Form is everything! :)

[Strong4Life]

Hi,

I'm Jon and I've been using the 5x5 on and off for 5 months and I love it! I just want o get stronger and stronger. Since I've been using it I've shown about 10 people this routine that still use it Lets get the stats out of the way: 25, 6' 1", 76kg/12st, ~7% BF.

I've always trained from the age of 16 when I started going to the gym for kick boxing. Since then I've always been in and out of gyms using a mix of everything from plyometrics to body building and contact sports (kick boxing, nippon kempo, mok gar kung fu, judo, ju jitsu etc). These days I tend to just stick to the gym!!

I stumbled across 5x5 as I was looking to put on some weight for ju-jitsu as my category was 80kg and under so naturally I wanted to be at the top end. Then I though I don't want o become big and slow. I want to be strong too. In comes the 5x5. I used the 5x5 for 2 months and gained 3kg of lean muscle with a BF of 7.6%.

My squat went from 70kg > 90kg
I went from BW dips to strapping a 20kg plate on
Bench went from 70kg > 80kg
OHP went from 30kg > 45kg
Bent over row 60kg > 75kg
Deadlift 60kg > 90kg
Chins/pulls BW > BW+20kg

I was ecstatic but wanted more. Then I went on holiday. I got injured. I changed jobs and I moved.

I've been using 5x5 again for the last 2 months but carrying a shoulder injury (but I'm doing ok).

Currently I'm doing:
Squat 95kg
Dips 15kg plate (shoulder holds me back)
Bench 75kg (shoulder holds me back)
OHP 30kg - this is a bad one for me now. I'm trying dumbells to see if thats any better for me?
Bent over row 65kg (had some issue with form and hip flexing)
Deadlift 120kg (just did that PB Friday 1.56 my BW!)
Chins 15kg plate.


I need to get my shoulder looked at and follow the 5x5 to the letter. I want to get stronger and stay injury free and I guess I'm here to learn and maybe help out where I can.

I'll see you on the boards

[Strong4Life]

Forgot about this account. It's been a year and this is a nice record for my improvements!

Then:
25, 6' 1", 76kg/12st, ~7% B

Squat 95kg
Dips 15kg plate (shoulder holds me back)
Bench 75kg (shoulder holds me back)
OHP 30kg - this is a bad one for me now. I'm trying dumbells to see if thats any better for me?
Bent over row 65kg (had some issue with form and hip flexing)
Deadlift 120kg (just did that PB Friday 1.56 my BW!)
Chins 15kg plate.

Now:

I stuck with 5x5 for a while and got bored. Then I did a 4 day split for about 8 weeks which got me most of my size, then I went onto madcow...

26, 6' 1", 84kg/13.2st, ~12% B

Squat 130kg +35kg
Dips 25kg +10kg
Bench 100kg +25kg
OHP 60kg +30kg!
Bent over row 85kg +20kg
Deadlift 175kg +55kg!
Chins 25kg +10kg

Its nice to see an extra 8kg of mostly LBM and all my lifts go up, although my shoulder 'goes' from time to time. This is one of those times.