Advise on lifting: would this work?

yirara

I'm currently in a country where the only gym I could use belongs to the gated community I live in. There's a rack, a bench I can move into it for bench presses, and two bars, each weighing about 5-6kg (thus no olympic bar). Total amount of weights is about 80kg. This gym has very limited opening hours and there's usually nobody else in there. There's a possibility I'll return to Europe early next year and will have a better gym situation.

Due to my working hours I could only use it on Thursday and Saturday. Will that be sufficient for lifting heavy?

At this moment I'm doing a variety of Stronglifts in that I do all 5 exercises once per week
2x per week some kind of strength endurance circuit (usually 30/10 intervals)
3x per week running (C25K week 5 coming up)

I'd give up one of the circuit days for lifting heavy and I could make Friday my resting day. As running is improving my endurance I'd not need two circuit days anyway. Would that achieve anything at all? Goal would be to become leaner and stronger. I don't want to lose more weight, but I'm still hoping the fat on the inside of my tighs will budge (hey, a girl may dream). Have a slight tendency to build muscles easily but I'm not strong at all (after nearly a year I still can't do proper pushups). I'm 41, female, about 60kg @169cm.

If twice a week would achieve anything at all I'm looking for a better workout programme with regards to number of reps and sets. I feel like 5x5 is maybe a bit too much for the large number or exercises. I'd not mind though to try out other exercises as well as long as it doesn't involve dropping the bar (the wooden floor in the gym would not appreciate that).

Looking forward to your advice.

n3ver3nder

If you go to twice a week you can do the 5x5 twice a week with squat/bench/dead Thurs and squat/press/row Sat. This will help with your goals of getting stronger more than the circuit training, but you could then do a reduced endurance circuit after, dependent on time/fatigue if you feel you need the exercise. You can also drop to 3x5 if 5x5 is too much.

Remember that as you progress on C25K the volume of running increases so dropping volume on intervals shouldn't be a massive issue.

yirara

Thanks a lot n3ver3nder,

I do wonder if SL is the best programme to go for. I have the feeling that if I went for lower number of reps, 5,3,1 for example and increasing the load that I might be able to progress much more. However I cannot find a decent programme online and Amazon and the likes don't ship to where I live - and I don't have a kindle. I'm not sure though if I'm far enough yet.

Squats: 30kg - could go higher but form wasn't too good in set 4 and 5
OH press: 16kg, again set 4 and 5 not perfect
bench press: 23.5kg too weak in last two reps
row: 27.5kg form in last two reps
deadlift: 40kg - here I can still do 3 sets and form is good. this will go up.

yirara

Ok, just for the sake of it I tried a 5A 3B 1C 5B thingy today with A<B<C and A being the current weight I thought I could handle throught 5x5

Squats: 30kg - managed B=35kg in good form
OH press: 16kg, B=17.5
bench press: 23.5kg , B=25kg
row: 27.5kg, hmm.. forgot to write down. I think B=30kg
deadlift: 40kg, B=45kg in good form.

oh, and I tried power cleans with A=15kg, B=17.5kg C=20kg. But my form is not so good in that I cannot get the bar to lay on my shoulder muscles. I don't seem to be able to fold my arms in that direction.

I don't know if this will lead anywhere, but to be honest I had a lot more fun than with Stronglifts. And two moments of triumpf each exercise. When I managed to do C, and when I did 5 of B for the first time. Plus it's less boring as I'm busy rearranging the bar during parts of the break instead of sitting around, doing nothing. What do you think of this?

PS: yes, I'll switch to some sort of split.

yirara

Looks like I'm talking to myself here. Anyway...
For the moment I think this might be a good method to find out how much I can actually lift and to progress with good form towards where things get difficult. Then I can think about what to do.

Today happened what I feared all along: I couldn't do the bench press 3x at 27.5kg. At the third attempt I had to stop halfway up and at least managed to lower the bar down slowly to my chest. By rolling it to my stomach the bar at least ended up on the side bars, and with pulling in my stomach a lot I managed to somehow get out there. So I guess I'll continue with stronglifts with 25kg here, maybe 3x5 to start with, and then 5x5, and then I'll see how to go on.

Have not run into any issues with the other exercises yet though. I think next time I'll deadlift my bodyweight.