i'm going to try this too, i see other guys at the gym doing this with a piece of PVC pipe, might as well try and stretch out

/e cant believe i made it to pg 2. hope i can keep up the good work. logging my thoughts / progress is going to help me stay motivated, i think.

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Thu - Mar 5 2015 - 14:51:04

how did it go? did you skwaat?

Nah both of the friends I go with skipped and my calf flared up big time so I just took the weekend to stretch and rehab it and jog.

Going tomorrow no matter what. Diet was mostly good over the past week, except last night when I got really drunk at a work sponsored event

no pain in squatting today. stretched my gastroc before really well and did a number of warm up sets with just the bar. felt great and banged out 120x5x5. my buddy said my form was way better too.

haven't failed yet, hope no more injuries plague me but im sure it will happen at some point. cant wait till i have 2 plates on each workout. getting stronger by the day!

pressed, squatted, deadlifted

easy peasy lemon squeesy

/e if i can manage not to eat more than what i have planned for dinner, this might be my best day so far in terms of hitting macros
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/reports/printa...1&to=2015-03-11

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Wed - Mar 11 2015 - 17:07:11

Afraid I'm gonna fail on squats. Do I just toss the bar back or set it down on the pins?

you are not going to fail with 1 plate

i get it, but i've always had a fear of squatting. maybe i should go to the gym when nobody is there and practice failing on purpose so that i can have the confidence to give it all i got

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRxKCI3JHPY

ill have to practice this

squatting yesterday felt awesome, that extra day of weekend rest really makes a difference.
barely made it through 5x5 of 95lb presses

totally fucked up yesterdays workout. after 1st set of squats i had to basically grind every rep and goodmorninged the weight quite a bit. spent 2 hours sunday picking weeds and ripping out shrubs in my yard and my lower back / legs were sore so when i squatted that first "heavy" set i fucked up my form because i didnt realize/wasn't expecting the weight to feel difficult. focused on form and got through the workout without failing, but yeah, it sucked.

lower back hurt 7/10 last night as i slept with a heating pad. feels much better today.

oh well, still did 150x5x5 yesterday. bench and rows were fine

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Tue - Mar 24 2015 - 14:16:04

hurt like pain or hurt like soreness?

Soreness lol nothing serious I'm just bitching

failed on overhead presses for the first time at 105 lb. did 5x4, then on the last rep of set # 5 i got 80% of the way there after grinding it out for about 20 seconds

crushed 105x5x5 overhead presses. getting stronger
squats at 165 lb, havent yet failed, but its hard. every time i complete 5x5 of squats i feel like it is a huge accomplishment
deads are starting to get tough to lock out at 205

180lb squats on tap for today

Got it up but felt like my form was lousy on squats. Failed on bench, 5,4,4,4,2 @ 185. Just wasn't feeling it today. Will try again Wednesday at the same weight for squat, bench again friday

your bench is moving quick
are you pausing those reps, or touch & go?

pausing, trying to keep good form. was benching about 185x8 not touching chest, bar higher on chest before i started the stronglifts. dropped to 135x5x5 and moved up 5lb per workout focusing heavily on better form

/e i feel stronger though, i was not doing 185x5x5, just like 135x8, 155x8, 185x8 or something with worse form. now i'm doing more reps at much higher weight with much better form so im sure im stronger than i was.

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Wed - Apr 8 2015 - 08:50:57

deloaded to 165 on squat, was really fuckin worried that my ass is raising faster than my chest and then i have to goodmorning the weight up. so i deloaded from 180 to 165 and my form was solid all of the way through.

failed again at 115 shoulder presses, 5,5,5,4,3 - i rushed it a little, should have taken the 3 minutes for the last two sets. i just felt so awesome on the first 3 sets of 5

this is how i feel lifting weights now that i am failing all over the place

this time i got 185 up 5,5,5,5,4 - so next time i should be able to get all 25 reps up. whoo-hoo

completed 115 on oh press, woot!

vn1

tryin to make it to the 1 plate club

i think 1 plate strict ohp was the toughest progression for me out of the niche 1/2/3/4 standard (ohp/bench/squat/deadlift)

if i can do 135x5x5 on ohp and row, along with 225x5x5 bench and 300x5x5 squat, i will be quite happy. not looking to get any bigger than that, but i think those will be suitable goals for my personal fitness and strength - for now. might take a year but i think i can do it

185x5x5 squat
achievement unlocked

next achievement unlocks at 225x5x5 aka body weight

what do you do when you dont feel like going to the gym.

i'm tired today and sore from wednesday's workout and have negative interest in going to the gym

do the workout and then consider deloading next week
either by taking the whole week off or going in and working up to 50%
come back totally refreshed the following monday

i typically do this every ~6 weeks

this is a good tip - i did manage to get to the gym, even though i was feeling lazy and demotivated as fuck, and i got there to see sign on the door saying gym closed

apparently nelly was performing last night in the big gym space and they needed to shutter down in preparation.

fucking nelly, i thought he was arrested for dui

no idea but you should go today then

i should but dont really have time until late tonight

failed on squats for the first time ever. decided to not "lift at all costs" and cause lower back pain like i've experienced in the past. i feel encouraged to get it all up on wednesday

did 5,5,5,5,4 @ 120lb oh press

what weight on squats? 195?

yup

its frusterating that my friend (6'3, 240) started at the same weight as me on everything and he hasn't failed yet on squats, he just did 5x5 at 260 yesterday, where i am only at 195 after deloading twice so far.

he is also at 5x5 at 145 on ohp and i have to deload to 110 tomorrow because i failed 3x at 120

he isn't paying any attention to how he eats though, and eats probably 4k calories a day. hes gained 5-10 lb since we started where i havent gained any weight due to calorie counting

you answered your own question
plus you have a training history
you may want to consider moving on to a late novice or intermediate periodization where you are adding weight weekly rather than session to session
eventually you will need to do more volume to continue seeing gains (weight x reps x sets)

i want to try and deload at least a few more times and see if that helps break the plateau before i give up. im definitely still a novice with squatting and deadlifting, so i expect to be at least bodyweight on squats before i switch programs. i would rather make muscle gains slowly and not gain weight overall than gain muscle quickly but have an extra 10-20 lb of fat to lose. i definitely look better than my friend who is lifting more. ive lost some belly fat where he has stayed the same or gained

sounds good, keep it up

so after taking 2 weeks off (gym was closed for renovation/end of school year) i am going to deload on all lifts by 20% as the stronglifts app suggested. i was about to deload on bench / ohp anyways so this is smart i hope.

after about 12 weeks on stronglifts i ended up with 5x5s of:
Squat - 200
BP - 190
OHP -120
Row - 145
Dead (1x5) - 265

after deloading 20% on all but deadlifts (i think i can handle 1x5 of that where i left off)
Squat - 160
BP - 160
OHP - 100
Row - 120
Dead (1x5) - 265

so monday i did squat, bench (pause reps, cuz ez), and rows and it went fine, not too sore today. I hope i get past my previous maxes with ease!

goals before i switch programs or deload again:
Squat - 225
BP - 205
OHP - 135
Row - 160
Dead (1x5) - 315

Oh also, I started the program at 230 lb, and was 224 this morning after a 2 week California vacation that consisted of a lot of drinking and eating. Tracking my diet has been helpful to lose some weight while getting strength gains!

hey m8, this is great news
your bench is definitely way ahead but 2 plate squat and 3 plate dead are definitely right around the corner

20% deload on bench would be 150-155

The app gave me 160 so Donno but yeah you're right

This post has been edited by blackjack21 on Tue - Jun 2 2015 - 18:49:38

on wednesday a fire alarm went off after my third squat set - was feeling great. i returned 20 minutes later and couldn't get one rep. i guess my muscles just lost all their strength and turned to jelly.

5x5 205 sq complete

quads on fire

considering switching to 3x5 on bench, been stuck at 185 for a while even after deloads/form focus

had to do bounce reps my last two sets to fail at 185 today (5,5,5,4,4)

felt sore as fk yesterday and failed on everything

try again friday

consider moving to intermediate programming
i suggest 5/3/1 or texas method