New to the Forum, new to lifting stuff

[EmbraCraig]

Hi folks,

 

Just came across this site when looking for some advice on strength training, and it looks like the kind of fitness community I could enjoy

 

My names Craig, and I'm from Edinburgh in Scotland. I'm 33, married, and I'm father to a 4 month old boy. I'm a tabletop gamer (RPGs, wargames, card games and boardgames, in roughly that order of preference), a computer gamer (MMOs, but far less of them in the last 4 months...) and a scifi/fantasy book, film and tv fan.

 

I've been telling myself that I need to lose weight since about the time I moved up to 38" trousers and XL shirts...  Shortly after our son was born I realised that I couldn't even get up from the sofa with him on my chest without needing to pull myself up with my arms, so I figured I needed to do some strength work too.

 

About nine weeks ago I finally got around to doing something about it. I started logging calories on MyFitnessPal and ordered a Fitbit, and I've been tracking what I'm eating and added about an hour a day of walking to my schedule (I now do a fair bit of my journey to and from work by foot rather than getting the bus as close as possible).

 

The first nine weeks have went pretty well - I've lost 4.5kg from my first weigh in, so averaging 0.5kg a week, which was my original goal. I started out at 100kg on the nose, and I'm my first goal is to get down to around 85kg - I'll see how I feel about how I look when I get there and decide what my next priorities are. The loss so far has got me onto the next hole on my belt, and I might be looking at 36" waists when I go out trouser shopping soon, so things are heading the right way

 

A couple of weeks ago, the new gym opened in our office block. I didn't want to just pound on a treadmill as I used to do on my previous gym-going attempts, so figured I'd look into more strength training and came across the Stronglifts 5x5 program. I tried workout A for the first time last week, and it actually went ok... other than the fact that I couldn't walk up and down stairs for a couple of days afterwards. I've been assured that the pains will pass once I've done squats a few times, so I'm taking it a little easier and am now working my way back up to being able to do the full 5 sets of squats without feeling like I've crippled myself (3 sets of 5 of each excercise today with the 20kg empty bar). I'd rather do less per workout for a couple of weeks while I get used to it and be able to stick to my 3 workouts a week.

 

Spurred on by the sucess stories on here, I've even taken a couple of pictures so that I can keep an eye on my progress, which I'd put off doing before. Weighed in at 95.5kg on Friday, and the bodyfat measure on my scale says 18.5% (yeah, I know they're not great, but it seems fairly consistent even if I reckon it's underestimating by a good few percent). Apologies to anyone who's not a fan of bodyhair...

 

 

If anyone else is using MyFitnessPal or Fitbit, then feel free to add me over there too - it'd be good to have some encouragement/gentle nagging as and when needed

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/embracraig

https://www.fitbit.com/user/39WC7P

[Basement Cat]

Welcome to the rebellion!

 

Glad to hear you want to level up your life! Good luck with the lifting! The soreness will diminish over time. No worries.

[SomeGuyFromScotland]

Another Scot! Welcome along, you'll love the place.

[EmbraCraig]

Thanks for the welcome folks, having a look around the forums today it's great to see so many good, positive attitudes on display

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[DarK_RaideR]

Welcome to the Rebellion, Craig. Good luck on your journey, I hear Claymores are pretty heavy to wield with ease

[SpecialSundae]

Hi Craig!

I'm another Edinburgh lifter. The Edinburgh Nerds are a pretty friendly, sociable and welcoming bunch, so give me a shout if you ever want to meet up.

Which gym do you lift in?

[EmbraCraig]

Welcome to the Rebellion, Craig. Good luck on your journey, I hear Claymores are pretty heavy to wield with ease

Ta very much - hmm... Weapons training, now there's a possible future fitness goal I hadn't thought of...

Hi Craig!

I'm another Edinburgh lifter. The Edinburgh Nerds are a pretty friendly, sociable and welcoming bunch, so give me a shout if you ever want to meet up.

Which gym do you lift in?

I'm at the new Any Time Fitness gym at Tanfield (just next door to the botanics). It's Pretty small, but all the gear they have seems good quality. Two heavy weight power racks with Olympic barbells, and I've never seen them both in use at the same time yet, so they have all I need for now anyway.

Good to hear there are some other Edinburgh Rebels - alway nice to know there are some locals around

[EmbraCraig]

Quick double post to say I've started a daily log. I was going to wait until the next challenge started, but then figured why wait?

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/65442-Weak-Man-Does-Stronglifts---EmbraCraig%27s-Daily-Log

[CrackerWatson]

HI Craig

 

Been away from the game for a few weeks and slowly catching up, glad to see another bloke from Edinburgh!!!

[EmbraCraig]

Hey, glad to hear from Edinburgh peeps - good to know there are a few locals around