5x5 strong lifts- how fast did you progress?

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  • sgt1372
    sgt1372 Posts: 3,997 Member
    OP: FWIW, if you are doing the program as designed, you should plateau in all lifts and be done in 4-6 months, at which time most people switch to an intermediate program to achieve more gains.

    If you are not progressing at that rate, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are doing anything "wrong" but you clearly are progressing at a slower rate than others.

    Only a trainer or an experienced friend who actually observes what you are doing can tell you whether there's anything you could be doing differently to make better progress.
  • Rusty740
    Rusty740 Posts: 749 Member
    comptonelizabeth wrote: »
    Rusty740 wrote: »
    OP are you doing any other exercise? Cardio, Insanity or HIIT or running or anything else like that. SL5X5 is pretty demanding for strength and needs some pretty good recovery. Someone up there mentioned sleep, it's the single most important factor for recovery, then calories are. If you aren't eating or sleeping enough, that would do it for sure, or if you aren't getting enough rest between workout days.

    If you feel comfortable and want to increase the weights, eat at a calorie surplus for a few weeks.

    The thing about sleep bothers me. I'm a chronic insomniac and even on a good night I don't get more than 5.5 - 6 hours. Does this actually impact on muscle growth or is it performance that's affected?

    Both muscle growth and performance will be affected by a lack of adequate recovery. Lack of sleep has a big effect. No performance = no gains.

    Here's a short article that helps explain. Cortisol is something we want to minimize if possible for muscle growth.
    http://www.livestrong.com/article/442656-lack-of-sleep-bodybuilding/
    abbynormalartist wrote: »
    Rusty740 wrote: »
    OP are you doing any other exercise? Cardio, Insanity or HIIT or running or anything else like that. SL5X5 is pretty demanding for strength and needs some pretty good recovery. Someone up there mentioned sleep, it's the single most important factor for recovery, then calories are. If you aren't eating or sleeping enough, that would do it for sure, or if you aren't getting enough rest between workout days.

    If you feel comfortable and want to increase the weights, eat at a calorie surplus for a few weeks.

    I've been trying to only do the strong lifts but I occasionally do 10-20 minutes of jogging on the treadmill just to get my heat rate up a bit. And I work out every other day.

    As for sleep- I average about 7 hours of sleep. I used to get 8 but I had to cut from that since I'm now going to the gym in the evening after my kids are in bed.

    7 or 8 should be not too bad, the little bit of cardio you're doing is fine. I'm leaning towards eating more to be the thing you need for weight increases.

    ...of course there are different ways to get progressive overload. Since it's pretty apparent what your maximum weights are, (You can calculate them from your 5RM online) you might want to increase your overall volume instead of the weights. Volume is the key to growth. Try increasing your rep range up to 8-12 reps and reducing your weight to %60 of your maximum. Do a similar amount of sets. Then increase those weights slowly.

    It's sort of a deload in terms of absolute weight, but it's an increase in terms of volume. Increase the weights using this strategy for a month or so, then give your 5RM a try again and see what happens.

  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
    edited July 2017
    abbynormalartist wrote:

    I'm going to try this! I try to practice my form at home but so far I can't "feel" if it's correct or not.

    When I restarted lifting I hired a pro bodybuilder to perfect my form and she taught me this trick. We spent the first sessions just working with a broomstick and repeating the same movements until they became robotic. Definitely worth the price. I'm lifting heavier than I ever did before and injury free.
  • Jockamo319
    Jockamo319 Posts: 22 Member
    On OHP, you're saying 'Just' the bar . . . but 45 lbs OHP is pretty darn heavy for someone benching 55 lbs, especially if you're new to that exercise. In my own experience, there's no way I could have learned proper form and progressed on OHP if I started at 80% of my bench weight. (But then I also can't perform a single rep at 80% of my bench weight).
  • sinead29
    sinead29 Posts: 69 Member
    I was also wondering about this. I started stronglifts 6 weeks ago and am now finding the increases hard. I'm female 5'4 127 lb . My lifts are
    Squat 72.5 kg
    Deadlift 75 kg
    Bench 35 kg
    Row 45 kg
    Ohp 25 kg

    I'm havnt been able to increase my ohp for the last three times so ive switched to 15 kg dumbbells and it's much better. The squats are also getting very tough.

    I did increase my calories though and it made a big difference, you should add a couple of hundred on to the days you lift and see how that goes, if you feel your getting too bulky just cut them back again
  • blakejohn
    blakejohn Posts: 1,129 Member
    abbynormalartist wrote: »
    I'm not moving up each week. It's more like adding weights a bit each month. Is that normal? How fast did some of you move up with this program?

    I'm not up to date on the 5X5 but it sounds like power lifting. Your muscles will hit a wall, then it's your job to find a way around the wall. As we get stronger it's harder to break the muscle down, the good thing is nowadays it's easy to find a program that will help.
    Good luck, I love powerlifting, I'm not very good at it but I still love it.
  • jennybearlv
    jennybearlv Posts: 1,519 Member
    I progresed slow on Stronglifts. I did 6 months. Fractional plates were my best friend. I used them for every lift but deadlift at some point. Though I was able to start with the bar on press I could only go up 1 pound at a time from the very beginning. I went up 2.5 for most of my lifts until I deloaded on bench press a couple times and the app suggested decreasing to 1 lb increments. I went up 5 pounds on deadlift, but I feel like that is my good lift.

    Squat 15 to 95 lbs
    Bench 45 to 72.5
    Deadlift 95 to 165
    Press 45 to 59
    Row 45 to 75
  • dalerst
    dalerst Posts: 174 Member
    edited July 2017
    sinead29 wrote: »
    I was also wondering about this. I started stronglifts 6 weeks ago and am now finding the increases hard. I'm female 5'4 127 lb . My lifts are
    Squat 72.5 kg
    Deadlift 75 kg
    Bench 35 kg
    Row 45 kg
    Ohp 25 kg

    I'm havnt been able to increase my ohp for the last three times so ive switched to 15 kg dumbbells and it's much better. The squats are also getting very tough.

    I did increase my calories though and it made a big difference, you should add a couple of hundred on to the days you lift and see how that goes, if you feel your getting too bulky just cut them back again

    That's not bad going if you have only been doing it 6 weeks and someone of your size. have you tried increasing in smaller numbers 0.5kg each side?

    I've been doing it 4 weeks now and i'm at the following
    Squat 62kg
    Deadlift 70kg
    Bench 68kg
    Row 50kg
    Ohp 32kg

    but I'm 6'1 and 160lb, my main reason for lower lifts is my form is now starting to drop on the Squats, and deadlift so I'm concentrating on that at the minute.
  • klrenn
    klrenn Posts: 245 Member
    edited July 2017
    abbynormalartist wrote: »
    klrenn wrote: »
    abbynormalartist wrote: »
    Strong lifts 5x5. I figured I was relatively healthy and what I thought as "fit" but I struggle still with just the weight of the bar at times.

    When did you start? Just the bar...on all 5 lifts? Have you been able to add weight to the bar for any of the lifts? How much?

    I was adding weight every workout at the beginning. I had to start deloading the different lifts at different points...for OHP (and sometimes bench) I had to buy fractional weights (they range from 1/4lb-1lb) so I could increase in much smaller increments.

    I'm two months into lifting with the 5x5 app.

    Here are my weights:
    OHP: 45lbs (just the bar)- have started with this weight and never been able to go heavier
    Squat: 95lbs
    Deadlift: 100lbs
    BenchPress: 55lbs (just barely more than the bar)
    Barbell Rows: 65lbs
    ...
    If I deload on some of my lifts to work on my form, then I don't feel like the weights are heavy enough to give me any sort of work out. Again, just discouraged.

    This sounds about right. The first time I ran StrongLifts I started failing squat workouts at about 85lbs...took me a while to get past 95lbs. OHP is really hard, I increase by 2lbs at a time and deload often. Right now I've only OHP 66lbs and I've been lifting for several years.

    As for deloading, yes, it will feel lighter and easier, but the recovery, focus on form, and build up back to your failed weight is totally worth it because the next time you hit that weight it will feel easier.

    This is my graph for my squat (this is my second time running SL, coming back from an injury) but the timeline is roughly the same, though the weights are a little bit higher than when I ran it te first time.

    kvfhilqt4k47.png

    Those deloads felt easy but were what got me to eventually lift heavier. It's slower going after the first month.
  • sinead29
    sinead29 Posts: 69 Member
    dalerst wrote: »
    sinead29 wrote: »
    I was also wondering about this. I started stronglifts 6 weeks ago and am now finding the increases hard. I'm female 5'4 127 lb . My lifts are
    Squat 72.5 kg
    Deadlift 75 kg
    Bench 35 kg
    Row 45 kg
    Ohp 25 kg

    I'm havnt been able to increase my ohp for the last three times so ive switched to 15 kg dumbbells and it's much better. The squats are also getting very tough.

    I did increase my calories though and it made a big difference, you should add a couple of hundred on to the days you lift and see how that goes, if you feel your getting too bulky just cut them back again

    That's not bad going if you have only been doing it 6 weeks and someone of your size. have you tried increasing in smaller numbers 0.5kg each side?

    I've been doing it 4 weeks now and i'm at the following
    Squat 62kg
    Deadlift 70kg
    Bench 68kg
    Row 50kg
    Ohp 32kg

    but I'm 6'1 and 160lb, my main reason for lower lifts is my form is now starting to drop on the Squats, and deadlift so I'm concentrating on that at the minute.

    Thanks! Yeah my gym has the .5kg rings, they're a lifesaver ! I know what you mean about form, i squatted 75kg tonight but i felt I probably could of gone lower, so I'm going to stay at that next time and get it right.
  • abbynormalartist
    abbynormalartist Posts: 318 Member
    Thank you everyone for the advice! I'm still sticking with the program (on week 8!) but I've done a substantial de-load this last week. I think I need to go back to focusing on my form and quality of my reps and then work myself back up. When I first started, I just kept trying to lift as heavy as I could but my knees and back occasionally hurt and I wasn't increasing my weight each week. With the de-load, my form has been feeling spot on and I just included a few extra reps to get my sweat on.

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