I'm going to college, and my tuition covers membership at a campus gym. I went in to lift weights, and was embarrassed to find I was too weak to really use any of the weights.
Even when just benching the bar, I was barely able to get 8 reps once. Second set, I was lucky to get 5. Didn't try a third set, too much of a pussy.
I did curls with 20 lbs weights, couldn't get above 15 reps. I did squats with 140 lbs, got two sets of 17, which isn't too great, but not as shitty as the rest.
To try and get enough strength to actually use the fucking weights, I switched to doing push ups. I sucked so fucking badly as push ups, I switched to girl push ups. Did three sets of 20 a day until I could start getting 20 sets of normal push ups. Slowly transitioned over to 3 sets of 20 push ups per day. Now I think I'm ready to hit the gym and actually lift some decent weights, but I'm a little anxious to go back. I've enjoyed doing work outs just in my room, didn't feel like such a limpdick for not being as strong as the other guys. I'm kind of hoping you fellows can tell me some more exercises I can just do in my dorm to continue my quest to get strong, but if I just need to man up, go to the gym, and deal with being one of the lightweights, well, I guess I'll do just that.
Guess I was whining. I'll cut that shit out. And by do it again, do you mean go to the gym, or do the push up sets?
Really? I'm 5'11, weight 177 lbs. Also, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Tell what I'm doing wrong. I want to learn.
I read the sticky. I might've missed something important though, I will admit. And whatever, call me a faggot, call me an idiot, but help me get strong too, yeah?
Henry Gutierrez
Jesus even I can use some weights and I'll admit I'm a weak faggot. Still. But I don't have a good routine apparently according to people on here. Don't really know how to find one
Grayson Ramirez
Thanks for the advice. Let me give you some too: If you switch to stroking dicks instead of sucking them, you'll be able to insult people in real life instead of typing put downs to strangers on the internet.
Jonathan Peterson
You need to hop on a linear progression program.
Greyskull lp is good, ss is good too (ignore the memeing) SL and icf is less good.
Reg parks 5x5 is acceptable.
The point is high intensity, low volume.
Your progressive overload will still be tremendous, so you will get hypertrophy very fast.
Dont train arms, avoid isolations in general (excepting perhaps side lateral raise), stick low low rep heavy compound movements.
In 6 months or so when you can lift real weight, and can no longer progress linearly, switch to an intermediate program like a push/pull/legs.
You want to ohp at least 150lb before you consider switching to intermediate.
Austin Bennett
>Tell what I'm doing wrong. I want to learn. >Read the sticky faggot. >I read the sticky READ IT AGAIN >And whatever, call me a faggot, FAGGOT
Caleb Davis
Read the sticky. Best novice routines ever.
The ss will make you a t rex is 99% memes.
Just ignore rippetoe's advice on nutrition and olympic lifts.
Everything else is 100% legit.
If you are worried about squatting, just realize you can stop squatting when your legs rub together and chafe on a pump. This will leave them the perfect size.
When that happens (it wont unless you are fat, you fatty) you can switch to hip thrusts.
No possible detriment.
Levi King
Is this a troll? Probably but I'll take the bait just in case it's actually some poor guy. Look kid, everyone starts somewhere. Some are gonna start way stronger because of genetics, previous environment, etc. But the one thing that all the "goal body" guys have in common is they were dedicated. Dedicated to their diet, dedicated to their lifts, dedicated to being the best they can. And they were no pussies who are worried about what some Chad fuckboi has to say. Which btw, very few people are and very few honestly care if you are weak. When they will notice is when you're strong as hell and making gainz. Just get the fuck up and go lift
Christian Taylor
Find a good beginner routine. Go to mobilitywod.com I can't stress enough how important mobility and flexibility is for squats and dl. Most first world citizens have flexibility issues with legs from sitting all day. Watch videos on YouTube about technique and form. Record yourself doing them. Start with lighter weights to get the form down. Ask Bros at gym for advice. Most gym goers are good dudes. They started weak, they know what it feels like. A lot of Bros would take time out of their schedule to give you a quick dekonstration. But beware of curlbros and broscience. Get advice from ppl who look like they are lifting with good form.
Cameron James
Not a troll, I promise. Thanks for the advice.
Christian Torres
I also started being unable to bench 10 reps with empty bar, but used a bench machine for a month then started with 10 lbs per side.. After 2 years I got to 170lbs, wich is still shit but better i guess
Lucas Sanchez
>dyel giving advice I bet you think you are clever for not doing ss
Adrian Anderson
You worked up the courage to go to. The gym. Now go read the sticky and do starting strength. The bar is 20kg,of course you're gonna struggle if you never lifted before.
Do starting strength for 3-4 months and you'll be benching your bodyweight by then for reps.
It's mostly nutrition though, so be sure you have discipline there or your gym trips are a waste.
Colton Rogers
Go post this shit on your blog.
Cameron Ward
>being unable to bench 10 reps with empty bar, This has to be trolling brahs
Joshua Ross
Are you sure you could do 1 reps with 140lbs? Do you have massive legs from biking or just incredibly shit form? Not being able to Bench 40lbs but squatting 140lbs on your first day makes you a trex in my book. Maybe SS isn't for you.
Lucas Scott
Ouch. That hurt man. That hurt real deep. I don't think I'll ever recover from that. An anonymous stranger on the internet accused me of having a blog. Oh the pain.
Geeze, what do you want, a video of me shaking like a Mexican space shuttle by the 8th rep?
What? 140 lbs means 140 lbs total, right? Not on each side? Because I did 140 lbs total. I thought the normal goal was like, your bodyweight 20 times.
Also, back in a moment guys, I have class.
John Baker
You know his bench will shoot up to 120 or so once he learns to retract his scapula, brace properly and push off the bench, instead of just moving the bar
Newfagd cant into form. His squat form was probably garbage too, but that shit comes in time.
If t-rex is a concern, hip thrusts are an option.
But squats are good for that endogenous test boost, and to not be a no-legs faggot.
Joshua Cruz
Why is this so hard for people? I'm by no means making it yet but I can put up two plates on bench because of the sticky. Which is a fair amount more than I could half a year ago.
> benching the bar, I was barely able to get 8 reps once
That's a bit below average, but not far from normal. I started benching an empty bar (20kg) as well, but after a week progressed to 30kg and the week after to 40kg. Remember progressive overload.
> I did curls with 20 lbs weights, couldn't get above 15 reps
That also seems a bit below average, but 15 reps is too high anyway. Shoot for some weight that you can do than, say, 7 of, then keep working with that weight until you can do 12 reps, then increase weight to something you can only do 7 reps with.
Basically just get over it, it doesn't matter how much you lift and nobody in the gym will care. And in a months you'll be able to lift most than more people.
Nicholas Perez
i wish there was a gym at my university.
i lived in an apt complex that had a gym and from jan to a little bit of march this year i went and did cardio/freeweights everyday. after class began i moved and now there's no gym, and i've been eating worse. somedays i feel super unwell.
i think i'll start again because it made me feel good, it was such a good outlet. everytime i felt frustrated or like complaining about whatever i'd go running, and it would leave me feeling a lot better about myself afterward. i almost got a back injury (my spine felt really weird) so I stopped for "a little while" and eventually stopped completely.
if i hadn't have stopped i'd look pretty good by now too.
Nolan Mitchell
Alright op. I'm gonna make this easy for you cuz I like your face
warm up each compound lift with 3 sets of 12 increasing your weight with each set. Your last warm-up should be about a 6-7 on the difficulty scale. This will be about 70% of what you can do on your working set.
For your isolation lifts do your first set and add weight if you aren't struggling a bit to finish. If you add more than 25% after your first set do another set.
If you can't do warm-ups with the bar then warm up with dumbbells. In fact, day A can be done entirely with dumbbells for the first few weeks if the bar doesn't feel right yet.
Day A Bench press: 3x6 OHP: 3x6 (highly recommend dumbbell for this) Lateral raise: 3x12 Hammer curls: 3x12 Triceps push-downs: 3x12 Farmers walk: 3x40-50seconds
Day B Squat: 3x6 Deadlift: 3x6 Calf raises: 3x12 DB rows: 3x12 Front plank: 3x50sec Side plank: 3x30sec each side Hanging leg raises: 3x12
Day C Goblet squat: 3x8 Incline DB press: 3x8 Lat pulldown: 3x8 Hip thrusts: 3x8 Facepulls: 3x8 Romanian deadlift: warm-ups to 3RM then do 3x1 regular deadlifts Push-ups: 2x20, 1xf Pull-ups: 3xf
Research proper form, stick to this for a couple months and never stop pushing yourself. I guarantee you will see results you like.
