Jake Di Vita

If you had stuck with linear progression, you'd likely be stronger than you ever thought you could possibly be right now. At least that's how it worked for me.

Thanks for the words Steve. I try to be a better coach each and every day. Merlin, In my opinion, the most important thing for an "older" guy/girl (or young guy/girl for that matter) is to have a good strength base through squats, deadlifts, pressing, and pull ups. I would send you without hesitation to Mark Rippetoe. His books and forums would be a great tool to take advantage of. After you develop that solid base, you can take it wherever you want from there. Being strong is what generally keeps people out of nursing homes. Regardless of what you decide to do, don't just dive in to anything. Read as much as you can and take it at a pace you can manage to start. Taking the time to really learn HOW to strength train is far better than just loading weight on the bar and bludgeoning yourself to death with exercise.

I have and several clients I have trained have. Infinitely better than conventional "back and bi, chest and tri", but far lacking behind a pragmatic strength and conditioning program. No. If you want to get in shape, I suggest doing it right from the start. Do your due diligence in research, work your ass off, sleep well, eat natural.

That 67 yard run by the Seahawks was the worst tackling I have ever seen. 6 people had a chance of bringing him down....wow.

In my opinion, yes. You can't go wrong with meat, meat, and more meat. I've even been known to do shots of olive oil just to get the extra calories from a great source of fat

GOMAD worked wonders for me. Gallon of (whole) Milk A Day. 2600 calories, 128 grams of protein, about equal in fat. That +3 large meals a day will put weight on any skinny guy in a hurry.

I'm excited for you. It's not uncommon for novice trainees on this program to be accused of taking steroids. Make sure you do some surfing on the starting strength forums btw. In Rip's Q&A section he allows posting of videos that he critiques. I highly recommend you watch the critique videos of movements you have questions on before you ask the question though. Eat, eat, eat, eat, eat, eat. If you ever feel hungry, you aren't eating even close to enough.

Depending on your genetics, how hard you train, how much you eat, how good your sleep is, etc....you should be able to put on a heck of a lot more than 10 pounds of muscle. I'd expect an equal muscle to fat ratio for people that have decent genetics on their side. In 4ish months of linear progression I went from 155 to 190 (with about 15 pounds of that being fat), and I slacked off on my eating for the last month. When I decided to trim down a bit again, I lost that 15 pounds of fat in about a month. Fat is pretty easy to lose if you can control what you put in your mouth.

Six, Yes they certainly are more technical, but it is well within your abilities to teach them to yourself. You have the book, you have the internet with countless demonstrations and instructional videos (shoot, there are even videos on Rip's site). I taught myself how to do them. Just start reasonably light, do your research, and you'll be fine. Cleans are an incredibly important movement to know how to do and infinitely more beneficial than rows in this program. You're 31, which really isn't that old in terms of strength training. You're also over 6 feet tall and 190 pounds. Even if you do gain a little more fat than you do muscle, that isn't that big of a deal. Trust me on this and do it right the first time, you won't regret it. Any excess fat you obtain will melt off when you decide it has become a problem. Have you done much surfing on the startingstrength website / forums?

Roger....why sub rows in for cleans?

That's exactly why I won't fly anymore...I'd go to jail. Guaranteed.

First of all, great decision to get strong. Rips program flat works for anyone that does it. Do have a few concerns though. I don't think you are getting enough food to sustain gains. When I was doing linear progression I was shooting for over 5000 calories a day, and I'm 5'7. Don't worry about gaining fat right now. Muscle is a hell of a lot harder to gain than fat is to lose. Up that food intake. Get more calories from fat and less from carbs. The general rule of thumb for gaining weight is eat until you want to puke...then keep eating. Next, ignore cardio for the time being. You have a finite ability to recover, any conditioning at this point will take away from your ability to gain strength. The most important thing during linear progression is making sure you don't stall. Do whatever it takes to make sure of this. Thirdly, I noticed you subbed rows in for deadlifts. You need to understand if you do that you are NOT doing the starting strength program. Deadlifts are a HUGE part of it and they are just good your soul. I assume you have the books Starting Strength and Practical Programming? If you don't, you need to get these yesterday. Good luck.

Wow man...what a game. Arkansas has GOT to scoop that ball and run!

Amen.

Getting strong is always a good idea. www.startingstrength.com

Well it depends on the distance of the target, but sure. Generally there is no real reason to not use your sights however.

Don't think about it so linear 506. Use what is available to you. Each shot is a separate event. Use whatever information you can. You can get by pretty well with a developed index, but more information is always better.

Yes absolutely...to all of the above. Try to not rely on only one source of feedback to shoot. In general I believe the more feedback we get and acknowledge, the better we generally operate. Feedback comes from a verity (typo?) of sources, the most common of which being the sights. Use a combination of the sights, index, looking over the slide, proprioception, and anything else you can get information from to know where that bullet is going. In my opinion, shooting a type 2 array is very doable with a sufficiently trained index, while being able to score your hits real time. That doesn't mean it is necessarily the best way of doing it, but certainly doable. How does the saying go? Whereever you are, be all there.

Calling the shot means knowing where the bullet went the instant it left the barrel. Notice it says nothing about the sights. Use any and all feedback available. The sights normally provide the best feedback, but they may not always be required to accurately call a shot.

Any idea when the waitlist goes online?

Pictures or video would be useful.

Gotcha... I'd really like to get an actual mapping of all my split and transition times with video for every stage of a major. Along with notes, that could yield some pretty interesting and valuable data.

How did you get the data for "no extra shots?"

Thanks for the words fellas. Sean pretty much has it right. For what it's worth, I still have a score to settle with that drill... My first thought when reading this title was - Not holding back. Letting go of the brake changed everything for me.

I thought this was a good read.