Very new & lots of questions

shorty35565

I've read the summary. I don't have an Olympic bar. Mine came with my bench & weighs like only 5lbs. It's REALLY light & I weighed it haha. With that said, how much weight do I need too use for warm up?
Also, where do I start at weight wise in the actual exercise? I can NOT deadlift 95lbs. I'm just confused & a real newbie to weight lifting. Sorry if these sound like stupid questions.
And do I have to up my weights by 5lbs every time? What happens when it gets too heavy? Can I do it by smaller increments?
I'm 5'5 121.6lbs if that's important to know.

a_vettestingray

I started at home with a small (100lb) weight set that I got off Amazon. I started at 45 for the squat, bench, row, and overhead press. I started at 95 for the deadlift. For the warmups, I did body weight only for the first few sessions, as the work weight was so low.

How do you know that you cannot deadlift 95? Have you tried, you might suprise yourself? If you want to start lighter though, for form's sake, just pick a weight - like 65 and start there.

I outgrew my little weight set from home after my second deadlift and had to move to the gym for the workouts. You can progress pretty fast at the beginning.

You should progress 5lb each time, as that is the point of progression. When it gets very hard, you can use fractionals to increase 2lbs at a time. Some people are using washers, rolls of tape, etc to increase their weight. When that gets too tough, you might have to switch to a 3x5 workout.

Hope that helps!

shorty35565

I started at home with a small (100lb) weight set that I got off Amazon. I started at 45 for the squat, bench, row, and overhead press. I started at 95 for the deadlift. For the warmups, I did body weight only for the first few sessions, as the work weight was so low.

How do you know that you cannot deadlift 95? Have you tried, you might suprise yourself? If you want to start lighter though, for form's sake, just pick a weight - like 65 and start there.

I outgrew my little weight set from home after my second deadlift and had to move to the gym for the workouts. You can progress pretty fast at the beginning.

You should progress 5lb each time, as that is the point of progression. When it gets very hard, you can use fractionals to increase 2lbs at a time. Some people are using washers, rolls of tape, etc to increase their weight. When that gets too tough, you might have to switch to a 3x5 workout.

Hope that helps!

I can only do 85lbs for 3 reps on a deadlifts. So I know i will have to start lower than that. I was my own thing with weight lifting. Doin 3 sets, failing at 7-10 reps, upping the weights when getting to 10 each set got easy. My overhead press was only 30lbs. Bench was 45. I'm almost postive I'm gonna stall out on those quickly. I don't think ill b able to move up 5lbs on those afyer my 1st workout.

crobl

I've read the summary. I don't have an Olympic bar. Mine came with my bench & weighs like only 5lbs. It's REALLY light & I weighed it haha. With that said, how much weight do I need too use for warm up?
Also, where do I start at weight wise in the actual exercise? I can NOT deadlift 95lbs. I'm just confused & a real newbie to weight lifting. Sorry if these sound like stupid questions.
And do I have to up my weights by 5lbs every time? What happens when it gets too heavy? Can I do it by smaller increments?
I'm 5'5 121.6lbs if that's important to know.

Your warm-up weight depends entirely on what you are capable of lifting. Personally, I generally do 3 sets of 5 reps prior to my weight for the day. First set is with the bar, then adding about 15-20lbs each set. However, with that being said - I have been lifting for years, and am very experience with Olympic Style lifts. Since you are a appear to be more of a novice, I would suggest starting with lower weight. You would much rather the lift be easy, then to try and lift more than you are prepared for and hurt yourself. You can always add weight next time...much harder to recover from an injury. As a experienced lifter and a medical professional - I can tell you that form is the most important thing!!

The one of the points of stronglifts is to increase weight everytime - this is a motivation tool to push yourself to succeed. I up all exercises 5lbs every time, except for deadlift which I increase by 10lbs. However, if and when I reach a point where it's too heavy - I will deload and try again. Theoretically you don't have to increase by 5lbs everytime, but that's the way the program is set up, and personally, the facility I use doesn't have weights to make smaller gains then 5lbs.

If you are still unsure about some of these lifts - I would suggest going to a gym and having someone more experienced walk you through the lifts.

Jaxster92708

When it gets very hard, you can use fractionals to increase 2lbs at a time. Some people are using washers, rolls of tape, etc to increase their weight. When that gets too tough, you might have to switch to a 3x5 workout.

Hope that helps!

^^This! At the start, adding 5 lbs per workout hardly felt like anything. I stalled at different points, form suffered on squats, so I started deloading. Then I switched to a 3x5 format and now my gains are more consistent.

I use fractionals to increase weight on upper body lifts by 1/2 lb per workout. I am in week 12 right now.

Good luck and welcome!!
Jackie

Leadfoot_Lewis

OP - A little off topic (sorry!) but your bar only weighs 5 lbs? If that's correct, you need to find out what it's weight capacity is. It may be fine for know, but when you start progressing in weight (which you will!) that bar isn't going to be able to handle the weight you put on it. Best to be safe then sorry.

Also these are great for increasing weights in 2.5lb increments - http://www.theplatemate.com/products.htm. I have a set of the 1.25 lb ones and they're great for adding just a little weight (2.5 lbs) to the big lifts.

shorty35565

OP - A little off topic (sorry!) but your bar only weighs 5 lbs? If that's correct, you need to find out what it's weight capacity is. It may be fine for know, but when you start progressing in weight (which you will!) that bar isn't going to be able to handle the weight you put on it. Best to be safe then sorry.

Also these are great for increasing weights in 2.5lb increments - http://www.theplatemate.com/products.htm. I have a set of the 1.25 lb ones and they're great for adding just a little weight (2.5 lbs) to the big lifts.

Yes its very light. It holds 150lbs. I'm goin to academy to look for smaller weights.

shorty35565

I've read the summary. I don't have an Olympic bar. Mine came with my bench & weighs like only 5lbs. It's REALLY light & I weighed it haha. With that said, how much weight do I need too use for warm up?
Also, where do I start at weight wise in the actual exercise? I can NOT deadlift 95lbs. I'm just confused & a real newbie to weight lifting. Sorry if these sound like stupid questions.
And do I have to up my weights by 5lbs every time? What happens when it gets too heavy? Can I do it by smaller increments?
I'm 5'5 121.6lbs if that's important to know.

Your warm-up weight depends entirely on what you are capable of lifting. Personally, I generally do 3 sets of 5 reps prior to my weight for the day. First set is with the bar, then adding about 15-20lbs each set. However, with that being said - I have been lifting for years, and am very experience with Olympic Style lifts. Since you are a appear to be more of a novice, I would suggest starting with lower weight. You would much rather the lift be easy, then to try and lift more than you are prepared for and hurt yourself. You can always add weight next time...much harder to recover from an injury. As a experienced lifter and a medical professional - I can tell you that form is the most important thing!!

The one of the points of stronglifts is to increase weight everytime - this is a motivation tool to push yourself to succeed. I up all exercises 5lbs every time, except for deadlift which I increase by 10lbs. However, if and when I reach a point where it's too heavy - I will deload and try again. Theoretically you don't have to increase by 5lbs everytime, but that's the way the program is set up, and personally, the facility I use doesn't have weights to make smaller gains then 5lbs.

If you are still unsure about some of these lifts - I would suggest going to a gym and having someone more experienced walk you through the lifts.

Should I b failing by the 5th rep? Or no?

tameko2

No. you shouldn't be failing for a few weeks, it should feel easy. Later, you should be failing by the 3rd 4th or 5th set - first couple of sets should be doable.

Leadfoot_Lewis

Yes its very light. It holds 150lbs. I'm goin to academy to look for smaller weights.

Cool, glad you checked this.