G'day all

[Staples]

Hey all

Been reading the site for a while and figured I'd introduce myself. I've only just become serious about improving my health... here's my current "stats"

Age: 28
Height: 5' 11"
Weight: 115kg

My weight was previously as high as 130 but I've been eating better over the past couple of months and doing simple exercising like daily walks. I won't go into detail about why I got so big... the usual excuses (self esteem issues, stress eating, working long hours)

However it just doesn't feel like enough. Plus, I get worried about losing weight while not improving my strength / health overall. I have a couple of friends who just dieted like mad and did nothing but cardio. Sure they lost a bucketload of weight but now, despite being in the "healthy weight range" they look sickly. So my goal isn't crazy bulking, it's more about improving my overall strength and health

I've decided that since I will be starting very light, I'm NOT joining up at a gym. I feel like it's a waste of money because I've done it twice before, been intimidated for various reasons and just stopped. I have the very base equipment (barbell, dumb-bells and a bench) at home in my garage. I have seen a PT at the gym however to check my form on the basic moves to make sure I don't hurt myself

Yesterday I decided to actually try out a "failure test" so that I can guage what weight to start with. Man, talk about disheartening. My core is quite strong (from carrying around my own weight) but as soon as I isolate ANYTHING, I turn into a weakling haha. I know the program isn't about isolations but I was curious

Now this brings me to my two issues currently

- I suck at squats. I guess it's a balance issue but when I do them I feel like I'm always going to topple over. I've had to resort to doing them with the bar only (it's not an olympic size bar) at this point. While this is still somewhere to start (and better then nothing at all), it was a bit of a shock
- I don't have the gear to do Inverse Rows or Chin-Ups / Pull-Ups. I'm guessing there's replacements I can use for these

Anyway, just thought I'd give a quick rundown of where I'm at

Cheers
Todd

[Staples]

Just something extra to add... I mentioned sucking at squats. I have the opposite problem it seems with deadlifts. I don't have enough weight! I only have a cheapo weights set but I had every disc on the bar and was still able to get through 5x5 without too much stress. This is gonna create a problem because I can't afford to buy more weights at this point (not for another month at least, better half is currently overseas)

A question regarding DOMS.... the "inner back" of my thighs are killing me today. This was from the weightless squats. Is there anything that can be done (other then just getting better at it) to help reduce the effect of DOMS? I really want to go again tomorrow but am worried that if I haven't recovered properly, I'll just end up doing damage

Any suggestions?