5 x 5 Stronglifts: Am I Doing This Wrong?

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  • Lisa_Ookoo
    Lisa_Ookoo Posts: 134 Member
    I've just started, and I have to use much lower weights than the app suggests. I'm surprised because I consider myself to be pretty fit from cycling and body weight exercises like push-ups and planks. I couldn't bench press 45 lbs even once.
  • hill8570
    hill8570 Posts: 1,466 Member
    Lisa_Ookoo wrote: »
    I've just started, and I have to use much lower weights than the app suggests. I'm surprised because I consider myself to be pretty fit from cycling and body weight exercises like push-ups and planks. I couldn't bench press 45 lbs even once.

    You are counting the bar (which is 45lbs by itself), right?
  • RavenLibra
    RavenLibra Posts: 1,737 Member
    What a lot of 5x5 newbies also forget ( like I did in the beginning) is to add some warm up sets prior to beginning the 5x5 rep and set cycle... just to warm up the muscles and loosen the joints that you will be eventually stressing... and as much as it may "seem" like you are not doing things right... adding 5 lbs each and every cycle will see you hitting your weight ceilings reasonably quick... what 5x5 will also see you looking into is nutrition... any success you will have in strength will also be tied to your diet and how you feed your muscles... of course these are all going to come into play as you gain in your own weight training experience... welcome to the club... do research... watch videos, read books then buy the T-shirt & drink the Kool-aide :)
  • ObsidianMist
    ObsidianMist Posts: 519 Member
    yep, I've been doing 5x5 for 2 months, started out lifting a mere 15lb fixed weight bar to focus on form and get my strength up, and I only just recently started being able to lift the olympic bar for my overhead press. it was the last one to get there, I'm squatting 95lbs and everything else is somewhere in between, but yeah. no way I could've started out doing everything with the olympic bar.

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