Thursday, January 21, 2010

195 lbs on the 5x5

Up to 195 lbs on the lifts of Workout A this morning. What a workout program - you just can't go wrong with the basic lifts to develop strength. You just can't deny that this is simple yet very effective if strength is a goal. There's just no bullshit, unnecessary stuff to do. You just do the exercises as they are written and you're good to go. No need to overthink why and what you're doing. Just do it.

Got my friend Ed into the program and he's enjoying it too.

This is my 4th WEEK and after this week, I should be at 225 lbs which is my goal. Will have to decide whether I want to keep going or not but may mix it up and go the Texas Method route the next 4 after that.

Still keeping my form as strict as I can. And yes - I'm loving squats!

What I haven't been doing is much conditioning work. I just don't have the desire right now to be focusing too much on that for off days. I've always enjoyed them and will do them here and there but if it's an off day -I'll do some light cardio work on the treadmill, heavy bag or bike and continue my core exercises and foam rolling as usual.

I'm quite happy with the stronglifts program - it's very satisfying to add the weight on there every time even if it was just another 10 lbs each time (I was supposed to add only 5lbs each time but I found this route a litte bit better for me, as I'm not a beginner beginner here). There's just no end to this routine with just basic movements. May just do some light runs for off days and core work.

4 comments:

andrewjameslowry said...

Andy,

What are the 5 lifts? I assume 5 reps. How many sets? Is this a TT program or something else?

Cheers,

Andrew

Susan said...

New to your blog (found it via Mike over at SmoketheBlowfish) and very interested in reading about your success with the StrongLifts program.

Glad to read you're acquiring a taste for brown rice. If you haven't given them a try, Quinoa and Kasha are other good alternatives!

Andy said...

Hi Andrew!

This is an entirely different from Turbulence Training. It's basically 4 Barbell lifts, and a few supplemental bw stuff like push ups, inverted rows and planks. Here are the lifts:
- Squats
- Bench Press
- Deadlifts
- Overhead Press
-- Here's the kicker: you do squats 3x/week, while alternating workout A and B, as you progressively increase the weights on each lift by 5 lbs every time. I've been increasing them up to 10 lbs each week, however.

Check out this link:
www.stronglifts.com for more information on it.

My main reason of wanting to do this is for variety. I think if I can improve on my strength here, doing other programs like TT in the future once again I believe will definitely benefit me as far as wanting to really work on lean mass and not look like a toothpick every time I lean out and lower my bf. Hopefully no more pyramiding sets, just work on one straight load - since I know where I am with certain lifts now. Should it be a pressing move, a pulling move - I want to get better at it.

I just want to improve and get positive gains and I think if I take this approach - the better I think I'd do on other programs in the future.

One program I would like to try soon is probably Jason Ferrugia's soon. It's hypertrophy training and I've had his book for over 2 years. But I'm willing to give that a 4 week experiment. Not sure though! We'll see.

Andy said...

Hi Susan...thanks for dropping by.

Mike's a great guy! I truly enjoy reading his blog. He's very insightful in a sarcastic, yet funny type of way which is so cool.

quinoa and kasha...sounds good. Will definitely take those suggestions you've made. Thanks!

yeah..definitely keep up with the blog.

right now I'm 15% BF at 175 lbs. Not much weight loss but my BF is starting to trim down again which is good. That's about over 2% BF since I started on 12/26/09. Hopefully I can keep that down until I start training more on BF than strength gain. Nutrition has always been my struggle.