my fitness goals and tentative plan, please advise

[jah7_fsu1]

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And I take it the starting strength program is fine for what I'm trying to do? The book seems to be targeted on skinny high school kids so I wasn't sure.

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The book is fine for beginners and intermediates, it doesn't get to technical to understand or tackle anything that really would require serious coaching. Should be a perfect place to start on your goals.

[dethgrind]

Progress report

After 6 weeks I'm down from 194.5 to 191 poounds, and from 17.2% to 16.2% bodyfat. I've lost about 1/4 inch of waist and 1/4 inch of hips as well. I look pretty much exactly the same, just more tan. My squat is up to 3x5x215, bench 3x5x150, deadlift 1x5x220. That's my best ever for bench, and most weight ever for squat and dead though I used to do more reps at lower weight. I can dunk much more easily now, though still short of what I could do when I was in better shape.

I did www.fitday.com for two weeks. I averaged 2970 calories a day at 24/44/18/15 fat/carbs/protein/alcohol. Thats 433 calories from alcohol, plus extra carb calories from beer. I think drinking is the number one thing holding me back from my goals. The next week doesn't look promising, but after this weekend I plan to aggressively cut back.

Though I've stuck to starting strength pretty religiously, I've only done basketball once, sometimes twice a week. I thought I had a solid crew of people to play with but that turned out not to be the case, and I don't really have the initiative to go play by myself when I'm tired after work.

So my new plan is to buy a jump rope and learn to use that. I figure it will take me a couple weeks to get good enough to get a solid workout out of it, but after that it should be a fun way to get some decent cardio without having to leave the house. Also I'm hoping it will help convert some of my new strength from all those squats into real jumping ability.

Any comments or suggestions?

[mattnxtc]

This is just my preferences, but I think your protein level is to low and carb level is to high.

Since you are not playing basketball as much as you thought, have you thought about adding in some HIIT type workouts instead? Would be beneficial to your overall basketball conditioning.

[dethgrind]

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This is just my preferences, but I think your protein level is to low and carb level is to high.

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I agree, and I'm shifting my diet to have more protein and less carbs.
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Since you are not playing basketball as much as you thought, have you thought about adding in some HIIT type workouts instead? Would be beneficial to your overall basketball conditioning.

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The jump rope workouts I plan on doing will probably be interval based, maybe even the standard boxing thing of 4 rounds of 3 minutes with rest in between, varying the intensity during the 3 minutes. I've tried running around the track but that's just too damn boring. And psychologically, running isn't any easier than going to play basketball by myself. Probably harder. HIIT is a bitch.

[mattnxtc]

HIIT sucks yes, but it works wonders...if you have a bike do it on that..Just put some good music on and go hard. It sucks but youll get through it.

Jump roping is good..I do it for 10-15 minutes every few days as part of my routines and like it a lot.

As for running...set yourself times for that distance and challenge yourself to beat it...or if y ou want..set times to complete some gassers and do that...but you need the HIIT workouts to help lose fat and get in shape for basketball

[dethgrind]

I'm setting PRs in all my lifts each workout, but I'm about to leave for a camping trip that'll keep me out of the gym for 8 days. Bench is at 3x5x155, squat 3x5x230, deadlift 1x5x240, press 3x5x90, clean 5x3x135.

I'm really excited about my progress and a bit bummed that I have to interrupt it like this. My diet and sleep will probably be crappy, plus an 8 day gap is a lot since I've been going 3 days a week. Should I drop some weight when I return? Any advice?

[dethgrind]

Another progress report:

0 weeks - 6 weeks - 12 weeks

weight: 194.5 - 191 - 190
body fat: 17.2 - 16.2 - 15.8
waist: 34 - 33.75 - 33
hips: 40.5 - 40.25 - 40

squat: ? - 3x5x215 - 3x5x255
bench: ? - 3x5x150 - (5,4,3)x160
deadlift: ? - 1x5x220 - 1x5x275
press: ? - 3x5x85 - 3x5x100
cleans: still working on technique, 5x3x140

I don't think it's reasonable to try to get my bfp as measured by my scale down to 10%. Maybe if I measured at night instead of in the morning... last night it said 13.6. 32 inch waist seems like a more sensible goal, and according to most of those calculators, that's about 10% body fat.

I've stopped using fitday but my diet is still solid, probably better. I've reduced my drinking considerably and cut out bread and tortillas. I still occasionally go with brown rice or whole wheat pasta, and I eat a ton more fruits and veggies. For about a month now I've been taking a multivitamin and 3g fish oil a day.

I've stuck to a routine of 3 days lifting, 1 day basketball, 1 day ultimate frisbee, 1 day jump rope, 1 day off. I'm working with a captain of crush #1 gripper, and I think I might be ready for the next one. I can close it 6 times with my right hand. I just started a 'grease the groove' type thing for pullups, which I'm doing on my door. I'm not happy that I can only do 5 right now.

I think I'm going to give starting strength another 6 weeks or 2 resets on the squat, whichever comes first. Then I think I might try out one of those barbell or dumbell complex workouts for a month or so and really tighten up the diet to trim down a bit more. Throw in some plyos and hopefully in a couple months my dunks will be out of control.