paulxcook's Training Journal

[paulxcook]

A month and a half later... heh. My wife is pregnant so I've been taking care of a lot of things around the house that I didn't have to before. She's been very sick and even had to go into the hospital. So lifting had to go on hold. I'm back and am going to give the stronglifts.com 5x5 beginner program a try. Once I'm able to squat 365 I'll move to the advanced program.

I lost some strength, of course. But I set what I thought would be decent goals for my first day back and I met them.

Squat:

bar x 10
95 x 5
135 x 5
185 x 3
205 x 5 x 5

Tougher than I thought it would be. It's weird to think I was once able to squat 335, that seems miles away from me now.

Bench:

bar x 10
70 x 5
95 x 5
135 x 5 x 5

Tough but not as bad as squat.

Barbell Rows:

95 x 5 x 5

I'm really really deloading on these and building up slowly with good form. Previously I jerked the hell out of the bar using my hips/lower back.

Dip Machine (still can't do a real dip, heh)

140 x 5 x 5

EZ bar curls

50 x 3 x 8

Not part of the program but they take like 5 minutes and I want to do them.

My legs will hurt tomorrow.

 

[paulxcook]

9/6/08

Squat:

bar x 10
95 x 5
135 x 4
185 x 3
210 x 5 x 5

Hard. I hope my legs don't feel as bad this time.

OH Press:

bar x 10
55 x 5
75 x 5 x 5

Deadlift:

135 x 5
185 x 5
225 x 5

Tougher than expected.

Fat Pullups:

BW x 2 x 4
BW x 3

I hope these are actually increasing strength in the muscles used for real pullups.

HS Shrug Machine:

165 x 5 x 5

Easy.

10 minutes cardio to get some blood flowing in my legs.

My stamina was better for this workout I think. My back felt a little funny after squats (dangit) so I wore my belt for deads.

 

[gramboh]

Glad to see you back Paul. I like that you keep coming back to weightlifting after life circumstances prevent you from training for short periods of time. I've been away from the forums for a month+ (moved cities) but have still been training other than missing 2 weeks around the move, I'll try to update my journal.

 

[conorvansmack]

Nice job getting back into it. Don't overdo the weight increases. I took a few years off of working out and I've been really surprised at how much strenght "woke up" when I started the program.

Is this your first kid?

 

[paulxcook]

Originally posted by: gramboh
Glad to see you back Paul. I like that you keep coming back to weightlifting after life circumstances prevent you from training for short periods of time. I've been away from the forums for a month+ (moved cities) but have still been training other than missing 2 weeks around the move, I'll try to update my journal.

Thanks dude. Glad to hear you're still training yourself. Yeah I figure as long as I continue to come back even I have to take a break I'll keep making progress.

Originally posted by: conorvansmack
Nice job getting back into it. Don't overdo the weight increases. I took a few years off of working out and I've been really surprised at how much strenght "woke up" when I started the program.

Is this your first kid?

Thanks man. Heh, I'm still waiting for the strength to wake up, but then I haven't been into the gym THAT much yet. Yeah it's my first one. We think it's a girl but ultrasounds aren't conclusive so far.

 

[paulxcook]

9/11/08

Squat:

bar x 10
95 x 5
135 x 4
185 x 2
215 x 3 x 5

Went back to 3x5. I didn't eat lunch that day and I was tired. Plus I'm fat so I wear out easily

Bench:

bar x 10
95 x 5
140 x 3 x 5

3x5 again, same reasons though I was less tired for this.

Barbell Rows:

95 x 5
105 x 3 x 5

You get the idea.

Dip Machine

145 x 3 x 5

EZ bar curlz

55 x 2 x 8, 55 x 4

I have to decide if I was just tired that day or if doing 3x5 til I get back to where I was previously is the best idea.

On one hand 3x5 seems like it'd help me progress faster. Faster workouts and more of a guarantee that I'll move up in weight each week.

On the other hand, 5x5 will give me more volume, which should help me build my strength base to be ultimately stronger than I was before.

My original short-term goal when I started back was to get back to where I was in strength before I stopped, then focus on losing fat while maintaining as much strength and muscle as possible.

I'm leaning toward 3x5 until I get caught up. Any thoughts would be appreciated.


edit: I forgot to mention something - there was a guy at the gym wearing jeans, a shiny button-down club-type shirt, and a trucker hat working out on 9/11/08 at my gym. He was at his coolest when he did some sort of bicep curls using the Hammerstrength shrug machine. I felt like helping him, but couldn't think of a way to say something that wouldn't make him feel like a complete idiot.

 

[gramboh]

I've just switched to 3x5 from 5x5 for everything except front squats since I am still at relatively light weight and want to practice technique. I'm finding 5x5 is too hard to progress at now and I keep having to deload and it takes a long time to recover from. Eventually, if your goal is strength, you are going to have to down to triples, doubles etc. then finally testing 1 rep max, so I figure switching to 3x5 is a natural progression. The point of 5x5 is more reps for technique refinement and also to make fast gains as a beginner (at least from what I've read).

Another option is 5x5 but with periodization (Bill Star, Mad Cow etc) so you have light/heavy days.

The other thing is changing it up might help as your body isn't used to it. I figure if I am used to 5x5, and I change to 3x5, I should be "stronger" and able to add more weight faster since my body is used to pushing through another 2 sets. I did 5x5 for 5ish months so I need a change.