So none of my shirts fit anymore. My shirts are pulling out of a tuck and all my sweaters are riding up higher than my beltline.

Nobody told me this would be so expensive.

At an all time high LBM.

Squats are stalling a bit but deadlift is still going up and I'm not even struggling with it. Yesterday was 185 and I feel like 200 would have been nothing and maybe 225 was doable. (I know it's light weight, sue me I'm new to this) Everything else is progressing nicely. I might, might, miss a rep on rows next. Bench is still no problem and should cruise for the next 2-3 workouts imo at least.

Back is fine. I took a few A days to use the sled and now I'm back to back squat full time and I think that has caused me to stall a bit. Maybe.

I've gotten to the point of taken a little bit longer breaks between sets in order to complete all 5. I am really enjoying hitting heavy weights multiple sets(on squats) because in the past I usually did something along the lines of 10 reps @ 50%, 8 @ 60%, 8 @ 65%, 6 @ 75%, 2-4 @ 85%. Now after a warm up, its 5x5 @ like 90% at where I was basing it off of.

Struggling with getting heavier on squats. Gonna go see motion specialist. I probably need a shim under one foot and flat footwear. Had someone in the gym doing madcow (and squatting/Dl over 300) say one of my heels is picking up on the way up. Doesn't shock me with my back being what it is. As a result I'm losing lots of leverage on the way up and haven't really progressed on squats in 3 weeks now.

Everything else is doing fine. I'm 2 workouts away from 225 on DL, and I don't think it's gonna be an issue. For me 225 on DL is a major deal. Never done anything close to that. squatting 225 may take me some time. Like months from here.

Sounds like you need to work on your form. Are your feet too narrow? Maybe a slight turnout would help? I wouldn't put anything under your feet. Seems a little unstable to me.

Anyone have any recommendations on what to do during off days Tuesday and Thursday. For some backgound i worked out 5 days a week before starting Stronglifts 2 weeks ago. I am enjoying the workouts and know i will be getting stronger but want to supplement in some other lifts/cardio to maximize physique while getting stronger. I was just going to do sprints and abs today unless someone has a suggestion for better results.

Thanks.

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Anyone have any recommendations on what to do during off days Tuesday and Thursday. For some backgound i worked out 5 days a week before starting Stronglifts 2 weeks ago. I am enjoying the workouts and know i will be getting stronger but want to supplement in some other lifts/cardio to maximize physique while getting stronger. I was just going to do sprints and abs today unless someone has a suggestion for better results.

Thanks.

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Nothing, but you can do some extra cardio on workout days if you are still light and have the energy. SL is big on the rest days to recover. The Heavier you get the more you will need the rest

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Sounds like you need to work on your form. Are your feet too narrow? Maybe a slight turnout would help? I wouldn't put anything under your feet. Seems a little unstable to me.Shou

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I should have mentioned I have scoliosis so one foot is slightly higher due to hip not being totally level. Adding a shim would level the force on the hip.

I hadn't thought about that being an issue for standing up from a flat floor, but it seems it's a thing.

His idea was spreading feet more too, but same heel lifted off early on way up.

Had my second failure on DL last night - both times have been when I've gotten to 325. My grip in my left hand tends to give way. I tried switching to mixed grip, but turning my left hand around felt unnatural and extended it much further away from my body than when I turned my right.

I'm also getting some pain in my left arm, from looking at some elbow/arm anatomy this morning, it appears to be in my Brachialis and possibly the Extensor carpi radialis longus? Pain seems to radiate out from the elbow. One of those deep muscle pains that just makes you feel "not right."

So I've now failed at 325 with both a double overhand (got 2 reps) and a mixed grip (got 3 reps), although not in back-to-back workouts. I'm beginning to wonder if the warmup (from 5x5 app) is just more than my grip/arm can take with:

5x135
5x185
5x225
1x265
1x295
before 1x5 325

I would suggest two things. First, at 225 and 265, hold the bar in the "up" position on your last rep for as long as you can to build up grip strength. Deadlift uses a lot of different muscles, including forearm. Second, switch to mixed grip only at 285 or so. It feels a little strange, but will lessen with practice on that grip.

Should have been more specific, I've only used mixed grip when the weight tops 300lbs - anything below that has been a double overhand.

This **** is getting tough. Early on these were taking me 30-40 min, now it's about an hour. Squats alone are starting to take me close to 20-25 min.

I'm seeing some progress, but the rapid gains are obviously slowing down.

Rows are starting to get hard on my wrists. Not sure what grip width is best to take stress off wrists. I thought narrow-er grip was better, but not totally sure.

The bar itself is starting to get heavy on back on back squats. Have some discomfort where the bar has been resting, not totally sure I have it in the right spot but can't find a more comfortable one. At first I was using a small pad on the bar, but took it off due to balance issues.

So I did stronglifts for ~7 week and it started getting stale. I was still making gains, but I felt like I was neglecting other muscles. So my first squat workout since SL's 5x5x5x5x5, I maxed out at 405. I have never hit 400+ in my lift and its been a good 7-8 years since I've even been close.

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The bar itself is starting to get heavy on back on back squats. Have some discomfort where the bar has been resting, not totally sure I have it in the right spot but can't find a more comfortable one. At first I was using a small pad on the bar, but took it off due to balance issues.

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One of the major mistakes I see when folks do squats is bar placement on the back. 99% of the time people carry the bar too high and rest it across the top of their shoulders and nape of the neck. This will cause quite a bit of unbalance during the squatting motion and force your upper-body forward like and uneven pendulum.

This will make it exponentially harder to stand-up from your squat (especially if you are going at or below parallel) because the weight will be pushing your upper-body towards your toes and you will be needing your weight on your heels to "thrust" up from the squat.

[img]http://stronglifts.com/wp-content/uploads/stronglifts-5x5-squat1.jpg[/img]

This is the form I use when I squat. I pinch the bar on my back between my shoulder blades and my grip by slightly elevating my elbows behind my body. This does require stretching prior to lifting but it lowers my center of gravity, allows me to balance the weight more effectively and fire through sets using my hips/abductors to ensure proper form.

I'm stuck on 345# right now but I have been progressing by about 10 pounds per week over the last 2-3 weeks and I expect my gains to continue and my bar placement has been a big factor in my improvement.

I would recommend watching some youtube videos on "low-bar" squat instruction to see if that helps you find a more comfortable placement of the bar on your back. Also, I wouldn't use a pad as I have found it causes some instability with the bar. Maybe wrap a towel around the bar instead?

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I pinch the bar on my back between my shoulder blades

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What means this?

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I pinch the bar on my back between my shoulder blades

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What means this?

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Essentially I push my elbows back and use a close grip on the bar so it essentially rests on the top part of my shoulder blades. Then, using my grip, and my shoulder blades I hold the bar on my back.

Alright, I'm trying to trim up a good bit. Right now I'm at 6', fluctuating between 220 and 230lbs. (most often right around 224-226) I don't know that I really care all that much about being able to say "I can DL __ amount" or "squat __ amount" but I am interested in building muscle and not looking/feeling like a slob anymore.

I've read through some of this thread and I'm thinking this might be the workout regimen for me. I tend to be a solitary exerciser (trained for marathons/triathlons alone in the past). What do y'all think? Is it as simple as read the website, download the app and go? I haven't done true weight training since high school football in the late 90s.

Note: I also realize I'll need to fix my nutrition to see a change in my body make up, but that's another post for another day.

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Alright, I'm trying to trim up a good bit. Right now I'm at 6', fluctuating between 220 and 230lbs. (most often right around 224-226) I don't know that I really care all that much about being able to say "I can DL __ amount" or "squat __ amount" but I am interested in building muscle and not looking/feeling like a slob anymore.

I've read through some of this thread and I'm thinking this might be the workout regimen for me. I tend to be a solitary exerciser (trained for marathons/triathlons alone in the past). What do y'all think? Is it as simple as read the website, download the app and go? I haven't done true weight training since high school football in the late 90s.

Note: I also realize I'll need to fix my nutrition to see a change in my body make up, but that's another post for another day.

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Early in the program, it won't hurt to add cardio on workout days, but somewhere around week 8-10, the workload of stronglifts will be enough solo. My goals are similar to yours, numbers are nice but the picture in the mirror is what I'm looking for.

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Alright, I'm trying to trim up a good bit. Right now I'm at 6', fluctuating between 220 and 230lbs. (most often right around 224-226) I don't know that I really care all that much about being able to say "I can DL __ amount" or "squat __ amount" but I am interested in building muscle and not looking/feeling like a slob anymore.

I've read through some of this thread and I'm thinking this might be the workout regimen for me. I tend to be a solitary exerciser (trained for marathons/triathlons alone in the past). What do y'all think? Is it as simple as read the website, download the app and go? I haven't done true weight training since high school football in the late 90s.

Note: I also realize I'll need to fix my nutrition to see a change in my body make up, but that's another post for another day.

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To add on to what Jetpilot said...

Make sure that you really, really take a good look at the form on the programs webpage. If you want to trim up, lose weight, gain mass and do impressive lifting you need to have excellent form.

As long as you do some basic research on the proper form for all of the exercises in the program, yes, it will meet your goals.

The heavier you get, the more of a workout it is so don't get discouraged in the early going when you are blowing through light weights.

And, in case I didn't mention it, make sure you have your form down pat!

Funny story from todays workout...

So I was doing my squats and I topped out at 5x315#...Felt a sharp pain in the outside of my left knee so I didn't do my last set...I look over to my right and I see this freaking beast in the Squat rack just pounding away at squats...

Dude had 5x45 plates on each side with a 25 on top of that.

He unloads and rolls over to deadlifts and pulls 6 plates on each side!

I had never seen that much weight, in person, get moved around. Really impressive and made me feel pretty measly doing 1x5 415# of deadlift!

Similar goals here: trim out and gain strength. Not really interested in specific numbers.

4 weeks into it. Never really a serious lifter before. SockAg's emphasis on proper form is great and important, especially as you progress. Starting light as the program recommends really helps you to nail the form to preclude injury. On the injury note, I did injure my back a few years ago doing deadlifts so the starting light to perfect proper form has particular importance to me.

One thing that I'm still working through is the relative perception of weakness by others, especially when a tiny, young lady out-squats me. Part of that, though, is that I am about 6 months out from knee surgery. Aside from this little self-awareness issue, I have noticed improvements in core strength already (being a desk jockey tends towards weak core muscles).

Positives:
Simplicity of workout routine
Straightforward exercises
Easy to track gains
Noticed improvements within a month

Negatives:
Getting out-lifted by tiny, young ladies at the beginning

After a month, here is where I sit (each exercise is still fairly easy at this point):
145# squat
165# DL
105# BP
80# ohp
95# row

One issue I have is the gym I workout in has just 2 real squat racks. It's hard to work in on squats. I even went sort of off schedule yesterday and someone else (A BQ no less) was there doing 5x5 at the same time. I didn't have to wait or anything but between the two of us nobody was gonna get to curl in the squat rack, lol.

If this thing gets more popular (and it is getting mentions in the press now) I worry about being able to actually do the workout in a reasonable time.

What do you guys do that go to places like planet fitness or 24hr? I'm lucky that my work has a gym on site, it isn't much but it has enough to do this thing.

It can be difficult jumping right into a squat rack at LA Fitness (both East Pearland, Med Center, and the one in SA near the gf's parents), because they all have 2 squat racks and a power rack. Sometimes you get lucky with the timing.... sometimes you don't.

If you work out at the squat racks in the same gym for long enough, you start to know the guys and it gets easier to work in. There's a guy at my usual gym that seems to do nothing but DL. He and I talk about grip and form, etc... and he'll stand far enough back from the squat rack to let me squat in the rack while he DLs behind it.

I will say, the longer you do 5x5, the longer the workouts take. When I started, I was in and out in 35 minutes - now it's more like an hour and a half. On SQ/OHP/DL days, I occupy that damn squat rack for the whole time.

We have one power rack and two squat rack/stands at Golds in Waco. Been busier lately due to new years resolutions. Looking at moving my work out to the morning to avoid crowds.

In a hypothetical situation where you don't want to/can't work in do you use the sled? What's your bailout option? What about doing sumo squats with dumbbells or something?

I've always just waited until one opened up - but I usually work out in the evenings when my schedule is pretty flexible.

If you started with the bar (45lbs) and hit all 156 workouts (3/week x 52 weeks), never had a failure and added 5 lbs every workout... your squat at one year should be....

825lbs.... for 5x5.

Bench press would be 435lbs. You'd need to start at 110lbs to get up to 500 in a year.

Sweet, I wonder if I have any eligibility left.

At this point, I'm a little too old to play for BYU... so...

Just finished Day 1. Lifting just the bar (plus 20lbs on rows) made me a little self-conscious. I liked the workout, though.

Been at it for 3 months. Gonna take a week off just to prevent burn-out and the weather is nice so want to get out and ride my bike a bit. There seems to be a consensus to take 1-3 weeks off every 3 months to prevent programming so this is good timing imo.

I still need to focus on nutrition, mainly eating enough to keep making gains in all areas.

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If you started with the bar (45lbs) and hit all 156 workouts (3/week x 52 weeks), never had a failure and added 5 lbs every workout... your squat at one year should be....

825lbs.... for 5x5.

Bench press would be 435lbs. You'd need to start at 110lbs to get up to 500 in a year.

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That would make for a monumental 1RM!

I just started StrongLIfts last week, so I'm still working with pretty light weight. I realize when I get to heavier weight I'll need a little bit of warmup. How do you guys warmup for each exercise?

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I just started StrongLIfts last week, so I'm still working with pretty light weight. I realize when I get to heavier weight I'll need a little bit of warmup. How do you guys warmup for each exercise?

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Got the app? Might be an upgrade but it will give it all to you. If it is the one that costs a few bucks, well worth it....

I don't have the app. My cell is a work phone and I can't download any apps onto it.

Are there any general guidelines for warming up when you get to heavier weights?