3 weights workouts per week?



Finally getting back in. Its horrible knowing your miles behind what's you were, after just two months off.

Still, getting back in the routine. Happy to stick with SL for a fair few months yet though. Would be nice to avoid injury for a while lol
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
I wondered where you’ve been!
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After I pulled my back in August, I took some time off to heal, then I was going on holiday so didn't want to risk anything.
When I got back, my house purchase legal stuff starting moving so I was working flat out on that, then the move itself. Been in major diy mode until last week.
Actually still am, but I'm making time for the gym again now.
 
Got back into it, then had a massive leak under the house which took 2 weeks of hell to get sorted (re-tiling starting Thursday).
But got back in last Thursday, and been back on Monday - so hopefully back into the routine.

Followed the advise and dropped 50% in SL after the first gap, but kept going after this one. Almost back to my previous max again, just 2-3 sessions off. Squats were REALLY hard on Monday - hardest they've ever been. Hopefully easier tomorrow.
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
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Fighting like mad to fit it in around the utter disaster that is my new house. I'm not going to just say "bugger it, I'm not bothering". Not this this.
Its pretty hard work motivating myself, because things are shit at the moment in general - haven't had any time to rest properly since the end of September. But once I give up, it's all over.

Will be back tonight.
 
PTR said:
Fighting like mad to fit it in around the utter disaster that is my new house. I'm not going to just say "bugger it, I'm not bothering". Not this this.
Its pretty hard work motivating myself, because things are shit at the moment in general - haven't had any time to rest properly since the end of September. But once I give up, it's all over.

Will be back tonight.
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Since you last posted I’ve turned into a lifting beast. Consistency is key but good luck.
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
Since you last posted I’ve turned into a lifting beast. Consistency is key but good luck.
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Nice one. I'm still pushing "bugger all" but its a lot more bugger all than it was when I started. Had loads of setbacks, but currently at about 90% of my max to date, so over the next few weeks, I should get to PBs.

Had a migraine aura as I was leaving work - was really odd driving down the A19 as it looked like I was driver through blackpool lights out of the right side. Was going to give it a miss, but it cleared up just before I got to the turnoff, so I went.

Squats have gone from being "dead easy, no matter what", to only just managing to get through.
Overhead press - did one rep and knew it wasn't happening. At all. Dropped 25% and I'm going to let it progress back up naturally - I was having to try very hard not to learn back and cheat last week anyway - so probably better to take a step back and get the form right.
Deads were good today. 5kg short of my PB, and found it reasonably easy. So should hit that one over the coming weeks.

I think my big targets are squatting and deading my bodyweight. Currently at ~70% for both, but then, I am a fat bastard.
 
It's been a canny read this thread, PTR you have some willpower to keep going with everything that has gone on, hopefully you are past all of the tripping, slipping and stumbling and can make some good progress moving forward
 
superniall said:
It's been a canny read this thread, PTR you have some willpower to keep going with everything that has gone on, hopefully you are past all of the tripping, slipping and stumbling and can make some good progress moving forward
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I haven't had a random injury in some time thankfully. Shame about this new house being an utter disaster zone though and taking up tons of my time.
This thread is more me just getting things off my chest as much as anything, nice to get some replies from people from time to time though - nice to know I'm not talking entirely to myself :)

I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm not sure how long I can do 5*5 stronglifts for. The heavy weights (because its combination excercises) feel very heavy on my joints, I'm always thinking "oh, careful, I can feel that tweaking". At some point next year I think I might have to make a switch to doing single muscle exercises where there's less chance of injury. And also, starting again with cardio - I really need to lose weight as well as gaining strength - they both contribute to my back/hip/leg problem.
 
You don’t have to do 5x5 you could do 3x5 or 3x8 or whatever as long as the overall volume is similar. You can even mix and match for different lifts.

There is a recent thread on ohp that may help but it’s just an accessory for bench press and you could do something else.
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
You don’t have to do 5x5 you could do 3x5 or 3x8 or whatever as long as the overall volume is similar. You can even mix and match for different lifts.

There is a recent thread on ohp that may help but it’s just an accessory for bench press and you could do something else.
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I've been thinking 8 reps with lower weights might be better for me. And would take less time I guess?
 
Any ideas on this:

Had a day out at Lightwater Valley with the bairn on Saturday. After about 2 hours I got the familiar dull ache / dead leg sensation, and then the pain in the back/hip leg kicked in about an hour later.

For all the work I've been doing in the gym, it doesn't see to have relieved the symptoms I get whatsoever.

Pretty frustration tbh,
 
PTR said:
Any ideas on this:

Had a day out at Lightwater Valley with the bairn on Saturday. After about 2 hours I got the familiar dull ache / dead leg sensation, and then the pain in the back/hip leg kicked in about an hour later.

For all the work I've been doing in the gym, it doesn't see to have relieved the symptoms I get whatsoever.

Pretty frustration tbh,
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AIDS & bad AIDS at that.
 
Noticed that my back has felt "out of place" for a few weeks now, tired and not quite right. Today, I did my heaviest ever squats (90kg, dont laugh), and after the first set I noticed my lower back was tight as fuck.

My theory is that I've been stressing my back by squatting incorrectly, and seeing as my main issue is a weak core that leads to pain around the muscles of my right hip, I've basically just been knackering those same muscles.


So I started to look up more on squatting form between sets, and I'm now as confused as FUCK.

I think I have my foot placement too close - most of what I've read suggests about shoulder width, and pointing outwards. Then the knees move towards the toes.
But what surprised me on the SL 5x5 guides I read is that they have a bent back at the bottom of the squat, almost 45 degrees to the vertical, whereas I'd been told to keep my back as straight up and down as possible throughout.

Also, seems I've not been going far enough down - so I think I'll take a bit of weight off, an try to get to parallel knees/hips in future.


Hoping for some suggestions from @Daydream Believer and @Stevie Freestein II & any others please?

(then I need to work out how to drop some f***ing weight, as I'm f***ing huge and have put on half a stone since I started this thread)
 
PTR said:
Noticed that my back has felt "out of place" for a few weeks now, tired and not quite right. Today, I did my heaviest ever squats (90kg, dont laugh), and after the first set I noticed my lower back was tight as fuck.

My theory is that I've been stressing my back by squatting incorrectly, and seeing as my main issue is a weak core that leads to pain around the muscles of my right hip, I've basically just been knackering those same muscles.


So I started to look up more on squatting form between sets, and I'm now as confused as FUCK.

I think I have my foot placement too close - most of what I've read suggests about shoulder width, and pointing outwards. Then the knees move towards the toes.
But what surprised me on the SL 5x5 guides I read is that they have a bent back at the bottom of the squat, almost 45 degrees to the vertical, whereas I'd been told to keep my back as straight up and down as possible throughout.

Also, seems I've not been going far enough down - so I think I'll take a bit of weight off, an try to get to parallel knees/hips in future.


Hoping for some suggestions from @Daydream Believer and @Stevie Freestein II & any others please?

(then I need to work out how to drop some f***ing weight, as I'm f***ing huge and have put on half a stone since I started this thread)
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I would do an alternative to squats but you may be better to ask on the powerlifting thread as we had a bit of a debate on it. I assume that you’re as bio mechanically abnormal as I am.
 
PTR said:
Noticed that my back has felt "out of place" for a few weeks now, tired and not quite right. Today, I did my heaviest ever squats (90kg, dont laugh), and after the first set I noticed my lower back was tight as fuck.

My theory is that I've been stressing my back by squatting incorrectly, and seeing as my main issue is a weak core that leads to pain around the muscles of my right hip, I've basically just been knackering those same muscles.


So I started to look up more on squatting form between sets, and I'm now as confused as FUCK.

I think I have my foot placement too close - most of what I've read suggests about shoulder width, and pointing outwards. Then the knees move towards the toes.
But what surprised me on the SL 5x5 guides I read is that they have a bent back at the bottom of the squat, almost 45 degrees to the vertical, whereas I'd been told to keep my back as straight up and down as possible throughout.

Also, seems I've not been going far enough down - so I think I'll take a bit of weight off, an try to get to parallel knees/hips in future.


Hoping for some suggestions from @Daydream Believer and @Stevie Freestein II & any others please?

(then I need to work out how to drop some f***ing weight, as I'm f***ing huge and have put on half a stone since I started this thread)
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Hmmm, never heard about keeping your back straight up & down before, just keep it as straight as you can without letting the bar get in front of your toes. Apart from that though if the problem is just on one side maybe do stationary split squats until the imbalance is sorted. It's also worth doing mobility drills like Limber 11
 
PTR said:
Noticed that my back has felt "out of place" for a few weeks now, tired and not quite right. Today, I did my heaviest ever squats (90kg, dont laugh), and after the first set I noticed my lower back was tight as fuck.

My theory is that I've been stressing my back by squatting incorrectly, and seeing as my main issue is a weak core that leads to pain around the muscles of my right hip, I've basically just been knackering those same muscles.


So I started to look up more on squatting form between sets, and I'm now as confused as FUCK.

I think I have my foot placement too close - most of what I've read suggests about shoulder width, and pointing outwards. Then the knees move towards the toes.
But what surprised me on the SL 5x5 guides I read is that they have a bent back at the bottom of the squat, almost 45 degrees to the vertical, whereas I'd been told to keep my back as straight up and down as possible throughout.

Also, seems I've not been going far enough down - so I think I'll take a bit of weight off, an try to get to parallel knees/hips in future.


Hoping for some suggestions from @Daydream Believer and @Stevie Freestein II & any others please?

(then I need to work out how to drop some f***ing weight, as I'm f***ing huge and have put on half a stone since I started this thread)
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You squatting high bar or low bar? Very common in Olympic lifting training to back squat with a high bar and a vertical back as possible (especially the Chinese) a powerlifting squat the likes of rippetoe teaches positions the bar lower, across your shoulder blades and your backs lean angle is much more.

And yes, you should be getting your hips lower or at least level to your knees.
 
Stevie Freestein II said:
I would do an alternative to squats but you may be better to ask on the powerlifting thread as we had a bit of a debate on it. I assume that you’re as bio mechanically abnormal as I am.
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Bearing in mind my goal here is to strengthen my core muscles to fix the pretty horrible problem I get with baaaaaad pain in my right hip area that 2 different physios have both said is core muscle weakness - what would you suggest?

I'm getting to a point with 5x5 SL that I'm just waiting to pull something now that I've got back to my max limits across the board.

I've no idea what mechanically abnormal might be!

Daydream Believer said:
Hmmm, never heard about keeping your back straight up & down before, just keep it as straight as you can without letting the bar get in front of your toes. Apart from that though if the problem is just on one side maybe do stationary split squats until the imbalance is sorted. It's also worth doing mobility drills like Limber 11
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Both physios told me to practice squats with my back against a wall - keeping it flat as I go up and down. The lad who runs the gym said the same too.
Then I watched videos online, and they told me to push my arse out before starting the movement.

Feels like there's 2 totally different techniques, and tbh, I'm confused as to what I should be doing - especially now I'm clearly putting strain on my lower back that I don't think should be happening.

oROSSo said:
You squatting high bar or low bar? Very common in Olympic lifting training to back squat with a high bar and a vertical back as possible (especially the Chinese) a powerlifting squat the likes of rippetoe teaches positions the bar lower, across your shoulder blades and your backs lean angle is much more.
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I think, and I'm not 100% sure here, that I started with it right on top and have started to let it sit a touch lower.

Looking at some pics, I'd probably say high bar still.
 
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