gsop_3

No problem Trillium! Happy to oblige! I'm keeping my hopes up for a TON of avocados when we get back to the States this summer! It'll be our first time back in 3 years! I'm SO looking forward to it. A lot can change in 3 years. I'm sure it'll be a bit of a shock. Either way, we have a list of places to go and food to eat! Bill Starr Intermediate 5x5 Day Four Morning Run: 20 minutes and 2.5km, 1 set of 5 squats with 69 and another at 75kg. Felt good to start the day that way. Not taxing at all, just getting the sweat and blood flowing. Afternoon: Squats: 59kg x 5 75kg x 5 91kg x 5 108kg x 5 125kg x 5 Bench: 45kg x 5 55kg x 5 67kg x 5 79kg x 5 90kg x 5 Rows: 45kg x 5 50kg x 5 57kg x 5 64kg x 5 71kg x 5 (attempted to keep each rep explosive with a hold at the top of the contraction - added a bit of a burn on the last rep!) HLR - weighted 1x8 held a 5kg DB between my feet - WOW that was hard! I'll try to make sure I do more sets next time. My wife dropped a 2.5kg plate on her foot from the height of the bench rack. I did the same thing last week because I was talking to someone while I was taking weights off the bar. STUPID! Don't do it! It hurts - A LOT! Dinner tonight was my favorite - stir-fry sprouts with cilantro, carrot and vinegar. mmmmm!

Hey, Thanks Trillium! Diet is pretty boring...not much variation, but regular. 7:30 - LARGE protein drink (followed by spirulina & multi-vit.) was taking D3 til I found it's not vegan...looking for a good D2 supp. 10:00 - 1 cup peanuts or homemade protein bar (peanut butter and pea protein) 12:00 - HUGE cafeteria lunch (see earlier post) 3:00 - protein drink 5:00 - Dinner similar to lunch 8:30 - protein drink (no carbs, plus peanut and sesame oils) Lunch and Dinner are the bulk of my calories. lots of stir-fry veggies, tofu, rice, porridge. (I'd give anything for an avocado every once in a while).

sounds like fun all a round! That's some serious foam roll-age. Congrats on moving up to the lacrosse ball! LOL your piriformis will LOVE you!

I eat 6 meals a day if I can. The big three plus small in-between meals of close to 30g protein each, then one before bed - without carbs. Consider though, I'm a guy trying to GAIN weight...

x2 Thanks for sharing, man! Just think of how much stronger your resolve will be after this episode! You've been made stronger by this trial!

If one were to follow the ISSA guidelines, one would use a 50% carb, 33.3% pro, 16.6% fat macro profile. BUT, in the end it's what works best for YOU. Trial and error is the way to go. Just make sure to keep precise records to draw conclusions from.

Actually, I'm hanging so, it's not a shoulders issue at all. More of a momentum and focus issue for me. If I am deliberate and conscientious about it, I can get a good hard contraction in the whole core region. Bill Starr Intermediate 5x5 Day Three This morning I ran for 20+ minutes and did a couple sets of five on squats (don't remember how much but it was light). GR8 way to start the day! This afternoon... Squats: 58kg x 5 73kg x 5 89kg x 5 105kg x 5 125kg x 3 (the formula called for 124kg but 125 was easier to load - either way it was easy) 89kg x 8 Bench: 45kg x 5 55kg x 5 65kg x 5 77kg x 5 90kg x 3 (easy cheesy!) 65kg x 5 Rows: I figured out the form I am striving for is more formally called Pendlay Rows...not that it matters tooo much... 45kg x 5 50kg x 5 56kg x 5 63kg x 5 71kg x 3 56kg x 8 assistance exercises: what are those?!

Hey Ya'll! Thanks for checkin' in! So far I really like the new program. I'm hoping to see some good gains! I decided I won't be doing that ab thingy as it really sucks and I'll probably be knocking down the weight on the rows so I don't stall out after 2 weeks! I've been eating an extra meal lately before bed - ice cold water or soy milk, pea protein, peanut and sesame oils. (not the tastiest but adds in a few extra kcals). Bill Starr Intermediate 5x5 Day Two This was my first time to ever really do front squats. I found a couple nice surprises. 1) my back is easily more upright and feels WAY more comfortable. 2) it's far more difficult to use the same weight as back squats. 3) my wrists needs some mobility work! OUCH! 4) my abdominal region was more taxed than with back squats, requiring more activation for stability. This also got my heart rate and breathing going faster. Front Squats: 1x5 - 59kg 1x5 - 74kg 2x5 - 89kg Incline DB press: First time doing these also. used adjustables and don't like them. I'll prob go back to barbell next time. 1x5 - 14.5kg each 1x5 - 22.5kg each 1x5 - 32.5kg each Deads: Any discomfort that I had in my lower back before these quickly went away as the sets progressed...SO thankful! 1x5 - 98kg 1x5 - 105kg 1x5 - 124kg 1x5 - 144kg all no belt assistance exercises: I started doing sets of dips and biceps curls only to realize that's Friday's work! OOPS! 3 x 12 HLR - slow and controlled, focusing on a good abdominal contraction. (I know it's easy for me to rely on the hip flexors to get me legs up) After, I shot some hoops for about 20-30 minutes - nothing serious. Another note: Since using a wider stance for squats on Monday, my inner thighs have some HUGE DOMS! feels great! I discovered new muscles!

Bill Starr Intermediate 5x5 Day One Been looking forward to this for a while. I bumped up my food a bit...I don't bother counting calories, just eating more. ...so, here we go! BW - 85kg morning weight. Squats: 58kg x 5 (used a wider PLer stance...I could feel it working my hips more) 73kg x 5 89kg x 5 105kg x 5 120kg x 5 (Was struggling to get the new stance so switched back to my normal stance - just a bit wider than shoulder-width. I was surprised that this was a bit of a grind on the last rep.) Bench: 42kg x 5 (also used a wider PLer grip here...much shorter stroke and seemed WAY easier) 54kg x 5 65kg x 5 77kg x 5 88kg x 5 Rows: 37kg x 5 45kg x 5 56kg x 5 65kg x 5 74kg x 5 (I took a vid but can't post it. I noticed that all but the last rep were clean. I broke form a bit to get the weight up on the last one - perhaps too high of a weight to start?) assistance exercises: BW hypers - 2x10 (never done these before and had a pretty sick lower back pump afterward) ab curl? - 3x12 (60kg) No clue what to call this. It's a machine and I don't know machines...I only know plates, barbell, bench and squat rack! I'll soon be learning incline DB press (this Wed.) Didn't really keep time but def. under an hour.

Right on! Personally, I'm looking to go up to 90kg by June. Don't have any creatine, though. For you, does it cause noticeable water weight gain? Do you cycle your creatine? ...starting my 5x5 tomorrow! Yeah Buddy! 500kg total...nice goal!

There is not a single person this doesn't happen to, it's why Stronglifts has a deload procedure. But what you're not doing is trying all 5 sets at max weight. Whatever weight you're due to do, you attempt 5 sets at that weight. If you fail you get as many reps as you can each of the 5 sets, and you take the same weight next workout. Don't go down in weight for the last sets - you don't get stronger lifting a weight you can already do 5x5 for. And only after you fail a weight 3 workouts in a row do you deload 10-20% and work back up. It's when you start to mess with these beginner progs that they usually stop working - different loading, incorrect deloading, different rep/set schemes, adding assistance exercises, tiring yourself out with assistance, not giving the main exercises the proper focus, doing too much outside of workouts, not enough (or worse - too many) days per week. I looked at creatine the same way, looking for a way to push through a wall. It isn't a miracle cure, it makes a bit of a difference but not much. But the walls you're hitting will get broken down anyway if you're smart with your training, and also acknowledge that these are supposed to happen. You can't add weight every workout for ever, get that in your head early. Everyone stalls and it's part of the program. If you feel like you're hitting a wall, drop the assistance (or do less - including kettlebell stuff) and see if that helps. Squats/Bench/Rows, Squats/OHP/Dead is plenty when you're trying to hit multiple sets of 5 maxes every workout. You sound like you're doing too much. After you deload 2 or 3 times properly on squats, drop it to 3x5 and when the same happens with that drop to 1x5 (drop the volume basically). If you're still stalling while gaining weight then, it's time to move onto an intermediate program. Less is more. (PS congrats on the weight gain) +1 It would also help to read the SL 5x5 report. It explains everything said here and more. I made the mistake of lifting for 6 months before reading it. http://stronglifts.com/5x5-report-too-late/ http://stronglifts.com/when-to-switch-from-stronglifts-5x5-to-other-programs/ Explore the site and read up.

Chewy, do you have a bulk weight goal and date...or just bigger? just asking...for accountability and encouragement. ...and if you don't mind my asking, do you have any particular supps you plan to use during to assist the weight gain?

Trillium, it's great to see that you've still been hitting it hard! I was hoping you didn't cave! Looks like the squats are going well and I see you're doing a 50kg set followed by 4x5 at the working weight rather than a straight 5x5. Great gains on the BW front! AWESOME! Just imagine, another 9 months of that and you'll be at 100K! Creatine...What wall are you trying to get through? I'm not sure I see one. Maybe the biking needs to take a back seat to the squats? Depends on what your goals are.

Hey Trillium! Haven't seen a post from you in a while! You got it right on there. The whole 5/3/1 cycle was for two reasons. One was to get a good look at my actual 5RM and calculated 1RM to plan for Madcow 5x5 (or what ever else I planned) and the other was to use the deload week programmed into the 5/3/1 to give me the rest I needed before getting started on my next long load...or at least I hope it's long (8-10 weeks). We'll see how well my body responds to the new plan. Today's W/O: 1500m on treadmill, then... Deads: 1x5 - 96kg 1x5 - 104kg 1x5 - 112kg short and sweet. On another note, my back has been feeling a bit of pain (I'm supposing from the heavy deads last Friday). It actually felt better after the warm up and dead lifts. It's still not 100%, though. Hoping the rest over the weekend with stretching and rolling will put me in a good place to start on Monday with the intermediate 5x5.

Today's W/O: I feel like I could barely call it a workout...just enough to get the chest and shoulders warmed up... guess that's why it's called deloading! I played dodge ball with my students which got the blood flowing and loosened up the shoulders. Then... Bench: 1x5 - 59kg 1x5 - 64kg 1x5 - 69kg Again, only resting enough in between to change the weights.

Man, all! I knew about Chewy's name and always thought it quite funny! LOL (LOB for you Lobsteriffic) Mine, gsop_3, came from my experience in marching DCI drum corp in the summer of '97. I was a Glassmen (g) 3rd soprano bugle (sop_3) maybe not too creative but it's what I've got. I've been using it since high school...how ever many years ago that works out to be.

About the PRs, Thx Chewy! About the program, not much gets by you! You're right Chewy. It has been around much longer. Though, it is recommended as an intermediate program following the SL 5x5 beginner. So, I just spoke about it that way. The excel file I downloaded is named 5x5_intermediate_v0.3 (from the SL site - which is why I thought it was the SL 5x5 intermediate - oops! ) It's really user friendly...at least for me. (when I opened the file it actually says at the top in big bold letters Bill Starr 5x5.) http://stronglifts.com/madcow/5x5_Program/5x5_intermediate_v0.3.zip Perhaps, I should have specified that it is Bill Starr's/Madcow's 5x5. I should've given credit where credit is due. And, yes, I also think it looks better than the SL advanced. As I understand what I've read, it's set up as a periodized program whereas Bill Starr's is linear - of which, there is an advanced version that is also periodized once the linear progression runs out. http://stronglifts.com/madcow/5x5_Program/Linear_5x5.htm "After a while, linear progress doesn't work so well. You want to do this for as long as you can. And I mean, resetting and running at your records, changing some exercises, rep ranges, whatever, just keep trying to get some linear progress as you want to milk this kind of progression for all it's worth. After a while it will become pretty obvious this doesn't work for you any more. Welcome to periodization." http://stronglifts.com/madcow/5x5_Program/5x5_advanced_v0.3.zip I found these links very useful: http://stronglifts.com/madcow/ http://stronglifts.com/madcow-5x5-training-programs/ http://stronglifts.com/madcow/5x5_Program/Periodized_5x5.htm

and your body will thank you for it!

Today' W/O: Commencing the deload week...then, on to the SL 5x5 intermediate! Squat: 1x5 - 78kg 1x5 - 84kg 1x5 - 91kg just enough rest between to change weights and get back under the bar.

Every time man! it's addicting. I'll take 'em anytime I can get 'em!

Thx! one step further forward and another notch in the belt of progress! Today's W/O: OHP: 1x10 - 35kg 1x5 - 57kg 1x3 - 60kg 1x8 - 67kg (PR!) Oh, and I just set up my numbers for SL 5x5 intermediate - aka, Madcow's 5x5/Bill Starr's 5x5 and I'm really looking forward to getting started after next week.

Yes it's here... viewtopic.php?f=24&t=22266&start=90

Welcome back T! Hope you stick it out and get the results you're looking for! One step at a time...think life-long journey!

I'm with you on that! One step at a time, bro! Though, you're a few steps ahead of me right now...I'll chase you there! HAHA!

...I was gonna say! MaN! That's a MONSTER bench compared to your deads. HAHA