What am i doing wrong?

[drecar]

I was reading through the faq and Medhi says everyone gets 1xbw 5x5 easily and then 1.5bw squat. Well it's not coming easy for me. Recently I had to deload from 200lbs squat, I just couldn't get it. Work outs have been taking nearly 3 hours. For the last two weeks even though I'm fat, I have been eating almost double what I was eating before and building up to gomad. I've been trying to get more sleep. i just started on creatine 2 days ago because seems like a lot of you gys are doing that. Sure I try to not let life get in the way. however I realize training at 5am when I was working doulble shifts wasn't a smart idea. Now hockey is getting in the way of 3 workout a week so I'm down to 2 per week. I'm thinking of doing 3x5 on the lifts and 1x5 deadlift with the assistance exercises if there is time. Is this the right approach or just keep going? Oh I stop doind cardio months ago and been doing SL since 1st week of June.

[Eivind]

1. Your workouts shouldn't take more than an hour or so to complete. I'm guessing you're taking extremely long breaks, which in addition to putting on a solid amout of time to your workout, it's making you progress slower.

2. Everybody stalls at different stages. Most people who reach 1.5xbw "easily" have a coach/somebody that can teach them good technique from day 1. I've spendt months working on technique not getting anywhere, so I decided to do front squats as they're much more difficult to do wrong(in my experience).

3. Gomad is for skinny people looking to gain mass. And as long as you're eating healthy food, it shouldn't matter too much how much you eat.

4. Creatine is overrated. Looking at your stats, I'd even say it's pointless to start taking it. Get a good grip on your diet, and learn proper exercise technique. THEN, you may concider taking it.

5. Two workouts per week is doable. Progress will be slower, but I did it myself for a solid 4 months without much trouble.

6. Deadlift is supposed to be 1x5. And dropping sets won't solve your problem of taking extremely long breaks between sets. Fix that, then concider dropping the last two sets.

7. Don't worry about assistance exercises. They're assistance, and that's it.


Good luck! And try easing up with the negative attitude. I can guarantee you, NOBODY here reached 1.5x BW easily. We all worked hard to make the gains, and we did it on our own. My guess is that you've started taking creatine for that purpose, and as to quote the front page of the website. "Stronglifts 5x5 is absolutely not about counting on supplements to do the job"! Get out there and make it work!

[drecar]

I recently got practical programming and now I think I am in a over trained status. The cure is appartently time and reduce work. I am gonna reduce the weight on all exercise to about 50% of the last amount lifted and reduce to 3x5. However, how will I know when I am no longer in a over trained status and can start lifting at the previous work weights? Also, I increased the amount of food intake because I thought that I was having recovery problems, should I continue eating the same amount during the period of reduce work? Is it ok to consider recreational hockey as light work? Creatine has seemed to improve my endurance in tonights hockey game so I will keep with the creatine experiment for now. But the main thing is when can I get back to lifting work weights?

[Eivind]

Are you sure you've overtrained? I'm fairly certain it is impossible for a novice trainee to do so, because the amount of weight you're moving simply isn't enough to overtrain on with Stronglifts. And if you're overtraining, you'd most likely lose appetite and get troubles sleeping.

And don't just eat food. Eat healthy foods, and drink water or green tea ONLY. Your body fat is fairly high, if you reduce it, you'll be making better overall gains.

And stick with the hockey, treat it as cardio. Continue with creatine if you feel you're getting something out of it performance wise. Just don't rely on it to get you somewhere without YOU doing the hard work.

And lastly, could you post videoes of your technique on the lifts? I'm fairly certain you're doing something wrong, seeing as you have problems with your workouts.

[holvoetn]

Good questions you ask there, Eivind !
Checking in to catch the responses.

drecar:
reaching 1.5BW is hard work indeed but given time, most people should be able to achieve this.
1xBW on squat should be achievable by anyone.
So something is wrong. Could be form indeed so posting videos would be beneficial for us to check some things.

How does your typical day look like ? Take it over a week so we get a better view on things.
How much do you sleep ?
What do you eat ? How much ?

[Bman1]

Drecar - While 1xBW should be acheivable, it isn't necessarily easy particularly if one is carrying around a good bit of BF. So don't despair. While some trainees seem to easily blow right past 1xBW on the squat (mostly young bucks it seems), many others have to deload at least once before reaching 1xBW. Don't despair and keep at it.

I agree that 3 hours for a workout is too long. Doesn't necessarily have to be an hour, but definitely less than 2, including time for warmups, so look at where you can shave time off your rest periods. If I were you, I would focus on your diet, don't try to gain weight but lose BF until your %BF is in the teens. Then you should see some pretty good gains relative to bodyweight. Keep the hockey as your cardio exercise.

[wrenchhands]

As per novices and overtraining....I was just done with GOMAD, squatting around 200 like the poster. It was hard as fuck. I've taken some time off (couple weeks), and just cranked out 195 with relative ease and speed tonite.

I too play hockey, and will be working out with 3x5's for 3 days a week. 3x5 is awesome.

[atypical1]

Good responses everyone.

Out of curiosity Drecar why are your workouts taking so long? How long are your rest sessions?

You play hockey so you should be in relatively good shape. What would you consider your general fitness level to be? Have you lifted weights before?

You work double shifts which is brutal. Cheers to you for having the desire to lift weights after those because most people would simply give up. This says a lot about you. How much sleep are you getting now?

james

[drecar]

Thanks for the responses. I will post a video shortly in the next few days of my recent squatting form. In the critique my form area I have posted a video if you wanna see what it looked like before. I will be doing another light workout monday, so on wednesday i will tape that session.

I cant understand why you guys are so much faster than me. From the start of my first warm up until the last assistance exercise is about 2.5 to 3 hours depending on my energy level.

Ive never lifted weights before so I have absolutely no idea what to expect other than i will get bigger and stronger. The reason ive been eating more and drinking more milk is from what ive gleaned from reading the post here, Training, food and rest what make the muscles grow. Before i was concerned about gaining more fat but now my thinking is eat as much as possible to ensure recovery and growth. I want to be able to squat 315lbs and deadlift 405lbs by April 1st. Then 60 days to lose the fat that I can and at 40 i will be in the best shape of my life. All my life Ive never been strong and its gonna change.

My fitness level is improving as promised by SL. Altough i could play rec sports in high school I could never run. i play for the worst team in the worst division recreational hockey but still highly competitive. Ive been getting comments from the other players re improvement and speed. this was all made possible by Strong Lifts, thanks again Medhi.

I am very committed to continuing lifting. When i missed that last rep in the last set at 200lbs, to me it was heavy as fuck but i didnt have anything left to get 5x5, then the next two attempts went backwards i knew something was wrong. Also, i'm not really making progress on pushups, inverted rows, chin and pull ups.

I think going forward I will dump assitance exercise, do 3x5 (1x5dl) and also focus on bar speed to reduce work out time. When hockey season is over the workouts will move back to 3x a week unless with 3x5 i can recover in time to do 3x a week during hockey instead of 2x.

[atypical1]

If I were you I'd start a log and post up your workouts. It's hard to answer all of your questions in one thread like this.

I'd like to know what your rest times are, what your diet is like, etc. Mehdi also offers coaching which might be something you look into (I'm not sure if he's completely full or not though).

james

[sgtrock]

I'd be really curious to know how much sleep you normally get. With double shifts plus 3 hours for a workout, you can't be sleeping much at all. I am really bad about sleeping anything more than 6 hours or so, sometimes less, and I feel it every time it happens. When I get a good 8 hours I feel I can rip the weights in half when I get to the gym, so its a big difference.

Also, I'm 4-5 months in and still 25lb short of BW on my deadlift, and 55lb under BW on squat, for several weeks now. And I'm 225lb also. My BF was around the same when I started, but from looking in the mirror (not scientific I know, but I don't care about that) now is probably close to 20, maybe slightly less, not sure. I can't crack 170 on the squat, but I also need to (a) sleep more, (b) eat better, and (c) get in consistently 3x per week.

I'm also looking at adding skim milk into my protein drinks, not GOMAD but as an extra protein source. Plus it tastes so damn much better in the drinks than water, and I felt GREAT when I did it a few months back. If you aren't worried about a bit extra BF then it may make you feel better, but I wouldn't GOMAD at your weight/BF though.

[Eivind]

Thanks for the responses. I will post a video shortly in the next few days of my recent squatting form. In the critique my form area I have posted a video if you wanna see what it looked like before. I will be doing another light workout monday, so on wednesday i will tape that session.

I cant understand why you guys are so much faster than me. From the start of my first warm up until the last assistance exercise is about 2.5 to 3 hours depending on my energy level.

Ive never lifted weights before so I have absolutely no idea what to expect other than i will get bigger and stronger. The reason ive been eating more and drinking more milk is from what ive gleaned from reading the post here, Training, food and rest what make the muscles grow. Before i was concerned about gaining more fat but now my thinking is eat as much as possible to ensure recovery and growth. I want to be able to squat 315lbs and deadlift 405lbs by April 1st. Then 60 days to lose the fat that I can and at 40 i will be in the best shape of my life. All my life Ive never been strong and its gonna change.

My fitness level is improving as promised by SL. Altough i could play rec sports in high school I could never run. i play for the worst team in the worst division recreational hockey but still highly competitive. Ive been getting comments from the other players re improvement and speed. this was all made possible by Strong Lifts, thanks again Medhi.

I am very committed to continuing lifting. When i missed that last rep in the last set at 200lbs, to me it was heavy as fuck but i didnt have anything left to get 5x5, then the next two attempts went backwards i knew something was wrong. Also, i'm not really making progress on pushups, inverted rows, chin and pull ups.

I think going forward I will dump assitance exercise, do 3x5 (1x5dl) and also focus on bar speed to reduce work out time. When hockey season is over the workouts will move back to 3x a week unless with 3x5 i can recover in time to do 3x a week during hockey instead of 2x.

1. Why are you doing "light" workouts? You're a novice lifter, you don't have a need for light days.

2. Just to make sure.... You're not taking ~5minute breaks inbetween your warm-up sets? You don't need more rest than it takes to put the plates on for those sets.

3. I wouldn't worry about lifting stat goals for now. Focus on cutting down workout time and nailing the form for starters. Then set your lifting stat goals.

4. Keep up the good work. Start a blog and you'll be able to get better feedback and help from other members on the board!

[drecar]

Rest is 5 - 7 min during work sets. For warm up just a minute or two.

Sleep is about 7 hours. I work 6 hours shifts with a double every week. When partner is on holidays I work doubles most of week.

Diet lately and mostly, protien and whole milk shake with olive oil and ground flax on waking and before bed.
eggs, bacon, ham, spinach, cheese, walnuts, hemp seed, ground beef, frozen berries, chicken, tuna, salmon, apple, banana, brocolli, mixed veggie, pizza, ice cream, beer, baconators, whole milk, water, coffee and green tea. last two weeks I eat just over full 4 to 6 a day.

Fasting from 2 days a week to one.

I don't really worry about stats, just keeping my mind on the goal of 1.5x bw squat. Hopefully i will look good in a speedo when that happens. the good news, my buddy reminded me that in such a short time I can out lift 90% of the population.

[Eivind]

Rest is 5 - 7 min during work sets. For warm up just a minute or two.

Sleep is about 7 hours. I work 6 hours shifts with a double every week. When partner is on holidays I work doubles most of week.

Diet lately and mostly, protien and whole milk shake with olive oil and ground flax on waking and before bed.
eggs, bacon, ham, spinach, cheese, walnuts, hemp seed, ground beef, frozen berries, chicken, tuna, salmon, apple, banana, brocolli, mixed veggie, pizza, ice cream, beer, baconators, whole milk, water, coffee and green tea. last two weeks I eat just over full 4 to 6 a day.

Fasting from 2 days a week to one.

I don't really worry about stats, just keeping my mind on the goal of 1.5x bw squat. Hopefully i will look good in a speedo when that happens. the good news, my buddy reminded me that in such a short time I can out lift 90% of the population.

My advice is, drop the weight low enough for you to manage with ~2-3min breaks. Don't take a break during warm-up either.

And don't think like your buddy does. Lift for yourself, not to "prove" yourself better than 90% of the population. The worlds largest assholes spawn from mindsets like that, belive me!


Diet looks good on paper, but when are you eating all this? And what fasting diat are you following? If you're just fasting on random days, I can't ever imagine that being healthy, as it's most likely just confusing your body.

[luco]

Baconators & Beer FTW! I presume that's your breakfast?

I don't really understand your diet. It sounds like the warrior diet (eating one large meal a day in a set timeframe) with an added day of fasting (my understanding was that's not part of it, but I'm no expert) and random cheatmeals?
IF you're overtrained, it would probably be because you're only eating 6 meals a week+some beer (from what I understand). You're gonna have to elaborate.