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BigRed goes 5x5


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StrongLifts Workout #16

 

Squat - 120 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 45 lb (10) - 85 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 145 lb (5) - 155 lb (5) - 165 lb (5/5)

Chinups - 10/7/4

 

For Squats I've been using the squat rack, but today the power rack was unoccupied so I tried squats there and was so happy that I was able to go a lot deeper than I can with the squat rack because of the shape of the thing. I guess I could go that low using the squat rack if I walked really far back out into the open, but it doesn't seem like a great idea. With squat rack I can go to parallel or maybe a smidgen below before the bar bangs on the equipment, but with the power rack I had the poles on the lowest hole and was able to get waaay below parallel which was fun.

 

OHP today was the first time I've felt like I've had to work hard on a main lift since I've started. Next time will be a real challenge. Here we go!

 

Was disappointed I didn't get one or two more chins on the last set, but my grip was starting to give out.

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StrongLifts Workout #18

 

Squat - 45 lb (10) - 130 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 90 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 155 lb (5) - 175 lb (5)

Chinups - 10/7/5

 

Overhead Press really challenged me. A couple reps were real grinders but I made it. Curious to see whether I'll be able to make the 95 on Friday. Took longer rests than usual between sets of OHP so I just did 3 quick sets for DL rather than my usual 5 so I could get out. May have to start earlier on OHP days from now on.

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StrongLifts Workout #20

 

Squat - 45lb (10) - 140 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 45 lb (10) - 95 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 155 lb (5) - 175 lb (5) - 185 lb (5)

chinups - 8/4/4

 

Can't believe I made all the reps on OHP! It was hard but I made it. Part of me didn't want to make all 25 reps because I'm nervous how hard it will be when adding another 5 lbs! ha!

 

Fewer chins than usual I think...grip was starting to fail me...

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StrongLifts Workout #21

 

Bench - 125 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Squat - 45 lb (15) 145 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Row - 120 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

 

I usually go in the morning, but today I went in the afternoon. No squatting available and both racks had a long wait. Waited a while, then decided to go ahead and start with bench so I didn't lose motivation. After bench went back to squat rack to wait and still had to wait for some time. Because of all the waiting for squats taking up so much time, I skipped my usual dips at the end to get back home. These three lifts still doing relatively easy. Squats are taking a little bit effort now, but not sooo much. Felt disorienting changing the order of my lifts. Will probably try to stick with going in the morning for the future.

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StrongLifts Workout #22

 

Squat - 45 lb (10) - 150 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 45 lb (10) - 100 lb (5/5/4/4/3)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 155 lb (5) - 185 lb (5) - 195 lb (5)

Chinups - 6/6/6

 

First time I've failed any sets (last 3 sets of OHP). There was no way I was going to get all those reps today with how sleep deprived I've been the past week and a half.

 

Chinups my grip was giving out early again. I assume because I'm working it harder on Deadlifts now...I actually started feeling my grip fail a little on the last set of deadlifts so I switched to mixed grip (left hand overhand, right hand underhand) in the middle of the last set.

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StrongLifts Workout #24

 

Squat - 45 lb (10) - 160 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 45 lb (10) - 100 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 185 lb (5) - 205 lb (5)

Chinups - 10/5/4

 

Was surprised I was able to manage all the overhead presses, since last time I had failed. My energy was not great this morning - my stomach felt a bit empty, all I had a to eat for breakfast was a pear, two plums, and a handful of greens (need to get groceries!). So upward and onward!

 

On deadlifts I managed to keep the double overhand grip for all of the last set (last time I had to switch to over/under) but on the last two reps it felt like the bar was close to slipping out of my fingers.

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Nice progress! From experience I can tell you there will be days that you will surprise yourself, and days when you feel OK but just don't have it in you. Keep using that double overhand grip and your grip strength will increase as your deadlift weights increase (up to a certain point of course). If it gets to the point that you can't pull the bar without it slipping out of your hands, then switch to the over/under grip or hook grip. Somethings you can do to help grip strength: 1. at the end of the deadlift final set, stand there holding the bar as long as you can, and put it down only when you think it's going to slip. 2. at the end of your chinup sets, do a dead hang for as long as you can.

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StrongLifts Workout #25

 

Squat - 45 lb (10) - 165 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Bench - 45 lb (10) - 95 lb (5) - 135 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Row - 130 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Dip - bodyweight (17)

 

On squats for the first set working set I tried the low bar position (bar down on upper shoulder blades, grip very close together) and it went fine I suppose, but I felt insecure because it just feels so unfamiliar and went back to high bar resting on traps and grip a little wider. Is the high bar going to serve me fine for a while? The low bar just feels odd, but I know Rippetoe prefers it...

 

Felt good to throw on the big boy plates on the bench press As I'm starting to work a little harder I've been more careful to take 1-2 minutes between sets rather than the 30-60 sec I'd been doing for a long time. So workout is unfortunately getting longer. So for dips I just did as many reps as I could in one set with just my bodyweight, rather than getting the dip belt, loading it with weight and doing 3 sets.

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Gotta catch up! My computer's down so I have been able to log the past several workouts...managed to snag my wife's computer for a moment so here goes:

 

Strong Lifts Workout #26

 

(9/8/12)

 

Squat - 170 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 105 lb (4/3/3/2/2)

Deadlift - 215 lb (5)

 

Didn't write down my warm up sets that day so I don't remember what they were.

 

Obvbiously a fail on the OHP

 

StrongLifts Workout #27

 

(9/10/12)

 

Squat - 45 lb (10) - 175 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Bench - 95 lb (10) - 140 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Row - 135 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Dips - Bodyweight (18)

 

StrongLifts Workout #28

 

(9/12/12)

 

Squat - 95 lb (10) - 180 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 45 lb (10) - 105 lb (5/4/2/1/2)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 225 lb (5)

 

2nd failure on 105 lb for OHP.

 

Wasn't able to get to the gym in the morning as usual and ended up going at 6pm. Ugh. Rush hour. Packed. Just tried to get done what I needed done and leave as quick as possible.

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StrongLifts Workout #29

 

Squat - 95 lb (10) - 185 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Bench - 95 lb (10) - 145 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Row - 140 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

Dips - bodyweight (20)

 

StrongLifts Workout #30

 

Squat - 45 lb (10) - 95 lb (5) - 190 lb (5/5/5/5/5)

OHP - 45 lb (10) - 105 lb (5/5/4/4/4)

Deadlift - 135 lb (5) - 155 lb (5) - 185 lb (5) - 205 lb (5) - 235 lb (5)

 

3rd fail on 105 lb OHP, though I got much closer this time. So next workout I deload 10%. Deadlift kept double overhand grip on all sets except the final one in which I used over/under. Even with the mixed grip I could feel my grip starting to fail me and in between the last two reps of the final set I had to pause to reset my grip. Now that I'm working harder I'm resting longer in between sets and workouts are starting to get a little longer than I would prefer, so I cut out the chinups I usually add at the end today. This is the end of my 10th week on StrongLifts.

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  • 1 month later...

I've been in absentia as I came to a point in my marathon training at which I had to compromise my lifting plan in order to focus my energy and recovery on running. Well, the marathon has now been cancelled. Oh well. So, Monday I will be getting back to StrongLifts.

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StrongLifts Workout #32a

 

After taking about 6 weeks off of strength training in order to focus on marathon training for a marathon that didn't actually happen, I am back at it today. I decided to reduce the weight from where I had left off and I was right to. Definitely felt today that I had lost quite a bit of strength. Oh well. Workout was as follows:

 

Squat - 45 lb 1x5

95 lb 1x5

135 lb 5x5

 

Bench - 45 lb 1x10

95 lb 1x5

125 lb 5x5

 

Row - 125 lb 5x5

 

Hope to be back to where I was in late September by early/mid December. I have decided to put long distance running away for a while and just focus solely on strength. From now on and for the foreseeable future all my runs will be short - just enough to keep some level of cardiovascular fitness (10-30 minutes).

 

My body weight had been up to about 180 in late September. I'm at about 175 now. We're going to be on a stricter food budget here now so bulking will be a little bit more challenging, but I'll try to at least keep stocked on oats, rice, beans, lentils, bananas, nuts and seeds as well as some kind of greens.

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StrongLifts workout #33a

 

Ugh. I've lost more ground than I had thought. Legs were massively sore from Monday's workout, so I went easy on Squats.

 

Squat

45 1 x 5

65 1 x 5

85 1 x 5

95 1 x 5

115 1 x 5

 

OHP

45 1 x 5

85 5 x 5

 

Deadlift

135 1 x 5

155 1 x 5

185 1 x 5

 

I may de-load even further than I already did. Sucks. But oh well. I'll get back on track eventually.

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Glad to see you're back at it. Bummer about the marathon let down.

 

At the beginning of strength training, the gains/losses can happen pretty quickly. A 6 week break after 10 weeks of lifting is significant, so don't feel bad about a loss in strength. I agree with you deloading right off the bat and not trying to hit the same weights and fail. I would try deloading back to where you were at the beginning of week #5 (workouts #13 and #14). If those weights are super easy, then go to your weights from workouts #17 and #18 and start back up the ladder from there. Even if those are still easy, you want to get the work in on your form to get back into the groove.

 

Good luck!

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StrongLifts Workout #34a/13b (monday's workout)

 

Squat

45 lb - 1x10

65 lb - 1x10

95 lb - 1x10

105 lb - 5x5

 

Bench

105 lb - 5x5

 

Row

95 lb - 5x5

 

StrongLifts Workout #35a/14b

 

Squat

45 lb - 1x5

65 lb - 1x5

95 lb - 1x5

110 lb - 5x5

 

OHP

45 lb - 1x5

55 lb - 1x5

65 lb - 1x5

75 lb - 5x5

 

Deadlift

135 lb - 1x5

145 lb - 1x5

155 lb - 1x5

 

Went all the way back to week 5 of stronglifts so I can gradually build my strength back up.

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StrongLifts Workout #36a/15b (last Friday)

 

Squat

45 lb - 1x5

65 lb - 1x5

85 lb - 1x5

115 lb - 5x5

 

Bench

45 lb - 1x10

65 lb - 1x10

85 lb - 1x10

110 lb - 5x5

 

Row

100 lb - 5x5

 

Dips

Bodyweight - 2x10

 

StrongLifts Workout #37a/16b (today)

 

Squat

45 lb - 1x10

65 lb - 1x5

85 lb - 1x5

120 lb - 5x5

 

OHP

45 lb - 1x5

65 lb - 1x5

80 lb - 5x5

 

Deadlift

135 lb - 1x5

155 lb - 1x5

165 lb - 1x5

 

Pullups - 1x5

Chinups - 1x6

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