Starting up

[grip_x]

Hey, my name's Sam and I am 18 years old. When I was 14, I wrestled and never won a single match. I quit the following year and have gotten into worse shape. I started a couple months ago at 6' 145 pounds, and am now up to 155 pounds.

My strength is pretty laughable right now. I am working up. My max door pullups is 4, and my max on pushups and tricep pushups are about 3x 36 pounds. I am working on doing weighted pushups to increase my shoulder and tricep strength.

I am also trying to work up to doing some gymnastic holds (frog stand at the moment:oops:). The severe lack of balance and coordination I feel is holding me back on these holds as it is in my ability to do pistols (I cannot). I can one leg squat with my leg held behind me, but cannot do the pistol.

My main goals are to increase core strength, gain weight, and improve balance. My secondary goals are to increase arm and shoulder strength, and cardiovascular endurance.

I am currently eating like a champ to gain weight, getting adequate rest, but I feel like I'm not really progressing in strength much. Feels good to be a part of a community so serious about training.

[cheesedog]

Welcome Sam! You've made a good start. What kind of a workout plan are you following?

[grip_x]

I don't actually have a plan written out, perhaps I should. But it goes something like this

20 burpees
dynamic stretches
5x5 sandbag zercher squats
3x5 sandbag deadlifts
3x3 weighted pushups
3x3 weighted tricep pushups
3x5 sandbag reverse curls
static stretches

I usually work out every couple of days. I also do pullups on my door fairly regularly, and do attempts at frog stands (I can only hold it a couple of seconds at a time unfortunately, its killing my elbows with my knees being rested on them since my arms aren't strong enough yet. I also cycle about 4-5 miles each way to and from work and school which is about every single day.

[cheesedog]

Looks good. How heavy is your sandbag?

[grip_x]

I have 200 pounds of sand, but realistically I have an extremely difficult time grappling the bag into a zercher position with more than 60 pounds on it. I have squatted for 4 reps with 100 pounds of sand in the bag, but it was an epic struggle to simply get into the position for 1 rep.

I deadlift with about 100 pounds as well. I haven't deadlifted in a while so I'm not exactly sure. Sandbag lifting is just so damn hard. The reverse curls I can only do about 20 pounds.

By the way, I just posted a workout log here http://bodyweightculture.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10364
Thanks for your help to everyone, reading posts you show up a lot