Stronglifts 5x5 (for women)?
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lilawolf
Posts: 1,690 Member
I am looking for a new lifting routine to start on Monday. I purchased New Rules of Lifting for Women, but I glanced over the Stronglifts program and decided that it was simpler and made a lot of sense.
Has anyone, man or woman, had great success or no success with this program or with NRLW? Females: were you able to add 5lbs every session like it advises men to do in Stronglifts? Any other lifting routines/programs you have had good results with?
I am willing to put in ~1 hour, 3 times a week along with my husband. I want as much bulk and strength as my genetics will allow me.
Has anyone, man or woman, had great success or no success with this program or with NRLW? Females: were you able to add 5lbs every session like it advises men to do in Stronglifts? Any other lifting routines/programs you have had good results with?
I am willing to put in ~1 hour, 3 times a week along with my husband. I want as much bulk and strength as my genetics will allow me.
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Replies
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I lift 3 days a week and add 5-10 lbs depending on the exercise when it starts to get easier to do. Which for me is about once a week as long as I'm consistent.0
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Don't get hung up on the 5lbs per session part. Work on getting your form down and the increase in weight will take care of itself. I have been doing stronglifts and c25k on m/w/f and then am part of a Lose Big program at my gym and work with a trainer for 1 hour sessions on S/T/Th for 8 weeks now and I can say that I have not progressed the 5lbs every session and I even deloaded on squat when I hit 160 the first time because I had my daughter video my form and I was going way forward and pushing up off my toes instead of up through my heels. I can tell you my daughter is 13 years old and she started doing stronglifts five weeks ago with me and the progression she has seen is amazing. We started her out on a smaller bar and decided to only do 3x5 instead of 5x5 due to her age but her current progression is
Start/Current
Squat: 35lbs/60lbs
Bench: 35lbs/40lbs
Deadlift: 35lbs/85lbs
OP: 25lbs/25lbs
Rows: 25lbs/35lbs
As you can see it has not been close to 5lbs per session but she has slimmed down 2 sizes and they had their mid year fitness test in PE at school this week and she went from not being able to do a single unassisted chin ups to doing 5 she was so excited she called me at work after PE to thank me for letting her lift with me.0 -
I would go with SL over NR. If you are looking to gain weight, it is good to do as written, If you start with empty bar as it says, you should be able to add weight as it says to everything except perhaps overhead press. You could look into getting fractional plates and increasing by less. You could also look into a program called Greyskull LP which is similar but has you squat and deadlift a but less frequently and add only 2.5lbs per session to upper body lifts and 5 to lowers.0
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I can't wait to get in there and do it! In 6 months, I'd like to be able to:
Bench press: 1x body weight (~150) (currently 60)
Pullups: 8 unassisted (currently 0)
Pushups: 25 (currently 20 knees down or incline)
5k: 25 minutes (???)
We'll see if I can do it!0 -
I have been doing stronglifts for 13 weeks now and I started with the base numbers and I have been able to add 5 lbs each session with the exception of the Overhead press. Which most people stall on. This program is designed for you to fail on its a good thing. You can definitely go up slower. In fact as a woman it probably a better idea to 5 pounds is a much bigger percentage of your body weight than it is for me. Take it slow. Slower is actually better in this.
Here are my 3 month results from SL
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/906502-3-months-stronglifts-5x5
And here is the link to the Ladies stronglifts group on here. Theyre awesome.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/4601-stronglifts-5x5-for-women0 -
I can't wait to get in there and do it! In 6 months, I'd like to be able to:
Bench press: 1x body weight (~150) (currently 60)
Pullups: 8 unassisted (currently 0)
Pushups: 25 (currently 20 knees down or incline)
5k: 25 minutes (???)
We'll see if I can do it!
I'd suggest setting up a few intermediate goals. If your next target is a 150% increase in the lift weight, that's a long ways away potentially.0 -
I'd suggest setting up a few intermediate goals. If your next target is a 150% increase in the lift weight, that's a long ways away potentially.
More than the 6 months? I do agree that I need some 1-2 month goals. My first goal is just to get my schedule set up so that I GO to the gym. How's that for short term? :-p0 -
SO depending on how new you are to lifting, a 90 pound increase might not take that long (even on stronglifts, which jacks weight incredibly quickly, it would take 3 months if you never stalled).
Having something like a BW Bench Press (which is a fairly high level amount of weight for a women to be lifting, but definitely doable with training) I don't know that you should be planning out a program to hit that weight. In 6 months any manner of things could happen. Effectively planning out 6 weeks can be a challenge, some people go too heavy, some too light, some can't stick with it. I think programming shorter term goals with time frames is better.0 -
I'd suggest setting up a few intermediate goals. If your next target is a 150% increase in the lift weight, that's a long ways away potentially.
More than the 6 months? I do agree that I need some 1-2 month goals. My first goal is just to get my schedule set up so that I GO to the gym. How's that for short term? :-p
I like that goal.0 -
I did NROLFW as my first structured lifting routine and I got great results and, more importantly, it got me hooked on lifting heavy. That said, I don’t think it’s the program I would choose to start with if I could go back for a do-over. I’m only vaguely familiar with Stronglifts, but I would suggest either that program or Starting Strength as a place to start.
To elaborate, NROLFW is great, but I don’t think it’s the most direct route to your goals, certainly not to your bench press goals (there’s just not a lot of barbell benches in the program). NROLFW pretty much assumes you are new to lifting and not very strong. It assumes you cannot do a pushup (gives lots of variations for women who can’t) and I get the feeling it assumes that you will never be able to do a chin/pull up (the “chin up” stage is negative chin-ups). What NROLFW has over Stronglifts and Starting Strength (if I understand that those last two programs, which I might not) is more assistance work and more variety (some would argue is this good, others would argue this is bad).
No matter what, NROLFW is a great beginner program, but it’s not going to turn you into a powerlifter! It helped me get on a good lifting schedule, gave me a framework and structure, and it helped me understand what I do and not like in lifting and what my goals should be. Your goals are awesome, by the way, and you might be strong enough already to attain them that fast. But if not, you will eventually if you keep lifting! (I have about the same goals: BW for bench, 1.5x squat, and 2x for deadlift, and I'm getting darn close, but it's been about a year of lifting for me now).
Anyways, if I could have a do-over, I’d do Starting Strength or Stronglifts until I maxed out weights (i.e. stalled/plateaued) or until I got bored and tired. From there, I’d check out more intermediate to advanced programs like 5/3/1 or something like that.
Good luck!!0 -
Don't get hung up on the 5lbs per session part. Work on getting your form down and the increase in weight will take care of itself. I have been doing stronglifts and c25k on m/w/f and then am part of a Lose Big program at my gym and work with a trainer for 1 hour sessions on S/T/Th for 8 weeks now and I can say that I have not progressed the 5lbs every session and I even deloaded on squat when I hit 160 the first time because I had my daughter video my form and I was going way forward and pushing up off my toes instead of up through my heels. I can tell you my daughter is 13 years old and she started doing stronglifts five weeks ago with me and the progression she has seen is amazing. We started her out on a smaller bar and decided to only do 3x5 instead of 5x5 due to her age but her current progression is
Start/Current
Squat: 35lbs/60lbs
Bench: 35lbs/40lbs
Deadlift: 35lbs/85lbs
OP: 25lbs/25lbs
Rows: 25lbs/35lbs
As you can see it has not been close to 5lbs per session but she has slimmed down 2 sizes and they had their mid year fitness test in PE at school this week and she went from not being able to do a single unassisted chin ups to doing 5 she was so excited she called me at work after PE to thank me for letting her lift with me.
I LOVE this story about your daughter calling you and thanking you! What a great experience for you both!!0 -
Good for you and your daughter Robert! That IS an awesome story. Thanks for the links Ron. I already joined the ladies group. They have a great summary and links to help me get started!0
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I can tell you my daughter is 13 years old and she started doing stronglifts five weeks ago with me and the progression she has seen is amazing. We started her out on a smaller bar and decided to only do 3x5 instead of 5x5 due to her age but her current progression is
Start/Current
Squat: 35lbs/60lbs
Bench: 35lbs/40lbs
Deadlift: 35lbs/85lbs
OP: 25lbs/25lbs
Rows: 25lbs/35lbs
As you can see it has not been close to 5lbs per session but she has slimmed down 2 sizes and they had their mid year fitness test in PE at school this week and she went from not being able to do a single unassisted chin ups to doing 5 she was so excited she called me at work after PE to thank me for letting her lift with me.
This is awesome.0 -
I can tell you my daughter is 13 years old and she started doing stronglifts five weeks ago with me and the progression she has seen is amazing. We started her out on a smaller bar and decided to only do 3x5 instead of 5x5 due to her age but her current progression is
Start/Current
Squat: 35lbs/60lbs
Bench: 35lbs/40lbs
Deadlift: 35lbs/85lbs
OP: 25lbs/25lbs
Rows: 25lbs/35lbs
As you can see it has not been close to 5lbs per session but she has slimmed down 2 sizes and they had their mid year fitness test in PE at school this week and she went from not being able to do a single unassisted chin ups to doing 5 she was so excited she called me at work after PE to thank me for letting her lift with me.
This is awesome.
+1
Agreed0 -
I can tell you my daughter is 13 years old and she started doing stronglifts five weeks ago with me and the progression she has seen is amazing. We started her out on a smaller bar and decided to only do 3x5 instead of 5x5 due to her age but her current progression is
Start/Current
Squat: 35lbs/60lbs
Bench: 35lbs/40lbs
Deadlift: 35lbs/85lbs
OP: 25lbs/25lbs
Rows: 25lbs/35lbs
As you can see it has not been close to 5lbs per session but she has slimmed down 2 sizes and they had their mid year fitness test in PE at school this week and she went from not being able to do a single unassisted chin ups to doing 5 she was so excited she called me at work after PE to thank me for letting her lift with me.
This is awesome.
+1
Agreed
that is awesome!
I have never read NRL4W so I can't really comment on it - but if I were to start all over I would do 5x5, I think it is just designed so well - I wish that when I started I would have just done basic barbell movements.0
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