Rang30fMotion
New member
Ok, so I've been weight training since last October. I started: at about 160lbs, struggled with 115 bench, and had never squatted or done a deadlift. I began with a total body workout modeled after one I got from "Bruce Lee, the art of expressing the human body with dumbells.
After about a month of that I joined planet fitness and cycled different programs, the typical back and bis chest and tris etc.. I brought my maxes up considerably and grew to a healthy 190. I also began gaining a love for strength training.
This past July I got a membership to a local gym that has more extensive equipment: power racks and free weight barbells! I jumped on the new opportunity and grew my love for training legs. I was running branch warrens leg workout, with Arnold's chest&back superset on alternating days with rest twice a week.
The first day of sept began the current program I'm on, rippetoe starting strength, but with 5x5.
Having never done a power clean, that became a challenge but everything else came in stride. The first week my numbers were:
Squat-225 .. Below parallel
Bench-175
Deads-275 double overhand first three reps
OHP-95
PC-115
As of thurs all the numbers are up 20 except bench and PC which lag, bench due to infrequency of training, and PC's I don't want technique to suffer due to weight.
Now the purpose of this post is because now that I've solely trained in a rack with a barbell, I no longer focus on size gains. The feeling at the end of the week when my squats are quick out of the hole and I up the weight, is such a rush. I monitor every set and rep, my meals, and protein shakes all day every day. Basically, I'm hooked. The negative, my membership is up at the en of the month, and I'm NOT going back to a smith machine. I've been looking at buying equipment to continue training, but have no idea about what kind of quality I should look for, brands, price expectations etc.. Also what type of program I should look into next. I know I showed my inexperience and ability to ramble, but I'm just reaching out to learn and grow. I see all these strength feats of squatting and pulling 500+ and I want to put myself on the path towards reaching that goal down the road.
Any tips, advice, negatives on my weakness are appreciated.
After about a month of that I joined planet fitness and cycled different programs, the typical back and bis chest and tris etc.. I brought my maxes up considerably and grew to a healthy 190. I also began gaining a love for strength training.
This past July I got a membership to a local gym that has more extensive equipment: power racks and free weight barbells! I jumped on the new opportunity and grew my love for training legs. I was running branch warrens leg workout, with Arnold's chest&back superset on alternating days with rest twice a week.
The first day of sept began the current program I'm on, rippetoe starting strength, but with 5x5.
Having never done a power clean, that became a challenge but everything else came in stride. The first week my numbers were:
Squat-225 .. Below parallel
Bench-175
Deads-275 double overhand first three reps
OHP-95
PC-115
As of thurs all the numbers are up 20 except bench and PC which lag, bench due to infrequency of training, and PC's I don't want technique to suffer due to weight.
Now the purpose of this post is because now that I've solely trained in a rack with a barbell, I no longer focus on size gains. The feeling at the end of the week when my squats are quick out of the hole and I up the weight, is such a rush. I monitor every set and rep, my meals, and protein shakes all day every day. Basically, I'm hooked. The negative, my membership is up at the en of the month, and I'm NOT going back to a smith machine. I've been looking at buying equipment to continue training, but have no idea about what kind of quality I should look for, brands, price expectations etc.. Also what type of program I should look into next. I know I showed my inexperience and ability to ramble, but I'm just reaching out to learn and grow. I see all these strength feats of squatting and pulling 500+ and I want to put myself on the path towards reaching that goal down the road.
Any tips, advice, negatives on my weakness are appreciated.
