I've read the sticky over and over and I am still struggling on figuring where I begin to start lifting. I understand the lifts, routines, and diet but I'm missing one key point. What weight do I start with on these lifts? The workouts given on liamrosen are good but they say take 90% of squat and 80% of bench etc. and I don't even know what to do. How do I found where I need to start weight wise in the gym? Do I need to find my max? If I do, how can I properly find it without fucking up?
start with the bar and add a little weight if it's easy
spend your first gym sessions learning the lifts and getting used to the movement patterns
maybe film yourself on squats and diddlies
If at all possible, I very highly recommend a personal trainer to start with. He'll give pointers on which exercises to do, and he'll work with you to figure out a starting weight - this way you don't spend weeks working up from an empty bar when in reality you can lift much heavier, for example.
From then on, if you manage to do all your reps and sets on an exercise, add a notch of weight next time (whatever's the smallest denomination on the bar/weight/machine). If you you fail at this three workouts in a row, dial it back two notches.
>>37785589
I used to workout a lot when j was younger. I know the lifts and movements I just can't figure out how I find what weight I start with.
>>37785650
That's exactly what I want to avoid is starting with just an empty bar and having to build up when I can rep much more. Is a trainer the only way to avoid starting from nothing
>>37785684
I do not believe that a trainer is absolutely necessary, but I do believe that having one around will speed things up by a very appreciable margin.
He'll check your form, and make sure it's good. He'll ask for your feelings regarding the weight he put you on to start with. Having a second opinion is almost always a good thing.
Myself, I had started out with nothing on the bar, doing Stronglifts 5x5. The first two months were spent lifting the stupid bar with almost nary an effort. Two months, to figure out that what I can lift on a squat is about 165 lbs (60lbs per side). That's a lot of wasted time, as far as I'm concerned.
>>37785684
Well youre just wasting time agonising about it right now. Just start with the bar and add 5kgs a workout until that feels like it's too fast, then make it 2.5kgs on normall SS (I assume you will do linear progression). Make it 10kgs for diddlies.
Seriously, 3 workouts a week for squats and adding 5kgs a week starting with just to bar goes like this
week 1 - 20kgs (bar)
week 2 - 35kgs
week 3 - 50kgs
week 4 - 65kgs
week 5 - 80kgs
Even if you should have started at a higher weight you will have more practice and better form if you start lower, this also means you will be able to linearly progress for longer before failure.
Just start with the bar for squats, 40kgs for deads. Focus on form and a month or two you will be lifting decent weights again.
Start with an empty bar. Do a couple of reps.
Was it easy? Did 5 reps with perfect form? Then add 10-15lbs and do it again.
Keep doing it until you can't do 5 reps with perfect form. Next session follow a normal warmup pattern and do your 3x5 with the highest weight you did with perfect form.
Then add 10lbs next session.
>>37785723
>>37785731
Ok so y'all recommend just bar for squats. I will be following starting strength by mark riptoe. Should I only have weight to start deadlift and all other lifts just bar, like squats, the first week and begin building up by 5kg?
>>37785790
Just bar until you have some sense of what your working weights are and to get your body accustomed to the motions. Even if we knew your height and weight we couldn't guess where your starting strength would be.
As for diddy, the main reason for starting with weight on the bar is just to start with the bar at the mid-shin height that one plate is. If you think that's too high a weight for you you can put less (or no) weight on the bar and simple raise it up by putting plates on their sides to lift its starting position up off the floor.
>>37785790
In Starting Strength your first workout is described as this:
Start with an empty bar, perform 5 reps. Add 5 kg, perform 5 reps. Continue this until the bar slows down and you have your working weight for that session. Complete 2 more sets and you're done. Next session you can increase up to 7.5 kg but if you already feel things getting heavy, you decrease to 5 kg for a while until that gets too heavy, until you finally land on 2.5 kg for the next few months until you're done with the program. Upper movements will settle at 1.25 kg increases though.
You can also start with 2.5 kg immediately if you're unsure. You'll still increase 7.5 kg per week, which equals 30 kg in a month.
>>37785684
omg dude just fucking warmup with the bar, do warm up sets increasing by 5kg each time, as soon as it feels challenging in any way (not impossible, but as soon as it feels like there's a reasonable amount of resistance) use that as your working set, and increase from there. you could have done it already instead of complaining to fit
>>37785684
It's bullshit. Literally add weight until you struggle. You're just paying for some faggot who did a three week course to do literally the same thing.
For form get someone to video you and either compare footage with legit lifters or ask /fit/.
>>37785684
Personal trainer is a meme
Read SS book and film yourself
Thank you guys for clearing that up. I guess I'm going to have to suck it up and start from scratch. Thank y'all for all the advice!
>>37785656
>>37785684
The way I started was I kept adding 5kg to the bar until I could no longer do the exercise in good form, once my form broke down I went back 5kg and started from there.
