Any 5x5 Success Stories?

danelutza19 wrote: »

This program will work great as long as you stay dedicated to it, give it at least 3,4 months before you actually begin to evaluate it. Also, once the weights go up and you're not willing to also up your calories, its resonable to scale the program to two days a week.
Now go grab a barbell and beast out!

Yes! This is mainly a strength/muscle building program and is MEANT to be done on a calorie surplus in order to continue to build muscle and gain strength. It can be done on a calorie deficit, but you have to realize that as you move into heavier weights without more calories, the body has a harder time recovering. A lot of people that I've talked to on MFP that have done SL beyond the initial 12 weeks and have been on a deficit, will drop it to twice a week and also drop it to 3x5. Listen to your body and if you're repeatedly failing lifts, a decrease in days/reps might be in order to go with the programmed deload.

Bump

Graceious1 wrote: »

I'm 7 weeks into strong lifts and I love it. The only thing I struggle with is OHP. I have decided to increase the weight by 2.5lb on everything else and 5lb on the deadlift. It seems more doable for me and keeps me motivated.

That's great! Even small progress is still progress

Great thread. My wife and I have been doing SL 5x5 since January. We got a power cage at home and some cheap weights & bar from Canadian Tire. We both started with just the 15 pound bar and worked up from there. I got up to Squats 5x5 at 175pounds before I tweaked my back and deloaded by half after a week off to rest. I am now working my way back up (haven't reached failure on any of my lifts yet) and am at the following weights again as of now:

Squat 5x5: 155
DL 1x5: 155
OHP 5x5: 85
BP 5x5: 110
Row 5x5: 110

I've gone from 261.8 on Jan 10th to 246.9 as of this week. I track my food religiously and use a fitbit to estimate my TDEE. I don't enter weight lifting activity to gain extra calories, but I do eat a good portion of the calories I earn back based on what the fitbit tracks from my motion. I also run on the treadmill 3 days a week when possible, I've been working up to a 20 minute continuous run.

My wife has lost a similar amount of weight and we're both very happy with the program.

I enjoy SL5x5, and have been doing it for almost 10 months, and plan to complete my year with it before moving to a new program.

I've gone from:
Squat: 45 > 310
DL : 95 > 320
Bench: 45 > 180
Row: 45 > 175
OHP: 45 > 160

McCloud33 wrote: »

sbogstad wrote: »

I enjoy SL5x5, and have been doing it for almost 10 months, and plan to complete my year with it before moving to a new program.

I've gone from:
Squat: 45 > 310
DL : 95 > 320
Bench: 45 > 180
Row: 45 > 175
OHP: 45 > 160

Are those 1RMx or 5x5 weights? Either way that OHP is legit! Good Job!

Completed 5x5, with the exception of DL. Forgot to include my other stats.

Height: 6'2"
Weight: 294 > 220