I love stronglifts too x

How about the Body weight stuff - and set yourself challenges?

I add extra accessory stuff in after lifting - right now I am trying to get better at push ups - max reps so far are 13 in one go

Or air squats - I try and do at least 150+ on my lifting days

Or chin ups.

That way you keep going with SL - but also give yourself a challenge - I find goals work personally for me when doing any fitness stuff , when I started running, every time I ran was the furthest I'd ever ran in my life - HUGE motivator, and same with SL I love that every time I lifted when i started I was lifting more than I ever had before.

Nia Shanks as Dani said has great body weight stuff - or also check out Nerd fitness

xx

xx

Hi Lydia,

OK, so what I hear is that you want to be functionally strong, and fit. And you'd like to drop some body fat and build some muscle.

If all you want is to be strong, keep following a program designed for strength. Cardio does not build strength, in fact too much cardio may interfere with your strength goals. Everything that you do should be in support of your goal of strength.

I would not recommend an intermediate program to you yet. I've been hanging out on the Starting Strength forum and they always recommend that people milk their linear progression for as long as possible. Because when you move to an intermediate program, things get harder, not easier. Texas method is brutally hard compared to Starting Strength. The programming is also more complicated, and you want to keep things simple for as long as you can, so take that into account as well.

I would recommend that you first focus on nailing down your form, which will give you more strength gains and body awarenes. I had had advice at MFP that my form was good, but over at SS I've gotten much better advice and consequently more strength gains.

You probably won't like what I say next. More fat loss, or body recomp, will involve nailing down your diet a bit more than you have lately. Like your training, your diet should support your goal of strength gains. Setting the right macros and hitting them each day will mean better training sessions which will mean more strength gains. I haven't looked at your diary lately but enough protein and carbs are generally what you need in order to support your training.

You said recomp would be nice. You could set yourself a goal of cutting down 5-10 pounds and then slowly bulking back up. That would probably be more successful than hoping for recomp, which is really slow.

As you identify weak points in your lifts -- which will happen when you get form advice from experts -- you can add a few accessory lifts to help those weak points if you want. You don't have to, but you can. But don't just add in things willy-nilly. Add in the things that will help you build more strength in the main lifts. Have a plan that supports your goals, and do the things that fit the plan.

In summary, I don't think it sounds like you need to change plans so much as maybe fine tune the plan that you are doing now. That would probably also be easier since you want to keep things simple.

Last word about cardio -- I haven't ever heard you say that you love cardio. To me, all cardio does is allow me to eat more calories. Cardio doesn't do anything to build sexy muscles. I would only do more cardio if you want to eat more, or if you really enjoy it. Now having said that, I"m doing about 2 hours of cardio per week. But I'm clear in my mind about it that the cardio is not doing anything to increase my strength.

Hope this helps some -- take what fits and leave the rest :flowerforyou: