Sorry for not responding sooner, and thanks for all the great advice. Diet is probably the biggest issue for both of us; in Nov I maxed 310 squat but I was still about 20lb overweight at 5'3" 165lb. Neither of us eat particularly clean calories, so gotta get better about that.

I'll talk to her about bodyweight exercise and HIIT then try to get her on the Ripetoes. She'll probably resist because of the social perceptions about lifting that an earlier poster pointed out.

I'll update with results.

Ps: Any thoughts on getting some lifting coaching for me? I sprained both of my knees coaching kids wrestling this winter and my squats haven't felt right since. Will a private coaching session give anything that I can't get from SS books and videos?

SQUAT CAMP
SQUAT CAMP SQUAT CAMP
SQUAT CAMP SQUAT CAMP SQUAT CAMP

Diet is the most important aspect for you to clean up. In terms of just living a fit life style, as long as you're doing some sort of exercise daily, your diet is the difference maker. Lean meat, whole grains, etc. Cut out soda/beer and you'll see a huge difference. Or if you're the kinda person who eats healthy meals, then grabs unhealthy snacks regularly, changing that can help. Focus on cleaning up your diet.
Don't pay for a trainer a commercial gym. They usually are incompetent. If you know an experienced lifter, that's you best bet. Doing squats with poor form can permanently fuck your back, so have someone watch you. Form/quality > raw weight. It's not worth fucking your back.

I looked up Starting Strength "certified" trainers and there are a few in my area. My back is fine but my knees are hurting. Probably some combination of poor form, too much weight and old injuries.

taking notes, can someone give me a link on getting bigger arms?

Its probably not necessary. Nothing you couldnt learn for free online or from a book. You can also learn some very basic things from some fitness channels on youtube. Quite a few IFBB pros, and guys with the expierence with dieting and training and who train people online offer some advice on form / meal examples / tips on losing weight, etc. If you're a student like me, it's an affordable way of learning more about nutrion and fitness.

well, don't do anything that makes your knees feel uncomfortable or in pain. but i'm sure you'll know the pain difference in working out your muscle(s), as opposed to being in actual pain. alternatively, especially if you have a nice gym, there are less-knee intensive machines for legs. of course nothing beats the feeling of a true squat (there's a joke somewhere in there..).

yeah, that's an impressive squat but you don't want to be that guy in the gym who is strong fat. what's the point, you know?

as far as coaches go, i did so much research on the internet and progressively learned more and more about diet and exercise. i felt better about that knowledge because it was mine, it was earned, i found legitimate sources and it was completely free. additionally, i would get pointers here and there from watching others, and other gym goers/fitness trainers. but personal trainers are usually people who have a basic knowledge of basic exercises, and spew out a lot of "broscience" about diet and exercise.

make the knowledge you have and the knowledge you are learning accessible to your girlfriend, but don't push it on her. she'll more than likely be inspired by your journey. at first my girlfriend lamented the fact we didn't go out to eat as much anymore, that i wouldn't eat candy with her in the movies, etc., but she understood my personal goals and most restaurant offerings were not aligned. i've shared my knowledge about diet and nutrition with her in bits and pieces, and she does with it what she wants, but it's more than she took into consideration before.

1

Shag, run, shag, walk, snack, shag, GO TO WORK/SCHOOL, Shag, run, shag, WALK DOG, snack, shag, shower, sleep.

She'll be fine as fuck or dead in 2 weeks.

Get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Omega-J8006-Nutrition-Center-Juicer/dp/B001L7OIVI/ref=sr_1_11?ie=UTF8&qid=1367196864&sr=8-11&keywords=juicer

get rid of the dead foods like meat, bread, and dairy, and start eating only living foods like fruits, vegetables nuts and seeds.

watch all of these guys' videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wi9GMO3yvkA&feature=player_detailpage#t=28s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW3rWq5JNuU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHmsfy6oiGw

that first video has to be among the most ridiculous collection of meaningless claptrap i have ever heard in my life.

tyler "nutritionist" morgan.

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on a serious note when first seeing this thread i wasn't expecting to see so much help.
myself, during summer, i'll be working on losing the 15 lbs overweight that i have.
thanks for the help so far.

Nevermind

Update:

Tonight is working out Day 1. It's still a little up in the air, but I think we're starting her off with Starting Strength (because that's what I'm doing today) and mixing in a HIIT workout w/ cardio on off days to work off some fat.

She hasn't started counting calories or worrying about Protein/Carb/Fat ratios, but we've consciously not eaten out a few times since I started this thread. I completed 2 weeks of not drinking beer on weekdays. My waistline doesn't show it yet, but I wake up feeling great every morning.

Thanks for the advice in the thread, I'll follow with more updates if there's any interest.

PS: Hit me up if you ever want to Valve Lobby CS:GO with a forever shitlord.

Please do, it's always nice to hear the stories of people's progress. If there's any advice I could give which hasn't really been stressed in this thread is that consistency really is key, if you have a set schedule for workouts make sure you stick to it 100%, or else it becomes really easy to lose commitment and suddenly "one day off" quickly turns into a week or month with little to no exercise.

Also, something that I found really helped when I started to work out regularly was to throw short exercises into my daily schedule whenever there's time. For example, if you're waiting for your toast to heat up in the morning why not drop to the ground and pump out some pushups. It might sound weird but this is a really good way to fit more exercise into your schedule, and a quick set of pushups, squats, etc., every once in a while start to add up pretty quickly. If you're at all like me you might find after a while it actually becomes a habit.

The biggest things for me weren't even exercise - you can lose a solid amount of weight just by going on a walk every day for an hour (which is free). The biggest thing is the diet - the easiest way to manage that (it's cheaper too) is just buy raw ingredients and learn to cook for yourself - you'll immediately drop weight because:

A.) cooking from scratch is time consuming, so you'll eat less
B.) snacks are limited to healthy things (or left overs)
C.) you'll be bad at first and everything you make will taste burnt or not quite right

The only reason I haven't gained a tremendous amount of weight over the last 2 years of me doing absolutely nothing physical just about, is because I bake my own bread, and cook every meal from scratch lol.

It's the kind of thing where you go to eat and you're like "fuck hungry what eat?" and you'll realize that your only option is a salad or an apple unless you want to wait 30 minutes. I even make my own salad dressing - because even if you just get a basic store bought dressing they're typically loaded down with salt and heavier oils.

Great system. Plus cooking together is the bomb-digity, just look at how much fun ggglygy had cooking along with brad!

My system primarily consists of soups (easy to make), rice and beans, pita and hummus and/or yogurt, and now fancier breads with butter or jam, and every imaginable variation of rice with anything (curry etc). Some people would knock my bread intake but physically making the bread has to burn plenty lol. And the dairy is for pleasure (greek yogurt and feta cheese, also parmigiano lol) It's a lot cheaper than you might think - especially if you or anyone you know gardens and you buy in season.

We completed one week of the Starting Strength program and so far she likes it. She's doing well with squats, bench and (oddly?) hanging cleans, but still needs a lot of work on standing press and refuses to deadlift. It hurts her knee, so we're substituting in pull-ups for deadlift until she feels up to it.

The diet talking longer. She will drink whey protein if I make her, but she has a hard time managing the carbs. One day at a time, I guess.

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll stop in to update if we reach any milestones.

what do you mean by managing the carbs? also, you can substitute a t-bar row for deadlifts. that's what i do as i have an injury that makes deadlifts not possible. some gyms have a machine for it, or you can just use a bar and the proper handle as displayed in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3Igk5nyZE4

Hang cleans are usually one of the more advance lifts to learn. Glad to hear things are going well! One thing you could try for deadlifts would be Rackpulls. This should take some of the stress from her knees.

here is an example of a rackpull: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MLLp0G8R8w

You burn more lifting weights than most cardio. If she is going to do cardio have her do it last, and only use the elliptical/stair-climber/tread-climber (best). Treadmill's are high-impact and that kind of running can really stress the body not to mention if you ever look at a serious runners body it is usually gross, lanky, and boxy. The 3 I mentioned are low impact and will burn more calories anyway. (and they all help tone the butt)

It's easy to lose weight, well the idea is easy, it's just calories in/calories out. If you take in what your body naturally burns off a day (for her probably like 1800-2000) You will be at 0 calories net gain for the day. Add exercise to that...BOOM weight lose begins.

1 week rule is always in effect. Work out tonight, dont expect to see any signs of anything till next week. Eat a tub of ice-cream and 3 donuts, cry yourself to sleep next week when the scale numbers rise.

Most girls shy away from weights because they say they don't want the muscle look. They will never get the muscle look unless they are hardcore weight lifters. Weight-lifting is something every girl should be doing, and if you ever see a serious banging girl at the gym watch what she does, she'll probably do some sort of cardio but she will be all over the place with weights machines and core training

That brings us to core. Not abs. Core. Google the kettle bell and workouts for it. Most gyms carry them, if not they are relatively cheap (like 20 bucks for a 15lb which is probably heavier than she'll need anyway). Kettle bells will provide the weight-lifting quotient and the workouts you do with the kettle bell tend to target core to. You can add some ab work after but don't go nuts, and never use machine with weights for abs. You don't want to add ab-muscle, you want to lean and tone whats there.

In short:
- Count calories (it's simple math) and don't go over 2000 in a day
- Kettle Bell Circuit training
- Lunges, Reverse Leg Curls (great for a girls hips/butt)
- Low-Impact Cardio
- Light Ab work (every 2nd day)

I mashed my hands into the keyboard for this post and didnt really spend time to reread anything, so I hope that is coherent.

.

The trick is to get just get your girlfriend to enjoy working out or at least workout regularly. Once you do that her body will keep wanting to work out and she will be making ALLL KINDZ OF GAINNNZ (in this case losing weight). The weight isn't going to lose itself so make sure the diet is proper and all that and u will be set. Weight protein isn't necessary, and I would sub the carbs for clean healthy food rather than spending money on shakes.

I'd recommend watching some of elliot hulse's and scooby's videos on working out. Not only will you learn tons but you'll be on the path in becoming the strongest version of yourself.

green foods alkalyze the fluids in your body

legit

blender > juicers

fibers are important

you watch what you say about Jessica Ennis mate

When she eats carbs, she really over eats. If we go out to eat she'll gorge on bread etc. We've talked about it a few times, but I really don't want to be a dick and micromanage her every meal, especially when I drink too much beer. Tactfulness is not a strength of mine.

This looks like it could work. Thanks.

1Rep Max Update:

We just did 1RM for Squat and bench after a little more than a month. She put up 125 squat and 95 bench and is feeling pretty good about the training. She sees marked improvement and feels confident in her strength. However, she still doesn't do a very good job watching the calorie intake.

We've talked about cutting down on the fries, pastas etc., but she apparently has poor impulse control and I don't want to boss her around. If we go out to eat, I'll substitute in a side salad, and she'll get the fries and a side of bread. I coach kids and high school wrestling, so I'm used to being able to push a little and get a response, but I'm hesitant to "get tough" on my own girlfriend. My worry that I'll make her "feel fat," which will make her pouty and possibly eat more junk food out of resentment, for comfort whatever.

Thanks for all of the advice, I'll update with more 1RMs as they come if you guys have any interest.

I think eventually she'll understand. If she likes the training and wants to get into better shape, she'll start to watch what she eats a little more. Either that or she'll still be exercising but not losing any fat, at which point she'll say something like 'I feel like im not losing any fat.' And then you say something like 'well honey, thats cuz you eat fries and drink soda with every meal.' And then she either slows/stops the fatty foods, or doesn't. In the end, she's gotta want it and realize that it's a long term investment, which (almost) always pay off.

pretty much this. try to plant the seed that the nutrition and exercise are one in the same, and can counteract each other accordingly. pretty pointless to hit the gym and cardio if you aren't eating properly.

good for you though, ping. keep it up!

drink more water and less of everythign else and you can work out harder and longer and plus its like a dietary double whammy