Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness

keep working hard and keep listening to you body! Chewy is a pro at stronglifts (and recovering from stronglifts inflicted injuries! (chewy, I'm just pokin'! )

You're on the right track!

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"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad." - Brian O'Driscoll

Worked out today, added a few extra shoulder stuff and things for my traps. My traps are well non-existent a 90 degree angle.
Squated my weight again and deadlifts were 140lbs 2 sets of 5.

For shoulders you're already doing, 5x5 overhead press every 2nd workout (which is already a lot) and they will get hit in lots of other exercises you don't realise including bench, pushups, dips, pullups, chinups. Shoulders are small muscles and if you hit them too often they're not gonna get a chance to recover and grow. For traps why not just shrug at the top of deadlifts?

And are you still adding weight to your deadlifts each time you make 1x5. If so, rather than burning out with an extra set of 5, save yourself for the next time you do them (most likely only 4/5 days) so you're more likely to hit the next weight 1x5.

The most important thing is you increase your 5x5 maxes (1x5 for deadlift). Anything extra you do on top is going to unncessarily burn out your muscles and stop you hitting targets.

How's all your lifts doing just now? What ones you stalled at so far and how many times?

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My training log

Chewy,

I am a bit all over the place , with first my back, then my chest injury. So with that said I will try to give you as much info. Maybe you can see something I am doing wrong that I cant see.This next week will be the first week in a while back on the upper body stuff on the 5x5.
I have been going up everytime on some but have stalled out or leveled off on things like rows or pullups.

Squats- I have been going up every time until I hit 125lbs,I stayed there for a week, then went to where I am currently 130Ibs have been there for the last 2 workouts.

Deadlifts-I have been going up every time at 140lbs now and started doing 2 sets cause I really didnt feel it with the one set.

Bench press- gone up every time. at 90lbs. Added incline a few weeks ago 60lbs 5x5. I added that because my chest is flat as could be on the top and center with the bottom of my pecs getting thicker and thicker.

Inverted rows- I seem to be leveled out. for weeks I have been about 12,9,8 reps. I cant seem to get much passed that. Should I add weight?

Chin ups- I am weak on these- I can only do like 5,4,3 and that doesnt seem to increase.

pull ups- weak also 8,5,3 And after that I dont even feel my lats are worked. So I have add bent over rows, or seated rows. 3 sets.

Overhead press- I have stalled out on a few weeks ago and I am at 60lbs. Again after doing these I dont really feel like my shoulder have been worked even though it feels heavy and I can barely finish all sets.

Traps- I have started to work on cause I hate how flat mine are. Shoulder shrugs and close grip barbell pull ups.

Dips and push ups- I started super setting these two. I am currently at push ups 12, 10, 9 and dips 10,7,7 I like doing these I actually feel my arms being worked on this but I have leveled out on these the last few weeks.

I started adding more exercises cause, I feel like the parts, like my legs arms and lower chest are getting bigger. But my upper chest lats shoulders and traps are not really growing. So I am getting frustrated. I am at 130lbs eating about 3200 cals a day which is good because 2 and half months ago I was 118 and eating like 1500 cals.
I have also added running to get rid of my belly.

If you have any thoughts please let me know, thanks!
If you have any thoughts please let me know. Thanks

Hey man!

Keep chipping away at the Squats along with the deload procedure. You get 3 attempts at a weight at 5x5 (remember even if you fail before the 5th set, attempt all 5 sets), then deload by 10% and work your way back up. It's natural not being able to lift your 5x5 max in any exercise 3x/week.

How much weight have you been adding to deadlifts? When I started I'm sure it said add 5kg(10lbs), rather than the 5lbs in the rest of the exercises. Stick to the 1x5 and keep adding weight, there is no need to feel that you have to burn yourself out every workout.

Be careful with adding incline and the possibility it could tire you out for your main bench. It's very easy to add extra exercises at the start and not feel an effect, but when the weight catches up with you you could find yourself in trouble. It's not just your tris/chest, your shoulders will be hit as well and you don't want them fucked when you're pressing 2 days later.

I don't recommend adding weight to inverted rows. Are you doing the feet elevated version, or are your heels on the floor? Keep at it, your numbers will start going up. When you hit 15, switch to the feet elevated version (if you aren't already) and when you can do 15 switch to barbell rows 5x5 (or 3x5). That's when you start adding weight.

I'm surprised you can do more pullups than chins, it's usually the other way about. The truth is you're adding weight to these every week without realising it - body weight! So you are getting stronger at these, if you were to lose bodyfat and keep your muscle the numbers would go up. Also these are a tough exercise to add weight to. After your 3xF, do 10 negatives, as slow as possible (instead of rows, leave this for Workout A). If you're thinking your lats aren't getting enough work, use wide grip.

Although overhead press is the first to stall and hardest to add weight to, I'm gonna guess that the amount of exercises you've added is tiring your shoulders out, and adding to it. They're small muscles that need rest. Again, your upright rows you're doing for traps are gonna tire them out. If you're worried about your traps, shrug during deadlifts, and make sure you shrug up at the end of every overhead press rep - it's your traps that are holding the weight in place if you do it right.

Can you do 15 good pushups in a row yet? If not, stick to 3xF. If you can, do dips 3xF. When you can do 15 in the first set, switched to 3x5 weighted dips. The idea in all these exercises in stronglifts are to get you strong, not to get you a good "pump".


You just need to be patient with it man. There's a good chance when you add extra exercises you won't give the targetted muscles a chance to recover and grow (and even beat up other muscles that the exercise doesn't target). You're close to pushing your 5x5 max in all exercises, and the rest to failure. Squatting heavy 3x a week. The stress it already puts on your body is high, don't overwork and keep it simple!


If you're keen to do extra, there's plenty you can do - dyanmic stretches (or anything that improves your flexibility. good for injury prevention), foam rolling, grip work.

But during your stronglifts workouts, try to stick to the program and the deload procedure. Just because you don't wake up sore or get a pump doesn't mean you're not growing. I barely got either but it didn't stunt my growth!

Hope this helps man

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My training log

Well a workout that finally felt good after injuries healed up. Went up on my squats 140lbs- overhead press still stalling out at 65lbs-Deadlifts went up to 145lbs, And Chewy you would be proud I only did one set. Pull ups still suck for me only did 5 on the first set, 2 on the second set and 4 negatives on the last set. its pitiful Extra stuff after all that Barbell pull ups 45lbs 3x8, Lat Rows 100lbs 3x6 and Neck bridges (Bruce Lee style)