hello!
i’m a 41 year old male, ectomorph - 5’7" / 170cm tall and 11 stone / 69kg in weight - very fit and flexible, no health issues. i have absolutely no interest in any sporting activities but am a keen cyclist covering about 10 miles a day every day - an hour in total - i am also most of the time, extremely energetic and possibly slightly hyperactive, but this is not an official diagnosis!
my goal is and always has been to be bigger, i still fit XS clothing, which is ridiculous, i want to be much bigger. but my metabolism has always seemed ridiculously fast and i’ve never been able to put on weight through eating alone. i bought a copy of starting strength a few years ago (and read it!) and did a few weeks of the programme and made some decent strength gains and put on a little weight, however i had issues with time management and focus, and was dealing with other things, plus i bought rubbish equipment and it didn’t work out - despite this my intentions are still there; i really want to do this properly…
i don’t wish to use a gym, the gyms near me are rubbish, have poor equipment, minimal free weight facilities and… yeah, just not my thing. it has to be at home. i have spent the best part of six months saving up enough to afford some decent kit, and i’m looking at a rogue r3 24" bolt together (no welded option for me - i’m in the uk) rogue bolt together flat utility bench, and possibly either an ohio power bar or a b&r bar (which i’d have to order through the us site) and i will build a platform and get some bumper plates from rogue also.
i know this has come up a thousand times but there still doesn’t seem to be much of a general consensus… if i go back to sslp would you guys here recommend that i personally power clean or not? secondly this affects my choice of barbell. alan thrall (whose videos i have been watching for years) stills seems to recommend a b&r bar for a home gym setup - and power cleans, whereas i have seen austin recommend against this bar - and both austin and jordan and others seem to favour other exercises to the power clean
and then there’s the question of wether sslp is the best option for me… i see bbm now do a beginner template… i’m aware of the politics with these two camps, the nature of the personalities involved, and views on the power clean and at which point rpe becomes useful etc and other points of contention, and to be honest, am completely overwhelmed with differing advice, options and possibilities… i realise there are many ways to skin a cat, but there must be a best option for me…? any help is appreciated with any thoughts or questions. and just to reiterate, my goal is simply to get big and strong.
thanks!
