I popped two weightlifting cherries.

This morning marked the first time for barbell squatting and barbell deadlifting for me.  I've been reading Rippetoe's Starting Strength to learn how to do them properly.  I highly recommend this book because he goes into the mechanical reasons why you want to do the exercises his way.

I was able to do 135lbs x 5 for a few sets for each.  I could've gone heavier for sure, but I didn't want to overdo my first day because the proper technique recruits many muscles and some of mine are probably not strong enough.  I noticed I wasn't locking my wrists on the heavier squats which means some of the load bearing was done with the arms rather than with the back.  Not good.

The deadlift wasn't too bad, but I'm going to have to toughen up my shins so I can drag the bar completely vertically.

Both of these exercises work the legs, the hips and the back.  I'd say I'm the sorest in the groin and the upper back because was getting good depth on my squats (looked like beyond parallel) and was able to keep my chest up during the deadlifts.

There are women on Fitocracy who outlift me considerably, but I think I can catch up pretty quickly.  I just need to make sure every rep is done with good form.

Tomorrow I'll do bench press and overhead press.  Once I develop some more strength, I'll add in the power clean and then will fill out my workouts with planks, push ups, pull ups and chin ups.  Maybe some box jumps as well if I'm not too gassed from the squats.