First Blog Post

When I first started lifting weights this was back in 2009. Little did I know back then. I was skinny, weighing about 53kg and I wanted to get bigger. If only the present me could time travel back to that very day where I decided I wanted to get bigger, and give the past me Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength book, or at least show the past me some of Bill Starr's articles on training.

I wasted a year doing bodybuilder inspired routines, I had a chest/triceps day, a back/biceps day, a leg day and a shoulders day. If only I knew back then that I was so weak that I didn't need to train my muscle groups separately. I wasn't benching or squatting such phenomenal weights that those lifts only had to be trained once a week. While in that year I did get bigger (gaining about 10kg so I was weighing around 63kg or so), these gains were due to something known as the novice effect where anything you do (if you have no prior athletic background) will warrant an adaptation in your body. After a while my routine stopped working. I was benching, then incline benching, then doing DB flyes all in the same day. I was squatting then leg pressing then doing lunges all in the same day. I would always be sore after my workouts. I wasn't happy with how things were going.

I stumbled upon a website stronglifts.com which changed the way I trained drastically. The website preached about full body workouts, where you could squat, then bench press/overhead press, then row/deadlift in each session and you increase the weight every workout (by 2.5kg to ensure you don't stall too quickly). I was at first skeptical. Could my body be able to recover from doing 3 compound lifts in each session? The answer was yes. You see, the body functions as a single unit. When you walk, your quadriceps and hamstrings function together. When you push off something like when doing a pushup, your triceps as well as your pecs contract together. So it makes sense to train your body as a single unit. Isolating your muscle groups such as doing leg extensions (for the quads) and then leg curls (for the hamstrings) doesn't make sense because the muscles in your legs don't function separately. Wouldn't it be better to just to squats where you can train the quads and hamstrings at the same time?

Isolating muscle groups does have its place, in the bodybuilding world where single muscle groups need to be brought up so the body looks in proportion. But a beginner completely new to training doesn't need to worry about this. A beginner needs to bring up his or her entire body and the fastest and best way to do this is through compound movements. Not only do the compound movements train several muscle groups at once, but they also allow you to handle the most weight (you will be able to handle more weight on the weight squat more than the leg extension, you will be able to bench more weight than you can use on the DB flye). The heavier weight will not only benefit your muscles, but also your tendons and joints, and also your mind. You will develop a mental toughness from handling heavy weights.

What else did I learn from stronglifts.com? I needed to do less reps. 5 sets of 5 reps was what I needed to be doing, according to this website. So as you can imagine, it was a lot for me to take in, not only did I have to be doing 3 compound movements each session, I also had to be doing them for 5 x 5 each (except the deadlift, more on that later)? The reason for 5 reps instead of 8-12 was that 5 reps allowed you to handle more weight, so you would be getting stronger. Getting stronger is useful because say you wanted to focus on bodybuilding later on, once you have developed a strong foundation you will be able to handle heavier weights when bodybuilding and hence your results will be better. It makes sense doesn't it? You can handle more weight for 8-12 reps if you were squatting 150kg for 5 reps, compared to if you were only squatting 60kg for 5 reps. You can imagine how skeptical I was. But my bodybuilding routines weren't getting me anywhere, so I had nothing to lose. Also, the muscle you gain from strength training is more dense compared to the pumped look you get from bodybuilding, but getting stronger does still result in increased muscle size (although to a lower extent than bodybuilding).

Now at this stage I wish I had put more effort into learning the proper technique for the compound lifts (squat, bench press, overhead press, barbell row, deadlift) instead of jumping straight into the strength program (known as Stronglifts 5 x 5, another similar program is Starting Strength). Had I put more effort into learning the proper technique, I would've made better progress on Stronglifts 5 x 5. But the program delivered results, my squat went from 70kg for 5 x 5 to 110kg for 5 x 5. My bench press (with not that great technique) went from 50kg to 75kg. My deadlift went from 100kg to 140kg. My overhead press went from 27.5kg to 47.5kg. I would never have been able to make these improvements if I had stuck with 8-12 reps. My bodyweight went from 63kg to 70kg. And the best part was that I noticed an improvement in my body. My legs were bigger than they've ever been, yet I was doing less exercises for them, and the muscularity in my upper body was improving. Now I'm not saying that my physique was impressive, but it was definitely an improvement, and definitely a step in the right direction for me.

The best part about these novice routines (Stronglifts 5 x 5, Starting Strength) is that whatever your goals are, these routines will help guide you in the right direction. People who want to gain muscle will do so, provided that they get stronger as well as eat more to facilitate muscle growth. People who want to lose fat will do so, provided that they get stronger and watch how much they're eating. Building muscle is an effective way to lose fat because when you have more muscle, your metabolism will be faster. And for the 'toned' look girls want, guess what? Being more toned means you have more muscle! Girls shouldn't worry about getting bulky because they don't have as much testosterone in their bodies, and provided they don't take steroids, they won't get a bulky physique from strength training.

Since then, my squat is now at 167.5kg for 5 reps, my bench is 92.5kg for 5 reps, my overhead press is 63.5kg for 3 reps and my best deadlift is 205kg for 1 rep. These numbers are still improving too so expect them to be higher in a few months. My current bodyweight is 78kg (in the morning after a good dump). Of course the program I'm on now is much different to Stronglifts 5 x 5 but I'll leave it for another post.