Trying this out...Again!

darwinforyou

I used to do this a few years ago and it got the point where I was able to squat and benchpress more than most men! So long story short....bad breakup and nearly 30 lbs more later.....I'm a healthier part of my life now and I think I'm going to take this back up.

My question is - can you do other work outs the same day that you do the 5X5? I do yoga as well and was thinking I'd try this out - or do I do one or the other?

help!

jenluvsushi

In the beginning, I could easily do other types of exercise along with SL (I usually did cardio after lifting). As the weights got heavier, I found that I could no longer keep up. I actually ended up shifting over to madcow so that I could continue to do cardio without being totally exhausted. It really depends on your goals though. If you want to gain muscle, you probably won't want to do much else but the lifting. If you are looking to maintain muscle while you lose fat, you might want to do cardio separate from your lifting (other days), with an 8 hour window apart from lifting or consider something like madcow after you start stalling out. I've never done yoga so I am not sure how much energy is used for that. Being that you've done this before, I would bet that you are going to have great results! Some people can lose fat/weight with diet and lifting alone...I need a bit of cardio because I like to eat......A lot

darwinforyou

What's Madcow? I eat around 1400 a day depending on what my exercise level is, generally I do cardio 5x a week, thinking Yoga might be replaced with lifting, there's a lot of strength moves in yoga.

jenluvsushi

Here is the link explaining madcow: http://stronglifts.com/madcow-5x5-training-programs/

Basically, instead of doing 5x5, you ramp up your weights and only do one set of 5 at the highest weight. You also don't add weight every time you lift (only once per week) and you have lighter lifting days as well. Kinda hard to explain fully so definitley check out the link. If you do the full 5x5, eventually you will probably switch to 5x3 at least on upper body moves. I got to the point where even that was tough so the madcow is what I'm doing now. It is still the SL program. Good luck!

darwinforyou

That's what happened with me on the 5X5 last time....on Squats. I plateaued and wasn't able to get any higher, total failure, which is good...so I'm curious how it will go this next time around. I just seriously don't want bulky muscles, but I definitely want to put more strenght back in this body.