5x5 strong lifts- how fast did you progress?
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abbynormalartist wrote: »richardgavel wrote: »Are you eating above maintenance? You can increase some initially since you're getting more complete neuromuscular firing but muscle gain does require a surplus.
I got increases as long as I had a surplus. Once I decided to maintain or cut, it stopped, which I expected. Also, have you done a deload?
I'm eating at maintenance right now. I read that newbies to diet/lifting are the exception to being able to eat at maintenance or at a deficit and still gain muscle. Hoping that's right.... ?
This not true for every individual and is less likely if you don't have a significant amount of body fat to start with. Maybe try eating at a small surplus for a few weeks and see if you make some forward progress?2 -
jseams1234 wrote: »abbynormalartist wrote: »richardgavel wrote: »Are you eating above maintenance? You can increase some initially since you're getting more complete neuromuscular firing but muscle gain does require a surplus.
I got increases as long as I had a surplus. Once I decided to maintain or cut, it stopped, which I expected. Also, have you done a deload?
I'm eating at maintenance right now. I read that newbies to diet/lifting are the exception to being able to eat at maintenance or at a deficit and still gain muscle. Hoping that's right.... ?
This not true for every individual and is less likely if you don't have a significant amount of body fat to start with. Maybe try eating at a small surplus for a few weeks and see if you make some forward progress?
I don't have a significant amount to lose but I just haven't gotten over my nervousness of eating at a surplus
I'm 122lbs and am only looking to lose around 5 more lbs. I've lost so much belly bloat since eating at a deficit then now at maintenance so surplus worries me. 1 -
abbynormalartist wrote: »abbynormalartist wrote: »Strong lifts 5x5. I figured I was relatively healthy and what I thought as "fit" but I struggle still with just the weight of the bar at times.
When did you start? Just the bar...on all 5 lifts? Have you been able to add weight to the bar for any of the lifts? How much?
I was adding weight every workout at the beginning. I had to start deloading the different lifts at different points...for OHP (and sometimes bench) I had to buy fractional weights (they range from 1/4lb-1lb) so I could increase in much smaller increments.
I'm two months into lifting with the 5x5 app.
Here are my weights:
OHP: 45lbs (just the bar)- have started with this weight and never been able to go heavier
Squat: 95lbs
Deadlift: 100lbs
BenchPress: 55lbs (just barely more than the bar)
Barbell Rows: 65lbs
I have been able to add to my lifts but not much. I'm feeling discouraged because I don't feel like I'm making progress though I keep trying to remind myself that 2 months just probably isn't a fair enough time to judge anything. I just feel shaky and weak and unstable with nearly every lift. And while I've been practicing good form at home, it all seems to go out the window when I work with any substantial weight. If I deload on some of my lifts to work on my form, then I don't feel like the weights are heavy enough to give me any sort of work out. Again, just discouraged.
5x5 is pretty demanding and will work your muscles enough for continued progression. This process takes considerable time, especially if you are new to lifting. In 2 months you're just establishing a foundation.
When I work on form I do this with a broomstick. You can often hide bad form under weight, but this will all come out with a stick. Try videoing yourself from different angels as well. If you're having trouble with form under weight then take off some weight until your not so shaky.
Many people have trouble with OHP - it's a rough movement and not something many people do. Mix this with dumbbells and focus on smooth steady movements, avoid momentum.
Other than that try lifting first followed by light cardio. Ensure you are well rested with plenty of sleep and fully hydrated.3 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »Do you have very small plates? Like 2.5lb or smaller? I find it very difficult to progress by 5-10lbs on OHP and bench, well even on deadlift and squat once you've been at it a while and hit a plateau. Having those tiny plates helps a lot. If you just can't add any weight, add a rep to each set or add one extra set to each exercise until you are able to add weight.
Yes. The author himself recommended getting smaller weights than can be found in pretty much every gym, particularly for women. Buying a pair of 1.25 lb plates made a huge difference for me. Some people use various sized links of chains from the hardware store in lieu of fractional plates.
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abbynormalartist wrote: »I'm two months into lifting with the 5x5 app.
Here are my weights:
OHP: 45lbs (just the bar)- have started with this weight and never been able to go heavier
Squat: 95lbs
Deadlift: 100lbs
BenchPress: 55lbs (just barely more than the bar)
Barbell Rows: 65lbs
I have been able to add to my lifts but not much. I'm feeling discouraged because I don't feel like I'm making progress though I keep trying to remind myself that 2 months just probably isn't a fair enough time to judge anything. I just feel shaky and weak and unstable with nearly every lift. And while I've been practicing good form at home, it all seems to go out the window when I work with any substantial weight. If I deload on some of my lifts to work on my form, then I don't feel like the weights are heavy enough to give me any sort of work out. Again, just discouraged.
On OHP: Most gyms have a short bar (~5' long and ~25 lbs) somewhere. It'll probably be near the stands where the guys do bicep isolation work. It took me months to work up to the full 7' Olympic bar on OHP.3 -
abbynormalartist wrote: »jseams1234 wrote: »abbynormalartist wrote: »richardgavel wrote: »Are you eating above maintenance? You can increase some initially since you're getting more complete neuromuscular firing but muscle gain does require a surplus.
I got increases as long as I had a surplus. Once I decided to maintain or cut, it stopped, which I expected. Also, have you done a deload?
I'm eating at maintenance right now. I read that newbies to diet/lifting are the exception to being able to eat at maintenance or at a deficit and still gain muscle. Hoping that's right.... ?
This not true for every individual and is less likely if you don't have a significant amount of body fat to start with. Maybe try eating at a small surplus for a few weeks and see if you make some forward progress?
I don't have a significant amount to lose but I just haven't gotten over my nervousness of eating at a surplus I'm 122lbs and am only looking to lose around 5 more lbs. I've lost so much belly bloat since eating at a deficit then now at maintenance so surplus worries me.
heheh. Trust me, I understand not wanting the "bloat" to come back. I'm on a bulk and by mid-day I look like I'm several months pregnant.
Like comedian Dan Cummins said, "Turns out from the front I was like a dude who lift weights.
From the side I was like a dude who shouldn't because it's probably bad for the baby.."3 -
You're not doing badly. It's taken me 3 months to put as much weight into my squat as you have in a month.
It's all relative.
Are you working to failure? Do you add the extra 5 lbs to your squat and only do 3 reps, etc?
How are you breathing during your lifts? Try taking a deep breath and holding it during the lift, using your core muscles to brace. How about your shoulders during your squat? Bracing those?
What kind of warm ups are you doing? Like for squats, I body weight squat a bunch of times to get the joints moving, then do a few sets of increasing weight before doing my actual weighted sets. That said, a girl friend of mine doesn't feel like she's fully warmed up until she does a bunch of low weight high rep stuff.0 -
DancingMoosie wrote: »Do you have very small plates? Like 2.5lb or smaller? I find it very difficult to progress by 5-10lbs on OHP and bench, well even on deadlift and squat once you've been at it a while and hit a plateau. Having those tiny plates helps a lot. If you just can't add any weight, add a rep to each set or add one extra set to each exercise until you are able to add weight.
Yes. The author himself recommended getting smaller weights than can be found in pretty much every gym, particularly for women. Buying a pair of 1.25 lb plates made a huge difference for me. Some people use various sized links of chains from the hardware store in lieu of fractional plates.
https://stronglifts.com/madcow/Topics/Microloading.htm1 -
Katiebear_81 wrote: »You're not doing badly. It's taken me 3 months to put as much weight into my squat as you have in a month. It's all relative.
Are you working to failure? Do you add the extra 5 lbs to your squat and only do 3 reps, etc?
How are you breathing during your lifts? Try taking a deep breath and holding it during the lift, using your core muscles to brace. How about your shoulders during your squat? Bracing those?
What kind of warm ups are you doing? Like for squats, I body weight squat a bunch of times to get the joints moving, then do a few sets of increasing weight before doing my actual weighted sets. That said, a girl friend of mine doesn't feel like she's fully warmed up until she does a bunch of low weight high rep stuff.
This. I feel like I need to do this! Some warm up sets with body weight then work my way up. I like the idea of a final heavier set. I haven't tried that before.2 -
abbynormalartist wrote: »abbynormalartist wrote: »Strong lifts 5x5. I figured I was relatively healthy and what I thought as "fit" but I struggle still with just the weight of the bar at times.
When I work on form I do this with a broomstick. You can often hide bad form under weight, but this will all come out with a stick. Try videoing yourself from different angels as well. If you're having trouble with form under weight then take off some weight until your not so shaky.
I'm going to try this! I try to practice my form at home but so far I can't "feel" if it's correct or not.0 -
OP: FWIW, if you are doing the program as designed, you should plateau in all lifts and be done in 4-6 months, at which time most people switch to an intermediate program to achieve more gains.
If you are not progressing at that rate, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are doing anything "wrong" but you clearly are progressing at a slower rate than others.
Only a trainer or an experienced friend who actually observes what you are doing can tell you whether there's anything you could be doing differently to make better progress.0 -
comptonelizabeth wrote: »OP are you doing any other exercise? Cardio, Insanity or HIIT or running or anything else like that. SL5X5 is pretty demanding for strength and needs some pretty good recovery. Someone up there mentioned sleep, it's the single most important factor for recovery, then calories are. If you aren't eating or sleeping enough, that would do it for sure, or if you aren't getting enough rest between workout days.
If you feel comfortable and want to increase the weights, eat at a calorie surplus for a few weeks.
The thing about sleep bothers me. I'm a chronic insomniac and even on a good night I don't get more than 5.5 - 6 hours. Does this actually impact on muscle growth or is it performance that's affected?
Both muscle growth and performance will be affected by a lack of adequate recovery. Lack of sleep has a big effect. No performance = no gains.
Here's a short article that helps explain. Cortisol is something we want to minimize if possible for muscle growth.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/442656-lack-of-sleep-bodybuilding/abbynormalartist wrote: »OP are you doing any other exercise? Cardio, Insanity or HIIT or running or anything else like that. SL5X5 is pretty demanding for strength and needs some pretty good recovery. Someone up there mentioned sleep, it's the single most important factor for recovery, then calories are. If you aren't eating or sleeping enough, that would do it for sure, or if you aren't getting enough rest between workout days.
If you feel comfortable and want to increase the weights, eat at a calorie surplus for a few weeks.
I've been trying to only do the strong lifts but I occasionally do 10-20 minutes of jogging on the treadmill just to get my heat rate up a bit. And I work out every other day.
As for sleep- I average about 7 hours of sleep. I used to get 8 but I had to cut from that since I'm now going to the gym in the evening after my kids are in bed.
7 or 8 should be not too bad, the little bit of cardio you're doing is fine. I'm leaning towards eating more to be the thing you need for weight increases.
...of course there are different ways to get progressive overload. Since it's pretty apparent what your maximum weights are, (You can calculate them from your 5RM online) you might want to increase your overall volume instead of the weights. Volume is the key to growth. Try increasing your rep range up to 8-12 reps and reducing your weight to %60 of your maximum. Do a similar amount of sets. Then increase those weights slowly.
It's sort of a deload in terms of absolute weight, but it's an increase in terms of volume. Increase the weights using this strategy for a month or so, then give your 5RM a try again and see what happens.
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abbynormalartist wrote:
I'm going to try this! I try to practice my form at home but so far I can't "feel" if it's correct or not.
When I restarted lifting I hired a pro bodybuilder to perfect my form and she taught me this trick. We spent the first sessions just working with a broomstick and repeating the same movements until they became robotic. Definitely worth the price. I'm lifting heavier than I ever did before and injury free.0 -
On OHP, you're saying 'Just' the bar . . . but 45 lbs OHP is pretty darn heavy for someone benching 55 lbs, especially if you're new to that exercise. In my own experience, there's no way I could have learned proper form and progressed on OHP if I started at 80% of my bench weight. (But then I also can't perform a single rep at 80% of my bench weight).0
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I was also wondering about this. I started stronglifts 6 weeks ago and am now finding the increases hard. I'm female 5'4 127 lb . My lifts are
Squat 72.5 kg
Deadlift 75 kg
Bench 35 kg
Row 45 kg
Ohp 25 kg
I'm havnt been able to increase my ohp for the last three times so ive switched to 15 kg dumbbells and it's much better. The squats are also getting very tough.
I did increase my calories though and it made a big difference, you should add a couple of hundred on to the days you lift and see how that goes, if you feel your getting too bulky just cut them back again
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abbynormalartist wrote: »I'm not moving up each week. It's more like adding weights a bit each month. Is that normal? How fast did some of you move up with this program?
I'm not up to date on the 5X5 but it sounds like power lifting. Your muscles will hit a wall, then it's your job to find a way around the wall. As we get stronger it's harder to break the muscle down, the good thing is nowadays it's easy to find a program that will help.
Good luck, I love powerlifting, I'm not very good at it but I still love it.
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I progresed slow on Stronglifts. I did 6 months. Fractional plates were my best friend. I used them for every lift but deadlift at some point. Though I was able to start with the bar on press I could only go up 1 pound at a time from the very beginning. I went up 2.5 for most of my lifts until I deloaded on bench press a couple times and the app suggested decreasing to 1 lb increments. I went up 5 pounds on deadlift, but I feel like that is my good lift.
Squat 15 to 95 lbs
Bench 45 to 72.5
Deadlift 95 to 165
Press 45 to 59
Row 45 to 752 -
I was also wondering about this. I started stronglifts 6 weeks ago and am now finding the increases hard. I'm female 5'4 127 lb . My lifts are
Squat 72.5 kg
Deadlift 75 kg
Bench 35 kg
Row 45 kg
Ohp 25 kg
I'm havnt been able to increase my ohp for the last three times so ive switched to 15 kg dumbbells and it's much better. The squats are also getting very tough.
I did increase my calories though and it made a big difference, you should add a couple of hundred on to the days you lift and see how that goes, if you feel your getting too bulky just cut them back again
That's not bad going if you have only been doing it 6 weeks and someone of your size. have you tried increasing in smaller numbers 0.5kg each side?
I've been doing it 4 weeks now and i'm at the following
Squat 62kg
Deadlift 70kg
Bench 68kg
Row 50kg
Ohp 32kg
but I'm 6'1 and 160lb, my main reason for lower lifts is my form is now starting to drop on the Squats, and deadlift so I'm concentrating on that at the minute.
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abbynormalartist wrote: »abbynormalartist wrote: »Strong lifts 5x5. I figured I was relatively healthy and what I thought as "fit" but I struggle still with just the weight of the bar at times.
When did you start? Just the bar...on all 5 lifts? Have you been able to add weight to the bar for any of the lifts? How much?
I was adding weight every workout at the beginning. I had to start deloading the different lifts at different points...for OHP (and sometimes bench) I had to buy fractional weights (they range from 1/4lb-1lb) so I could increase in much smaller increments.
I'm two months into lifting with the 5x5 app.
Here are my weights:
OHP: 45lbs (just the bar)- have started with this weight and never been able to go heavier
Squat: 95lbs
Deadlift: 100lbs
BenchPress: 55lbs (just barely more than the bar)
Barbell Rows: 65lbs
...
If I deload on some of my lifts to work on my form, then I don't feel like the weights are heavy enough to give me any sort of work out. Again, just discouraged.
This sounds about right. The first time I ran StrongLifts I started failing squat workouts at about 85lbs...took me a while to get past 95lbs. OHP is really hard, I increase by 2lbs at a time and deload often. Right now I've only OHP 66lbs and I've been lifting for several years.
As for deloading, yes, it will feel lighter and easier, but the recovery, focus on form, and build up back to your failed weight is totally worth it because the next time you hit that weight it will feel easier.
This is my graph for my squat (this is my second time running SL, coming back from an injury) but the timeline is roughly the same, though the weights are a little bit higher than when I ran it te first time.
Those deloads felt easy but were what got me to eventually lift heavier. It's slower going after the first month.0 -
I was also wondering about this. I started stronglifts 6 weeks ago and am now finding the increases hard. I'm female 5'4 127 lb . My lifts are
Squat 72.5 kg
Deadlift 75 kg
Bench 35 kg
Row 45 kg
Ohp 25 kg
I'm havnt been able to increase my ohp for the last three times so ive switched to 15 kg dumbbells and it's much better. The squats are also getting very tough.
I did increase my calories though and it made a big difference, you should add a couple of hundred on to the days you lift and see how that goes, if you feel your getting too bulky just cut them back again
That's not bad going if you have only been doing it 6 weeks and someone of your size. have you tried increasing in smaller numbers 0.5kg each side?
I've been doing it 4 weeks now and i'm at the following
Squat 62kg
Deadlift 70kg
Bench 68kg
Row 50kg
Ohp 32kg
but I'm 6'1 and 160lb, my main reason for lower lifts is my form is now starting to drop on the Squats, and deadlift so I'm concentrating on that at the minute.
Thanks! Yeah my gym has the .5kg rings, they're a lifesaver ! I know what you mean about form, i squatted 75kg tonight but i felt I probably could of gone lower, so I'm going to stay at that next time and get it right.
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