Just finished reading "Starting Strength" and I am...in love ❤️

pennystaplessnyder wrote: »

Yeah, that's the nice thing about bib.com, it sets everything out and even lets you know what to put on each side of the barbell. You should have seen me one day knowing I needed 245 for a top set but forgot my sheet at my desk and I'm trying to "think" what plates go on each side (rolling the eyes). Felt rather foolish.....

Increasing 5 and 10 is what I do each cycle, assuming I get at least 1 on the 1+ week. Sometimes it appears the top number doesn't change but the middle ones do, so that's a gain.
Right now I'm on a calorie deficit so I'm only getting maybe 1 or 2 on the top sets (1+) but I keep adding each cycle and getting those so......it works, at least for me.

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Ahaha! That would be me. Especially since I work out in my garage so early the math does not always come swiftly!

I'm at a pretty steep deficit right now. What are your experiences with lifting heavy and progressing while cutting? I feel like if I keep the progress slow, I will be fine. So far so good. I'm losing weight and fat but also upping my weights. I mean...not in an epic way, but still. I'm hell bent on losing fat and getting stronger no matter what the haters might say. Do you eat pre and post workout? How do you schedule your programming and how many rest days do you take?

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I'm on 1600 - 1800 cals a day so fairly steep right now. My strength drops about 10 days in, then stabilizes for about 2 weeks then slowly starts creeping up. I've surpassed previous prs when eating at this deficit and once I hit maintenance or a surplus strength goes up like a rocket. Normally, once I hit surplus strength takes off.
I load 1/2 my carbs in the morning since I lift over my lunch at work. I eat about 40 grams of carbs (cliff bar) an hour before lifting and have lunch right after. My usual morning food is 2 Greek yogurts and the cliff bar.
I follow the schedule Wendler sets out, Monday, Tuesday Thursday and Friday. Wednesday, saturday and Sunday are rest days from lifting but I'm usually doing yard work on the weekends or going for a walk.
Mon OHP, BBB bench
Tue deadlift, BBB squats
Thur Bench, BBB OHP
Fri Squats, BBB deadlift

Each of those days the first lift is the primary and heavy based on the weekly cycle. The BBB is 5x10 at 50% so light for volume.
4th week is deload but I usually only deload once every 3 cycles or when I feel I need it.

Quite a few of my lifting friends think 531 is probably one of the best strength programs to run on a cut. Progression is low enough you can still make gains.

grapaj wrote: »

OP have you started? I'm thinking of switching over to 5/3/1 myself. I have until now shied away from programs with a lot of calculating %s because I workout out early a.m. and it's my dumbest part of the day I've repeated PHUL several times and need a change up.

So nutshell is I should go to blackiron beast, pick a program (______???) and then print out my %s each week and get to it?

You could always use Excel (or some other spreadsheet) to do the work for you. Once you put in the formulas, it'll give you the numbers you need for each lift. For each month/cycle, copy the spreadsheet and adjust the training maxes. That's what I do/did and now have a nice easy file/spreadsheet to look at to see how I've progressed and see when I can somewhat expect to reach certain milestones.

TR0berts wrote: »

You could always use Excel (or some other spreadsheet) to do the work for you. Once you put in the formulas, it'll give you the numbers you need for each lift. For each month/cycle, copy the spreadsheet and adjust the training maxes. That's what I do/did and now have a nice easy file/spreadsheet to look at to see how I've progressed and see when I can somewhat expect to reach certain milestones.

this works great for me too. you can have it auto-calculate your new training weight/maxes as well. i have it set up so that each cycle is its own worksheet. you just make a reference call back to the same cell in the previous sheet, and add the +5 or +10.

i like gloating over this kind of thing so i set mine up to also show me how much absolute volume i did for that lift and that week overall, plus the progression from the same lift in the previous week or cycle.

TR0berts wrote: »

grapaj wrote: »

OP have you started? I'm thinking of switching over to 5/3/1 myself. I have until now shied away from programs with a lot of calculating %s because I workout out early a.m. and it's my dumbest part of the day I've repeated PHUL several times and need a change up.

So nutshell is I should go to blackiron beast, pick a program (______???) and then print out my %s each week and get to it?

You could always use Excel (or some other spreadsheet) to do the work for you. Once you put in the formulas, it'll give you the numbers you need for each lift. For each month/cycle, copy the spreadsheet and adjust the training maxes. That's what I do/did and now have a nice easy file/spreadsheet to look at to see how I've progressed and see when I can somewhat expect to reach certain milestones.

^This. I keep track of all my lifts and progress in a spreadsheet and print out the workouts. Sometimes I forget to do that. No problem, I load the SS into my google docs and if I forget my actual paper, I can pull it up on my phone. I just hate taking my phone into the weight room.

cqbkaju wrote: »

iplayoutside19 wrote: »

I just hate taking my phone into the weight room.

I think I might agree with you if I had to go to a gym. I don't know.

As it is, I am a bit more fortunate than some since I have equipment of my own.
I saved up for quite a while and added my income tax refund to buy myself a power rack & safety squat ("SS Yoke") bar.
I don't mind having my phone with me now since the 5/3/1 app I use has a rest timer built-in that I use anyway.

Guessing how long to rest just cannot compare to hearing an alarm go off, in my opinion.
I frequently find myself "ready to go", but the timer still has something like 30 seconds more on it.

Not resting long enough seems to be a common reason why people miss the prescribed reps.
5/3/1, Starting Strength and StrongLifts5x5 all agree that resting enough between sets is important.

Rip had a great and simple line regarding how long to rest, which I'll paraphrase here, as I'm not 100% sure of the exact quote: rest however long you need to rest to complete the set.

I also have a tendency to time my lifts. For (strength, not hypertrophy or power) top/near-top working sets, I'll rest 5 minutes. More if I feel like I need it. There have been times where I thought I felt good, but struggled with the set. Rested a little longer, nailed the next set(s). I don't use my phone - I use my watch. I used to just use the clock in the weight room, but the batter died a few times, so I just brought in my watch. Either works.

cqbkaju wrote: »

iplayoutside19 wrote: »

I just hate taking my phone into the weight room.

I think I might agree with you if I had to go to a gym. I don't know.

As it is, I am a bit more fortunate than some since I have equipment of my own.
I saved up for quite a while and added my income tax refund to buy myself a power rack & safety squat ("SS Yoke") bar.
I don't mind having my phone with me now since the 5/3/1 app I use has a rest timer built-in that I use anyway.

Guessing how long to rest just cannot compare to hearing an alarm go off, in my opinion.
I frequently find myself "ready to go", but the timer still has something like 30 seconds more on it.

Not resting long enough seems to be a common reason why people miss the prescribed reps.
5/3/1, Starting Strength and StrongLifts5x5 all agree that resting enough between sets is important.

I have my phone with me and use a timer. First 2 working sets are usually a 3 min rest break with 4 for the last set. Although I will also say on the 1+ week it's mainly 4 mins across all sets.

I'm old school and find using the pen and paper method easier than trying to use an app, but that's just me.

I use the stronglifts 5x5 app built in timer. Its awesome. I secure my iphone to the front post of my rack inside the cage in an old armband so I can see and touch the screen but don't have to worry about smashing it with weights or having it fall out of my pocket. If I had to go back to a gym and compete for rack time it would drive me nuts.