Stronglifts 5x5 for Women

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Two Workouts Per Week?

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tallantm
tallantm Posts: 3 Member
in Social Groups
Hi!

My roommate and I just started the SL program today (we'd been lifting for a while before this but weren't seeing really any results so we thought we would try a program) and due to our class schedules (yay college!) it looks like we are only going to be able to lift twice a week. Do you think this will be a problem? I figured we could add in a third workout on the weekends when we can and just make sure we keep alternating between the A and B workouts so we stay balanced - but I wasn't sure if only going 2x a week would be seriously detrimental.

We really only have four free mornings to workout and we do cardio the other two days. Right now our schedule is:
Lift - Tues/Thurs and Cardio - Wed/Fri.

Thanks for any input!!

Replies

  • CoCoRedRider
    CoCoRedRider Posts: 47 Member
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    I've been averaging twice a week since the end of November. Still seeing great progress - just a bit more slowly than the thrice a week ladies.
  • tallantm
    tallantm Posts: 3 Member
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    Thank you!
  • Madhouseof5
    Madhouseof5 Posts: 34 Member
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    No advice but I just started today as well!
  • krazeedr
    krazeedr Posts: 35 Member
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    I've also just started. I'd been lifting weights/using the machines in the gym. I hadn't had a strong response from them but I have noticed I REALLY feel the muscle soreness/pain about 2 days after lifting. I'd wanted to try something more specific and decided on SL. I was planning on lifting M/F and doing my cardio (walking to Zombies, RUN!) on T/W/Th. I figure it will still work, but like someone else said, my responses will just be more gradual. If I find I hurt less than I'm expecting to, maybe I'll up it back to the 3x/week and 3 cardio days. I'm just going to wait and see.
  • DaniH826
    DaniH826 Posts: 1,335 Member
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    I lift twice a week doing 3x8 and increase all my lifts by like 2.5 pounds every other week (5 pounds for deadlifts).

    I do squat, bench press and OHP one day and then deadlifts, rows and power cleans the other day. All compound lifts, all whole-body lifts, so that part is always covered.

    I lift Mondays and Fridays, and it works well for me. I get plenty of recovery time in between (3 days/4 days) and am still able to progress at a rate that's not too aggressive, but just slowly and surely.

    If you're only going to lift twice a week, make it count. You certainly can still use the A/B rotation, but that may or may not be the best thing to do. Do aim for progression though, because moving the same weight around week after week will certainly not get you stronger, so adding to it regularly is going to be important. At which rate you do that is up to you, really. Stronglifts has a pretty aggressive progress curve built in, which may or may not be suitable to you. No telling until you give it a try for a few weeks, really.

    You could lift Tues/Fri and do cardio Wed/Thur and spread out the recovery days a bit more evenly that way. Right now you have a 48-hour recovery built in on one end and then a 5-day recovery on the other end which may turn out to be a bit lopsided. You want to give your muscles enough time to rest and adapt while not giving them so much time that they get weakened and you have to start all over again.
  • tallantm
    tallantm Posts: 3 Member
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    That's a great point about the recovery time! I never thought about that, I will definitely see if I can shift the times around. Thank you so much for your advice :smile:
  • AABru
    AABru Posts: 610 Member
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    This is my second week of SL. I lift twice a week: Tuesday & Thursday. My plan is to do this until I finish my squat and ab challenge--I'm on day 19--and then try for three days a week. After last week I have almost no muscle soreness, but am plenty fatigued after I lift. Can already see a difference in my chest and shoulders and I'm pretty sure my *kitten* is higher.

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