3fold - Maybe tell him that to perform his best and reduce the risk of injury when he does achieve "Beast Mode" on his lifts, the warm up reps are the most important lifts he will do each workout. It gives his body the chance to work on obtaining muscle memory for proper form, brings blood to the worked muscles that will make lifting heavy easier, and helps reduce the risk that he will have to explain to people how he hurt his butt muscle while squatting (I always use a little humor). Oh, and I've pulled the glute during squats before....not fun to explain that one. As for jumping 20 lbs, it is part of the same "impatient teenager" problem with the warm-ups. He is compelled to get to the end as fast as he can. If he is still maintaining form, I wouldn't worry too much, but try to get him to keep the jumps in weight to 10 lbs if he won't hang tight with the 5. You may be able to compromise with him by doing a progressive lift of 1x5 where he adds 10 lbs to each set with a lower starting weight, but a higher final working weight. That would also allow him to see where he may have trouble with the weight and form when he gets to the higher final weights.

Thanks. I was firm and told I would not allow him to go up in OHP. I'm hoping he'll be so sore tomorrow he'll think better next session.....LOL.

Drive by hi and totally random comments based on what I can remember from scanning the thread:

Kira - great story! It's always nice to know that someone else find one attractive!

Dani - love the photo. I might need to show my Mum that.


May Goals - congrats to those that hit them and well done to those who made progress. I'm not even going to look at mine this month.

We exchanged contracts of sale on the house yesterday - finally! OMG the stress! - and move in a fortnight.

Workout "B" today of sorts:
Squats 35kg 1x8 1x7 1x6 (deload from 45kg 3x5 because it was just too much)
OHP 17.5kg 3x5 (deload from 18.5kg or thereabouts)
No deadlifts. I was wrung out after the squats and OHP
Back extensions 3x12 with 11lb weight

Better than nothing, and not bad considering how much upper-body DOMS I have kicking around from Bench Day on Weds with the PT, how little sleep I've had for the last week and how much crap I've fed my body. It gets better from here

Ok, didn't progress very much this month. LIFE kept getting in the way of my gym time - I was getting out, but not three days a week so I mostly focussed on becoming comfortable with the lifts and working on my form.

May Goals:

Squat - currently 105lbs - up to 125?.... Made it to 115 lbs. Feels good
Bench - currently 65/75lbs - maybe 80?... still 65 lbs. No fractional weights at my gym - I could probably do 70 lbs.
Row - figure out the dang technique - I have resorted to T-bar row (I know - not as good!) because I'm certain I am doing it wrong - current weight 80 lbs... have been doing bent over rows rather than Pendlays. Up to 70 lbs
OHP - current 40 lbs - maybe up to 50? Did on set at 45lbs - this will be my new weight
Deadlift - current - 95 lbs - so 120? Manageed 105 with the big bar! Form still needs work.

Good work everyone!!

Joanne

It's fun to see how much progress everyone has made, both in numbers and in confidence.

As for me, I'm sending May out with a bang.

Squats 3x5 @160
Bench 5x5 @100
Rows 5x5 @110

RAWRRRRR!!!!!!

Next week is my last week of this cycle of SL. I'm going to need to either cut down to 3x5 or do something different altogether, because even with the squats at 3x5, it's taking me almost 80 minutes to finish A days. Taking any and all suggestions, of course.

Holy yikes those are some impressive numbers! You go girl.

I switched to 3 x 5 before I started the second cycle of SL. But after 6 weeks of that I got too bored, and I've now moved on to Nia Shanks. I bought her Beautful BadAss and her (s)hero program

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total for all of it was about $50. And its something like 15 different programs, mostly 12 weeks long. I chose to start with (s)hero but there is a lot of variety with her workouts, and all of them follow the same general concept of focusing on compound lifts. May be worth looking into for you.

Kira there are a few options that come to mind....shocking I'm sure :laugh:

1. Switch to 3x5 and if necessary modify how often you progress/how you progress in terms of weights. Play with adding an extra rep instead of increasing lbs....this is what I did for my 2nd cycle. Towards the end here I have also adopted jstouts idea of the 10lb progression to max weight of 1x5 instead of 3x5. This has actually helped me to push higher in the weight progressions because I'm not as fatigued as I was getting.

2. Madcow. This is what I was going to do before I discovered BB. If you are still super happy with the idea of your workouts focusing on the 5 main lifts and then maybe adding some accessory work then this is a good option. I like that there is a spreadsheet that you plug your numbers into and it gives you all of the information you need.

3. Beautiful Badass. Great value for $34. 19 programs. I would like to point out that while Nia Shanks does design most of her programs in 5 week increments (4 weeks + 1 deload week) she recommends that you run the program through 2 or 3 times. The thing I like about BB is that there is a bit of everything.

Oh and of course add finishers onto everything :laugh:

There is my 2cents!

I switched to 3 x 5 before I started the second cycle of SL. But after 6 weeks of that I got too bored, and I've now moved on to Nia Shanks. I bought her Beautful BadAss and her (s)hero program

---

total for all of it was about $50. And its something like 15 different programs, mostly 12 weeks long. I chose to start with (s)hero but there is a lot of variety with her workouts, and all of them follow the same general concept of focusing on compound lifts. May be worth looking into for you.

I'm seriously checking into Nia Shanks because she's ADD like me and I like her idea of switching programs around regularly to stay interested and continue to make progress. I want to branch out into different types of deadlifts, squats and so forth and continue to have fun and stay motivated, now that I have the basics down. I'm looking for stuff I can do for a month at a time, because that's about what my attention span is capable of. I'm really happy to know that not being able to stick with a program for 12 weeks doesn't mean I'm doomed to fail. Woop woop!

@Dani: one of Nia's programs (of the 19) in Beautiful Badass is called A.D.D. It might be your dream workout! :laugh:

So I got a new pair of trail running minimalist shoes (Merrill's, off the clearance shelf at EMS!). I have my running clothes, my shoes, my armband for my phone, and my water bottle all packed in my backpack that I brought to work. It's going to be 85 degrees and super humid when I get out of work, so I don't know if I'll be running so much as strolling on the trails today. Oh well--I think I'm going to stick to my original plan and motivate to go to the state park after work even if I just walk. A routine has to start somewhere, and I don't like that I could make an excuse on the first day. Thunderstorms would be a good excuse, just "too hot", not so much.

I use my "gloves" to lift in as well as trail walk/run in. Love them.