Your first training program

[Koing]

What was it? How did you find it? How old were you? Anything interesting? Negatives and positives? Anything else you want to add?

I was 14 in school, so this was 15yrs ago back in 1998. Pre internet era for me . I was playing a lot of Rugby and the PE teachers told me to go work out. I went to the local leisure center to train once a week for a year.

I did not do:
Squat
Bench Press
Deadlift
-to be fair there was no barbells or a bench in the weights area. NOT that I knew anything about anything back then
OHP

I did do:
stretch pre training
21s LOL
Leg press
leg extensions
hamstring machine
pull ups and dips
Flys

No idea how I came to this training program. I just picked stuff and did things randomly after my warm up LOL. There was not a single person in the gym that looked half way impressive. I had no internet to do any research. I suppose if my 14yr old self had a brain I'd have actually asked my PE teachers WHAT TO DO in the gym but that didn't occur to me at the time. I could have done to the library to look training books but that again didn't occur to me.

I did the above for one year and people at school asked if I was hitting the weights. Then I met a guy and he seemed to know what he was doing and we did some bench pressing in this downstairs part of the leisure center and I upped my training to 2x a week for 6months.

When I was 15.5 on a random day I met my weightlifting coach. He was coaching some guys to Clean and Jerk. I knew instantly it was much better than my random training and I joined up. I competed 2 weeks later and nearly bombed out LOL. I Sn 35 and CJ 45 at 74kg or so.

I would pretty much come last at every competition but every year I'd be that bit higher and that bit better than my last competition and gradually I would win county competitions.

Since 2007 I've gone to Nationals. In 2011 I won my first senior title, English Champion.

I have learnt a lot from my coach and have done a lot of reading since the internet has been more prevalent.

Koing

 

[kushy26]

5 years back I am very stout and before marriage I worked a lot going to yoga,daily doing walking for an hour and now some what gained in weight and working a lot to reduce my belly and thighs.

 

[z1ggy]

13 years old. Went to a special strength training gym in my city 1-2 times a week for an hour. Guy who owned it was a world record holder for his weight class in bench press. I did into into core lifts such as bench press, squats, dead lifts, and hang cleans.

I believe at that point I was benching around 90-100lb 6-12 times and hang cleaning some where in the 60s-70s? Cant recall. But I did other things to increase my athletic performance like being hooked up to some bands around my waste to my feet and jumping. It was basically like jumping in a heavy gravity environment. I did ropes and other things for quickness.

When I played high school sports, I lifted 3 days a week with the team, doing bench, squat and push press. Only 1-2 sets, of at least 5-8 reps. Think around age 16-17 I was squatting around 275 or so.

So in a nutshell, those were my first exposures to lifting weight. Very glad I got the form of things down early, so now later in life, I can regain that form easily and focus on getting strong again. Real life has drained a lot of that youthful strength I had, haha.

 

[Blackjack200]

Never did any sort of weight training program until I was almost 30. Damn shame too, I was naturally athletic in HS and if I had known how to train I probably would have made several varsity squads and maybe even played college sports.

It's okay though, some day I'll have kids and be completely overbearing on them, and I'll live vicariously through their athletic careers.

 

[Pantlegz]

My first training program or my first 'real' program? In highschool, about 12 years ago, we did whatever the weight's coach said to do. There wasn't much rhyme or reason to it, just gave us random crap to do really. It worked ok for the school year I suppose, I didn't track my gains nor would I remember them now if I had. I think it was ok for the time, I also know that I could have spent my time much better. I had the internet but honestly hadn't thought of looking anywhere for information on lifting or routines or anything really, I just wanted to be strong - I didn't know that you had to do anything other than move weight to make that happen.

 

[Saint Nick]

Started out on SS in early 2011. but pretty much made no progress because my diet was really bad. Obviously still learning but I am in way better shape now than I was back then.

 

[momeNt]

I'm guessing my first training program would technically be grade school basketball. It was all conditioning drills and no strength training though.

My first, and currently still my only "real" program is Starting Strength, began 2 months ago. I'm eating something loosely according to leangains. I find I'm not really happy unless I'm full (haven't learned to stop at "not hungry anymore") so I've been stuffing my face with a big-ass meal and following up with a smaller meal, which is what I couldn't finish for my first meal. I love leaving food on the plate, and I hate seeing an empty plate when I'm not in pain from eating yet...

 

[DAPUNISHER]

My first was Seibukan Okinawan Karate Do. I quickly became involved with American Kickboxing and full contact karate through that affiliation.

The why was because I grew up in the same area as Don "The Dragon' Wilson. The martial arts scene here was exploding, as he had recently won his first world championship.

How I found the dojo, was a older student gave me and a friend free lessons coupons at school.

Interesting is subjective but I'll try. I had a couple of sanctioned kickboxing matches won them by ko/tko. Left a lot of blood and sweat on basketball courts all over the southeast U.S. Since that is where karate comps were held. I had the honor of training with multiple top 10 world ranked (or better) fighters from different weight classes.

Negatives: Grueling conditioning, and far too often, fighting on a monolithic slab with no covering. Positives: Everything else. But especially, being 14 and getting to fight without getting in trouble for it.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Had weights and a bench in high school (1990 or so). I'd exercise for a few months, quit, lift again, etc. I did focused exercises with bench being the only macro.

I didn't know better. It worked well at the time. I did targeted exercises on all muscles being the reason. I never benched 200 in high school. I think I probably maxed out at 175.

Then I started again for real at age 35. In my life, I probably maxed out on bench at 180 or so and never ran a mile non stop in my life. Decided to read up on programs and I went with Strong Lifts. Also started running. Didn't have a rack so I did hack squats instead of deadlifts. Want a good quad exercise, hack squats! About a year into it, I got a cage and good bench. Best decision ever. And I love used Olympic weight sets. You pay $100 and can sell them for $100. They are basically cash equivalents (free). I have 3 Oly sets and might get a 4th if I move this year.

So I lifted in my old age. And eventually got hurt badly (groin injury). Prior to the injury, I just did my first ever 5 mile run (non stop). I could do a 5K at a sub 9 minute pace. I could bench about 225. Not bad for 36 or 37 years of age.

Groin injury healed. I am now working on getting back to that 5 mile run while getting my strength/stamina back. Stamina while lifting is not so bad. Mostly CNS issues. I hope to be back to where I was with weights in 3 months or less. As for running, I am going to plan on a 5K 3 months from now with some friends. I can almost do a 3 mile run right now but not quite. 2.5 miles isn't bad. I could probably get to 3 miles in a month. 5 miles will not be that far behind.

 

[Via]

First real one?

Every day: Run 45-60 minutes. I found running by time easier than by distance
300 crunches on inclined board: 100 center, 100 left, 100 right

Odd days: row 5000 meters med to hard intensity
push muscles in weight room
Even days: bike 10,000 meters med to hard intensity
pull muscles in weight room

Mind you - I didn't start with that, I worked up to it over about 6 months, and followed through for about 5. At the end of that I was ripped as hell, but a 3 month trip got me out of the routine and I never got back on the horse like that again.

 

[Doppel]

Basically something I got out of arnold's encyclopedia to modern bodybuilding.

 

[smackababy]

First real routine was in high school for football. We had some chart based on our 1RM and it said what weight to do and how many times. Did quite a variety of stuff, and was actually pretty good at it. My junior year in HS, I weighed around 145 and could 1RM 225 on bench. This routine was also complimented with a demented soccer coach who forced everyone to do cross country and track, so I did a lot of running as well.

 

[Koing]

Basically something I got out of arnold's encyclopedia to modern bodybuilding.

Nice man

First real routine was in high school for football. We had some chart based on our 1RM and it said what weight to do and how many times. Did quite a variety of stuff, and was actually pretty good at it. My junior year in HS, I weighed around 145 and could 1RM 225 on bench. This routine was also complimented with a demented soccer coach who forced everyone to do cross country and track, so I did a lot of running as well.

Oh man. Back when I was 10-11 I use to run cross country. THE HORROR. WHY did I even bother? I remember a race where we had to run across this sandy area and a few sand banks. It was horrific.

Koing

 

[Zivic]

15 yrs old... did the bigger faster stronger program that the high school football team was using. Pretty good workout.

don't care to hang cleans, power cleans nor the towel bench and box squats that it uses in my current training. At the time, I was starting out and playing sports, so it was a good program for me.