31-year-old Noob's Training Log - Page 12

theNuge · 03-24-2008, 11:29 AM

Well, I've got good news and bad news.

Bad News
- My left leg is still tingling a little and I'm going to stop lifting altogether until the tingling stops.
- I'm so inflexible that I don't know when I'm going to be able to a past parallel back squat.
- I think I'm going to switch to box squats.
- I'm thinking of switching from the 5x5 which is very squat-centered to a more traditional Push/Pull/Squat routine or the Westside routine.

Good News
- My wife and I are going to use some of our tax return money to shop. So, I'll be able to buy Starting Strength.
- I'm pretty confident I'll be able to deadlift. I think it's just the squat that my back is at odds with.
- I last lifted on Friday and already my back is feeling better and the tingling is slowly going away.

Donut62 · 03-24-2008, 11:42 AM

On the weight issue, I am hovering around 215-218 pounds right now and I average around 4000 calories a day. As I move up to 230 I will have to eat more like 5000. It's pretty amazing what heavy lifting alone will do to your ****bolism.

theNuge · 03-24-2008, 11:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donut62

On the weight issue, I am hovering around 215-218 pounds right now and I average around 4000 calories a day. As I move up to 230 I will have to eat more like 5000. It's pretty amazing what heavy lifting alone will do to your ****bolism.

Yeah, with my job I don't know if there's a way that I can prepare all that food. I'm thinking just for convenience I'm going to need to get a gainer.

I would always laugh at guys that called themselves "hardgainers" until I started to have issues gaining weight. I'm by no means a hardgainer I just never thought my m etabolism could be this healthy.

Donut62 · 03-24-2008, 12:41 PM

As long as you are eating clean most of the time, and gaining size is your primary nutrition goal, getting a little bit sloppy to squeeze those calories in is ok. Do what you have to do. Everybody laughs at the Dave Tate diet, but for a guy who's 300 pounds and pretty jacked getting the 10,000 calories he needs while working 12 hours a day, he did what he needed to do. I don't advocate going to that extreme, but if comes down to missing a meal or eating Burger King, I'm taking the BK.

theNuge · 03-24-2008, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Donut62

As long as you are eating clean most of the time, and gaining size is your primary nutrition goal, getting a little bit sloppy to squeeze those calories in is ok. Do what you have to do. Everybody laughs at the Dave Tate diet, but for a guy who's 300 pounds and pretty jacked getting the 10,000 calories he needs while working 12 hours a day, he did what he needed to do. I don't advocate going to that extreme, but if comes down to missing a meal or eating Burger King, I'm taking the BK.

Yeah, I've had to do that once or twice. However, I've grown to hate it because I can now taste all the shit in that food. That's one of the benefits of eating clean that I've enjoyed: it's now hard to eat things that aren't clean.

theNuge · 03-24-2008, 09:08 PM

I went to the chiropractor today and got some good news. She didn't think I had any serious issues. She thought it was some swelling around the nerves that was causing the tingling in my leg. She thought it could be a slight disk bulge but from the sound of my symptoms she didn't think so. She told me not to lift for a week or so and then see how I feel. She thought I could do some stuff that wouldn't target anything near the lower back but to be safe I could just leave it alone. She was a good chiropractor unlike the last one I went to.

When I start back up I'm going to go really light and slowly work back up to what I was last lifting at. That's a little bit discouraging since I was just starting to see some nice gains but it's definitely better than seriously injured.

I've been thinking about the program I'm on -- Bill Starr 5x5 -- and I don't know if it's that great for me. The three days of squatting was killing me and as you can tell with the numerous posts about back pain, my form sucks and I'm inflexible. I've heard good things Rippetoe's program. I was planning on buying the book anyway so I might give that a try. I know I've posted this already but I'm just thinking out loud. It's my log after all

.

If I do go back to the Bill Starr 5x5 I'm going to try starting with box squats since I don't seem to round my back with those. I'll use those until I can get my flexibility up to snuff.

Snives823 · 03-24-2008, 09:20 PM

i don't know if i would have started that 5x5 right away man. you might want to calm it down and build a base for a few weeks. let your joints and your back strengthen for those exercises. that is just my opinion though. you can get good beginner workouts from men's health and stuff like that. that will get you prepared for more serious lifting. take your time and do it right. it takes about 3 years to max out your natural potential. if you are going to lift for years do it so you avoid injuries as much as possible. strengthen those joint and do not ever wear those back support belts. your back will never get stronger.

theNuge · 03-24-2008, 09:28 PM

Doing those lifts isn't the issue. I found issue with doing squats three days a week which is what the 5x5 called for. It only called for that for the first five weeks but still. I probably didn't eat enough either.

theNuge · 03-25-2008, 01:25 PM

I'm still healing... On a positive note the tingling in my legs is definitely subsiding. However, I'm now left with muscle pain in my lower back. The Chiropractor said this would happen but it's a little uncomfortable.

I'm psyched about tonight because my wife wants me to take her to the gym and help her on a lifting program. I haven't decided what I'm going to have her do yet. I'm thinking we'll just start with the Big Three and really work on form. If she still has some energy I'm going to show her Bulgarian Split Squats as well as Dumbbell Bent Over Rows. This week we'll just assess her top five weight for each exercise.

enright3060 · 03-25-2008, 02:40 PM

I'm glad to here that your back is going to be ok.

As you said, it may not be a good idea to squat 3x a week given the current state of your back/legs. I would focus on flexibility and once your back feels better start squatting once a week. Don't worry about the weight yet. Make sure that you have enough weight so the exercise is hard, but you can still do 5 solid reps. You don't want your form to break down. You may also want to hit assistance exercise for the low back, hamstrings and glutes pretty hard to help bring up your weaknesses. After that, go back to squatting 2x a week.

Best of luck.