Need Some Help with Routine/Goal Focusing

I started weight lifting using starting strength - got injured. I went back to starting strength - then I ended up moving house and lost motivation. Now I’m trying to get back in the gym but I don’t know what to do.

What would be the most efficient path in achieving my goals?
What routine would best work for me? (preferable compound based)
Does anyone else have periods where they lose motivation and if so what do you do about it?

My goals.

Weigh 75kg at 15% body fat (currently 65kg 25% bf)

Correct my posture (head forward, collapse chest, shoulder health, butt sticking out like a gorilla, duck feet and dropped arches)

Increase stamina (I can’t run down the road without being out of breath or without lower back pain)

Get stronger

Current macros

Calories 2100
Protein 132g
Carbs 289g
Fats 46g


Detailed lifting history

I was using starting strength 3x5 in December 2015 weighing 59kg / 15%bf and went from squats 60kg > 95kg (failed after 3rd rep), deadlifts 70 > 110kg, bench 45 > 60kg and overhead press 20kg > 35kg.
I have shoulder issues (both shoulders) from a young age which has gotten better from lifting but I still get pain when lifting my arms up from my side and then back down again.

Before stalling I was getting some knee pains so after the squat fail, I took a break which ended up going on for too long. When I finally got back into the gym I started a 3x3 in an attempt to build my strength back quickly but I ended up hurting my spine from what I believe was from squatting 95kg and then attempting a deep back extension stretch off the
wall.

I saw a physio who was pretty useless and discharged me after the 2nd visit but by this time, 4 months later (NHS sucks) my spine pain was almost gone and I had just got back in the gym with starting strength again and got more success. Weighing 64kg, I could squat 100kg, DL 110kg, Bench 72.5kg but my shoulder press didn’t change.

I took another break due to moving house then few weeks later my shoulders (both) started hurting again. I wasn’t lifting just slept in a new bed and woke up sore, I’ve had shoulder pain from the age of 15. I went to see an osteopath recently who thinks my Serratus isn’t working with my shoulder muscles and told me to do front facing wall slides.

Pick any program you like: Starting Strength, Greyskull LP, Texas Method, 5/3/1. Do it as written. Consistently, so no breaks. Those macros look OK, but are you actually getting within 5-10 grams of each one every day?

Turn up. Do the work. Eat right. Repeat. It’s that simple.

Motivation isn’t a thing. Discipline is.

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Everything @MarkKO said

Specifically regarding mobility issues, start by adding the simple 6 (upper body) and agile 8 (lower body) for warm-ups. I’d do any and all exercises recommended by your physio religiously, plus lots of band pull-aparts, like 100+ daily. There are also lots of corrective exercises/routines to be found if you search shoulder health articles and anterior pelvic tilt articles (gorilla ass).

Note: all these rehab exercises are great to do outside of the gym to A: keep you moving and B: to dave precious gym time. I can always find time to squeeze in 100-200 pull aparts at the office. Keep in mind though with corrective exercises there aren’t any quick fixes. But, after doing say after your 50,000th pull-apart in a year your posture will be worlds better

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Yeah as above do the pull aparts/ direct rear delt work.

Forget about SS -has a lot of limitations, do one of these to get back in the swing of things…

spend one extra day doing some HIIT cardio and then tons of mobility and stretching, especially hamstrings and pecs from a variety of angles.
Loaaads of tips here…

If the shoulder pain persists look into getting some ART treatment on it

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Thank you all for your replies.

@MarkKO I have been tracking my macros using MFP so I know I get +/- 10g and aim to make up any shortfalls at the end of the week.

@TX_iron The mobility routines look quick and easy, hopefully It won’t take up too much of my gym time. I am going to buy a light band and incorporate the 100 band parts as you suggested.

@RampantBadger Good shout on the HIIT cardio. I can’t run without my lower back tightening up but hopefully I can put my skipping rope to good use and the mobility link looks great! Just what I was looking for.

I haven’t had a chance to look in to all of the routines suggested but I will do that tomorrow and decided what’s the best fit for me. Thanks again for all your replies!

Yeah running bad idea for now, just hill program on gym bike, cross trainer etc -whatever you can get your hands on and ok for back

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In which case, just pick a program and turn up. Treat it like work. That eliminates the need for motivation.

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I have had issues with mobility as well. I’m certainly not amazing with it now but you wouldn’t be able to tell that I used to be seriously limited. I started with a simple stretching routine from a gymnastics channel on Youtube. Then I did Simple 6 (minus the “shoulder capsule stretch” because it always caused pain and I felt like I wasn’t doing it properly) and Agile 11 every day for almost a year. I still do the Simple 6 (again, 5 in my case) before any upper body work and I do some static and dynamic stretches for lower body that I know work for me.

The keys to mobility improvement:

  1. Consistency
  2. Progression
  3. Consistency
  4. Finding what does and doesn’t work for you (this takes weeks to months, not days)
  5. Consistency
  6. Strength-building

About that last point…

I focused heavily on mobility and noticed great improvements in a few months, but still didn’t look great while moving. Standing posture was good but I still didn’t move with good posture. For every tight muscle group that you’re working to loosen up, there is at least one antagonistic muscle group that needs to be strengthened. Face pulls absolutely saved my shoulder positioning. If you search, I started a thread on here about using face pulls for postural improvement and followed Chris Collucci’s advice. Upper back strength is key and I now include it in every workout. As an added bonus, my back looks 5x better than it did before. Strengthen your abs and glutes as well. The “core training for smart folks” article on T-nation is a great progression. Everything focuses on holding a posterior pelvic tilt (opposite of “gorilla ass”). I found it very helpful.

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@shralpinist Thank you for your input! I have read your thread on facepulls and the core training article, both very helpful.

I have now put together my routine, it’s looking a bit too time heavy but I won’t really know for sure until I start (Monday).

Yep. And finding what you can make time for is part of the process. You’ll figure it out. I always tend to over-plan when writing training plans and quickly realizing I need to re-arrange things or trim them down. You can always do mobility for 5-10 minutes as your warm-up and pick a couple drills to do while resting between sets.

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