18 Sep:
Squat – 103.8 kg 2x5, 1x4
OHP – 47.2 kg 2x5, 1x4, 2x3
Deadlift - 50 kg 1x5, 70 kg 1x5, 90 kg 1x5, 110 1x5, 130 1x4 (PR)
So I am approaching the end of SL, and thought it’s good to do a little stocktake:
Initial Goals: I realize I didn’t put down any goals in my first post. I was looking for a program to quickly regain strength, after not working out seriously for a number of years, due to settling down/kids/work. My strength goals were to either match or come close to previous PR – 85kg for BP, 120kg for DL and 100kg for SQ, all on 5RM, with a medium term goal to reach intermediate on strstd for all lifts.
Weight Stats:
SQ – 50kg to 103.8kg x5
BP – 40kg to 81kg x5
DL – 50kg to 130 x4
OHP – 20 kg to 47.2 x5
Rows – 30 kg to 56kg x5
Hit intermediate on all except OHP- not surprising as this is my weakest link. PR for DL and Squat, which is icing on the cake.
Rows are terrible although I did purposely deload + microload to work on the form.
Diet: Increased bodyweight from 77 to 79 kg. I think this is mainly because I started taking creatine again, so some of this must be due to water retention. Still no abs though!
Thoughts on 5x5 program: In the past few years, I only managed to hit the gym during the weekend, which was really quite useless. Fortunately, I’ve always had some form of squat or deadlift in my workout, a consequence of visiting T-nation in its early days. (This was when Chad Waterbury had just published his Waterbury method, Christian Thib was still not yet a monster, and T-nation did not sell supps. Now when I surf there, the place is an unrecognizable mess! Also, I now realized I’ve been classified by bb.com and T-nation as a “over-35” lifter.) Best decision of the year was to cancel my E1 membership (almost 10 years!) and join a gym near my office so I can workout during lunch.
This program worked great for me, and got me exactly what I wanted – regain strength quickly and build a foundation for further training. I liked the day-by-day increases in weights, the discipline of squatting every time. Initially it was very tempting to accelerate the weights, but on hindsight, those early sessions allowed me to concentrate on form which really helped in the later days. Now that I am nearing the end, the volume is getting a little heavy for my old rickety, over-35 joints, so it’s time to think of what to do next.
Hovering between 3 options - extend 5x5 for another 2-4 weeks, 5/3/1 or Madcow. Initially was leaning towards 5/3/1 after seeing jokerk and bradl's good reviews. But recently have gotten quite excited about madcow. Any tips?
New Goals:
SQ – 120kg
BP – 95kg
DL – 150kg (!)
OHP – 55kg all on 5RM
Diet and bodyweight: Will probably try to "clean bulk"/"recomp" keeing at around 80kg. Hopefully get some abs by the end of one year.
Squat – 103.8 kg 2x5, 1x4
OHP – 47.2 kg 2x5, 1x4, 2x3
Deadlift - 50 kg 1x5, 70 kg 1x5, 90 kg 1x5, 110 1x5, 130 1x4 (PR)
So I am approaching the end of SL, and thought it’s good to do a little stocktake:
Initial Goals: I realize I didn’t put down any goals in my first post. I was looking for a program to quickly regain strength, after not working out seriously for a number of years, due to settling down/kids/work. My strength goals were to either match or come close to previous PR – 85kg for BP, 120kg for DL and 100kg for SQ, all on 5RM, with a medium term goal to reach intermediate on strstd for all lifts.
Weight Stats:
SQ – 50kg to 103.8kg x5
BP – 40kg to 81kg x5
DL – 50kg to 130 x4
OHP – 20 kg to 47.2 x5
Rows – 30 kg to 56kg x5
Hit intermediate on all except OHP- not surprising as this is my weakest link. PR for DL and Squat, which is icing on the cake.
Rows are terrible although I did purposely deload + microload to work on the form. Diet: Increased bodyweight from 77 to 79 kg. I think this is mainly because I started taking creatine again, so some of this must be due to water retention. Still no abs though!
Thoughts on 5x5 program: In the past few years, I only managed to hit the gym during the weekend, which was really quite useless. Fortunately, I’ve always had some form of squat or deadlift in my workout, a consequence of visiting T-nation in its early days. (This was when Chad Waterbury had just published his Waterbury method, Christian Thib was still not yet a monster, and T-nation did not sell supps. Now when I surf there, the place is an unrecognizable mess! Also, I now realized I’ve been classified by bb.com and T-nation as a “over-35” lifter.) Best decision of the year was to cancel my E1 membership (almost 10 years!) and join a gym near my office so I can workout during lunch.
This program worked great for me, and got me exactly what I wanted – regain strength quickly and build a foundation for further training. I liked the day-by-day increases in weights, the discipline of squatting every time. Initially it was very tempting to accelerate the weights, but on hindsight, those early sessions allowed me to concentrate on form which really helped in the later days. Now that I am nearing the end, the volume is getting a little heavy for my old rickety, over-35 joints, so it’s time to think of what to do next.
Hovering between 3 options - extend 5x5 for another 2-4 weeks, 5/3/1 or Madcow. Initially was leaning towards 5/3/1 after seeing jokerk and bradl's good reviews. But recently have gotten quite excited about madcow. Any tips?
New Goals:
SQ – 120kg
BP – 95kg
DL – 150kg (!)
OHP – 55kg all on 5RM
Diet and bodyweight: Will probably try to "clean bulk"/"recomp" keeing at around 80kg. Hopefully get some abs by the end of one year.
