Hey there guys and Ben! First of all, I've just stumbled upon Radical Face a few days ago... And Ben Cooper instantly became one of the musician which I wanna get in to their head and understand how their genius minds work... Anyway, I found out that Ben lifts weight and are following Starting Strength program by Mark Rippetoe. In the book, power cleans is included right? I'm interested if you do power cleans or do you replace it with something else like Pendlay rows? Ben looks bigger than he used to be, I noticed. I'm following a similar program called StrongLift 5x5, the exercises are identical except for the clean is replaced by row. Just started for 3+ weeks, it's going great! Although there's a lot of gym guys telling me that I'm doing things wrong; 'no one did them that way', 'you tighten your body too much' etc., that's probably because the gym is meant for bodybuilding... Here the questions I wanna ask you guys: 1) what kind of diet do you follow? 2) is 6 hours of sleep enough? 3) what weight do you started to stall on each exercises? 4) what is the most common types of injuries? 5) why did you started strength training? 6) did you add any extra exercise to Starting Strength? Any more questions would came up eventually I think... I hope I'm not disturbing anyone here, looking forward to everyone's replies! -JP
Hahaha. I'm no genius, but thank you. And you aren't bothering anyone. The whole idea of forums is to discuss things, so feel free. 5x5 is very similar to Starting Strength. I think both are great programs for getting a foundation, even if you eventually wanna get into bodybuilding. As for form, I've always just read up on it a lot, and me and my brother check each other's form from time to time. There's a lot of opinions on the methods, but I found the descriptions in Starting Strength really held up. For the specific questions ... 1) I currently eat about 3400 calories a day, and try to get a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight. I currently weigh 230, so it's a lot of protein. I try to sneak in as many greens as I can. But I'm not super strict about diet, and outside of those general rules, I can kinda fudge a lot. I like pizza and french fries a bit too much. I'm always a little heavier than I need to be (though, the weight does help as far as lifting heavy goes), but I've found I like food more than I like looking pretty. But really, if you're in it for looks, bodybuilding is the way to go anyway. 2) Depends. I need 7 I've found, and 8 if I can manage it (which is basically never). I used to do 6, but it caught up with me and I wasn't recovering anymore. 3) For bench I got stuck around 190 the first time (started at 115), second plateau was around 250 and I'm currently working through a plateau again. Stuck at 305 for my 1 rep max. I should be higher than that according to max calculators (they put me at 315). Squats for 3x5 stalled around 275, then 345, then I got injured. Hahaha. I have an old skateboarding injury that makes all heavy back exercises kinda risky. I'm currently supplementing with leg press (850) and lunges (65 lb dumbells per hand). Overhead press is always a slow climb. I've stalled a lot. Currently at 160 for 3x5. Deadlifts I never due very heavy due to my back problems. I usually stay around 275 when I do them, and just do more volume. I have to modify a lot of my workouts because of old injuries. 4) For me, the only thing I've ever injured from weightlifting itself is my right elbow. Doing weighted dips I kinda screwed it up. Still recovering now. But I'd say the biggest things to watch out for are joint stress (particularly elbows and knees) and rotator cuffs. Shoulder injuries can follow you for years. So be careful about your bench form for that. 5) I mostly started because of insomnia. I needed something to help me sleep, and my little brother had been into it for about a year. I figured I'd try it, and to my surprise, I enjoyed it. And it definitely helps me sleep. Been at 4 years now, though I sometimes have to set it aside for touring and recording and such. 6) I stayed on the program without changes for about a year. Now I'm on some new programs altogether. I'm about to start doing 5-3-1, which is a slow but steady system, with two month cycles. It's supposed to be a real good way to avoid plateaus as an intermediate level. My brother's on it now and it's worked well for him so far.
You eat about every 3 hours. It's still a lot, but it's manageable. But I'm only eating that much when I'm home and everything can be scheduled. When I'm not lifting full time (like right now, as I'm on the road), my appetite is pretty much cut in half and I don't eat nearly as much. It's amazing how hungry strength training makes you.
