I'll read through the "the book" and see what's up.

edit: seems to be almost exactly what i was doing last year (and evne now) very similar exercises alternating, but i was just doing 3x12 each time.

 

we were doing 3x12-10-8 to failure each time.

 

Were you increasing the weight in a structured format every single workout?

 

Good point.
I know weight is an imperfect statistic, but Ive got a boner for statistics, so if I have a graph to look forward to updating every day it gives me motivation to try to eat well. Its like the worlds most tedious game, lol

 

lol i am not really on a strict diet. Currently i'm having a disgusting piece of little cesars pizza and some coca cola. Dont get me wrong though most of my meals are chicken and white rice or chicken and boiled potatoes.

Most bodybuilders compete at 2-4ish. Its a last 3-4 day thing right before the competition. The rest of the time like on their bulk cycle they are in the 8s-9s. My dads last competition before he retired he measured 1.7% with the pinch scale on 16 skin folds or some thing like that.

Thats how i measured my fat too at 7.48%. For the first time i suggest measuring with skin folds on as many points as possible to get a base line and then measure on just few points from there on every 2 months or whatever.

Skinfolds is the most accurate way of measuring for a fair price. Sure you can go in the water test method and xrays or whatever it was using but thats not logical from budget point of view for the average person.

 

If you keep at it you won't stall. SL 5x5 is a great program. Swap the barbell for dumbbells on your flat bench, do rack pulls and change stances to keep your deadlifts tight and just keep squatting. Slight changes every 2-3 weeks will prevent most stalls.

Heck yes. I have poor hip/ankle flexibility so sumo is my home. I was worried that I would stall from switching stances a few months back, but since then I've made big leaps and am shooting for the 400's next week.

nooooooo

Think how many cats you'll be able to hold at once after you start lifting again!

 

We tried to.

Starting on 1/2/12, I was deadlifting 135 and benching 95. By March of 2012 I was at 175 and 115. I had lost 5lbs and an inch around my waist.

But like matt said, they way we were "stalling" did not help. I was never really able to bench any higher than 115 in that entire 3 month sample. I don't think I've ever gone above 135.


It's kinda funny as our workout was very similar to this 5x5 stronglifts program, and did give results: We would do squats, overhead press, and pulldowns one day, then bench press, deadlifts, and rows the next. We would simply do 3x12 and then 1x15-20 with an empty barbell until fatigued.

I'm looking at a spreadsheet I used to plot down weights with and after 4 months (when I stopped filling it out) I was deadlifting 60 lbs more from where I started, but the bench press stalled out completely.

Like I said, I gained closer to 10lbs. back over ther last year. I completely stopped going to the gym from Aug 2012 - Aug 2013, picked it back up again recently, but it wasn't as regular. I don't like that I put on the weight (fatty weight, not good weight) so I want to get back into a better routine that will help my gain strength and shed the fat.

So we'll see how this program works and if I can keep it up. I have a huge motivational problem when I get home from work (if you notice I almost never post online at night or the weekend).

 

What calipers are you using that have that level of precision? I've got some cheap ones that reads in a range that can span a couple of hundred basis points (e.g. "11% - 13%").

I'm a "hard gainer" with a naturally slim frame. Putting on significant muscle mass while maintaining a semblance of my six pack would probably involve me constantly snacking on grilled chicken breasts throughout the day. I just don't have the motivation to buy, cook, and eat that much food.

I already eat pretty often and pretty clean with a decent amount of protein, but I'm just not mentally dedicated enough at this time to take it to the next level. Look at the stack of protein powder that our man Triple bought. I'm just not there.

There are some tips and suggestions for how to deal with plateauing in the program as well.

I understand completely. I typically have to workout in the mornings because if I wait until I leave the office (which is usually after 7:00 PM), I am just going straight home to dinner and the DVR with the missus.

That's another thing I liked about the SL 5x5 program: each workout is short enough that you can be done in under an hour, including a few minutes of warmup.

 

I hope to get Scott back into a co-dependent gym relationship with me.

 

You mean the one where he paid for the gym membership, then used his free person card for you everytime, then you were to tired to go a lot?

 

Actually we switched off and he did that for me for a year until I moved away

 

Going to try and pull 405lbs tomorrow. Wish me luck.

 

 

 

sumo style?

 

Yes. I started training sumo to help my conventional, but then I started using conventional to help my sumo because I was able to pull much easier that way. With my tight hips (lol ) sumo is the easier lift style for me. I do rack pulls conventional, too.

Plus it makes my glutes tight

 

and the result.

Edit: Watch in that super high def 720

 

Very nice pull man, props. Back seemed very straight so overall good form pull.

 

Thanks man. They all felt solid. My lockouts are still "meh", though.

Now it's time to train a **** ton of cardio....

 

I never got into cardio. Was doing a mile everyday after my workout but just uck. Sprints/walks were a lot more fun and felt more productive. I'm doing this for my self though so no marathons or anything like that. After being tiny in highschool at only 115 lb i find it fun to bulk now that i'm pushing hard. Got another 2ish weeks of my cut cycle. With the way its been going i'm estimating i'll be in the 6.5% BF. I've never had abs that are nice and rounded but now i'm pushing hard to get them and its definitely fun. Hope i can stay at or above 160 when i reach the 6.5%.