@mirrim52 - Understandable. Maybe there is something similar but changes up the rep range or load range a bit that might work better. It is hard when every week it's working at or near the max that you can achieve. Or there is the 3x5 that some go to after a while on 5x5. You have options to look through at least.


Just 2 days left of Stage 2 in NROLFW for me. It is interesting doing some of the different lifts and I've learned some I may not have considered before, but I do miss regular squats and deadlifts a little. Still have several stages to go but they all are pretty short at least and for now I'm thinking I will skip Stage 6 as it's marked optional.

Stage 2, B3

wide grip deadlift from box 2x10 @ 105 - heavy but not bad

bulgarian split squat 2x10 with short story and 20 lb db
underhand lat pulldown 2x10@ 70 - step came in handy to change the bar for the pulldown

reverse lunge on box(step) 2x10 @ 15 - easy enough
db prone cuban snatch 2x10 @ 5 cause yeah, don't care for them

sb crunch 2x12 @ 10 just threw in two extra reps cause boring
reverse crunch 2x10 and hope I'm doing them right
glute bridge 2x10 @ 10 wish we had a 15 plate

prone cobra 1x60 and 1x90

For fun:
deadlift 1x5 @ 135 and 1x3 @ 185 which was really heavy
good morning 3x10 @ 50 the usual
I chickened out on doing hip thrusts cause people were in the classroom

Glad I don't work tomorrow but might regret the extra leg stuff when I try to jog for 20 minutes.

@mirrim52 I experienced the same mental block a few months ago. It is difficult to motivate yourself to get to the gym when all you have to look forward to is struggling with every exercise. Maybe you're due for some rest or at least a de-load week. Another option, as @DawnEmbers said, is to change up the rep range. It helped me to do more sets of fewer reps when my squat got heavy (before I injured myself). Another option still is to throw in some accessory work that is easier and fun for you to do so that you feel like you can accomplish part of your workout without struggle.

Just a plain 'ole rest day today. Maybe I'll walk at lunch just because it's beautiful outside, but otherwise, my body is tired. I played a little soccer with the kids a couple nights ago and kicked the ball funny. The top of my foot and each joint up my right leg is sore from it. Ankle, knee hip...ugh. Hopefully it feels better after a day off of strenuous activity.

I'm not actually doing 5x5 right now, as I'm training for a 10k and my knee is sad and makes crunchy noises when I do squats, BUT -

I wanted to tell people who actually know how hard it is that I pulled 205 x 2 for deadlifts yesterday and it felt pretty dang good That's almost 1.5x body weight for me! W00t!

Great job Krokador. I don't know anything about the program but I will assume you killed it.

As for me, it's a cardio day so... *copies and pastes from NROLFW group forum*

I did it!

Couch to 5k, Week 5 Day 3

Ended up jogging for 21 minutes instead of 20 as my playlist was just over 26 minutes and I since I'd made it that far, figured I could go to the end of the last song. Legs were tired and achy during, left quad ached in particular right after but the long cool down walk helped. Next week should be doable though since day 3 is run 22 minutes. Less than 2 months until my 5k.

Squat 115 5x5. Was going to stay at 110 again but 115 was easier for some reason.

Bench 85 5x5 well I failed the last rep but couldn't go out like that so I got my S together and did another. Counting it.

Row 80 5x5 still a bit heavy for me to lock my body and use my upper. Will repeat.

Accessories:

Side bends 35 3x25 each
Cable curl 30 3x8
Assisted dips -40 1x5 -34 1x5 -28 1x5 (I was pumped about this)

tyou know how sometimes you have those workouts where something odd's going on? where it doesn't seem to matter if your doing your set with the bar, 75% of your working weight, your whole working weight, ww+10 . . . it just all seems to feel equally hard. mine was like that. workout a.

squats: 2x5@45, 1x5@55, 2x5@75, 5x5@85. 75 felt like so much work i didn't know i was going to go up, but then it was kind of a 'meh, might as well do 85 while you're at it, since you're going to be suffering anyway' thing. and i did kind of put my foot down at myself and tell myself that going backwards was not an option. they were haaaaaard work, but i know i was a little sloppy about placing my feet and maybe they wouldn't have been quite so hard if i'd gone a bit wider than 10 or 12 inches and turned my toes out. also, i jumped into the rack without my plank/stretching warmup and that probably did me no favours either. the last set was actually pretty stellar, if i do say so myself.

bench: yay. . . ? 2x5@45, 2x5@55, and then the same thing. an eh-*kitten*-it set of 5x5@65 after all. i started my lifting day with a workshop on benching, three or four miles away, so again by the time i got to the real workout 55 felt pretty hard. but once i went up to 65 and got my act together it was just as do-able, so i did it. points from today's benching that i'd like to recall for next time: it really started to come together when i put 80% of my attention into my back, and forgot all about my chest for a change.

rows: yeah. well, if you want to see me 'lift angry', just make me do rows. i'm not back to hating them quite as much as i used to a year ago, but i didn't find them much fun today. 2x5@50 warmup, 1x5@70 way too heavy, 6x6@60. so i backed down, but i threw in extra sets/reps, and i'm happy with that decision since 60 let me do them with form. and it's finally sunk in for me that there is absolutely no point in me 'learing form' by going too heavy and thinking my form will improve as my muscles strengthen . . . since if i'm not using good form, then i'm probably not using the muscles i need to strengthen. rows are a strange one too. they don't seem to have any sweet spot to them. they're either too hard or too easy, no real point in between. anyway, i do feel like i'm getting the hang of them now, for whatever that's worth. so what i'm motivated to do is keep doing them because i'm just plain curious to see what effect they will have on my strength. i don't think i ever have done real life kosher-form rows until now.

Ugggg, Bench just wasn't happening tonight, first time I failed this bad.

Squats 5x5 200lbs - I did it, all reps! Though I wasn't 100% happy with my depth. I checked my previous videos and I was breaking parallel, these were just parallel. I'll probably do these again to hammer in that form.
Bench 3/3/2/1/3 105lbs - not sure how adding 5lbs just completely wasn't happening. First 2 was breathing issues, rest was just getting stuck not getting off my chest. 100lbs was not an issue last time.
Rows 5x5 90lbs - yes, finally! 25lbs plates here I come!

awkwardsoul wrote: »

Ugggg, Bench just wasn't happening tonight, first time I failed this bad.

Squats 5x5 200lbs - I did it, all reps! Though I wasn't 100% happy with my depth. I checked my previous videos and I was breaking parallel, these were just parallel. I'll probably do these again to hammer in that form.
Bench 3/3/2/1/3 105lbs - not sure how adding 5lbs just completely wasn't happening. First 2 was breathing issues, rest was just getting stuck not getting off my chest. 100lbs was not an issue last time.
Rows 5x5 90lbs - yes, finally! 25lbs plates here I come!

It feels like your #'s have doubled in the 2 months I've been here! Amazing job!