StrongLifts 5x5

NubyGloom

@ Grglandr: Ok So first round I would work up to 45 like day A, then day B 50lbs extra...? ok cool ill aim to start at 45lbs I deffently do like 15 reps 2sets of 30lbs right at the moment i thought maybe I was a little light but sometimes Iam still a little unsure !

^-^! again thanks every one so so so!!! much I am learning alot about this. I need the process hard to sometimes just read the plan and get it lol!

Ok one more question "Deadlift 1x5 115lbs" i dont get the whole 1x5 reps deadlifts thing, do you do that every time or lol that threw me out the window for sure! the stalling lifts? or do i just not worry about that till I get to the heavy lbs lol.? sorry i dont mean to be a head ace! I just am a visual learner and sometimes need things explained diferently then how they are writen.

End6ame

@ Grglandr: Ok So first round I would work up to 45 like day A, then day B 50lbs extra...? ok cool ill aim to start at 45lbs I deffently do like 15 reps 2sets of 30lbs right at the moment i thought maybe I was a little light but sometimes Iam still a little unsure !

^-^! again thanks every one so so so!!! much I am learning alot about this. I need the process hard to sometimes just read the plan and get it lol!

Ok one more question "Deadlift 1x5 115lbs" i dont get the whole 1x5 reps deadlifts thing, do you do that every time or lol that threw me out the window for sure! the stalling lifts? or do i just not worry about that till I get to the heavy lbs lol.? sorry i dont mean to be a head ace! I just am a visual learner and sometimes need things explained diferently then how they are writen.

Deadlifts are just 1 set of 5 reps because they hit most of the same muscles as squats do, so doing both squats and deads 5x5 would be way too much. You can also do some warm-up sets to get more deadlift practice in.

NubyGloom

ok thanks guys for everything! just gunna go read my eye out of my head! lol !!! good luck !

hroush

@ Grglandr: Ok So first round I would work up to 45 like day A, then day B 50lbs extra...? ok cool ill aim to start at 45lbs I deffently do like 15 reps 2sets of 30lbs right at the moment i thought maybe I was a little light but sometimes Iam still a little unsure !

^-^! again thanks every one so so so!!! much I am learning alot about this. I need the process hard to sometimes just read the plan and get it lol!

Ok one more question "Deadlift 1x5 115lbs" i dont get the whole 1x5 reps deadlifts thing, do you do that every time or lol that threw me out the window for sure! the stalling lifts? or do i just not worry about that till I get to the heavy lbs lol.? sorry i dont mean to be a head ace! I just am a visual learner and sometimes need things explained diferently then how they are writen.

For day A you do the following (example monday):
squat: 45
bench: 45
row: 65 (45 lb bar + 2 10 lb weights, if too much, see below)

next workout B (example wednesday):
squat: 50
overhead press: 45
deadlift: 65 (again if too much, see below)

next workout A (example friday):
squat: 55
bench: 50
row: 70

next workout B (following monday):
squat: 60
overhead press: 50
deadlift: 75 (increase by 10)

If the row and deadlift is too high to start, use an empty bar and then put plates down to increase the bar height to where it would be with plates on. For deadlift, you only do it B days, add 10 lbs instead of 5 (so it keeps up with squat), and do 2 warm up sets followed by your lifting set. To be honest, I still do 5x5 deadlift as I knew I had a weak back and I wanted to give it some extra lifts. I did 5x5 225 deadlift yesterday with no problems.

thkelly

I can see that a couple of them would add up over time. But what about the bench press? I guess I just don't understand how lifting 45lbs of the bar 5 times is helping me at all when I could realistically do it 40-50 times.

remember this is a beginner program so i think the 'start with the bar' thing is more for people that have never done these lifts before and need to learn the proper technique.
if you can bench press 225 pounds then obviously you wouldn't start by doing 5 X 5 with just the bar.

hroush

I can see that a couple of them would add up over time. But what about the bench press? I guess I just don't understand how lifting 45lbs of the bar 5 times is helping me at all when I could realistically do it 40-50 times.

remember this is a beginner program so i think the 'start with the bar' thing is more for people that have never done these lifts before and need to learn the proper technique.
if you can bench press 225 pounds then obviously you wouldn't start by doing 5 X 5 with just the bar.

It is mentioned in the guide that if you have already been lifting and want to start with more than the bar, a good number is 50% of your max weight you could do 5x5.

BR1986FB

Deadlifts are just 1 set of 5 reps because they hit most of the same muscles as squats do, so doing both squats and deads 5x5 would be way too much. You can also do some warm-up sets to get more deadlift practice in.

Maybe I'm "off" here but I was under the impression, for instance, on the Madcow program that he had you doing 4x5 on deadlift days. With the rampup I have been doing 135 x5, 225 x5, 315 x5 (as warmups) and my heavy set of 405-425 x5. Is this incorrect? Also thought it was strange on the Madcow that day 1 is 5x5, day 2 is 4x5 and day 3 is 4x5, 1x3, 1x8.

So on the SL5X5 after doing 5x5 on squats & OHP, it's only one set of 5 reps for deads? That's where he's not very clear because I was lead to believe that in SL5X5 there was one heavy set of 5 on deads and 4 ramp up sets to get there.

hroush

Deadlifts are just 1 set of 5 reps because they hit most of the same muscles as squats do, so doing both squats and deads 5x5 would be way too much. You can also do some warm-up sets to get more deadlift practice in.

Maybe I'm "off" here but I was under the impression, for instance, on the Madcow program that he had you doing 4x5 on deadlift days. With the rampup I have been doing 135 x5, 225 x5, 315 x5 (as warmups) and my heavy set of 405-425 x5. Is this incorrect? Also thought it was strange on the Madcow that day 1 is 5x5, day 2 is 4x5 and day 3 is 4x5, 1x3, 1x8.

So on the SL5X5 after doing 5x5 on squats & OHP, it's only one set of 5 reps for deads? That's where he's not very clear because I was lead to believe that in SL5X5 there was one heavy set of 5 on deads and 4 ramp up sets to get there.

I don't know about the madcow program, but I believe that deadlifts in the SL5x5 are two warm up sets followed by the full lift. Another way I've seen mentioned to do all the second warm up sets is to split it into a 1x3 1/3 weight and 1x2 2/3 weight, but i just do 1x5 1/2 weight.

hroush

Question for you guys, once you pretty much find your max in a lift, how often do you have to repeat a day? For example, I'm struggling with my OHP, I repeated at 115, broke it, repeated 120, and broke through again today. I found adding a little longer rest helped today, so I will be continuing with 3 minute rests.

JNick77

Question for you guys, once you pretty much find your max in a lift, how often do you have to repeat a day? For example, I'm struggling with my OHP, I repeated at 115, broke it, repeated 120, and broke through again today. I found adding a little longer rest helped today, so I will be continuing with 3 minute rests.

I just downloaded the 5x5 program and looked it over. Have you found what your true 5RM is? I think if I were to try this I would do a session where I started at a low weight and do 5reps then ramp up 10lbs each set until I found a weight that I could no longer move 5 times. Then I would take the last weight that I could move 5 times and probably take 80% of that weight and use that as my training weight. That should give a light enough weight to begin working with. I'm just suggesting this because it sounds like you might be using weight that is too heavy.

End6ame

Deadlifts are just 1 set of 5 reps because they hit most of the same muscles as squats do, so doing both squats and deads 5x5 would be way too much. You can also do some warm-up sets to get more deadlift practice in.

Maybe I'm "off" here but I was under the impression, for instance, on the Madcow program that he had you doing 4x5 on deadlift days. With the rampup I have been doing 135 x5, 225 x5, 315 x5 (as warmups) and my heavy set of 405-425 x5. Is this incorrect? Also thought it was strange on the Madcow that day 1 is 5x5, day 2 is 4x5 and day 3 is 4x5, 1x3, 1x8.

So on the SL5X5 after doing 5x5 on squats & OHP, it's only one set of 5 reps for deads? That's where he's not very clear because I was lead to believe that in SL5X5 there was one heavy set of 5 on deads and 4 ramp up sets to get there.

Madcow and SL are not the same program and Madcow was not developed by the author of SL, it was actually developed by Bill Starr. Madcow is an intermediate program that varies the intensity of the workouts day-to-day. It is designed this way because you will get to a point where you can not make day-to-day progression any more and will need to switch to weekly progression. Also, when you get to this point three heavy days per week, like you would have in SL, is too much and will not allow enough time for recovery. 

Deadlift day on Madcow is intended to be a low volume day which is why you only do 4 sets, with day 2 being medium and day three being high volume. 

End6ame

Question for you guys, once you pretty much find your max in a lift, how often do you have to repeat a day? For example, I'm struggling with my OHP, I repeated at 115, broke it, repeated 120, and broke through again today. I found adding a little longer rest helped today, so I will be continuing with 3 minute rests.

I have repeated many days as I got towards the end of SL, especially on OHP. You may be at the point where you need to drop to 3x5 on OHP. 

hroush

Question for you guys, once you pretty much find your max in a lift, how often do you have to repeat a day? For example, I'm struggling with my OHP, I repeated at 115, broke it, repeated 120, and broke through again today. I found adding a little longer rest helped today, so I will be continuing with 3 minute rests.

I have repeated many days as I got towards the end of SL, especially on OHP. You may be at the point where you need to drop to 3x5 on OHP. 

I'm only about 3 months into the program and only technically deloaded once on OHP because it was getting heavy fast as I started too high on muscles I hadn't worked before (upper shoulders). I haven't deloaded since then, just repeated a couple days (115 and 120). Today I upped my rest to 3 minutes (from 2 minutes) in between each lift. Today it felt like the first heavy set was the worst because of the minimal rest after my second warm up, so I will be sure to give that a little more rest as well next time.

JNick77

Question for you guys, once you pretty much find your max in a lift, how often do you have to repeat a day? For example, I'm struggling with my OHP, I repeated at 115, broke it, repeated 120, and broke through again today. I found adding a little longer rest helped today, so I will be continuing with 3 minute rests.

I have repeated many days as I got towards the end of SL, especially on OHP. You may be at the point where you need to drop to 3x5 on OHP. 

I'm only about 3 months into the program and only technically deloaded once on OHP because it was getting heavy fast as I started too high on muscles I hadn't worked before (upper shoulders). I haven't deloaded since then, just repeated a couple days (115 and 120). Today I upped my rest to 3 minutes (from 2 minutes) in between each lift. Today it felt like the first heavy set was the worst because of the minimal rest after my second warm up, so I will be sure to give that a little more rest as well next time.

It definitely sounds like you started too high. I actually tried a program once called 5/3/1 which is similar in the approach to this program and I made the mistake of starting to high on OHP too actually. LOL

What type of assitance work do you do for your rear, lateral, front deltoids, and traps?

hroush

It definitely sounds like you started too high. I actually tried a program once called 5/3/1 which is similar in the approach to this program and I made the mistake of starting to high on OHP too actually. LOL

What type of assitance work do you do for your rear, lateral, front deltoids, and traps?

I did start out high (65 lbs), but deloaded at 95 lbs when I quickly discovered that I did. With the deload it put me back as if I had started with just the bar. I had been lifting before I started SL, but only bench, curls, and squats, so I have weak upper shoulders.

I essentially only do the SL 5x5, but will add in push-ups and pull-ups if time allows.

hroush

Decided to push up to failure test after my workout A today, did total of 39, but the last two weren't pretty. I'm definitely thinking I'll be seeing that number increase with me getting into the heavier weights. Did 155 bench today.

JNick77

Decided to push up to failure test after my workout A today, did total of 39, but the last two weren't pretty. I'm definitely thinking I'll be seeing that number increase with me getting into the heavier weights. Did 155 bench today.

I didn't catch it, does the program advocate training to failure?

hroush

Decided to push up to failure test after my workout A today, did total of 39, but the last two weren't pretty. I'm definitely thinking I'll be seeing that number increase with me getting into the heavier weights. Did 155 bench today.

I didn't catch it, does the program advocate training to failure?

No, this was a little extra test I did at the end as a measure of strength gain. The other reason I did this is because I'm thinking of joining the National Guard in a couple months and push-ups are my weak point (I find that sad to say). When I started out I could barely do 34 push-ups, so a nice improvement thus far.

BR1986FB

Still plugging away here. Finally getting used to, and liking, these 4:30am workouts. Hope everyone is getting at it today ! Have a good one!

freerange

Still plugging away here. Finally getting used to, and liking, these 4:30am workouts. Hope everyone is getting at it today ! Have a good one!

I have always been a morning person, love getting up early, right now I'm doing cardio in the morning, might switch to weights as soon as I start my 5X5.

Found a great supply house here locally to get my bumpers when I need them. Think I will get a set of 5 and 10lb to start my rows, and dead lifts with.

What do you guys think about weight lifting belts?