a leg press machine where all the coordination your body should have to do while working out is eliminated. And I also cannot see anyone gaining any strength with this.
On April 25 2011 05:35 Zafrumi wrote: Activate beast mode and fuck shit up, sjarl! Make us proud
Exactly what I...think I did.
Struggled a bit with 195 in the warmup but got it solidly. Then unlocked beast mode, pumped up to the max, rip at the bar but when I'm passing my knees the bar slips (palms got wet after I chalked them TT) out of my hands
Something snaps in my head, I wasn't going to give up after all the preparation I had put into it, so I literally crush the chalk in my hand and grind out the second rep of 210kg!
Looking back it may have been redlighted in a meet but I don't care, I got it!
This just feels wierd, wrong and I dunno...I bet the guy got big in the first place by doing it the regular way: lifting heavy stuff and eating alot.
It just makes no sense to train all the time like this, super slowly. Sure it may induce a greater level of hyperthropy, but it would probably be mainly sarcoplasmic and that only works for so long.
On April 25 2011 01:44 Levistus wrote: hey guys. i've started starting strength but my main goal is to have a good looking chest and arms. the legs i'm sure i can get from the squats but what exercises can i add for my chest and arms? i don't really plan to get big and that strong just want to look muscular.
because I'm slightly drunk right now I'll add a homoerotic picture of me after 3 months of only doing SS (ok, I crank out the occasional chin up or pull up if a friend drags me to the gym on one of my supposed off-days, but not regularly)
On April 25 2011 01:44 Levistus wrote: hey guys. i've started starting strength but my main goal is to have a good looking chest and arms. the legs i'm sure i can get from the squats but what exercises can i add for my chest and arms? i don't really plan to get big and that strong just want to look muscular.
because I'm slightly drunk right now I'll add a homoerotic picture of me after 3 months of only doing SS (ok, I crank out the occasional chin up or pull up if a friend drags me to the gym on one of my supposed off-days, but not regularly)
Sure, at some point you may become elite enough in athletics where you need super high training stimulus to muscles to make gains and are doing a lot of skill work such that you can't do full body a couple of times a week......... but that's not if you're looking to build muscle or strength below advanced level which is most of us.
Sure, at some point you may become elite enough in athletics where you need super high training stimulus to muscles to make gains and are doing a lot of skill work such that you can't do full body a couple of times a week......... but that's not if you're looking to build muscle or strength below advanced level which is most of us.
To clarify with the most experienced person in this thread
1) GOMAD + whatever other protein/calories = good (heck, I'm underweight via BMI) 2) Follow program, but replace cleans with barbell rows per physician 3) get squat rack 4) What weight should I start at? 5) Should I get a replacement for my dad's super cheap 1" barbell. 6) I only need barbell, bench, squat rack. 7) How many sets and reps for SS?
EPT
another life saved by the TL H&F thread!
