Confused newbie

violetrix

I'm doing NROLFW at the moment and have just started stage 3. It's been great so far but now the workouts are getting too long and complicated for me. So after doing a bit of research for an alternative program I found strong lifts. After reading that really long PDF I'm still confused about a few things.

Do I add weight on every set or every workout? Also the smallest plates in my gym are 2.5kg ones (about 5lbs) so I'm not sure what to do? Should I add exercises like push ups at the end? And regarding breaks, are you not allowed to take any weeks off from the program like in nrolfw?

I know that's a lot of questions but any help would be good since I just tried to do it in the gym and didn't really know what I was doing.

lwoodroff

forget the PDF of craziness! have a look at the stickies here, Tameko did a brilliant job of summarising them in normal English not bro-glish they should answer your questions.

briefly though you add weight each time you achieve 5 sets of 5 reps on the exercise WITH GOOD FORM. Bar didn't reach your chest on pendlay rows? rep doesn't count. didn't hit parallel on squat? rep didn't count. you get the picture! you can get fractionals or make your own (someone here puts loose change in a sock!), so that doesn't need to hold you back.

you can do additional exercises but they aren't strictly necessary - this will give you a full body workout!

the idea is to do it 3 days a week, but real life happens, you'll just not progress at the same pace. you should also plan regular breaks (at least every 12 weeks, maybe more frequently)

and watch the videos!

WhataBroad

my understanding is that you add weight on your next workout once you can complete all 5 sets at your current weight.

the Summary sticky is very helpful

violetrix

my understanding is that you add weight on your next workout once you can complete all 5 sets at your current weight.

Yeah that's what I thought as well since that's what the PDF seemed to say but I've seen people saying that it's actually after every set? I'm using barbells with fixed weights atm that go up in 5kg because I'm slightly scared of using the Olympic bar so adding weight even after 1 set may be impossible.

I've already read the stickies on here but am still confused

lwoodroff

Your working sets are 5x5 at the same weight, but you warm up incrementally starting with empty bar. Watch the vids of mehdi doing the a and b workouts it will be clear :-)

violetrix

Ok I'll check them out. Thanks for the help!