How do you know when to stop?
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snoopy7501
Posts: 46 Member
I'm on week 11 of SL, and I haven't yet had a single stall. The lifts have quickly become freaking brutal. I've never lifted this heavy before ever, and I'm starting to worry about what will happen when it finally gets to be too much. I know I'm a stubborn SOB, and I worry that I'll force my way through a set when I should have stopped, and hurt myself somehow.
Those of you who have had stalls, what is it like? What happens? How does it feel? Is it simply a physical inability to lift the weight, or some other indication that you've hit your limit?
Those of you who have had stalls, what is it like? What happens? How does it feel? Is it simply a physical inability to lift the weight, or some other indication that you've hit your limit?
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Replies
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For me it depends on the lift.
For OHP it was pretty obvious. I simply couldn't lift. I looked pretty ridiculous, really. I was straining, terribly, but stationary as I managed to get the bar half way, but I was completely unable to go past a certain point
Benches are fairly similar to OHP, except I can bench more than I OHP.
Squats are another story. I managed to hurt my leg before feeling like I was going to fail on squats. I did get to a point where I actually had to put conscious thought into keeping my form (previously it felt very normal and automatic) while activating enough muscle to life the weight. I wouldn't say I ever failed doing a squat, though. Yet. The thought kind of worries me. I'm not quite sure what I'd do if I were unable to stand from a squat.
Rows were a little different. Stalling did mean I just couldn't complete the lift, but I found that I was able to slip/trick myself on my form for a lot longer before actually just failing. As a result, I'm a little obsessive about my form on that lift.
Deadlifts are similar rows in that my form will go to hell well before I can't complete the lift.
So, for me, I try to think of it in terms of safety. It's about completing the lift with the best form I can. And if I can't do that without sacrificing form, then that's failure.0 -
If you want to know what a stall is like, on your last day of the week and on your last set . . . keep going. Make sure you have a spotter or safety rails and keep going. Try for 8 or 10 or 12 reps. When you can't get the bar up, that's a stall. In 5 x 5 progression it'd happen on rep 4 or so instead.0
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On the squats it is good to simulate a failed lift and practice using the support apparatus to catch you. I think it is a little tricky, even with a spotter. OHP and bench are pretty easy to deal with. Similar with deadlift.
LIke you, I got a long ways before having a failed set, but when they started happening it was pretty tough mentally. I worked through a few misses and made it to the next weight, only to falter again. A friend "invited" me to do a triathlon sprint about that time, and I transitioned from lifting to swimming / biking / running. My muscles were all so strong that I had none of the common injuries that others had with knees and such. Found I really enjoyed this form of exercise. Will likely go back to lifting again, but for now am continuing with the running and triathlons. Unbelievably I am training for a half marathon.
Everyone is different and if you love the lifting, go for it. But for me, once the weight got heavy (I was squatting 240) I got nervous I'd hurt myself and even if I didn't, lifting 5, 10, even 25 lbs more (which seemed impossible from where I was) just didn't mean that much to me. Squatting 240 was pretty unbelievable - would squatting 265 be that much better? For me, the answer was no. Don't get me wrong, I loved StrongLifts 5x5 and recommend it often. But once I reached a certain level of strength, I just was not interested in continuing to push to get stronger.0 -
I've been doing it long enough to have failed on everything at least once. Pretty much, you get to where you just can't lift the weight for a full rep.
For the press, bench press and row you'll maybe get it half way up when you fail. I've always been able to still lower the weight under control when it happens.
For the squat, you'll get down of course but then you'll get stuck on the way up. That's when those safety pins in your power rack come in handy. I just lower myself back down and set the bar on the pins and crawl out from under it.
I haven't had a deadlift stall per-se yet, but I'm close. For me it feels like I'm in more danger of my grip failing than my strength failing. So I suspect if my grip goes first a failure will constitute the bar rolling down my legs and crashing onto the floor. My wife is stalled on the deadlift and she simply cannot even move the weight from the floor. So in her case, her strength failed before her grip did.0 -
Well, I finally stalled last Wednesday, on all three exercises at once. On the last rep of my 4th set of squats (200lb), I had a disturbing twinge in my lower back that worried me enough that I didn't even attempt the entire 5th set. I'm paying closer attention to my form, just in case that's the issue there.
At 120lb on OHP, I completed 5/5/4/4/4. Failure was easy to assess, because I simply couldn't get the weight up past my face for that 5th rep.
Deadlifting 245, I couldn't even get it off the floor once. Embarassing, actually, since I had successfully lifted 235 the previous week. Going from 5 good reps to totally stuck by adding only 10lbs is puzzling.
Friday I woke up with the flu, so I didn't work out that day, or Monday. I went back yesterday for my first time in a week and, following Rippetoe's instructions, repeated my last workout set for set. With the same results, minus the back twinge, thankfully. So I guess I just keep going with the program at this point. I'll be interested to see what happens to my bench and row on Friday.0 -
You could have been weaker and still be weaker from the flu setting in and getting over it. Keep on truckin'0
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I know I'm late to the party, but just for morale boosting, I've stalled on squats and OHP, and I might be stalling on bench within the next 2 days. It's just part of the process, and when you stall 3 times, you deload to about 80% and start back up toward the plateau.
Right now, I'm only squatting about 200, but I'd like to get to 300 or 350. If I get there, I can honestly say I won't know what to do next, because at that point, I'll be stronger than I ever thought I'd be, and I won't really have much interest in getting a lot stronger. I guess part of me is also thinking that I'm not going to get there any time soon, and that I must have at least a year ahead of me before I'll be squatting 350, assuming I don't end up hitting my absolute limit before then.0
