Man I thought he was just gonna blast through 20 straight reps. Disappoint!

'Bout to hit 300lbs 5x5 in a week. I've got three more weeks until I go on a pretty long vacation, and I'm coming up on some new plateaus again. I think what I'm gonna do is take the deload from the vacation downtime, work my way back up to whatever I was at right before the vacation, then maybe switch up the programming a bit. A friend of mine has had a lot of success switching to Madcow after similarly hitting walls in 5x5, so I might give that a shot.

I'd be hard pressed to find anyone who can do a 20-rep set of legitimate ATG squats with weight that heavy without stopping, lol. 20-rep squats are called breathing squats for a reason, because it takes as much mental focus as it does physical grit to complete the set. I've done 315x10 before (video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGvR2FI9RXg&t=32s) and 225x30 without a belt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRihOgclNTw&t=111s) and both were pretty difficult sets. I'd like to get 315x20 sometime soon, but that would be pretty fucked.

5x5 is a pretty solid program and great for building a decent strength base because the volume is adequate enough to build muscle, but not so ridiculous that it's impossible to get stronger from (people that aren't on gear think they can curl 15 lb dumbells for 1000 reps and get bigger, lawl). Good luck on the 300 for 5x5 skwats!

Welp, knocked it out today. Some real grinder reps toward the end there, hah. Form never got too ugly though, I don't think, so I'm happy with it.

Went to the doctor last week. As I suspected, I managed to gain 10 lbs over the winter. -_- I am now making sure I at least do the 10,000 steps with the Fitbit daily (with the dogs) and exercise for 30 min/day. Damnit. And this is after the dr. praising me for losing 20 lbs last time.

I haven't posted anything on MA for ages… Well, here I am Since nearly exactly one year I have been training with bodyweight (and gymnastic rings) only. One or two times I got back to some iron just for fun but switched back after just ten minutes because it actually bored me. I guess it's only a thing of preferences but at least it seems I have found my personal way of training.

Not doing "fancy" stuff like planches, dragon flags and such - just basic exercises and always looking out for further progression. There's always a way to make it harder. So I'm not heading for insane reps or sth like that - after I manage 3x15 I either slow the whole exercises down or adjust a lever etc. to start with this new one in a range and from there getting the reps up again. At the moment I'm heading for supported one arm chin-ups (gripping the forearm of the pulling hand with the other one) e.g. which are really hell (but fun,too ) and barely getting 2-3 reps but it gets better.

Apart from the fun I have with bodyweight stuff, I haven't felt shoulder pain or any other issues I had when lifting weights (shoulders often fucked up after bench and military/overhead presses) so my joints are happy, too - which is quite important, esp. when your are 40 y/o like me

STill I don't take progress pics but here is one from last weekend combining a flexed and a non-flexed me

Man, I hope I look that good when I'm 40! Good to see you back.

Grauer always looks great.

Sure, you'll do - I started all this fitness stuff when I was already in my 30s so all of you have more years to go till you reach 40 - you will probably look much better. Just keep going and let it take time I actually started to change (visually) when I got rid of a "oh god, I have to train every day" and went to a max. 3 times a week regime.

Well I'm 32, so I ain't that young, heh.

I've been doing a bulk for over 2 months now. My bench press is still very slow to go up in terms of reps and weight, which is pissing me off, but my squat has blown up hard. For my squat I was hovering around 225lbs for about 4-5 reps per set, but since then I'm now doing working sets for 300lbs. When I started, my goal was to be able to at least one rep max three plates (or 315 pounds), which seemed almost unbelievable at the time. I've never ever squatted that much weight. I accomplished this yesterday night and it feels really damn good. My gym buddy took a video of it, but the quality went to shit when he sent it to my phone,

I watched a girl almost kill herself on the smith machine squat the other day. She only had a plate and some change on each side but that shit slammed down and she barely got out of the way.

It's been a stressful couple of months... much cheating was done with the diet, but I'm trying to put things together again. Haven't posted a pic in a while anyway..

are you wearing a wide brimmed hat of some sort, or is this just an artifact of your surroundings?

seriously though, buy a modern phone. you can get a 5mpxl phone for like $30.

It's the bar from one of the tricep things I think...
New phone is closer than I might think... I had a barbell tip over and smash mine a few months back and the glass on the screen keeps crumbling away. Surprised it still works.

Part of the shitty image thing is that I am further away from the mirror when I take it. Looks okay when I am right up next to the camera...

I'm about to start my cut on Tuesday, so I've been going into Last Supper mode for the last week and just eating whatever the fuck I want. It feels good, but I'm also ready to shed some of the excess weight. I managed to make some decent gains in 3 1/2 months. Next bulk will likely start again in late October, around the three big eating Holidays.

I can never support the full-bore "bulk/cut" dichotomy, because it seems like so much time is wasted in between going up and down. I do the "clean/lean bulk" where I limit surplus to 500 or so calories instead of gorging, that way I can go as long as possible without needing to diet down.

For me, it's really just an excuse to eat hard. I've been experimenting a bit to see what feels right for me.

Man, so my squat has been going up like crazy lately. I hate to say it, but as I've been improving a lot with the Bulgarian split squat my squat is increasing with it. Front squat has probably been helping, too. I'm at the point where I'm putting 5 more pounds on the bar every workout consistently and that hasn't happened in a while. If it continues like this will hit a 4x4 with three plates in a month.

After a bit of a false start last month, I'm doing cardio multiple times a week again. I've been biking (my city has some awesome bike paths) and it made me realize the importance of finding cardio you actually enjoy. The reason I stopped doing running and gained some of the weight I lost back was because I didn't actually enjoy running. Hopefully I'll stick with this and find a suitable replacement for the winter.

Crush that squat, dude! Friday I'm up for a three plate 5x5. Pretty scared, tbh.

Holy shit, how are you at 3 plates 5x5 already, haven't you only been lifting for under two years? Are you going to full depth? If so, that's pretty insane.

Yeah, started free weights April 2016, so including the 3-month hiatus from October through January I guess it's about a year under the bar. Maybe metric plates are different? It'll be 140kg = 308.65 lbs.

I uhhh...do a lot of heavy squats, haha.

Well 3 plates is 315lbs here so pretty close. I only do legs once a week. Squats have always been a major weakness for me, I'm well on my way to deadlifting 500lbs but I'm struggling to squat even the mid 300s. Being tall certainly doesn't help, haha.

Hah, wow, I guess that just goes to show how much of a difference it makes doing different frequency levels. I literally squat 3x week, doing a 5x5 with 2.5kg added each lifting day. Factor in deloads from illness/injury/travel and some skipped days here and there, and yeah, that's about right on squats. I deadlift way less frequently (only 1.5x per week) with just a single 1x5 set, so I guess that explains why my deadlift is only about 15kg in front of my squat.

Latest progress pics:



I'll take a back photo, shortly. No matter how much I try to get it, I still haven't mastered flexing the lat spread as Dia has. None of my back photos turned out, so I'll have to try again.

On the whole though, progress is going OK. Gradually improving in strength, although dystopia4 would probably be happier if I went higher. As for looks, I feel like I still have a long ways to go.

Looks good. I'll fulfil the back quota for the moment: I snapped a couple really blurry back pics a week or so ago. My camera was smudged or something, I tried wiping it but it didn't help.

Not too shabby man!

Some kid at my school can squat 500 pounds, though I use the term "kid" very loosely; he was probably a 20 year old.

Me? I only do Bulgarian squats with no more than two 24 pound dumbbells as I have mild scoliosis.

Finally jumped ship from StrongLifts to Madcow. Man, Madcow just seems a billion times easier. On Stronglifts I was warming up anyway, so on a 130kg squat day for example I'd do like this: 2x5 empty bar, 1x5 each at 40kg, 60kg, 80kg, 1x3 @ 100kg, 1x1 @ 120kg, then 5x5 @ 130kg. So basically Madcow just feels like Stronglifts except I only do one heavy set instead of five. But hey, I guess that's what it takes to keep pushing, since doing 5x5's of those heavy squats 3 days a week, heavier each time, was getting really demoralizing, hah.

Anyway started on a deload again after some travel, so I'll ramp the weight up more quickly than standard just to get my heavy sets back to where they were just before the trip and then continue the program as intended until I hit those goals. This program generally feeling easier means I'm also blasting through sets, leaving tons of time for accessory lifts and cardio, so now's the perfect time to also try to get the diet in check and slim down some since I've started putting on weight due to poor diet, heh.

Definitely didn't feel this way even a year ago, but I've come to really love doing multiple heavy sets at the same weight. Doing heavy 4x4s with the goal of putting 5lbs on the bar each week (and more like every two weeks for bench because progression is slower there). Anyway, let us know how the Madcow goes, I've never tried that one.

Had a bit of an ego boost today. Was in the sauna after the workout and a 14 year old kid comes up to me and is like "hey man, are you on the football team?" and when I say no he's like "oh just thought you would be because your arms are so huge". So anyway progress has been really good at the gym lately. A while ago I ended up hitting a wall because the program was going to fast for me, so I lowered the weight on everything and worked my way back up. Now I'm breezing past those plateaus and finally putting some good distance between my bench and my squat. Been noticing some muscle gain too, hopefully I can keep this going for a while.

Nice dude, congrats! Keep it up

So I've been keeping with this workout plan for about a month. And basically, because I can't do push-ups, and I can't do many reps before my joints start crackling like a black metal demo, I've seen very little improvement. My weights are not even that heavy. Very depressed, etc.

Anyone got any advice for a beginner beginner?

When I first started I did tricep pushes off of the kitchen counter. Not as difficult as a proper pushup and safer to do. Filled a bucket with water and did basic shoulder lateral raises with that... filled a gym bag with books and curled that. Depends on whether or not you are fat or just extremely skinny regarding where/how you need to actually approach things early on.

Sounds good! I'll definitely give the tricep pushes a try. I'd say I'm more on the skinny side (6' and ~150), but I've got a bit of a gut. If I could get rid of that, I'd be happy.

Thanks for the tips Dia, I appreciate it. And dude, you're looking great btw, nice work

You can also get paint buckets (such as the large orange ones from Home Depot) and fill them with rocks, dirt, sand, etc and use them for shrugs and farmer's walks. There are tons of cheap, do-it-at-home options for newbies.

That's also a really good idea. I guess I just have to be more creative, because I was just skipping farmer's walks because I thought my dumbbells weren't heavy enough to make it worthwhile? But yeah, a bucket of water or sand would be great for me, I think.

Cheers guys, definitely got some new things to try.

I don't like lifting and strength training, I always associated fitness with more with cardio anyway. So that's what I do. I like swimming, running and (since about a month) biking as well. Mountainbiking is a true adventure and I love exploring my environment anew with my lovely hardtail bike. 40 kilometers straight through the forests, uphill, downhill and that kind of stuff. A very adventurous feeling that I didn't know before. Running is more Zen-Like, very steady in both tempo and heart rate. For swimming I exclusively do a (proper!) breaststroke and for me that's more of a basic training and for regeneration days between the other two (previously just alternation between swimming and running). Swimming is also good for my back. I want to get into some back muscle training, but I find strength training so absolutely boring and chopped up (because of the pauses between sets mostly) that I just can't have any fun with it and also no psychological relief against depression and boredom which causes brooding. These two things, fun and therapy, are the two things I take the motivation from to go again and again.

I love recording my progress with a sports watch and retracing my runs and bike trails with GPS, keeping my heart rate in check and all that. Post analysis of every session is absolutely mandatory for me.

Had a great leg day. Finally got 315lbs for a 4x4, feels good to finally be in the 3 plate range for reps (have no idea what my max is, never squated above 3 plates even for a single). Got the rack in front of the mirror and my depth was great, too. Next deadlift workout hoping to get 4 plates for a 4x4.

Also, I've stuck to cardio multiple times a week even if it's only 20 minutes on the treadmill after my workout. Cardio sucks.

Get it, dude!

Madcow continues to be weird. Still a strange feeling with the seeming ease of only doing one set at max weight, except for deadlifts where I'm actually doing a lot more sets than I was with Stronglifts. I never even warmed up deadlifts before, but now I'm doing the ramped up sets and it feels like more of an integral part of the workout rather than just this one-off hulking out thing at the end of a workout.

I think squatting three times a week is overkill, but Madcow seems like a decent program. Maybe I'm missing something but the template I looked up had virtually no accessory lifts and that seems very strange for an intermediate program. Definitely wouldn't have been able to break through my plateau for squats if not for accessory stuff like front squats and Bulgarian split squats.

I was never on Stronglifts 5x5 but I did make good progress starting out with a basic 5x5 routine. Glad I never did Stronglifts because I don't see how you're supposed to make any progress on deadlift only doing one set of five each week - and after squats at that. Even for Madcow it says do deadlifts after squats which doesn't make much sense to me. I'd fucking die if I tried that lol. It's good that you're getting more volume in for deadlifts, though. Easily my favourite lift. I don't think you'll have any problem getting it past your squat numbers.

I do legs every workout. I do leg press/extension one workout and hamstring/curls the second day. I love working hamstrings, the "burn" feels almost more like a stretch to me, maybe that's because my leg muscles are really tight. Not sure...